I am looking for pointers for keywords to do research as I hit a bit of a wall.
I want to allow a player to create a “machine” from parts so that when the parts are put together the “machine” performs an action. For example, the player has a battery and a lamp, once the player puts the two together, the lamp will emit light and draw “power” from the battery.
I have been searching for interaction but all I get is examples of player interacting directly with an object rather than objects interacting with each other. Which keywords/concepts should I search for to get the info?
You could have each part include inputs and outputs (or requirements and effects), such as “lamp requires power” and “lamp emits light”; then, when your machine is complete, the parts look for their requirements to know whether they can do anything.
You can check those requirements by looking for parts, or for “resources” in those parts (which can be power or anything else).
the tag system in UE4 would work will with this…just add the appropriate tag and then check to see if each actor has certain tag before making something happen…