So, you want to create some maps for Monaco? Great! Making maps for Monaco is a lot of fun and actually quite easy to do. But I must warn you, it will devour you and you won't let go easily after you've started. Are you ready to experience something even more addicting than Monaco itself? Good! Lets go then!

A handy tip that you might not know of: You can use ctrl-F to search in most things in steam, including this guide. So if you are searching for something specific in this guide, use ctrl-F.

Nguyen AKA AndyN has created a short video series as well. They are not as comprehensive as this guide, but you might find them useful as well: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFi00DV1ppgrD58KIHoajeg/videos

By now you've probably already figured out how to create your first map. If not, don't worry! It's easy! Just Press the wrench Icon in the menu.


Now you need to enter a name for your map. If you don't feel creative, don't worry, you can change it later.

After creating your map you see a big black screen of nothing. This is your map and it's of course empty. So what do we see right now? We see a menu with items and a big grid with nothing on it right now. Those are the two main things in the editor, you have the grid where you're working on and the menu's to select items from to place on the grid.

So how do we control all this. It depends if you use a controller or a keyboard (and mouse, though mouse doesn't do anything right now). I prefer a controller, but both work fine. The controls are:

• arrow keys/left stick to move around the grid.
  
• wasd/right stick to choose items from the menu. Note that up and down moves in the different folders of items and left and right between the different tiles in that folder.
  
• space/A to place a tile
  
• backspace/B to remove a tile in your current layer
  
• F/Y to fill an area. This means all items (or none) in your current layer will be filled.
  
• R/X to rotate a tile
  
• Q and E/up and down on d-pad to move quickly between layers
  
• Page up and down/left and right bumper to select a different floor. Note that there are 8 floors and you start at the lowest floor.
  
• C and V/Left and right trigger to Copy and paste a selection. You select by holding C/Left trigger and move the cursor on the grid. If you have placed items, you'll see them highlighted. Paste by using V/right trigger. Note that you can only paste a selection once, you have to copy it again if you want to paste it multiple times. Press C/Right trigger again to remove your selection from the clipboard.
  
• "/" / Left and right stick press to undo and redo (the controller can do multiple undo's and redo's)
  
• Tab/left d-pad to use the eyedropper. This handy little tool selects the tile you're hovering over. If you press it multiple times it will go through all the layers.
  
• Shift/right d-pad to zoom in and out. Note that there are only 2 levels of zoom.

Now you're probably wondering... what are those layers he keeps talking about? Layers are very important and actually quite easy to understand. Every spot on the grid has 4 different layers. For every layer at most 1 tile can be placed per spot. Every layer has a certain type of tiles, so for example you cannot place to guards on the same spot. The 4 different layers are:

• Architecture: This layer contains floors and walls. Visibility-wise they are on the bottom. Note that this layer also contains rugs, which are bigger than 1 square and lay on top of other floor tiles surrounding it.
  
• Furniture: This contains all kinds of furniture, such as tables, chairs and shelves. But also some fences, sculptures, rocks and more. Often a character can't walk through furniture, but it can see over it. It is placed on top of floors, but below items.
  
• Items: This is the fun stuff. Here you have everything ranging from guards, characters, lasers, bushes and much much more. Everything you interact with is in this layer and most of the decor items are here as well (but you can often walk over them, which is often not the case with furniture).
  
• Meta: This is a special layer for invisible stuff. This means some lighting, AI controls, electronic wiring and some extra coin control.

We will discuss a lot of the different items in the layers later.

So lets start building your first map! At the moment we don't need all those things in the menu, we just want to create some basic things. And we want to create them fast!

So start by selecting the left Alabaster from the Wall folder in the Architecture layer. This is your basic wall. You cannot see through it or walk through it. This also means that it doesn't really matter what type of wall you choose. It's just a tiny bit of visual things that might make you choose a different wall.

Now create some crazy building with your wall. You can create rooms, halls or anything else you like. Remember that later you want to be able to enter your rooms, this will require 1 empty spot. We will later place a door there. On a side note: if you use a metal wall, it will be unbreakable.

Now select some kind of floor from the Architecture layer. It doesn't really matter what you pick (as long as it's not a wall or the Erase tile). Next thing to do is fill your map with floors. You can have different floors for different rooms to make it more pretty, but otherwise it doesn't really matter. What's important is that if you leave a spot empty, you cannot walk over it (nor can a guard). It won't be part of the map. Also note that rugs are very big and should be added later. You can fill floors quickly by using the fill tool (F/Y). You should first surround the floor you want to fill before filling it.

