sproyd's Simple Arma 3 Editor Guide v0.7 Introduction Hi, I'm sproyd. Welcome to my simple Arma 3 Editor
Guide. This guide is designed to teach you how to use the Arma 3 editor from scratch to create your own missions and scenarios and get your ideas from your head into the game. It is written in plain English and assuming no prior knowledge of editing although you should have a good ase le vel of skill in playing Arma. This guide is designed to e read from start to finish and should ring you up to a asic level of skill in the Arma 3 Editor. A little aout me ! I am y no means an editor guru, in fact my first foray into Arma missions was in Arma 3. I don't have a ackground in coding or game design ut I am a huge gamer and Arma fan and I hope that this guide will introduce you to the wonderful world that awaits you in the Arma 3 Editor.
What Can I Do The Arma 3 editor is proaly one of the most powerful editors in the gaming world. This isn't a cookie!cutter editor editor with only a few customi"ation customi"ation options ! you can create everything from asic #ingle $layer or %o!&p missions to huge ultiplayer wars or entirely new game modes( This guide will focus on how to create fairly asic missions with functional )riefings, *ynamic Tasks, +in conditions, ose conditions and more.
A!!reviations "sed in #his Guide A##$W - At the time of writing this is important as Arma 3 ATT&+ is in )eta phase and there will e a lot of changes to the game as it goes through development and final release. I will try and keep this up to date as est I can, so check ack online to make sure you ha ve the latest version of the /uide0
%IS - )ohemia Interactive #tudios the developers of A rma0 A3 - Arma 3 all versions0 A& - Arma 1 $A - Arma 12 &peration Arrowhead ! a standalone epansion for A1 DC - *ownloadale %ontent epansion packs0 Editor - Arma 3 Editor Guide - sproyd's #imple Arma 3 Editor /uide S( - #ingle $layer )( - ultiplayer Co*$p - %o!&perative $ with friends playing together against the AI0 A$ - Area of & perations #$D - Time &f *ay
Gettin+ Started 4. %uy Arma 3.
ATT&+ you can uy A3 from e ither #team #team or or from )I# directly at their online store. store . 5ersions ought from )I# will still need to e activated in #team for download. There are three now two versions of A3, all include the ase game in its varying phases of de velopment and access to the full game upon release. Here is what you are getting for each version. a. Arma 3 %eta The cheapest option, includes everything you need to start playing A3. . Arma 3 Di+ital Delu,e Edition The mid!tier option. Includes a0, some digital goodies including maps, soundtrack and a tactical guide as well as Arma 2 %old +ar Assault.
c.
Arma 3 Supporter Edition no lon+er availa!le The most epensive version included all of a0 and 0, Arma 6 ! which is pretty much every previous Arma game including A1, &A and * % ! and access access to future unannounced A3 *%. 7ou could also get a )I# 8orum adge and early purchasers got their names in the A3 credits.
1. aunch A3 in Steam. There are a numer of things you can do pre!launch to optimise your eperience. I won't go into detail here ut I'll point you in the right direction if you want to google it. 7ou can9 a0 %ustomise launch parameters to make the game oot faster or optimise hardware detection. 0 &pt!in to the developer's uild which includes fre:uent updates and roll!out of eperimental features at the epense of staility. c0
&ptimise your hardware. A3 is %$;!heavy so many users overclock their %$; to oost in!game performance.
3. aunch the Editor. %lick Editor in the ain enu.
<. Choose a )ap and clic- Continue. ATT&+ the only map A=A an island0 availale in A3 is Stratis. This is the map we will e using for the purposes of t his guide. However, thanks to A3's iterative engine, it is possile to play A1, &A and user created maps in A3 with almost no g litches. >efer to the )I# 8orums for guides on that.
Gettin+ Started 4. %uy Arma 3.
ATT&+ you can uy A3 from e ither #team #team or or from )I# directly at their online store. store . 5ersions ought from )I# will still need to e activated in #team for download. There are three now two versions of A3, all include the ase game in its varying phases of de velopment and access to the full game upon release. Here is what you are getting for each version. a. Arma 3 %eta The cheapest option, includes everything you need to start playing A3. . Arma 3 Di+ital Delu,e Edition The mid!tier option. Includes a0, some digital goodies including maps, soundtrack and a tactical guide as well as Arma 2 %old +ar Assault.
c.
Arma 3 Supporter Edition no lon+er availa!le The most epensive version included all of a0 and 0, Arma 6 ! which is pretty much every previous Arma game including A1, &A and * % ! and access access to future unannounced A3 *%. 7ou could also get a )I# 8orum adge and early purchasers got their names in the A3 credits.
1. aunch A3 in Steam. There are a numer of things you can do pre!launch to optimise your eperience. I won't go into detail here ut I'll point you in the right direction if you want to google it. 7ou can9 a0 %ustomise launch parameters to make the game oot faster or optimise hardware detection. 0 &pt!in to the developer's uild which includes fre:uent updates and roll!out of eperimental features at the epense of staility. c0
&ptimise your hardware. A3 is %$;!heavy so many users overclock their %$; to oost in!game performance.
3. aunch the Editor. %lick Editor in the ain enu.
<. Choose a )ap and clic- Continue. ATT&+ the only map A=A an island0 availale in A3 is Stratis. This is the map we will e using for the purposes of t his guide. However, thanks to A3's iterative engine, it is possile to play A1, &A and user created maps in A3 with almost no g litches. >efer to the )I# 8orums for guides on that.
?. Chan+e to #raditional ayout. 7ou should now e in the Editor, viewing a map of #tratis. The default A3 editor layout is a new layout called '#treamlined'. +e are going to change this to the 'Traditional' layout which I think is more user!friendly. %lick the utton indi cated elow.
