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Naming your mission
IMHO, I would leave the map name in there so people know what map they are playing - just as was done with the various "dam" coop missions. People have certain maps the like so, by all means add to the name, but suggest you leave it as was done for dam. I also strongly recommend you have a version number on your maps. If it's the first release, and there are likely to be changes you'll make, so call it v1 otherwise confusion will reign when you release an update - ie. people will not know what version/release of the mission they are playing and it will cause issues.
Perhaps something like urban_conflict_<yourname>_v1
Sociability
Also, there is the issue of sociability - ie the ability of the mission to act nicely with other missions/maps. Regardless of the naming, the map will not run with other maps based upon the urban_conflict map. This is because of a flaw int he way GRIN coded the loading of the bundles. When GRAW finds two maps/missions with the same xml's on the same paths, it CTD's.
In this case, the issue is the textures (I think it's called Industrial). As both bundles will have the same textures, regardless of the names of the mission, the game will CTD if you have two bundles in custom_levels based upon the urban_conflict map.
The solution is to change the path names in one of the bundles. In the case of urban conflict, I have done this sucessfully by changing (I think) just 3 lines of XML...but I must run to work now so can not post more details.
Publishing your coop mission
Bundeling your mission
NOTE: FOR VISTA USERS
Due to issues regarding "ownership" and "permissions" of files and folders within Vista, Vista users will need to do the following
before proceeding with the Bundeling instructions below.
1) Go to start, explore C:\Users\<your user name>\AppData\Local\GRAW2\data\levels\custom_levels\<your mission>\xml
(this is where all your saved files reside when saving in the editor) in here you will find a quantity of files in the format world_n.xml
(where n is a number). The file world.xml is your most current saved world file. Right click on this file and click COPY.
2) Now go back to where your GRAW 2 is installed, ie C:\Program Files\UBISOFT\Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2\ and
open folders data\levels\custom_levels\<your mission>\xml now right click your mouse button and PASTE the copied world.xml into this folder. Vista will ask if you wish to overwrite the existing file or make a copy ...... OVERWRITE THE EXISTING FILE
3) In this folder now should be two files unit_list.xml and world.xml
4) Exit explorer and continue with the instructions given below.
To start with, create a new folder. I usually put this underneath where I installed GRAW2.
Name this folder bundler. ie. C:\Program Files\UBISOFT\bundler
Inside this folder (eg C:\Program Files\UBISOFT\bundler) place the following:
- bundler.exe from C:\Program Files\Ubisoft\Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2\public_tools\bundler
- a new empty folder named <your mission name>. For example if you were bundleing coop_urban_conflict mission, you'd have C:\Program Files\UBISOFT\bundler\coop_urban_conflict
- Inside the <your mission name> folder, create a folder named data (this is where the files you want to bundle will go). ie. "coop_urban_conflict/data"
- Inside the data folder, put the files you want to bundle (ie. take a copy of the files from under C:\Program Files\UBISOFT\data - exclusing folders like settings and movies)
- Check the file in your data folders and remove any .xmb's. These are not required and may override the .xml you have changed.
Take care to just copy over the folders that you need..ie. not Sound or Movies or Settings. It will likely look something like this
To make it easier to bundle your missions, we will use a batch file.
Download the following file, make_bundle.bat into the C:\Program Files\UBISOFT\bundler folder
Now when you click on this batch file it will ask you for the name of the folder you want to bundle (ie. coop_urban_conflict) and create the bundle. When it's done, you'll see a new bundle file appear in the folder. You can now distribute this to others to try out your new mission. I suggest you compress it with WinRAR first to reduce the size and perhaps include a text file describing the mission and any instructions.
For those that are interested, the make_bundle.bat file contains the following lines...
@ECHO OFF
ECHO Enter the name of the folder you want to bundle
@ECHO OFF
set /p fname=(ie. coop_urban_conflict):
ECHO Compiling dsf files to .dxe
@bundler.exe compile-scripts %fname%
ECHO Building bundle file to %fname%.bundle
@bundler.exe quick-bundle -r %fname% %fname% -D %fname%.bundle
ECHO Done!
@Pause |
Uploading your mission bundle to a fileshare
Be sure to compress your .bundle (and any other files) with winRAR before uploading them. Do not password protect your files.
Instructions on loading your bundle (RAR file) to filefront
Be sure to include comments about the mission on filefront so people know what it is all about and who made it.
Post a message in the mission modding forum at ghostrecon.net with a link to the bundle on filefront - be sure to include a descriptoin of the mission, and any special instructions. Rocky will also add it to the downloads section.
For information on how to link to your file, see here How do I make my files public? Where can I link users to my file?
If you want to restrict access to your files on filefront (ie. a beta release or you discover an error) see here How to password protect your files
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