Creating Objectives

What is an Objective?

Objectives are the most important part of any Objective mode map. They determine how the gameplay should flow as well as setting winning / losing conditions for players. There is no limit on the number of objectives that can be placed in a map, but you should try to reduce it where possible to avoid clutter. It is important to note that there can only be one active objective at any given time. If you want to create complex 'multi-part' objectives you are often better off using multiple conditions inside a single objective than creating multiple different objective actors. Another thing to keep in mind is that objectives are always the same for all players connected to a server. You cannot assign one player an objective that is different from someone else's. Outside of these limitations, there are very few things you can't do with Objectives. They are highly configurable and capable of producing some very complex and interesting gameplay scenarios.

Placing your First Objective

Open the Actor classes browser and navigate to StoryObjectiveBase. Expand it and you should see 'KF_StoryObjective'.

Select it and right click anywhere in your map with solid ground. You see the option to 'Add KF_StoryObjective'. Select this option and you should now see a green icon with a checkmark in the viewport.

Naming your Objective

Now that you have an objective in your map you need to give it a name. Select the objective and press F4 to open it's property menu. Click on 'Objective_Settings' from the list of collapsible categories so that it expands. Enter a name for your objective here. it can be whatever you want, but it helps to have it be relevant to what you want the players to do to complete it. i.e the Bloat bile objective in KFO-Frighyard is named 'CollectBloatBile'.

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Setting your Objective's order

Now that your objective has a name, the next step is to let your map how the order in which it should be given to players. To do this, we are going to add it to a list in the level properties.

Press F6 to bring up the level properties window for your map. Expand the rollout titled 'Rules_Objectives' and select 'Add' next to the StoryObjectives array. This will produce a blank field where you should enter the name that you came up with for your first objective. The order in which you enter objective names in this array is very important. Index [0] of the array will always be the position of the first objective you want players to complete. Subsequent indices in the array denote future objectives in the order you wish them to be completed.

Configuring your objective's HUD properties

It is easy to create an objective, but slightly harder to make it look really awesome on the player's HUD and convey exactly the right information to him about what he must do to complete it. There are a large number of properties in the objective actor's 'Objective_HUD' collapsible category which will help you fine tune the appearance of your objective and determine where on the HUD it should be rendered.

Background Properties

Variable Name	Variable Type	Description
Background_AspectRatio	Enum	Determines how the background texture for your objective should be scaled. In most cases you will probably want to leave this setting alone. Unless you have a background texture that requires stretching instead of scaling.
Background_Offset	Struct	This allows you to 'nudge' the objective header up or down if you want it aligned differently against its background texture.
Background_Padding	Float	This allows you to designated some padding around the objective text so that it doesn't go right to the edge of the background texture.
Background_Texture	Material	A material to render behind the objective. You don't have to have one, but for some objectives it looks nice.
Background_Texture_Collapsed	Material	This property is deprecated. Don't use it.

Header Properties

Variable Name	Variable Type	Description
Header_Color	Color	Determines what color the header text should be.
Header_Scale	Enum	Allows you to change the size of the font used for the header.
Header_Text	Localized String	Any text you enter here will render at the top of your objective with a bold font.

Screen Position Properties

Variable Name	Variable Type	Description
Horizontal	Float	Sets the Horizontal (X) screen position of the Objective as a percentage of the total pixels on the screen.
Vertical	Float	Sets the Vertical (Y) screen position of the Objective as a percentage of the total pixels on the screen.

Adding Conditions

Now that you have added an objective to your map, it's time to add some conditions to it.

Conditions are pieces of logic which let the Objective know when it should be considered 'complete', and whether the outcome was successful, or whether players failed to accomplish their goals. As with objectives themselves, there is no limit to the number of conditions an objective actor may contain. However, unlike objectives, conditions have replicated properties which means there could be network performance issues if you decided to have a huge number of conditions active at the same time. Use your best judgement. In general, the fewer conditions you use, the less performance overhead there will be.

Conditions are broken up into different 'types' which check specific things. As of the Halloween 2013 update , these are all the 'official' condition types you can use in your map:

• ObjCondition_Area
• ObjCondition_Counter
• ObjCondition_Multi
• ObjCondition_Touch
• ObjCondition_Inventory
• ObjCondition_Use
• ObjCondition_LineOfSight
• ObjCondition_ActorHealth
• ObjCondition_Triggered
• ObjCondition_TraderTime
• ObjCondition_Random
• ObjCondition_Timed
• ObjCondition_WaveCounter

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Each type of condition can be added to one of three separate categories in the objective actor. When adding a condition, the category you add it under determines what effect it will have on the completion requirements for your objective. Below is a list of each condition category and its uses.

Success Conditions

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Success Conditions determine what it takes to successfully finish an objective. Each objective must have at least one success condition ,or it cannot be completed. If you choose to add multiple success conditions the objective will only be considered complete if each one of them is completed. The only exception to this rule is if you change the Progress Importance value of your conditions.

Example : If I add a 'ObjCondition_Timed' condition to my Success Conditions array, my Objective will succeed if I wait for 60 seconds.

Failure Conditions

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Failure Conditions determine what it takes to fail an objective. Unlike success conditions, failure conditions are entirely optional. Many objectives will not have any failure conditions at all because alot of Killing floor maps assume that failure just means dying, so there's not always a need to impose added restrictions on players. An example of a failure condition is the 'Don't let anything other than bloats fall into the trap' condition from KFO-Frightyard.

