HOW TO PLACE UNITS
This can be the most frustrating and time consuming part of mission building, but the careful positioning of units can drastically alter the way the mission plays. There is no single 'best' way to do this and the various methods shown below all have varying benefits and disadvantages, depending upon the nature of the terrain and the progress of the mission. In general, you will find you have fewer option for 'fine' tuning as the mission nears completion. Unless your mission is a simple one (and there's nothing wrong with simple missions!), you will have to repeat this process many many times:
You will also have to decide whether your mission is to use Waypoint or Logic commands or both. You can mix WP and Logic platoons in the same mission, but you cannot mix the commands for a single platoon. I would suggest starting with Waypoint commands until you are comfortable with the mission structure.
The Mission Map
Once the basic mission is built in BB, launch the mission and in the Briefing screen use Alt+P to take a screen shot of the map (move the cursor out of the way first). This screen shot is saved in the Gunship\Data file as a consecutively numbered bitmap starting with screen000.bmp. Open it in whichever graphic program you use, crop it down and print a hard copy. The diagram below shows a mission map in relation to its World Map (N Poland, Poland, Czech, Ukraine or Belarus). The World Map is a 10 x 10 grid, making 100 full mission maps, but with overlaps, the variations are limitless. The mission map itself is a 16 Km square and all map co-ordinates are measured in metres from the top left hand corner of the World Map (the Zero Point). Although any co-ordinate from 0 to 160000 is always valid, your mission map shows the limits of the usable playing area.
All the co-ordinates use X (horizontal) and Y (vertical) axis and must be written in that order.
Be very careful of the lower and right hand third of the World Map, as this is where the co-ordinates change from five to six digits. The mission map will only show the first one or two digits, but after 98 and 99 comes 0. Whilst 99 represents 99000, a five digit map position, 0 (which is actually 100) is 100000. Further along and you're back into double figures on the mission map with no indication that you're actually in 'six digit' territory.
If you miss the '1' off the front end and give a five digit position in place of a six digit one, your platoon will deploy 100km away and you will never see it. This is a very easy mistake to make, so always check the centre co-ordinates on your mission file and mark the full co-ordinates on your printed map.
Fly and Plot
The obvious method of checking unit positions, is to fly there. This can be made easier, if you make sure your 'flyable platoon' is fairly close to where you need to work, or you'll waste a lot of time flying across the map. Use the simplest of game settings, as the object here is to make it quick and easy. Also use a single static Waypoint (ie repeat the same X Y co-ordinates) and give an LZ order. Doing this means that if you leave the Helo for any reason (using F9), your ride doesn't wander too far. Fly to the selected spot in Pilot mode, manoeuvre into position and land. Make sure that you are stationary and then switch to the map screen (N). Using Pilot mode makes sure the Helo stays put. Use the Z X keys to zoom the map view and write down the X and Y co-ordinates. If you click the support button when in the map screen, you can select your next point of interest by left clicking on the map. Then, when you F9 back to the helo, you can fly straight there by homing in on the TRP cross. This can save you getting lost and wasting time flying in the wrong direction. The X and Y co-ordinates are also shown in the pilot's view on the cockpit display, but these are not accurate enough when positioning units.
The most convenient flyable unit for mission building is platoon 142. This is the single AH-64 as used in the training missions. (Many thanks to WB for pointing this out. It was the first helo I ever flew and I missed it completely. I always flew platoon 17 and then shot down my wingman, just to stop him interfering!)
Remember that the map co-ordinate is the top left corner of the Helo unit icon. The map grid only shows 1km divisions, but a paper strip can easily be made into a ruler with 10 divisions to suit the map size, measured from the screen. If you switch to another zoom setting, then you need to make a second ruler. This is very low tech, but it's simple to make, easy to use and is remarkably accurate.
City areas are fairly easy to work with as are hills and tree clusters. Single tree lines are only visible at extreme magnification and small buildings do not show up at all. Some judgement must be used, and you will rarely get a platoon in the right position first time. Don't despair.
