Useful Entities and Other Things

Required Entities

These entities are those that are required in making your objetive map.

Standard Objective

The following entities are those that are common to both types of objective maps.

• CinematicScreen: - Forces the user's screen into a cinematic (letterbox) mode. This makes it impossible for them to mess with the camera. This is on purpose - so that scripted camera movements cannot be broken.

• DestroyablePropObject - This is any object that can be destroyed for whatever reason. It's also used for capture beacons and so on. Refer to the Wiki for a description of this entity. I do want to say this, the DestroyablePropObject can be just about anything that you need or want to be destroyed. It also doubles as surface beacons and can be assigned to be captured rather than destroyed. A capture area can be set via the CaptureRadius property. Typical capture radii for surface beacons are usually set at 128.

• End Level - This entity ends the level no matter the outcome of the objective and returns a winner/loser/tie dependent on the outcome of the objective. Assault objective maps REQUIRE at least three of these - one for a tie, one for attackers win, one for defenders win.
• Game Time Checker - The Game Time Checker is an entity that watches the game clock during a round of play and can be set to trigger an entity when the clock reaches a certain amount of time remaining. Assault objective maps REQUIRE this, to at least fire a tie or switch the sides.
• Move Camera - The Move Camera entity is an entity that controls the in-game camera when the entity is activated. The Move Camera can be set to move to any position within the map bounds and how fast to move to that position. It can also be set to look anywhere in the map.

• Multiplexer - There is no other entity that seems more important than the Multiplexer(Mux). The Mux is your friend; it is the single entity that you will use the most. Be prepared to use 20 - 30+ Muxes in your maps. A Mux is a logical entity and can fire other entities (including other muxes) in a sequence. Most of your objective map's logic will be made up of Muxes. Generally, the Mux will be activated by something whether it be a sensor or an objective object that was set to activate it upon destruction. However, the Mux will be used in conjunction with entities in just about every aspect of your map, from surface beacon start points to MoveCamera and EndLevel entities; be prepared to assign a wide variety of tasks to your Muxes. That isn't to say the Muxes actually DO anything, they simply fire the entity that will be doing the actual "work".

• Objective - This is another important entity that you will have great use of but not in the same numbers as the Multiplexer. For every objective object you have in a map you will need two Objective entities, one for attackers and one for defenders.

• PlayerStart - Player starts when used in objective maps are usually linked up with surface beacons via Muxes (how to set up Player starts with surface beacons will be presented in greater detail later in this guide).

Assault Mode Objective

The following enties are those that are found only in Assault Mode Objective maps.

• AssaultMode - Refer to the Wiki for a description of this entity. Depending on the outcome of the objective, Assault Mode will need to be fed one of two commands, activate or failure. More on that later.

• NoChanceToSurviveCheck - This entity scans the map to see if either side as "died off" and fires the appropriate entity. You absolutely need one of these to make sure that the appropriate side is awarded victory when lives run out or all beacons are claimed.

• ScriptScreenFade - The ScriptScreenFade entity basically does what its name says it does. Its fades the screen after an Assault Mode round. It can also be set to unfade the screen after the AssaultMode entity resets the map.

Optional Entities

These entities are not necessary in creating a functional objective map yet can be used to create a map with extra features, background details and map "flavor".

• BonusZone - Ah, the BonusZone, friend to all in its area, enemies to those being pounded by people in its area. The BonusZone can be many different types of zones ranging from repair to sheild recharge to projectile power multiplier and its radius can be set as large or as small as you wish.

• ForceWall - Similar to the DestoyablePropObject, except it is a force field that stretches from the Start Point to the End Point. It can be set to teams and can take that team's color or it can belong to no one and can be set as a Hyperchannel force wall. Its color can be overridden with RBG values from 0 to 1 where 0 = 0 and 1 = 255. It is important to remember that where you place the force wall entity is where its healthbar will apear, therefore, it is important to set the enity as close to the exact middle as possible.

• TurretBeam - This is the larger turret that fires the one large beam. Its health, damage output, firing rate and aquire delay can all be modified.

• TurretDoubleBarrel - This is the most common type of turret and fires regular plasma botls. Its health, firing rate and aquire delay can all be modified. The model for this type of turret can be specified to be the not as common red turret.

• ObjectStateChecker - The ObjectStateChecker is very useful for a map that has mutliple (2 or more) objective objects in it. What the checker does is check an object's state when it is fired and when ALL objects match the critera given, it then fires its target. So, say you have a map with 3 objective objects but you don't want the map to reset until ALL of the objects are destroyed. Set your objects to fire a multiplexer upon death, then set that multiplexer to target the checker. The checker will scan your three objects to see if they match the criteria (in most cases dead) and only when all three objects are dead will the checker send a command to its targeted entity. (Note from Vek: You do not need to target a multiplexer first, you can target the state checker directly)

• Prop - The Prop is an entity that allows you to place large background objects (like planets) and other models. It can also be used with animated models that spin or rotate, and is mainly used for outside-the-map stuff. DestroyablePropObjects are used for moving decorations inside the map, even if invulnerable.

Other Useful Entities

These Entities may or may not be features in a map but are useful when creating a map.

• Spawn - The Spawn entity can well... spawn anything into the field of play. The main reason you would want a spawner in your map is to test something that is buggy or to test the logic on a mux to see if you have something set right. I usually have it set to spawn a level 1 hyperbol wherever I have it placed. (Vek Note: Some gimmick maps use it to spawn a stream of hyperbols as part of the game play, since you can detect when a particular entity enters a certain zone, it has been known to be used in a soccer type goal match).

Terminology

Before we get started putting together any kind of objective map let me inform you of some of the terminology that I will be using.

• Target - A target is nothing more than a name an entity is looking at or pointing to another entity. When you input a name for an entity it will be in the field "TargetName". This is what's used by the editor and other entities when firing commands.

• Fire/Firing/Fired - Basically, this means an entity is sending a command to another entity or is sent a command from another entity. The most common command is activate, thus firing is almost analogous to activating.
• Pointing - Its basically the same thing as target except it's more of an "action" than a name.

• Model - A model is like a skin on specific types of entities, in most cases, this would be the DestroyablePropObject. Some models are animated and are used as Props.

• Trigger - Basically just another word for Firing, but used only when an entity is sending a command to its target.