Beginner Q&A: Creating a Single Player Level

[The Commander]

Hello. I just compiled OpenJK and started modding and have no idea what I'm doing but hopefully this threat will come in handy for me and any other aspiring mod/game devs that stumble across this:

I'm looking to create a simple single player level with nothing but a player and an NPC. Later I plan to add more AI elements and a cutscene in the begining.

But for now, where should I start to accomplish this and what should I understand? Any help appreciated! 

[Futuza]

Sounds like you want to do a mapping tutorial.  This is a great starting one: https://jkhub.org/mapping/richdiesal/

[Bubbles]

You want to make a RP single player mod for JKA right?

That's a lot of work and would be far easier if you break down what you wanna achieve into manageable chunks. For example the 3 main components are  making the map,  making the player models and making the game logic (and possibly making the UI)

 

For making the map. You want to learn Gtkradiant or NRC. Which can be a bit of a pain but well worth learning. As it teaches you stuff that helps with the other steps.

For making playermodels. Blender is the best choice. It is also has a pretty steep learning curve.

For making the game logic to create a roleplaying game. That's a fair amount of work especially if you want something like  Mass Effect 3's dialogue system.

 

But there are shortcuts.  For example lets say you want to create a roleplaying level on Tatooine. There are already maps released for Tatooine maybe some of them include the .map files as well (.map files are like the source files). And if your mod is about Qui-gon-jin and Anakin then there are already player models out there on this site.   And as for the dialogue system for a roleplaying mod. I am sure there are some mods that have this functionality that are on Github.   So, for prototyping it might be a good option to make use of other user generated content. Although you'd have to ask their permission if you wanted to publish it. 

 

Best bet is to get decent at mapping as you can do a hell of a lot without even touching the code.

Also check out some other single player missions that other users have made to get an idea of what's been done and how they did it.  https://jkhub.org/files/category/76-single-player/

[The Commander]

On 5/18/2022 at 4:42 PM, Bubbles said:

You want to make a RP single player mod for JKA right?

That's a lot of work and would be far easier if you break down what you wanna achieve into manageable chunks. For example the 3 main components are  making the map,  making the player models and making the game logic (and possibly making the UI)

 

For making the map. You want to learn Gtkradiant or NRC. Which can be a bit of a pain but well worth learning. As it teaches you stuff that helps with the other steps.

For making playermodels. Blender is the best choice. It is also has a pretty steep learning curve.

For making the game logic to create a roleplaying game. That's a fair amount of work especially if you want something like  Mass Effect 3's dialogue system.

 

But there are shortcuts.  For example lets say you want to create a roleplaying level on Tatooine. There are already maps released for Tatooine maybe some of them include the .map files as well (.map files are like the source files). And if your mod is about Qui-gon-jin and Anakin then there are already player models out there on this site.   And as for the dialogue system for a roleplaying mod. I am sure there are some mods that have this functionality that are on Github.   So, for prototyping it might be a good option to make use of other user generated content. Although you'd have to ask their permission if you wanted to publish it. 

 

Best bet is to get decent at mapping as you can do a hell of a lot without even touching the code.

Also check out some other single player missions that other users have made to get an idea of what's been done and how they did it.  https://jkhub.org/files/category/76-single-player/

This sounds ideal for my situation, Thanks! I really do appreciate the feedback.

[Circa]

General mapping:

The guide Futuza linked above is how I learned basic mapping.

For SP specific things I recommend this tutorial:

Lots of tutorials in our tutorial section.

 

[Lazarus]

 

There is a real good start here done years ago on how to work SP maps.