Next up, we want to place some characters. Go to the Item layer and select some characters from the SpawnAvatar folder. The characters that you place will be the characters that can be selected at the beginning of your map. If you want your map to be multiplayer, you need at least 4 characters.

Now for some loot! Go to the Pickups in the Items layer and go wild! Everything in there can be looted and that's what your thieves want. You can also place some backpacks with items for your characters to pick up. There is an item called RandomLoot, that is just a coin that you place at a specific point. We will talk about random placed loot later.

Of course we also want some guards. Go to the Spawn folder in the Item layer and place some guards. You can also place civilians, birds and more. The things you've just placed won't move yet. They will stand still, which is fine for birds and maybe some guards, but you want them to move. Go to the Meta layer and in the AI folder select the PatrolRandom (4 arrows). Place them on top of the guards and civilians you want to move. This will make them start moving randomly around your map. Note that civilians that stand still have a coin beneath them, but when they're moving they do not. We will talk about more advanced AI behaviour later.

Lastly we want to add doors an escape vehicle. Doors can be found in the Doors folder of the Item layer. There are several kinds of doors, you can stick with the ArchedDoor and LockedDoor to place an open or closed door respectively. An escape vehicle is the last thing you need. Go to Vehicle in the Item layer and place at least one.

Ofcourse you want to make your map more pretty, so go search the folders for all kinds of items. One thing you must not do is place civilians or guards on top of chairs! Otherwise you can't really go wrong, so place a bunch of cool stuff in your map.

That's it! Your first map! Quickly go save it by pressing escape/start and select Save Mission. After that you can exit the editor and go play your map. It should appear next to the editor icon. To edit your map later, move the cursor on the map and press E/right trigger. Now go play it!

Lasers are awesome. Period. Of course we want to add lasers to our levels and maybe also some other electronic security. We can easily do this in Monaco, but for newcomers this might be a bit tricky at first. So before we discuss the several ways to add electronic security, lets build a basic laser with alarm.

Most of the electronics you need are in the Electronics folder in the Item layer. For now pick any Blink laser and place it somewhere on your map. Now pick the Alarm in the same folder and place them somewhere on your map. You probably want it on a wall, close to the base of the laser. Now there are two possibilities. You've either placed the alarm already directly adjacent to the laser. Hooray! You've already made your first trap! The other possibility is that the laser isn't directly adjacent to your alarm. In that case, we need to connect it. Go to the Electronics folder, but this time in the Meta layer. You'll see two items there, select the trap wiring. Now put as many trap wiring tiles between your alarm and laser as needed to connect them. See the image below for some examples.


Some things to mention about the trap wiring is that you more or less create blocks of alarms. So if you select your trap wiring and see all the red squares, you can see what is connected to what. Every collection of red squares that is adjacent to each other is connected and will behave as such. So if one of the lasers in that block goes off, all alarms and all guns in that block will go off. Also every other laser, pressure plate and other detectors will go off for a short time (just as the laser you've just hit). With this system you can create very complex systems, but keep in mind that you can't cross other blocks, as there is only 1 type of trap wiring. You'll have to create a route around it.

Lets talk a bit about the different items in the Electronics folder of the Item layer.

The Lasers:

• Blink lasers 1-4: these are your basic lasers that turn off from time to time. You have 4 different ones, each one has as different blinking pattern.
  
• Stationary laser: This is your basic non-blinking laser
  
• Security camera (Counter-clockwise): This is your basic moving laser. You have two different flavors. The normal one moves clockwise and the other counter-clockwise. These lasers are a bit smart. They move different if they are placed next to walls. If you place them next to two walls, they will only move in 90 degrees. If you place them next to 1 wall, they will move 180 degrees. If placed next to no walls, they move 360 degrees. You can change the rotating patterns of the lasers by rotating them (R/X) or by choosing another clock-rotation.
  
• Search laser: This is the closing in laser/camera thingy. You have to look close where the front of the laser is pointing to. Rotate the laser until it faces the right way. It will have a 90 degree wide spread (so 45 degrees on both sides).

Other detection modules

• Pressure plate: This is your basic red square you can't walk over or you're screwed thingy.
  
• Metal detector: This is basically the same as a pressure plate, but it looks more fancy and is bigger.
  
• Scan door: This is the door with the hand on it. Note that it is in Electronics section, though it also could be considered a door.

Security measure modules

• Alarm: The alarm is that annoying thing that attracts guards. It will attract 1 guard per alarm that goes off, so you could attract a lot of guards if you want, but I personally think it's best to use 1 per block in most cases.
  
