Episode Release Tutorial

 

A tutorial by The 4-Eyed Avenger

 

After you release your initial mod, it's fairly easy to release follow-on episodes, but you have to know what to include in your "episode" releases to help keep the download sizes manageable. This is how I've been doing things on the mods I'm working with:

You'll need to include the following files and folders for follow-on "episode" releases:

  1. Any new Mission folders, and their contents: C:\Program Files\Irrational Games\YourModName\Missions\NewMissionFolder
  2. Any folders (and sub-folders) containing new skins and/or meshes that you bring into play with the new episode(s). C:\Program Files\Irrational Games\YourModName\Art\library\characters\NewMeshFolder

    OR, if you're adding new skins to existing meshes that you released previously, just include the new skin folder(s): C:\Program Files\Irrational Games\YourModName\Art\library\characters\ExistingMeshFolder\skins\NewSkinFolder

  3. You'll also need to include all your new .dat files, as follows: 
    attributes.dat 
campdef.dat 
characters.dat 
fx.dat 
objects.dat 
powers.dat res.dat
    DO NOT include the "options.dat" in either your original release or any subsequent releases.
  4. You'll also need to include all your new speech files, so make sure you include the Lang directory: C:\Program Files\Irrational Games\Freedom Force\YourModName\Lang\English You'll also need to include any new .mp3 or .wav files in the English directory: C:\Program Files\Irrational Games\Freedom Force\YourModName\Sounds\Speech\English

    We use a naming convention that ties the .mp3 file names for each episode to the mission or episode that they're used with -- this makes it easy to figure out which ones to include (such as "m4reedline1.mp3" for I am assuming Reed is just someone's name and not a hero?Reed's first line in episode/mission 4, for example). Beyond that, you'll need to include ALL the "stock" lines (panic, select, attack, etc.) for ALL the characters that you ADD for the mission that you're releasing.

    If you're including new music for your new mission, you'll also need to grab any files you've added to the "musak" folder as well: C:\Program Files\Irrational Games\Freedom Force\YourModName\Sounds\musak\NewMusicFile

  5. If you add any new effects (like if you introduce Hero X in Episode 4 and add in the " ray gun" effect as well), you'll also need to include any folders that you add to the "FX" directory as well: C:\Program Files\Irrational Games\Freedom Force\YourModName\Art\library\fx\NewEffectFolder
  6. One last thing you MUST remember to include is a new set of saved games. You MUST include new saved missions just in case somebody tries to jump in at Episode 3 and then play through to your newest episode. You'll have to generate a new set of saved missions (just start a new campaign and enter the Mission_Win() command, then exit and save, then repeat for all the missions). After you do this, you'll have to include ALL the folders and sub-folders in your "Missions" directory: C:\Program Files\Irrational Games\Freedom Force\YourModName\Missions
    Make sure to include ALL the sub-folders, and also make sure that you generate new saved games for ALL your previous episodes.
  7. If you follow all the basic rules-of-thumb outlined above, you should be able to easily separate out the files you'll need to generate new episode installers.

    After you figure out what files are needed, just stick them in a set of "dummy" folders somewhere, making sure that the structure from the YourModName folder on down matches the actual install folder paths in your working mod folder. Then use Install Maker, point it to your "dummy" folders as the source, and it will package them all together into one nice, neat installer.

     

    Freedom Force (TM) is a trademark of Irrational Games, LLC.