XvTED Academy

Note: Level 1 Lessons have been finished by Heavy. Edits may be made to the page, however Heavy requests that if you do, please leave a note in the discussion page saying what you edited and why. Thanks. ":)

XvTED Academy Revision Proposal

• COM David "Heavy" Pasiechnyk, after some personal ideas and a brief readover of the current XvTED Acad course, has decided to revise, update, and expand the current course with intention to provide applicants with a better understanding and more experience with the XvTED program.
• The majority of this proposal was written before Heavy found the existing XvTED course information and is thus new in the majority of the content, although many parallels will be found, along with some parts taken from the original course in full or in edited form.

Academy Outline

The Academy program for XvTED will be broken up into 4 Levels, each consisting of a series of lessons and required outputs/submissions. The Academy will primarily run on basic BoP mission settings and craft, with the option for using only XvT or using BoP with the RS Patch. Preference of the applicant will be taken into account for this.

Level 1: Basics

• Single Player TRAIN mission
• Learn the essentials for a basic training style mission
• Produce 2 separate missions
  • One mission built through lessons
  • Second mission built on own by applicant as final submission

Level 2: Structured

• Single Player TRAIN mission
• Learn how to add body and depth to missions
• Flight group interaction
• Detailed and Bonus goals
• Description, briefing, debriefing
• Messages
• Produce 2 missions
  • 1st through lessons
  • 2nd on own

Level 3: Advanced

• Three separate Level 3 courses
  • MP Train/Campaign
  • Melee/Tournament
  • Combat/Battle
• Learn how to create interconnected missions
• Learn the set up and parameters necessary for multiplayer missions
• Create 5 missions plus the accompanying Campaign/Tournament/Battle *.LST file

Level 4: Advanced x2 (Instructor's Course)

• Learn the XvTED editor inside and out
• Aid instructors with lower level courses
• Learn to troubleshoot various fleet level build problems (?)
• ???

Level Outlines

Level 1

Lesson 0: Intro

• Introduce concept of XvTED
• Give applicants and understanding of important methods and approaches
• Have applicants produce mission outline/story (very basic) for final submission
• Assign a number to the applicant (primarily for use in the Rebel.lst file)

Lesson 1: Flight Groups

• Adding flight groups
• Modifying flight groups
• Changing various related parameters

Lesson 2: Map and Waypoints

• Changing flight group map locations
• Adjusting/adding waypoints
• Views and options

Lesson 3: Orders

• Common orders
• Understanding order parameters
• Order progression

Lesson 4: Global Goals

• Basics
• Parameters
• Settings

Level 2

Lesson 1: Motherships

• Arrival/Departure
• Related orders
• Starship orders

Lesson 2: Boarding Targets

• Capturing objects
• Repairing craft/objects
• Cargo operations

Lesson 3: Flight Group Goals

• FG specific normal goals
• Bonus goals

Lesson 4: Messages

• Event triggers
• Timing
• Color and/or team recipients

Lesson 5: Briefings

• Messages/text
• Animation
• Timing
• Tags

Level 3

Lesson 1: Mission Grouping

• Introduction will be specific to the Level 3 course taken
  • Tours/Campaigns
  • Tournaments
  • Battles

Lesson 2: Multiplayer

• Balance
• Orders
• Player related settings

Project

Depending on the Level 3 course taken, 5 missions of the course specific type are to be built and coordinated into an applicant written and instructor improved storyline (where applicable) and set up the necessary file for XvT/BoP to read and play out the series of missions. Lessons learned from Levels 1 & 2 will be crucial to building and completing the project. The instructor(s) will be available for questions and guidance, as well as testing.

Level 4

• Apprenticeship
  • Help instructor in teaching Level 1 courses to applicants
    • Only one L1 applicant will be assigned to a L4 applicant
    • Advancement of both applicants is watched and graded by the instructor
    • Instructor takes a BTS role in the instruction of the L1 applicant
• Troubleshooting exercises
  • Library of missions with built in build errors shall be on hand for instructor to select and assign to L4 applicants for troubleshooting
  • Possible source of afore mentioned missions could be TacOps archives for beta-builds and half-builds from the VSG Tour mission building process
    • Approval with Vaughan (or current LO or TacOps Leader) needed for use of these builds

Lesson Outlines

Legend:

• These sections denote information.

a) These sections denote practical actions to be done by applicants.