If an area you are working in is likely to become busy, then zoom in and take another screen capture (Alt+P) and print it out. This will allow you to plot X and Y co-ordinates by hand and fine tune your positions without having to fly back to the same spot over and over again. In fact, if a city plays any part in your mission, land in the centre of it and capture and print another map. This can save you lots of time later on.
Monitor Positions
Once the mission is starting to take shape, print off another copy of the text file and launch the mission. You need to monitor the positions of your platoons and note any changes that are needed. Use your flyable Helo platoon and either overfly the area as Pilot , or switch to the Gunner position, climb, hover, press 'I' twice to lose the cockpit clutter and use the zoom controls. This allows you to visually check a large area. Judging distance is tricky, but bear in mind that all vehicles in a platoon will deploy 50 meters apart. Armed with this knowledge, minor re-positioning of units becomes simple. These changes are written (by hand) onto the mission text for editing later. Unfortunately, using the Helo in this manner becomes more difficult as the mission develops because the bad guys will try to shoot you down. Using the arcade setting here allows you to take more hits and gives you more time. Although respawn does let you return without having to re-boot the mission, trying to land under fire in not to be recommended.
The Platoon's Viewpoint
You can also check the position of a platoon by viewing it directly on the screen. Use the F9 key to leave the Helo and then F11/F12 to scroll your view through all the friendly units deployed. "Callsign" 1 is always the platoon command vehicle and will be in the centre of the platoon. The main advantage of this method is that it does allow you to check the field of view from each of the platoon's vehicles. This can be useful, but only if you give a different callsign name to each unit. You may have called the separate platoons Lion 1, Lion 2 and Lion 3, but on-screen, Gunship will refer to them all as Lion and just number the vehicles 1, 2, 3. So if you have three tank platoons all called Lion, you won't know which is which, unless the surrounding terrain is drastically different. It helps a lot if you write the callsign 'name' on the printed text file.
The Eye in the Sky
If you built the mission as Blue, then you also have the option of using UAVs. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles are static, so you have to position them overlooking an area of interest. Use F9 then F11/F12 to switch to the UAV and you have the best view of the map you will ever get. UAVs are very useful in the later stages of mission building as they have the added advantage of never being shot down. They take hits and .....sort of sizzle, but they do stay aloft. I always put up a couple of UAVs, as their zoomable 360 degree field of view allows you to watch the interaction between the two sides over a very wide area. One slight concern is that Red ground units actually treat them as a threat and depending upon their objectives and orders, UAVs placed too close can effect their deployment.
A Man on the Ground
A very accurate method of determining a map position, is to use the 'downed pilot' (also known as the 'Infantry Guide Man'). He can be found in the platoon list under 144. This is a single figure that waves when stationary and will stand on the map at whatever co-ordinates you set. Used in multiples, they can form a fixed grid, to help in tricky situations. For instance, if you deploy nine of these, all on the same Y line, each separated on the X line by 50meters, you have a fixed, accurate 400 meter ruler showing 50 meter divisions. Seen from above via a UAV, this makes it very easy to make precise positional adjustments. I once set up 17 of these making a three sided box, to experiment with unit formations.
By using F12 and scrolling through them, I could draw an accurate line of sight from one side to the other. Vehicles will treat them as obstacles and try to manouvre around them, so don't place them too close. Unfortunately the Red side use them for target practice, so these are only useful if you build as Blue.
Helo Plot
If you need to plot a complex route for a platoon, for instance using valleys and avoiding hill crests, being able to visualise the path is much quicker than using F11 and riding the entire route. When the unit orders are written and all the WPs are plotted, change the platoon number and the callsign to a Helo platoon. Now launch the mission and press N to enter the map screen. Click through the Helo units until the new one appears and you can now view the route on the map as a series of linked WPs. You can now tweak the route until it fits, but don't forget to change it back again.
