[SUPPORT] Advanced Turn Based Tile Toolkit

[Monokkel]

@RTE1984

Hi ,

So, how would I add the UpdateTilesInRange function to the blueprint code below? This is in the mesh blueprint with the trigger box, so a tile always spawns in front. The clicking on a spot method doesn’t work with the way the game is designed.

Would the UpdateTilesInRange function prevent the player from being able to click outside the mesh because there are still invisible tile spaces to click on? Would need it so they can not click outside the existing mesh that is spawned. I suppose I could use invisible walls.

Also, it seems like the obstacles will block the spaces just fine as long as the meshes are always lined up exactly with the gird below.

No need for clicking. That was just a quick way to debug it. UpdateTilesInRange can take either a location or GridIndex as input. So get the center of your multi-tile actor as location input. and add a range that will encompass it.

@**[Luna2442

(https://forums.unrealengine.com/member/789352-luna2442)**;n1763889]Hi , from Youtube here.

I had a question about the tile movement costs. I had asked about the 0.5AP tile movement cost, but what I had meant to ask was - How can I make movement reduce AP per tile? I’d like to be able to move one tile at a time without ending the movement ability but I can’t find where to accomplish this. I also would like to be able to move after using certain abilities, but moving once costs my AP, and ends that part of my turn. Is this easily adjusted somewhere?

Hi ! Your message is not approved by Epic yet (takes a bit for your first post). Thankfully I can see it, since this is my thread.

So a movement cost of 0.5 is not possible with the current setup. However you can always double it, so that edges that would cost 0.5 cost 1, while those that would cost 1 cost 2. Default tile costs are set in the various “AddTileEdges” functions (there are one for each heightmap option). This is what you would modify if you want something that affects the movement of all units. I don’t know exactly what your end result is, so I cannot give you more suggestions than that without some more info.

For your second question of reducing AP per tile, that is a setting in the different included movement ability blueprints. It is the “MoveCostType” variable, which is in BP_Ability. Choose “FromPathfindingCost” is probably what you want. You would want to increase unit AP so they can move more than 2 tiles, and increase the cost of attack abilities as appropriate (or set bUseEndsTurn to true for these, if that is what you’re going for).

If you tell me more I can help you more. How would a unit turn from start to end look in your game? What edges should have a cost of 0.5 and which should have a different cost? What is the intention behind the cost differences here?

@Reinhart_x

No worries! I know my explanation was not the clearest but I think I’ve figured out how to describe it after your response.

So what I meant by not having them be like HoMM units is that I’m not looking for them to stack in a troop holder unit, but rather have them be in a grouping of individual units that all take their turn before the next player would go. I think an image may help me to explain further:

In this image I have the default project opened, but I’ve added 4 units to my team which are the gray aliens on the right. These 4 aliens are part of a set grouping, a package deal if you will. So if you spend the points to buy “alien squadron” in the team building portion, you get 4 individual alien units.

Let’s say we pressed play to test things out: what I’d like to happen is to have these 4 independent units be part of a single turn. In my game I would like players to take turns back and forth, so I take the first turn with one of the green debug units, then the enemy takes a turn with a unit they chose, and when the turn comes back to me I decided to take a turn with “alien squadron.” So during the “alien squadron” turn all of the aliens would get to move and attack individually before the enemy gets their next turn.

I hope that helped clear up things a bit. It seems like it may be a bit of a challenge to get this to work, but it seems like it could be possible. Maybe using some way of assigning certain initiative values to each unit? The one thing I left out is I want rounds of play to happen where at the beginning of each round each player picks like 3 units to use for that round and they also then choose the order they want to use them in. Perhaps there’s a way to assign initiative at that time to not only have the turns go back and forth in the proper order but also allow for what I’m trying to do.

Thanks for all your help and if I need to explain any better I’m always happy to do so!

Thanks, I think I mostly get it now. This mostly comes down to array manipulation of the InitiativeOrder array. The devil is in the details, of course. Before I jump into this (will take some work) let me try to describe what you are saying back to you, so I’m sure I’ve got it.

