XEd Tutorial

Part I: Quickstart
Create your first simple multiplayer mission

To create your first map, start XEd. Double-click the XEd icon on your desktop. The splash
screen will appear. When the Welcome to XEd! dialog has loaded, select the type of Landscape
type you would like to use, under “New Mission” at the bottom. Pick “Desert”, and click “New”.

When the map has loaded, the sky will look odd. On the Commands drop-down menu, click
Select Environment. Environments are connected to the terrain type and desert only has two -
one morning and evening. Select “Morning” and click OK.

You should know how to move around. Holding down the right mouse button will allow you to
push and pull your way around the map, or W, A, S and D can also be used. Holding down the
ALT key will slow this movement by a factor of 10. Holding the right mouse button and the CTRL
key lets you look around in the world, while rolling the mouse wheel will raise and lower the
camera – this motion, too, can be slowed by holding down the ALT key as well.

We need to raise the whole terrain above water level. The easiest way to do this is Floodfill,
available under Commands. Water level is just below 19.5 meters, so type in 25 and click OK to
raise the ground above this.

Now that we have flat terrain, let us focus on the terrain

tools and brushes. Bring up the world brush options panel.
These values are used to control how world brushes
function. Now select the WorldPaintToHeightTool. Using this tool,
terrain can be raised to the Target Height if the terrain is lower, or
lowered if it is higher. The tool is useful to flatten large areas to the same
height, or to create several hills or mountains of the same average
height. Experiment with different brushes, pressures and target heights
to get the terrain you want.

It is often useful to detect and re-use a certain height already

present in the landscape, using WorldSetHeightTool. Clicking
the ground with this tool will set the current Target Height to the
height underneath the mouse cursor. This tool is essential when expanding a plateau, or when
eroding mountains down to the surrounding lowlands.
 You will not always want to paint towards a set height. The WorldPlusMinusTool can
both raise and lower terrain relative to where you paint. Instead of using pressure, this
brush tool relies on the “Step” value in the options panel. Just holding down the left
mouse button will raise the terrain in the shape of your brush, while holding down the SHIFT key
along with the mouse button will lower it instead.

It is also possible to import heightmaps into XEd. Click File->Import Heightmap and browse to
the file to be imported. The files should be a 513 by 513 pixel grayscale Truevision Targa (.TGA)
file.

Once you have created a terrain

you are satisfied with it is time to
make the map playable. Find and
press the MissionStats button. This will
bring up a Juice Editor for the map
settings. Here you can change the
amount of AP given to all players at the
start of the game, the defeat conditions for
the mission, what units to not allow on the
map and a lot of other things. Double-click
on myMissionType and set it to MULTIPLAYER. Then change myAllowNoPresenceDefeat to
TRUE. Once exported, this map will now be sorted as a Multiplayer mission, and the last
remaining player with units or Landing Zones will win. Also fill out a name and a loading screen
text for the mission.

Expand myPlayers and go through all eight players available on the map to make sure that both
TEAM_1 and TEAM_2 are listed, but no other team. Players may still change their team in the
lobby, but if a team is listed among the players in MissionStats, players will also be able to
choose that team in the lobby - even if that team has no landing zone. Now close the
MissionStats window.

Click ViewInstancesDialog to make the panel

visible on your screen, and look at it. The
InstancePlaceTool. The right tree lists all placed
instances, including areas and camera positions. The
checkboxes determine what objects should be visible in
the world. Selecting an instance type on the left hand side
will allow you to create instances of that type in the world.
Double-clicking items in the right tree will allow you to edit existing instances. Now, expand the
Things branch and then the GlobalPropTypes branch. Find the type LZ_thing and select it.

Select the InstancePlaceTool. Now find two reasonably flat areas on your map where
you want dropships to land. Using the InstancePlaceTool, click on the ground where you
want the LZ_thing. This flat white marker is a thing; an object that has no collision, but
which can be animated. When used to mark a Landing Zone, the marker will change color to
reflect whether the zone is neutral, friendly or hostile.
Notice that when you placed the LZ_thing, a new item appeared on the Instances list, under the
Things branch. Expand this branch to see the name of the new Thing, which is most likely
LZ_thing__1. Change this name by selecting it and clicking the Rename button at the bottom of
the Instances panel. Do this now, and set the new name to LZ_1_thing.
 Click the AreaPlaceTool. It works a little differently
from the InstancePlaceTool in that it only places
Areas, and these require a radius. Therefore, when
you select this tool and click on the ground, hold down your
mouse button in order to also set the radius of the area before
releasing the button to create the area in the place and size
you wanted.
If you make a mistake, you can Undo the area, or use the InstanceEditTool. Clicking on
an instance with this tool will select it – surrounding it with a green translucent sphere.
Select the area you placed. Now hold down the CTRL key, click and drag the mouse.
Normally this would rotate the instance, but because Areas are round, it instead allows you to
change their size. Holding down ALT instead will allow you to move the instance to another
position. When you are done, find the new Area in the Instances list and change its name to
LZ_1_area.

