Custom missions

You can use the modding tools to create your own custom missions and send them to other people. You can only use the predefined blocks from UFO: Aftermath but you can connect them any way you like and you can add together blocks that were never meant to be added.

It is not possible to create a custom outdoor mission.

Creating missions

How to go about creating your own custom mission:

  1. If you haven't done so yet, unpack the blocks from the gamedata.vfs file. You don't have to convert blocks from binary to text format. You can run the batch file unpack_blocks.bat you will find alongside UFOvfs program to unpack all required files.
  2. Create sub-directory Missions under your game directory.
  3. Run the viewer tool and insert blocks and arrange them as desired. See documentation for the Viewer about this.
  4. Mark human and enemy entry points.
  5. Save the scene as mission and select enemy squad in the pop-up dialog, the mission must be saved into the "missions" directory.
  6. Run UFO: Aftermath.
  7. In strategic view press Ctrl+` (option cheats must be on) and type CUSTOMMISSION.
  8. In the dialog that opens select the desired mission and click "Run selected custom mission".

If you feel like it you can edit the mission file manually. It's structure is as follows:

#!TXT#MISSION#
MISSION
  SCENE "noname scene"
    ...                              
//description of scene
  END_OF_SCENE

  SCENE_LIGHT_PROFILE "noon"         
//can be noon, dawn, dusk or night
  HUMAN_POSITION_LIST                
//these are the starting squares for player's squad
    POS 33 18                        
//there should be at least seven entries. The numbers are x and y coordinates
    ...
  END_OF_HUMAN_POSITION_LIST
  ALIEN_POSITION_LIST                
//these are starting squares for the enemies
    POS 1 36                         
//the numbers are x and y coordinates
    …
  END_OF_ALIEN_POSITION_LIST
//the following entry defines the enemy squad that will be used in the mission. If ALIEN_SQUAD is used, the string must point into ListOfEnemy.txt file and the matching team will be chosen. If ALIEN_SQUAD is omitted, ALIEN_STRENGTH and ALIEN_TYPE must be present and the team will be selected by them. If no key is present or if there is no matching key, the tutorial team will be used.
  ALIEN_SQUAD "string"               
//points into ListOfEnemy, key TEAM
  ALIEN_STRENGTH i                   
//can be 0 to 5. Corresponds to key STRENGTH in ListOfEnemy.txt 
  ALIEN_TYPE c                       
//ca be M, B, I, O, R, P or Q.  - Corresponds to key TYPE in ListOfEnemy.txt  
END_OF_MISSION


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