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Level 1: Lesson 0

• User friendly, logic oriented program used to build missions for X-wing vs. TIE Fighter (and its expansions, official or 3rd party)
• The program is organized by tabs and makes use of drop down lists for majority of selection operations.
• The program lists can be edited through the use of external *.txt files, and thus makes 3rd party expansion missions easier to build.
• There are many different methods for building a mission. There are multiple methods to achieve a specific in-game result, each of which will have its upsides and downsides.
• The most important thing to remember when building a mission is frequent testing of the mission during the build process. This is made much easier if the mission can be broken up into build stages. The mission can be built as a series of steps, each of which will include testing after completion of a built stage. This is more practical for longer or more detailed missions, and is not necessarily required for shorter or simpler missions.
• By frequently testing a mission after stages of building, it will be much easier to detect the location of build errors than it would be to build an entire mission from start to finish and then look for the errors in building.

a) Produce a short, basic mission outline that will be used for the final submission to complete your Level 1 course. Do not make this an extensive outline, as only the basics of mission building will be covered in this Level. Basic requirements for the outline include: Situation, location, and summary of forces/groups.
b) Once you have submitted the outline, you will receive a number that will be unique to you. This number will be the number that you will use for testing your mission.

• A total of two missions will be built during the course of your Level 1 training. One will be built through the guided lessons, and the second mission you will build on your own at the end using those lessons that you have learned. The latter will be graded by your instructor, as well as possibly by a group of your peers, as is seen fit by the instructor.

Level 1: Lesson 1

• The first things that must be added to a mission are craft and flight groups. Without craft and flight groups, there won’t be anything for you to fly, nor will there be anything for you to shoot at. 9 times out of 10, if there’s nothing to shoot, it isn’t a fun mission. That last 1 out of 10 is a mission which has an excellent storyline and some ingenious building behind it to create an excellent mission to fly.
• Flight groups, once added to the list in XvTED, will be assigned a default craft and team, which will be needed to be changed in most cases.
• The tabs that we will be focusing on in this first lesson are the Ship and Options tabs under Flight Groups, as well as the Teams tab.

a) Go to the Teams tab.

• Here, you can change Team Names, default IFF settings, and set allied team settings.

i) For Team 1, set the Team Name and default IFF to be Rebel.

ii) To access Team 2, press the -> button and change the name and IFF to Imperial.

b) Return to the Flight Groups tab. Make sure you are on the Ship tab here.

• At this location you can add flight groups, change the number of craft and waves for each flight group, name fight groups, change team and IFF settings for flight groups, as well as other varying ship status options.
• 2 methods of adding flight groups are as such:
  • Right click on the black area and then select "Add New Flight Group"
  • Click on the little glowing page icon at the top of the window.

i) Add 3 flight groups so that you end up with a total of 4 flight groups.

ii) For the first flight group, this will be the player's flight group. XvTED, by default will have already set this up to be Player 1. Next, set up the following settings:

- Craft: 2 waves of 6 X-Wing

- Team: Rebel

- IFF: Rebel

- Missles: Proton Torpedoes

iii) For the second flight group:

- Craft: 4 waves of 6 TIE Interceptor

- Team: Imperial

- IFF: Imperial

- AI: Top Ace

iv) Third flight group:

- Craft: 1 wave of 1 Corellian Corvette

- Team and IFF: Imperial

- AI: Top Ace

v) Final flight group:

- Craft: (will vary depending on whether XvT(IPV), BoP(M/CRV), or the RS Patch(GSP) will be used during training)

- Subsequent settings same as above, along with a Missle loadout of Concussion Missles

• The Options tab allows the builder to adjust the settings which affect the ingame craft selection options, as well as those settings which will generate automatic messages such as the "Primary target has been destroyed." messages. This section is simple to observe and test, and thus will be left for your own experimentation for the most part.

c) Select the player flight group, go to the Options tab, and set the Optional Ships settings to be "All Rebel Flyable Craft".