The Landing Zone area and marker is where dropships

land, but where do they come from? The BasePosition is
also an Area and it needs to be placed quite a distance
away from the Landing Zone. In Ground Control II: Operation Exodus, landing
zones lay between 750 and 1000 meters from their base position, and most
importantly, 500 meters outside the PlayField. Red lines cross the visual
th
battlefield where the PlayField ends, and it can be changed by pressing the 5
button on the first row, PlayFieldCoords (shortcut 3). Do not do that now, but
place a second Area instance somewhere outside of the red line. If you want to check the
nd
distance between them, the RulerTool (shortcut TAB) is the 2 last icon on the second row. If
you place too many areas, use the Delete key on your keyboard, or press the
InstanceDeleteTool (shortcut T) to remove the selected instance. Rename this area LZ_1_base.

The last item that needs to be

placed in the world is a camera
to watch over the Landing
Zone. This is the point of view that a
player will return to if the W key is
pressed while in the game. Placing cameras is fairly easy: Find a good view in XEd, preferably
one with good overview of the landing zone, and press the AddCameraPosition (shortcut F12)
button. You will not see the camera from that perspective, because your view is currently inside of
it, but if you move your view, the camera will appear as a small, blue blob in mid-air. To change
the camera, move your view to a new position, select the camera in the Instaces list on the
Instances panel and click the button “Set current camerainstance to this” on the right side of the
list. When you are done, change the name of the camera to LZ_1_cam.

Before we start scripting, it is a good time to review the names we have

chosen for the items related to the Landing Zone we are about to create. In
the Instances panel, find the top right area named Text Labels and activate
the ones relevant: Areas, Things and Cameras. This will make the
instance names visible in the world, which can be helpful or confusing,
depending on the amount of visible instances.

You now have all the components necessary to create a landing zone. Use
ViewScriptsDialog to make the script panel visible. In the upper left is a list of all existing
scripts. As you can see, START is the only script listed, and it is empty. When you have
closed that window, click the New button in the Script window to create a new script named
ZONES.
Select the START script again. Under Available Commands,
please find TRIGGER_AllPlayersReady and double-click it.
Change myTriggeredScript (the only option) to ZONES. This
means that once the trigger activates, it will start the ZONES
script, and the commands within it will run. In our case, that
means the Landing Zones are created once all players are
reported ready. Now find the
WEATHER_ChangeWeatherEffect command, and double-click
it. When the options for this command shows up, select one of
the Default_Cloud weathers, as this will add a cloud cover and
fog border to your map.

Select the ZONES script. In the list of Available

Commands, find TEAM_AddZone and double-click
it. These are the attributes relating to Zones. First fill
in the objects we placed in the world: set
myZoneMarker to LZ_1_thing, myArea to
LZ_1_area, myBasePosition to LZ_1_base and set
myCamera to LZ_1_cam. Change myStartingTeam to TEAM_1, then change myIsLandableFlag
to TRUE and finally change the myMinimapIconFile to point to the file ui/skins/lz.dds rather than
vl.dds. Leave all other values for now. Once you press close, you can now see the new
TEAM_AddZone command listed on the top right hand list when the ZONES script is selected.
Use the right-hand Rename button to the name of the landing zone to LZ_1.

Now do it all one more time to create a second landing zone.

This time, name all components something with LZ_2, and tie them all together with a
TEAM_AddZone command with myStartingTeam set to TEAM_2. Rename this new zone LZ_2.
Once you have done this, all components of the map are in place. Click save to name your map
and save it. Once it is saved, press the Export button, if you can. Sometimes, it becomes
disabled and you will need to move the camera or something in the world for it to realize that the
map has been “changed”. Wait for the export to be completed, and when it is done you will have
a brand new SDF file in your Custom_maps directory – your very first exported and compressed
map for Ground Control 2.