Category : A Collection of Games for DOS and Windows
Archive   : XDK12.ZIP
Filename : XDK.TXT

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/ X-wing Mission Design Kit /
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/ by Henry Chang /
/ May 5, 1993 v1.2 /
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With this program, you can design and construct X-wing missions.
All aspects of the mission are included: ships, space objects,
and the mission briefing. Now this excellent game is no longer
confined and with a little creativity, a little effort, and a little
trading, we will all have many missions to enjoy.

This manual will describe the options and tools of mission design
and give some helpful guidelines.



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---Getting started

First of all, it is highly recommended that you copy all the original
files in the \XWING\MISSION directory to a backup directory or disk.
Then either place the program, xdk.exe, in the \XWING\MISSION
directory or place it anywhere on your dos path. Go to the mission
directory and type xdk.

xdk will run the program and load that mission
immediately.

xdk will run the program and list the files
available for selection and then prompt
you for the mission name.
(do not use the file extension if loading
by filename)





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---Main Menu

Use the arrow keys to highlight the option you desire and hit return
to select it. The display shows the first 16 ship and 17 space object
groups. 100 space object groups are allowed, however, and can be view
from the Space Object editor.

Not shown on the display are the following clipboard commands:

c copies a specified ship group to the clipboard
v copies the contents of the clipboard to a ship group

This advanced feature allows you to gather together ships groups
that were designed for other missions with minimal effort.
(remember to save before loading a different file or the changes
that you have made will be lost!)
D adds or removes DEATH STAR
s unconditional save
l load a mission
Hitting at the Main Menu allows you to Save&Quit.
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---Ship-Group Editor

The display shows nearly all aspects of the ship group.
It also displays the direction and distance of a particular
ship from the first ship group (which is the player).

To make changes or view options, move the cursor with the
up-down arrows and hit return when it is on the desired option.
The program will then ask you for the new setting or numbers
for that selection. If you hit return without entering anything
else, the program will automatically choose the default.
The default for most options is to keep them the same with no
changes. Exceptions are as follows:

-Designation, Cargo, and Special names will default to .
-# of Waves will default to 0.
-Locations and destinations will default to 0 for X,Y,Z.
-Arrival time will default to initial.
-Mothership will default to none.


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The Target Bearing gives the direction of the current ship relative
to the first ship. It is confined to the X-Y plane. The range takes
into account all three distance vectors.

Designation, Cargo, and Special can have names up to 15 characters.
When you use special, only the ship number you indicate will carry
that special name. (Example of use in TOD1-8)

Ships: Can be any amount up to 16. The number in parenthesis is
the player's ship position within that wing.

Side: The Default category places the group in its normal side.
ie. TIE's are Imperial, X-wings are Alliance. Alliance and Imperial
ships will not fire on Freelance ships unless ordered to via command.

Type: Ship type selection. This selection will also ask you if
you wish to limit the missiles or disable the shields.

Waves: When all the ships in the group are destroyed, they will
reappear this many times. It can be used to generate a steady supply
of new ships. Use this feature among many small groups to prevent
players from cheating.
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Level: Ace and Top Ace pilots maneuver wildly and have better aim.

Location and Destination are specified in kilometers. It is a standard
X-Y axis. Z resembles altitude. When the Death Star is present, +Z will
be the height of the craft above its surface.

Arrival time: When the craft appears, in minutes and seconds. If you
want it less than a minute, hit return when prompted for minutes or
enter 0 as a response; then enter the seconds. It will round off to
six second intervals. The rounding is always down.

Arrive: Allows you to set a condition for when the ship will arrive.
When the specified ship meets those conditions, this ship group will
appear. (After the time set in Arrival Time)

Mothership: The ship that is host for this ship group. If you specify
no mothership, setting the arrival or departure to by-mothership means
that the ship will arrive or depart conventionally and not by
hyperspace. (m=by mothership, h=by hyperspace)


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Markings: Set the color markings on this group. (Red, Yellow, or Blue)
Initial Speed: For Ship Group 1. The starting speed as a percentage
of top speed. Enter 2 for 20% ... up to 10 for 100%.
Docking Duration: Elapsed time for craft to finish boarding and/or
transfer operations. This should be set on the ship carrying the
boarding/docking/transfer command.

Command: The orders given to this ship group. Many also require a
ship target for the order. Commands such as Patrol for Enemy and
Patrol for Craft do not require a target; the group will attack
all targets. But, you can specify one or two specific targets if
you desire. Use of the commands and the targets can change the
difficulty of the mission dramatically. If you are unsure of a
command's usage, look for an example within the original missions.

