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 (EXTension):
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.
.sqs files (SeQuence Script):
Scripts are the backbone for creativity. They create, control and monitor all entities in a mission: Weather, AI, Armament, Smoke and Fire Effects. With good scripting humans can become zombies and a click on the map will bring a rain of artillery down. To learn about scripting look at this site's Scripting section.
init.sqs:
A mission init.sqs (initialisation script) gets processed before the mission starts. This prevents "laggy" moments ingame, but might take the mission a long time to load.
image files:
The briefing can contain pictures in .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.
video files:
No known format of video is supported by OFP.
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, and ext.
Briefings, scripts, and description files can be done manually in Notepad and saved as filename.customextension.
A good alternative for mission makers is CHris's OFP Script Editor
Mission editor limitations
Great effort has been put into making the mission editor as limitless as possible. However,