@ow click Traditional, then &=. 7ou will need to restart the Editor, although net time you launch the Editor it should default to Traditional layout.
. #a*Da /ou are no ready to create
1amiliari2in+ /oursel ith the ayout There are 3 key areas of the ayout that you will e working with.
4.
#he icons in the top left should look familiar ! from left to right9 The 4e (a+e icon opens a fresh ission, the 1older icon opens an eisting ission you are working on, the 1loppy Dis- icon saves your current ission, the second 1loppy Dis- icon is 'save as' which allows you to save a version of your current ission without overwriting the main ission useful for templates0, the Arros allow you to merge two missions together and the
Chec-er %oard toggles etween topographical recommended0 and satellite view. *on't worry aout the rest of the icons you won't need them for now. 1.
#he main Editor (anel. Here you can :uick!edit the Weather and #$D, you can edit Advanced Intel which allows you to customise the name of the ission, the date and highly detailed weather adBustments and you can select the various editing modes. Alternatively, you can also use the 15 to 17 -eys on your keyoard to select these modes. The (revie %utton will appear here once you have placed a $layer unit ! this lets you Bump into the game to check things out ! and the %ontinue utton will appear once you have clicked $review once although I re commend not using %ontinue to ensure any changes you make have a chance to reload0.
3.
#he )ap. Here is the visual representation of your mission. 7ou will e ale to see all of the units, waypoints, triggers and modules that you have placed. As you can imagine it can get :uite messy so it is important to try and keep things as clean as possile. Here is a small section of a mission I have made to give you an idea of what it will look like when +I$. Thankfully, arkers are only visile in the Editor when in arkers mode which helps to reduce clutter.
(lacin+ and Editin+ "nits @ow time for the fun part(( $lacing units in the Editor is very easy. #elect
615 "nits with your mouse on the right hand side of the screen or press 15 on your keyoard. #o place a unit8 you simply dou!le clic- on the map. et's place a solitary man in the middle of the runway at the large airfield on the +est of the island. Coom in on the airfield mousescroll or numpad D!0 and doule click. A dialog o will pop! up. Ignore this for now and Bust click &=. 7our Editor should now look like this.
et's give it a whirl. 7ou have proaly noticed that a (revie utton has appeared on the Editor (anel to the right now that we have a $layer unit. %lick it. If you are now a solitary rifleman standing in the middle of the airfield then congratulations you have successfully Bust placed your first unit in the Editor. $ress Esc and Suspend to return to the Editor. If you want to )ove the placement of the unit, Bust dra+ and drop like you would with a file in +indows. If you want to 9otate the unit's initial orientation, simply hold don Shit and then click the unit, holding the mouse utton which will turn green0 and dragging until the desired orientation is reached. To Delete a unit hover your cursor over the unit and press the Delete -ey.
Careul8 this can't !e undone Hence why you need to delierately hover over the unit to delete it. The same applies to Copy : (aste ! hover over a unit, press Ctrl ; C to
Copy, then hover over where you want to create a duplicate unit and press Ctrl ; < to (aste. This will also copy fields from the units *ialog )o including the Init field.
+e'll now take a look at the "nit Dialo+ %o, that pops up when you first create a unit. 7ou can also open an eisting unit's dialog o for editing y doule clicking on that unit in the Editor. *o that now on our >ifleman.
+hile this o may look slightly daunting, this is a very powerful tool for editing our units. Here is what everything does. We are +oin+ to ma-e some chan+es to our rileman in !lue underline.
Side= This is proaly greyed out as );8&> for our unit. T his is ecause he is our first unit and has already een created. Any new unit or suse:uent unit we create you can change its #ide. %hanging the #ide also changes selections availale for the type of ;nit ecause different #ides have access to different types of e:uipment and training.
1action= At the moment there is only one option of 8action for each #ide so it can't e changed. However, in the future there may e different options i.e. for );8&> there could e ;#, ;=, 8rance.
Class2 *ifferent types of units. et's chan+e Class rom ')en' into 'Cars'. "nit= This will show us all the different types of ;nit for a given #ide, 8action and %lass. +e have selected );8&> F )lue F %ars and so should e ale to see a selection of different vehicles. et's choose >uad!i-e. )y default vehicles created will e occupied y men, and if selected as $layer you will usually e the driver. 7ou can also place empty vehicles y changing #ide to Empty.
Special= This had to do with a su!element of placement. #electing 4one will put your unit eactly where you placed him in the Editor. #electing In Car+o will place your unit in a friendly vehicle he is /rouped with more on /rouping later0, selecting 1lyin+ will place your unit flying in mid!air aircraft only(0, and In 1ormation the default0 will place the unit instantly in formation with the /roup leader, even if they were placed on opposite ends of the map. eave
this on In 1ormation or no.
Control= This is :uite important. 7our first unit y default will e (layer. &nly one unit can e designated as (layer and this is who you will control in #$ issions. ;nits designated as (laya!le can e selected y players in %o!&p or $ missions. 4on (laya!le is self!eplanatory I hope( &ther options are availale when placing vehicles i.e. (layer as Driver or (laya!le as Gunner.
Ino A+e= Ignore this for now. ;sed for providing intel i.e. last known position. A2imuth and Elevation= I recommend adBusting unit A2imuth direction0 directly on the ap y holding down Shit ; Clic-. If you want to have multiple units facing the eact same direction you can manually enter the A2imuth in the dialog o. Elevation is useful for determining height of flying aircraft and is also useful for placing ;nits at the correct floor in m ulti! floored uildings. *efault is G which is ground level.