• Turrets: These come in 3 different flavors, with the 3 different types of weapons available in the game. You can attach a lot of shotguns to each other to kill someone as soon as he hits a laser. Or you can use an alarm and a tranq to give some shameful dying by a guard hitting you.
  
• Security door: This security measure is actually under the Door folder of the Item layer. It is the double lock door.
  
• Car alarm: This tile should be placed on a car to make a car alarm go off as soon as someone wants to enter it. I often place it on the door from where you can't get in the car.

Other Electronic things

• ATM: This is in the Pickups folder of the Item layer. It is your safe with a hand on it. You should connect it to security measure tiles. (often just an alarm)
  
• Hidden wiring: This is in the Meta tab (next to trap wiring) and it's useful for connecting other electronics than traps. For example lights and computers. Normally viruses can only move over walls and trap wiring, but you also want them to be able to reach lights to turn them off and computers.
  
• Computers: This is a computer where you can create viruses from. Make sure to connect it to a wall with hidden wiring, otherwise your virus can't get away from your computer.
  
• Electrical box: This is the item you need to shutdown the power. It doesn't matter where it's placed, it doesn't need to be connected. Do note that it will create a wave of failing electricity starting from the place of the Electrical box.
  
• Spotlight: This is just a light that will follow the player around. So the player is a bit easier to detect for guards.
  
• Telephone: The telephone will sometimes ring and attract a guard or civ. Make sure to connect it with hidden wiring, otherwise your viruses can't shut it down.
  
• Wiring: These behave the same as trap wiring, except that they are in the item layer and they are visible. This way you can show the player how the traps are connected.

Lets talk about different floors. In list of controls for the editor we've already discussed how to change floors in Monaco. Page up and down/left and right bumper. You can have up to 8 floors in Monaco and the first floor that you'll see is the lowest floor. So when you plan your map, make sure you start placing items on the right floor.

One of the cool things in the editor is that you can see what's beneath you if you haven't placed a Architecture tile there. It also means you can't move there, but instead of being completely black as seen in the beginning, it will now show the first floor beneath your current floor that does have some items.

To move between floors we need stairs. Stairs can be found in the Stairs folder of the Item layer. There are two kinds of stairs: stairs to go up and stairs to go down. Make sure to place a stairs to go up directly beneath the stairs to down. This way they can interact with each other. You can choose not to place two stairs stairs connected to each other. Then you can force a player not to go back, which is done in some maps in the original campaign. Important is that you place floor tiles under your stairs, otherwise the player can't move out of the stairs.

Note that you have stairs of only 1 tile and stairs of 9 tiles. I advise to use the stairs with 9 tiles, since they are often more visible to the player. Only use the stairs of 1 tile if you lack space to place a bigger one, but even then, try to create more space such that it is clear for the player where your stairs are.

You also find vents in the Stairs folder. Use the Duct entrance as... well... an entrance and then continue by placing the ducts. It is visually more pleasing for the player if the vents are not on walls. Then the player can see what's beneath him. But do note that ducts are in the item layer and you easily put a vent on top of another item, such that you remove that item.

Next up is the AI. So far we've seen two types of AI behaviour: Standing still and walking randomly. We can do a lot more and all that can found in the AI folder of the Meta layer.

The PatrolRandom tile is one of the most useful AI behaviours, especially if you combine it with the PatrolBlocker! The PatrolRandom makes guards patrol randomly, but they avoid walls and most other impassable objects (except for jewelry cases that aren't placed on a table for example). A guard (or civ) will also see the PatrolBlocker as a wall. This means you can keep guards inside their own room for example. Note that when a guard is alerted, it will pass through the PatrolBlocker (and also vents and secret passages).

The Search tile is almost the same as the PatrolRandom, but now the guard will run. Just like you see in the hotel levels.

The PatrolSpawner and SearchSpawner are the same as the normal ones, but now the guards will keep spawning. This can be used if you create survival levels, where more and more guards will appear and eventually kill you. Note that C4 can blow up these spawn points.

PatrolWaypoint are those feet in 4 different colors. These are used to create patrols. You can have at most 4 different patrols per floor, one per color (this might change in a future update). Place one PatrolWaypoint on the guard (or civ) you want to assign to that patrol route. Now place a few more waypoints. The guard will move to the closest waypoint of the same color, from that point he will move to the closest waypoint he didn't visit yet and so on. When a guard has visited all waypoints, he will start over.
Note that you can let multiple guards (or civs) walk the same route, as long as you place a PatrolWaypoint of the same color on them. You might need to do some puzzling with the place of the waypoints if you want very specific routes, but so far I've always been able to create more or less what I want.

