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If you have the DVD-ROM version of the game, GBS is in a folder on the media. You can copy it to any folder on your machine.
If you have the digital distribution version, it is compressed in GBSIV.ZIP archive located in the TOOLS folder where the game is installed. Just extract it to any folder like.
In either case, the GBS distribution contains source scripts for all the scenarios (11 campaign + 111 Instant Action) in the game.
Using GBS, you can make minor or major script revisions.
e.g. say you wanted to play IA0001 with a Battlecruiser MK2 (or any other cap ship) ship class (look in OBJCLASS.SCR for all object class names) instead of the default MK1, it is a one line change (to the ship class) and a parsing of the script source.
- Start a text editor (e.g. Notepad) and load the IA0001.SCR file from the SCRIPTS folder
- Go to line #28 and change "set_craft battlecruiser_mk" to "set_craft battlecruiser_mk2", then save the file
- Open up a console (START/RUN/CMD) window and change to the folder where you have GBS extracted (e.g. "C:\Program Files\3000AD\Universal Combat Collectors Edition\Tools")
- From the console window type Prepare IA0001.SCR to parse the script
- Copy the resulting IA0001.MIS file to the MODS sub-folder (e.g. "C:\Program Files\3000AD\Universal Combat Collectors Edition\Mods")
- Run the game and select the IA0001 scenario from the Instant Action list
When you launch and go to the F9 view, you will see that you are using the MK2 instead of the MK1 carrier.
Since you are not overwriting the source scripts already built and included, you can delete this .MIS file if you want to revert to the version included in the game. This is due to the fact that the game will always use the newer file and ignore the older version (in the DATA sub-folder).
This is a simplified explanation of course. You can read the rest of this forum, as well as the included GBS docs for other tips. Though the GBS parsers are different, the scripting concepts, tips etc used in all the Universal Combat games are the same.
Also:
If you have modified the scenario description file (IA0001.DES) file which is displayed in MISCON, you also have to copy it (as-is) over to the MODS folder. This file is not parsed. It is processed in pure text form by the game engine.
If you revise (add, remove, edit etc) ANY of the strings used in the "say" and "broadcast" commands inside the script source, then you have to parse the engine's phrase handler by doing prepare phrases IA0001.SCR and copying the resulting IA0001.DAT file to the MODS folder. Then the new strings will be used by the game when the scenario is run.
Also, you can create a batch file e.g. BUILDIT.BAT and add the following commands to it. This will automatically do all the steps required for a single script and copy the resulting files to the target folder.
prepare %1.scr if errorlevel 1 goto fail prepare phrases %1.scr if errorlevel 1 goto fail goto ok :fail echo AN ERROR OCCURED! BUILD ABORTED! goto exit :ok copy %1*.dat %1.des %1.mis "C:\Program Files\3000AD\Collectors Edition\mods" echo SCRIPT BUILT OK :exit
To create this batch file, just cut and past everything between the "code" blocks into a blank file. Save it as BUILDIT.BAT in your TOOLS folder (or where ever you have GBS extracted).
Then to parse a script, from a console window, you would just type build IA0001