(IMPORTANT NOTE):
When you want one ship to transfer cargo with another, only ONE
ship should carry the board/transfer/give command. The other should
be set to rendezvous (with a close destination), be inactive,
hold steady, or be disabled.
The hold steady command and those after it are for large starships.
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--Ship Group Command List:
1. Inactive - Ship will not fire and will not move.
Ship is a sitting duck.
2. Head home - Ship will head home. Home is specified under the
Mothership selection. If home is hyperspace, ship
will attempt to warp out if it has hyperspace
capability. If home is a ship, it will head for that
ship. (Frigates, Star Destroyers, and Cruisers make
good homes)
3. Patrol; then hold - Ship will patrol to destination(s) and then
proceed to fly around in a holding pattern
when it reaches the final destination.
4. Patrol; then leave - Ship will patrol to destination(s) and then
head home when final destination is reached.
5. Patrol2; then hold - same as Command 3, possibly with a larger
enemy detection range.
6. Patrol2; then leave - same as Command 4, possibly with a larger
enemy detection range.
7. Fly Close Escort - Ship will mimic actions of target ship and
remain at a close distance. Useful to add
ships to a wing or to build a convoy.
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8. Fly Loose Escort - Same as Command 7, except ship will remain
at a longer distance.
9. Patrol for Escorters - Ship attack escorting vessels.
10. Patrol for Craft - Ship will attack certain enemy craft.
11. Patrol for Enemy - Ship will attack enemy ships. Particularly
fighters and bombers if no target is specified.
12. Go to Rendezvous - Ship will go to destination and await docking.
After docking, the ship will head home.
13. Disabled - Ship is disabled. (same condition as ships disabled
by ion cannon)
14. Give Cargo/Repair - Ship will give cargo to target and if target
is disabled, target will be repaired to normal
status.
15. Obtain Cargo - Ship will take cargo from target ship.
16. Swap Cargo - Ship will exchange cargo with target ship.
17. Capture Craft - Ship will capture target ship. Target ship should
already be disabled. Usually, the ship carrying
this command should be set to arrive after target
is disabled.
18. Board enemy craft - ??

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19. Disable escorts1 - Ship will disable target ship. (Ship must have
ion cannon in order to accomplish this)
20. Disable escorts2 - Same as Command 19, possibly with a different
default ship targets when no target is specified.
21. Patrol for Transport - Ship will seek and destroy enemy transports.
22. Patrol for Freighter - Ship will seek and destroy enemy freighters.
23. Patrol for Starships - Ship will seek and destroy enemy starships.
24. Disable Transports - Ship will seek and disable enemy transports.
25. Disable Freighters - Ship will seek and disable enemy freighters.
26. Disable Starships - Ship will seek and disable enemy starships.
27. Hold Steady - Ship will hold steady and fire upon enemy ships
that come into range. Starships that need to remain
stationary carry this command. If you have large
amounts of fighters departing and returning to a
mothership, the mothership should hold steady.
(Although ships will have no problems returning to
a moving mothership, departing ships will depart
from the same location which will appear strange
when the mothership is far from that location)
28. SShip Patrol; leave - Starship will patrol until final destination
is reached; and then head home.
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29. SShip Patrol; hold - Starship will patrol until final destination
is reached; and then enter a holding pattern.
30. Await craft to rtn - Starship will wait for craft to enter hangar
before heading home.
31. Starship head home - Starship will head home. Travel is either by
hyperspace or by conventional as specified
under the Mothership selection.
32. Await docking craft - Starship will wait for craft to finish
docking before heading home.

Mission: The mission requirement. The requirement specified must
be completed to finish the mission successfully.

--Mission Requirements List:
1. None - No requirement.
2. Be Destroyed - Ship must be destroyed to complete mission.
3. Transfer Cargo - Ship must complete docking/boarding/transfer.
Only a ship with a docking/boarding/transfer
command should have this requirement.
4. Be Captured - Ship must be captured to complete mission.

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5. Be Boarded - Ship must complete docking/boarding/transfer.
Only the TARGET of the ship doing a docking/boarding/
transfer order should have this requirement.
6. Be Destroyed+? - Ship must be destroyed + ?.
7. Obtain Cargo - Ship must obtain cargo to complete mission.
8. Be Recovered - Ship must be recovered to complete mission.
9. Have cargo taken - Ship must have cargo taken to complete mission.
10. Be Destroyed 50% - At least half of the ships in the group must
be destroyed in order to complete the mission.
11. Transfer 50% - As Requirement 3, but only half of the ships need
complete the task.
12. Be Recovered 50% - At least half of the ships must be recovered
in order to complete mission.
13. Be Boarded 50% - As Requirement 5, but only half of the ships need
complete the task.
14. Be Identified1 - Ship must be identified to complete mission.
15. Be Identified2 - Ship must be identified to complete mission.
(possibly with a different identification range
than Requirement 14)


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16. Be Identified 50% - At least half of the ships must be identified
in order to complete the mission.
17. Arrive - Ship must arrive in order to complete the mission.


