Maximum Action

Maximum Action

37 ratings
Scene Creator Guide (with Pictures!)
By Mr. Fahrenheit
For those curious about making their own levels, this guide is for you. This will give you a detailed breakdown of what you need to know to start creating your own action-packed scenes and arenas!
   
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Introduction




Welcome to Maximum Action!

The goal of this guide is to give you the information you will need in a detailed and easy to understand manner, so you can begin building your own scenes and arenas! The Scene Creator looks a bit strange at first, but let's break it down.

Controls
Before we can talk about building scenes, you need to know how to use the Scene Creator.

P - Open Editor menu

Left Click - Spawn objects

Middle Mouse Button / Wheel - Delete objects

Right Click - Grab and position objects

R - Decrease elevation of object (Must be holding an object with right click.)

Space - Increase elevation of object (Must be holding an object.)

V - Rotate objects (Must be holding an object.)

Z - Undo last action

Creating a New Scene or Arena
On the main menu, press play and select Scene Creator. You will be greeted with this menu next:



Click Load Scene to play or edit scenes you have made or added to your Load list.
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UPDATE AS OF 5/29/2019:
When adding new user levels to your list:
Go to Start and type Run, open program:
- Type %AppData%
- If it sends you to Roaming, go back to AppData and click LocalLow
- Click BalloonMoose > Maximum Action > Custom > Levels
- In order for previous levels to work, or adding new levels, create a new FOLDER with the title of that level, minus _MASave.txt. So, if the level is FEAR_MASave.txt, create a folder named FEAR and drag the .txt file into that folder. It should work then!
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Once you've decided whether you want to create a Scene or an Arena, name your new project and click Create Scene. You will now enter the editor.

You will be given essential objects depending on what you chose, and 1 floor tile. So let's look at these:

New Scene


The character to the left is where you will spawn. You cannot currently change its location.

The green and red film cubes are gateways for recording your scene, this way you can watch them back in the replay editor. The green cube will begin the recording when you walk through it, and the red cube will end the recording and the level.



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New Arena


The four pink cubes are enemy spawns. Place them where you see fit, as enemies will spawn randomly at these locations.
The blue cube that looks double-stacked is the button to begin the Endless Arena, you just can't see it. I tend to set these aside until I have a good layout to the arena.
The arena will automatically restart when you die.

Building Your New Scene or Arena
So now that we're in the editor and we know what the essentials are, let's look at the Editor menu and start building your Scene! Note that this where you will save your work!

Press P to open the Editor Menu:


You can choose between objects, weapons, and characters. The object list isn't very large right now, but you've got plenty to work with and make a fun scene. Left click on what you want to spawn, and press P again to close the editor menu. From this point, every time you left click you will spawn the selected object.
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There will also be a marker to let you know what you are placing and how it will place down. It's also useful to measure objects or spaces between them. Note that enemies will run around spaces smaller than 2 blocks wide:

Objects


Weapons

The weapon will spawn in the direction of the pistol's image. Use the line at the top to know it's rotation.

You cannot currently grab weapons, so if you don't like where you place it be sure to press Z to undo it.

Characters



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See all these see-thru blue cubes? You likely noticed them earlier. These cubes are what you will right click in order to grab and position your objects. While holding them with right click you can move them around with your mouse, raise (Space), lower (R), or rotate (V) them.

If you want to delete an object, click the cube with your mouse wheel button.
Conclusion
Believe it or not, this is pretty much all you need to know to start building your own Scenes and Arenas! If you have any more questions, please feel free to drop them in the comments and I will answer to the best of my ability.

Building good scenes is all about creating flow and providing the player with different and interesting options to increase replayability. I can't wait to see what kind of maps you guys can make!

Here are some images of Arenas I've created so far:

FEAR

Containment Breach

Sandy Scuffle

Russian Street Fight

Endless Maze Arena

Red Dead Arena

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If you feel like a video would help you, here is a tutorial I made on YouTube. It also demonstrates building a level and testing it.

Upload Your Scenes and Arenas!
Now with Maximum Action's new Steam Workshop support, it is no longer necessary to archive your levels to an outside source, such as my old Google Drive.

Uploading your map to the Workshop is simple as ever! Simply load your level in the in-game editor and press P to open the Editor Menu. Click Upload, type the description of your level, set whether the level is an Arena or Scene, and click Upload again!

You can also add a thumbnail for your new Workshop Item! Here are some instructions to get it to work properly:
-Snap your image
-Rename your image to "preview.png" (without quotation marks)
-Open Paint
-Drag and drop your image onto the canvas. Click "Resize", and select the "Pixels" option. Uncheck "Maintain Aspect Ratio" and set your dimensions to 500x500 (500 height 500 width.)
-Save your edited image.
-Go to the Levels folder, found in the file path I described above for adding user levels.
-Put your new preview.png image into the folder of your level.
-Upload to Steam!
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Happy crafting :)

Check out my Maximum Action Map collection here!
https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1770871404



25 Comments
a7med9870 6 Apr, 2022 @ 11:29pm 
or wait, i am an idioit, it's on the object settings
a7med9870 6 Apr, 2022 @ 11:27pm 
i would like to ask, how do you get collision on imported fbx objects?
Mr. Fahrenheit  [author] 7 Jan, 2021 @ 3:42pm 
@BlakeinDisguise
You can test the maps as you build them and then upload to the workshop. If you have to change things you can update as you work.

@The Lorax
Unfortunately, I haven't been map building as much lately, so I'm not very familiar with newer bugs. I do plan on stepping back in soon, this new update is really sick.
Granny Cheese Squeeze 6 Jan, 2021 @ 7:37am 
Is there currently no way to test a map with uploading it to the workshop first?
TerrarianEnder 4 Oct, 2020 @ 11:06am 
(insert generic "instructions unclear" comment)
The Lorax 9 Jun, 2020 @ 1:23pm 
Sometimes when I load up a map I'm working on some of the textures are swapped and when trying to play test it the game freezes; idk if those two things are related at all. Any info would help.
Alienminator2 30 May, 2020 @ 11:10am 
Aight, danke @Mr. Fahrenheit
NesoGamer 19 May, 2020 @ 7:13pm 
thanks Mr. Fahrenheit :)
Mr. Fahrenheit  [author] 19 May, 2020 @ 5:53am 
@Alienminator2
No, you can't change the music played in your level yet.

@Sir Gamesalot
No, not yet either. But I think you can place health kits.
NesoGamer 18 May, 2020 @ 9:21pm 
Can you place ammo?