Mission Builder Version 1.2.1, July 22, 1999
by Thomas Bruckner <thomas.bruckner@netway.at>
http://members.xoom.com/thomasbr/
==============================================

This program allows you to create missions for Wing Commander Prophecy, without having to write a single line of code.

HCl's mission compiler is required. Get it from his page: 
http://wc.questgate.net/hcl/wc.htm


1. How to install
-----------------
Installing Mission Builder (misb) is very simple: Extract misb.zip into a directory of your choice and make sure that you have HCl's latest SecretOps Mission Compiler in the same directory. If you're making Prophecy mission put the file a.sec into your prophecy\mission\ directory. On the first start you'll be asked to input you WCP (or SecretOps) directory. Make sure that you have a directory called mission\ in your Prophecy (or SecretOps) directory.

In order to make the custom missions work with Prophecy it is necessairy to patch data.tre. To do this open the menu 'Options' and click on 'Patch data.tre'. This isn't necessairy for Secret Ops.

For SecretOps you have to install the mission using SOMM or, easier, get Locke's SOSIM (http://www.dragonfire.net/~alfong/locke/) which will allow you to use the simulator with SecretOps.


2. Notes on Version 1.1
-----------------------
If you're already familiar with version 1.0 you can skip most of this readme. But please read Sections 4, 5 and 7 as there are many changes.

2.1 Notes on Version 1.2
------------------------
If you have tried the beta version of version 1.2 you'll certainly have noticed that the multiple waves missions generated by Misb were pretty buggy. So I decided to make that optional, and multiple waves are now by default disabled (Settings/Enable multiple waves).

I added two more things, that should make designing missions easier: 

* Ships are now color-coded to indicate their alignment (color-codes 
  are the same as on the radar in the game)

* When placing a ship on the map it will have the same properties 
  as the previously placed ship. This should save time when creating
  multiple ships as it isn't neccessairy to change properties for 
  every ship. 
  
  For example to create 4 identical ships, place the first ship on 
  the map, adjust it's properties, and then place the remaing 3
  ships. They will be identical to the first ship.


3. How to use
-------------
When you start misb, you'll have two windows. The Design window and the Source View window. For now you can simply ignore the Source View window, because the actual mission design is done (surprise!) in the Design window. 

On the top of this window you have a few buttons to select an object. The currently selected Object appears pressed in. Below is a Map, on which you can place objects. It's only 2D, so it'll ignore the Z coordinate. But this isn't as much as a problem as it would seem.

To create a new Object on the map, first select the desired object from the bar on the top of the window - the currently selected object appears pressed-in. (Mission design usually starts with placing the Navpoints, then the player object, then everything else) Then if your creating a Navpoint or Player Object just move the mouse over the map to the position where you want the new object to appear and click the right mousebutton. If you're creating a ship/capship/cluster/spawnship/spawnrect you have to select (left click) the Navpoint where this ship should appear, and then right click to place the ship.

To select an object on the map move the mouse over the object and click the left button. When selecting an object on the map the controls on the right edge of the window will change, and show you the properties of the selected object. You can edit these properties to change the behavier of the selected object.

To fly the mission open the menu 'Compile' and select 'Compile and run'. Misb will then start HCl's compiler, copy the mew mission into your Prophecy(SecretOps)\Mission\ directory and start the game. In the game open the simulator and fly mission 0 (or whatever you selected in Settings/Output).

You can also change between Prophecy and SecretOps mode by opening the menu 'Options' and then clicking on 'Make mission for'. It is a good idea to do this before placing anything on the map. 

These instructions might seem a little complicated at the first glance, but once you figured out the procedure it's pretty simple.


4. Description of the various properties
----------------------------------------
* X, Y, Z: the coordinates of an object
* D: diameter, used for Navpoints and SpawnRects
* Ship: the type of the ship
* at Nav: the Navpoint on which the object appears
* Align: controls whether the object is friendly, neutral or hostile
* Wing: specifies the wing commander for the selected object
* Pilot: the name of the pilot (note that some pilots only work when the correct CD is inserted)
* # of ships: controls how many ships will be spawned, used only for SpawnRects.
* ID: only for Capships. Sets the name of the ship as displayed in the game. 
Enclose it in @ (eg. @Midway@). Must be unique.
* Name: only for SpawnShip and SpawnRect. Allows you to select which name should be displayed in the game. Options are: name of the ship, name of the pilot and "Unknown".
* Autopilot with Player: When checked the ship autopilots with the player. This is not necessairy for wingmen as the will automatically autopilot with the player.
* Throttle: only for Capships. Sets the speed of the ship in % of maximum speed.
* Appear: sets whether the ship just appears on the screen or "jumps in"
* Wave: sets the wave to which the ship belongs. This setting allows you to have multiple waves of enemies. Wave 0 will appear on the arrival at the Navpoint. When all ships from Wave 0 have been destroyed Wave 1 will appear, then Wave 2, and so on...

5. Objects that can be used
---------------------------
* Player   
This is the Player Object. It's used mainly to set the player's starting position. Every mission has to have a Player object.

