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The maps, and how a game starts

MPFriendslopV2 ships three maps, plus the rooms the run map is built from. This page says what each one is for, what happens between pressing Play and the end of a run, and where to point the menu at a run map of your own.

They all live in Content/MPFriendslop/Maps/.

Map What it is
L_MainMenu The front end. A menu room with a camera, and the menu widgets on top. It is also the lobby: when a player hosts, this same map reloads as a listen server.
L_Procedural The run map. A new floor plan every run, built from the rooms in Maps/Modules/. This is where the crew loots, extracts and gets hunted.
Modules/L_Module_* The nine rooms the generator loads into L_Procedural. Never opened as a run map.
L_Showcase A showroom of the level kit meshes, sorted by family. Open it in the editor to browse the pieces. It is not part of the game flow.

The classes that run each map

The project settings (Project Settings, then Maps & Modes) are already set:

Setting Value
Game Default Map L_MainMenu
Editor Startup Map L_Procedural
Game Instance Class BP_FriendslopGameInstance
Default GameMode BP_FriendslopGameMode

L_MainMenu overrides the game mode with BP_MainMenuGameMode in its World Settings. That mode has no pawn and no HUD, and its Use Seamless Travel is on so the other players follow the host into the run.

L_Procedural has no override. It uses the project default, BP_FriendslopGameMode, which holds the run rules. So a new run map needs nothing in its World Settings. Its Use Seamless Travel is on too, so the other players stay connected through a RESTART.

L_MainMenu holds one BP_MainMenu actor. It puts its own camera in view, creates the menu and shows the cursor. Move the actor to frame your menu shot.

From Play to the end of a run

  1. The game opens on L_MainMenu. The main menu shows HOST RUN, SOLO RUN, CUSTOMIZE, SETTINGS and QUIT.
  2. SOLO RUN opens the run map straight away, alone. Nobody can join a solo run.
  3. HOST RUN opens the session page. The host picks the options and clicks OPEN LOBBY. L_MainMenu reloads as a listen server, and that is the lobby. Other players find it in the browser and join it.
  4. The host clicks START THE RUN. Every player travels to the run map together.
  5. The run ends when the run clock reaches zero, when every standing player has jumped into the extraction, or when the whole crew is down. With two players or more, a crew that is all down first fights it out in the Last Loser Standing arena, and the run ends after it. The recap screen opens.
  6. On the recap, the crew leader clicks RESTART: the host, or on a dedicated server the player connected the longest. The run map reloads for everyone with a new floor plan, and a new run starts. The other players see WAITING FOR THE SERVER TO RESTART instead of the button.
  7. LEAVE THE RUN, in the pause menu (P), sends you back to L_MainMenu. When the host leaves, every other player is sent back too, with the message THE HOST LEFT THE RUN. On a dedicated server there is no host: a player who leaves goes back alone, and the others keep playing.

A map change reloads everything. Only BP_FriendslopGameInstance survives it: the host options, the join code, the settings and the profile (credits and cosmetics).

The lobby, the join code and the kick are covered in Sessions and the lobby. What happens during a run is in How a run works.

Play your own run map from the menu

  1. Build your level. It needs at least one PlayerStart. What else a run map needs is in Build your own level.
  2. Leave its World Settings alone. The project default game mode is already BP_FriendslopGameMode.
  3. Open Content/MPFriendslop/Blueprints/Widgets/Menu/WBP_SessionPage. Set Run Level to your map.
  4. Open WBP_MainMenuPage in the same folder. Set Level To Play to your map.
  5. Save both.

Steps 3 and 4 are both needed: START THE RUN reads the first one, SOLO RUN the second. RESTART needs nothing, it reloads whatever map is running.

The map fields are soft references to a level, picked from a list. You never type a path.

Field Where Shipped value Used by
Run Level WBP_SessionPage, in Settings|Session L_Procedural START THE RUN
Level To Play WBP_MainMenuPage, in Settings|Menu L_Procedural SOLO RUN
Menu Level WBP_PausePage, in Settings|Menu L_MainMenu LEAVE THE RUN
Menu Level BP_FriendslopPlayerState (in Blueprints/PlayerCharacter/), in Settings|Session L_MainMenu A player the server sends back: kicked, wrong code, host left
Menu Widget Class BP_MainMenu (in Blueprints/Misc/), in Settings|Menu WBP_MenuRoot The menu created on the menu map

If you replace L_MainMenu with your own menu map, set it as Game Default Map, give it the BP_MainMenuGameMode override, place a BP_MainMenu in it, and point both Menu Level fields at it.

To change the quota or the run length, see Change the quota, the run length and the recap.

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