This is a really basic 'for dummies' guide to making a mission for Arma Reforger, currently on version 1.6.0.108 of Arma Reforger Tools - so if you have a newer version things may have changed (but hopefully not!). This has been fully updated from the previous version of this guide which was severely outdated.

In this guide we will take you from loading up Reforger and wondering where the Mission Editor is all the way through to a basic PvE/Coop scenario where players have to clear a small hamlet of USSR troops. I will use the terms missions and scenario interchangeably - scenario is correct, but I've always called them missions.

Firstly I want to thank the same people as my last guide - Zeal, Dave_pilot, Naizarak, Cunnah, SneakyAzWhat, Ex0, Useless Fodder and Damodredd as without them I wouldn't have been able to start. This updated version is entirely possible due to Blackheart_Six, whose YouTube videos show a lot more indepth and are an excellent place to learn more about making scenarios in Arma Reforger. If you have questions the the enfusion_scenario channel in the Arma Discord is an excellent place to ask.

I also have a Youtube Channel where I generally post videos of missions I've made - at the moment all Arma 3, but in the future hopefully some Reforger scenarios will sneak in.

Throughout the guide, and scenario building in general, remember to keep spamming the 'save' button, especially when messing around with new things!

Where to make missions?

Unlike Arma 3, there is no in-game mission editor for ArmA Reforger. There's the Game Master mode, which is similar to Zeus game play, but the actual scenario editing software is in the ArmA Reforger Tools. Whilst this will be much harder to learn, it also removes all of the barriers that the mission editor had in ArmA 3, so the possibilities are genuinely endless, even if the way to get there is harder.

To download the Arma Reforger tools go to your Steam library and select the tick box "Tools" in the top left drop down menu:

Then find Arma Reforger Tools and click the download button:

Once its downloaded, launch it and you will get the 'Enfusion Workbench Launcher.' Enfusion is the name of the engine that runs Arma Reforger (and will run Arma 4), and the workbench is the program used for modding the engine - which includes making scenarios.

Once you're on the Launcher, you will see any projects you have already started - this will be empty for you at the start. Click on 'Add Project' to start making our scenario:

Then click 'Create New Project':

Type in the name of your scenario - I have called mine 'My First Mission' and click create:

You can have multiple scenarios in each project - so if you are making a set of missions for your community to play, you could have one project that holds all of the missions, meaning that your community only needs to download one mod to have access to all of your scenarios.

If your scenario is dependant on other mods - for example weapon and gear mods, you can add them here, however for this guide I will just be making a vanilla mission.

Once you've clicked create, it will open up the workbench and your screen should look like this:

We're now ready to start making our scenario.

Creating the World

Both islands (or maps if you're not as old school) and scenarios are now called Worlds. A scenario will be a 'SubScene' of an existing world.

To start creating your scenario, click on 'World Editor' in the quick launch menu:

This will load up an empty world:

Click on the open icon, and select which world you want to use. For this guide, I am going to use the Kolgujev map, which is called Cain in the filenames. Eden is Everon, an Arland doesn't get a cool codename for some reason and is just called Arland. In the Cain folder you will find Cain.ent (ArmaReforger>Worlds>Cain>Cain.Ent), which is the World Entity for Kolgujev:

Click OK and it will load up the island. Once its loaded you can navigate the map by holding right click, using the mouse to pan, WASD to move the camera, Q to move up and Z to move down. The scroll wheel will change the speed that the camera moves. Have a look around and find a nice hamlet to have you mission in.

I've picked the small village of Langonnet as the location for my scenario:

Creating a SubScene

We now need to create a SubScene of the Kolgujev map to make our scenario in. Luckily, the World is now automatically locked so we can't accidentally ruin the island.

Click on the New icon in the top left:

And select 'Sub-scene (of current world)':

Then click OK.

We now need somewhere to save our SubScene. When you opened the World Editor, the workbench opened a new window for the World Editor to sit in - leaving the workbench window open. Go back to it now, and open the MyFirstMission folder (or whatever you called your project):

Click 'Create' at the bottom and then 'New Folder':

Call your new folder 'Worlds' then click OK:

Then go back to the World Editor, and click the save icon in the top left:

Make sure its navigated to MyFirstMission>Worlds and give your world a name - I'm calling mine 'MyFirstMissionWorld', and click OK:

There you are - you have created your first world, and it hopefully took you far less than seven days.