Duplicate
You will no doubt find that as the mission grows, your presence on the map attracts the attention of the bad guys. This can be a distraction, especially if you need to make major changes to unit positions. The easiest way around this is to make a second copy. Copy the mission header and the parts of the mission you need to change and paste into Notepad. Name it (whatever) and save it to the 'player battles' folder. You can now launch this second copy and make all the tweaks you need, without the rest of the mission getting in the way. When it's finished, copy and paste the changed section back into the original. This is also a very useful way to edit an existing mission.
Comments
When writing the mission, it often helps to keep track, if comments are inserted within the text. these serve as memory aids and are helpful in dividing the text into sections. They can be separate lines or can be notes added to the end of platoon lines. In order to write such a comment, you have to insert characters to tell GS to ignore them. The characters used are 'a forward slash and star', at the beginning and 'a star and forward slash' at the end.
Comments were used by Microprose throughout the campaign missions and most seemed to follow a fixed script. References such as 3a and 1B would suggest that they were drawn from a prepared list. A curious observation is that throughout the campaigns, the Blue side is always referred to as friendly, even in the Russian campaign. The following are examples of comments taken from the GS campaigns and suggest that towards the end the pressure was starting to show.One note of caution. One a couple of occasions I found that after deleting or cutting and pasting a comment line, some of the following units would disappear from the game. The mission file still looked correct and the syntax was OK, but certain units refused to appear. The remedy was to delete the 'invisible' units and retype them. I have absolutely no idea why this occurred, but I now take great care when amending comments.
The Map Screen
When the mission feels ready, run it and monitor the progress from the map screen. Press the N key, sit back and watch (try doing this for both Red and Blue). If you wish, you can return to the mission and use the F11/12 keys to monitor individual units. Running it 'hands off' as a combat simulator is very useful when co-ordinating the timing aspects of the mission. This is the one place where you can follow the entire mission and make sure that the relative movements are correctly orchestrated. The screen will show the relative positions of units and you can return to the text file to make any changes required. You can also use this to achieve the right balance of forces. If the Russian attack gets completely shot to pieces every time, without any involvement from the player, then the mission as it stands wouldn't be much of a challenge for a Blue player. Although you may at this point turn it into a very flyable Red mission. This method will not work with every mission, as an 'Active' mission requires player input in order for things to start happening. See the Combat Simulator section for more.
Final Tweaks
Once the core of the mission is up and running, there will probably be parts of it that don't quite run to the script. Depending on its importance to the mission, part of the action may need to be 'tweaked' to make it work the way you want. There are lots of options here, so choose the one that gives the required result. If a particular attack is halted prematurely, you can add units to the attacking force or reduce the number of defenders. More subtle changes can be made by increasing the skill level of some or all of the the attackers. Similarly the defender's skill level could be reduced, or the platoon type could be changed. Swap the Bradley's for M113s for instance. Any of these can tweak the mission to varying degrees in the direction you want. Try to avoid drastic changes that can upset the whole balance of the mission. Making these changes gradually allows you to fine tune the mission, but do watch out for the occasional freak outcome, where a single lucky shot allows a platoon to survive and go on to completely reverse the result. Weather and time of day can also be used to adjust the outcome. If the attacking force is punished badly at long range, try reducing the visibility.
Like writing a book (or building a website), it's not always easy to tell when it's finished, but there has to come a point when further changes will either overcomplicate or upset the mission balance. As in the real world, Mission Creep is always a danger. Try leaving it alone and come back to it in a week's time. Then play it again and see how it feels. I've grown bored (and too familiar) with a particular mission in the past and ignored it for weeks. Then returned to it and instantly realised what was missing.
When it's finished and ready to share, you generally need to offer some sort of description to go with it. Players will need to know the game settings it was written for and which Gunship.exe file to use. If the mission needs a particular mod, players definitely need to know this before they load it. Some sort of 'read me' file would do the job initially, but would then require a two part zip and it would be separated from the mission file when it was pasted into GS. I played around with the idea of using the first briefing section for this, as that would be readable prior to mission launch and if the mission is already in your 'single mission' list, you may need a reminder.