Mission Design
To learn the basics of mission editing, there is a tutorial delivered with the Flashpoint CD. An online version of this tutorial can be viewed: Mission Editing Tutorial.
This article will illustrate the possibilities of the Flashpoint mission editor and its engine, and how to start.
Mission components
A mission is comprised of multiple files, and optionally compressed into a .pbo file.
Upon un-PBOíng a mission you will see all files used in missions. The files used in missions are:
mission.sqm
This file contains (in order) the required addons, the position and information of all units, the triggers ("sensors") , waypoints, markers, and miscellaneous information.
briefing.html
The briefing contains the text stored in the "notebook", i.e. the mission plan, objectives, and notes for the mission. For more information on how to make briefings there are multiple tutorials available.
description.ext
This file contains all sorts of information, ranging from respawn, to different options in multiplayer. Selectable armament (in the "gear" tab of the notebook) can also be arranged here.
overview.html
When you click on a single mission, on the right, you see the overview, which is mostly comprised of a picture and one or two lines of text. Tutorials on how to make an overview can be found on OFPEC. Alternatively, you could unPBO a existing mission and use its overview as a template.
Script files (.sqf and .sqs files) :
Scripts are the backbone for creativity. They can create, control and monitor all entities in a mission: weather, AI, armament, smoke and fire effects. With creative scripting humans can become zombies and a click on the map can bring a rain of artillery fire. The sqs script syntax is considered deprecated in all BI games other than Operation Flashpoint. To learn about scripting, look at this site's Scripting section.
init.sqf/sqs
The mission initialisation script is processed before the mission starts. This prevents "laggy" moments ingame, but might take the mission a long time to load.
exit.sqf/sqs
The mission exit script is processed when the mission ends (either by end or lose type triggers, or the endMission command).
Image files:
The briefing can contain pictures in .jpg, .paa and .pac format, that follow the same basic size rule as textures (*^²), for example 256 X 128 pixels. Images can be manually sized to any width and height using HTML code. Note that if the image is too big, this will ruin the layout of the notebook. For information on adding images refer to a site such as OFPEC.
Audio files:
Audio files in Flashpoint can be in .OGG (compressed), .WAV (uncompressed, but large filesize), or .WSS (good compression:size ratio) formats. The basic rule: More compression means longer time to process before the file gets heard.
Subfolders:
Script, image, and audio files might have been put in separate folders to keep things clear, but if you decide to put your (example) fire.sqs in a subfolder called "scripts", please note that you will have to use "\scripts\fire.sqs" to call the script". It is advisable to keep the init.sqs away from subfolders.
Creating briefing, sqs, sqf, and ext files
Briefings, scripts, and description files can be created manually in any text editor and saved as filename.customextension.
There are also many community tools available that can assist mission designers by adding syntax highlighting and even checking functionality.