Finished the Infamous 2 campaign? then get these blast shards and dead drops. If you are done with these two tasks, there is still a lot you can do in this open World sandbox game. With the Infamous 2 UGC level editor, players can build new missions, then share them with the World to play them. This way, you always have enough creative missions that you would never get bored.
If you want to get your level featured in the Infamous 2 community-created content, start with these basics and build upon these to create a killer level.
I will be brief with text and add relative video demonstration by the developer, video are a bit quick so read the text if you can’t understand something.
If you are looking for a complex guide to walk you through the UGC Level Editor, this guide isn’t for you. If you are looking for something to get you started with the UGC Level Editor, read on.
Infamous 2 UGC Level Editor
Create or Edit Mission Template
There are two ways to start creating a mission in Infamous 2 level editor, you can either choose to ‘Create Mission From Template’ or you can ‘Create an Empty Mission’.
If you Choose ‘Create Mission From Template’ option, you will see a list of Infamous 2 Missions which you can edit. Choose your favorite and start.
Once you have loaded the mission, you will notice several white discs, which are basically logic boxes. Logic Boxes are the tools you need to create your mission scenarios. You can choose the end and beginning, you can edit a whole lot of different things using these logic boxes to govern how your mission scenario plays out.
For starter, start the mission, by select the logic box that starts the mission, it will be the one with a circle and exclamation mark on it. Select it, Press X to load the option wheel, and then select Play Mission.
You will start the mission at the same point the starting logic box was placed and the objective would read what’s set in the victory condition logic box.
Let’s talk about the logic boxes and how you can connect them, and what is Smart Text.
The white discs you see on the UGC editor are logic Boxes. Remember, Logic Boxes are only visible via UGC editor. Connecting these logic boxes will direct the events of your mission. There are two types of Logic Boxes, those that send signal and those that receive signal.
Logic Boxes that send signals are looking for a condition to be matched. They watch for something specific to happen to their group and then fire their outputs activating their attached receivers.
Each logic box has a wire that can be extended and plugged into a receiver. There are two primary logic boxes that send signals, a monitor and a volume.
Receivers are indicated by inputs. Input is the round socket located on the side of the box. Receiver would activate when it receives the signal.
One of the most versatile logic boxes is object modifier, you want to use the object modifier any time you wish to change the default settings or attributes of the group.
That’s why you should take sometime to familiarize yourself with different options in modifier options menu.
Some logic boxes have both input and output, what this means is that, once the input has been triggered, the output will trigger after its condition is matched. Like if a timer is placed between a monitor and object modifier, the object modifier will trigger after the timer completes.
The text you see on the bottom right is the smart text which will dynamically update when you alter logic boxes or change the conditions. It will tell how each set of Logic Boxes will function.
There can be set of Logic Boxes which don’t have any input or output, these will trigger automatically when the mission starts, and will remain active throughout the mission.
How to Create Unique Groups in UGC Level Editor
Setting up individual Groups within your inFAMOUS 2 UGC mission can infinitely increase the possibilities of your mission.
Knowing how to effectively utilize Groups, create unique groups, edit Groups, and the function of Parent Groups is very important, if you want your level to stand out from the crowd. You need to not only create unique groups but keep them organized.
Logic Boxes look to match with the group condition, not individual logic boxes. If you have a volume set to trigger when the certain enemy NPC enters, the volume isn’t really watching for that NPC, but the group he is assigned to. Same is true for objects.
To create a new group, press X while in the editor to enter the action menu, high light the top left option, ‘Edit Group’ and press X again to bring up the edit group menu. You will notice the default group has already been created, this is because UGC operates on a group level, every object and NPC is automatically put in the group when it is created.
If you haven’t created any group, the objects and NPCs will be automatically placed into pre-existing default group. To create a new group simply press Square. You can create up to 64 groups and each group may contain any number of objects or NPCs.
To edit a particular group, high light a desired group and press X. This will open edit group sub menu. From here you can rename the group, change its icon and pick the icon color.
