This Post is about the most important additional Content for KKND: Krossfire. Of course I'm talking about Custom Missions. I'll explain everything you need to know to create your first Custom Mission.
Before we start, a note about the Tilesets. As you surely know there are many different ones including the normal Desert.kp and Urban.kp, the Highland.kp was not present in the Original KME. As far as I know, Kazcript created the first Highland.kp. since this is not Original, there are Tiles that do not fit together or differ in Color. When I was looking for a Tileset with Original Colors, I had to realize that such a thing doesn't exist. I found many different Highland.kp but none with Original Assets. I will add these to the Tileset Download Package. So please don't be surprised if there are Problems with the Highland Tileset.
On the Picture you can see the difference between the Original Water in the Game and the Highland Tileset very well. It is still possible to create good Maps with it, even if it takes a little longer and requires a lot of Rework.
But what I could notice in all the Highland.kp is that some Tiles have the original colors and some have other colors. This mean that it should be possible to create an original Tileset with the KP Editor. I will keep you up-to-date.
First we create a new file and choose the size of our mission and choose Custom Mission. Please note that from a size of 250 x 250 Tiles the KME or the mission can become unstable when loading. Now we're load the Tileset of our choice (in my case the Highland Tileset) and start building. I hope you all know about game design and how to create a challenge for the player. You should definitely think beforehand what kind of mission you want to build and what challenges there should be. Just building wildly on it rarely leads to the goal.
For my mission, which I call "The Bay", I chose a size of 100 x 80 Tiles. You play the Evolved fighting the Survivors. Your base is protected behind a ridge and has two entrances. One over land leading through a narrow gorge and one over water which is harder to defend. The opponent is in a strategically better location. it's harder to get to and has a outpost that you'll have a hard time getting past. The opponent has Thermal Exchanger so that you can't get any further with brute force. The maximum tech level 3 available for this mission means that you cannot build a pig pen. In addition, the opponent also has tech level 5 units and defensive towers. In all aspects your opponent is superior to you.
Before we continue with the AI, I have a few tips for building with the KME for you.
You can mark individual tiles with the left mouse button, these are then highlighted in blue. If you right-click on it, a context window opens in which you select "copy". You can fix many blemishes with this method.
I noticed with the Highland Tileset that not all tiles are always available in every set but you can just open another Tileset and continue working with the new one. You can also edit Tilesets with the KP editor and integrate all the tiles you need into a new Tileset. With both methods you can also create multi terrain maps.
Build the terrain first and only after you are satisfied with it do you build trees, bushes, stones, etc. This sometimes saves you a lot of time when you have to correct something.
I recommend that you finish building your terrain before you continue reading here. The following part is a bit more complex than pure terrain building.
Next we fill the empty world with life. To do this, we first open the mission settings, which is marked red in the picture. In the following window you have 3 taps. These are the basic settings you have to make for your mission. I explain every single setting to you.
General
The first tap is the general tab. In this you can set the victory and defeat requirements or the tech level and somthing more.
Par Time is just the estimated time for the result Table.
Matrix time is the animation time for special assets, e.g. lava or broken bridges.
The Tech Level Specifies the maximum tech level that applies to players and AI.
The Funds are the start resources. You are the player. Ally are your allied CPU players and Enemy are of course the opponents.
Mission Win is the prerequisite that must be fulfilled for the mission to be considered won.
Mission Lose are criteria that the player is not allowed to meet because otherwise he loses the mission.
The counter is there for the option Mission win / mission lose or lets an aircraft spawn.
Teams
With Teams you can set which teams there should be in your mission and which you are.
This is a bit complicated now but I'll try to explain it to you. Team 1 is reserved exclusively for the player. If you set the local team to team 2, team 1 will not appear in the game. That's why Team 1 is grey in my picture. You can also play Team 8 or Team 5 you just have to set the Local Team to team 8 or Team 5. but Note that team 1 will not appear in the game.
If you create a Survivor building, it will be automatically assigned to Team 1 no matter which team you have selected in your settings. If you create a unit of Evolved it is always assigned to Team 2. This is also the reason why in my picture Team 2 is the player. Everything that belongs to the Series 9 is automatically assigned to Team 3.
If you don't want to be Team 1 or the Survivors you have to change the team of each building / unit manuel. It's a bit complicated, but it works. more on that later.
Build Restrictions
This is simply explained here you can select the building or units that may not be used in your mission. This applies only the player and not the AI opponent or Player allys.
