Now we have the editor set up just the way we want it. It's time to get our hands dirty. Zoom your way around the map and get a feel for all the capture points and layout of the level. You'll notice all the CP's (Capture Points), Vehicles and Spawn points. Your goal may be to design a new layout from scratch with completely new CP's etc or use an existing one. The quickest method to do this is to grab a stock Dice gameplay layout and move it around to your liking. Now for a quick tour of the BF2 level editor tool bar. You will be using these tools constantly.

PAGE 2 - GAMEPLAY OBJECTS
Select tool. Does it exactly what is says
Move tool. Use this to select objects and move them in up/down, left/right, back/forward
Rotate tool. To rotate any object for its desired placement
Combat Area Tool - This tool defines the area of play

This page deals with creating your game areas from scratch. If you want to just use an existing Dice layout then skip to the bottom of this page to the heading Strategic Areas and the Single Player Editor. You can easily move any of Dice's original layout to anywhere on the map using the move tool.

How to add a new Capture Point from scratch

  • Find a suitable area of terrain for your CP. Preferably somewhere that has some small amount of cover and somewhere that can accommodate spawn points that are not in a "line of sight" situation with the flag pole. Look at the Dice CP's and spawn points to see what I mean. It adds more intensity to the struggle if the spawn point is a little bit away from the flag and around a corner.
  • Make sure the 'Select Tool' or 'Move tool' is selected (You cannot place items when the rotate tool is selected) and right click on the spot you want the CP to be. From the pop-up context Menu choose 'Create ControlPoint' .Name your new CP. Try and make the name something location specific that makes sense.


Click to Enlarge
Now in the tweaker bar we have to set up the proper values for the game. We need to add values to two things specifically. The flag capture radius - between 10 and 15 is normal, but size it based on your terrain and surrounding objects. You can tell its radius visually by the blue circle surrounding the CP. Now the value to each team. This is how much the ai 'wants' the get to that flag. The average here in most maps is about 34 for each team. Team 2 always refers to the U.S. and Team 1 always refers to the opponent - either MEC or China. If you were to say, put in a higher value for the Mec and a lower value for the U.S. then the MEC would work harder to get and keep that flag than the U.S. would.
  • If you want to make the base uncappable, checkmark the 'UnableToChangeTeam' box
  • If you want the game to start with this flag as neutral, set the team value to 0. Change it to '1' for the flag to start as Chinese/Mec or '2' for the U.S.
Spawn points


Click to Enlarge

Now you will need some spawn points around. With the flag point itself still selected, find a suitable spot and right click again on the terrain, choose 'Create SpawnPoint [cp name] ' it will automatically name it based on the Capture point's label so press okay. If you need to move it, select it with the move tool and drag it to a better spot. It should have a bright yellow line connecting it to the CP.

  • We have to keep the bot navmesh in mind here. If you place a spawn point outside the mesh, the bot will spawn and instantly die. So go to the 'Render' menu - 'ai' - 'toggle infantry navmesh'. Make sure your spawn point is sitting on the big green sexy blob.
  • Now place 2 or three more spawn points around the place in good locations.
Spawn point ON the navmesh = GOOD
  

NOTE: You can tweak spawn points for bots. For instance, in some cases it is better to spawn a bot directly into a vehicle for certain types of gameplay. (especially on the aircraft carrier decks.) Make sure the spawn point is directly next to the vehicle and then checkmark the 'AiEnterOnSpawn' box in the tweaker bar and also the 'OnlyForAi' box. You can also make spawn points "human" only by selecting the 'OnlyForHuman'
Spawn Point OFF the navmesh = BAD
 

Object Spawners

Object spawner is a fancy name for vehicles and commander assets.

  • Make sure the CP is selected and right click on the area you want to spawn a vehicle and select 'Create ObjectSpawner'. A list of object spawners will appear. (see pic to the left)
  • The top half is China/US vehicles and the bottom half are MEC/US vehicles. Whoever controls the flag determines which army's vehicle will spawn there. Select a vehicle you want to spawn at that flag. (see below I chose the CH_US_APC.) Once again, make sure it is on the Vehicle navmesh ('render' menu - 'ai' - 'toggle vehicle navmesh')
  • Create an object spawner for the UAV trailer, Arty and the Mobile Radar if this is to be the main base. You can move all of your objects about with the 'move tool' until you're happy with their placement.
.............Object Spawner selection menu

Side Note:

You will notice that objects don't interact well with anything that is not terrain. Eg. the aircraft carrier -> if you place a spawn point or object on the deck it will go straight to the sea floor. Same with buildings or roof tops. You can turn on "snap to object" in the 'Snap' menu. (Thanks for the tip NecronoM)

SAVE YOUR WORK NOW!


Strategic Areas (SA's) and the Single Player Editor.

Setup note: If you don't see the single player editor in the editor drop down box,
go to -> Tools -> Add-in Manager. Click the little cross next to 'SinglePlayerEditor' and checkmark the 2 boxes, 'AutoLoad' and 'Loaded.' In the 'Startup Editor' box you can
choose which editor starts first when you first load BF2editor.

Now we have a Capture Point and a few spawn points and some object spawners. What the bots need now is motivation to come and capture the flag. This is where we get to use the Single Player Editor and place Strategic Areas.

  • Select the Single player editor from the drop down list

  • Now you have a strategicArea toolbox on the right of the screen.
  • Drag a small box around the base of the capture point so that it is selected
  • While the CP is selected, click on 'Place On Selected' from the right menu bar.

A brand new Strategic area placed on the CP
  • You should now have a blue box drawn around the CP radius (make sure 'render' - 'ai' - 'Toggle Draw ai' is checked if you don't see it.
  • Now you need to place the infantry and vehicle order positions for the SA. These specify where the bots will stop when they come to cap a flag. Always put the infantry one inside the strategic area radius. The vehicle one can be outside the radius if you want the bot to stop, exit the vehicle and come into the CP's radius on foot.
  • So click on the 'Infantry' button - a box will say, 'click to place order position'. Click OK and then click on the spot you want it to place the Order Position.

A placed Infantry Order Position next to a flag

Click okay and the click on the ground inside the CP's radius for the Infantry Order Position.

Now repeat the same process to place the Vehicle Order Position. This time click on the 'Vehicle' Button, click OK and place it somewhere near the CP. (it can be inside the radius if you want the bots to cap the flag from inside the vehicle or outside the radius if you want them to dismount and cap the flag on foot - I find it better to put the vehicle Order Postion just outside the radius. Because passengers don't count toward flag-capping, its better that they all get out and walk to the flag.)


We've just completed an ai compatible and fully featured Control Point for BF2 single player. Repeat the above steps to create more control points, spawn points and object spawners throughout the map and you will be ready to go to the next step which is creating Strategic Neighbours.


Using Dice's Existing Layouts

If like me, you are using Dice's existing layout, you can easily select any objects in game , reposition them, delete them, rename them....whatever you like. I find it easier to start with a stock layout like the 16, 32 or 64 gameplayobjects.con and make all my changes to that. Doing it this way, means that you can start immediately placing the Strategic areas on the existing Control Points. I added the above 'Starting from Scratch' Information for those of you interested in knowing the process when custom maps are made.

Don't forget to check that every spawn point and vehicle is on their respective Navmesh! AND SAVE SAVE SAVE!