Level 1: Lesson 2

• The map page gives the builder a visual aid in constructing the mission, and can be a vital tool in setting up the battle scene.
• The map page gives the builder a view of the 3D space in 3 orthagonal views (ie. planes), the x-y plane (default), x-z plane, and y-z plane.
• With the map page a bulider can create and adjust waypoints manually (drag and drop) or by numerical input (typing numbers into boxes). In most advanced missions, a combination of both methods is used for optimal results.
• A secondary method for creating flight groups can be used here, although in many cases it is more reliable to use the Flight Group and Ship tabs.
• Map setings for the briefings can also be edited in this area.

a) Open the Map View by clicking on the small red grid button at the top of the program window. b) At the top of the Map Screen window there is a drop down box with a flight group name in it. This box is used for selecting which flight group's waypoints you wish to edit. Select the player flight group to start with. Press the button which has the letters WP on it.

• The window which pops up allows you to input numerical co-ordinates for all types of waypoints. This can include the Start Position(s), flight path waypoints (denoted by WP#), a Rendezvous Point, the Hyper Point, and the various team briefing map waypoints.

i) Change Start 1 to have the values X=-2, Y=0, and Z=0.

ii) Highlight WP1 and input X=0,Y=0,Z=0.

iii) Close the Waypoints box. If you adjust the zoom settings you will be able to see that the X-wing flight group has now moved and has a solid line in front of it.

• For any of the waypoints to be used in mission, they must be highlighted. For craft to show up in the appropriate briefings, those must also be highlighted. This will be looked at in higher course levels.

b) TI FG

i) Start 1: X=2,Y=0

ii) WP1: X=0,Y=0

c) CRV FG

i) Start 1: X=3,Y=-1

ii) WP1: X=1,Y=-1

iii) WP2: X=-1,Y=-1

iv) WP3: X=-1,Y=1

v) WP4: X=1,Y=1

c) (Fourth flight group)

i) Start 1: X=3,Y=1

ii) WP1: X=-2,Y=1

iii) WP2: X=-2,Y=-2

iv) WP3: X=2,Y=-2

v) WP4: X=2,Y=2

vi) WP5: X=-2,Y=2

d) You should now see an organized map showing the X-Wings coming head on with the TIE Interceptors, with the two Imperial support ships on an patrol pattern which has them encircling the dogfight region of the fighters in a square path. (Patrol path is signified by the dotted lines.)

• This will be the extent of direct instruction on the map page. It is expected by the instructor that each of the various buttons and tools will be played with. Questions may be sent to the instructor as to the meaning of various buttons and tools not described in the lesson.
• One other location can be used for adjusting waypoint values, but is strictly by numerical adjustment without the readily available visual aid of the map. This is found at the WPs tab found under Flight Groups.

e) Go to the WPs tab. Here, we will set up a very basic briefing map for the mission. Press the "Set To Start 1" button found here. This will automatically input the values of the start positions into all of the briefing WP fields.

Level 1: Lesson 3

• Individual orders consist of three basic parts:
  • Order type
  • Target selection method (ie Global Group, Ship Type, Flight Group)
  • Target group (ie. 1...2...etc, X-wings, B-wing Green)
• You will see at the Orders tab that there are 2 basic sections, one where orders are edited, and one where the separate orders are selected.
• In the editing section can be found the order type, primary and secondary order sections, and then some secondary settings that will vary in value or importance depending on the order type selected.
• In the order selection section (at the bottom), the first three lines represent a craft's default orders, and all three will be performed in succession as each is completed. Also, if Primary and secondary targets are defined in an order, any primary targets will be approached first no matter what, while secondary targets will only be approached if there are no primary targets in the area (or is being defended against). The fourth line is reserved for orders under special/specified conditions.
• Basic order types that can be found are starfighter attack/movement orders, starship attack/movement orders, and boarding and docking orders. This lesson will concentrate on the more basic of the attack/movement orders.

a) At the Orders tab, create the following orders for the player flight group:

i) Order 1: From the drop down list, choose "Attack Targets". Under primary targets "Class A", from the "None ?" drop down box choose ship category, and then in the box to the right make sure that it has "Starfighters" selected. Now, for the "Class B" row, we will select IFF and Imperial, respectively. One final change is needed for Primary targets, and this is to remove the check mark from "Either A or B". This will tie Classes A and B together so that the Primary targets will be Imperial Starfighters. This will be seen in text format at the bottom of the tab screen in the first order line. For secondary targets, do the same as before except this time let the targets be Imperial Starships.

ii) Order 2: Select order 2 by clicking on the second purple line at the bottom. From the drop down list, choose "Fly Home". This will tell your squad mates to fly home once the mission has been completed.

b) For the TI flight group, have their first and only order to "Attack Targets" "Flight Group" "XW (name)". This type of order will tell craft to attack a specific target as opposed to a generic target as was defined for the player flight group. c) The final two flight groups will get the same orders since they are both starship class and both have the same target.