That was quite a lot of information now but don't worry it will get much worse. Next we take care of the player start position. If you look at the top left you will see a red arrow. Move it now to the position that should be the start position.
Now you can set the assets you want for the player. In my case it is an equipped base with the most important buildings and a few units. Theoretically, you can build whatever you want. In the normal game, the player has the limitation that he can only build 4 of each building type. This is omitted in the KME you can put more buildings on the AI and also on the player. In the game the max 4 building regulation exists again.
When you are done with the player base / starting point click on a building or unit and you will see 3 entries in the Properties.
For Teams you can see which team this building is assigned to. About Evolved buildings it is standard Team 2. if your player is not team 2 you have to change this for each building.
In the Creature Flags you have a number of options available for what to do with this building. Among other things, the -1 counter ist here if you have set a counter as a mission target.
Activation Time is a function used to create a unit that waits at a certain point and rushes when the field of vision is illuminated or attacks when the set time comes. Whichever comes first. Since this is a function that can only be used on AI,at the player it is useless.
In addition, it is possible to use it in such a way that allied or enemy buildings are activated late.
There are two ways to use Oil Patches. You can use an Oil Patch so that the player has to build a Mobile Drill Rig or you can build The Drill Rig building.
You will only notice that the Drill Rig in the game has no oil. I'll show you how to fix it. If you look closely you can see that the Oil Patch is under the Drill Rig. If you put the drill rig on the Oil Patch, the KME will mark it red as if you can't put it there. Don't let that confuse you. Tap the Oil Patch and set how much oil it should contain and then put the Drill Rig on the Oil Patch.
Now let's get to the opponents. Build the enemy base and set The CPU Player Information (left in the creatures bar). Don't forget to make sure that the buildings / units are also assigned to the right teams. Now click on the CPU Player Information arrow so that we can make some settings.
Here you can see the most important properties of the enemy AI. Note that you have to perform this setting with each team. You can give each team a different attitude.
With the ally mode you can determine with which team or race the opponent should cooperate.
With the Cost Modifier you can set whether the enemy AI has to pay more or less for a building / unit. So you can advantage or disadvantage the opponent.
With the Time Modifier you can influence the production time for buildings / units. So you can advantage or disadvantage the opponent.
Computer Player Confidence is more accurately viewed as a kind of disposition rather than the strength of the enemy AI. The closer it is to 30, the more aggressive it is. Conversely, the closer it is to 80, the more passive it is to attack and the focus is on base development.
With the Default Type of Unit Constructed you can do nothing. I have absolutely no idea what the selection does. I have tested many variants, only if you leave the selection empty something happens, Then the game crashes.
With Teams you can set which team this CPU opponent is and to whom these settings apply.
If you just let the AI start, it would build more buildings. If you just want to build a small outpost like me, you can fill the space ,that the AI would actually build, with the "No Build" attribute. So you prevent the CPU opponents from doing what they want.
Next, I'll explain a few more interesting facts that are in the Creature bar. After that, we actually have everything important that we need for a functioning mission.
The first is the target area. This is an area whose size you can determine for yourself. You can place it wherever you want. He triggers an event which you can determine yourself if the condition is fulfilled that you can also determine.
The next is the detention centers. You certainly know these from the campaign and know how they work. In the properties you can specify which units are locked up and which team they belong to.
The Patrol Point was supposed to be a Patrol Point but I have no idea how it works as it has no properties but If you want patroling Units you can select any unit other than air units, then hold down the shift key and click on the desired ground. If you decide to use patrolling units, please create a Copy of your .KM beforehand.
The matrix animation are e.g. The dome of the lava volcano or the animation of the destroyed bridge.
You can set up the Reinforcement for the Opponent and for the Player. You can set how often or from when Reinforcement arrives and more.
The last ones are the Ripples. These are the little water animations you've probably seen before. In the properties you can set different ones.
If you change the values in the property windows it sometimes happens that the entry is not adopted. It can help if you confirm the input with the enter key. If that does not help you have to enter it again. It has often happened that I could not place any new creatures after I had deleted some creatures before. The problem can be solved quite quickly by simply saving, closing the KME and restarting.
So that's it we're through with the basics. This blog post saves you a lot of work and answers many questions that I had to answer myself. If you have any questions or a problem with your mission, feel free to ask your question under this post. You do not have to be logged in but can also simply write a comment as a guest.
In the Download you will find the Project File with the finished Mission to play yourself and also the The Bay.KM to be able to look in my Mission and maybe learn more.
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