The Follow tile can be used to make npc's follow each other. Place two npc's next to each other and place the Follow tile on top of the npc that should follow the other. Make sure that the arrow points to the npc that it should follow. Also make sure that the npc it should follow actually moves, otherwise following is pretty useless. You can make long lines of npc's following each other, you can let guards follow dogs to lead them to the smell of the player. I've even seen someone create two npc's following each other to simulate that they "were doing it". A lot is possible, be creative!

The AvatarEscort tile is used to create rescue missions! You place them on top of the character that you want to rescue. You can rescue multiple characters and even multiple times the same one. Normally you should always place character spawns on the same floor, but this is not needed for the AvatarEscort (you can save someone on a different floor of course).

Team 1-4: This is needed to create pvp levels. You place them on top of characters and all characters in the same team work together. This means you can make 2on2 by using only 2 teams and using all 4 teams on 4 characters creates free for all. When a character is in a team, it can't hit other team members and also has auto-revive. So technically you could use only 1 team to create a map where you can't get wiped out (everyone will auto-revive).

You might have noticed that everytime you create a civ that isn't moving, it will also spawn a coin. Sometimes this isn't what you want and there is a trick to get rid of it. Simply place a Follow tile not pointing to any adjacent npc on it or place a PatrolBlocker on it. Always make sure that the player is able to clean out a level! So if a civ is unreachable, use this trick on it.

So now you've created an awesome map, it has amazing lazer puzzles, guards patrolling every inch of your map and a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of loot. What's next? Well, your map will probably feel very unfinished for a player at the moment. That's because it's ugly! Yeah, i said it! Your map is ugly! But don't worry, making your map very pretty is easy and a lot of fun!

Ok, maybe I haven't been completely fair, your map probably isn't that ugly. By now you should have a lot of different items to place on your map and make it quite pretty already. In the Item layer you find several Decor folders and there are tons of items there to increase the visual appeal of your map. Maybe something you have missed: There are also quite some useful tiles in the Furniture layer. Especially the Sculpture and Misc folder are very useful. The Misc folder contains several items that you might expect in the Item layer, so check them out! Also you should combine some of the items in the Furniture layer with the ones in the Item layer. For example: You can place a lot of things on tables or shelves (especially jewelry behind glass should be placed on tables, otherwise you'll get weird AI behavior). Another nice combination is the Shelf Box and Shelf Plant (in the Shelves folder) in combination with plants from the item layer. This way you can create all kinds of potted plants. That should be enough about the several items you can find in the editor. They are mostly self explanatory.

Now lets talk about lighting. You can find a lot of lighting items in the Ambient Lighting folder in the Meta layer. There are 3 kinds of lighting in there: Dimmed lights, Line Of Sight Lights and special (flashing) lights.

The dimmed lights can be used to set atmosphere. They are not affected by walls and just create a small amount of (colored) light. You can experiment with these a lot as they aren't as obvious as LOS lights and they can sometimes create very dynamic and visibly pleasing levels. Note that there is a tiny version of the white dimmed light.

The Line Of Sight Lights or LOS Lights are affected by walls, which can create very nice patterns. If you want to create a "normal" light in the ceiling, you can just use the white (or sometimes yellow) light. Using colored LOS Lights is easily noticed by the player, so be careful with them.

There are also a few special lighting tiles in the Ambient Lighting folder. The CrystalLight, WaterLight and PulseRedLight are pulsing lights in a certain color. The two dance floor tiles are used for creating flashy dance floors. If you place a few in a row, you will create a running light. The difference between the two dance floors is that the left one looks a bit smoother than the right one.

There is also a second folder with (even more) lighting: in the Item Layer in the Lights folder. These are all visible lights, like street lights, candles, neon sign boards and more. Just look through them and you'll find a lot of cool things. I will mention two special ones briefly: BigWhiteLight is a chandelier that actually hangs from the ceiling, characters will walk beneath it. The LightProjecter can be used for a small cinema or for people giving a presentation.

When you're creating a map with multiple floors, you sometimes want to add lighting later, but your lower floors are incredibly dark, since there is no lighting yet. There is a solution for that: You can turn off lighting in the settings. You can also toggle this feature by pressing L on your keyboard (Nothing for controller users here). If you turn of the lighting, everything will appear as if there are a lot of lights shining on them. So everything should be visible. Note that if you do this, lasers won't show! So creating traps is hard and you probably want to enable lighting for that. Also you can use M to toggle the meta layer to always on or normal mode, which might come in handy from time to time (you can also see the meta layer if you have any folder in the meta layer selected).

