System actions

This section describes all the actions in the built-in System object in Construct 2. They are listed in the order they appear in the Add Action dialog.

General

Create object
Create a new instance of an object type on a layer at a given position. If a Family is chosen, a random object type from the family is picked, and an instance created for that.

Go to layout
Switch to another layout in the project.

Restart layout
Restart the current layout. Note that unlike Go to layout, this action resets all event groups to their initial activation state.

Set group active
Set an event group active or inactive. None of the events in an inactive group run until it is activated again. The event group is identified by its name.

Stop loop
Stop a Repeat, For or For each loop currently running. These loops are system conditions. The rest of the event's actions and subevents will still complete, but the loop will not run any further after that.

Global & local variables

Add to
Subtract from
Set value
Alter the value stored by a global or local variable.

Reset global variables
Reset all the global variables in the project to their initial value.

Layers & transforms

Set layer angle
Rotate an entire layer by a number of degrees.

Set layout angle
Rotate an entire layout by a number of degrees. This rotates all the layers in the layout.

Set layout scale
Set the scale (or zoom) of an entire layout. This scales all the layers in the layout, taking in to account their scale rate property.

Set opacity
Set the opacity (or semitransparency) of an entire layer.

Set scale
Set the scale (or zoom) of an entire layer, taking in to account its scale rate property.

Set scale rate
Set the scale rate property of a layer, which affects how quickly it scales (if at all).

Set visible
Show or hide an entire layer.

Scrolling

To scroll, the size of the layout must be bigger than the size of the window, or the layout's Unbounded scrolling property must be set to Yes. Otherwise there is nowhere to scroll to and scrolling will have no effect.

Scroll to object
Center the view on a given object. This scrolls all layers taking in to account their parallax property.

Scroll to position
Scroll to X
Scroll to Y
Set the X and Y positions to center the view on. This scrolls all layers taking in to account their parallax property.

Time

Set time scale
Change the rate time passes at in the game. Useful for slow-motion or pausing effects. See the tutorial on Delta-time and framerate independence for more information.

Set object time scale
Restore object time scale
Change the rate time passes for a specific object. This affects the object's behaviors and its own dt expression. Restoring the object's time scale returns it to the same time scale the rest of the game is using. See the tutorial on Delta-time and framerate independence for more information.

Wait
Wait a number of seconds before continuing on to the next action or sub-events. Other events continue to run in the meantime. See also the tutorial on How to use the System 'Wait' action.