Persistent Variables

Variables have been a part of FRED since the Retail version, but are limited by only being available in the mission where they are defined. Persistant variables differ in this, as they are stored for later use instead of being lost for good when the mission ends. This allows mission designers to carry over specific information between missions and even campaigns.

There are two types of persistant variables:

Player-persistant

This type of persistant variable is stored in the pilot file. Further, they are stored immediately when they are created/changed from within a mission. This means that any change is going to be there regardless of the later outcome of the mission. Player-persistant variables can be accessed and changed from any campaign played with the same pilot.

Campaign-persistant

These persistant variables are stored in the campaign file, and are only stored when a campaign progresses to a new mission. So if the player is killed or quits during a mission, and changes made to a campaign-persistant variable are not stored.