X-Wing Alliance Advanced Mission Creation
Introduction
This guide’s purpose is to document is one place as many details about the design of a X-Wing Alliance (XWA) as possible. It is not meant to replace the Imperial University courses of Mission Creation and Beta Testing Standards (MCBS) or X-Wing Alliance Mission Design (XAM). This guide will be made to show the functions of YOGEME (Ye Olde Galactic Empire Mission Editor) and guide how utilize its features.
XWA Mission Design Limitations
Of the X-Wing series games, XWA, being the newest, has the least restrictive design limitations, but it still does have limitations. Some of the limits will be repeated in this guide when appropriate but will also be all listed below for a quick, single reference.
- You are allowed up to 4 regions, connected via hyperspace buoys
- No branching story options or permadeath options for units
- Audio files must be less than 22,050 Hz and 16-bit WAV file format
- Maximum number of craft per region at one time cannot exceed 96 or new ones will not spawn
- Ejected pilots and escape pods count against this limit and therefore any mission where you may be close to the 96 craft limit should select “No Escape Pods/Ejections” as one of the status options for enemy allied craft
- Maximum number of Flight Groups per mission file of 192
- Maximum number of different model files per mission of 22
- Maximum number of AI fired lasers and warheads in-space at one time of 64
- Maximum number of explosions at one time of 32
- Maximum number of “Space Objects” of 128 per region
- Space Objects are:
- Asteroids
- Mines
- Backdrops
- Etc.
- Space Objects are:
- Maximum of 64 radio messages
- Maximum character limit for each radio message of 68
- Non-animated briefing character limit of ~4,000
- Animated Briefing
- Total event limit of ~1,000
- Character limit of ~215 per caption text
Getting Started
Download and install, following the installation instructions included with it, YOGEME. If your XWA game directory is installed in the default Programs folder on the C Drive, or still has write protections applied to it from where it was copied, set YOGEME to run in Administrator Mode, otherwise it will not be able to edit mission files. Launch YOGEME and go to Tools -> Options menu.
On the first Overall Tab of the options menu, you have many different selection boxes to control the behavior of YOGEME. For the most part you can leave all the settings at their default values.
On the Map Tab you can customize the behavior of the region map window when you initially launch it.
The Wireframe Tab further works to define the level of detail of the representations of the ship and object models when shown in the region map window.
On the XWA Tab you will select the file path to the XWA root directory for the copy of XWA that you are doing mission creation for. It is critical that you set this file path correctly as many of the functions of YOGEME depend on reading files from the XWA root directory. If you change the file path for the root directory, you will need to close YOGEME and reopen to allow it to properly read the data it needs. You can also select the default craft type and IFF for all new craft.
On the Colors Tab you can customize the appearance of YOGEME in a limited manor.
