Welcome to the design proposal for a new video game, LEGO Ultra Agents: Retake Astor! This proposal is being written as a hobby of mine and is not intended for real production, but with that said, I would like it serve as an example of the cool things you can do with LEGO in Video Games without the limitations that TT Games set in place by using their horrid formula.

As a general rule, this game will be darker and edgier than most LEGO products, and for the most part the previous two revisions of the LEGO Agents line (2008 - 2009) will be ignored, with maybe a few mentions here and there. I have considered a multiplayer mode, but decided against it at this point in time only because it would mean its own entirely separate design document; the multiplayer mode would still be part of the main game, but would require new gameplay elements outside the scope of this current project.

What Is This Game?

LEGO Ultra Agents: Retake Astor (name pending) is a Single-Player Third-Person Platformer/Shooter hybrid (with Metroidvania-elements) which teaches and stresses the importance of creativity, consistency, teamwork and respecting a good framework. It features mainly characters, locations and themes from the LEGO Ultra Agents line, but also uses a few things from both the Agents line and the Alpha Team line.

Why Would People Care?

LEGO is an extremely popular and powerful toyline, but its presence in digital media has been unfitting for its powerful abilities to teach children and inspire adults. The TT Games have been following the same old formula for long enough now that people are starting to realise that the games don't have a strong or interesting core, and it doesn't help that the games are grounded in technical issues due to a reduced development cycle. This game is a fresh new take on the LEGO Media medium, and is actually built with the core themes and messages of the LEGO brand in mind. This game has been designed to be open enough to allow all players their own means of expression, giving freedom through both the gameplay as well as the customisation.

Who Is This Game For?

This game would primarily be for children and adults, aged 12 and upwards. The darker themes of this game and its gameplay mean that it's less suited towards children younger than 10, and the game's similarities to the Batman: Arkham-series of games means that adults will likely find enjoyment that younger audience members will not. This is a product aimed towards those who already enjoy the LEGO product, and more specifically to those who are excited by the concept of Heroes and Villains, since the game's antagonists are all essentially super-villains using special powers. While there is no real gender-preference, conceivably this game will appeal more towards males. The client for the game will be The LEGO Group, and we hope this is a title that they can proudly boast as representing the company's key goals of the LEGO product, even if it is less suited towards their usual younger market.

Goals and Objectives

The overall goal of the game is to defeat every single Super-Villain and disband their associated gangs in the streets of the city of Astor City.

There are 3 Acts of the game; Act 1 and 2 are similar, built to train and reinforce the same concepts which will become important in Act 3. Act 3 represents the Point of No Return, and it is here where the player's skills are really tested.

Act 1 & 2

In Act 1 & 2 (both being based off of Series 1 and Series 2 of the Ultra Agents line respectively), you are given a set of Super-Villains to contain, as well as a stack of side-quests which may be required (depend on the player's play-style) in order to complete the overall goal of defeating each Super-Villain.

There are no barriers preventing the players from chasing down each villain whenever they want, aside from how the player wishes to accomplish each target, and the tools they need. Each antagonist NPC is spread over different parts of the city, and are actually active within that area. When the player feels they are ready to attack, they simply need to locate each target NPC (by listening to radio reports, following police squad cars, flying around etc) and either give chase or defeat the villain. Each hostile NPC holds its own behaviours and strengths/weaknesses, and this will be something players need to adjust for.

One NPC in each Act will require that every other NPC is already caught. These NPCs (Terabyte for Act 1, AntiMatter for Act 2) require the use of every single power you used to capture the previous NPCs (for example, you need water to finish off one individual NPC, and then water allows you to stun Terabyte for long enough to use other powers so that you can eventually capture him). This is a way of reinforcing to the player that different abilities have more than one unique use, and that the player should mess around with each item and power in order to find new strategies.

In order to acquire the powers and tools needed to finish off the NPCs, you need to have access to Bricks (more details in the Resources section). Bricks can be acquired in several ways;

• By defeating all the members of a gang patrol roaming the streets. These only give you limited bricks, and you cannot get any special items, but defeating a patrol allows you to interrogate a member of the patrol (using the dialogue gameplay mechanic) for hints on special locations, such as the location of the associated NPC or the nearest vault.
  
