Hey all. Since there's not yet a comprehensive guide to the editor, and there's info spattered about over the web, here's a collection of what I've got so far. Please add any tips you discover.

Here's what I've found out about the AI stuff, which isn't covered so well elsewhere:

- Ignore the teams AI stuff, that's for PvP

- There's no way yet to do the email texts in-game, but you can place room names with the blueprints tool.

- Place a four-arrowed AI random patrol object on an NPC to have them walk about randomly.

- Use red barred footstep AI object on tiles you don't want guards to step on.

- Use coloured footsteps to set patrol paths. Any NPC who starts on a patrol wayp ointwill always follow that colour(?). They will hit every waypoint in the path before looping. They can get stuck if your paths suck.


Questions - Please answer!
- Max 4 paths?
- Is it possible to pause NPCs at certain waypoints?
- Need a general guide to the properties of the different doors, windows and walls because by the names alone it's not always easy to know what's locked, what's open, what's diggable and what's not.
- Have you checked out my Greenlight title, Ir/rational Investigator?
http://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=92933628&searchtext=


General Information - Schatz, Schatz, Schatz, Schatz, Schatz, Schatz

I have only ever used the controller to edit, so I do not know the keyboard controls off the top of my head. I also suspect that the keyboard keys may change based on feedback.

Please note, for some reason, some of these controls are no longer working, I have no idea what happened.

Controls:

A - Place Tile
B - Delete Tile (Only deletes the layer that is currently highlighted)
Y - Fill
X - Rotate (Only rotates the layer that is currently highlighted)

Left Stick - Move Cursor
Right Stick - Navigate item menu
L3 - Undo
R3 - Redo

Left Trigger - Copy or Cancel Copy (if something is on the clipboard)
Right Trigger - Paste
Left Bumper - Floor Down
Right Bumper - Floor Up

D-Pad Up/Down - Change Layer
D-Pad Left- Eye dropper (selects the item in the current layer. Subsequent presses will cycle through layers of that tile)
D-Pad Right - Zoom

Layers: You can have at the most 1 item per layer per tile. This means there is a maximum of 4 objects in 1 tile.

There are 4 layers in the editor:

Architecture - This is floors and walls. Floors and walls are exclusive, so you do not have to place a floor underneath a wall. Every wall has an associated floor that is automatically used, so if the Mole destroys a certain wall type, the corresponding floor will always how. Walls are not seen in game, except for the cave wall. Walls are typically used for the side view, in which case they will have a different color. There are a few wall types that are indestructible by the Mole and C4. These walls are metal. Floors are also used as ceilings by placing a floor tile on the floor above. This layer also includes decorative rugs that have art that is larger than 1 tile, but is in actuality only 1 tile, so floors will need to be place underneath the rug (except for the center piece where the rug was placed).

Furniture - This mostly includes objects that the player can see over, but cannot walk over. This means tables, chairs, rocks, fences, etc. There are some furniture objects that are larger than 1 tile. These objects can cause funky collision if used improperly since they are only 1 tile to place them, but occupy more than 1 tile. For example, using two 2x2 boxes to overlap each other would actually create walls you can walk through.

Item - This is the trickiest layer. It includes ALL gameplay elements that can be seen by the player. This means all pickups like coins, disguises, safes, gear, health kits. It also includes all spawners, like NPC spawners for guards, critters, and player spawners (only use 1 of each at the most, I think 2 of the same spawner will crash the game). It also includes all interactive items like computers, electronic traps, alarms, etc. It includes bushes, lights, staircases, cars, windows. Additionally, all decorative items are in this layer, such as TVs, decals, objects placed on tables, blueprint text, anything purely aesthetic.

