WingNuts and Bolts

# Levels

This section details the Levels menu

Levels is a fun little way to put everything you have constructed into the game. Levels is pretty much your last stop before you can play a game.

Your standard Levels window.

# Level Design

We will start in Level Design, then move to Level Order.

To make a new level, you just press New Level button.

# Initial Items

First choose a map from the "Background Map" pulldown. The items listed are all the maps you have created in the Maps section.

Level cut scenes - These are full screen movies that will play before and after a level. To get a movie in, it needs to be a QuickTime format movie (.mov and .mpg are best, WingNuts 2 uses .mov files using H.264) needs to be placed in the "Movies" folder found in the WingNuts Data folder. When WingNuts and Bolts starts up, it scans the Movies folder. If you add a new movie after opening the editor, it will not see it until you quit and relaunch the Editor.

Movie to play before the level begins - The movie selected here will play before the game lets you choose your plane.

Movie to play after the level ends - The movie selected here will play after warpout, but before the breifing screen for the next level.

Clouds - These pulldown menus let you choose clouds you designed in the clouds section. You can use the Min and Max values to let the game choose how many clouds it will put on the level for that type.

Enemy aircraft - These pull down menus let you choose the different enemy planes that will appear on the level. The planes are created in the Enemy Craft section. You can use the Min and Max values to tell the game the minimum and maximum ammount of planes to spawn.

Goodies - These pull down menus let you choose which Goodies will appear on the level. Goodies are created in the Goodies section. The Min and Max values let you determine the minimum and maximum ammount of goodies that will spawn at the start of the level.

Teleporters - These pull down menus let you choose which teleporters will appear on the level. Teleporters are created in the teleporters section. The Min and Max values let you tell the game the minimum and maximum ammount of teleporters to spawn at the start of the level.

# Secondary Items

This section lets you assign additional units to the level.

Your standard Levels Secondary Items window.

Helicopters - These pull down menus let you assign different Helicopters to the level. Helicopters are created in the Enemy Helo section. The Min and Max valus let you set the minimum and maximum number of helicopters to spawn at the start of the level.

Secondary Enemy aircraft - These pull down menus let you assign a 2nd wave of enemies to warp into the level. The Min and Max values let you set the minimum and maximum number of enemy planes to spawn at the appropriate percentage.

Appear when intial wave is down to - This value in percentage lets you trigger a 2nd wave when the inital wave has been reduced to a value a specific percentage.

# Other Items

The Other Items let you assign reinforcements, music tracks and weather effects.

Your standard Levels Other Items window.

Periodic enemy reinforcemtns - These are new enemy reinforcements that can apear at random time intervals to challenge the player. Choose an enemy aircraft from the pull down menu. The Min and Max values let you chooset he maximum and minimum number of craft that will spawn when the wave is triggered.

Time delay between each new waves of reinforcements - These Minimum delay and Maximum delay vales let you set the time in seconds between waves. The game will pick a value between the minimum and maximum time.

Reinforcements can also be summoned by reducing the number of enemies to a set percentage - This check box will give you a 2nd way to trigger the waves of reinforcements. Now when the intitla wave gets to a certain percentage, it will spawn a new wave instead of waiting for the time.

Percentage to start next wave - This is the value in percent that you must reduce the inital wave of enemies to to spawn the next wave.

Minimum number of waves during level - This is the fewest number of waves that can spawn during a level.

Maximum number of waves during a level - This is the maximum number of waves that can spawn durning a level.

Final enemy reinforcements during carrier escort phase - When you finish off a boss and the Warp Point spawns the game goes into "Escort" mode. During this mode, a final wave of craft can be spawned. Choose an enemy craft from the pull down list, use the Min and Max values to set the minimum and maximum number of craft that can spawn during the escort phase.

Music tracks to use for this level - This lets you pick the Music Tracks to play. Music tracks are covered in the Music section.

Weather effects - WingNuts 2 has two types of weather effects, Rain and Snow. This lets you choose the type of weather and configure it.

Activate weather effects - This check box will activate weather effects for the level.

Type of weather effect - This lets you choose between Rain and Snow.

Vary intensity of imate over time - When this is checked, the intensity of the weather effect will fade in and out over time.

Maximum inteisy level - This lets you choose the maximum intensity level in Percentage.

Intensity variaton ammount - This lets you choose between preset varation ammounts. It's a bit random, to keep it from looking static.

Intensity varation rate - This is how long it take to do the varaition in seconds.

Weather image scaling - This lets you choose how much to scale the weather graphic up or down by.

Weather image animation rate - This lets you set the speed of the frames. The weater effects were designed for 16 Frames Per Second (fps) but you can go faster or slower.

# Flying Storyboards

Flying Storyboards are graphics that will fly accross the screen when a specific event occurs. While a storyboard is playing, your plane is invincible.

Your standard Levels Flying Storyboards window.

