In this tutorial we’ll set up the base battle grid settings.

This tutorial is the start of a mini-series covering grid battles.

Battle grids add a tactical feature to your battles, making placement on the grid, movement and use ranges an essential part of the player’s handling of a battle.

We’ll set up

• general battle system settings
• default use range
• updating battle range templates (for grid line of sight checks)
• battle grid settings

This tutorial is based on the ORK 4 Unity Quickstart 3D tutorials and using a phase battle system, but can be used in any project and with any battle system.

Please download the following prefabs for your grid cells and line renderer highlights and import them into your project:

Download Grid Cell Prefabs

The final result of this tutorial series will look like this:

General Battle System Settings #

We’ll handle some general battle system settings.

Navigate to Battles > Battle System and select General Settings.

Range Settings #

Since our battles on grids can span larger areas of a scene, it’s best to not use any range limits.

Battle Range #

AI Range #

Move AI Range #

Battle Actions #

Next, we’ll set a default use range.

Since we’re using battle grids, we want our actions to be limited by grid distance. The default battle range tempaltes of a project already contain setup for different ranges (including grid setup).

Default Use Range #

The default use range will be used by all abilities and items. Each ability or item can override this with a custom setup, which we’ll use in some abilities (e.g. magic spells).

Updating Battle Range Templates #

We’ll update the default battle range templates (which are already set up for use in grids) and add line of sight checks.

Navigate to Battles > Battle Range Templates – the setup will be the same for each template, we’ll change Range 2, Range 3, Range 4 and Range 5.

Grid Shape > Line of Sight #

The line of sight should be blocked by blocked cells, i.e. cells that can’t be moved on.

We don’t block the line of sight by combatants.

Don’t forget to repeat this setup for Range 2 to 5.

We’ll use the range templates later when we update our abilities.

Battle Grid Settings #

It’s time to focus on the actual battle grid setup.

Navigate to Battles > Battle Grid Settings.

Base Settings #

We’ll use Square grids.

Cell Selection #

These settings handle how cells can be selected in any cell selection, e.g. for placing combatants, selecting the cell to move to or for cell-based target selections.

Input Key Settings #

We’ll use input keys to select cells, i.e. we can navigate the grid with vertical/horizontal input.

Mouse/Touch Control #

We’ll also allow selecting cells using the mouse cursor.

Audio Settings #

Cell selections should make some noise, just like menu selections.

Orientation Selection #

These settings are used for selecting the grid orientation of a combatant.

We don’t need to change anything here, the default settings are fine as they are:

Combatant Placement #

These settings handle the player’s grid placement we’re using in the battle start schematic (using the Player Grid Placement node).

Move Command #

These settings handle the grid movement – we’ll set this up in a separate tutorial.

Target Cell Selection #

These settings are used for abilities and items that target cells instead of combatants.

Cell selection targeting can be used when an ability uses the None target range.

Save Changes #

And that’s it for the overall battle grid setup.

Don’t forget to save your changes by clicking on Save Settings at the bottom of the editor.

The next part of the grid mini-series will set up grid highlights.