Targetware: Scenario Development

Scenario Designer User's Guide

Map Features

The interactive map on the right side of the main screen is the heart of the Scenario Designer. It can present a great deal of information in an easy-to-understand format:

• Enemy and Friendly air unit start locations
• Home bases, with safe landing radii, of each air unit
• Way points for air units
• The locations of each mission in the scenario, with disengagement ranges diagrammed
• The exact location and orientation of every building, gun, vehicle, ship, and scenery object, accurate to 10 cm.
• Location of all relevant airfields and other points of interest, on a per team basis

Colors: Enemy, Friendly, and Current

Objects on the map are drawn in three different colors, to provide feedback on which objects are owned by the enemy, which are friendly, and which (friendly) objects are currently being edited. By default, Enemy items are drawn in red, Friendly items in blue, and the currently selected items are in yellow. Different colors can be chosen through the Preferences menu item, but icons will not change color.

Friendly/Enemy status is determined by which team is currently being edited. For example, if you have a scenario with three teams, and you are working on Team 2 currently, then all items owned by Team 1 and Team 3 will be drawn as Enemy objects, while Team 2 items will be drawn as Friendly objects. The "current" object is the one being edited currently in the left panel. If Team 1 had three air units, and you were editing Unit 1, it would be yellow, Units 2 and 3 would be blue, and any air units owned by Teams 2 and 3 would be red.

Map Control Modes: Navigate, Import, Zoom, and Measure

The map panel has four modes of operation: Navigate, Import, Zoom, and Measure. You can change mode by clicking on the Map Mode Buttons at upper right, or by using the keyboard shortcut for the Map Mode you want: CNTL-1 for Navigate, CNTL-2 for Import, CNTL-3 for Zoom, CNTL-4 for Measure (Mac: CMD-1, CMD-2, CMD-3, CMD-4).

In Navigate Mode, clicking and dragging on the map with the mouse will let you pull the map around the screen, to get to the area you want displayed. In Zoom Mode, clicking on the map will center the map display on the location you clicked on, and zoom in on notch. If you hold down the Alt (Option on Mac) key while clicking in Zoom Mode, it will still center on the mouse click, but the display will zoom out.

Import Mode allows you to retrieve exact locations and headings from the map for specific settings on the left hand data panel. For example, say you wanted to place anti-aircraft guns in an arc near the end of a runway. You could try entering in locations by hand on the left. But the easiest way to do it is to click once into the Location field for the AA gun, on the left panel, make sure you are in Import Mode, and click on the map. The location of whatever spot you clicked on will be transferred to the left panel. You can also click and drag, the icon for the AA gun will move as you move the mouse. You can use this method to set viewpoints, mission locations, target locations, air unit locations, and air unit home bases. You can also set headings for viewpoints, targets, and air units using Import Mode. Click once on a heading field at left, then click and drag on the map. The map will calculate the heading from the object (or viewpoint) to the mouse pointer, and transfer that heading to the left panel. It's that easy! And if you are in Actual Size Target display mode, you will be able to visually confirm the heading of targets using this method.

Measure Mode will let you measure the distance, in kilometers, between any two points on the map. To use it, simply click on the point you want to measure from, and drag to the point you want to measure to. The "DISTANCE" readout above the map display will give an exact readout in kilometers.

Stand Alone Zoom Controls

Even when you are not in Zoom Mode, the map can be zoomed in or out. The stand alone zoom controls are located under the Map Mode Buttons, on the upper right of the map area. The degree to which the map is currently zoomed is given as a percentage of the map's original resolution. Clicking on the "+" or "-" key will zoom the display in or out.

Mission Locations and Engagement Ranges

Every team on a scenario has one or more missions. For each of those missions, a different location and disengagement distance must be defined. The engagement area is a circular area radiating out from the mission location; once airplanes leave that area, they are liable to disengage automatically if no enemy planes are in the vicinity. The Scenario Designer helps you visualize mission location and engagement areas by drawing them on the map.

Map Types: Terrain, Area, and Field

The Scenario Designer is capable of displaying three types of maps: Terrain, Area, and Field. You can switch between map displays by choosing "Select Map" from the Tools menu, or by using the keyboard shortcut CONTROL-M (CMD-M on Macs). A window will open with a list of available maps. Maps are segregated by type, and can be sorted by name, type, and location:

A terrain map shows the entire terrain used by the mod. When you load a scenario, the Scenario Designer will display the terrain map, and center the map on the location of Team 1's first mission. Terrain maps give a an overview of the entire scenario. For example, a terrain map may be the only way to see where a unit's home base is for scenarios that involve long distances. A terrain map is limited in its ability to show you precise details of the coastline, rivers, roads, and other terrain features. Terrain maps generally have a resolution not greater than 250 meters.

Field maps, on the other hand, are ideal for doing the detail work of arranging buildings, guns, vehicles, etc., on the terrain. A field map typically shows nothing more than 1-4 square kilometers, with a resolution of 1 to 5 meters. Incidentally, "field" maps do not have to just be for fields. They could be for towns, villages, etc.: anything that requires precision placement work.

Area maps fall between Terrain and Field maps in terms of scope and resolution. They are designed to give the scenario engineer some idea of the terrain and coastline, while still providing some degree of "big picture" perspective.

Hiding and Showing Map Objects

The row of icons across the top left side of the map area control exactly which items are displayed on the map:

Clicking on one of the Show/Hide toggle buttons will either enable or disable the display of the category selected. By default, all categories are enabled. For example, if you clicked on the tank icon, no targets falling into the "vehicle" category would be displayed on the map. The Friendly and Enemy categories affect all display classes, so turning off the display of Friendly objects would result in all friendly air units, vehicles, ships, guns, locations, etc., disappearing from the map display.

Template Map View vs In-Game Map View

The Scenario Designer is capable of displaying two types of maps for fields and areas: "Template" maps and "In-Game" maps. In-Game maps are very close to what you will actually see in the game, and generally use the same texture that is used in the game. Template style maps, if available, are provided for the benefit of scenario engineers, to help them better place buildings, guns, and other target objects onto the terrain. Typically, a template map will be made from a drawing, or an intelligence photo, and will show the location of various structures and facilities.

If both styles of maps are available for the location you are viewing, you can toggle between In-Game and Template modes by clicking on the green icon to the right of the Show/Hide icon row:

Target Display Mode: Icons vs Actual Size

All airplane units and locations (fields, cities, towns, villages, points of interest) are draw as icons, with red icons denoting Enemy-owned objects, and blue icons denoting Friendly objects. Ground and sea targets can also be drawn as icons, but there is an addition drawing mode available: Actual Size Mode. In this mode, targets are drawn with the following characteristics:

• Drawn as a colored rectangle, either red or blue.
• Rectangle is sized to the actual physical size of the object, as defined in the game files.
• Rectangle is rotated to the actual heading of the object.
• If a target has a count greater than 1, each object in the target group is shown, in formation.
• The Target will not be drawn if its size at the current map zoom scale would be less than 1 pixel in width.

Actual Size Mode is primarily designed to help scenario engineers place objects onto the terrain in the exact locations and orientations desired. Icon Mode presents a simpler, cleaner tactical display in which all targets are shown, regardless of the scale of the map and the size of the target:

To switch between the two modes, click the button to the right of the Template/In-Game Map View Mode button. The colors used in Actual Size Mode can be adjusted in Preferences.