TIE Fighter: Installing Custom Missions
Tech | Controls | Patches

 

This page covers installing custom missions into TIE Fighter and falls apart in 3 main sections:

- Emperor's Hammer Guide
- General Installation Guide
- Important Notes

You'll need WinZIP or PKUnzip to unpack most of the downloads. Most downloads contain .doc or .txt files, often called "readme.txt", read these! They contain valuable information about what you downloaded and how you should install it. The Emperor's Hammer missions all come with premade battle files which saves you the bother of editting them. In that case you can just overwrite the exsisting files, but do read the notes.

 

  Emperor's Hammer Guide
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1. Run full install of the game so the mission files will be on your hard drive. The game will take it's mission information by preference from the harddisc, but might still give a warning. In that case - Ignore.

2. Locate your TIE Directory and open the folder labeled "Resource." Once opened copy the original Battle1.lfd for Battle One of TIE Fighter to some other folder for backup purposes. (If you forget to do this, you can always copy the version on your CD or discettes back to this folder)

3. Go into the mission directory and make sure you have the files you will be replacing backed up. If you are using the Collector's CD, don't worry: all your files  are backed up on the CD. If you are using the discette version or "Defender of the Empire" version, you can either rename or copy the files to a different directory.

4. Copy the ".tie" file of the Emperor's Hammer custom mission into your "Mission" folder,and the "battle1.lfd" file into your "Resource" folder.

5. Create a new pilot for the mission based on your name or PIN and the mission number. For example, SL Stele playing Free Mission 80 would make a new pilot file named "StelFM80." or a Pilot with PIN 2883 playing Free Mission 69 would make a new pilot file named "2883fm69"

6. Begin flying Battle One, play the first mission.

Note: The Tactical Manual has all the data you need for Emperor's Hammer use.

 

  General Instalation Guide
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1. Run full install of the game so the mission files will be on your hard drive. The game will take it's mission information by preference from the harddisc, but might still give a warning. In that case - Ignore.

2. Locate your TIE Directory and open the folder labeled "Resource." Once opened copy the original Battle1.lfd for Battle One of TIE Fighter to some other folder for backup purposes. (If you forget to do this, you can always copy the version on your CD or discettes back to this folder)

3. Go into the mission directory and make sure you have the files you will be replacing backed up. If you are using the Collector's CD, don't worry: all your files  are backed up on the CD. If you are using the discette version or "Defender of the Empire" version, you can either rename or copy the files to a different directory.

You can Replace or Add battles and missions. If you Add them, you must have a pilot that has finished the whole game, because the game will add them at the end. Also you need a (battle).lfd file for your added battle in your Resource Directory. If you, like is Emperor's Hammer custom, only replace the Battle1.lfd, you will not need the special pilotfile.

Replacing exsisting missions:

1. Copy the custom mission files into that directory and change their file names to match the original files with the "tie" file extension. If applicable, copy the Battle1.lfd file into your Resource directory after backing up the game's Battle1.lfd file.

2. Play the battle in question, either as a new battle or through the Combat Chamber.

3. If you want the old battle back - overwrite the installed mission with your back up.

Adding new battles/missions:

1. Download TFW here or from the Editors section. (395k.)

2. Install TFW in a fresh directory (like c:/Program Files/tfw/) and run the exe. You will be prompted to fill out the paths of various TIE Fighter directories, like your Resource and Mission dirs. Do this correctly.

3. In TFW, go to File and Open..., then browse to your TIE Fighter Resource directory. Here look for Battle1.lfd and open it.

4. You will be confronted with the galaxy map, which is nice but not really important. Click on the tab called Missions.

5. Now you'll see a list of all the original missions in Battle 1 of TIE Fighter, select them all and click on Delete. Then click on Add... to select the missions you want to add to the game. You can change the order in which they are played with the Move buttons.

6. When you have selected your missions, click on the tab called General. You'll get all kind of info on Battle 1, which you might want to change for clarity.

7. When you are ready, either just click File -> Safe (to replace Battle 1) or File -> Safe as (if you want to add to the end of the game). A good name would be Battle14.lfd, as 13 is the last regular one.

8. To play your new battle 14, load up a pilot that has finished the whole game (or create one with a Pilot edittor) and enter "select new battle" - it should be there.

Note: For Emperor's Hammer purposes do not rename the Battle1.lfd file.

 

  Important Notes
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Unzipping: Do NOT just unzip any downloaded missions straight into your game directories. Always use an empty "Temp" directory.

Back Ups: all your original files are backed up on your CD - don't worry, it's easy to repair anything. As long as you keep everything devided over the folders in the same way they are on your CD. If all else fails you can always reinstall it. This doesn't always work as nice for Discette versions, as they usually have everything "packed" on the discettes, so you'd have to reinstall completely.

Overwriting: Another way of installing missions is the plain old overwriting of the original mission files. If you have the disk version of TIE Fighter: MAKE BACKUP COPIES OF THE GAME'S ORIGINAL BATTLE 1 BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING ELSE! Then move the tie files from this game into your TIE Fighter directory to replace them. Problems that can occur in this way are that the sounds are not corresponding and that again you loose access to your original missions. Easy thing about this is that you don't really need any Battle*.lfd editting.

TIE Fighter 95: Everything works exactly like with the Collector's CDROM.

 

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Site/page created 22/aug/99, updated 02/apr/01. Version 3.0b. Copyright © 1999, for BS4U by Ender mBind