• By highlighting both flight groups you will be able to set their orders at the same time.
• Since they are starship class, they will need to use "SShip ~" or "SS ~" orders. These orders are specific to starships and will have an effect on how the craft moves while it performs it's task. If a starship were given regular orders, in most cases they would move and jump around in an inappropriate fashion for starships. It is certainly something interesting to play with, but for high quality missions, using the proper orders are of utmost importance.

i) Once you have the final two flight groups both highlighted, create the order as follows: "SShip Patrol + attack" "Flight Group" "XW (name)". * Note: for the Primary target, you may set it up as stated here or in the other method that was previously shown.

Level 1: Lesson 4

• A wide range of goals and conditions can be set to create an almost endless # of various mission outcomes to define the Victory and Loss for a mission.
• During this series of Lessons we have set up a very basic dogfighting mission where the victor is the team which destroys the other first, and therefore this mission will have very simple goals.
• There are 3 different main types of goals: Primary Goals, Prevent Goals, and Secondary Goals.
  • Primary Goals are those which MUST be completed to obtain Victory.
  • Prevent Goals are those which MUST NOT occur to have Victory.
  • Secondary Goals are the those goals which are not pivotal to the mission, but will provide extra points (if they are so set) to the player/team.
• Goals can be set for any and all teams, however, those teams which have human players on them MUST have Primary Goals set. Without primary goals, that team will not have any conditions to achieve, and will therefore not be able to claim victory. If only Prevent Goals are set, a team will start out with a Victory condition, and if the prevent goals are "achieved" the team will then change to a Failure status. Finally, if only Secondary Goals are set, there will be no goals shown in the ingame goals window, nor will they contribute to a Mission Complete status.
• Individual goals are set up in the following fashion: (amount) of (FG or other) (name of FG or other) must (do or be something).

a) Since this is only a Single Player mission, we will only set goals for Team 1.

i) Under Primary Goals we will set one goal. This goal will be "100% of FG TI (name) must be destroyed"

ii) For a Prevent Goal, we will set the following goal: "75% of FG XW (name) must be destroyed"

iii) Finally, for a Secondary Goal, we will set it as having destroyed the final two flight groups. This will be set as "100% of Ship Category Starships must be destroyed".

• In most missions, the final order would not be valid as both teams may have starships. In this case, more refined options would be necessary. This will be observed in Level 2 Training.
• Here, only destroy goals have been shown. However, as was previously mentioined, there can be defend goals, capture goals, and many other types of goals.

b) Test and submit the finished mission. Your work will be looked at and marked off as having been done.

Level 1: Final Submission

From the information that you have learned in these lessons and anything that you have learned about the editor on your own time to create a mission based on the writeup that you had submitted in the introductory lesson. During construction of your mission you will recieve limited help and feedback should it be needed. Your peers may be looked to for testing assistance, but any work on the mission is expected to be your own. The final submission is expected to be a fairly simple construct. Once you have built it to completion and tested it to be clear of bugs or other unwanted occurances, you will submit the final copy to your instructor for grading. It will be graded by the instructor only at this level.

Level 1: Challenge

If a person wishes to challenge this Level (ie. obtain the ribbon without going through each of the lessons), a submission of their work must be made which includes the following:

• Minimum of 10 Flight Groups
  • 2 of which must be starships
  • 2 of which must be transport class
  • 6 total flight groups must have 2D waypoint paths with 5 or more waypoints
• Primary, Secondary, and Prevent Goals
• Player Flight Group must have craft, warhead, and countermeasure options.
• Mission must have custom messages occuring at various pionts during a mission, with varying colors representing different people speaking.

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Level 2: Intro

Level 2 is intended to give applicants a cohesive understanding of all aspects of the editor. It will build upon the foundation created by Level 1 and should give people enough understanding of the editor to build fleet quality missions. It will NOT however, provide people the necessary experience, however (in my opinion), that is expected of fleet-level builders.