• By raiding a gang vault with stolen bricks and confiscating those bricks. You will get a larger amount of bricks this way, and you will also get access to special bricks and possibly even other treasures.
  
• By finding NPC "treasures", such as their plans, laptops, vehicles and other items. These give you limited bricks, but you also will damage the NPC/Gang's reputation/power, meaning there will be less patrols (which is important earlier in the game, as patrols have very powerful weaponry and armour) and the NPC will be easier to find and possibly even less powerful.
  
• By completing Civilian Quests. These are quests given by citizen NPCs, and usually involve defeating a gang patrol before they rob a store or doing surveillance work to determine who is blackmailing citizens. Completing these gives you limited bricks, but you also get access to the police network through the Constable who requests your assistance. The Police Network will grant you radar scanning abilities, and will also allow you to summon either Police or Super Secret Police to a specified location on request. These missions will also permanently open up new interior areas.
  

These are all types of measured side-quests. A player simply looking to get through the story will only need to do a few of these to get the items they need to capture the NPCs, but will of course find the game more difficult. Furthermore, while there are permanent changes between Act 1 and Act 2 (some of the buildings are destroyed, characters and gangs change etc), all of the original side-quests are still completable, alongside a stack of new ones.

Act 3

The final Act of the game introduces a new villain, and starts with the levelling of nearly the whole city. The player's single goal now is to take down the final Villain, and in order to do so they must learn as much as they can about the villain's behaviour, set appropriate traps and then attack once the villain is inside the trap. In order to set the traps, the player will need to convince each of the captured NPCs to help them through dialogue scenes. Successfully convincing each NPC will give the player new intel and items which they can place in the world in order to effectively create traps.

The player can only successfully interrogate each NPC if they are able to establish information about the new villain. By watching the villain do something (such as blow up a water reservoir), the player will unlock dialogue options. The more dialogue options unlocked, the more routes and the easier the player will find it to convince the NPCs to help the cause. Players can also talk to the remaining citizens, ex-gang members, police officers and Agent NPCs to see if they know any important information.

The very final battle between Player and Villain will require the player to build the "ultimate weapon", and depending on how well they studied the villain, they may be capable to defeat the villain in one hit, or it make take them a long time, based on the upgrades and bricks they use.

The game creates a special autosave once the player enters Act 3 that allows them to return to before they finished Act 2 so that they may complete all the side quests, similar to Psychonauts.

Other Goals

There are a few more goals which can impact a player's experience through the game;

• The player can "witness" enemies using certain attacks, and learn new special combo moves. In order to trigger a witness-moment, the player must find a gang which is either attacking another gang or is attacking a citizen. If the player uses their scope and stays watching the gang, they may be able to unlock a new combo. These combos are randomly generated.
  
• In order to grant the use of the largest vehicles, the player must complete a number of "challenges" for the Overseer. If the player completes these challenges (usually involving finding specially-highlighted gang members or citizens, or using a specific move to take out a target), the player is granted Authorisation and will be given the chance to call in either the Mobile HQ truck or the Helicopter while outdoors. Challenges are not measured towards game progress, and Authorisation(s) is/are not required for game completion, but may help.
  
• Hostage Situations and Alpha Team Member rescues. The Ultra Agents and the Alpha Team members are all being held captive, and now that the original Agents have either been fired or permanently terminated, the situation is dire. There are phones ringing around the city; if you manage to pick one up, you will enter a dialogue scene, and you will decide the fate of that agent. Meanwhile, the Alpha Team members apparently do still exist even though they were officially disbanded years ago. They've been captured and locked in individual vaults under the city, which can only be opened by locating the guards in the underground tunnels that have the keys.
  
  Successfully saving each member will unlock you new prefab vehicles and character customisation parts, as well as a limited amount of bricks.
  

Actions, Rules and Procedures

As this is a hybrid of multiple genres of game, there are a combination of gameplay elements, as well as character states. Players must earn new gameplay actions by completing goals listed above, and the more effort a player puts in, the more elements of the game they will get out.

