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.
• 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

Readme File

Every Emperor’s Hammer custom battle or free mission submission must include a Readme file containing specific information and instructions. See MCBS for more details.

MISSION.LST

You will need to create a custom MISSION.LST file to tell the game the file names for your missions to be able to play. For XWA the Emperor’s Hammer requires all custom battles to be Battle 8 and the first mission to be number 53. See XAM for more details on how to make this file.

YOGEME Setup

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.

• Overall Tab
  • 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.

• Map Tab
  • You can customize the behavior of the region map window when you initially launch it

• 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

• XWA Tab
  • You will be able to select the file path of 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 select the default craft type and IFF for all new craft

• Colors Tab
  • You can customize the appearance of YOGEME in a limited manor

Menus

FILE

The “File” Menu contains what you would expect for a normal Windows Based program

• New...
  • For creating a new mission file
• Open
  • For opening existing mission files
• Open Recent...
  • • Will show the last 5 mission files that have been opened by YOGEME to allow for quickly switching between files
• Save
  • For saving the current mission file using it’s current name and file path
• Save As...
  • For saving the current mission file, but allows you to change the name or file path or both

EDIT

The “Edit” Menu contains what you would expect for a normal Windows Based program

• Undo
  • In theory allows to reverse a change that you have but is currently disabled in YOGEME
• Cut
  • Allows for the cutting of text from the different text fields
• Copy
  • Allows for the copying of either text from a text field or of a whole Flight Group (FG)
• Paste
  • Allows for the pasting of either previously cut/copied text or copied FGs
• Delete
  • Allows for the deleting of selected text or FG

TOOLS

The “Tools” Menu contains many of the functions of YOGEME

• Verify Mission
  • This runs a basic check of the mission file for common errors. It is not that useful of a check as it has many triggers to cause it to say the files in NOT VALID will the file is perfectly good to be used.
• Map
  • This opens the Region Map – See Map Section for more details
• Briefing
  • This opens the editing window for the Animated Briefing – See Animated Briefing Section for more details
• LST
  • This opens an editing window for the MISSION.LST file – See MISSION.LST Section for more details
• Options
  • Opens the Options Menu – See YOGEME Setup Section above
• FG Goal Summary
  • This opens a window where all FG Goals are listed in a single place for a quick reference. See Goals Section for more details

• FG Library
  • This opens an incredibly useful window where you can save and organize the FGs of your mission into a common library that you will be able to quickly copy into another mission. This is very useful if you have created a particular region that you wish to use again in another mission.

• Test
  • This opens a window from which you can quickly launch into XWA and test the mission you are currently making. YOGEME will automatically create a pilot able to fly the mission you are currently editing.
• Hyperbouy Wizard
  • This opens a window from which you can quickly place Hyper Buoys to link the different regions. You are given the option to place a return pair as well.
    • The buoys are placed at 0,0,0 in each region and don’t have arrival triggers (i.e. are always present)
    • See the Hyper Buoy Section for further discussions about the hyper buoys.

• Apply Super Backdrops
  • This is for X-Wing Alliance Upgrade or TIE Fighter Total Conversion installations and will be covered in a later guide
• Hook Assignment
  • This is for X-Wing Alliance Upgrade or TIE Fighter Total Conversion installations and will be covered in a later guide
• Wave Manager
  • This opens the Wave manager – See Custom Audio Section for more details
• Mission Craft List
  • This opens a window where all craft that will appear as Mission Craft on the Initial Briefing Page are listed
    • For a craft to appear as a Mission Craft it must meet the following criteria
      • Be a craft
      • Be on the same Team as the Player Craft
      • Have the Arrival triggers set to “always (TRUE) (In Mission Craft List)”

• GG and GU Summary
  • Opens a window where all FG are organized and listed under both their assigned Global Groups and Global Units – See Global Groups and Units Section for more details

HELP

The "Help" Menu contains what you would expect for a Windows based program Help tab with a link to the built-in help files. These help files are very useful and contain much of the information shown here.

Tool Bar

The Tool Bar at the top of the YOGEME window allows for quick access to many of the function previously mentioned in the Menu Section

1. New Mission

2. Open Mission

3. Save Mission

4. Save As Mission

5. New Flight Group

• This places a new FG in the FG list at the bottom. The initial settings of the FG are determined by the choices selected within the Options Menu

6. Delete Flight Group

• This removes all currently selected FGs from the mission file

7. Copy Flight Group

• This copies the currently selected FG so that it may be duplicated
  • All properties of the FG are copied including its Arrival Conditions, Waypoints, Orders, Etc

8. Paste Flight Group

• This pastes a new copy of the last previously copied FG

9. Open Map Window

10. Open Briefing Editor

11. Verify Mission

12. Open Options Menu

13. Open LST Editor

14. Open Wave Manager

15. Open Help File

Flight Groups

You will spend most of your time when creating a mission on this master tab. This tab with all of its sub tabs is how you will add and modify all the craft, object, and backdrops in your mission. And where you will set their behavior and FG level mission goals.

The first thing to know about this tab is how to interpret the craft list on the left.

• The color of the FG shows what IFF has been selected for the FG (Red=Imperial, Green=Rebel, etc.).
• The first number is what Team the FG belongs to.
• The second number is the Global Group that the FG belongs to.
• The third and fourth numbers indicate the number of waves and the number of craft per wave for the FG
• The first part of the text string tells what the craft type is for the FG (X-W=X-Wing, T/D= TIE Defender, etc.)
• The second part of the text is the Name of the FG. This is the name that will be displayed in game on the CMD.
• The number at the end of the text in either () or <> indicates the Global Unit of the FG. If it is in () it means that the each craft in the Global Unit will have a unique number at the end of its name vs. if the number is in <> then that means no number will be automatically applied at the end of the FG name in game.
• Finally, the letter in the [] at the end indicates on what difficulty the FG will appear
  • No letter in [] means it will always be present, no matter the difficulty
  • [E] means it will only be present on Easy difficulty
  • [M] means it will only be present on Medium difficulty
  • [H] means it will only be present on Hard difficulty
  • [>E] means it will only be present on Medium or Hard difficulties
  • [<H] means it will only be present on Easy or Medium difficulties

Craft

Design Tips/Rules

Custom Audio

An optional, but highly suggested addition to any custom XWA battle is the addition of custom audio to play when radio messages or the briefings are displayed. The addition of custom audio really increases the perceived production value of a custom mission. See XWA Custom Audio for more details on how to add the audio to missions.

Emails

An optional, but highly suggested addition to any custom XWA battle is the addition of custom emails for the player to read. You can utilize the emails to tell more of the background story or give a greater amount of humor to your battles. See XWA Emails for in-depth discussion on how to add emails to the battle.