To play a Flying Storyboard, simply check the box next to the event you want to use. You can then select any graphic to be displayed. You can also choose a sound to accompany the graphic. You can define the movement type. The first phrase is the movement of the storyboard, such as left to right, or right to left. The 2nd part is where the story board pauses, such as center, or right edge, or center, or left edge. Lastly you can set how long the storyboard is displayed in seconds and the size of the storyboard realative to the size of the original graphic.

# Ending Items

Ending Items represent the tags and bosses you can assign that happen near the end of a level.

Your standard Levels Ending Items window.

Other level items

To proced to boss battling phase - You can choose from the following conditions on what needs to happen to trigger the first boss(s):

- A percentage of enemy units must be destroyed - When you use this option, you'll need to then set if the percentage to use, and how the percentage is calculated. This is coverd below.
- A number of compenents must be collected first - When you use this option, you'll need to set the components to collect, this is covered below.
- Either of the above can be accomplished - This lets you use either destroying enemies or components to trigger a boss, this gives players options.
- Both of the first two must be accomplished - This is most specific setting, requiring you to do two things.

Required percentage of enemies to destroy to proced to boss battle - This number in percentage is calculated based on Initial Wave, Secondary Wave, Helicopters and Ground Units. This does not factor in periodic enemy reinforcements.

Percentage calculated using air and ground untis - When this is selected the total number of enemies is both air and ground combined. So 100% would require you to kill all air units and all ground units.

Percentage calculated using air units only - When this is selected the total number of enemies is air only, so 100% would require you to kill all air units, but you do not have to destroy a single ground unit.

Percentage calculated using groudn units only - When this is selected the total number of enemies is ground onlly, so 100% would require you to kill all ground units, but you do not have to destroy a single air unit.

Number of components required to proceed to boss battle phase - This number is how many components you must collect to trigger the first boss. Remember, a goody can give more than one component part if you wish.

Number of components required to proceed to carrier escort phase - This number is how many components you must collect to trigger the warpout. This number can be higher or lower than the Boss trigger, but it may not make sense to keep it different.

During the boss battle phase

The Following tags let you set which bosses a appear. You can summon 5 bosses at once. Check the box next to the type of boss you want to spawn, then choose the boss from the pulldown menu.

The bosses are numbered 1 through 5 when you assign their map positions.

The Five boss positions.

The boss positions go left to right, top to bottom, 1 through 5. You do not need to position bosses on a map, the game will choose a random location, but if you want to place a boss in a specific location, this is the numbering guide that corrosponds to the boss.

Time bonus for completing level quickly - This lets you set a time in seconds and a value in points per second for beatin the level. This is just for a score.

Rogues warp out instead of exploding - When this is checked, the enemy rogues you spawn in the boss phase will perform a warpout animation instead of exploding.

Player's carrier type to use - This lets you choose the carrier to use for the level. WingNuts 2 only uses 1 carrier, but you can have multiple types.

Maximum enemy aircraft active at any time - This value lets you set the maximum number of enemy aircraft that will ever be on the level at any time. This value superceeds any other value.

Maximum enemy helicopters active at any time - This value lets you set the maximum number of enemy helicopters that will ever be on the level at any time. This value superceeds any other value.

# Introduction

The Introduction section lets you fill in the text and items to be used in the game and mission briefing.

Your standard Levels Introduction window.

Introduction - The introduction text will be displayed during the Mission Briefing screen before the level. You are limited to 1024 characters. The text will scroll at a fixed rate. If you have an audio clip, the text will be timed to scroll at the same rate of the audio clip.

Objective - The objective text will be displayed when you pause the game. You are limited to 256 characters.

Other magical assorted items - These "magical" items (this is what happens when you program at 3 AM, you start naming things funny words) - These are items that don't quite have a home and ended up here.

Use an audio clip to play as introduction and objective text is displayed in breifing screen - This tag will let you select a sound clip to be played during the Breifing screen. This clip will be synced to the animated Jen, so she will speak the clip. This was designed so Jen could speak the text that appears on the Briefing screen. If you use a very short sound clip here, but a very long Introduction text, the text will scroll at the rate of the clip, and fly by very fast.

Use custom message when ground boss first appears - When this is checked, whatever you type in the text box will fly accross the screen when the first Ground boss appears.

Use custom message when enemy rogue first appears - When this is checked, whatever you type in the text box will fly accross the screen when the first Rogue boss appears.

Use custom message when snake boss first appears - When this is checked, whatever you type in the text box will fly accross the screen when the first Snake boss appears.

Use custom message when air boss first appears - WHen this is checked, whatever you type in the text box will fly accross the screen when the first air boss appears.

This ends the Level Design secion of Levels.

# Level Order

This section lets you order the levels in the game.

Your standard Level Order window.

Here you can fill in the level order and name the level. The name in the Text field will be displayed as the level name. You can use the same level more than once. Once you have listed the last level (you can list up to 50) mark the next level as "No level selected" the them will then flag the last level you assigned as the end level to finsih the game.