How to Script a Mission

In this page you will learn how to script a mission from scratch.

Getting Started

This guide assumes you already have a basic understanding of writing quests, if not then I highly recommend reading BlueKirby0's guide: "How to Make a Quest". If you're too lazy to read over that then don't worry, i'll be going over most things in his guide (but in a lot less detail).

onTrigger

To keep things simple, let's start off with Windurst Mission 7-1 (The Sixth Ministry) as it covers most of what we need to go through.

After accepting the Mission, we must go to Tosuka-Porika in Windurst Waters for a cutscene, so go ahead open up his script (scripts/zones/Windurst_Waters/Tosuka-Porika.lua).

NOTE: I recommend using Notepad++ to open scripts as it has syntax highlighting and helps keep track of 'if' statements and their 'end's.

Scroll down to the onTrigger section and we see this:

function onTrigger(player,npc)

-- NOTE: I've cut out the lines not relevant to what we're doing or this alone would've taken up half the guide...

	if (player:getCurrentMission(COP) == THE_ROAD_FORKS and player:getVar("MEMORIES_OF_A_MAIDEN_Status")==10)then
		player:startEvent(0x036B);--COP event

-- NOTE: I've cut out the lines not relevant to what we're doing or this alone would've taken up half the guide...

	elseif(chasingStatus == QUEST_ACCEPTED and player:getVar("CHASING_TALES_TRACK_BOOK") > 0) then
		player:startEvent(0x019c);
	elseif(player:hasKeyItem(149) ==true) then
		player:startEvent(0x019c);
	elseif(chasingStatus == QUEST_ACCEPTED) then
		player:startEvent(0x0196); --  Add follow up cutscene
	else
		player:startEvent(0x0172); -- Standard Conversation
	end
	
end;

Now that we've got his script open, we need to add a check for Windurst Mission 7-1 before starting the cutscene to progress in the mission so let's add that check:

        elseif(chasingStatus == QUEST_ACCEPTED) then
		player:startEvent(0x0196); --  Add follow up cutscene
		----> Windurst Mission 7-1 <----
	elseif(player:getCurrentMission(WINDURST) == THE_SIXTH_MINISTRY and player:getVar("MissionStatus") == 0) then
		-- player:startEvent()
        else
		player:startEvent(0x0172); -- Standard Conversation

The code simplified:

elseif         <--- if the above code isn't true then if...
player:getCurrentMission(WINDURST) == THE_SIXTH_MINISTRY  <--- The player's Current Mission (in Windurst) is THE_SIXTH_MINISTRY 
and player:getVar("MissionStatus") == 0) <--- and "MissionStatus" var is equal to 0 (they haven't progressed in the mission)
then <--- then carry out the block of code til you see 'end' or another 'elseif' statement.

Notice how we not only check the player's current mission, we also check the variable "MissionStatus". This is done so we know that the player has just received the mission and has not made any progress in it which is why the variable "MissionStatus" has a value of 0. The reason we've commented out player:startEvent() is because we don't know the correct EventID yet. Okay we've got the correct logic/checks in there; now what? Now it's time to find the correct cutscene with the correct parameters (e.g. cutscenes that have items/keyitems/numbers/values returned as part of text).

Finding the correct cutscene (with parameters)

Now we must find the correct cutscene for this mission. To do this you can find the mission on ffxiclopedia and scroll down to the spoiler and click [show].

SPOILER WARNING: Details about a quest, mission or other Final Fantasy XI in-game storyline follow. [show]

You then find the Event IDs for that NPC in that particular zone (in our case it's Windurst Waters Event IDs and the NPC is Tosuka-Porika and find the cutscene matching that dialog using the "@cs" command on a GM char e.g.

Note: Cutscenes linked to each other are usually have similar IDs e.g. @cs 830 @cs 831 @cs 832 are most likely related to the same mission/questline

@cs 830

Once you find the correct cutscene you must convert it from decimal to hexadecimal before using it for "player:startEvent( )".

Okay so now we've found the correct cutscene (0x02cb) but it's showing this:

SCRIPT:

player:startEvent(0x02cb);

Script looks fine, lets have a look at how it displays client-sided/in-game.

Client-side cutscene triggered:

Tosuka-Porika: Ah, yes, I mustaru give you this. 
You should be able to enter the Animastery using this ring. 
It is the '      '. Try your bestaru not to lose it.

That doesn't look right!

This is because this cutscene requires a special parameter. In our case the parameter is the value of the keyitem Optistery Ring.