Meta - The meta layer is a categorization that includes objects that have an effect on the world, but have placeholders that are not seen by the player. For example, you can play AI behavior in the meta layer. Place a patrol AI behavior on top of a guard to make him patrol. The loot spawner randomly places 5 loot in anything pathable to the spawners location, but the spawner itself is not seen by the player. There are ambient lights for color, ambient SFX for atmosphere, and particle effects like rain or flies. A very important category is Environment. Environment shifts the color palette of the level, sets the music and the sideview for the map. For example, Hijack is an outdoors level, very bright and sunny. Setting this will set your atmosphere to be like Hijack. Only 1 environment can be placed at a time. Placing a second environment will delete the previous environment.
« Last Edit: March 14, 2013, 03:37:22 PM by Andy Nguyen »
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Andy Nguyen
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Copying and Pasting
« Reply #1 on: March 14, 2013, 03:36:26 PM »
Quote
Copying and Pasting

Hold down the left trigger to begin copying at your cursor's location. Move the cursor to create a box of an area you wish you copy. Letting go of Left Trigger will copy the selected area. Pressing Left trigger again will cancel the copy effect. Press Right Trigger to copied area.

There currently is no way to multiple paste. Once you paste, your highlighted area is gone and will need to be re-copied.
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Electronic Traps and Wiring
« Reply #2 on: March 14, 2013, 03:59:01 PM »
Quote
Electronic Traps and Wiring

Electronics in the game are under the Item layer, under subcategory Electronics. This consists of alarms, lasers, metal detectors, cameras, pressure plates, scan doors, security doors, turrets, atms, and search lasers.

Electronics can either be a Trap or a Consequence. Traps are items that are triggered when interacted with. For example, if a camera sees me or if I use a scan door, I am triggering these Traps. In order for Traps to punish the player, they must be attached to a Consequence. If a Trap has no attached Consequence, it will be "triggered" with no additional event.

Consequences serve as the reaction to triggering a trap. The 3 Consequences are: alarm, security door, and turret.

The alarm is the red siren that calls the nearest guard to its area.
The security door is the double lock door that closes when triggered, requiring 6 seconds to unlock.
The turret fires at the target that triggered it.

Use Traps and Consequences in combination to set up gameplay challenges. They can be used in conjunction. You can have a scan door that when triggered, activates an alarm that calls a guard and fires a turret at you while locking you into a room via security doors.

When multiple Traps are connected together, the attached Traps will turn off if any one of them is triggered. This prevents the player from tripping 4 lasers that are attached to a single alarm, since the intent is that the player receive just that single Consequence vs. the same Consequence 4 times. If the intention is to have each laser have its own Consequence, you will need to attach an alarm to each laser.

To determine the path of viruses and the connection between Traps and Consequences, there is wiring. To view the wiring in a level, you will need to have a Trap or Consequence selected or a wiring from the Meta/Electronics category. The view of the wiring is call the Network.

There are 2 types of wiring: Hidden wiring and Trap wiring.

Hidden wiring is used to create a path for viruses to travel. When looking at the Network, you are able to see all paths a virus can travel. If you have a computer on a table, the computer might not be connected to the network, so any virus that spawns from that computer will not work. If you have a trap that is in the middle of a room, there might not be any wiring to connect a virus to it, so a virus will not be able to hack it. Use hidden wiring to connect the network to all areas on the floor, and make sure all computers, traps, consequences, lights, and any other electronics are connected so viruses can be effective during gameplay.

It is important to note that a virus will die if it is not within 5 tiles of the player. If there is an outdoor area that the player can reach without any wiring, any virus the player has will die if that virus cannot follow the player. As a result, I tend to create wiring on the perimeter of outdoor areas so the viruses can still follow the player.

Trap wiring is used to connect Traps and Consequences to each other. Each Trap and Consequence has a built in trap wire, so you do not need to place a trap wiring on top of these items. When viewing the Network, trap wiring is distinguishable via the red dotted box around it. Make sure you connect these red boxes to any electronics you want connected. It is imperative that all Traps have at least one Consequence connected via the trap wiring so setting off a Trap will have an effect in gameplay. If the Trap and Consequence are in adjacent tiles, they are already connected and do not need any additional wiring.