lazarr_2025/LEVEL_EDITOR.md

How to use the Level Editor

The game has a level editor to create your own levels.

To start the editor, punch the book labelled “Level editor” in the main menu ship or enter the “/editor” chat command. To exit the editor, use the “Exit” button in the inventory or enter the “/editor exit” chat command.

If you enter the editor, you start with an empty room, a larger inventory, and a couple of basic items. In the inventory menu, you can access all items with the “Get items” button.

Creating a level

When you start to create a new level, you should first choose a size and the level boundaries (the blocks that surround the level on the floor, walls and ceiling). You can do this in the “Level settings” in your inventory menu.

The level boundaries need to be specified as itemstrings like lzr_core:wood. Invalid values will be automatically replaced by a default.

WARNING: Reducing the level size will remove all nodes that would no longer fit into the level!

When you look around in the world, you will see 8 white crosses. These are the 8 corners of the level. Only the blocks enclosed by these symbols will be saved. Every level will be automatically surrounded by the boundary blocks (ceiling, wall, floor) which are not part of the .mts level file.

You can now proceed to build the level.

Use the Ultra Pickaxe to remove blocks, and the Ultra Bucket to remove liquids.

Level rules

The minimal requirements for every level are:

• Have at least one closed treasure chest (locked or unlocked)
• Have a way to obtain all treasures (which is the goal of every level)
• Have exactly ONE teleporter (lzr_teleporter:teleporter_off) (The player starts here)

Triggers

Overview

Triggers are very important to proceed in levels. Triggers are the only method to open locked chests, so they are required for every level.

The most basic way to add a trigger is to make a detector send signals to a locked chest. Once the detector is triggered, it breaks the lock.

Quick start

Here’s a quick example on how to add a simple trigger into your level:

1. Place a detector and a locked chest
2. Give yourself the trigger tool in your inventory and select it
3. Make sure that “Sender Mode” is active of that tool (you can switch modes with the [Place] key)
4. Punch the detector (there should be now a message and a marking at the locked chest)
5. Switch to Receiver Mode
6. Punch the chest

Now when the detector is activated by a laser, it will send a signal to the locked chest, causing it to break open in the game.

(note that locks never break while in the editor.)

Description

Triggers are blocks that send signals towards other blocks to make them do something. Signals are instantaneous and wireless.

There are two types of triggers: Senders and receivers. Senders send signals to receivers. A sender can send to multiple receivers at once, and a receiver can receive signals from multiple senders at once. This is a n:m relation.

This is the only sender:

• Detector: May send signals to receivers when toggled

These are receivers:

• Emitter: May toggle the laser when it receives a signal
• Locked chest: May break the lock when it receives a signal. The lock will be broken forever.
• Light box: May toggle the lamp when it receives a signal
• (possibly others)

Signal types and receiver types

The trigger system is quite complex and has a lot of hidden logic. First of all, when a signal is sent, there are 3 possible signals: ON, OFF and TOGGLE. The ON signal normally activates the receiver, the OFF normally deactivates it and TOGGLE normally toggles it.

Each sender has a signal type, which determines which signal (ON, OFF or TOGGLE) is sent (if any) to its receivers, and when. The signal being sent depends on the sender's state (active or inactive).

Also, each receiver has a receiver type, which determines how it will react to an incoming signal.

Signal types

The most basic signal type is Synchronized. If the sender was activated, it sends an ON signal. If it was deactivated, it sends an OFF signal. Thus “synchronizing” the sender with the receiver. It also has a special meaning in combination with the Synchronized AND receiver type.

The following table lists all signal types:

+-----------------------+----------+------------+
| Signal type           | Activate | Deactivate |
+-----------------------+----------+------------+
| Synchronized          | ON       | OFF        |
| Synchronized inverted | OFF      | ON         |
| Toggle                | TOGGLE   | TOGGLE     |
| Toggle ON             | ON       | ON         |
| Toggle OFF            | OFF      | OFF        |
| Activate TOGGLE       | TOGGLE   | (none)     |
| Activate ON           | ON       | (none)     |
| Activate OFF          | OFF      | (none)     |
| Deactivate TOGGLE     | (none)   | TOGGLE     |
| Deactivate ON         | (none)   | ON         |
| Deactivate OFF        | (none)   | OFF        |
+-----------------------+----------+------------+

Explanation: The cells show which signal a sender must send when it activates or deactivates. The “Activate” column shows which signal is sent when the sender is deactivated, the “Deactivate” shows which signal is sent when the sender was deactivated. “(none)” means that no signal is sent at all (which is different than sending an OFF signal).

Receiver types

There are two receiver types:

• Any: The receiver will react on any incoming signal. It will turn on, off or toggle, when the incoming signal was ON, OFF or TOGGLE, respectively.
• Synchronized AND: Receiver activates when it receives any signal and all its associated senders of type Synchronized are active and those of type Synchronized inverted are inactive.