4ame= The ;nit's Editor name. Important for advanced editing, make sure you keep track of e ach of your unit's names. et's call our >uad!i-e unit ?uad5 !y typin+ in the !o,.
!!! Initiali2ation= Also known as the Init 1ield. This is etremely important for advanced editing,
including customising a ;nit's loadout, launching scripts and a myriad of other features. eave it lank for now.
Description= *isplayed if the unit is a $layale unit. S-ill= AI #kill if an AI unit. Higher skill means the unit will e more accurate when shooting. @ealthArmor8 1uel8 Ammunition= #elf!eplanatory, used to adBust the various :ualities of units and vehicles.
(ro!a!ility o (resence= 8or $layale$layer units leave this at default. 8or @on $layale units this will introduce an element of randomness and variaility to your missions as some friendly or enemy units may or may not e spawned on mission launch d epending on your settings.
Condition o (resence= Ignore for now. (lacement 9adius= Another element of randomness ! this will randomise placement within a set radius from where you place the unit on the map.
#hat's it or the "nit Dialo+ %o,
Groups and Groupin+ The /roup functionality of A3 is fully accessile via the Editor. #elect 61&
Groups with your mouse on the right hand side of the screen or press 1& on your keyoard. +ith /roups selected you can do 1 things ! place /roups of ;nits, or /roup eisting ;nits together. $lacing /roups of ;nits $lacing /roups of ;nits is a :uick way to create multiple ;nits in the Editor. 7ou could do this manually via 84 ;nits ut it would take a while to create each ;nit that you want one y one. *oule click on the airfield near your $layer ;nit to place a /roup. The dialog o that pops up is like an areviated version of the ;nit *ialog )o ut features /roups instead of ;nits. %hoose the default option ! a );8&> Infantry >ifle #:uad. 7ou should see a group of 4G ;nits, with /rouping lines leading from each ;nit to the #:uad eader as elow.
%lick $review to see what you've done.
Here we can see the group of 4G ;nits all in wedge formation, with us on our Juadike in the middle. %urrently we aren't part of the /roup. @ote that the units spawn in formation, not where they're placed on the map, with the eception of the group leader who is the ais point for the formation. This is where the second part of the /rouping mode comes in. *rag a line from the #:uad eader to our $layer ;nit or vice versa0 while still in /roup mode. This will Boin the Juadike to the eisting /roup. &nce you do this you will notice that the /rouping lines now all lead to the $layer as the /roup eader. This is ecause we earlier changed the >ank of the $layer to ieutenant, which Bust happens to e the highest >ank in this /roup. %lick $review again to see what's changed.
+ell as you can see you now look like a adass on your Juadike with your 4G man /roup flanking you in wedge formation. +hat's more, as the /roup eader you are now in control of the /roup and should see an icon for each /roup emers at the ottom left of the screen.
7ou can now give commands to your /roup and if you move up the airfield they will follow you in formation. %ool huhK &kay, now for an eperiment. %hange ack to 615 "nits mode and doule click the $layer ;nit. %hange his >ank ack to $rivate and click &=. As you can see, you should still e /rouped ut you are no longer the /roup eader. If you doule click the #:uad eader you will see he is a #ergeant. If he were to ge t killed, the /roup eader role would then default to the net highest rank and so on.
%licking $review now you should notice that you are still in formation with the /roup, ut instead now you are no longer in control of the /roup and you will e at the ack of the formation. @ow go ack to the Editor and try dragging your $layer ;nit far away from the /roup.
%licking $review you will notice you are instantly ack In 8ormation with the /roup as under your ;nit *ialog )o you have chosen In 8ormation under the #pecial field. If you change this to @one you will remain /rouped with the /roup ut will retain your map placement upon launch. /ive it a go. 7our AI /roup eader might even yell at you L>eturn to 8ormation((L. #o unGroup a "nit rom a
Group Bust select the 61& Group mode and dra+ rom the unit to an empty space on the map. #hat's a!out all you need to -no a!out Groupin+ or no. If you are getting ored and want to have a little fun efore moving on, try creating a separate );8&> and & $8&> /roup at opposite ends of the airfield and watch them fight it out( &r create your own /roup and assault an enemy /roup's position. 7ou can issue commands to a /roup y pressing the 8 key corresponding to the unit otherwise they will follow you in formation and attack when they see an enemy. /o /roups(
Waypoints don't orry8 e'll +et to #ri++ers later +aypoints are the est way to control AI ehaviour in A3. However, contrary to what a lot of eginners think myself included0 they are not a tool for guiding the player through a mission that is est done with Tasks and arkers which give more f leiility0. +aypoints are assigned to specific ;nits, although +aypoints assigned to a /roup eader will e eecuted y the /roup. )y far the most fre:uently used +aypoint is a )ove waypoint. et's create one now. 8irst, delete all units ecept your player on the Juadike. @ow create a rifleman net to you make sure he is not /rouped to you0.
#elect 61 Waypoints with your mouse on the right hand side of the screen or press 1 on your keyoard. +ith the >ifleman selected doule!click on a neary spot and the +aypoint *ialog )o will pop up. The default +aypoint is, thankfully, ove, and so Bust click &= for now. 7our Editor should look like this.
%lick (revie to see what the >ifleman does. He should e legging it towards the +aypoint you set. This isn't very natural ehaviour and once he gets there he is proaly Bust going to stop and look dum. et's go ack to the Editor now and doule click the +aypoint. Must like editing ;nits the +aypoint *ialog )o will pop!up, allowing you to edit it. et's change the Speed field to imited and %ehaviour to Sae.