Default Character State

The default state that your character starts in is as such;

• Player can freely roam the entire exterior city without restriction. Most interior buildings are closed off, the main exceptions being the Ultra Agent HQ and the Police Station. The player cannot fast-travel until they unlock at least one significant location.
  
• Player can move forward, backward, left, right (with a locked-strafe mode by holding a button down, similar to Ratchet & Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal). Player is allowed 1 level of jump, and can sprint by holding the sprint button.
  
• Player can climb ledges and small walls (things like chain-link fences). Player can tap the sprint button while holding a direction button to roll.
  
• Player may use their own vehicles or any vehicles parked on the street. Flying vehicles are not available until Act 2. Players will not get access to Challenges/Authorisation until they meet the Overseer.
  
• Player has two weapon slots they can switch between. At the start player may use their default weapon, a lazer pistol, and will need to find or build another weapon to fill slot 2. Player may do simple punch melee by pressing the melee button, or a heavy melee attack by holding the button down. Player has access to 1 special combo; by pressing the melee button in the right order, they can activate a knockout-punch. Player may target enemies by using the targeting button.
  
• Player may initiate dialogue with any friendly or interrogated NPC (interrogated NPCs will have a dialogue sequence inside a locked room inside the Ultra Agent HQ). Player will not have access to all dialogue options.
  
• Player cannot initiate customisation options until they collect a brick and report to Ultra Agent HQ after receiving a briefing from the Overseer. Afterwards, player may use the remote customisation device to customise their appearance, and create weapons/vehicles on the spot. Said device only works outdoors. Players may also use a fixed device (a "Customisation Station") that do the same things, and are spread all over the map.
  
• Player cannot respond to citizen requests until they meet the Police Chief.
  
• Player can access the Journal and Area Map, but will need to fill in the extra content by playing through the game.
  
• Player cannot use the Police Radar (double-tapping the Radar button, opens up the Journal/Area Map interface but adds the police communication audio and locations to the Area Map) until they have completed a single citizen request. Players can use the Local Surveillance Scope (an infra-red scanner that highlights NPCs, objects and any quest-relevant object within a certain range) by pressing the Radar button.
  
• Player cannot save the Ultra Agents until they see the Overseer, and they cannot save the Alpha Team agents until an announcement plays on the big screens from Terabyte.
  

Completed Character State

This is the final list of abilities the player has (additions and changes to the default character state only), without the use of player-selected upgrades;

• Player has access to a number of interior locations, as well as the entire exterior city. Player can also traverse the aerospace and the underground tunnel network which provides shortcuts and can be trapped.
  
• Player can climb walls, provided they visit Ultra Agent HQ went after receiving a message about training.
  
• Player has access to cars, trucks, planes, helicopters, mechs, bikes and boats. Citizens will offer their vehicles to player, and player can also hijack gang-vehicles.
  
• Player can use a wide array of weapons, and may also take weapons from enemies for a limited period of time (until the end of the enemy encounter). Player has a number of combos which involve multiple buttons, but can take out many enemies at once.
  
• Player will have witnessed all events, seen enough locations and unlocked enough other content in order to open up all dialogue options.
  

Brick Customisation

One of the big elements of this game is the ability to customise and create your own solutions to problems. Bricks as resources will be discuses in a later section.

There are 4 levels of customisation. Each also includes prefabs, so that players can build off of a stable prototype;

• Character Customisation: This part of customisation is purely aesthetic, and does not require bricks. Players collect new body parts as they progress through the game; meet each Ultra Agent unlocks the Agent body parts, defeating the Villains unlocks the Villain parts, helping citizens unlocks miscellaneous parts and so on. There are a few categories, and players may enable or disable certain parts like hats and capes.
  
• Character Abilities: A number of these will be outlined in a little bit; they give the player unique abilities, but the player can only have a limited amount of them active at one time. They are unlocked by either finding power bricks (only in Gang Vaults) or doing specific side quests.
  