Players will have different units. Some of these will be individual units not part of a troop (like the green units above), while others belong to a troop (the aliens). At the start of a player turn you choose what unit to move. After the unit has done its action, if the unit is an individual unit the turn will pass to the next player. If it is part of a group the turn will pass to the next unit in the group, controlled by the same player, until the last unit in the troop has completed its action, at which point the turn is passed to the next player. Is this the right interpretation?

A follow-up to that: should a player be able to choose the same unit or troop again and again, or do they have to exhaust all units and troops before they are allowed to choose freely on their next turn?

Also, love the paint job on the debug wall tiles

Hey do you know if 2.6 is live yet?
Id love to see how you get the camera bounds done.

2.6 is out! Generally I sync ATBTT updates to UE4 updates, so the version you get from the launcher if you create a new project with ATBTT and select UE4.25 is 2.6. I see now that it says 2.52 in the description and comments, though… I decided last minute to change the version number to a full update, since it was more to the update than simple bug fixing, but seems like I forgot to give the project description the memo… That is just a number, though. Everything from the update is there.

[ser.man94]

no
1 you show but not ful description i not found the files from descriptin. i atach te image.
and the second is to enemy make a return atack i one turn.
i ad the video with fight on hmm3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KB9Q7RV9oAs

[Luna2442]

I’m sorry if I’m replying in the wrong place!

Thanks for your reply. That movement cost type is much closer to what I wanted, thank you.

The cost of movement isn’t so much the problem like you said. A unit in my game should be able to move freely at the cost of AP without ending their turn. For example, I could move, cast an ability, and move again if I have AP left over, even if its 1 tile of AP left. I would like to convert the move_attack ability but maybe there’s an easier way to set this up?

I want it to be the default action (or unit ability) whenever you select a unit without having it in the ability bar.

​​​​​​​Edit: Looks like that movement type was enough! For some reason though when I get down to 2AP I lose the ability to move, even though I should have 2 tiles left. Must be some conditional somewhere I haven’t found yet!

[Reinhart_x]

Thanks, I think I mostly get it now. This mostly comes down to array manipulation of the InitiativeOrder array. The devil is in the details, of course. Before I jump into this (will take some work) let me try to describe what you are saying back to you, so I’m sure I’ve got it.

Players will have different units. Some of these will be individual units not part of a troop (like the green units above), while others belong to a troop (the aliens). At the start of a player turn you choose what unit to move. After the unit has done its action, if the unit is an individual unit the turn will pass to the next player. If it is part of a group the turn will pass to the next unit in the group, controlled by the same player, until the last unit in the troop has completed its action, at which point the turn is passed to the next player. Is this the right interpretation?

A follow-up to that: should a player be able to choose the same unit or troop again and again, or do they have to exhaust all units and troops before they are allowed to choose freely on their next turn?

Also, love the paint job on the debug wall tiles

Easiest paint job ever, just had to turn the camera and it’s like magic! Haha

You nailed it, man. What you described with the solo units and the groups is what I meant and pretty much exactly what I’m going for!

As for the follow up question, if possible I’d like to be able to limit which units take turns instead of letting them be picked freely when the turn is passed to the player. The idea is that the turns would already be predetermined in a given round and then play out in order. I’ll lay out the game sequence just to give an idea of how I’d ideally like things to run.

1. Game Start
2. Players place their team’s units where they want them to start within their home base hexes
3. Some sort of dice roll RNG to decide who goes first in the round
4. Round 1 turn order phase: players will have 3 turns in a round and will pick either a solo unit or a group unit to take those turns in a set order of 1, 2, and 3. The solo unit or group picked for these turns can be the same for all 3 turns. This is where I was thinking to set the initiative since we’d know who is going first and then it’s just a matter of bouncing back and forth between units 1, 2, and 3 of either player. Once both players have selected the units for turns 1, 2, and 3, the turns begin.
5. Player 1 turn 1
6. Player 2 turn 1
7. Player 1 turn 2
8. Player 2 turn 2
9. Player 1 turn 3
10. Player 2 turn 3
11. Round ends
12. Repeat steps 3 to 11 until game has ended

So in theory it doesn’t seem that complicated, but I’m not sure how intricate things would need to be in a setup like this with the toolkit. If it’s too tricky I can always try to make something else work, but let me know what you think. Thanks!