Here are some properties that are specific to the player object:
- Win on Nav: Specifies on which nav the mision is won. Usually nav 1. 
  Examples: (Midway is placed on Nav 1)
  Kill everything on Nav 2 and return to the Midway: set Win at Nav to 1
  Kill everything on Nav 2 and rendezvous with the Midway at Nav 3: set Win at Nav to 3 (and place a Midway on Nav 3)
- Play Messages: controls whether to play a message (Congratulations, you have won...) when the mission is won. Don't use this with SecretOps as it doesn't have the soundfile and would crash.
- Continue/Exit Spaceflight/Land on: Controls whether to continue, just exit or land on an object when the mission is won. The object to land on must be on the same nav as the player. (Only the Midway and the Cerberus seems to be accepted as an object to land on, everything else crashes the game)

* Nav
The Navpoint object. Use this to create a series of Navpoints. There must be at least one Navpoint in every mission. Make sure that the Navpoints don't overlap.

* Ship/SpawnShip
A ship. There are two types of ships. The difference between them is that a SpawnShip can't be a Wing Commander, and is limited to a few shiptypes. Otherwise the two are exactly the same.

* Capship

* Cluster

* SpawnRect
This will let you specify an area, and a number of ships. The ships will appear on random positions within that area. This is useful for enemies: Instead of drawing 20 single ships on the map you can use a SpawnRect and let it do the job.


6. Tutorial
-----------
OK, now that we read the instructions, we want to create a simple mission. In this mission we will have two wingmen. We start on the first Navpoint next to a Confed Starbase, fight through the second Navpoint and encounter an alien carrier in the third.

Step 1: Setting up the Navpoints
First of all we create the three Navpoints. Click on the Button labeled 'NAV' on the top of the screen. It will appear pressed-in. Locate a place on the Map and right click to place the first Navpoint there, then the second and the third. Make sure the Navpoints don't overlap. 

Step 2: Placing the Player object
Click on the 'Player' button on top of the window, and then place the player object (right click) somewhere within the first Navpoint.

Step 3: Creating the Starbase
We want the Starbase to be on the first Navpoint, so we select (left click) the first Navpoint. Click on the 'Capship' button, and place (right click) it somewhere within the nav sphere. A blue Rectangle will appear. Left click on it. You'll notice that some of the controls on the right side of the window will change. The important thing is the drop-down list labeled 'Ship'. Open it, scroll up and select 'Ella Starbase'. 

Step 4: Adding our Wingmen
Select the first Navpoint, and click on the 'Ship' button. Place two ships (right click) next to the Player. Select the first ship and you'll notice the controls on the right change again. This time we change Ship to 'Shrike'. And because we want this ship to be our wingman, we open the drop-down list labeled 'Wing' and select @Player@. Do the same with the second ship and our wingmen are ready.

Step 5: Enemies at Nav 2
We want 10 enemy Morays on the second Nav. So we could place 10 individual ships there and change every ship to Moray and Enemy. As this would take rather long, the easier way is to place a SpawnRect on the second Nav, change the shiptype to Moray, the number of ships to 10, and because we want them to be hostile, open the drop-down list labeled 'Align' and change this setting to ENEMY. You could also change the pilot to ALIEN (note that some Pilots don't work on some CDs).

Step 6: Capship at Nav 3
This is easy. Place a new Capship on Nav 3 (remember to first select Nav 3 and then right click to place the ship). Change the shiptype to 'Leviathan', align to 'ENEMY' and pilot to 'Alien'.

Step 7: Compiling and running the new mission
This is the easiest step. Just open the menu 'Compile' and click on 'Compile and run'. Pressing F9 does the same thing.


7. Known Problems
-----------------
* Currently there is a limit of 256 objects, but I think this should be enough even for very long missions.
* When a cluster is destroyed the game crashes due to a division by zero.
* Creating too many objects on a Navpoint will also crash the game. The limit when using a single Spawnrect is around 40. If you need more ships place two or more Spawnrects, this will allow you to have a maximum of about 70 ships on one Nav. Everything above that is likely to crash the game.
* Maximum number of Wingmen seems to be 9.
* Maximum number of ships that can autopilot with player is 15 (including wingmen).
* When setting "Land on Object" the object to land on must be on the same nav as the "Win on Nav" setting.


8. How to use ships converted from WC3/WC4 with misb
----------------------------------------------------
Open misb.ini with notepad or an editor of you choice. Go to the [pships] (Prophecy) or [sships] (SecretOps) section and add a line <shipname as it should appears in misb> = <.iff file as in the ships\ directory without the .iff extension>


9. History
----------
Version 1.2.1:	Fixed a problem that happend when using HCl's newest mission compiler

Version 1.2:	Load/Save feature
		Supports multiple waves
		Added some pilots (thanks go to Linh Le and Philip Langdale who found them)
		Support for HCL's Campaign Packer
		
Version 1.1:	SecretOps support added
		Objects can now be removed
		many small improvements


8. Credits
----------
* Mario "HCl" Brito for his Mission Compiler and the WCPRIP program
* Barrie Almond for the Prophecy pilot list
* Alex "Locke" Fong for the SecretOps pilot list
* Wing Commander Prophecy is Copyright of Origin Systems INC.