%lick $review and lets see the difference. &ur >ifleman is now walking at a natural, casual pace with his weapon down and one hand free. This much more realistically reflects how a soldier would act in a non! comat situation unless eing yelled at y a %& of course...0. #use:uent +aypoints will follow the prior +aypoint settings if you leave them set at @o change. &ur >ifleman, although pretty chilled, still stops at one point. et's create two new +aypoints ! a second ove +aypoint for him to move to after the first, and then a %ycle +aypoint which will have him loop ack and walk etween prior +aypoints. 8irst, create another ove +aypoint, and then create another +aypoint, nearer to the first +aypoint and change the Select #ype to Cycle in the +aypoint *ialog )o. 7ou will notice handy arrows that show you the direction of travel, very useful if you have do"ens of waypoints going around the map. @ote that the %ycle +aypoint is not actually a +aypoint that the ;nit will go to, it instead instructs him what +aypoint to go to once he has reached the prior +aypoint creating a loop. This is how your Editor should look. 7ou will notice I have purposefully placed my %ycle +aypoint out of the way, forming a triangle, ut the >ifleman will Bust walk ack and forth etween the two initial +aypoints forever. There are lots of other +aypoint Types u t ove and %ycle is all we really need to know for now. As mentioned earlier, if you assign a +aypoint to a /roup eader, the /roup will eecute the +aypoint, which saves a lot of time and Editor clutter in assigning individual +aypoints to individual ;nits.
#ri++ers8 #as-s8 )odules8
#elect 613 #ri++ers with your mouse on the right hand side of the screen or press 13 on your keyoard. >ememer, Triggers are designed for one thing ! to e Activated.
*oule click in some empty space on the airfield to place a Trigger. The
#ri++er Dialo+ %o, will appear, don't change anything and B ust click &= at this stage. &ne of the most asic Triggers is a '&nce $resent' Trigger which is the default. 7ou should now see the Trigger in the Editor symolised y a lue flag with a lue circle around it reflecting the default ?G?G radius. >ight now, the Trigger does nothing. However, Triggers are very versatile ! they can e used to +in a ission, to ose a ission, to complete, fail or assign a Task, to trigger AI to move to a new waypoint, to call in reinforcements, to play a sound, to show a hint, to display some tet, to change the weather, to change a variale, to.... you get the idea. et's have this Trigger Win the )ission upon Activation. *oule click the Trigger flag to ring up the Trigger *ialog )o. %hange #ype to End F5 which is e:uivalent to +in N4 ! there can e up to different endings O 4 ose0. The net 3 fields read sort of0 in order ! so y setting Activation to
%"1$9 we get L&nce );8&> is $resentL the Trigger will e Activated . %ondition 'this' Bust means that the aove condition applies. If you want a custom condition for activation you can enter it under the %ondition field. @ow click $review. *rive towards your Trigger. 7ou proaly notice that there is no visual representation of the Trigger in game, not even on your ap. Hopefully you rememered where you put it ! otherwise go ack t o the Editor and put it in an easier place to reach. If done correctly you should get )ission Completed.
+ell done, you Bust completed your first ission( However, if all A3 issions were like this you'd get ored pretty :uickly( Also, you may e wondering what would happen if another );8&> unit was to stumle into the Trigger area while you were out doing heroic duties ! would that also trigger ission %ompleteK 7es0. And if you didn't know the Trigger was there ! how would you know where to goK 7ou wouldn't0. +hat if there were multiple triggers in a missionK Must imagine(0 +e are now going to step up the level of compleity y using #ri++ers, #as-s, )odules, Syncin+ and
+e want to give the $layer two Tasks ! one to arrive at the +est Trigger and one to arrive at the East Trigger. &nce the $layer has done oth of these tasks we want the ission to complete. +e are going to use a simple and useful techni:ue rather than Bust the L&nce );8&> presentL we used earlier ! and it actually uses the 8 1 /roups mode we learned aout earlier. #witch to /roups mode and /roup the $layer with each of the two +est and East Triggers y dragging etween them. A light lue line should now run from each Trigger to your $layer like the picture to the left. @ ow open the Trigger *ialog )o for one of the Triggers. 7ou will notice that the Activation field should now read
Creatin+ #as-s "sin+ )odules There are a variety of ways to create Tasks including hard coding. The est way I've found is to use the Tasks odule. #elect 617 )odules with your mouse on the right hand s ide of the screen or press 17 on your keyoard. FYI odules eist in the Editor to simplify things that you would do
:uite often ut would take much more time or skill than Bust simply using the odules feature. Must like efore, doule click on the map to place a odule. It doesn't matter where you place this module ! ut make it easily accessile. et's change the Cate+ory field to Intel and )odule field to Create #as-. As you can imagine, this odule will %reate a Task for us. et's fill in a few more details as elow.
/reat, so now we have a task with an I* of task4, and the Title and *escription will e visile to whoever owns this Task, in this case entire /roups of synchroni"ed oBects. %lick & =. 7ou have proaly already guessed the net step ! we need to synchroni"e our $layer with the odule in order to give him the task. Eciting( +e finally get to use
61 Synchroni2e( 7ou know the drill, click on the #ynchroni"e mode or press 8? on your keyoard. #ynchroni"ing or #yncing0 works Bust like /rouping, Bust drag a line from one item to another, in this case the odule to your $layer. !!!
7ou will notice the #ync line is dark lue, whereas the /rouping lines are light lue. This is important to distinguish as Groupin+ and Syncin+ have a
completely dierent eect and i mi,ed up it can !rea- a mission more on that shortly0.
%lick $review, and then once in!game, press H to check your tasks.