These options are crucial to creating your mission, so utilize them often. Last option in the edit group menu is the option to setup a parent group, a parent group controls the attributes of one or more child groups.
You can assign any group to the child, by going into the edit group menu and then assigning any parent group to that group in the last option. Pres X to confirm the changes.
If parent group takes zero damage from Cole, the child group will also get zero damage from Cole. The child can be given order independently of the parent group. But any order given to the parent group will cascade down to the individual child groups, overriding the previous orders.
As your missions become more complex, keeping your groups organized, and streamlined between child and parent groups will help you in your mission building process.
Creating paths, placing NPC’s, and placing and connecting the logic required to move NPC’s are an important part of your Mission creation process.
There are few ways to move the NPC around so test out all the options to see what works best for you and your mission. One of the most common method to make NPC follow a path is to create two groups, one for NPC and one for the path.
Let’s call these group NPC #1 and Path #1. Check out the terrain and see where you want your NPC to move. Path points behave more like objects and other logic boxes. This is because Path points are required to be assigned to a group.
Choose Path point from the create menu, remember the arrows indicate the direction the NPC would move. Target the path point and press Triangle to extend the path. You can also extend the path by choosing extend path on the path action wheel. You can press Square to place consecutive path points.
When you are placing path points, make sure you place it in such a way that NPC walks in a smooth arc. When you are finished, press X to play the final path point.
Once the path is completed, enter its edit menu and name it. Now that you have created a path for the NPC to follow, you need to place an NPC that will follow this path. You can place any NPC near the path, just remember to change its tag.
Now that NPC and Path are in place, you need to create the logic that will get the NPC moving. You can use either Monitor or Volume as a conditional trigger to move the NPC on the desired path.
Let’s use Monitor for the purpose of this tutorial. Enter the monitor’s edit menu to set the condition. In this case, the monitor will be set to mission start. Now, all you need is a script command. Just remember once the NPC reaches the end of the path, it will revert to their default behavior.
Go ahead an select script command option and enter its edit menu. This is where you tell this NPC to follow Path #1. Shift the action setting to Move Along Path, you can shift the move speed setting to run and walk. Press X to accept the changes to the logic.
Final step is to connect the logic boxes, simply target the monitor and press Triangle to extend the wire and get it to the script command and press X to secure the connection.
Test the NPC moving along the path by playing the mission from the action wheel options.
Waypoints appear on the player’s mini-map, and if you want to create an organized Infamous 2 level, you should be good at utilizing Waypoints in UGC. You need to know how to create and remove waypoints with the Object Modifier, and how to assign waypoints to groups.
Waypoints are crucial when guiding the player through the mission. Waypoints allow NPC, Objects, and Pad points to appear as a white stars on the mini map. The star will stick to the edge of the mini-map and remain visible even when the NPC has been defeated.
Remember when the object modifier creates a way point on the map, it’s giving group a way point, not the individual NPC or object. With that in mind anything you assign to a group, you can make it appear on the player’s map as a way point.
To test, create a group called Waypoint group. Enter the create menu and place an object modifier, Enter the object’s modifier’s edit menu and scroll up to its map section, Shift who/what field to the name of the group, and shift the display radar icon to the way point. Press X to save the changes.
Use the monitor set to mission start (Example), so attach the monitor to the object modifier. Keep in mind though if the NPC’s action is not set to idle, it will start to wander around when the mission starts.
If you like to remove the way point of a group based on a condition, all you have to do is place down this condition to a monitor, and connect to an object modifier with the display radar option set to NO. In this way, when the condition is met, the group’s way point would be removed.
Triggers allow you to create a sense of randomization within your mission, and allow you to alter individual objects within the same group.
Triggers are great way to have more control over objects and NPCs that populate your missions. Whether you want to add randomization or create simple kill volume, triggers are the way to go to fine tune object and NPC behavior.
So that makes it important for you to know how you should use triggers with monitors and volumes as well as how to create a trigger for selector group. Trigger act as a who what since it’s a noun. When you look through the object modifier you will notice the trigger option resides in the who what field.