Setting up the Scenario

Now that we have our world we need to set up our scenario, as right now the Workbench doesn't know what we are trying to achieve - we could be making a modified map rather than a scenario for all it knows.

Game Mode Setup

Unlike in my last guide, where we had to manually set up the game mode, we now have a Game Mode Setup plugin that enables us to quickly add all of the required managers that tell Reforger that we are making a scenario.

On the World Editor, click on Plugins>Game Mode Setup:

And you will get the Game Mode Setup wizard appear. It will already have the Scenario Framework config loaded, which is the one we will be using. There are also configs for Game Master and Conflict modes, and you can add your own custom configs to make it easier to make scenarios to your specifications.

For now, however, just click Next:

It will then come up with a 'World Scan' window. This basically looks at the world and sub scene you've got loaded and makes sure you're not trying to create a new game mode when there is a game mode already loaded. IF you've followed the guide, this shouldn't be an issue, so just click 'Scan world':

This will take a few moments, then will come up with a results page telling you that you are missing a bunch of entities - but have no fear, this is the desired outcome! Just click 'Next' to continue:

Then on the next screen click 'Create entities':

You will get the World Configuration Completed screen, which will have three bullet points telling you what still needs to be manually configured - SCR_AIWorld, FactionManager_USxUSSR, and LoadoutManager_USxUSSR. Just click 'Next', and we will go on to configure those three entities in a moment:

You will then get the Mission Header window. The Mission Header is where you can put the name, description, and author of the scenario, as well as set things like the time and date, maximum player count etc.

Click the 'Create Header' button:

You will get a little warning come up, just click 'Yes to All':

This will take you back to the Workshop Menu, and have a new window - just click 'Next':

The next screen tells you that the game mode has been configured. It then says 'Give it a try and hit that Play button' - this is a LIE! Do not listen to the false Game Mode Setup wizard, for it is full of tricks. As we haven't set up any spawn points, the play button won't work yet. So just click 'Close' to move away from this blatant disinformation:

We will come back to the Mission Header later, for now just go back to the World Editor, where you will see a bunch of entities under the default layer:

Set Up Navigation Mesh

Now we need to manually configure the first of the three things the wizard told us would need manually configuring.

The first is the Navigation Mesh under SCR_AIWorld - this is a file, or rather three files, that tells the AI where it can move - without it the AI will try to walk through walls.

In your Hierarchy on the left, find SCR_AIWorld under the deault layer and click on it:

This will open the object properties on the right, which is where we will do most of our editting. Each entity is made up of numerous components. The three components we are interested in at the moment are the three called 'NavmeshWorldComponent':

When you click on different components, the available properties at the bottom of the sidebar change. The other components let you mess around with things like what ambient animals spawn, what the AI considers cover, and what behaviours the AI will use. I'd recommend leaving all of these at their default settings.

You have three NavmeshWorldComponents as there are three types (or projects) of navigation mesh - one for characters called Soldiers, one for vehicles called BTRLike, and one low resolution navmesh.

Click on the first NavmeshWorldComponent, and you will see that for the property 'Navmesh Project' it will say 'Soldiers':

Click on the 'set class' button next to Navmesh Files Config under Navmesh Settings:

This will openup two new properties, Navmesh File and Navmesh File Overide. Click ont he '..' next to 'Navmesh File':

There are several navmeshes to pick from for each world, and in all honesty I have absolutely no idea what the different is. I've been using the ones in the GameMaster folder as the folder is cleaner so its easier to see which one I'm picking. So, navigate to ArmaReforger>Worlds>GameMaster>NavMeshes and select GM_Cain.nmn, and click 'Ok':

The second NavmeshWorldComponent is the one for vehicles, so should say BTRLike next to Navmesh Project:

Follow the same process, clicking on the two dots next to Navmesh File, but this time selecting 'GM_Cain_vehicles.nmn', and click OK:

Now, the third NavmeshWorldComponent has the Navmesh Project 'LowRes':

And naturally the file for this is found somewhere completely different! Click on the '..' next to Navmesh File again, but this time navigate to ArmaReforger>worlds>MP>Navmeshes - and at the bottom you will see LowResCain.nmn. Select this and click OK:

That is our navmeshes all set up - now when we spawn in AI later on, they'll know how to walk around.

