How Do You Change Mission Objectives?

[Omelethead]

Hi all. I love the Rock Raiders game, and was surprised to find such a large modding community for it. I'm new to modding, and so far, I've only done a few easy RR mods, things like disabling spiders, making friendly bats, changing the default name of my Rock Raiders, that sort of thing. But I was wondering if it was possible (and preferably easy-ish) to change mission objectives. Instead of missions ending when your Energy Crystal quota is filled, I'd like them to end when I teleport in a hoverscout. Why? Because I want to keep playing some missions, without watching my Energy Crystals and getting vehicles and buildings to keep my supply under the Mission-ending limit.

I figured a hoverscout was the perfect alternative. I never use them, so I won't ever accidentally win. But they are easy enough to get, so I don't think any missions would become unwinnable, which could happen if, for example, the Rapid Rider was used as the Alternative Mission Objective on a map without water. There might be conflicts with Levels like Run the Gauntlet, since you start out with a hoverscout, or Search and Rescue, where you find the lost Raider's hoverscout. I don't know if the game would end right away, or if you could set it to require actually teleporting in a hoverscout, not just finding one.

I've looked over the cfg file, looking at the different levels. I thought Path To Power would be a good example, since building a Power Station ends the Mission, and Energy Crystals are irrelevant. I see that the Rewards sections for most levels have quotas on Crystals, Constructions, and Caverns. But I can't begin to guess what kind of changes I need to make.

So yeah. Basically, I'm looking to make a sandbox mode with a definite ending.

[Amauros]

In order to change the mission objectives, you have rewrite the scripts and compile them. The quotas in the cfg are for the rewards screen and determining your score after finishing a level.

You'll need the npl compiler, and learn to write your own scripts.... in each level folder there are nrn and nrM files. Those are script source files which you can look at and study, but you'll need to compile them into .npl if you want to use them.

[Addictgamer]

It is perfectly possible to make an objective of what you said.

I suggest you read: http://www.rockraidersunited.org/index.php?/topic/1210-howto-goal-scripting-using-oguns-npl-tool/

http://www.rockraidersunited.org/index.php?/topic/1757-write-a-crystal-collection-script/

and

This might not be the order you should learn them in, I don't know. But whatever.

Reading these should give you a good idea on where and how to start writing your own mission objectives.

[Cyrem]

If you simply want to continue playing a level, you can turn objectives off without having to modify the NPL files. You can do this through debug keys with F12.

[Omelethead]

Thanks for the debug keys. That was what I was looking for. I had skimmed through them, but I thought once the mission objectives were off, they couldn't be turned back on. I wanted to finish the level easily, without quitting and failing .

Thanks for the replies everyone. Too bad I'm not even close to that level of modding skills yet.