Also important to note is that some windows will create a beam of light that looks like it's coming from outside. You can find two StainedGlass windows that do that in the Lights folder, you can find even more of them in the Window folder in the Item layer. Note that there aren't a lot of differences between these stained glass windows, except if you look at the sideview of your map. Also, since we're talking a bit about windows now, you can find the window you can climb through in the Window folder, it has the name WindowOpen.

If you want to change the lighting outside you probably want to do that by changing the weather. In the Environment folder of the Meta layer you can find the different possible kinds of weather in the editor. They are classified by the level of the original campaign that they're in. Just try a few and you will see the result immediately. You might have noticed this before when you were constructing multiple floors, but if you place something on the floor above another one, it will cast a shadow. This means you should place some floor tiles directly above your highest points of your map if they are supposed to be inside. Otherwise the lighting of the weather will be visible indoors, which looks weird. One of the consequences of choosing a type of weather is that the background music will change. Every Environment tile has it's own weather and own background music, which are both connected to the original campaign. You can't hear the music in the editor, so you have to try this or take a look at the original campaign levels.

You might have noticed sometimes that there are some special sounds in monaco. For example you hear people talking, you hear music pounding, water drops in a cave and a lot more. Most of these special sounds can be found in the Ambient SFX folder in the Meta layer. You place them on the spot you want the sound to come from (so if a player gets close, he will hear that sound). Don't place the same sound multiple times close together, it will only create a lot of noise and the player won't recognize what sound it is. Sounds have a certain reach (depending on the sound) and only 5 sounds can play at the same time, so be careful. Some items make sounds of their own, this includes guards but also civs. So be careful with the Murmur tiles as the civs will also talk and sometimes that is enough.

You might have noticed that there are in-game texts from time to time in Monaco. There are two types of these: blueprint texts and hint texts. Both can be found in the Blueprint Text folder of the item folder. For a text that is only visible on the blueprint, use the first 8 tiles. Texts on blueprints are mostly used for naming the several parts of your map, such that players can coordinate a bit easier. The other 6 tiles in that folder are the DecalText tiles, they are used to give people hints in what to do. They shouldn't be used to tell a story in general as this should be done in the dialogue at the start of a level. Dialogue is explained later in this guide. In the folder Decals in the Item layer you can find things like arrows, they also are there to help the player. Note that you can type in your text directly after you place the text tile, but you are limited to a certain amount of characters. You can have different text on every floor, so you can have 8 blueprint texts per floor, which can be a total of 64 if you use them on all floors. Something you might accidentally do is placing these texts on top of other items. Remember that they are in the item layer and if you place them on top of another item (such as a vent, which I did quite often), the other item will disappear. You can use the following commands carefully: /hold_a_coincount, /hold_a_healthammo, /hold_a_objectives, /hold_lt_sneak, /move_rs_aim, /press_rt_shoot.

So we're almost done, we've covered a lot of the stuff in the editor and right now you can make some pretty awesome maps already. But there are just a few more things that are handy to know but didn't really fit in any of the previous sections. So we'll conclude this guide with all kinds of useful things that are handy to know.

One really important thing we didn't cover yet is how to spawn random coins. Spawning random coins is actually really easy, but if you want to do it right it takes a bit more effort. If you take a look at the Loot folder in the Meta layer you'll see 3 different tiles that we didn't cover before. RandomLoot places 5 coins randomly on the map. That is how we create random loot. We can control the placement of the random loot a bit. By using the LootBlocker we can create area's where the coins should spawn. Walls also count as blockers, just as the PatrolBlockers we've seen before. If you've created an area where coins should spawn place some RandomLoot tiles in there and you're done. Be careful with placing loot, you easily place too much. The last tile in the Loot folder is the Loot Spawner, which is useful for creating PVP and survival maps. It will randomly spawn 5 coins ever few time steps (I think 30 seconds). One small thing: an open window is not a loot blocker, but it is an PatrolBlocker.

Since we're talking about PVP and Survival, lets talk about the different game modes and how you assign them in the editor. Actually it's quite easy as the game automatically determines these things for you. If you've placed no escape vehicle, it will be survival. If you did place a escape vehicle you can have 3 different cases. If you've placed some artifacts you will have a heist: you have to steal the artifacts and get out. If you've placed a character that should be rescued (see AI section) you get a rescue mission. The third possibility is that you haven't placed any artifacts or characters to rescue, in that case you have an escape mission. Lastly, if you've placed some team tiles (see AI section) it will be PVP, which will overrule the previous game types. You can combine some of these game types, but for clarity to the player it's probably better to not do this.

