Learn how to add grid battles in this short gameplay tutorial series.

This is the 9th part of the gameplay tutorial series focused on grid battles – you can find part 1 here. In this part we’ll look into active time battles.

Active Time Battles

In Active Time battles each combatant has a timebar that is filled over time. A combatant can perform actions once the timebar is full (or reached a defined value). You can learn more about active time battles in this how-to.

Since we already used active time battles in the game tutorials, there’s not much we need to change. Navigate to Battle System > Active Time Battles and change the following settings.

Timebar Use Settings

We’ll set the grid move command to not use the whole timebar (1000) of a combatant, and only use half of it instead (500). Moving on the grid will cost some time, but not as much as using an item or ability.

  • Grid Move End Turn
    Disable this setting.
  • Timebar Use (below Grid Move End Turn)
    Set to 500.

Control Block Settings

Like in the turn based battles, we want to make use of the camera control target change, so we’ll allow camera controls during battle.

  • Block CameraControl
    Select None.
  • Block in Battle Menu
    Disable this setting.

Optional: Default Start/End Events

You can either override the default events in the Battle component used for an active time battle (as we did in turn based battles), or just define the grid battle start/end events here.

  • Start Event
    Select gridBattleStart.
  • Victory Event
    Select gridVictoryBattleEnd.
  • Escape Event
    Select gridEscapeBattleEnd.
  • Defeat Event
    Select simpleDefeat.
  • Leave Arena Event
    Select gridEscapeBattleEnd.

Grid Settings

  • Turn End Orientation
    Enable this setting.

That’s it for the grid battle setup – click on Save Settings to save the changes.

Considering Moving Combatants

Active time grid battles are different from grid battles using the turn based or phase battle system, since combatants could be moving on the grid while or after the player selects an action.

Currently, a moving combatant wont be assigned to the cells of the movement path. For this, we’ll need to add a new step to the grid move event – a Set Grid Cell Combatant step.

gameplay_22_grid_battles25

The step is best added in the loop handling the cell to cell movement, after changing the Change Position step to move the user to the new cell.

Set Grid Cell Combatant

Add > Battle > Grid > Set Grid Cell Combatant

This step is used to set the combatant of a grid cell – in our case, we’ll use the special Move case. If the cell is empty (i.e. not occupied by another combatant), the combatant will be set as the cell’s combatant, otherwise the combatant will be added as a guest on the cell. Using Move will also handle clearing the combatant from the previous cell.

Combatant Settings

  • Object
    Select Actor.
  • Actor
    Select User.

Grid Cell Settings

  • Set As
    Select Move.
  • Use Nearest Cell
    Disable this setting.
  • Object
    Select Found Object.
  • Value Type (Object Key)
    Select Value.
  • Value (Object Key)
    Set to cell.

Scene Setup

Setting up an active time grid battle in a scene works just like setting up a turn based battle. When using the ORK scene wizard, use Create Object > Active Time Battle instead of creating a turn based battle – or change the Battle Type of the Battle component to Active Time.

gameplay_22_grid_battles26

You can either set up a completely new battle and battle grid, or just change one of the existing battles we’ve set up earlier.

The next grid battles tutorial will cover real time grid battles.