2. Click on the node for Mission #1.

3. Click on the node for Mission #3.

4. The link-modify window will open automatically. As this is NOT a default link, the settings in this window will have to be changed. First, change the color of the link. The links for successful missions should be a different color to the default links (unless these are one and the same links, of course). In this example, green links are chosen for success, to contrast with the default red. In order to specify the condition under which the link is to be followed, first click on the check-box that reads 'none'. Choose the identity sign (= =) from the list of options. This will then enable the drop-box on the left. If the mission-success debriefing group is at the top of the list of campaign goals for Mission #1 in the mission builder, then select 'debrief variable 1' from the drop-box. Check the 'value' box in the panel on the right and enter the numeral '1' into the space provided.

So long as your mission-success summary debriefing group is designated as campaign goal 1 and hence corresponds to the debrief variable, that's all you need to do. The new link will look like this on the campaign map:

Now, instead of just following the default link to Mission #2 upon completion of Mission #1, the campaign will first check to see whether Mission #1 was successful. If it was, debrief variable 1 is set to 1 and the green link is followed to Mission #3. Matters are complicated slightly by a quirk in the mission builder. Although the debrief variable you just selected is designated as 'debrief variable 1' when you select it from the drop-box in the link-modify window, when you look at the condition in the node-information window, it is reported as 'debrief variable 0':

This can be very confusing, but it is important to realize that 'debrief variable 1' in the link-modify window is the SAME variable as 'debrief variable 0' in the node-information window. As the designations in the link-modify window match those of the campaign-goals in the mission-builder, I tend to think of those as being correct. All you have to do is remember to mentally add 1 to the debrief variable designations in the node-information window to keep things straight.

Instead of adding the mission-success link as a new link from the Mission #1 node to the node for Mission #3, you may decide that you want to specify that the default link to the Mission #2 node should be followed if Mission #1 is a success. To do this, right-click on the Mission #1 node to open the node-information window. Then click on the default link, which will highlight it in red, and click the 'modify' button in the panel to the right. This will open the link-modify window for the default link. Change the color and the condition as specified above. Now that the node for Mission #1 no longer has a default link, it should be given a new one to the node of your choice. The advantage of having a default link in each node is that the campaign will never crash because it doesn't know where to go next.

You can also modify nondefault links. You should be aware that this will often result in F/A-18 crashing back to the desktop. A more reliable way to change a nondefault link is to delete it and replace it with an entirely new link.

You may add as many links to each node as you wish. The game works through the list of links in sequence and takes the first one for which the condition is true. The default link is always left until last and followed if none of the conditions for the other links (if there are any) are true. ALWAYS put a default link in each node.

The campaign-variable window will open:

This window displays all the campaign variables for this campaign file and their default values. You can use these variables if you wish or add new ones. If you don't think you will need any more than the six variables that come with the campaign template, you can change their names using the 'modify' button:

1. Select a campaign variable and click on the 'modify' button in the campaign-variable window.	2. The campaign-variable information window will open for that variable.
3. Enter the name and default value of your variable in the spaces provided.	4. Click 'OK' and you will be returned to the campaign-variable window. Your new variable is now entered.

The procedure for entering an entirely new variable is very similar. Just click the 'add' button in the campaign-variable window and follow the same steps. Do NOT attempt to add more than one variable at once. If you want to enter more than one new variable, close the campaign-variable window after each new entry and re-open the window for the next entry. If you do not do this, the new variables will not be properly registered and cannot be used by links.

You can set the link conditions so that a link is followed when a campaign variable has a certain value. To modify the links in the node for Mission #1, right-click on that node. The node-information window will open. Select the second link in the list to be modified:

When you click on the 'modify' button, the link-modify window will open for this link. This link is currently set to be followed on the condition that debrief variable 1 has the value 1. To change this, click on the drop-box on the left and select 'My variable' from the list:

Set the value for 'My variable' on which the link will be followed to 2:

As the link condition now depends on the value of a campaign variable rather than a debrief variable, you may also wish to change the color of the link. Modifying links sometimes causes F/A-18 to crash back to the desktop. If you find this happens to you a lot, you can change a node's links by deleting the old ones and adding new ones with the conditions you want.

When you close the link-modify window and return to the node-information window, you will see that the information for the link has been updated:

As things stand, the game will always follow the default node from Mission #1 to Mission #2, no matter what the results of Mission #1 are. This is because the default value of 'My variable' is 1 and the link to Mission #3 will only be followed if the value of 'My variable' is 2. To get the game to follow the link to Mission #3, you must add a condition to the variables panel of the node-information window for Mission #1.

1. Right-click on the node for Mission #1

2. When the node-information window opens, click on the 'add' button in the variables panel. This will open the variable-modify window:

3. Click on the drop-box in the 'variable' panel on the left, and select 'My variable' from the list:

Set 'My variable' to increment by one. You now have to specify the condition under which this change in 'My variable' will take place. Click on the 'none' drop-box in the condition panel. Select the identity sign (= =). This activates the drop-box on the left. From the list, choose 'Debrief variable 1'. Check the 'value' box in the lower-right panel and enter the numeral '1' in the space provided. The variable-modify window will now look like this:

Click 'OK' and you will be returned to the node-information window:

Once again, the node-information window identifies debrief variable 1 as 'debrief variable 0'. Keep remembering to mentally add 1 to the debrief variable designations in the node-information window.

Now, when Mission #1 is successful and debrief variable 1 is set to 1, the value of 'My variable' will be incremented by 1 to 2. The default link to Mission #2 will be ignored and the game will play Mission #3 next. This assumes that the summary debriefing group for success in Mission #1 has been assigned as campaign goal 1 in the mission builder.

It is possible to set a campaign variable to the value of another variable in the variable-modify window. It is also possible to set a condition on modifying the value of a campaign variable that one variable should stand in some arithmetical relation to another. Simply check the box on the right of the window and select the variables you want from the list.

In the above example, when the node is processed 'My variable' will be set to have the same value as Master Win Count.

'!=' means 'not equal to', '= =' means 'equal to', '<' means 'less than', '>' means 'greater than', '<=' means 'less than or equal to' and '>=' means 'greater than or equal to'.

2. Add a link from the node for Mission #1 to the new state-node. Make the condition for this link that debrief variable 1 has the value 1.

3. Add links from the state node to the nodes for Mission #3 and Mission #4. One of these should be a default link. If the choice between Mission #3 and #4 is going to be random, the condition for the other link should be that the campaign variable 'Dice Roll' has the value 2.

4. Now the state-node has to be told to produce a random number in order to make the choice between going to Mission #3 and going to Mission #4. Right-click on the state-node to open its node-information window. From the node-information window, click on the 'add' button in the variables panel. This opens the variable-modify window. Click on the drop-box to the left and select 'Dice Roll' from the list. Check the box on the right marked 'random' and enter the numeral '2' into the space provided.

Click 'OK' to return to the node-information window.

When the state-node is processed, the variable 'Dice Roll' is assigned the value of 1 or 2 at random. When it takes the value 2, the game goes to Mission #4. Otherwise, the game goes to Mission #3.

It is highly recommended that you place a text node immediately before each end-node. This text node has the function of informing the player why the campaign is about to end. If you do not include such a node, the campaign will end abruptly with the player wondering what happened.

A campaign map with text-nodes before its end-nodes.

You will also probably want to insert a state-node between the last mission in each path and the text/end-nodes. This is for calculating whether the player has won the campaign. For example, if you have been using the 'Master Win Count' variable for keeping a running total of the player's successful missions, you may want the campaign to fail if this total is too low.