[TEC] Mission Editor, Triggers, and Time

[propbeanie]

The "Timer" Trigger is just that - a timer. Think of a wind-up egg timer from the 1970s. It starts at 0:00 and counts down in minutes, seconds, hours, etc. Put a timer trigger into a mission, and then go look at it in a text editor. Instead of giving you a "date" per se, it might say something like -971 instead for its countdown (hours?? I cannot remember...). Anyway, the Timer's "zero" is the date of the mis file that it is in, NOT the game's date. By default, you might have a 19380101 date, maybe a 19400101 Parameter date, and that is what the timer counts from, in spite of what the "date" shows in the ME's display. In fact, do that. Build a new mission, open the parameters menu, and change the date of the mission to something like December 3, 1943, and you'll notice that the time/date in the Timer trigger has now changed. The really strange thing comes into play when you "date" a mis file, and then the player gets assigned that mission either before or after that set date, and the timer is off still. It works fine for Single Missions or Patrols usually, but still, mis-date something and the Timer will fail. Silent Hunter 'logic'... It can be an exercise in frustration in a career file.