The Any type is the simplest one, as it just does what the incoming signal says. It is most useful for receivers with only one sender. It works with multiple senders, too, but things may get complicated fast.

The Synchronized AND type is useful if you want a number of detectors to be activated (or deactivated) at the same time. Just make sure that all senders are of type Synchronized or Synchronized inverted.

Note that all receiver types are compatible with all sender types, but not all combinations may be useful.

Saving and loading

When you're happy with the level, use the “Save level” button in your inventory.

Your level will be saved in the world directory in two files:

• The level schematic goes to levels/<level name>.mts
• The level settings go to levels/<level name>.csv

The .mts file is a Minetest schematic which is where all the blocks go. It may also be edited by other tools that support this file format.

WARNING: If you delete the world, you will also lose all custom levels stored in the world!

Loading the level works in a similar fashion with “Load level”.

You may also use the commands editor_save and editor_load instead.

Auto-save

To prevent loss of work, the editor will automatically save the level into _AUTOSAVE_ at the following events:

• Leave the game
• Leave the editor
• Change level size or boundary nodes

_AUTOSAVE_ will be overwritten whenever one of these events happen, so make sure to save your work into other files.

Testing the level

All levels created in the editor (except _AUTOSAVE_) will be available to play in the main menu ship as a custom level. You can start playtesting the level here.

Adding the level to the game

If you think you made a nice level, send it to Wuzzy per e-mail at Wuzzy@disroot.org. This game desperately needs more levels, so submissions are appreciated. :D

If you have multiple levels, you may construct a level pack. See LEVEL_PACKS.md for details.

Technical steps

To add a new level to the main level set, the following technical steps are performed:

First, copy the level .mts file to mods/lzr_levels/schematics.

Then open the .csv file from the levels folder in the world directory and copy the single line of text. Add this line to mods/lzr_levels/data/level_data.csv.

Now just restart the game and the level should appear!

Appendix

Syntax of level_data.csv

Although not strictly necessary to understand this, here is the syntax of level_data.csv. This is a comma-separated values file (compliant with RFC 4180) where each record represents a level. Note that a single record may have multiple lines!

Each record contains multiple values, in this order:

• <file name>: File name of the level .mts file
• <level name>: Name of the level as shown to the player, in English
• <border list>: List of border blocks, see below
• <ambience>: Ambient sounds. Either ocean, temple or none.
• <sky>: Sky ID. See the mod lzr_sky for available skies. (optional)
• <npc_texts>: This is the text that will show when the player interacts with Goldie the Parrot. (optional)
• <weather>: Weather ID. See the mod lzr_weather for available weathers. (optional)
• <backdrop>: Backdrop ID. This is the environment that surrounds the playable level area. One of ocean, islands, underground, sky. (optional)
• <backdrop_position>: Backdrop position, written in format (x,y,z). Only relevant for the islands backdrop. (optional) A coordinate within a given backdrop to put the level in. The bottom left front corner of the level will be at that position. (optional)
• <triggers>: Serialized metadata for triggers, generated automatically by the game. The exact syntax can be found in the lzr_lasers mod. (optional)

Border list is a list of nodes used for the level border. It contains 1-4 node names, separated by |. The border nodes are, in this order:

• Wall|Ignored|Floor|Ceiling

Wall is mandatory, the rest is optional. Ignored can be any text and will be ignored. If floor or ceiling are missing, they will the same as wall.

Note: The same syntax is also used for the .csv files created by the level editor, the only difference is that these files only contain 1 CSV record, namely for the level they apply to.

Using the level editor with WorldEdit

If you use the WorldEdit mod, it must be used with care.

The recommended use is to use WorldEdit before you configure the triggers.

If you used WorldEdit commands to change any trigger node, this invalidates the triggers of the level, leading to an invalid state and you can’t properly work with the triggers anymore and the level might be saved incorrectly.

Thus, whenever you changed any trigger node with WorldEdit, you must manually call /reset_triggers after that. This puts the level editor back in a valid state. The downside is that you lose all triggers and you have to add them back from scractch.

List of HUD icons

The editor has many icon overlays. This is a reference of all of them:

Trigger icons:

• Green arrows pointing outwards: Sender
• Red arrows pointing inwards: Receiver
• Square corners: The sender currently selected by the trigger tool
• Small yellow dots: A relation between sender and receiver

Sender type icons:

• White equals sign: Synchronized
• Black unequals sign: Synchronized inverted
• Yellow octagon with half-filled circle: Toggle
• Yellow octagon with filled circle: Toggle ON
• Yellow octagon with empty circle: Toggle OFF
• Green square with half-filled circle: Activate TOGGLE
• Green square with filled circle: Activate ON
• Green square with empty circle: Activate OFF
• Red circle with half-filled circle: Deactivate TOGGLE
• Red circle Yellow with filled circle: Deactivate ON
• Red circle Yellow with empty circle: Deactivate OFF

Receiver type icons:

• Vertical line: Any
• Ampersand: Synchronized AND

Level icons:

• Tiny white plus sign: One of the corners of the level area