Two items I didn't cover yet, but might be important are curtains and foliage. These are quite easy, but I'll cover them here quickly. Curtains can be found in the Door folder in the Item layer. They consist of at least 3 tiles, as you need a special one for both ends of the curtain, but you can copy the middle one as much as you like. The game automatically recognizes if curtains are connected. Be careful with the 3D orientation of the curtains, as you quickly create an unrealistic view. Foliage are the bushes and trees you find throughout the game. These are the only plants you can hide in. They are in the Foliage folder in the Item layer. One difference to note is that trees often block vision on the 1 tile they're placed on, while bushes do not. Don't be afraid to use bushes, if you're creating a map you often think players can escape easily. But if they can't hide, they often fail, so placing some bushes to hide in, is often a good idea (don't overdo it though).

The sideview of your map is automatically generated. It will look at your map as if it's looking from the bottom of the screen and considering all 8 floors from that side. A lot of things are taken into consideration by the sideview generator. One of the important things is the weather. In the previous section was explained how weather and background music are linked. Also the background image of your sideview is linked to this. Also the weather will cast a colored shadow on top of your sideview. You can make your sideview prettier by using different walls (since this time they will be visible), using pretty windows (this is why there are so many window types) and placing extra walls and items outside of the players reach (for example on different floors), just to make the sideview prettier. Note that if there is no loot on a floor and it doesn't have a name, it will not show up in the UI, so you can easily abuse some top floors for your sideview.

Lastly I will cover some tricks to edit a bit faster. One thing you might have noticed is that going through all folders takes a lot of time. You can quickly switch layer, but that means you start at the top folder of that layer. If you quickly want to get to the bottom folder of a layer, you can do the following: Go to the next layer (down), then go to one folder up. You should be back in the previous layer, but on the bottom. Another trick to quickly go to a certain folder is by using the eyedropper (tab/left d-pad). The eyedropper will select the item at your current cursor. If there are multiple items, you can go through them all by pressing the eyedropper multiple times. So if you quickly want to go to the electronics folder, you can find an alarm or laser that you've already placed, use the eyedropper and there you go! You're in the electronics folder. In some occasion you've placed a floor on the wrong floor level, for example if you want to add a cellar later. You can copy and paste an entire floor over different floor levels! Lastly you can clear one entire floor in the menu, so you can start your new floor fresh.

You might be wondering how your maps are saved in Monaco. There are two possible locations, depending if you have steam cloud enabled or not. If you have, go to /Steam/userdata/xxx/113020/remote/worlds/ here xxx is your steam user number (probably there will only 1 folder, so just pick that one). If you don't have steam cloud enabled, go to /Steam/steamapps/common/Monaco/SAVEDATA/Worlds/ (I'm not sure if you have to go a folder deeper, you'll recognize your files). Now you should see all your files. There will be three files: a .lvl file, a .png file and a .xml file for each map you've created. The .lvl file contains all your map data. The .png file is both the sideview and something with all your data, but this isn't used at the moment. So you can just ignore the .png file. The .xml file contains some additional data which is used partially, we will discuss it more in "Changing the dialogue" below.

Whenever you create a map, you should never (and when I say never I mean NEVER) create a map with the same name as you did before. This will create major problems and it could mean your previous map will be gone and steam workshop hates you (this might be fixed in the future). When you create a map, you give it a name that is used to create a file with that name. But also your mission will have that name. You can change that in the menu, which doesn't change your file name, but only changes the mission name. Also if you duplicate your mission, you will create a new steam workshop ID for your new map. Which basically means steam workshop will consider it a different workshop item. However, duplicating does allow you to choose a new file name.


So you probably want to change the dialogue text, because right now you're planning on making the most awesome campaign ever, right? Good, because next we're gonna take a look at how to do that. But I must warn you, it is a bit technical. This is not something you can do in the editor and you need to use a text editor like notepad (or a better one). I'll try to explain it step by step, but you should always keep backups of your files and I am in no way responsible for maps that go corrupt or disappear.

In the previous section we've discussed where your files are located. After closing down Monaco, open up the .xml file in your favorite text editor. You can use notepad, but please don't use word. I prefer Notepad++, which you can download for free. Now for the people familiar with xml, you'll probably already understand how most of it works. For those who don't: It's not that hard.

