In this tutorial we’ll set up some more schematics to animate battle actions.

Currently, our enemy’s object is just destroyed when killed, and our player also shows no reaction on death. Like abilities, we can animate the death of a combatant using schematics – and that’s what we’ll do now.

We’ll also set up a schematic to animate the use of items and non-physical attacks (spells, support).

We’ll set up 3 schematics:

• player death
• enemy death
• use (items/magic)

Let’s get to it.

Player Death Schematic #

We’ll start with the player’s death – it’ll play a sound and animation using the Death organizer type, playing the combatant’s sound and animation assigned to the type.

As usual, the user of the action (i.e. the dying combatant) is the Machine Object.

Open the schematics editor.

Play Sound #

Add Node > Audio > Audio > Play Sound

Play the Death organizer type on the user.

Combatant Animation #

Add Node > Animation > Combatant > Combatant Animation

We’ll play the Death organizer type’s animation.

Calculate Action #

Add Node > Battle > Action Outcome > Calculate Action

Death doesn’t need to be calculated, but it sets some things that are used by other features, e.g. as the latest damaged combatant for the (optional) battle camera. It’s good practice to always do this for your schematics animating battle actions.

Calculating an action’s outcome defaults to playing animations, e.g. damage, or in this case, the death animation. Since we manually play the death animation to be able to wait for it to finish, we don’t want this to happen and need to disable the setting.

And that’s it for the schematic. Click on Save Schematic to save it, e.g. as DeathPlayer.

Enemy Death Schematic #

Next, we’ll let the enemy die – beside playing the death sound/animation, we’ll also fade it’s object to black and let it sink into the ground.

We can continue working on the schematic and save it as a new file.

Change Color #

Add Node > Animation > Fade > Change Color

We’ll fade the color of the combatant’s object.

Add this node after the Combatant Animation node.

Move Into Direction #

Add Node > Movement > Movement > Move Into Direction

Now we’ll move the combatant down into the ground.

Add this node after the Change Color node. This node connects to the Calculate Action node.

And that’s it for the schematic. Click on Save Schematic to save it, e.g. as DeathEnemy.

Use Schematic #

And finally, we’ll set up a schematic to animate using something, e.g. an item or magic spell. We’ll play the Use animation, play an audio clip and spawn a prefab.

Create a new schematic.

Settings #

We’ll add a prefab and audio clip to the schematic – however, we don’t select assets for them.

We’ll later use the asset override settings to set them depending on which item or ability they’re used in.

Prefabs #

Audio Clips #

Combatant Animation #

Add Node > Animation > Combatant > Combatant Animation

Wait #

Add Node > Base > Wait

We’ll wait for a short time.

Play Sound #

Add Node > Audio > Audio > Play Sound

Play the audio clip on the target.

Spawn Prefab #

Add Node > Object > Prefab > Spawn Prefab

We’ll spawn the prefab on the target (Starting Object).

Wait #

Add Node > Base > Wait

We’ll wait again.

Calculate Action #

Add Node > Battle > Action Outcome > Calculate Action

We now calculate the outcome of the action.

No further settings needed.

Wait #

Add Node > Base > Wait

We’ll wait again.

And that’s it for the schematic. Click on Save Schematic to save it, e.g. as Use.

Special Commands #

Back to the special commands – we’ll set up the defend and death battle animations here.

Navigate to Battles > Special Commands.

Defend > Animation Settings #

Death > Animation Settings #

We’ll use different setups for player and enemy combatants.

Save Changes #

And that’s it!

Save the changes using the Save Settings button at the bottom of the editor.

Testing #

Hit play and start a battle.

The enemy dies properly (so does the player), defend is animated – everything works.

 

Next, we’ll add some items.