[Monokkel]

@ser.man94

no
1 you show but not ful description i not found the files from descriptin. i atach te image.
and the second is to enemy make a return atack i one turn.
i ad the video with fight on hmm3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KB9Q7RV9oAs

​​​​​​

What files are you struggling to find? For counter-attacks this has been discussed a while ago in this thread. Try to replicate what @ made and see if it works for you. If you have any issues, get back to me. The start of our discussion starts here. Then it goes back and forth for a few pages.

@Luna2442

I’m sorry if I’m replying in the wrong place!

Thanks for your reply. That movement cost type is much closer to what I wanted, thank you.

The cost of movement isn’t so much the problem like you said. A unit in my game should be able to move freely at the cost of AP without ending their turn. For example, I could move, cast an ability, and move again if I have AP left over, even if its 1 tile of AP left. I would like to convert the move_attack ability but maybe there’s an easier way to set this up?

I want it to be the default action (or unit ability) whenever you select a unit without having it in the ability bar.

Edit: Looks like that movement type was enough! For some reason though when I get down to 2AP I lose the ability to move, even though I should have 2 tiles left. Must be some conditional somewhere I haven’t found yet!

Glad to hear that was enough! The 2AP issue is probably because of specifically how BP_MoveAttack is set up. If you check the PlayerActivate event you’ll see how it switches based on the owning unit’s AP. This is the bit you will need to modify, I believe.

@Reinhart_x

Easiest paint job ever, just had to turn the camera and it’s like magic! Haha

Really, just the angle? Well, my color vision was never great.

@Reinhart_x

You nailed it, man. What you described with the solo units and the groups is what I meant and pretty much exactly what I’m going for!

As for the follow up question, if possible I’d like to be able to limit which units take turns instead of letting them be picked freely when the turn is passed to the player. The idea is that the turns would already be predetermined in a given round and then play out in order. I’ll lay out the game sequence just to give an idea of how I’d ideally like things to run.

1. Game Start
2. Players place their team’s units where they want them to start within their home base hexes
3. Some sort of dice roll RNG to decide who goes first in the round
4. Round 1 turn order phase: players will have 3 turns in a round and will pick either a solo unit or a group unit to take those turns in a set order of 1, 2, and 3. The solo unit or group picked for these turns can be the same for all 3 turns. This is where I was thinking to set the initiative since we’d know who is going first and then it’s just a matter of bouncing back and forth between units 1, 2, and 3 of either player. Once both players have selected the units for turns 1, 2, and 3, the turns begin.
5. Player 1 turn 1
6. Player 2 turn 1
7. Player 1 turn 2
8. Player 2 turn 2
9. Player 1 turn 3
10. Player 2 turn 3
11. Round ends
12. Repeat steps 3 to 11 until game has ended

So in theory it doesn’t seem that complicated, but I’m not sure how intricate things would need to be in a setup like this with the toolkit. If it’s too tricky I can always try to make something else work, but let me know what you think. Thanks!

Working on this question now, but got interrupted. I’ll update this post once I have a solution.

Edit: This turned out to be more challenging than I expected. Going to need to put this on hold and get back to it in a couple of days.

[thzero]

So, been struggling with multi-level and understanding the meaning of the different settings (yes, watched this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-YG…15jXKF&index=8 many times).

For my case, I’m looking at creating 150 height hex meshes, that can then be stacked on top of each other. Using general map as a starting point, I set the max grid to 1000, and height between levels to 1000. Basically, you can’t go underneath.

The height impassable is 200, and height slow is 200.

This seems to work, and I can create a stairs of 6 each incrementing by 150. And that works. However, using height impassable of 150 only allows climbing the first stair. Looking at the code, its not quite obvious why although I’ll note that the code description for the GetEdgeCostFromZDifference comment doesn’t seem to match the flow. Oh and heightmap is set to 1 level

Also, it sounds like that the height between levels is only really useful if you are allowing the setup to automatically figure out levels… I did try the above with heightmap both at 1 level, as well as multi-level.

Thoughts?

[anonymous_user_7ef0d073]

Hello! I am fairly new to UE4, and I can’t seem to find where certain variables are utilized in the Unit blueprints. I am trying to generate randomized stats for each character in combat, so things like movement speed, max health, melee damage, etc. are varied. I’m not having trouble with generating the values I want, I’m having trouble finding where to put them. For example, I can only find references to the “Current Health” variable, when I want my random values to be manipulating the “Max Health” variable instead.