• Weapon Customisation: The player is allowed to build their own weapons, or use prefabs as a base. The size of the weapon they're allowed to build is determined by how many bricks the player has collected (weapon size = the weapon's power; you don't spend bricks on increasing the size, but rather as you receive more bricks, when you hit a certain range you unlock the next size of weapon). In order to make the weapon actually work, players need to add power bricks, and can only add a limited number, depending on how many big bricks they have.
  
• Vehicle Customisation: Similar to weapon customisation, except that the type of vehicles you can build is also dictated by how many bricks you have. Once again, power bricks unlock new bonuses for your vehicle.
  

A few examples of the different types of abilities you can unlock with Power Bricks:

Character Abilities

• Tracker: A tracker device you apply to yourself or others. It allows you to keep constant track of that character through your Radar, but more importantly allows your NPC allies to also know where you or the tracked target is so they can provide assistance on your call. You can throw the tracker onto another character by switching weapons and throwing it, but you cannot recover it. You must get a new one through the Remote Customisation Device, but this will also disable your current one if you have one active on a target.
  
• Jump-Pack/Jet-Pack: The former allows you to double-jump, while the latter allows you to hover and fly to a certain height. Obviously, one is accessible before the other one, and you can only have one on at a single time.
  
• Treasure Mapper: Displays all of the side-quests on the Radar.
  
• Hacker: Allows you to overload any nearby equipment and also shock/stun enemies that are vulnerable to it.
  
• Lead-Weight: Allows you to fall on enemies with enough force to immediately knock them out.
  

Weapon Abilities

• Skeletonizer: Immediately converts an enemy to skeleton, causing them to run away in fear.
  
• Water Jet: Creates a thick stream of water which can stun or incapacitate enemies depending on how long you shoot it at them for, and can also create puddles.
  
• Harpoon: Allows you to create ziplines that you can travel on, but also allows you to drag enemies towards you and even stop cars.
  
• Hwacha: Fires rockets down on a selected area like rain.
  

Vehicle Abilities

• Nitro Boost: Makes the car go faster.
  
• Claws: Allows you to grab onto other cars, and even rip bricks off them.
  

Different players will have different ideas and skill levels for customisation. While the prefabs should give less-inclined creators the ability to still pick and choose, the building system is set up similar to LEGO Digital Designer, the only exception being that there are minimum and maximum height, length and breadth values, and that players will only have access to a maximum amount of bricks based on the level they've unlocked. For the vehicle designer, players are not required to use a vehicle base, but must have a minimum amount of wheels/engines/rudder etc, while the weapon designer requires players to select either a base piece the minifigure can hold, or use a backpack base as seen in the Ultra Agents sets (this latter option means that players cannot use certain abilities such as the Jet-Pack).

The vehicle/weapon designers also include smaller prefab "Components", which are pre-built sections that the players can put together. While they are not full vehicles or weapons, they do represent a chunk of pre-constructed parts, and the player may remove the individual parts from this section once it has been placed (i.e., after placement, a Component becomes individual bricks). For example, a component might be the front bumper with a number plate and car grill, or it could be an entire engine-design.

Individual bricks each have their own unique properties which can be edited via a special window; for weapon Power Bricks, you can assign each brick to one of the either two triggers (meaning you can fire multiple "gun pieces" at one time), and you can also change each brick's colour and if they have a sticker/print, even after placement.

Vehicles can have an "Alt-Mode". All prefabs contain an Alt-Mode until the player modifies the prefab (changing the layout of the bricks may make the Alt-Mode impossible). Players can also design their own Alt-Mode for any customised vehicle; they're not allowed to add or remove any parts, but may flip hinges or detach pieces and reassign certain parts (for example, wheels might become booster rockets and the Alt-Mode might be a hover-bike). The player can use the Switch Weapon button to change between the different vehicle modes in-game.

Finally, each different customisation item can be shared amongst different people by simply copying the save files (each new custom item you save is saved to a new, individual file). These will appear in the "Saved Items" tab, which is next from "Prefabs". If you don't have access to the bricks required to build saved custom item, that item will appear greyed-out. This means you can also share items between your own multiple game saves/careers.

