I’m new to Unreal Engine and currently using Blueprints to build some basic gameplay mechanics. I find myself duplicating a lot of logic between different actors (e.g., enemies, NPCs). I’ve tried using Blueprint Interfaces but got confused when it comes to organizing logic and communication. Are there best practices or patterns I should follow for keeping things clean and reusable?
Actor Components (class UActorComponent) are most useful for abstract behaviors such as movement, inventory or attribute management, and other non-physical concepts. Actor Components do not have a transform, meaning they do not have any physical location or rotation in the world.
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Hey @AllenStuart
you can also use child blueprints. You create a parent blueprint with all the logic your characters share and create a child blueprint for the specific actor, e.g.
(Parent) Blueprint of type actor: BP_NPC
E.g. gets a location at BeginPlay, the mesh changes, can walk around, has events for receiving damage, …
Child blueprint (right click BP_NPC => Create Child…):
- BP_Enemy because this one can shoot at you
- BP_Pedestrian just runs around without shooting but follows a strict path
etc.
Child classes are a good approach. Key is the parent class only contains logic/variables that would be global to all child classes. Each child parent would contain “custom” logic/variables for its type. Adding said logic could be done directly in that class, Or by using actor components that are added at runtime.