I want to be able to run randomized units in the code, rather than just manually modifying units via the details tab in the editor. Where can I plug my numbers in?

(Thanks for the incredible toolkit by the way, it will truly shave years off of the work I need to put into this project. Absolutely stellar!)

[Monokkel]

@thzero

So, been struggling with multi-level and understanding the meaning of the different settings (yes, watched this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-YG…15jXKF&index=8 many times).

For my case, I’m looking at creating 150 height hex meshes, that can then be stacked on top of each other. Using general map as a starting point, I set the max grid to 1000, and height between levels to 1000. Basically, you can’t go underneath.

The height impassable is 200, and height slow is 200.

This seems to work, and I can create a stairs of 6 each incrementing by 150. And that works. However, using height impassable of 150 only allows climbing the first stair. Looking at the code, its not quite obvious why although I’ll note that the code description for the GetEdgeCostFromZDifference comment doesn’t seem to match the flow. Oh and heightmap is set to 1 level

Also, it sounds like that the height between levels is only really useful if you are allowing the setup to automatically figure out levels… I did try the above with heightmap both at 1 level, as well as multi-level.

Thoughts?

Sorry, but I’m not really able to visualize the desired end result here, which makes it difficult to come up with suggestions. How does the game look and play? Are you stacking the tiles during gameplay? How are units intended to move between tiles?

@spartacusthegod

Hello! I am fairly new to UE4, and I can’t seem to find where certain variables are utilized in the Unit blueprints. I am trying to generate randomized stats for each character in combat, so things like movement speed, max health, melee damage, etc. are varied. I’m not having trouble with generating the values I want, I’m having trouble finding where to put them. For example, I can only find references to the “Current Health” variable, when I want my random values to be manipulating the “Max Health” variable instead.

I want to be able to run randomized units in the code, rather than just manually modifying units via the details tab in the editor. Where can I plug my numbers in?

MaxHealth is a variable in BP_Unit. Perhaps you are modifying one of its child blueprints and have forgot to check Show Inherited Variables? Where it makes sense to put the code for modifying attributes depends a lot on the needs of your game. Want to modify unit abilities by clicking on them during gameplay? Use an ability. Want to assign random stats when a unit is spawned, do it at EventBeginPlay for BP_Unit.

@spartacusthegod

(Thanks for the incredible toolkit by the way, it will truly shave years off of the work I need to put into this project. Absolutely stellar!)

Glad you like it!

[Luna2442]

Hi ,

I am having a hard time with AI - I often get hung up with an infinite loop in my move_attack ability right after the AI activate AP > 1 conditional false evaluation. I believe its due to evaluation of abilities tying for 0 maybe? I honestly can’t figure it out. I have all of my AI logic in BP_Ability except for the AI Activate in move_attack. I changed my move_attack ability to cost 0 to move and using the units move cost, but cost 2 AP when the unit attacks - and I subtract that AP in the execute ability function after a conditional.

For some reason when using other abilities though, in move_attack I had to change the AP > 1 evaluation to .005 which seems to do the trick, but my enemies get away with moving and not spending any AP sometimes. I am logging the abilities they activate, and they can move without activating the move_attack ability. I can’t do the same thing with my player controlled characters. These issues don’t seem related but I can’t figure out whats going on. And why the value of 0 in the evaluation loops forever I’m not sure.

[Koniferus]

@GENESIS_EMMANUEL

[USER=“455402”]GENESIS EMMANUEL[/USER]

Hi ,

Great day! I intend to make a plan phase and execute phase in every turn encapsulating both individual unit of each team. For example, in a game where there are 2 opposing teams with 1 unit per team, the turn 1’s plan phase is when team A plans the unit’s movement and action then store it in a variable then team B does the same. Then the plan phase is done and the execute phase starts by implementing the stored variables for both team A and B at the same time. Then that ends the execute phase then turn 2 starts by going back to another plan phase. I would like to ask for your help on how to go about it please.