First go to the text that says "0|Ready?|Waiting on you, Chief!" This is where you can edit the text. Simply edit the text and your created your first line. You can also add more lines if you want. Just add a new line with <string>your text here</string>. As long as these are inside the <DialogueText>all your text lines</DialogueText>, you should be fine.

Each line is formatted as follows:
number|name|text
The number should be 0 or 1 and it determines where the dialogue appears on screen. 0 is on top, 1 is on the bottom of the screen. Normally 0 is used for narration and overview text, while 1 is used for characters talking. The name can be names like Pickpocket or Lookout and the game will automatically recognize these and give them the right color (you should use a capital). If you pick anything else it will be a grey box, which is the color if you use "Ready?" for example. The text is just what you want to write.

Something very important: NEVER use more than 255 characters in your whole string (so including the number and "|"). If you do, you will create a corrupt file as soon as you save your map. If you have done this, it can be fixed, leave a message in the comment section and I can help you.

When you're done, save the file and open up Monaco again. Now go to your map and open it in the editor. Now save your map and exit the editor. If you open your map again, you should see the dialogue! If your dialogue is correct, you can open your map in the editor again and upload it to steam workshop.

Some troubleshooting: If your game crashes at the startup screen, you've probably made a mistake while editing your .xml file. Check if every line begins with <string> and ends with </string> (note the /). If that doesn't fix the problem, try your backup. Also it might work if you just delete your xml file. Every time you edit your map, it will be generated again. This also holds if you want to edit a map you've already created: Just open it in the editor, save it, and there should be a .xml file. If you want to create special characters, make sure you set the encoding of your file to ANSI (not UTF-8). This can easily be done using notepad++ for example.

You already found out how to share maps using Steam workshop, but sometimes you want to share maps with your friends, so they can edit your maps as well. In the future this can be done by sharing the .png files that are created in your custom maps folder. But for now we have to do with a workaround. This trick also works if you want to make a backup of your custom maps. Simply copy paste all your level data to a different folder to save for later.

The file we need is the .lvl file. Get it from a friend of your backup folder and copy it to your Monaco custom map folder. Next create a new map in Monaco and give it a name that you like (not the same one as the .lvl file) and save it. Exit Monaco. If you go back to your custo map folder, you find your newly created map. Delete the .lvl file and rename the file from your friend or backup to the file you've just deleted. If you now open Monaco again, it will think that the newly created map is your imported map! Note that if you use this method for backups a new steam workshop item is created, so you can't update the previous one!

Be careful with this, always make backups, because I'm not responsible for your data loss!

This section is dedicated to all kinds of handy tips and tricks. Several of these are used by Nguyen or AndyN, the designer of the original Monaco campaign. Read it, you might learn some neat tricks.

If you're wondering how power outlets are generated in Monaco, it is quite simple. The game counts the amount of walls that are in the game and for every 20 wall tiles, it places a random power outlet. Only walls that have electronics in them (so not dirt walls for example) will count. Also there needs to be at least 1 electronic device. Furthermore, the walls need to be pathable, this means that a character should be able to reach the walls. So placing furniture in front of walls prevents some outlet spawning.

You can make NPCs interact with certain objects by letting them walk into the object. For this you must use the waypoints, just force the NPC to walk into the object and he will use it. The NPC won't be able to continue his route, since he will never be able to walk to the tile of the object. This means that you can use one color waypoint for all NPCs that should walk into objects. If you let the NPC walk into a toilet, he will pee (for a short amount of time), in a computer lets him write the stories of Pierre (each type of NPC has a different storyline) and make them turn off the power repeatedly... if you would ever want to create such a thing.

• Don't spawn characters on the corners of the map and also don't place stairs on the corners of the map, otherwise the UI might block the view.
  
• Try to make staircases face the same direction. So if you run in one staircase and go to the next floor, you don't run out of it by accident.
  
• Rotate to prevent patterns. Especially if you create a lot of connected foliage, you can rotate it randomly and it won't look like an artificial pattern anymore.
  
• Movement blockers cast a shadow, this includes furniture. So always make sure that there is enough light around, otherwise the player cannot see this and will walk more against furniture.
  
• Place a fence on camera's! Yes, you heard that right. If you think that your camera's are floating in the air, you can try placing a fence on them. Check the original campaign of Monaco, it's used all the time.
  
• Making fires must be done using two type of tiles, you need the ones from the Decor-debris folder in the Item layer for the damage and you need the one from the Particles folder in the Meta layer to generate the flames.
  
• Some items might be considered furniture, this is how that works: You can't move over furniture, otherwise it's an item. If something that blocks movement makes sound, emits light or anything like that, it's considered an item.
  
