Learn more about phase battles.
Phase battles are similar to turn based battles – but each faction has their own phase to select and perform actions in. The settings for phase battles can be found in Battle System > Real Time Battles in the ORK Framework editor.
Fighting in phases
In phase battles, each combatant faction (e.g. player and enemies) select and perform all their actions in their own phase, without being interrupted by actions of other factions (excluding counter attacks).
The phase order (i.e. order in which the factions have their phase) can either be defined through sorting the participating factions by Name or ID, or by calculating a value for each participating faction using a formula.
When using the Phase Calculation formula, the value will be calculated for each member of the individual factions that isn’t dead. Either the highest value of a faction’s members or the sum of all faction member values will be used. The faction with the highest value will get the first phase, the faction with the lowest value the last phase.
Player Combatant Selection
The order of the combatants of a faction can be chosen freely. The player will get a list of all members of his faction participating in battle.
After a member was selected, the actions the member should perform are chosen – once the member is finished, the member selection will be displayed again. This repeats until all members where used or an optional end phase choice was selected.
Active Command
Instead of selecting all actions of the combatants first, each combatant will immediately perform the selected actions – the next combatant will be able to select and perform actions afterwards.
Dynamic Combat
When using Dynamic Combat, multiple actions can be performed at the same time. Combatants wont wait for other actions to finish and start their actions as soon as they can.
This is best suited when using Active Command.
Phase Change Events
You can use Phase Change Events to animate when the battle changes the phase (i.e. switches to the phase of the next faction). The Faction Members actor in phase change events contains all membersof the faction which uses the event and are participating in the battle.
First, an end phase event will be performed for the faction which’s phase is ending. After the event ended, a start phase event will be performed for the new faction starting the phase. When the battle starts, the first faction’s start phase event will be performed.
Phase change events are created in the event editor (Events in the ORK Framework editor). The Start Phase Event and End Phase Event of a faction is defined in the settings of the individual factions (Combatant > Factions in the ORK Framework editor).
Actions Per Turn
A combatant can use multiple actions per turn. The number of actions a combatant can perform in a turn is defined by the Actions Per Turn settings in the Actions Settings.
A combatant can perform actions until all actions per turn where used up or the turn was ended (End/None battle command). The actions per turn can also be calculated through a formula, i.e. you can use status values to influence this.
Additionally, actions define how much using them costs – i.e. an action can consume 1, 0, 0.5 or any other value of the actions per turn of the combatant. The default action cost is defined alongside the actions per turn and can be overridden for abilities, items and special actions. Individual abilities and items can also override the default action cost and default ability/item action cost. By default, combatants have 1 action per turn and all actions cost 1 to perform.
See an example in this gameplay tutorial – although the tutorial explains this mechanic for Turn Based battles, it’s working the same way for Phase battles.
The Actions Per Turn feature can also be used to create custom systems.
Tip: Custom Action Points System
You’re not limited to just using the actions per turn in the way described in this tutorial – you can e.g. use it to create a custom action points system. For this, you can let the Actions Per Turn at 1 (Value) and set the Default Action Cost to 0 (Value).
Now, the combatants can perform as many actions per turn as they want, until they use the End battle command (or None action in the battle AI). To limit the actions available to a combatant, you use the Use Costs of the abilities, e.g. using a Consumable type status value like MP or AP (action points) that can be replentished each turn through the Turn Bonuses (defined in the settings of the used battle system).
For actions that should end the combatant’s turn (e.g. defend or using an item), you can override the default action costin the Action Settings of the battle system you’re using.
Tip: Change member without wasting a turn
The player can change members in battle through the Change Member command. Usually, this results in the turn ending afterwards. If you want to switch members without losing the turn – i.e. the new combatant replacing the old one being able to use actions immediately – you can just override the default action cost for this special action.
Set the Change Member Cost to 0 (Value) in the Action Settings of the battle system you’re using.
Please note that this is only useful when using Active Command in phase battles, otherwise the change member action will only be performed after all combatants chose their actions.
Other Settings
There are a lot of other settings available in Phase battles – some of the most important are listed here.
Defend First
The defend command can optionally take priority over all other actions, even when the combatant selected the actions after other combatants.
However, this can’t perform the defend command before already started actions.
Control Block Settings
These settings define if and when the player or camera controls are blocked during phase battles.
E.g. you can block the player control through the entire battle, but only block the camera control during actions.
Default Start/End Events
These settings define the default Battle Start Event and Battle End Events used by phase battles. If you want some of your battles to use different battle start/end events, you can override them in the Battle component of that battle.
When using Random Battle Areas or Combatant Spawners, you can define a game object with a Battle component that will be used to override these settings. Additionally, you can use the Nearest Battle game object to override these settings and place battles at defined locations.
Leave Arena Settings
The battle can optionally end if the player leaves the battle arena. If used, the player has to move outside a defined range of the battle arena (i.e. the game object with the Battle component attached) to trigger the Leave Arena battle end.
Leaving the area will count as escaping in statistics.
Battle Gains Collection
These settings handle when the battle gains are collected. You can either collect them at the end of the battle (e.g. in the battle end event) or get them immediately (and optionally drop them to the ground).
Bonus Settings
Like the other battle systems, Phase battles can change Consumable type status values and status effects at specific points in battle:
- at the start of the battle (all combatants)
- when a combatant starts a new turn, i.e. starts selecting actions (individual combatants)
- at the end of the battle (all combatants)
- when (optionally) reviving dead members of the player group (revived combatants)
Use this to regain some MP or Action Points status values of a combatant each time the start a turn.
Use this to completely refresh HP and MP of the combatants after the battle.