Unit Administration

Contains documents relating to the administration of the unit. This includes but is not limited to mission making and zeusing.

Mission Making

Contains documents related to mission making processes.

Mission Making

Mission File Map Transfer

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Transferring mission file data to new maps

For dummies

 

By Anthrax

 


 

Table of Contents

 

What you will need 

Step 1: Grabbing a mission file 

Step 2: Creating a replica mission file 

Step 3: Transferring everything to a new map. 

Step 4. Tweaking various settings 


What you will need

  1. A copy of Arma 3 (Naturally).
  2. A program that can open and/or unpack .pbo files. One such program is PBOManager, which the author of this article personally uses, however be aware that there are alternatives out there.
  3. Knowledge of how to use the editor.

PBOManager link: http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=16369

Please note that all relevant examples in this guide will be using PBOManager.

Mods like 3Den Enhanced are recommended as they enhance the eden editor experience. 3Den Enhanced is already present in our modpack.

 


 

 

Step 1: Grabbing a mission file

In order to transfer any data over, we need to have a mission file in the first place. The method of doing this depends on you having played a normal CJTF Mission recently. 

  1. Open “Run” via WINDOWS+R or by opening the start menu and searching for “Run”. 1.PNG
  2. Type in “%Appdata%” and press OK.                                            2.PNG
  3. On the navigation bar, select “AppData” to go back once.            3.PNG
  4. Open “Local”.                                                                                                                                                                                           4.PNG
  5. Navigate and open the “Arma 3” file.

    (Note, sorting by alphabetical order may help if you cannot find it easily)                                                                                       5.PNG

  6. Find and open the “MPMissionsCache”, this is where the game stores mission files so you don’t have to download them every single time you go to play them online.                                                                                                                                   6.PNG
  7. Locate and find a .pbo with the name of a mission you’ve recently played, in this case it’s “Everon.eden” but be aware depending on what missions you’ve played, the list of available CJTF .pbo’s WILL be different. When in doubt, ask the mission's author for the name of the .pbo. As of 16/04/2020 all official mission files SHOULD be named in the following fashion "OperationName_Date_Map_Version.map.pbo".                                                                                                               7.PNG
  8. Open the .pbo and copy its contents, alternatively copy the .pbo itself. You can either copy its contents into a different file, or leave it in your clipboard.                                                                                                                                                         8.PNG

Another thing you can do is just leave your pbo unpacking/opening program open until you’ve completed Step 2.


Step 2: Creating a replica mission file

We need to create an exact copy of the mission file so that we can take its contents (such as arsenals, units etc) to be transferred into your new map.

Due to the limitations of the Arma editor, we can’t just manually create a file and chuck the contents in, rather we have to actually go into the editor, save a mission file on the exact same map as the .pbo you grabbed and copy its contents in. 

Note, these examples will be using the Everon map as that’s the map of the .pbo grabbed in the last step. Naturally in your case it may be a different map you will need to open.

  1. Open Arma 3 with the CJTF modlist, access the Eden editor on the same map as the .pbo you copied, and “Save As” to create a new mission file.
    9.PNG
    (Be Aware that any non-modlist addons may create undesirable dependencies, ensure that your modlist is purely whatever happens to be necessary for all the official CJTF addons to function as well as said CJTF addons themselves. Mods such as Blastcore should be disabled prior to creating the mission.)

  2. Assuming you’ve gone ahead and named the mission file and whatnot, find the “Open scenario folder” in the Scenario top bar menu that you opened to save the file.  

    10.PNG
  3. You should see your file explorer open and be confronted with a mission.sqm file in your missions folder. Copy all the data from the original .pbo and overwrite the mission.sqm. 12.PNG13.PNG
  4. Congratulations, you’ve just created a replica file. As soon as possible try and reload the scenario by going to the scenario menu and loading your replica mission file. 14.PNG

Step 3: Transferring everything to a new map.

In this step, we will be copying all the contents of this .pbo to a new map. 

  1. Press CTRL+A to select everything, then press CTRL+C to copy everything.15.PNG
  2. Create a new mission file on your desired map (in our case, Utes) by going to SCENARIO > New > Desired Map16.PNG
  3. With your new map open, press CTRL+V to paste everything, you will need to manually put stuff into your desired positions however, such as the units and modules.17.PNG
  4. Go to Scenario > Save AS and save your new mission file. Make sure that the file has an appropriate name. 18.PNG                              (Note: Name is for demonstration purposes, it is in no way an “Appropriate” name. In addition file binarization is up to you, but as long as you’re using the right mods you should binarize it.)
  5. Go to Scenario > Open Scenario Folder to open the mission file itself.
  6. From here you can either navigate to your replica mission file, or open a copy of the file explorer so you can have both the new mission file open, and the replica file.19.PNG

  7. Copy All data in the replica mission file EXCEPT the “Mission.sqm” to your new mission file. Feel free to delete the replica file if you want to.           

    20.PNG

Congratulations, you’ve transferred everything from units, to arsenals, to the various scripts the missions run to a new map.


Step 4. Tweaking various settings

We need to tweak various settings of the new mission file to ensure it not only works in MP, but is consistent with other CJTF files.

  1. In attributes, find the multiplayer settings                                                                                21.PNG
  2. Set respawn to “custom position”22.PNG                              Set the respawn delay to any value that isn't zero, even 1 second is sufficient.
  3. Ensure the following settings are ticked in “rulesets” 23.PNG
  4. Ensure the vanilla “revive” settings are turned off. CJTF uses Ace Medical and addon settings are determined by the server. Having vanilla revive settings active would conflict with Ace Medical. 24.PNG
  5. To change the name and author of the mission file when people load into the game, find your mission file’s Description.Ext file and open it up with your text editor of choice, for this example i will be using Sublime Text 3.25.PNG

From here on out, it is now up to you what to do with the mission file, as in it is now your responsibility to ensure that everything is in the right place, that everything is tested, and that the mission itself is enjoyable. Don’t hesitate to contact staff or those with experience with any questions that you may have.