Applicants will learn about arrival/departure conditions, orders inolving more complex situations such as boarding and capturing, goals which require specific events as opposed to generic situations, bonus goals, implementing in-flight messages, and how to create good looking, animated briefings.

a) As with Level 1, you are required to produce a mission outline which will be used for your final submission for Level grading. This mission can be as complex as you choose it to be, however it must not be too simple in construct either. The outline will be read over and approved by the instructor before Lessons will begin. If you had just completed Level 1 training and are continuing on, you will continue to use the number you were given previously for mission testing. If not, you will be given one.

• Note: for this Level, the mission constructed from Level 1 will be used as the start point and will be added upon to generate the final guided mission for Level 2. If you have either challenged level one or are starting the level two courses after a time period since when you completed level one and no longer have a copy of the guided mission from there, then a copy will be supplied to you.

Level 2: Lesson 1

• Although this section is titled "Motherships", it deals with more than just setting up a ship to be a "home". It will deal with a number of areas in the editor that are related to motherships, such as arrival and departure conditions/times, orders related to starships, and orders specific to motherships or interaction with motherships.
• The first item which we will look at is how to set up craft to have a mothership. This requires having the necessary craft listed in the flight groups, and then it requires changing some settings in the Arrival and/or Departure tabs.

a) Set up a new flight group for the Imperials which consists of one PLT/1 located at the co-ordinates [-2,3,0]. (Note: for current and future reference, co-ordinates of craft or waypionts will be given in cartesian co-ordinate format. This means that they will be given in [x,y,z] format.) The station will need to be defending itself, so add appropriate orders telling it to attack any rebel craft. In this instance, there is no need to worry about Regular or SS order type as platforms do not have any mobility as set up in the game. Now that we have a mothership, we will modify the existing TIE Interceptor squadron so that it will no longer arrive from hyperspace, but will arrive from (and depart to) the newly added platform.

• Go to the Arrival tab. Here, you will see two distinct sections. The first section allows you to choose the method of arrival for that flight group. "Via" refers to the default mode of entry to the area, while "Alternative" allows for a secondary method of arrival should one desire it. When "Mothership" is selected, a dropdown list is activated allowing the builder to choose the mothership from the list of all available flight groups.

b) For the TI flight group select Mothership for both Via and Alternative. From the dropdown lists, select the newly added platform as the mothership. By setting both Via and Alternative to the platform, this will prevent the flight group from entering the area via hyperspace should the platform be destroyed. This will of course add to the continuity of the mission.

i) Another edit which we will make is to increase the number of TI's that will arrive from the platform. We will increase their number to be 3 squadrons in waves of 6.

c) Now we shall add two starship class motherships, one for the rebel team and one for the imperial team.

i) Add one Mon Calamari Cruiser for the Rebels with a start location of [-4,-1,0] and WP1 of [0,-1,0]. After this, use up the remaining 7 waypoints to plot a course which will take it in a gradual curving pass around the station, so that it will fly ovals around it so that it will be within 1 km at it's closest point to the station. Lastly, include a hyper point that is the same as its start co-ordinates. The arrival time for the Mon Cal is to be 30 seconds into the game. This can be set at the Arrival tab by typing '30' into the seconds box found at the bottom.

ii) For the Imperials, add an Imperial Star Destroyer @ [2,5,-.25] with WP1 @ [-4,5,-.25], WP2 @ [-4,0,-.25], and the Hyper point at the same location as WP1. If necessary, adjust the Mon Cal's flight path so that it will not cross the path of the ISD. Also, at this point, adjust the flight paths of the corvette sized ships so that one will fly in the Z=0.5 plane and one in the Z=-0.5 plane.

d) Next, we shall add corresponding flight groups to go with these motherships.

i) First, add one flight group of Y-wings in 4 waves of 3 with Proton Torpedoes arriving from the Mon Cal 10 seconds after it arrives. Next, add one flight group of A-wings in 4 waves of 3. These will arrive 15 seconds after the Mon Cal arrives.

ii) For the Imperials, we will add the default compliment of fighters for an ISD. This is 3 squadrons of T/F, 2 squadrons of T/I, and one squadron of T/B. The T/F will be in waves of 3, arriving 5 seconds after the A-wings arrive, the T/I in waves of 6 arriving after the platform's T/I's have been destroyed, and the T/B in waves of 3 arriving 5 seconds after the Mon Cal arrives.

(to be concluded...)

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