Skip to content

Without an AI agent

Everything an agent does, you can do by hand. There are two routes.

The easiest route: the in-game Mission Editor

No tools, no terminal. In the main menu, open the Mission Editor, create a mission, fill in the fields and save. The editor checks your mission when you save and refuses to save one that would break. Missions you save there land in the Missions folder next to the game's Mods folder and are loaded with your next game.

See Write your first mission for a guided tour.

The hand-made route: copy an example and edit it

This gives you a real mod folder you can share on the Steam Workshop later. You need a text editor and, for the check in step 4, Python (see the install pages for Windows or Mac). You also need the modkit on your computer, either with gh repo clone blindflugstudios/goa-modkit or by downloading it from the GitHub page (green Code button → Download ZIP, then unzip).

1. Get a proper text editor

Use Visual Studio Code (free, Windows and Mac). It colors JSON and Python, shows mistakes like a missing comma, and lets you open the whole modkit folder with File → Open Folder. Notepad and TextEdit work in a pinch, but TextEdit must be in plain text mode (Format → Make Plain Text).

2. Copy the example

Inside the modkit, make this folder structure and copy the two files from examples/coastal_patrol/ into it:

goa-modkit/
  mods/
    my_first_mod/
      Missions/
        coastal_patrol.json
        coastal_patrol.py

The folder name Missions matters: the game looks for content by folder name. The mod folder name (my_first_mod) is up to you.

3. Edit it

Open coastal_patrol.json. Try small changes first, save, and check each one:

"_maxPlaneSlots": 2,
"_asPlannedChance": 80,

Raise _maxPlaneSlots to 3 to allow three planes, or lower _asPlannedChance to make things go wrong more often.

Open coastal_patrol.py and change the texts inside the quotes, for example the mission name:

_term("mission_name", "Coastal Patrol")

Three things not to break

  • _missionOutcomes must have exactly 4 entries, in their order.
  • _missionStats must have at least 2 entries.
  • The file names and the id returned by get_mission_id in the .py must match. If you rename the mission, rename both files and the MISSION_ID line together.

Missions reference explains every field.

4. Check it with the validator

The validator reads your mod and tells you what would go wrong in the game, without starting the game. Open the terminal in the modkit folder and run:

cd ~\goa-modkit
python tools\validator\goa_validate.py mods\my_first_mod

cd ~/goa-modkit
python3 tools/validator/goa_validate.py mods/my_first_mod

You should see a summary line like 2 file(s) checked - 0 error(s), 0 warning(s), 0 note(s).

Each problem is printed as file:line: error: ... with a hint underneath. Fix the line it names, save, run again. Errors must go. Warnings are worth reading.

5. Copy it into the game

Copy the whole my_first_mod folder into the game's Mods folder. The quickest way to open that folder: in the game's main menu, Mods → Open folder. Or paste the path into Explorer or Finder:

Paste into the Explorer address bar:

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\Blindflug Studios\Ground Of Aces\Mods\

In Finder, press Cmd+Shift+G and paste:

~/Library/Application Support/Blindflug Studios/Ground Of Aces/Mods/

Copy the folder, do not create a shortcut or alias: the game skips linked folders.

6. Load it and fly

  1. If a save is open, Options → Quit to main menu.
  2. Open Mods and press Refresh. Your mod is listed. Every mod also shows a Scripting switch: it has no effect at the moment (the current game runs a mod's scripts whenever the mod is enabled), so you can leave it as it is.
  3. Load your save.
  4. Turn on Options → Cheats, open the console with the cheat button and type create_mission coastal_patrol. The mission appears on the war map.

After each later change: validate, copy again (replace the old files), Quit to main menu, load your save (open Mods and press Refresh first if you added a new folder such as Quests/).

Nothing happening? See When nothing happens.