Setting up the Faction Manager

The Scenario Framework Config automatically adds the USxUSSR faction manager. This adds two factions to the scenario - the US and the USSR. For this guide we will just keep this faction manager, as US and USSR are fine for our purposes. However, there is another Prefab faction manager at ArmaReforger>Prefabs>MP>Managers>Factions>FactionManager_Editor.et. This adds FIA and Civilian factions as well. So, you could delete the FactionManager_USxUSSR and replace it by dragging the other faction onto it.

However, for this guide we will just look at the USxUSSR faction manager. Click on the faction manager, which may show as shortened to ...Manager_USxUSSR on your screen:

Then object Object Properties make sure the component SCR_FactionManager is selected:

If you go down to Unsorted you will see two SCR_Factions added:

These are your US and USSR factions. There is a lot of information in them, however all we need to set up for the moment is which factions are playable. By default both are playable - but this is a PvE scenario, so we need to make the USSR side not playable.

Open the second SCR_Faction and untick the boxes 'Is Playable' and 'Show In Welcome Screen If Non-Playable':

If you were making a PvP scenario you could add a limit to how many players - say you wanted a commandos style mission where one side played as an elite team and the others as the hapless airfield guards, which was always fun.

For now, however, we will stick to a PvE mission by just unticked IsPlayable.

Setting up the Loadout Manager

The loadout manager does already have default loadouts, however you can add new loadouts here if you want. At the moment there are six default loadouts:

• Rifleman
• Automatic Rifleman
• Machinegunner
• Grenadier
• Light AT
• Sniper

However, to demonstrate I am going to add a suppressed rifleman loadout.

First click on LoadoutManager_USxUSSR in the Hierarchy:

Ensure SCR_LoadoutManager is selected under Object Properties on the right, and at the bottom under 'Loadout Manager' you should have 12 player loadouts - 6 US, 6 USSR:

Click on the + next to Player Loadouts:

Then select SCR_FactionPlayerLoadout:

You will then have a new loadout with four settings - Loadout Name, Loadout Resource, Loadout Image and Affiliated Faction:

I'm going to change the Loadout Name to be #AR-role_Suppressed, then click the '..' next to Loadout Resource:

This is where we will pick our Loadout. You can find the premade loadouts under ArmaReforger>Prefabs>Characters>Factions. I am picking ArmaReforger>Prefabs>Characters>Factions>BLUFOR>US_Army>GreenBerets>Suppressed>Character_US_SF_S.et, and click OK:

For Loadout Image you can leave this blank or find them under ArmaReforger>UI>Textures>EditorPreviews>Characters>Factions:

Then for Affiliated Faction, type the name of the faction from the Faction Manager that the loadout is for - in my case this is US:

And that is your loadouts all configured!

Layers

The final thing to set up are the different layers that we are going to be using. Layers just help to keep things neat and tidy in the editor as far as I am aware. I tend to go for a layer for all of the system things - like the managers we have just set up, a layer for the starting position (which I called Phase0) and a layer for each 'part' of the mission, which I call phases.

In this example I will only have one phase, but say I was making a mission where players attacked a town to a destroy a radio mast, then raided a military base to destroy a truck, then extracted, I would have three phases (plus Phase0).

So, for this guide we will start of by renaming our default layer to System by rightclicking on it, and selecting 'rename':

Call the layer 'System' and click OK:

Then right click on your SubScene world and select 'Create Layer':

Call this layer 'Phase0' and click OK:

Do the same again and create another layer called Objectives, so you should end up with this (I have had to rename some things for screenshots, so you won't have the blue arrows next to Objectives or Phase0):

Excellent! We are now ready to start making our scenario!