Hi Emmanuel, that question is a bit more difficult than the one I thought you were asking on the store page. The first part of storing target locations for abilities and then executing them automatically at a later point is a bit of a challenge, but very much doable. The second part of having all of those actions play out simultaneously is a much larger challenge. It goes against an assumption built into the toolkit, which is that actions resolve serially. That is not to say it is impossible to work around it, but you will need to be creative and put in a lot of work.

Let me give you something to get started if you still want to give it a try, though.

First I’ve created a duplicate of BP_Unit_Anim that I’ve called BP_Unit_Simultaneous. It is identical, except that it also has a variable called MoveTargetIndex, that it uses to store a grid index it has previously chosen to move to. I set the default to ‘-1’, which I will later use as an indicator of the value being “empty”.

Then I create a duplicate of BP_Ability_Move, which I’ve called BP_Ability_SimuMove. I make a few changes to it.

In EventServerInteract, after checking that a clicked tile is valid, I check if the owning unit has a value other than ‘-1’ stored in its MoveTargetIndex variable. If not I set this value to the clicked tile and end the unit’s turn (setting CurrentAP to 0 and calling SignalAbilityExecuted). If it does have a stored value, I set ClickedIndex to this value, and continue the execution chain as if this tile had just been clicked.

https://i.imgur.com/NwutpMC.png

Make sure to remove the SignalAbilityExecuted at the far right of the Click comment box so it is not called twice.

Now at PlayActivate, after RunPathfinding is called I check if there is a MoveTargetIndex stored from last turn. If not, then I activate the ability as normal. If there is one, however, I call ServerInteract with the stored variable as input, essentially simulating a click on the stored tile immediately after the ability is activated at the start of the unit’s turn:

https://i.imgur.com/yzFoANa.png

So far so good. We now have a setup where each unit chooses their move target first, and then we play both of them automatically, in sequence:

https://i.imgur.com/2JUq8cl.gif

To get them moving simultaneously we need to get a bit hacky. Ideally you would want to make some major modifications to the ActionManager to keep it clean. Here is a starting point, at least.

In the Move comment box in Event Graph of BP_Unit i set the InstantDeactivate input in both QueueAction macros to true. This means that the action manager will immediately skip to the next action as soon as this movement has started. I also Remove the EndAction call that is called at the end of the MoveTimeline, since EndAction is called automatically if InstantDeactivate is true.

What we have now looks like this:

https://i.imgur.com/LSpWw6o.gif

Almost there, but there is an issue. Since we just skip over all actions, the toolkit has no way of knowing that is should wait to start the next turn, so the next turn is starting immediately, with a new pathfinding being generated from where one of the units ends up after it has moved. Normally the TurnManager would wait for all queued actions to end before doing, so but since we’re calling EndAction immediately this does not happen.

To get around this I add a new variable to BP_Unit that is set to true while it is animating and then false when it is done. When the turn manager wants to start a new turn it continously checks if all units have animating set to false before starting the next turn. I set bAnimating to true at the start of MoveToIndex in BP_Unit and set it to false where I would normally call EndAction after a move (Bottom right in the Move Timeline comment box).

Then I add the following function to BP_TurnManager that checks if there are currently any animating units:

https://i.imgur.com/XAXyUVp.png

and I do a delayed loop on BeginNewTurn that does not start a new turn until no more units are animating:

https://i.imgur.com/CN7n8Ks.png

And finally we have simultaneous movement that looks decent:

https://i.imgur.com/bP1rIlL.gif

Ok, so that is something, at least. You would of course need to modify all other abilities in a similar fashion, designing around issues such as two players selecting the same tile etc. This is to show that while simultaneous turns are not inherently impossible, I would not recommend going that way unless you feel extremely confident in both your blueprinting abilities and your knowledge of the inner workings of this toolkit.

I’m sorry that I didn’t completely understand your question when you asked it in the store page. I hope you did not buy the toolkit under the assumption that implementing simultaneous turns would be easy, based on my reply. If so, feel free to ask Epic for a refund request on the toolkit. It is, in its present state at least, tricky to work with if you plan to make a game that is not fully turn based.

Thank you for posting this!! I’m working on integrating this into my project/experiment and before I completely destroy everything lol, I’m wondering how you would approach adding time-based ticks for execution… I’ll try to explain what I mean here.

