Tower Defense Tips

[MrVovun]

Sup. So I'm total zero in this programming thing, I'm more like gamedesigner, not a coder, even a bit. Working on tower defense game with classical mechanics (no roleplay or heroes stuff, just classical TD mechanics like WC3's Green TD had). Here I'm looking for help in questions that can sound easy to you, but totally dark for me. Is there any way I can find or easily code with blueprints next things:

1. Spawning monsters.
2. Programming monster's logic so they would walk from point A to point B using only Splines as a road.
3. Strategic camera (top-down).
3.5. Interactive interface on the bottom of the screen (simillar to Warcraft 3 and Dota 2).
4. Click on tower's icon on game interface, than click on special platform in game field - bam, tower's ready to fight.
5. Mechanics of tower attacking monsters.
6. Mechanics of tower slowing every monster in X radius.
7. Mechanics of tower attacking only certain type of targets (flying).
8. Mechanics of tower leaving a small damaging area after shooting a projectile (talking about magma).
9. Text blocks, appearing on screen as a tutorial.
10. Some of the actions (like monster spawning) should only start after clicking on particular text blocks.
11. Stats for towers and monsters (HP, attack power, attack speed, etc.)

I've found some simmilar things in Unreal Engine 4's StrategyGame, but as far as I saw all the programming represented in C++ code, so I was wondering is there any way to just use blueprints for this?

[eXi]

Hey, i will give you the names of the nodes and classes etc you will need to look for:

* Look into the Tower Defense Game called "Strategy Game" in the Learning Tab of the Unreal Engine Launcher that you mentioned

1. Spawn Actor from Class
2. Behavior Tree
3. * Strategy Game
3.5 UMG, Strategy Game uses Slate, which is the Code Version of UMG, so better stay with UMG (nearly everything is possible with it)
4. This is a UMG thing too, but you can have a look at the Strategy Game here too
5./6./7./8. * Strategy Game, although not all types of towers can be found there. You will need to come up with somethings yourself
9. That's UMG again
10. That's UMG + Spawn Actor from Class
11. Basic classes

I don't know if there is another thing only for blueprint, but the Strategy Game can be used as a non programmer too.
You don't have to know exactly what is happening, but you can still learn alot.

If it is too hard for you to come up with way to implement this i would recommened you to make something smaller, maybe something
that has a full Blueprint Version already or where you can find a full tutorial.

Because most of your points are basic things (like spawning, camera, the whole UMG thing and stats).
The different towers are just 4 classes that have a baseclass which stores all information.
Like "What type is this tower of, how much damage does it deal, etc."
The AI, monster logic, is Behavior tree topic. There are tutorials on youtube that show you some basics, but again not related to Tower Defense.

(: For most of your problems you will have to come up with your own code and logic. You can only start learning the base of coding/blueprinting
and then create a TD Game.

[MrVovun]

Thx for the tip, but how do I actually copy a camera from Strategy Game? And is it legal to do this, to use the Epic's assets in my further game?

[Adam Davis]

Hi MrVovun,

Yes, you are able to use any assets within the learning materials and projects provided by Epic in your games. Here is the particular information from the FAQ page:

What can I do with content I obtain from the Marketplace and Learn tab?

Besides using this content for learning, experimenting, and prototyping, you can also ship it in your own products too! However, you can’t sell or sublicense Marketplace content to other developers for use in their products, e.g. via web site or e-commerce mechanism built into a 3D development tool.

You can find more information from the FAQ here:

https://www.unrealengine.com/faq

[PhoenixMarket]

I have an amazing template for game designers like you
Have a look:
https://forums.unrealengine.com/unre...fense-template