Best way to structure a mod (not a map)

I’d like to make a gamemode that I can use on different maps.

I don’t think there is any map rotation system implemented, so I’m planning on using matchmaking devices to send to different Islands (with the same gamemode) but I don’t want to redo all my setup on those islands. (especially when I’ll make updates to the gamemode)

Could be great if we atleast had a prefab system so that I can import a “base” island containing my gamemode logic.

I guess I would also have to republish every islands when I’ll update gamemode ?

1 Like

Developing gamemodes separate from maps is a great idea.
Would be so nice not to need to redo the game core for every map.
And to tweak multiple maps of the same kind without re-publishing every one.

A map rotation system, as you mentioned, is a great idea as well.
Are you thinking of a game playlist (which I don’t think exists yet either)
but with keeping track of scores from game to game?

Awesome ideas.

1 Like

I’m glad not to be alone thinking about it.

Actually I’m making a mod that I’d like people to make maps on, but without having to give my code out also.

For the map rotation system the only thing I can think about is putting matchmaking portals on each map, but it would be a struggle to update every time. So I had to rethink my current island so it can be played for more than 20min (which I initially didn’t want)

I’m planning on using persistence to store gamemode leveling data but I’m not sure I can do inter-island persistence.

I hope a dev could tell me more about it though, I’m modding with hope only atm :smiley:

Sounds very cool!
Still not exactly sure how you want the map rotation to work though.
Guessing its not enough to have a matchmaking portal back to the “root game”.
Can you give us a step-by-step walkthrough of how you hope it might work?

For now I’m just thinking about setting those portals somewhere in the spawn area and when people are tired of the map they can go onto another one :man_shrugging:

1 Like

Currently, options are pretty limited for that type of thing yeah. You can either do what you all are talking about doing (publishing multiple islands with different maps/same game mode) or you can make several maps in different parts of the same island and teleport players there on round start.

But yes, to confirm this is something we’ve wanted better tools for for a long time

I don’t know if islands get new codes after they are updated.
But if they don’t, you only need one matchmaking portal per minigame.
These portals could all point to the same “map selector island”.

That way you would only need to update the map selector island
after releasing a minigame to your gamemode.

Does anyone know if this works?

1 Like

I guess it should if they let you publish it ?

Also it won’t remove the struggle of having to update your gamemode on every different islands when you want to update it.

Your solution is clever though but I’m not sure they would allow it, maybe someone more aware could tell us ?

What are you wondering exactly? If they would allow you to link to different islands using matchmaking portals?

and to answer an earlier question, the public island code for an island will remain the same each time. When you publish the private version it will always be a new code, but you wouldn’t have to keep updating the matchmaking portals

Just wondering if you’re allowed to publish an island that only contains matchmaking portals as uns3ns was suggesting. I’m not really aware of the epic games guidelines yet.

You can! Absolutely, it’s called a “Matchmaking Hub” normally

1 Like

Well didn’t know it was a thing, it’s a way to workaround it I guess, would’ve liked the developers vision on this though

1 Like

Vision on what exactly?

I feel the ultimate solution here is to improve the role of Blueprints in UEFN. Specifically, letting us create BP’s with Verse scripts and other Fortnite-y things as components, along with all the appropriate interop of these BP’s within UEFN.

I haven’t really used the full/proper Unreal Editor much, but from what I can gather, BP’s are exactly this - they’re “templates” of composite objects. UEFN could be improved to let us copy/paste a BP from one project to another, without references being broken and such. (FWIW, in case you didn’t already know, you can “Copy” things from one Project, then open another project and “Paste” them - but this often results in broken references and such for anything more complicated than a simple object with no dependencies on another - however it does actually work surprisingly well with some specific Actor types, so I believe this functionality is WIP).

Also, semi-related, would be nice if we could have two UEFN instances or projects open at once, heh. This is probably a lot of work though, due to the cloud/games-as-a-service type of platform that Fortnite is.

2 Likes

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.