3 players on the grid - A, B, and C.

Player A chooses to move 6 tiles away, costing him 6 AP (1 move per AP)
Player B chooses to move 3 tiles away, costing him 3AP
Player C chooses to move only 2 tiles , costing him 2AP

No additional players are idle so the turn begins ticking and players begin moving, 1 move increment at a time, simultaneously.

2 “ticks” in - Player C is done moving and becomes idle. Gameplay pauses and Player 2 can choose a new action - he moves 4 tiles away.

No additional players are idle so the turn ticks and players move one more space.

Player B has now completed his 3 movements and is idle - Gameplay pauses and he may select a new movement.

EDIT: Just wanted to add that I’m not expecting a full-blown ordeal like you’ve done above - just generally what I would want to start modifying. I’m guessing it would be the turn manager and the new simulmove ability that I make mainly?

EDIT2: Yikes, pausing all moving units while the available unit takes his turn is proving to be a real challenge. - @****This is what I’m trying to do - When the first unit stops moving, all other units should stop on their tile, preferably freezing in place, while the available unit makes his next move. When he chooses his next tile, everyone unfreezes and continues moving.

ATBTT Question #1

[anonymous_user_7ef0d073]

MaxHealth is a variable in BP_Unit. Perhaps you are modifying one of its child blueprints and have forgot to check Show Inherited Variables? Where it makes sense to put the code for modifying attributes depends a lot on the needs of your game. Want to modify unit abilities by clicking on them during gameplay? Use an ability. Want to assign random stats when a unit is spawned, do it at EventBeginPlay for BP_Unit.

It really IS that simple, okay then! I’ve been overthinking the programming all weekend, it seems. Thank you for the help, much appreciated!

[Jascicleiton]

Hi @
I am trying to implement using each move as a AP point (which I did), for the player works fine, but for the AI, the movement animation is not playing correctly.
What I did was:
Created a blank project (unreal 4.24)
Added two BP_Unit_Anim, one player and one enemy (AI)
Added ability system with Move and Attack abilities
CHanged the Move Range on Move ability (as below image)

Changed the cost to be Custom (1) and set the UseEndsTurn to false on the move ability.

When it is the AI turn, the first time it uses move, works fine, the second and third times (the unit have 3AP) the animation does not start from the previous location, it starts from someplace else.
Couldn´t upload the gif here, so here is a link to it

Also, if the player unit is 6 or less indexes away, the AI will seem to use a single Move_Attack with 6 move points (even though it does not have the Move_Attack ability)

any idea on how to fix this?
also, is there a way to force a delay every time an AI unit spends an AP point to sort of simulate the AI “thinking” before making every move?

ps: sorry if it was asked and answered before

[Monokkel]

@Koniferus

Thank you for posting this!! I’m working on integrating this into my project/experiment and before I completely destroy everything lol, I’m wondering how you would approach adding time-based ticks for execution… I’ll try to explain what I mean here.

3 players on the grid - A, B, and C.

Player A chooses to move 6 tiles away, costing him 6 AP (1 move per AP)
Player B chooses to move 3 tiles away, costing him 3AP
Player C chooses to move only 2 tiles , costing him 2AP

No additional players are idle so the turn begins ticking and players begin moving, 1 move increment at a time, simultaneously.

2 “ticks” in - Player C is done moving and becomes idle. Gameplay pauses and Player 2 can choose a new action - he moves 4 tiles away.

No additional players are idle so the turn ticks and players move one more space.

Player B has now completed his 3 movements and is idle - Gameplay pauses and he may select a new movement.

EDIT: Just wanted to add that I’m not expecting a full-blown ordeal like you’ve done above - just generally what I would want to start modifying. I’m guessing it would be the turn manager and the new simulmove ability that I make mainly?

EDIT2: Yikes, pausing all moving units while the available unit takes his turn is proving to be a real challenge. - @****This is what I’m trying to do - When the first unit stops moving, all other units should stop on their tile, preferably freezing in place, while the available unit makes his next move. When he chooses his next tile, everyone unfreezes and continues moving.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=4IYIK9s6YZ0

Hmm yeah this is a challenge alright. I can give you some places to start, but not sure if it is the best approach. This will require a lot of experimentation, I think. I guess what you could do is to store the length of the path of each unit in each unit. Then when all units have chosen their move and a new turn starts (the one that starts playing all animations automatically) you would first loop over all units and find the shortest path.

