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.
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.
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.