To add this we can either call the keyitems script at the top of the file like so:

require("scripts/globals/settings");
require("scripts/globals/titles");
require("scripts/globals/missions");
require("scripts/globals/quests");
require("scripts/zones/Windurst_Walls/TextIDs");
require("scripts/globals/keyitems"); --<----- require keyitems

After we require the keyitems script we can then add this: player:startEvent(0x02cb,0,OPTISTERY_RING);

Or we can go into the keyitems.lua file, find the id of OPTISTERY_RING and add the following to player:startEvent

player:startEvent(0x02cb,0,250); -- cutscene(0x02cb),idk what this parm does(0),keyitemparam(250) keyitem = OPTISTERY_RING

Alright, time to see if this works!

SCRIPT: player:startEvent(0x02cb,0,250); -- cutscene, param1, keyitemid Looks good; we got the correct cutscene and params. Lets see if it displays correctly in-game (client sided).

Client-side cutscene triggered:

Tosuka-Porika: Ah, yes, I mustaru give you this. 
You should be able to enter the Animastery using this ring. 
It is the Optistery Ring. Try your bestaru not to lose it.

Success! Alright now we've got the cutscene to trigger so we need to tell the script what to do when the cutscene is finished.

onEventFinish

This is where you tell the script what to do when that cutscene is finished and since we haven't told the script to do anything once the cutscene is triggered, we need to scroll down to onEventFinish and tell it what to do.

-----------------------------------
-- onEventFinish
-----------------------------------

function onEventFinish(player,csid,option)
--printf("CSID: %u",csid);
--printf("RESULT: %u",option);
	
	if(csid == 0x0037) then  -- Show Off Hat
		player:setVar("QuestHatInHand_var",player:getVar("QuestHatInHand_var")+32);
		player:setVar("QuestHatInHand_count",player:getVar("QuestHatInHand_count")+1);
	elseif(csid == 0x00a0) then
		player:setVar("MissionStatus",1);
	elseif(csid == 0x00a8) then
		finishMissionTimeline(player,1,csid,option);
	elseif(csid == 0x0183 and option == 0) then -- Early Bird Gets The Bookworm
		player:addQuest(WINDURST,EARLY_BIRD_CATCHES_THE_BOOKWORM);
	elseif(csid == 0x0193 and option == 0) then
	    player:addQuest(WINDURST,CHASING_TALES);
	elseif(csid ==0x036B)then
		player:setVar("MEMORIES_OF_A_MAIDEN_Status",11);
	end
	
end;

Alright so what does this mean?

--printf("CSID: %u",csid);
--printf("RESULT: %u",option);

When not commented out, (two hyphens "--" comments out whatever is after it on the same line) these "printf"s tell the script to show a message on DSGame-Server.exe window showing the CutsceneID of the cutscene that just finished and shows which option the user selected e.g. if the cutscene has a multi-choice option like:

Do you wish to teleport to Windurst Walls?
[Yes]
[No]

When triggering a cutscene with multi-choice options you need to comment out the line --printf("RESULT: %u",option); and when triggering the cutscene (from script, not @cs) it'll show a message in DSGameServer.exe like this:

[Lua Script]RESULT: 0

Ok now that the boring explanation is out of the way we need to tell it what to do once the cutscene is finished. Now since we dont have a cutscene with multi-choice options, what we need to do is add a line like so:

elseif(csid == 0x02cb) then

We then need to tell it what to do upon finishing that cutscene. Alright wiki says to give the keyitem Optistery Ring so lets add that to our code.

elseif(csid == 0x02cb) then
		player:addKeyItem(OPTISTERY_RING);
		player:messageSpecial(KEYITEM_OBTAINED,OPTISTERY_RING);

Looking good.

Time to test out the script so far; on your [GM] char use @addmission 2 17 (2 = Windurst, 17 = THE_SIXTH_MINISTRY) and then talk to Tosuka-Porika.

Client-sided (in-game)

Tosuka-Porika: Ah, yes, I mustaru give you this. 
You should be able to enter the Animastery using this ring. 
It is the Optistery Ring. Try your bestaru not to lose it.

Doesn't look like there are any issues but wait. Lets talk to him again and see what happens...

Tosuka-Porika: Ah, yes, I mustaru give you this. 
You should be able to enter the Animastery using this ring. 
It is the Optistery Ring. Try your bestaru not to lose it.

That shouldn't be happening... Ah wait, we forgot to set the variable for "MissionStatus". Lets add that to our onEventFinish code:

elseif(csid == 0x02cb) then
		player:addKeyItem(OPTISTERY_RING);
		player:messageSpecial(KEYITEM_OBTAINED,OPTISTERY_RING);
		player:setVar("MissionStatus",1);

Alright so now that we've set the variable MissionStatus to 1 using player:setVar("MissionStatus",1); we need to trigger the cutscene before the onEventFinish code is called.