briefing

The briefing is an essential part of any mission. It usually displays a synopsis of what to do to complete the mission.

Prior to Arma 2, briefings were constructed via a Briefing.html file.

Briefings in Arma 2

Adding Notes

Example:

player createDiaryRecord ["Diary", ["Situation", "Things are looking bad."]];

This adds a note called 'Situation', and when you click on that a bigger message screen comes up with the message 'Things are looking bad.'

Adding Tasks

Example:

tskExample1 = player createSimpleTask ["Task Message"];
tskExample1 setSimpleTaskDescription ["Task Message", "Task Title", "Task HUD Title"];
tskExample1 setSimpleTaskDestination (getMarkerPos "mkrObj1"); //Make sure you have an empty marker called 'mkrObj1', 
          // and you'll see a semi-transparant circular marker which will light up when you set the task as active.

In your diary, "Task Title" is displayed for each task you set, and when you click on each task, it's "Task Message" appears. And "Task HUD Title" is what gets shown on the HUD.

We force a task upon a player by executing this on his machine:

player setCurrentTask tskExample1; // This will highlight the objective marker, and show him the through the HUD where the objective is.

We alter the task status during the mission by the following options:

tskExample1 setTaskState "SUCCEEDED"; // Makes the checkbox green
tskExample1 setTaskState "FAILED"; // Puts a red cross in the checkbox
tskExample1 setTaskState "CANCELED"; // Puts a grey diagonal line through the checkbox
tskExample1 setTaskState "CREATED"; // Clears the checkbox (makes it look like you've just created it)

You can show the state of the task with the taskHint command, or for an alternative method see http://www.ofpec.com/forum/index.php?topic=33768.0 .

Formatting tags for tasks and notes

There are many formatting tags that can be incorporated in the strings for tasks and notes:

• To add a link to a marker: <marker name='obj1'>Link to Marker</marker>
• To show an image: <img image='somePic.jpg'/>
  • Manipulate the image width and height like so: <img image='somePic.jpg' width='200' height='200'/>