• There are 3 different types of walls. You have normal walls, metal walls and rock walls. A metal wall can't be destroyed, not by explosions or the mole. The rock wall does not contain any electronics. This means that viruses don't travel through it and if a player moves to far away from his viruses, they will die. The other difference in walls are just esthetic: You see the walls in the sideview. Also if you blow them up, the tile that is left (and you can walk over) is in the same style as the wall. Lastly, a secret passage on a wall will be in the style of the wall if the secret passage is used.

This section is about how to design maps. It will be quite subjective since there is no definitive way of creating maps. By looking at several maps of the original campaign and playing several custom maps I noticed several things that make the original campaign good and most custom maps not as good. Note that this section is more about how to recreate the feel of the original campaign, some players like a more stealthy approach. In my opinion monaco consists of two parts: stealth and making the best of screwing up. Which makes Monaco different than other stealth games. If you want to create stealthy levels, this advice might not help you, if you want to create levels similar to the original campaign, read on.

One of the most boring parts of monaco is waiting. Sometimes this can give great tension and then it's fine, but if that happens too often, it gets frustrating. One of the reasons for this is too much dead ends. A player goes into a room to get some loot there, but he has to wait there, because there are guards coming. Players want to move forward and if you have several rooms with only 1 entrance, they can't continue their run. So one of the things you should try is making circles. Try making it possible for the player to go somewhere if he's being chased. Circles can be made with vents and you can block some paths partially with locked doors or even scan doors. Also you can make smaller side rooms for the player to in and out again (an example of this can be seen on the top floor of the Red Carpet). A player never wants to stay in a dead end for too long, so you can create some great tension by forcing him too, but make he sure he can rest a bit after he gets out (see the chapel in Place du Palais). So in short, when your designing your levels, think about circles.

Something related to this is a mistake a level designer makes for the start of a level. Often a player can't start playing because the security to get in the building is too tight. Think as it in this way: A player has been waiting to get a lobby full of 4 people and he finally can get to play Monaco... but he is stuck at the beginning... what a bummer. Scan doors can be the cause of this as well as guards that start walking to the start of a level. It's easy to avoid, just make sure that players can dive in Monaco as soon as the level starts, it will give them way more fun.

A lot of custom maps are too easy with gent and too hard with lookout. This is something that is quite hard to prevent, especially in single player. But if you look at the original campaign, it is not that bad. One of the things I like to do is play a map twice with once with the gent and the other with the lookout. Often you'll notice a huge difference and this can be used to see how stealth heavy your map is. The gent is a more stealthy character and though that can be fun, it is not very much like the original campaign. This test can show you for these two characters how well they behave, but actually you want your map to be playable by all characters. So often more testing is adviced, but the lookout has the least traits that have a big impact on gameplay. Therefore you can try if you can complete your custom map with her and if you like how that feels, all other characters are probably also fun. But be sure to try the gent as well, since he often works a bit game breaking as well.

• Use random loot. I see a lot of maps that don't do this, but it adds replayability and it is used a lot in the original campaign.
  
• Be careful with gendarme (shotgun guards), they are very punishing and should be avoided as much as possible. Only a few (3) levels in the original campaign use them and both hotel levels are critized because of them. So just be very careful if you use them.
  
• Use secret passages for secret passages. I've seen a lot of people use them for non-secret passages and sometimes this can add to the story. But if you do, make sure it's clear for the player where they are and also don't place multiple passages in a row, it looks and feels ugly.
  
• Take your time, think your map through. The original campaign took a year of full time development. That's an average of 2 weeks of time for each level. Just take your time and don't rush things. Rome wasn't built in a day.

This section is still a work in progress and will be expanded in the future.

So that's it! You should have learned a lot of things now and should be able to use the editor in a professional way. All levels in the original campaign are made in this editor and now you know how to use it! So now you can make something amazing! Of course you're not there yet, you need to make a lot of maps before you really understand how to create maps. You want to create certain flows to your map to create the true Monaco experience. But now you know all the technical stuff to start practicing and maybe someday you will create the best custom map ever!

I might add more stuff to this guide later, so be sure to check it again later! I might have missed some things or maybe I'll add more handy tips for all kinds of stuff.

If you think something is missing from this guide, please comment! I'll be happy to make this guide even better! If the guide helped you, please vote it up! The Monaco community is small, so any vote is appreciated :)

I'd like to thank Nguyen (AndyN) for the spellcheck and several tips and both UB3RSOUL and cpi for helping me understand the dialogue editing.

Thanks for reading!