X-ED:
New Life for X-WingŪ
The Tactical Officer's review of
Troy Dangerfield's X-WingŪ Mission and Briefing Editor
Contributed by Scott (A'Kula) Schimmels,
Kalidor 3 (TacO) for Kalidor
Squadron
Published 8/28/99
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The original X-WingŪ space combat simulator has been around since 1993, although with revamped graphics in the collector series published in 1998. The game engine is somewhat stilted by the limited number of ships that can be flown at any one time, and the types of ships available for use in any one mission. But as I've mentioned before, the intriguing aspect of X-WingŪ has always been its storyline from a single-player perspective. While you may not be able to enter into a melee with other players on-line in X-Wing, you can find ways of adding hours of enjoyment, and new "legs" to the game. How you may ask? Simple. Use the best X-WingŪ mission editor available anywhere: Troy Dangerfield's X-WingŪ mission editor, known as X-ED.
Troy set about in 1997 in creating a Windows 95 application capable of editing and creating new missions for X-WingŪ vs TIE FighterŪ. Through a series of beta applications, he created the best and most widely used editor, known as XvTED (which I will discuss in my next article). The premier X-WingŪ editor at the time was X-WingŪ Mission Builder (XMB) by Neal Westfall, a DOS-based application. When I first took over my job as Tactical Officer, I became intimately familiar with Neal's XMB program. After viewing XvTED's interface and design (I think it was XvTED v8.0b at the time), I sent an e-mail to Troy, asking if he could create a similar interface for X-WingŪ. Two weeks, later, I had X-ED v1.0b in my hands for evaluation. Many of the map and briefing features in XvTED are incorporated into X-ED and the two editors' followed parallel path's of development. Both are in now in their final forms and can be found on Troy's website for downloading (or go to Sim Center on the Black Hawk).
After you've downloaded the application, you must unzip the
file and create a directory from which you'll run X-ED. For me, I simply created a folder
in my XWING95 directory, called XED, and extracted the files from the zip file into the
new directory. I then opened up that directory and clicked on the little XED icon (
). The
program opened up immediately and recognized it had no .ini file established. I was asked
to provide preferences for the file locations, including where X-WingŪ and X-ED were
running from.
Establishing file locations for X-ED
You can also specify how X-ED opens up and the initial settings for the map editor.
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| Initial options for X-ED |
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| Establishing map editor settings |
Once you've established X-ED's initial settings, you're presented with the interface shown below.
X-ED Interface (new mission)
Now that you have X-ED installed, and running, it's time to create a mission. I'll cover the basics of how to create an X-WingŪ mission in X-ED on the next page. First though, a quick overview.
X-WingŪ Files:
Each X-WingŪ mission set contains two files with the same name, but different extensions.
- .xwi files contain the mission information such as flight groups, objects, and various mission-oriented parameters
- .brf files contain all information pertaining to the briefing. This includes the animation sequence and any text pages.
Flight groups and objects form the core of the mission and are edited in the FG page of X-ED.
Flights groups (FGs) are those craft (including containers) appearing in the mission. Due to X-WingŪ's dated game engine, you are limited to 16 FGs per mission. At least one of these FGs must have a critical objective that must be completed in order to win the mission. FGs include: X-Wing, Y-Wing, A-Wing, TIE Fighter, TIE Interceptor, TIE Bomber, Gunboat, Transport, Shuttle, Tug, Container, Freighter, Calamari Cruiser, Nebulon B Frigate, Corellian Corvette, Imperial Star Destroyer, TIE Advanced, and the B-Wing.
Objects are not included in FGs as in XvT, but have a different data structure (hence a different interface than the FG for XW). Objects include: Mines, Satellites, Nav Bouys, Probes, Asteroids, Planet images, and the Death Star image. Objects may have a critical objective of being destroyed in order to win the mission.
Mission Configuration Page
Mission Page:
Parameters found on the "Mission" page relate to the overall mission:
These are the text messages that will be displayed when the player completes the mission objectives.
This is the amount of time the player has to complete the mission objectives before failing the mission. If set to zero, there is no time limit.
Determines whether the mission is played in open space or above the Death Star surface.
These options change depending on the Mission Location. The first two options select whether a pilot is rescued or captured if they eject, unless it is a Death Star mission, when the second option is a mission objective to Clear Laser Towers.
The last option is also for Death Star missions to set a mission objective to Hit Exhaust Port. (The numbered options are unknowns and have never been used in official missions.)
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| X-ED Map Page - X/Y Plane |
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| X-ED Map Page - X/Z Plane |
Flight Group (FG) Map Page:
The FG Map is where you can view the FG placement in the mission, as well as view their flight paths as a line joining all waypoints (WPs). FGs are shown as either icons (Fighters, Transports, Shuttles, Objects) or as wire-meshes (Corvettes, Frigates, Star Destroyers and Calamari Cruisers). You can also edit all WP placements by dragging them around with the mouse, as well as adding and deleting whole FGs. There are a lot of options in Preferences to control the way the Map functions.
Parameters found on the "Map" page relate to the overall mission:
These show the map from a single two-dimensional (2D) plane. Allows the mission creator to view the mission from X-Y, X-Z, and Y-Z planes to determine placement of FGs, Objects and WPs.
This allows the mission creator to turn off all WPs, view WPs for the current FG, and view all WPs. Once WPs are turned on, the mission creator can alter any of the WPs by simple "click-and-drag" with the mouse.
Turn FG names on and off, show only current FG, lock x-y coordinates for current FG.
Center the map on (0,0) or on the current FG. Turn on or turn off FG list, team palette and options subwindows.
This allows the mission creator to designate the current FG. Position coordinates of current FG for given 2D view is given below current FG designator window.
This allows the mission creator to designate what types of FGs are shown (by IFF): Rebel, Imperial, Neutral or Object.
These include return to Main Editor button, Zoom buttons and slide, and FG Map view configuration buttons.