+oohoo we have a task(
%reate another odule neary, and set the odule 8ield to #et Task #tate and the #tate to #ucceeded. This odule will e use to set our Task to %omplete once fulfilled. %lick &=. 7ou will notice that y default the odule is /rouped a light lue line0 to the %reate Task module. This is not what we want and is Bust an unwanted default feature of the engine it may e fied in future uilds0. @ow, 40 *e/roup the two odules 10 #ync the two odules and 30 #ync the #et Task #tate odule to the +estern Trigger. 7our Editor should e looking like this. #ynchroni"ing here has two different effects. #ynchroni"ing the two odules asically Bust links them together so A3 knows that they relate to the same task in this instance. However, synchroni"ing the #et Task #tate odule to the Trigger is a different yet very important concept which once you understand will give you a lot of power and control over mission elements. +e are saying that only once the #ri++er is
Activated8 can the Set #as- State )odule proceed . et's test this out ! Bump in to the game, and drive due +est towards the trigger. If you have followed all of the steps aove correctly you will get a nice little pop!up animation like this. /ood Bo( et's now set a *estination for the Task that will display to the $layer on the map and in!game when set as the current Task so you know where to go. %reate another odule and set the odule field to #et Task *e stination and the *estination field to odule $osition. #ync the new odule with the original %reate Task odule not the #et Task #tate odule ! this won't work, and don't forget to un/roup0. @ow move the new odule where you want the Task to e ! somewhere in the Trigger area is a good idea. %lick $review, and once in!game press 'M' to view Tasks and click Set as Current #as- * you should now see a Task location arrow and distance on screen making it much e asier to find. @ow I'm going to stop holding your hand and ask you to replicate everything we've done aove ut for the Eastern Trigger, calling the Task I * tas-& ! readyK /o(
No peeking on the next page until you're done!
Welcome !ac- =. Hopefully, your Editor should now look a little something like this and you didn't get too lost without me.
In!/ame you should now e ale to see two Tasks when pressin+
H and hopefully you rememered to change the second Task I*, Title etc if you used a copy O paste method. 7ou should e a le to separately complete each Task in any order0 and you should also e ale to switch current Task etween the two to see th e two different destinations. If so, well done( If you are having issues make sure you read ack over the steps efore proceeding. )ut wait, we don't have a cool I##I&@ %&$ETE* screen like efore... and if we change one of the Triggers to a +in Trigger then it will Bust end the mission regardless of what else needs doing. This is what our third Trigger to the @orth is for, don't tell me you forgot aout that one( et's
chan+e it to an End F5 #ri++er and from now on I'll call it End Trigger0. )ut, it has no area and is not grouped with any units so how can we have this Trigger end the issionK ike many things in the Editor there are multiple ways of going aout it y using scripting, I'll show you a few.
Way 4o. 5 4amin+ #ri++ers This is an easy way, simply open your +est and East triggers and give them a name in the @ame field, let's call one simply 0esttri++er and the other easttri++er. Then let's open our End Trigger and in the Condition )o, delete the tet 'this' and insert the following code. Code
triggerActivated westtrigger OO triggerActivated easttrigger
#o instead of the Trigger re:uiring a standard condition like );8&> or 5ehicle present or not present, it instead will activate once the code ecomes True. It uses oolean maths 4s and Gs0 or logic and some asic Arma!specific scripting language. This is a fairly simple snippet of code ut your synta has to e perfect or the Editor won't recognise it. The script 'triggerActivated' will check whether a name d trigger i.e. westtrigger has een activated If activated it will return True or oolean 40. The OO in the middle you need two Os0 means the %ondition is only True if oth snippets of code re turn a value of True. Try it now(
Way 4o. & Chec-in+ #as- States This is a very similar method to +ay @o. 4 ut using tas-Completed instead of tri++erActivated and the two scripts should work identically. However, unfortunately ATT&+ this doesn't appear to e working with the Task odule in A3.
Way no. 3 "sin+
Easy, huhK @otice the semicolon 90 afterwardsK This is not mandatory here ut will denote the end of the scripting line, and allow you to put multiple lines in here each with 9 after it0. *o the same for the East Trigger ut call the variale 'eastdone'.
So no08 0hen each #ri++er is activated they 0ill do t0o thin+s8 complete the synchroni2ed tas-8 and create a uni?ue varia!le 0hich is set to #rue. @ow open the End Trigger. *elete whatever is in the %ondition o and simply input westdone OO eastdone.
Try it out, the mission should complete Bust like efore when oth variales ecome true. Although, the prolem here is A3 is so fast that it may complete the mission efore the Trigger even completes the Task( A :uick fi is to open the End Trigger and edit the Timer section in the ottom!left. ake sure its set to Timeout not %ountdown mode and fill in the three fields in, id and a. The units are seconds and there are three fields in order to introduce an element of randomness. If you have them all set at ? seconds, the mission will complete at eactly ? seconds after oth TriggersTasks5ariales have een completed. If you use 4, ?, 4G like I have the final End Trigger will complete anywhere etween 4 and 4G seconds after the Activation conditions have een met at an average point of ? seconds. This will give A3 time for the Trigger to complete the Task efore ission %omplete( FYI The %ountdown Timer ode means that the %onditions have to e met for that length of time
efore the Trigger is Activated. In this case it doesn't make a maBor difference. An eample of when that might e useful is having a Trigger cover a key area with a %ondition of &$8&> @ot $resent ! you might want &$8&> to e kept out of that area for a se t amount of time in order to win the mission so the %ountdown mode will work well.
