Thanks Chips.
Back to the subject at hand.
Random missions require some work indeed to make them proparely. Its very error prone. Basically the mbase file olds a number that links to part of a mission tree in another file. That tree starts with a number like 1 or something and branches off in several directions, which is how it gets complex and error prone quickly.
You can make your own trees and lay out brand new missions with a little effort.
However I cheated, i simple made battleships and listed them as fighters and thus they become available in the random missions. You can do this for anything. Even making a frieghter the target for a mission and giving it an escort.
Its best to make unique ship and AI entries for these though so they dont get used elsewhere in the game, only in the random missions.
As for other types of missions. Thats even easier. Just add rumour in mbases thats tells the player your plot. Give the character a % chance of being present and then plant something somewhere as the objective. Give it a cargo thats worth something and let the player get paid by selling that cargo.
You have to edit a lot of files but its worth it.
I made a treasure hunt this way using 2 part rumours to prevent the player from stumbling on the next clue by chance. Only when both clues are read does the next clue make sense.
Giskard
Respawn, the Home of the Hostile Universe Mod
Edited by - giskard on 17-11-2003 20:14:27