Dialogue

Another core gameplay mechanic is the dialogue system. Dialogue operates similar to most RPGs; you can approach any NPC in the world, and provided they have conversation options available, you will be presented with a list of potential dialogue options. This conversation continues until the player selects appropriate dialogue option that ends the conversation, or in an emergency instance where, for example, the player/NPC comes under attack.

The dialogue system in this game is focused entirely on what the player character knows and learns. While some dialogue options are available by default (Such as "Who are you?"), others need to be acquired, similar to trading cards. Since the player character is new to Astor City and the Ultra Agents, this gives the justification for the player's "amnesia"; they simply know nothing about the situation they are in.

Some of the ways you can learn about the ingame story and unlock extra dialogue options include;

• Long Dialogue Chains: A smart player can simply talk with multiple NPCs, and in doing so they may unlock information about a location, person or so on that they haven't actually physically seen yet.
  
• Locations: Whenever the player enters a new region of the city (which will be discussed in a later section), or comes across an important landmark, they will unlock new fast-travel points, but will also open up any dialogue options that relate to those locations.
  
• NPCs: By either looking at, talking with, or seeing a picture/listening to a radio report etc of an NPC will unlock that character's related dialogue options. Unlike locations, there are actually levels of information about an NPC that the player can know about. For example, knowing that one of the villain's weaknesses is ice might not be immediately obvious, until you talk with more NPCs or stumble across the correct information source.
  
• Hints and Abilities: Either through use of your own unlocked abilities, witnessing an NPC use an ability or through normal discussion, you can unlock tangential information on how to defeat bosses or do interesting things inside the game.
  

Dialogue is recorded to a log inside the Journal. If the player hits the "Log" tab, they can view all the previous conversation chains, whereas if they view the "Information" tab, they can see a summary of everything the Player Character knows about the game world. There is also a "Quests" tab (name pending) which gives them some information and stats on how many villains they need to deal with, how many vaults are left etc; the side-quests do not actually show up until you find the first of each. It is yet to be decided if the total number to find is displayed, or if you must purchase/find/use dialogue to unlock the total number.

Movement and Combat - Normal Gameplay (Non-Bosses)

During normal gameplay, the player has access to a movement and combat suite which give them freedom to explore the map and defend themselves/engage threats.

With everything unlocked and without the use of the extra abilities, the player can climb up walls, similar to Assassin's Creed, jump/roll/slide over small ledges, car bonnets and other obstacles, lock-strafe like in Ratchet & Clank 2/3 and have the ability to do a single jump and sprint. Players should ultimately feel as though the world is their playground/sandbox, and their movement through the world is what will define that feeling. Players need to be encourage to explore the bounds of the movement system, as this will give them incentive to actually study enemy behaviour and unlock new gameplay, and also lead to players acting more tactically.

The Player Character is an Agent, and therefore is not as physically strong as some of the opponents they will be going up against. Similar to the Fallout health system, each limb has its own health, and the total health bar is a composite of those bars, as well as some other factors. The factors to take into account when deciding player's health are as follows:

• Overall Health: The player has a health bar, and can take a finite amount of damage before that is reduced to zero. While taking off the player character's limbs will reduce the player's health to low levels, they will still be (barely) alive. The player must continue to take just enough damage to permanently kill them.
  
• Limbs: As mentioned before, each limb has its own health, and when they reach critical damage, they will simply pop-off the character and the player will no longer be able to use that limb. This usually means limiting their move set, and reducing the amount of damage they can deal with a melee attack. Players can actually still be alive, so long as they still have their torso and head, but they will no longer be able to attack or do any form of parkour, and instead can only crawl around. Limbs can be reacquired by going to a Hospital, the Agents/Police HQ or any customisation station.
  
• Bleed-Out/Environment Damage: If the player starts taking damage, or if they enter an environment that can cause lasting harm to them (such as sub-zero temperatures or a gas-filed sewer), players will start losing health, and the rate/length of this is determined by the player's current state (a healthier player will put up a better resistance) and the level of the damage (a bigger blow to the head or breathing in deadly toxins will do far more damage than other forms). Losing a limb will cause permanent bleed-out until the limb is replaced.
  