Well you are now a basic mission making machine. 7ou should now e ale to play with the Editor and do everything you need to do to make a cool asic mission. Try eperimenting with different ;nits, Triggers, %onditions, Tasks ! get as complicated as you dare ut rememer to test your mission for ugs regularly. #o far, I hope you have een ale to easily follow the eamples and guides without too many issues. After all, this is still sproyd's Simple Arma 3 Editor Guide8 ut from here on in I'm not going to hold your hand as much and things may e a it more complicated. I would strongly advise going away for now and eperiment y making a few missions of your own for you and your friends.
ye!
7ou are still here aren't you... +ell okay then, here is a sneak peak of what's to come.
Custom oadouts #$D Co*$p %riein+s )ore Scriptin+
The rest of the Guide is for those of you that want to get more involved and create missions that are of a high quality - good enough to distribute publicly, have critiqued, play with friends and have all the finishing touches and polish that you would expect from a BI-made mission!
(u!lishin+ and Distri!ution #o far, we have een testing our missions with the $review utton in the Editor. However, if we want to share these missions with friends and the A3 community we will need to eport the missions from the Editor. A3 has a specific mission file format called '. p!o'. &nce you eport your mission, all the comple commands, scripts and everything will e contained in one neat little po file, making pulishing and distriution a cinch. &pen the mission you'd like to e port and firstly, make sure your mission is named under Advanced Intel click the utton in the top!right or press Ctrl ; W0. Any name is fine. %lick &=. Then click the #ave As utton in the top toolar or press Ctrl ; Shit ; S.
%lick the #ave As dropdown o, the options are as follows2
"ser mission= This Bust saves another version of your mission in the Editor. ;seful if you are working from a template, or if there are two comple parts to your mission you might want to work on them separately and merge them later.
E,port to sin+le missions : E,port to multiplayer missions= This is what we want ! it will create a po mission file in your Arma 3 folder. @ote that mission Editor files are generally saved under y "ocuments # $rma % # issions +hereas po files will e s aved under your core A3 directory &rogram Files # team # steamapps # $rma % # issions or &issions
Send !y e*mail= This doesn't seem to work ATT&+. ay take some setting up. In order to distriute, you simply need to email the po file to your friends and they can place it into their issions folder. It is considered good practice to undle the po into a "ip file with a .tt document that has asic mission information, version numer, changelog and any known issues and upcoming changes.
(lu!lish on Steam Wor-shop= This lets you pulish your mission directly on #team( However, I strongly suggest posting it online or with friends for testing efore you do this, otherwise #team users may e less forgiving and downvote your mission efore its up to speed.
+here to pulish and get feedackK 7ou can pulish your mission on any wesite ut the most popular places are the %IS orums and Armaholic.com. If your mission is +I$ and very uggy, make sure you upload it to the 'In $rogress' part of the forums for testing. There are generally lots of community memers that are willing to help test your missions if you are open and honest aout the shortcomings. If you pulish a mission full of ugs as 'finished', then people will e less likely to test out your missions in future. FYI
$ulishing on #team is great for players as it makes downloading and updating missions easy. However, as a mission maker e aware that you lose a lot of your ownership rights when doing this.
Weather and #$D Conditions The Editor has some powerful yet simple tools for editing weather and T&* for your mission. 7ou can also even change the date of the mission which should adBust for sunrise, sunset and sun and moon position.
Simple= 7ou can :uickly change T&* and weather using the top!right toolar.
Advanced= )y clicking Advanced Intel 7ou can adBust windiness, cloudiness, waviness, foginess, raininess ATT&+ rain has een disaled pending an overhaul0 and lightning...iness. As illustrated elow the sliders on the left are the conditions upon mission start, the sliders on the right are the forecast weather and the slider the ottom is over what time period the conditions will change from '#tart' to '8orecasted' ! in this case 3h 33mins.
I will often Bump in and out of my mission while adBusting weather and T&* to get things feeling Bust right. If you want to put added time pressure into the mission you can set the 8orecasted weather to poor conditions so the player is forced to rush to get things done efore the weather gets hairy.
Customisin+ "nit oadouts &ne of the coolest things aout A3 is the sweet gear that comes with the game without needing to add mods. *Ifferent ;nit types have different gear e:uipped y default ut if you really want to spice up your mission then you can create a custom loadout for your ;nits( ;nfortunately, ATT&+ there is no really easy way to edit loadouts like in other games like )830. I'll show you the most effective way I' ve found to do it ! using dslyeci's '$aper *oll' gear selector. *ownload the '$aper *oll' gear menu here2 http2dslyeci.comshacktacPwpshacktac!modsdslyecis!paper!doll!gear!menu which is a po file i n the Editor format. Insert the f older into your y *ocuments Arma 3 issions folder and open the mission in the Editor.
%lick $review. &nce in!game you should see yellow tet saying '%haracter %ustomi"er'. $ress space to activate the paper doll gear selector which should look like this9
&n the right hand side you will notice a range of sliders. $lay around with them and you'll notice your player character magically changes his loadout. The rest is fairly self!eplanatory. &nce you've found the loadout you want, click the %&$7 utton on the ottom!left which will copy the loadout with scripting commands to the clipoard of your $%. If we now alt*ta! to windows and open @otepad or @otepadDD which is what I like to use, its free(0 and press paste Ctrl ; <. 7ou should now see some lines of code looking something similar to the elow. I've put red crosses net to the fields that are lank. In this case you can see that I added new headgear, uniform, weapon, scope ut did not change the vest, ackpack and other fields.
/uh0 +ondering what all this gierish meansK Its scripting( 'this' refers to the ;nit in :uestion, 'addHeadgear' etc is a scripting command instructing the engine to... you guessed it, add headgear
and the last part is called a string you can tell ecause it's in :uotations0 and refers to items in game using what are known as Lclass namesL. The semicolons 9 denote the end of the scripting line. I am going to delete the lank fields with red 6's0 to tidy up the code and prevent script errors.
uch etter( @ow I'm going to copy and paste this into my ;nit's init field ack in my mission in the Editor. et's alt!ta ack to the Editor and %trl D 5 to paste.
