UGC Mission Design

[SimpleSlave]

I have a couple problems that I can't seem to work out in my mission. One integral piece to my mission is to make a "poisoned" area that while inside, Cole will gradually lose health and must leave the area. I have tried setting this logic up with volumes and switches so many different ways my head is spinning! Sometimes it works 3 or 4 times then breaks and other times it won't work at all. Here are my issues:

1.) When Cole enters the Poison Volume he will continue to lose 20% HP every 2 seconds until he enters the Regen Volume where, after 5 seconds, his health is set to 100%. The volumes have been set up this way because it seems that whenever I have HP subtracted from Cole, the game does not recognize that he is wounded and does not activate his regeneration effect. I have tested this with a monitor set to when Cole is wounded, mission fail but it still does not recognize that he is wounded. It will, however, recognize he is wounded if hit by a bomb or shot by militia and then activate his regeneration effect. Is this just how it will work and I must use a work-around, or am I missing something completely with trying to gradually decrease health while in a "poisonous" area? Here is the current logic of the two volumes (I cannot recall all the different combinations I have tried):

Poison Volume:

Volume1(on entry, reset after any triggered) --> Splitter (All) --> 1) unpause Poison Timer. 2) Pause Regen Timer 3) goes into the side of an enable switch in the Regen Volume. 4) Timer (after .1 seconds - this is only set up to have a delay between the unpause logic modifier and the timer its unpausing, this kept giving me trouble) -->Splitter (All) --> 1) Poison Timer (every 3 seconds, repeating) --> Subtract 20% HP. 2) brief (3 seconds, pop up) --> brief (2 seconds, pop up)

Regen Volume:

Volume2 (on entry, reset after all triggered) --> Splitter (All) -->1) Unpause Regen Timer. 2) Switch (enable) --> Splitter (All) --> 1) Pause Poison Timer. 2) Regen Timer (5 sec) --> Splitter (All) --> 1) reset Poison Timer. 2) set HP to 100%. 3) brief (3 seconds, pop up)

2.) If I do not include the logic modifiers to pause, unpause and reset the two timers, the two volumes will work beautifully, with the exception that the poison timer will continue to subtract HP. Clearly, this is not what I want to happen. As it is setup like above, after you trigger the Poison Volume one time, then trigger the Regen Volume, and go back to the Poison volume the second time, only the briefs trigger and not the Poison Timer, unless you again re-enter the Poison Volume a third time. The weird thing is that sometimes on the second entry to the Poison Volume the screen displays the blood very lightly as though you have been wounded but the timer is not activated and you do not continue to be wounded. I have the display on for the timer so that I know when it has been triggered and it only comes on for the first and third entry to the volume. I have tried all of the reset options for the volumes and have found that setting the Poison Volume to reset after any trigger will *sometimes* work 3-4 times before breaking. Where has my logic gone wrong, or is this a problem with the timers/logic modifiers?

3.) Do switches not reset when the volume resets? The Regen Volume will continue to trigger the brief any time you re-enter it after the first time the Poison Volume is activated. Is there any other way that I can create this type of looping logic, or work-around for this issue with the switches?

Sorry if this is confusing, and I know it is a lot to read through! Thanks in advance if anyone can help point me in the right direction.

[RetroSteveUK]

I have read through your post carefully, and  there are two issues I've come across which may be causing your problems here. 

First - you can't pause/unpause repeating timers without encountering issues. The experience I had was that if you retrigger a repeating timer that has been paused, it just breaks.

Second - switches can only be triggered once, and their effect is permanent.  You can work around this by using multiple splitters with multiple disble/enable switches, (so each switch is used once, then the next is enabled before it is subsequently disabled,) but it will only work for as many times as you've put in extra splits.

If I were you I'd set up a new mission to experiment with, and use it to try different methods of getting this poison area idea to work.  I'll have a think about it and post a follow-up here if I get any ideas.

[RetroSteveUK]

Try setting up your health degradation without using repeating timers.  Here's a loose plan for the logic:

Cole enters volume ...

Trigger a non-repeating timer, and when it's done, reduce Cole's health, then loop back to re-trigger the same timer, (you might need to put another short timer into the loop, maybe 1 second, to prevent glitches caused by using loops.)

Use a splitter after triggering the non-repeating loop timer, that leads back to disable (using a switch) the volume's output to the timer being triggered.  This will avoid the timer being triggered a second time (which may cause bugs).

The same splitter that disables the initial volume output should also lead to a second output from the volume, enabling it (using another switch) to unpause the non-repeating looping timer when Cole re-enters.

Cole leaves volume [triggering exit volume in the process] ...

Pause the non-repeating looping timer, and restore Cole's health.

The upshot of this should be ... When Cole is inside the poison area, his health will gradually decrease until he dies.  Exiting the poison area will restor his health.  This should work repeatedly.

