Some things not mentioned in Marco's tutorials that I trial-and-error'd while working on my mod, in the hopes that I can save other modders from the same fate. I also listed effects in case anyone has the same problems and can't figure out the cause. Will be updated as I learn more. Making Anything: -Remember to ALWAYS re-subscribe to your workshop mod after compiling and uploading it from Unity, just in case Steam doesn't do it. This will avoid a lot of confusion. -If anything (usually guns or vehicles) gives an error when you try to load it in (or doesn't load in at all), go back into Unity and reupload the mod in question, then resubscribe to it. This has solved 90% of errors that I had with modded items not loading into the game properly. - When attempting to reduce the polycount of pretty much any model in Blender (usually one taken from the internet), ONLY merge faces if said faces are perfectly flat with each other (as in you could draw a line over the top of them and it will perfectly ride along all faces you intend to merge, without bending). Your merged face will be invisible in Unity/Easy Red 2 otherwise, even if the face orientation is correct. (For an insanely easy way to fix this, select the affected face in Blender, then right-click and select "triangulate faces") Making Maps: - When planning the layout, I like to use an asphalt-colored brush to map out the roads before I place any props. This especially helps with scaling down a city/town I'm trying to replicate, which you will typically have to do unless you are mapping a very small area of one of these. - When placing trees, I recommend using the minimum brush size and randomly clicking where you want trees, because the brush will sometimes place trees inches away from each other if it's larger. The 2.0.1 update added a feature to control prop spacing, ignore this tip. - I haven't seen this mentioned yet, but with the raise/lower brush in the terrain editing tab, holding the Alt key while using the brush will have the opposite effect. This can help you modify terrain to your liking a bit faster. Making Missions: Here's a straightforward way I use to balance my Operation missions: * Set attacking infantry respawn times to 30, defending infantry to 50. Increase this for vehicles (I usually use 70) * Set the attacker ticket count to the maximum * Playtest your mission as the DEFENDERS, and make sure that the attacking AI can successfully capture every phase on their own * If they manage to make it to the final phase (and as soon as they are about to win), look at the "attackers left" counter in the top left and remember the number * subtract that number from the ticket count you set (for example, if I playtested with the attackers having 500 tickets and they had 100 left right before they won, then I'd change the tickets to 400). This obviously isn't perfect since the AI doesn't move or attack the same way every time, but it works well enough. You also may want to change respawn times especially for larger phases if the AI can't clear them. - On larger-scale missions, try and use a balanced mix of "AI Once" and "AI Non-Stop" spawners for the attackers. This'll ensure a more steady flow of battle no matter which non-stop spawners the AI decides to use. Making Guns: - Make sure your gun is aligned properly with the right hand while walking in third-person IN THE GAME, before animating your gun, as the rig testing hands are not the best reference for this. This is probably the biggest time-saver here and I encountered way too many problems because I didn't do this first. -To resize a gun, DO NOT CHANGE THE SCALE OF THE PARENT AT THE VERY TOP. Instead, change the scale of the two empty objects containing the gun parts and move all of the fire, eject, and weaponSight positions to wherever you want. It's best to upload the gun without a magazine for it to test the scale in-game BEFORE you separate the scope, magazine, and bipod parts into their own thing. However, if you already did this: * make an empty object within your gun * place all the gun meshes in it + positions * select the empty object and rescale it to whatever you wish * place the parts back into "yourgunname (Clone)" and delete the empty object * reposition the firePosition, weaponsightPosition, etc, if you have to * reset the scale of the magPosition back to 1 for all three values - When making gun animations, try to use the forearm bones over the shoulder/arm bones. I've had the uniform clip through the first-person camera due to the latter. -When making gun animations, ensure that ALL bones and the gun are assigned a keyframe at the beginning and end of your animation, both the position and rotation. The gun and bones will get messed up in-game if you don't. -When making gun animations, you are allowed to animate the Center_Spine (as Marco says). However, make sure that the center spine is in its default position at the end of every animation (aka the same position it is in before you start animating). Otherwise, your gun will jolt forward when a squad leader gives orders (if the uniform clips through the camera when sprinting, move the right shoulder back instead and move the right forearm forward to compensate). - Make sure your weapon animations are assigned to the same bundle, but DON'T assign your weapon sounds to the same bundle. It will break your gun completely. -Do NOT use ANY of the generic animation sets for guns. It causes problems when switching from a generic animation gun to a modded gun with a custom animation. -When animating a one-handed gun, you will still have to animate the left arm to be completely down at all times. The left arm will flip around in first-person if you don't (you can also just not animate the center spine, if you're willing to spend a little more time on the animation) - When making a gun that has separate non-magazine parts for an animation (single bullet, stripper clip, ammo belt, etc), make sure to: * Parent them to the gun, not the ammo box. Your part won't animate otherwise. * Hide these objects within the gun (usually the stock) and not off-screen because said objects WILL FLOAT AROUND ANY SOLDIER HOLDING THE GUN if you do. - When making a scope sprite in Photoshop or wherever, apply an extremely transparent (1% opacity) black layer over the entire scope. You will get white shapes filling your scope if you don't. Making Vehicles: - In Unity, make sure your vehicle is above the Unity ground and that the origin (the three-arrow point) of the vehicle is slightly above the Unity ground. Your vehicle will clip through the ground upon spawning in if you don't. -When making a boat, the origin (aka the three arrow point when you click on the parent of the entire vehicle) has to be below the model. Your boat will tip over upon spawning in if it isn't. -Some ammo just doesn't work with vehicle cannons for some reason (the ammo will show up as "75 mm he ewdw" and you will not be able to fire the gun). Just go back into Unity and switch the cannon round to a different caliber of choice until it registers properly. (This issue can also happen if you misspell the ammo ID or if the vehicle can't find the magazine linked in the ammo field.) - To rescale a vehicle, simply rescale the parent at the very top of the prefab - To assemble any turret without guessing and checking the pivot positions over and over: * In BLENDER, make sure the origins of the turret and gun are correct/they rotate correctly * In UNITY, right-click the turret ring part and turn it it into its own turret (I'll call this the Main Turret) * Right-click the turret gun part and turn it into its own "turret" * Drag the gun model into the XAxis folder * Delete the XAxis object within the Main Turret * Drag the XAxis object from the turret gun "turret" into the YAxis object in the Main Turret * Click on the turret and reassign the XAxis, firePos, and scopePos It'll feel slow at first, but you'll get used to it and it's way faster than constantly adjusting either part by sight.