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Configuration of missions

A mission is a succession of levels, using a number of passengers and a particular taxi. To illustrate what I'm trying to say, you might define several missions, which differ in the sets of passenger-sprites they use (like one with aliens, one with normal human beings, one with your favorite cartoon-characters). More importantly, you can define which levels (see below) the player will have to go through and in which order, so you can easily reuse a level you or somebody else already created for a different mission. Furthermore you may specify a (set of) taxi(es), that will be used throughout the mission.

Most of the parameters to specify are filenames, so be sure to read the appropriate section. Let's have a walk through an example mission:

<!DOCTYPE mission_data >
<document author="Thomas Friedrichsmeier" title="Mission 1" startscreen="mission1_start_screen.png" version="0.9.0">

The "author" and "title"-attributes should be self-explanatory. The values in those attributes are shown in the credits on the start-screen (see below).

The startscreen-attribute specifies an image file that will be used as a sort of welcome screen to your mission. Please make sure, you leave some blank space (preferrably some dark color) on the bottom of this picture, since this is, where the credits will be shown.

The image will not necessarily have to be in png-format, of course. Most common graphics-formats should work.

The version-argument will be used by Taxipilot to determine, whether it can use the mission at all. Enter the version number of the version this mission was designed for (or the lowest version of Taxipilot, you have successfully tested the mission with). If you leave out this parameter, the mission will not show up in the list of available missions.

	<abstract>
Simply enter a short description of the mission here.
	</abstract>

Here you can give a short description of the mission, which will be shown in the mission-selection dialog. Include information such as how many levels there are, etc.

	<initials ships="5" />

This simply specifies, how many ships (lives) the player will start out with.

	<levels>
		<level file="level1.level" />
		<level file="level2.level" />
		<level file="level3.level" />
...
	</levels>

The levels-section simply lists all levels in the oder they are to be played. These are just plain filenames for the level-description-files explained below.

	<passengers>
		<data file="passenger1.passenger" on_start_screen="yes" start_screen_x="55" start_screen_y="420" />
...
	</passengers>

The passenger-section is basically the same, the difference being to the order of specification is irrelevant, since passengers appear in random order (and probably more than once each) during the mission.

The additional parameters specify whether the passenger will appear on the startscreen and - if so - where. Use this to make the startscreen a bit more interesting. If you omit those parameters, the passenger will not appear on the startscreen. Regardless of this setting, the passenger will always show up in the credits, though.

	<taxis fuel_capacity="1000" initial_fuel="800">
		<taxi file="taxi1.taxi" on_start_screen="yes" start_screen_x="55" start_screen_y="55" />
...
	</taxis>

In this section you specify which taxis will be used throughout the mission. Obviously you will need to specify at least one taxi. Further you need to specify, how much fuel will be available to the taxis in this mission. The smaller the "fuel_capacity", the more often the player will have to refuel. The more "initial_fuel", the fuller the tank will be initially. The "start_screen"-related attributes work the same way as for the passenger.

</document>

Passengers are usually selected at random from the list of passengers you supplied. In contrast,
by default, only the first taxi you specified will ever be used throughout the mission. If you
want to control, which passenger(s) and which taxi get used in a particular level, you will first
have to assign your taxis/passengers and id:
	<passengers>
		<data id="passenger_a" file="passenger1.passenger" ... />
		<data id="passenger_b" file="passenger2.passenger" ... />
...
	</passengers>
	<taxis fuel_capacity="1000" initial_fuel="800">
		<taxi id="taxi_a" file="taxi1.taxi" ... />
		<taxi id="taxi_b" file="taxi2.taxi" ... />
...
	</taxis>

Then in the "levels"-section you can specify for each level, which passengers/taxis should be
used:
	<levels>
		<level file="level1.level" taxi="taxi_b" passengers="passenger_a;passenger_b;passenger_c"/>
		<level file="level2.level" />
		<level file="level3.level" passengers="passenger_d;passenger_e" />
...
	</levels>

You can specify for each level, which taxi to use (only a single taxi may be used in a level).
If you omit the "taxi"-attribute, the default (first defined) taxi will be used in that level.
The "passengers"-attribute allows you to give a ";"-separated list of passengers which might
appear in the level. If you omit the "passengers"-attribute, all available passengers will be
used in that level.
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Last modified: Apr 03 2005 17:50 (GMT)