A routine is a set of one or more actions that affect a level or its inhabitants. There are several events that can cause routines to be performed. For example, the player might walk into a certain hot zone that would trigger a routine that activates a force field. Or the death of an enemy character might trigger a routine that causes fireworks to appear. A broader overview of what routines can accomplish is available in the Elements of a Game section.
Each level in a game project has its own collection of one or more routines. These routines are created and edited within the Level Routines Window. To display the Level Routines Window, make sure that the Levels Window is active (Command-1) and select Edit Level Routines from the Level menu (Command-E.)
As shown below, the left portion of the Level Routines Window contains a set of controls for managing the level's routines. (For more information on the use of these types of controls, see Object Type Management in the Common Production Tasks section.)
The following links provide information on editing specific routine actions and specifying routine performance conditions.
Routine Action Editing
Each of the 23 possible actions that a routine may perform is listed in the Actions to Perform column. Checking an action's checkbox enables that action. A routine may be set to perform any combination of these actions. The selected action must be configured using the controls that appear in the right half of the Level Routines window.
Routine Performance Condition Editing
Below the Actions to Perform column is the Performance Conditions... button. Performance Conditions can be configured to limit the number of times a routine can be performed and to prevent a routine from being performed recursively. Performance prerequisites can also be set up to prevent a routine from being performed if one or more variables lack the proper values.