ABUSE.DOC ----------------------- Written by Duong Dai Nguyen, level designer for Abuse Edited by Mitch Burton. TUTORIAL NUMBER 1 Here at Crack dot Com we strive to create fun games. Many elements go into making a fun game, one of which is level design. Supplied with your official Abuse package is a level editor. This editor allows you to produce your own Abuse levels, using prefabricated pieces which we call OBJECTS. The interface is a little daunting at first, but with some persistence you can be blasting your way down long, dark alleys pursuing (or being pursued by!) aliens, robots, and flyers of your own creation. Let's begin! Table of contents (Do a key-word search for the number/letter combination to jump to the section you want to read) [1] Key Listings and Extended Options [1.a] Key Listings [1.b] Extended Options [1.c] X11 (X windows for UNIX) Options --------------------------------------- [2] Object Listings and Descriptions [2.a] Links [2.b] AI [2.c] Range [2.d] Object List -------------------------------------- [3] Preliminary Level Designing, Editors Windows and Menus [3.a] Preliminary Level Designing [3.b] Windows and Menus ------------------------------------------------------------- [4] Level Designing Hints and Practicalities [4.a] Level Designing Hints and Practicalities --------------------------------------------- [1] Key Listings and Extended Options ----------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [1.a] Key Listings ------------------------------------------------------------------------ a : Toggle toolbar window. A : Disable auto lighting (when computer is too slow, lighting shuts off) b : Toggle background tile picker window. B : Make background window wider. c : Center on player. C : Clone object under cursor. d : Delete object under cursor. D : Toggle delays. E : Toggle enlarged render. f : Toggle foreground tile picker window. F : Make foreground tile picker window wider. g : h : Help! i : Invert color black (for foreground tile window, for discerning transparent and non-transparent tiles) j : Jump player to mouse position. k : Kill first link of object under cursor. K : Kill last link of object under cursor. l : Toggle light picker window. L : Toggle layer show window. m : Toggle map. n : Next player focus (not working/useful). o : Toggle object picker window. p : Toggle palette picker window. P : Toggle profiler window. Q : Quit (does not ask permission). r : Raise/lower tile under cursor. s : Search for object. Not working yet. S : Save level. t : Flood fill the current tile. If "grabbing" a palette window, flood fills with the palette pattern. U : Ultra smooth drawing. Not working yet. v : Volume. w : Where. Tells the x & y position of the mouse in the game. x : Flip object under cursor on the X axis. z : Clear weapons. Z : Toggle god mode. Cursor must be inside of view to toggle god-mode. space : Pick up object, so that you can move it around (click to drop). ctrl : When moving an object : Hold down to align on a tile grid. When not moving an objects : Hold down on one object and let go on top of another to make a link. alt : Hold down while moving to align to center of tile grid. ` : "Pick up" the foreground tile the mouse is current on. F1 : Help! F2 : Save a single screen shot to scrnshot.pcx. F3 : Save a single screen shot, but name shot0001.pcx, shot0002.pcx... F5 : Save a series of screen shots, one every 5 frames. F10 : Reduce screen to what it would for 320x200. Useful for hi-res editing. + : Increase view size. SHIFT+: Increase view size a lot. + : Decrease view size. SHIFT-: Decrease view size a lot. arrows: Scroll view. TAB : Toggle edit/play mode. / : Toggle console window. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [1.b] Extended Options ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -nosound -sfx_volume [0..127] -vmode [G640x480x256 | // SVGA for linux G800x600x768 | G1024x768x256] -size xres yres // for X11 and DOS, for DOS -size ? will give you // a list of available modes -2 // doubles each pixel during rendering -demo // quits game after an idle timeout and goes to // demo -lisp // starts up with an interactive lisp command line -lock_size // X11, does not allow window to be resized -disp/-display // specify an alternative X server than $DISPLAY -no_delay // starts with no delays, plays as fast as computer // goes -cprint // print all output to stderr instead of console -nojoy // disables joystick use (there isn't any, anyway!) -lsf [filename] // use a different lisp startup file than abuse.lsp -edit // Initially start in EDIT_MODE, loads "edit.lsp" // as well -t [filename] // auto-number and load tiles from SPE file -f [filename] // load filenames as "level1.spe" // don't shoot yourself in the foot! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [1.c] X11 (X windows for UNIX) options : ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -noshm // don't use Shared memory for X11 -grab_pointer // causes abuse to keep pointer inside of window While playing, press <TAB> to go into development mode, if you ran abuse with the -edit parameter. Type '/' to bring up the console window, into which you can type LISP commands. [2] Object Listings and Descriptions ---------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2.a] Links ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Before you can learn about the objects you need to learn about LINKING. Links are the grey lines drawn from one object to another. They act as visual cues, indicating that those objects are referencing each other for particular purposes that will be discussed later on in this document. The exact function of a link depends upon the objects being linked and the order in which the links are created. Creating a link is actually quite simple. First, position your mouse cursor over the object you wish to start the link from. A grey bounding box will surround the object. Now, you have two options. The first, and slightly faster, way is to hold down the <CTRL> key, move the cursor to the object you want to create the link to, and let go. The second way is to click on the first object. An extended options window will open. Now, click on the second object, and you've made your link. Note that the extended options window now belongs to the second object, not the first. The advantage of this method is that it can be used to link objects to lights, whereas the first method cannot. Some objects can have multiple links. To make multiple links, simply repeat either method. However, if you are using the second method, you must close the extended options window before you can make another link from the first object. It is also important to note that links are sensitive to which object they originate from. When you create a link from Object A to Object B, Object B is modified only in that its range is extended when the player is within range of Object A. There are two ways to kill a link. The first is the most flexible and efficient, and involves only the shortcut keys. First, move the cursor over the object that owns the link. Since objects can have multiple links, you can now either break the links first to last, by pressing <k>, or last to first, by pressing <SHIFT>-<k>. To see whether an object is making a link or being linked, move the cursor over an object with a link line originating from it. If the line turns yellow, then that object owns the link. The second method uses the extended options window. First, open said window by clicking on the object. There will be two buttons with a red X on them. The button on the left will break links with objects from first to last. The button on the right will break links with objects from last to first. Note that links to lights must be broken using this method. It is suggested that you close the extended options window when you are finished, to prevent any accidental linking or delinking. Simply click on the check mark to close the window. Most links that objects make act as triggers. That is, an object usually makes a link to another object, such as a sensor or switch, which can only have two states (on or off). When this sensor or switch changes its state, the object is triggered and then proceeds to do whatever it does best. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2.b] AI ------------------------------------------------------------------------ There are two ways to access an object's AI. The first method is to click on the object, thus bringing up the extended options window. Then, click on the AI button, which will br...
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