• Abilities: Some abilities may increase health, auto-heal the player or reduce the amount of bleed-out/environmental damage.
  

When the player loses all of their health, they fall apart (literally). After a black-out transition, they will wake up in either the Agents HQ or a Hospital (whatever is closer), where they will be (again, literally) reassembled. If they will killed during fighting a gang or taking a boss, any damage they did/NPCs they terminated will persist. NPC gangs only respawn after you take out their entire gang and some time has passed (and if their associated Villain has not been defeated), and Villains will occasionally attempt to heal themselves back up to full if you die too many times or take too long getting back to their location.

Combat in the game can be performed through the use of vehicles (either by mounted weaponry or by using the vehicles as battering rams), weapons and the player's melee abilities. Vehicle ammo is infinite, but may operate slower than minifigure weapons, and the weapons can also be ripped off by enemy NPCs. The player's weapons do not have ammo, but can overheat, similar to Mass Effect. Certain weapon abilities, such as the Harpoon, do not overheat the weapon and can be operated while the weapon is overheating, but do not do any damage themselves. The player's melee ability involves the use of combos; by pressing the buttons in certain sequence with the right timing, they can do devastating damage to enemies. A list of potential combos will be added in a later update to this document.

Just like in Batman: Arkham City, there are a variety of enemy types, and each enemy will be part of a different faction. Unlike in Batman: Arkham City, gangs will now attack other if they believe they are encroaching on each other's turf. Players can use this to their advantage, but otherwise must analyse each group of enemies beforehand and plan accordingly. Some of the types of generic enemies that are non-specific to gangs:

• Grunt: The bare-bones troop. They can punch, and that's about it. Their punches are very hard, so players will need to either get an Armour upgrade ability, or dodge with a roll whenever the enemy gestures to attack (enemies use the 1/2-second gesture from the Ratchet & Clank series so that players can pre-empt their attacks). Grunts don't have armour and don't generally use cover, but will hide if they see the player mowing them down with guns.
  
• Troop: A step up from the basic Grunt, they use guns (randomised between tasers, laser guns and rifles) and will use cover sparingly (preferring to stand out in the open), but otherwise are essentially the same.
  
• Heavy: These guys are armoured and make use of Rocket Launchers, Chainguns, Flame Throwers and other heavy weapons. They move a lot slower and don't use cover at all, and their head/part of the back is unprotected, so a player who is a good shot or can sneak up on them will be able to defeat them quickly.
  
• Sniper: Low armour, high-accuracy. They can instantly remove one of your limbs with a well-timed shot. Similar to the Jackal Snipers in Halo 2/Halo 3, their eye gear glows to make it a bit easier to see where they're hiding. The key is to remember that if you can see them, they can see you.
  

These "generic" types of enemies will appear in all gangs. Aside from these, each gang will have its own specific special enemies; these special enemies have powers based on their boss. Some bosses may have a few types of special enemies, others may only have one. A few of the special enemies you might encounter include:

• Flame Spitters: Enemies with a resistance to heat-weapons, and who have a grenade-launcher that throw two types of ammo, "Inferno Grenades" and dynamite. The Inferno Grenades explode on impact and will set whatever they touch on fire for a period of time, whereas the dynamite will explode on impact and create a crater in whatever they impact with. They are specific to Infearno's gang.
  
• NerveTroops: Toxikita's personal guard (a sign that you are getting closer to her position). They have stealth field generators that make them partially invisible, and they like to stab enemies with their Nerve Toxin syringes. The Nerve Toxin causes the player to loose control, and the player will need to keep pressing QTE-buttons; failure to do is will cause the player's limbs to start falling off until they die.
  
• Robo-Spiders: Spyclops' little pets. They create web traps (either making a web that covers a pathway that the player might walk into, or shooting web-balls at the player) that the player will need to use QTEs to break out of. The spiders are rigged to explode when they get close to the player, and they can also move close together to become a massive spider, similar to the Constructicons in the Transformers universe. This big spiders acts as a mini-boss and mostly uses its front legs to try and squash the player.
  