You could store this in some place all units have access, like the game state. Then when the units activate their abilities you would find this value. After finding the path to an index using the stored target index you would loop over the output PathIndex array and only keep the amounts of indexes equal to the length of the shortest path, take the last index of this cut down array and use it as the new TargetIndex for the ability. Then you would keep the old target index as the target index stored in the unit, so it will keep going the next time it is activated.

Those are my initial thoughts, at least. You are taking the toolkit in a pretty different direction than what it is meant for, so my suggestions will have to be a lot more tentative than usual.

@spartacusthegod

It really IS that simple, okay then! I’ve been overthinking the programming all weekend, it seems. Thank you for the help, much appreciated!

Happy to help!

@Jascicleiton

Hi @
I am trying to implement using each move as a AP point (which I did), for the player works fine, but for the AI, the movement animation is not playing correctly.
What I did was:
Created a blank project (unreal 4.24)
Added two BP_Unit_Anim, one player and one enemy (AI)
Added ability system with Move and Attack abilities
CHanged the Move Range on Move ability (as below image)

Changed the cost to be Custom (1) and set the UseEndsTurn to false on the move ability.

When it is the AI turn, the first time it uses move, works fine, the second and third times (the unit have 3AP) the animation does not start from the previous location, it starts from someplace else.
Couldn´t upload the gif here, so here is a link to it
https://media.giphy.com/media/fVbcCt3W0FFqduI6qN/giphy.gif
Also, if the player unit is 6 or less indexes away, the AI will seem to use a single Move_Attack with 6 move points (even though it does not have the Move_Attack ability)

any idea on how to fix this?
also, is there a way to force a delay every time an AI unit spends an AP point to sort of simulate the AI “thinking” before making every move?

ps: sorry if it was asked and answered before

Hey, sorry, but I’m a bit unsure of what to do here. It is simpler if you could give me the desired outcome in more detail, which would make it simpler to find the best solution. How do you want this to play out in your game? How do action points/movement work in your game and how would you expect the turn to play out if everything worked like you wanted it to?

[Reinhart_x]

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Working on this question now, but got interrupted. I’ll update this post once I have a solution.

Edit: This turned out to be more challenging than I expected. Going to need to put this on hold and get back to it in a couple of days.

No problem, thanks for taking the time to look into it!

[Koniferus]

Hmm yeah this is a challenge alright. I can give you some places to start, but not sure if it is the best approach. This will require a lot of experimentation, I think. I guess what you could do is to store the length of the path of each unit in each unit. Then when all units have chosen their move and a new turn starts (the one that starts playing all animations automatically) you would first loop over all units and find the shortest path.

You could store this in some place all units have access, like the game state. Then when the units activate their abilities you would find this value. After finding the path to an index using the stored target index you would loop over the output PathIndex array and only keep the amounts of indexes equal to the length of the shortest path, take the last index of this cut down array and use it as the new TargetIndex for the ability. Then you would keep the old target index as the target index stored in the unit, so it will keep going the next time it is activated.

Those are my initial thoughts, at least. You are taking the toolkit in a pretty different direction than what it is meant for, so my suggestions will have to be a lot more tentative than usual.

Thanks! - any ideas that come to mind are greatly appreciated. For now, I’m focusing on learning everything you’ve created so far with your youtube videos and whatnot, then I will probably have to gut everything that doesn’t apply to my vision/idea.

Generally, I had only worked on FPSs with UE4, so I needed something to get my brain going in the turn-based direction and your template is gold for that! Really impressive what you have done and the amount of time you’ve put into the project as well as helping everyone!

[Dijon]

What an impressive template! I’ve watched most of the videos and I have a few questions:

1. One video changes animations by swapping for the new one. If I want to use animations that aren’t currently in the anim blueprint, is it difficult to add without breaking everything else?
2. I didn’t see a video describing how you added cover points; is it a simple process?
3. The level “Jungle Raid” looks approximately what I’m after. Can this system be used on terrain, or are you constrained to simply using a static mesh as “the ground”?
4. How does this system handle both indoor and outdoor locations on the same map? Can units enter buildings, and if yes, how is the grid handled?