If you still have issues, let me know.  I'd like to try out this logic for myself and if I get it working in a test mission I'll upload it to the server for you to have a look at.

[thxnet57]

Hello, I almost have the gist of UGC, but there's a few things I would like help figuring out.

1. How do I get civilians to be scared when the thugs/enemies turn hostile to Cole? I am able to make the enemies become, enemies, but the civilians just stand there, doing nothing. Can't I get them to run away from area? Do I have to make a path for every single one of them or is it possible to scatter them in random directions?

2. I am working on my first serious mission right now, in case you'd like to know. But I digress. When I attempt to start up the screen to see how things are going, I want to see the mission name etc. and the cutscenes that I created. But for a split second I see the objective "Stop all the thugs." before the cutscene. How do you get rid of that split second objective (I want that after the cutscene) and how do I make the mission name and such appear when I start?

I think that's it for now, although some part me is still a little troubled with the waypoints.

[RetroSteveUK]

1. How do I get civilians to be scared when the thugs/enemies turn hostile to Cole? I am able to make the enemies become, enemies, but the civilians just stand there, doing nothing. Can't I get them to run away from area? Do I have to make a path for every single one of them or is it possible to scatter them in random directions?

The ambient civillians that wander around in the environment are random elements in the game - you can't influence them using UGC tools.  They will however react to Cole's, and Cole's enemies',  actions.  You can use a traffic modifier tool to completely remove them, (or reduce their numbers,) and put in your own civillians, who can then be directed with UGC tools, but the more civillians you put in, the more space it takes up on the 100% capacity bar for your mission.  You can also use the traffic modifier to define a specific area in the game where ambient civillians should not enter - ie. if you need one small area to be free of civillians but you want them everywhere else in the game.

2. I am working on my first serious mission right now, in case you'd like to know. But I digress. When I attempt to start up the screen to see how things are going, I want to see the mission name etc. and the cutscenes that I created. But for a split second I see the objective "Stop all the thugs." before the cutscene. How do you get rid of that split second objective (I want that after the cutscene) and how do I make the mission name and such appear when I start?

It sounds like you've put an objective (Stop all the thugs) into the mission start logic box.  Take this out - leave it blank. Instead, put a mission objective logic box that says Stop all the thugs into your mission after the the cutscene logic. 

The mission name at mission start will appear when someone plays your mission outside of the UGC editor.  You won't see it while editing.  To see it, take Cole to your start point when you're not in the editor, walk over the glowing green mission marker, then select Play Mission.  You'll see your mission start in the same way as everyone else.

I think that's it for now, although some part me is still a little troubled with the waypoints.

Waypoints are just markers that appear on the minimap to show a player where to go next.  Are you having issues with checkpoints?  Checkpoint logic is complicated and can cause many bugs if you don't get it just right.

[thxnet57]

Oh, I was actually referring to the civilians that I put into the UGC mission from the tools. I can't get them to do anything. I want them to cower or run away when the thugs and Cole start to fight but doesn't that have something to do with triggers? (Which still is kind of perplexing to me.)

[SimpleSlave]

@RetroSteveUK: Thank you so much for your help; it works beautifully!!! I set up the logic per your suggestion on Tuesday, but I've been having issues logging back in to the forum. For some reason it kept bouncing be back to the login screen, so sorry for the delay in responding. This logic actually helps in other areas that were giving me trouble with volumes and non-repeating timers too! Thank you!!

[RetroSteveUK]

In that case you need to apply a modifier to the group that your civillians are part of. Two things you can do, each triggered when Cole's enemies 'change target' to him. 

1) Logic modifier set to give 'orders' to the civillians.

2) Script command set to play the cower animation, or to make the civillian run to a point that you've defined using  a path point.

Experiment with these and see what results you get.  Also, if you want many civillians to react differently, assign them different group names and make the groups react differently.

[Ant_TKD]

Are there any pages that tell you the basics of UGC creating? 

[GaNk1n1t]

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Ant_TKD wrote:

Are there any pages that tell you the basics of UGC creating? 

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There aren't any official UGC pages, but there are two links I will point out that can help teach you the basics and advanced tutorials of UGC. 

For easy to understand videos explaining the UGC basics, click here. There are a total of 8 videos that follow-up from that video, these videos are made by the suckerpunchcommunity or company itself, they are very easy to understand and have helped me immensely when I needed help on some of the basic logic boxes. <---I highly recommend this link .

For a page that can potentionally teach you the advanced logics of UGC, click here. The user named, RetroSteveUK has created this UGC tutorial page, for users who need help with advanced logic boxes. The page can direct you to UGC missions that can be played in game yourself that teach you how to use difficult logic boxes. 

If you have questions regarding your UGC basics, missions, or advice, that's what we're here for . Anyways I hope this helps you.