To BROWSE through the ships, use the left and right arrow keys.
The cursor stays in the same position, so you can quickly alter
all the names, locations, and other selections with ease.

The space object editor works in an identical fashion.

To leave the editors and return to the Main Menu, hit


---General Parameters and Briefing Editor

Select from the Main Menu to edit all the text for
the mission.

1. Mission name. It is a set length and exceeding the limit will
cause the excess to be truncated.
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2. Mission length. The number of minutes the player will have
to complete the mission.

3. Escape pod's rescue or capture.

4. Mission flight instructions. Hitting return without entering
any flight instructions will skip that particular instruction.
You can thus edit the ones you wish and leave the others alone.
The ruler shown is the length allocated for that line.

5. Mission background pages. Hit ONLY when you are finished
entering for that page. The background pages and the flight
instructions may not be in order. If the order is important for your
mission and you cannot determine the proper order from reading
the existing instructions, run X-wing and view the briefing to
determine the proper order. Some pages may also be allocated,
but not used in the briefing. Run the briefing to double-check.

6. Mission complete messages. These consist of three lines of 64
characters each and are displayed on the ship message window
when the mission is completed.
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Two briefings, RESCUE1.BRF and INTCEP1.BRF, can not be read by
XDK. Do not use them, instead, copy a different briefing over
it; thus replacing it with a compatible briefing



---Design Guidelines & Hints

-There is a 16 ship limit per side at any one time. 16 Imperial and
16 Rebel. Freelance are counted as Rebel (I believe). Any groups that
attempt to exceed that limit will not appear.

-Browse through the TOD's to see how the ships interact and to get
an idea of the many possibilities. There are many ship commands
and mission parameters; and browsing will show some of their uses.

-Large capital ships should be given the starship commands or
the hold steady command.

-It's best to use a new group for each large craft.

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-Adding detailed mission backgrounds and flight instructions
greatly adds to the game. If you need more space, copy one of the
larger briefing files over the one you are using. XDK will modify
it automatically for your use. HALLEY.XWI has four pages of
background text available. Also, shop around if you wish a
zoom or panning effect.

-If you already have a mine field, asteroid field, or many ships
set up in another mission that you wish to use again in a new
mission, copy that mission file over the new one. This can save
lots of time when you need to place many ships that were already made

-Leftover name characters may appear in some name fields.
For example _ARTH VADER shows up quite often. If there is a blank
in the first character (it is a NULL), then that name will not be
used. They are leftovers from the original mission design.

-Be sure to use Ship Group 1 for the player's ship. If it isn't,
copy the ships around until it is.

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-When you do not wish the player to see the enemy on the briefing
map, set their locations so that they are off the map. If the map
you are using is too large, copy a different .brf file over it to
get one with a smaller map. (note: your background pages and
flight instructions will also be copied over. You should decide
on which briefing style you like before entering the text for
the mission)

-The destination of the ship also determines which direction the
ship is initially facing.

-There is a limit of about 64 mines. Mines exceeding the limit will
not appear.

-Limit the numbers of asteroids in close proximity to the action.
More than a dozen will begin to slow the frame rate down.

-Set boarding times to 1 or 2 minutes to reduce waiting when you
are still testing missions and checking to see if the commands
and mission requirements work together.

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---Registration

This program is shareware. You will receive free updates by registering
this program. Further advanced features, ships, and land missions will
be added to the program as they become available and the latest version
will be sent to all registered users. You will also receive any good
Tours of Duties that I collect.


To register, send $7 to:

Henry Chang
497 Little Path Rd.
Des Plaines, IL 60016

Don't forget to include a return address where I can send the updates.


X-Wing and elements of the X-wing game are Registered Trademarks
of Lucasfilm, Ltd.

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I hope you enjoy the Mission Design Kit.
If you have any questions or comments, please write or e-mail
to PBDN43C on Prodigy or H.CHANG2 on Genie.

Thanks to Marcus, Greg, Jon, Keith, Jake, Brett, and the rest of
the X-wing Group for their assistance and encouragement.