Go to edit object modifier and change who what to trigger. Basically trigger is whoever, whatever entered or exited a volume, or met the condition the monitor is set to watch for.
Normally the object modifier acts on a group level, if group a is selected in who what, the modification will be applied to every object or NPC contained in the group. With trigger option, the user is able to modify the individual NPC or objects behavior with a single option.
The trigger can be modified with any option in the modify menu of the object modifier. For example to create a kill volume, that would only effect the NPC who entered it, you set the volume options to group you want the volume to take effect, on any on entry, and yes, then connect with the object modifier with options, health trigger 0.
Now, only the NPC who would enter the volume would have their health set to zero. The same logic applies when using the trigger option with the monitor. If you only want the enemies way point to disappear when they are arc restrained.
You create a group with every member shown on the mini map as a way point, then you set a monitor to arc restrained any group A and connect it to an object modifier with set the map trigger no.
Now when any of the group member is arc restrained only their way point will disappear.
Again, the trigger can be modified with any option in the modify menu by using it with object modifier and used with any condition in the monitor. When refrained to trigger groups, the trigger option isn’t the same as those used in the previous example.
The trigger group is created by the selector logic box, the selector will assign a random group member of the designated group to be the trigger. Once the selector has assigned the trigger, you can modify the trigger with object modifier. You can watch the video for an example demonstration.
Want to build a Karma Moment? Switches allow you to change up your logic connections based off how the player plays your mission. After reading this guide and watch the video tutorial, you’ll be able to create drastically different endings to your missions, and control in which order the player completes your objectives.
Switches are used to break or enable connections between logic boxes. The switch has two inputs and one output. The first input you connect will always hook into its primary connection on its narrow end.
When another logic box is hooked into the switch’s secondary input, the connection will be interrupted when the attached logic box will trigger. Depending on whether the switch is set to disable or enable, it will deactivate or activate the connection. Essentially a disable or enable breakdown. Until this happens do this, and after that happens do this.
A simple way to demonstrate how the switch works is by using the volume and any said objective. First place a volume and be sure that the auto reset is set to yes. Otherwise, the volume may not trigger when desired.
Place the switch and set it to enable, place the said objective and input whatever text you want, and connect them accordingly. For this demonstration we will be using a simple defeat the militia monitor. Place your militia and then a monitor set to incapacitate it, and connect the monitor into the switch’ secondary input.
Now simply change the switch to disable, and test how its other setting works. With this setup the volume will trigger continuously. Constantly resetting the objective until all militia have been defeated. Once all the militia has been defeated the switch will break its connection and volume will no longer trigger its output.
Switches are great when you want players to complete the objectives in a set order. Since you can enable or disable objectives based on previously completed events, you can control how the player progresses through your mission.
Test your newly created Missions before you upload them, it’s a must if you want your missions to be at least playable.
As you build your missions, remember to play test and save often. It’s much easier to find and fix issues if you play test along the way as opposed to when you think you are finished. You will have fewer logic boxes to sort through to find the bug.
Play testing will also allow you to tweak the difficulty and timing of your missions as you go. If at any point you want to work on multiple versions of your mission, you can go to options, high light the desired mission in your my missions menu and press square to create a copy of your original file.
Now you can make the edits without the fear of messing up your original mission. As you play test try to anticipate how players might break your mission, if you discover that killing a friendly NPC will block the player from progressing, try making the NPC invulnerable with the object modifier.
If the player skip objectives and trigger volumes too early, try adding switches. These little details separate good missions from great missions.
When you are done, upload your mission, but you must successfully beat your mission before you can upload it. When you are ready to upload, press X to open the action, high light the upload mission and press X, you will be prompted to save one last time, press X and it will uploaded.
If you have tips of your own you would like to share, don’t hold back, tell us in comments. You can check the developer’s channel for more video tutorials, though at the time of writing this guide, there are only 8 videos, which I have already added.