Thanks.

[Monokkel]

@Reinhart_x

No problem, thanks for taking the time to look into it!

Have not had time to return to this yet, sorry, but I’ll get to it at some point!

@Koniferus

Thanks! - any ideas that come to mind are greatly appreciated. For now, I’m focusing on learning everything you’ve created so far with your youtube videos and whatnot, then I will probably have to gut everything that doesn’t apply to my vision/idea.

Generally, I had only worked on FPSs with UE4, so I needed something to get my brain going in the turn-based direction and your template is gold for that! Really impressive what you have done and the amount of time you’ve put into the project as well as helping everyone!

I’m glad you think so, and I hope you’ll find the toolkit flexible enough that you are able to achieve your desired results without too much hassle.

@Dijon

What an impressive template! I’ve watched most of the videos and I have a few questions:

1. One video changes animations by swapping for the new one. If I want to use animations that aren’t currently in the anim blueprint, is it difficult to add without breaking everything else?
2. I didn’t see a video describing how you added cover points; is it a simple process?
3. The level “Jungle Raid” looks approximately what I’m after. Can this system be used on terrain, or are you constrained to simply using a static mesh as “the ground”?
4. How does this system handle both indoor and outdoor locations on the same map? Can units enter buildings, and if yes, how is the grid handled?

Thanks.

Hi Dijon, glad you like the template I’ll do my best to answer your questions.

1. Adding new animations is not that difficult. You can follow the same approach that the other animations are driven by. The animations in BP_Unit_Anim are generally triggered by setting bools in the animation blueprint event graph. These in turn trigger transition in the animation graph. The bools are set through the AnimateAbility event, which is called from BP_Unit whenever BP_Unit receives a QueueAction with it as an executing actor for which it does not itself have a definition in the name switch of AnimateAction.

To give you the order: Any QueueAction with a BP_Unit class actor as the ExecutingActor which has an ActionName not defined in AnimateAction for the unit will get passed to its animation blueprint. There you can use the name of the action to choose some course of action. You could for instance set a bool to trigger an animation in the animation graph.

Hope that made sense.

2. Yeah, I have not made a video on that. To add cover you add the BP_CoverSystem component to your GridManager. At begin play this component does line traces in all straight directions for each tile, using the custom CoverTrace channel. There are two height it checks, which determines whether to grant half or full cover. Utilizing this data must be defined within the abilities you are using (as they are in BP_Ability_Laser)

3. The ground in JungleRaid already is a terrain Landscape, so yes

4. Sure, you can do buildings. Single-story buildings are simple. If they need a roof you can use BP_GA_Platform actor for the roof, which turns translucent and click-through if you zoom close enough. Check out the platforms in JungleRaid to see how this works. Multi-story buildings also works. Just set the Heightmap variable in BP_GridManager to Multilevel

[Dijon]

@

To add cover you add the BP_CoverSystem component to your GridManager

Can I set the height for what is considered hull and half cover?

The ground in JungleRaid already is a terrain Landscape

So the grid will display on top of whatever you want (mesh, terrain)?

Sure, you can do buildings

Does this require a separate grid?

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

[Monokkel]

@Dijon

Can I set the height for what is considered hull and half cover?

Yep, it can be set within the cover component.

@Dijon

So the grid will display on top of whatever you want (mesh, terrain)?

Yes, anything within the bounds of the grid that blocks the PathTrace channel will be added to the grid.

@Dijon

Does this require a separate grid?

You just need the one grid.

[Luna2442]

Hello,

I’m still running into issues where the AI never stops assessing abilities. The error says it is thrown in update attributes, but I think it is constantly comparing it with another ability of equal value. I’ve logged the assessed value and it is 0, so I would assume the AI would pass its turn. But it just reassesses. How can I ensure they stop their assessment loop?

Edit: I verified all of the abilities it considers tie for 0. I guess it would still prefer to do one over the other, and continues to loop. Is there a good place in the BP_Ability BP to address this globally?

This will cause them to do nothing when they could but it does stop my error I think. I actually moved it directly after the branch.