Example : If I add a 'ObjCondition_Timed' condition to my Failure Conditions array, my Objective will fail if I take longer than 60 seconds

Optional Conditions

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Optional conditions have no impact on the completion state of an objective. They exist purely to provide the player with "bonus" goals, or to display HUD information. If you want to add an extra goal for the player to achieve that isn't important, put it here.

Creating a new Condition

To create a new condition, expand the category you want to add the condition to, select a type of condition to add from the drop down list and then click the 'new' button on the right hand side of the properties window.

After adding a new condition you will notice that it displays a list of collapsible categories. Each category can be expanded to modify a different area of the condition's behaviour.

Configuring condition HUD properties

The 'HUD' rollout in the condition properties is important because it controls the amount of feedback players receive on their HUDs for that condition. Two types of information can be displayed on the HUD for each condition :

World Properties

Variable Name	Variable Type	Description
World_Texture	Material	Displays a material in the world at the location of the World_Location actor.
World_Texture_Scale	Float	Modifies the size of World_Texture on the HUD. a value of 1.0 means it displays at whatever the resolution of the material is.
World_Hint	Localized String	Displays localized text underneath the World_Texture at the position of the World_Location actor.
World_Location	Actor	HUD_World information displays at the location of this actor.
bShowWhispTrail	Bool	If true, display a whisp trail leading from the player to the position of the World_Location actor.
bHide	Bool	Don't render any HUD information for this condition in world space. Does not affect the whisp trail.
bIgnoreWorldLocHidden	Bool	By default, world HUD information will not render if the World_Location actor is hidden. This bool overrides that behavior.
World_Clr	Color	What color the text & icon should be in the world. Note : this color value modulates the base color of the World_Texture, so if the it already has a tint it will blend with this value.
Whisp_Clr	Color	What color the whisp trail has if bShowWhispTrail is true.

Screen Properties

Variable Name	Variable Type	Description
Screen_Hint	Localized String	Displays a hint on the HUD which is concatenated with whatever data is displaying for the condition. i.e if it's a timed condition and the screen_hint was "Time left:" you would see "Time Left : 00:60" on the HUD.
Screen_CountStyle	Enum	Determines whether the condition should 'count up' , 'count down' or not display any data string at all.
Screen_ProgressStyle	Enum	Determines whether this condition displays with a graphical progress bar or if it should be text-only.
FontScale	Enum	Scales the text size of the condition hint.
bShowCheckbox	Bool	If true, display a graphical checkbox to the left of the condition hint which gets ticked off when the condition is completed.
bShowStrikethrough	Bool	If true, display a strikethrough effect overtop of the hint when the condition is completed.
Screen_ProgressbarBG	Material	A material to draw behind the Screen hint for this condition. only relevant if Screen_ProgressStyle is not set to 'Text Only' or 'Hide'
Screen_ProgressBarFill	Material	A material to draw for the progress bar fill if Screen_ProgressStyle is not set to 'Text Only' or 'Hide'
Screen_Clr	Color	A color to tint all of the screen HUD information by.

World HUD information is useful for displaying icons that hover over top of areas in the map you want players to go to, or for marking locations that are significant. Screen HUD information is useful for letting players keep tabs on how they are progressing with their current objective. You can choose to display one type of HUD information, or both, or neither. The more conditions you are displaying HUD information for, the slower your map will run, not to mention your HUD will start to look very confusing - So exercise restraint.

Adding Actions

Now that you have added conditions to your objective, the next step is adding actions. Whereas conditions are the steps players need to go through in order to complete an objective, 'Actions' are the pieces of logic which get executed when a player completes (or fails) all the conditions successfully. They are responsible for things such as transitioning to the next objective or telling the game to end in victory, or defeat. Unlike conditions, each objective can only have a single action for success and failure.

The types of actions an objective can have are as follows :

• ObjAction_GoToObjective
• ObjAction_GoToNextObjective
• ObjAction_GoToLastObjective
• ObjAction_LoseGame
• ObjAction_Random
• ObjAction_ResetCurrentObjective
• ObjAction_RestartFromCheckpoint
• ObjAction_WinGame
  
  

Creating a new Action

To create a new action, expand the category you want to add the action to, select a type of action to add from the drop down list and then click the 'new' button on the right hand side of the properties window.

Note: By default, each objective has a 'ObjAction_GoToNextObjective' success action. If you want your objective to do something different, simply select the default action and click 'Clear' , then add your own action in place of it.

Using objectives to trigger events

Since objectives can take a while to complete you will almost certainly want to have events firing off at various points while players are tackling their goals. This is where the Objective_Events collapsible category comes in handy. You can use it to make doors close when an objective is finished, spawn enemies the moment an objective begins, or anything else you want.

If you expand the Objective_Events collapsible category you will find the following arrays :

Variable Name	Variable Type	Description
ActivationEvents	Array<Name>	This is a list of events that get triggered the moment this becomes the active objective.
CompletionEvents	Array<Name>	This is a list of events that get triggered the moment this objective is successfully completed by players.
DeActivationEvents	Array<Name>	This is a list of events that get triggered the moment this objective ceases to be the current objective, either because it was completed, failed, or otherwise. They are triggered in order.
FailureEvents	Array<Name>	This is a list of events that get triggered the moment this objective is failed by players. Note that these events will only fire if this objective has active failure conditions which are met, dying does not count.