Creating an Entity Set

This tutorial is designed for the complete newcomer and will help them get as far as spawn in enemy and having a quick firefight. Hopefully it will inspire you to make more and continue your efforts in map making for DR.

Lets get started:

Explorer Tab
An entity set is basically an individual unit or group of units put together and set aside within the editor to be used at your disposal. There are a few ways of placing the units in a set, more on that later*, but at the moment what you are to look at is the “Properties and Tools” window in the editor and click on the Explorer tab.



You will notice that there are three windows, one for the list of sets, one for the list of units and one for the properties of the list and units. Start by looking at the window with “Startup (0)” in it. This unit list will have everything placed as a list once you start the game. This is an entity set of a different kind, it is the “active entity” this list has everything you want to be seen in game from the moment you start it up, hence it’s called Startup. You can in effect change any set to active but you must be in that set as a player.

Placing the units

Place a unit on the map from your units list in the create tab, either US or PLA and I’m going to name mine “tester” you can name it what you like. Don’t forget to set him as player also.



You will notice that there is a small window called Entity Set and Startup is selected. This is where you will also find a list of the sets you create. *So when you place more units on the map you can go to the drop down box and place your units into an already created set. Now, on the actual set creation, go back to the create tab and place a fireteam on the map. It can be any team you want. We are only dealing with four units at the moment. Once they are placed on the map you will notice that they are automatically placed into the Startup set.



Creating the set
The way to create the set is to go back to the Explorer tab and click in the Startup pane anywhere under the word “Startup.” This will deselect the Startup list so you can start afresh for the new set. Click on the Add Entity Set at the top of the window and you will see a new set list placed above Startup(6).



When it is highlighted like this you can name it anything you like. Try to keep it simple and something that will suit what the sets purpose is. In this case I’m calling mine “testset”. Now look in the modify pane below your explorer pane. You will see three check boxes. Active, Visible, and Exportable, make sure that you check Visible and Exportable. Now, you can place your units in the set you made. Highlight either the echelon marker so the whole fireteam is selected or click and drag your cursor over them and select them that way. While the team is highlighted, go to the Entity Set dropdown box, in the modify pane.



You will now see that the Startup set has gone back to one entity and the new “testset” has five entities. Well four and an Echelon marker. That is all it is. You have now created an Entity set, check out the Spawning an Entity Set tutorial next.