Lastly, every Boss/Villain and his/her gang is affected by a "Reputation" bar. The Reputation bar represents how much power they hold within the city. As the player finds and confiscates vaults, defeats gang patrols and saves Alpha Team/Ultra Agents, the reputation of that gang goes down. In the story of the game, this means the black-market providers for the equipment and goons have less confidence in the Boss, and are therefore providing them with less. In terms of gameplay, as the reputation bar goes down, more and more patrols will disappear. The special units will become far more rare, and the Villain may become weaker, as they can no longer source whatever powers their weapons/abilities/vehicles. On the converse, a player who dies a lot will increase reputation of that gang/villain, giving them more power and more patrols.

It is not just the player who affects reputation. Every Villain is looking to expand their individual control of the city, and so there are frequently gang wars, where bordering patrols will attempt to duke it out to see who can gain more ground. Obviously, the winning gang will walk away with a higher reputation, while the losing gang will walk away with a lower one. Furthermore, any time the gang positions change, different gangs will take control of the Vaults, giving them further reputation boosts.

Movement and Combat - Boss Gameplay

While specific stats and tactics will be discussed in a later section, the Villains/Bosses change up gameplay slightly. Each Villain at the start of the game owns a district. While their ownership of the map changes as their reputation changes, the Bosses are all active in the gameworld, and for the most part can be found at any time, provided you hit the right "trigger". The exceptions to this rule are the 3 Big Bads, Terabyte, AntiMatter and Ogel, who can only be found after dealing with all of their subordinates.

The Villains you encounter and their triggers are as follows:

After Triggering/Locating a Villain/Boss, you have the opportunity to capture them, provided you can knock them unconscious first. Knocking them unconscious requires different things for each different boss, and while the overall logic remains the same, there are a number of ways to solve each boss. The logic for each is below:

For further explanation:

• Tremor: He pays little attention to the damage he does, only thinking ahead. This also means he's easy to sneak up behind, because his helmet and gloves make it physically difficult for him to look back.
  
• Psyclone: His over-reliance on technology is due to his own lack of confidence in his physical abilities, and he uses the size of his equipment to make himself look far bigger than he actually is. Unfortunately, he isn't a technical genius like Terabyte, and so his equipment comes apart fairly easily if put under enough stress.
  
• Infearno: Infearno is the newest villain, and spent most of his money on the hover-board and the flame-throwers. Infearno actually has a fear of water, and since his equipment is poorly constructed, being splashed with water all means his stuff will short out.
  
• Spyclops: Spyclops' power is actually connected to his robot spiders, as he has connected himself up to the hive-mind system they use.
  
• Invizable: His main skill is running away to a point where he can enable his stealth technology, since his invisibility takes a bit to activate, and whenever he enables invisibility he becomes extremely susceptible to damage.
  
• Drillex: Drillex is hinted (within this game's story) to be Tremor's twin brother. While their appearance might be different and their original career might also have gone down different paths, they both share similar traits. Drillex doesn't look behind him, and he doesn't care to support any of the tunnels he makes because he believes he can dig himself out of any situation.
  
• Toxikita: Again, she's a biologist and an environmentalist, not an engineer. The main problem is that she has such little faith in technology, she attempts to create toxins and other biological tools to destroy technology, but then uses technology to distribute her toxins. She's also not completely immune to the toxins she creates, even though she has visible skin defects from the various surgeries she performs on herself to give her as much immunity as possible. Hence, in Act 2, she has to create a special dome she can hide in.
  
• Adam Acid/Retox: Adam Acid acts as Toxikita's Clyde during Act 1, but he really dislikes the cold. Retox is actually an undercover agent during Act 2.
  
• Terabyte: Terabyte might be a technical genius, but he tends to push his equipment too far when the situation gets dire, since he doesn't want to back down.
  
• AntiMatter: AntiMatter is incredibly powerful and requires a brand new, specific use piece of equipment. He is the one Villain who has only one solution to taking them down, which hints at the amount of power he has unlike the other villains.
  

Many of these hints can be found by talking with NPCs or by exploring the world, as explained in the Goals/Objectives section. -explain multiple solutions further-