The formatting is a it messy ut should work fine. @ow $review. +ow, this unit now looks great with a custom loadout. However, he proaly doesn't have any ammo( 7ou are going to have to find out the class name of the ammo for each particular weapon and add it in. 7ou can search for it here, although the list isn't ehaustive. http2rowser.si! proBects.netcfgPweaponsclasslistKversion-Q In this case I know the ammo class name is %()*nd)+,$C&)!ag)'!-)(.
+hich translates in English to a 3G round maga"ine of
There is a great scripting command called addaga"ines which simply adds maga"ines to your ;nit's inventory. Each scripting command has a very particular synta which must e strictly followed in order for the script to work. Here's the one for addaga"ines.
#he unit that the script applies to. I you are insertin+ the script in the unit's init ield you can Bust type 'this' li-e 0ith our loadout script a!ove. Easy the Script command it must !e in this order ma+a2ine4ame is a strin+ so must !e in ?uotations count is a num!er8 not a strin+8 no ?uotations
unit
add)a+a2ines
ma+a2ine4ame
,
count
9
*on't forget the other synta like s:uare rackets, commas and always end with a semicolon( #o in order to add the ammo to our unit lets put this script into his init field this addmaga"ines L3G>ndP
weapon will already have a maga"ine loaded. If you do it the other way around you will end u p with a weapon that re:uires reloading in!game efore it can e used, and that's Bust n ot cricket( %lick $review and your ;nit should now e loaded up with ? maga"ines of your chosen ammo(
)ar-ers8 %riein+s and 1inishin+ #ouches &ne of the many greath things aout the Editor is that it's )I#'s tool for creating official A3 missions. This means that the professional looking riefings that you see when starting a mission can ecome a feature of your missions too( arkers et's learn aout arkers first. #elect 61 )ar-ers with your mouse on the right hand side of the screen or press 17 on your keyoard. This mode allows you to create arkers which are visile to the $layer when viewing the ap or a riefing. This is an asolutely critical way of conveying intel to the player that heshe will need to complete the mission. I'm now going to place our :uad4 ;nit at the @E corner of the #tratis Air )ase. I'll set a arker for him to rende"vous with a contact in Agia arina, near the each. As efore, placing arkers is easy, Bust doule!click on the map to p lace and open the arker *ialog )o. 7 ou will need to select the Icon displays on the map0, %olour, @ame important for riefings0 and Tet displays net to the arker on the map0. >ememer, arkers have to e named. If you try and create a arker without a name you will get a pop!up error message. Try and keep track of your arker names for later. et's call our first arker 'marker4'.
7our Editor display should now look something like this.
%lick $review. Then press '' to open your ap and you should e ale to see the arker that you placed. 7ou can also place arkers over "ones. $lace another arker +est of Agia arina. ike Triggers, you can select shapes of >ectangle and Ellipse. #elect a shape and play with the ais si"es. 7ou can orientate the arkers the same as ;nits, y holding down #hift and clicking and dragging from the center point. )elow I have placed a red, vertically filled ?G4GG "one. I can then place another 'filled arrow' marker net to it to lael it, in this case Enemy A&.
)riefings )riefings are critical intel to your troops on the ground which they should receive efore e marking on their ission ! what do they need to do, whe re do they need to do it and what tools do they have at their disposal to do it. In addition to )riefings displaying tet and the map with the arkers you have set, they can also interact with your arker names via a hyperlink. ;nfortunately, )riefings re:uire a it of light scripting. Alt!Ta from A3 and open your ission folder i.e. in y *ocs Arma 3 missions y8irstission.#tratis0 and create a new file called riefing.s:f. &pen the document in @otepad or @otepadDD0 and type the following9 Code player create*iary>ecord L*iaryL,L)riefing InfoL, LIt's vitally important that you drive to Rmarker
name -'marker4'Fthe each RmarkerF L9 This will create a line of code for your riefing. 7ou also need to create a file called init.s:f in the same folder, open it with notepad and insert the following to launcheecute your riefing upon mission start9 Code eec5 Lriefing.s:fL9
$review the mission and press '' to check your map. 7ou should see a )riefing ta, click this and within the )riefing Info or whatever you named it0 su!ta you will see the description. If you click on 'the each' you should see the ap center on your marker4 you created earlier as elow.
If you'd like for the )riefing to display upon ission start without having to enter the map I always do0 then place another file in the mission folder called mission.html ut leave the whole thing lank. This will tell the Editor to launch the riefing prior to starting the mission. @ote that this doesn't have any effect when $reviewing with the Editor ut when your mission has een eported or pulished this will make the )riefing display efore the $layer is launched into the ission. &ro12ip 7ou can create multiple rief ing entries in riefing.s:f y inserting multiple 'player
create*iary>ecord' entries. Try having one entry descriing the main oBectives, one descriing the weather, one descriing the opposing forces etc. 8inishing Touches If you want to look fancy then you'll need to add some finishing touches to your mission. Here's how to do it. et's create another file, this time called description.e,t in your mission folder. 8irstly, let's add some asic flourishes to our mission y adding the following code to description.e,t with notepad. The tet after eplains what each line of code does, and you can even insert this eplanation in the document as the tells the A3 Editor to ignore the tet. T his might help with future editing. Code authorJKyournameKL appears as author in the overview and loading screen
overvie0#e,tJKA Simple )issionKL tet that appears in overview and loading screen onoad4ameJK)y 1irst )issionKL mission name for loading screen only overvie0(ictureJKovervie0.Bp+KL mission picture for overview screen, file in mission root folder loadscreenJKloadpic.Bp+KL mission picture for loading screen, file in mission root folder respa0nJL allows Team #witch and respawn to net playale unit on side onoad)ission#ime J 5L shows mission time on launch de!riein+J5L defines if the deriefing is shown at the end of the mission.
