Your first mission
This page takes you from the start page to a mission you can play: make it, add a few guards, give one of them a patrol, and put it into the game.
The start page
The studio always opens on its start page. At the top: New mission, Import a mission file, Browse the community, and the mission you had open last, to Continue it. The header has the community, Settings (the gear) and your community account. The studio logo in the editor's top bar, or Mission, Start page, brings you back here at any time; the mission you were on stays open, and Back to in the header returns to it.
Opening a mission shows a short loading screen while its level and its ground are read, then the editor.
Below that, three shelves.
- In the game, once you have applied a mission: every mission in the game after its own fourteen, in the order the game plays them (see The game's mission list).
- Your missions, each with a picture of its map, the mission it is built on, how many guards and changes it has, and whether it is in the game: Not in the game yet, In game · mission 15 · up to date, or changes not applied.
- Built-in missions, the fourteen missions as the game ships them. They can't be changed, renamed or deleted. Click one to look around its map, or press New mission from this. Looking around, you can select things (Shift+drag takes a whole area), view them in 3D, copy them, and keep them in Your items to use in a mission of your own. Anything that would change the mission shows an amber warning instead.
The ⋯ button on one of your missions opens its menu: open, rename, duplicate, export it to a file, and Delete. Delete is for good: the mission goes from your library and from the game (see Deleting a mission).
Make a mission
Press New mission. It opens a page of its own (All missions or Esc goes back).
- Name it. This is the name you will pick in the game's mission list.
- Choose what to start from:
- Copy of a mission: every guard, building and objective of the mission you pick, as the game has them. The easiest start: change what you like and keep the rest.
- Empty map: the level's ground, sky, light, weather and walkways, with nothing on it. No buildings, no guards, no objectives. For a mission built from scratch.
- Pick the mission.
- If you like, open Music and picture below the list:
- Music: the main menu's, another mission's, or the outro's, instead of the map's own. Press ▶ to listen to one: the one you listen to is the one chosen, as is one you click.
- Picture: the one the game's mission list shows beside your mission's name. Choose any picture: the game shows it at 168 × 124, so it is cut to that shape. Drag the frame to choose the part, and size it with the slider; the part left out is dimmed, and the preview beside it is what the game will show.
- Press Create mission.
Both can be changed later from Design, Music and picture, and go into the game when you apply.
The mission opens in the editor. Everything you do from now on is saved as you go.
A tour of the editor
| What it is | |
|---|---|
| 1 | The menu bar: Mission (new, the start page, save, rename, duplicate), Edit, Design (time, weather, versions, campaigns), Game (check, apply, settings) and Share (export, import). |
| 2 | Side tabs: Inventory, Objectives, Events, Security, Navigation and Cutscenes. Click the open one again to hide the panel and give the map the room. |
| 3 | Inventory: your own items, characters, weapons and items, and nearly 300 structures and objects to place. The button by its search box shows it as tabs. |
| 4 | Layers: show or hide terrain, buildings, props, fences, doors, pickups, cameras, guards, labels, walkways and patrol routes; play or pause the patrols. |
| 5 | View tools: jump to the player start, fit the base, fit everything, zoom to the selection, step through your changes, measure, save the view as a picture, the map computer preview, sight lines, and the live view. The Legend is beside them. |
| 6 | Ground bar: level, raise, lower, smooth, ramp, remove, brush and paint the ground. |
| 7 | The map: the level as the map computer shows it. Drag to move, scroll to zoom, click to select, right-click for actions. |
| 8 | Selection: what you clicked, with its 3D preview, its details and its settings. |
| 9 | Change log: every change that is not in the game yet. It has its own Changes tab on the right wall, with how many on the tab. |
| 10 | Apply to game: builds the mission and puts it into the game. |
| 11 | Readout: the map position, ground height and slope under the cursor, and what the cursor is over. |
| 12 | Selection, AI designer and Changes tabs: switch the right panel between what you selected, the AI designer and the change log. |
| 13 | The mission's name. The pencil beside it (or a double-click on the name) renames it: Enter keeps the new name, Esc puts the old one back. |
| 14 | Community: missions other players shared, and sharing yours. See The community. |
| 15 | You and the settings: your community account (your picture and name, or Not signed in) and its menu, and the gear that opens Settings. |
Add a guard
- In the Inventory, click a character, for example Patrol (AK). A see-through guard follows the cursor.
- Press R to turn him, if you like.
- Click the map where he should stand. He is set down on the ground, or on the floor of the building you clicked in.
Or right-click the map and choose Add enemy here. Your own guards are drawn in yellow until they are in the game; enemies are red, and soldiers on your side green. His panel's Side turns him into a friendly (see Sides).
Give him a patrol
- Click your guard to select him.
- In his panel, press Edit patrol route (or press P).
- Click walkway points on the map, one after another. The route is drawn as you go, with its stops numbered.
- Press Done.
Guards walk the level's walkways (the navigation mesh), so a patrol is made of walkway points. See Guards, patrols and walkways for more, including adding walkway points of your own.
Put it into the game
Press Apply to game. The studio first shows a check list: anything that would stop the mission from working, anything worth a look, and what will go into the game. If nothing blocks it, press Apply. It takes about a minute. See Applying and playing.
Then start the game and pick your mission by its name in the mission list.
Undo, redo and saving
- Ctrl+Z undoes, Ctrl+Y redoes. Every change can also be undone on its own from the Change log: the button at the end of its row.
- The mission saves by itself a moment after each change. Ctrl+S saves at once.
- Press ? in the editor to list every shortcut.
Next: the map.