A full list of description.e,t scripts and their possile values is availale at http2community.istudio.comwiki*escription.et et's save our mission to our #$ issions folder and see how it looks when players load it. &kay, &peration #and %astle is looking pretty official. >ememer, the overviewTet field has a character limit so keep the description short. The )riefing is to e used for more detailed instructions to the $layer./et creative with your loading screen or Bust display a screenshot. ;p to you.
ore 8ancy #tuff et's do some more fancy stuff with description.e,t. This time we'll create multiple deriefings and do so with )I#'s cool graphic interface. Insert the f ollowing code into your description.et file. Code class %fg*eriefing
S class End4 S title - Lission 8ailedL9 sutitle - L7ou %heatedL9 description - L%heaters fail at lifeL9 9 class End1 S title - Lission AccomplishedL9 sutitle - L+ell *one(L9 description - L%ongratulations, you won the mission( +ell done chap.L9 9 class End3 S title - Lission 8ailedL9 sutitle - LL9 description - LEpect a demotion and some time to think.L9 9 9 This script creates multiple endings and deriefings for the $layer to achieve using the 'title', 'sutitle' and 'description' fields. As you can see End5 is set as ission 8ailed with a rude comment aout cheating ! this is ecause most mission win cheats involve invoking End4 so this will strip them of their satisfaction(
End& we have set as the est outcome and End3 is set as failure of the mission. +e've only really done two ut you can set many different ending and deriefing tets to match( @ow we need to do some minor scripting in the Editor to ring up these deriefings. 7ou will rememer that we earlier created a mission win Trigger when the player achieved westdone OO eastdone variales. et's open that Trigger and change type to @one, we will then instead insert the following tet into the '&n Act.' field Code Lend1L call )I#PfncPendission
@ow, once we complete a mission we should get som e cool tet, in line with the appropriate ending in the description.e,t file like so9
As for the ission 8ailed deriefing ! let's have a strict G second time limit for ission completion. %reate a new Trigger and in the %ondition field simply enter9 Code time F G9
time is a script command ased in seconds and can e any length you'd like. In the &n Act. field enter9 Code Lend3L call )I#PfncPendission
aunch the ission and see what happens after a minute. /reat( This seems to work. &f course, you can have the ose Trigger set to activate from whatever you want, such as death of a 5I$, alerting guards or a convoy reaching a destination. /et creative(
"seul Scriptin+ Commands : )ission #ric-s +ell, we've done some :uite cool things in the Editor you and I , and y now you should e starting to appreciate the power of Arma's native scripting language. I've compiled a list of some trusty scripts that should stand you in good stead for your asic mission making aspirations. And without further ado I give you9 Alive yntax"
alive ob#ect
This is a oolean script so only can have two possile values True4 or 8alseG. Its used to check whether an oBect is alive. 7ou can also switch it with an ( eclamation mark to mean not alive. #o for eample if I had a 5I$ who was named in the Editor ;nit *ialog )o as 'vip' I could have the following Trigger.
+hich means with the 5I$ is dead, end3 would e called from description.e,t. If I had multiple vip's i.e. vip4 and vip10 I could also use the or and 330 modifiers so that the mission finishes if one or oth of them die.
Trigger activated once uilding destroyed 7ou can have a Trigger a ctivate upon destruction of a uilding. #imply create a Trigger with a radius that circles the uilding then press the I* ta to display static oBect I*s, then 61& Group the Trigger with the static oBect. ake sure the Trigger Activation is set to '#t atic &Bect' '@ot $resent' in order for the T rigger to activate once the static oBectuilding is destroyed. %ondition can e left as this and you can put a variale into the &n Act. field as well as syncing it with a #et Task #tate odule for full effect. This is a very fun trick and very useful. Must make sure you place the Trigger area over the oBect or it won't work(
Boin#ilent yntax"
unit$rray #oinilent group
ie
%unit&, unit'( #oinilent )group unit*+
or
%unit&, unit'( #oinilent player
This is a useful script that will Boin a ;nit or multiple ;nits to ayour /roup. The key thing to note is that the first part of the script has to e an array which means it needs to e in s:uare rackets. An array can contain any numer of items, in this case units, or Bust one if you like. 7ou can then have these units Bust Boint the player's /roup ! the most common usage ! or any other group y specifying group P0 where P is a memer of the group. +hen might this e usefulK In a hostage situation you might have hostages Boin your group and hence your control0 once you get near to them.
%reating $atrols ilitary patrol routes are common in real life as well as in games and A3 is no different. #et up an enemy patrol with any numer of waypoints ut make sure you set up a cycle +aypoint so the patrol keeps going ackwards and forwards on its route. )elow I've set a patrol of two &$8&> to walk a long route along a ridgeline, ack and then cycle.
ake sure you set the first +aypoint to have the correct 8ormation, #peed and )ehaviour that you want. The most common is of course %olumn, imited and #afe. #use:uent +aypoints can e left as @o change. &ro12ip
7ou can set Time&ut times for +ay$oints Bust like Triggers. +hat this does is make AI ;nits wait at +aypoints efore moving on. )y varying your in and a fields you can create an element of randomisation in patrols as AI will wait at +aypoints for a random amount of time, putting players off their game.
