[SUPPORT] Advanced Turn Based Tile Toolkit

[markps]

Hi thanks for your speedy reply!
This works well, the only issue I'm having is that when the Enemy melee unit attacks it's teleported to what I can assume is the 1,1 tile. Ranged units work fine as do both the player pawns, any idea what could be causing this?

[Monokkel]

Hmm, that's strange. I'm not getting such an error. Have you made sure the blueprints are set up exactly like in my screenshots? If you have, you can send me a copy of your project and I will take a look at it.

[EduardoGaray]

Hello Monokkel, so far im loving this framework! best purchase i've ever done in the UE marketplace.
My problem is that im mainly a 3d/2d artist so im having a lot of trouble customizing the grid to my needs.
Im not really trying to make anything too complicated (i think!) My idea was to make something like the advance wars/fire emblem games as you can see in this video:

Im not even asking about how to take the combat between units to a separate level (though it would be awesome to know how to do that!)
Just wanted to ask, is there a way to make different kind of hexes or squares, like one for each kind of terrain and then place them individually until you construct the whole grid?
So far i know how to replace the default mesh of the bp grid with my own but that only allows for a single type of hexe/square/terrain.
I've tried hiding the default grid, turning off walkability of the collision grid but when i try putting individual hexes/squares the pawns cant walk over them or keep walking over the invisible collision grid.
Ideally i would love to be able to construct levels like this:
PD: Sorry if its a stupid question or if im asking for something unreasonable , but im very new to game dev and get confused easily, anyway any help you could give me on this will be extremely appreciated!

[Monokkel]

Hi EduardoGaray! What you are asking is certainly possible and is supported by default. Making the collision plane not walkable, the default tile invisible and placing individual tile actors should work, and I'm unsure what you might be doing wrong. Are you using children of Tile_Parent or simply placing static meshes? Are you using meshes with collision blocking PathTrace? A word of warning about placing individual tiles is that it can have a pretty big impact on performance for large grids. Because of this I've created the option to turn all tiles you designate into instanced static meshes (provided they use a single material). If you are creating a 2D map I've figured out a way to use UE4's built in tilemap functionality to build a map without placing a single time. I can get into detail if this is what you are doing.

[EduardoGaray]

thank you for your quick response! after reading your comment i checked everything again and the problem was actually the position of my custom meshes, after fixing that everything went smooth
such a stupid mistake, thanks again!
Only other question i have left is regarding the camera blueprint, im now watching your blueprint video tutorial, but before delving too much into it i wanted to know if it would be easy to modify it so when a pawn moves or attacks the camera position changes so it either looks more cinematic like xcom or simply shows the action closer.

[Monokkel]

Good to hear you managed to fix it Sure, it is possible to change to a more cinematic camera. Just place a custom camera actor wherever you need it to be and use UE4's in-built functionality for switching between different cameras for the duration of the attack.

[EduardoGaray]

i see thanks!, i will look into that.

[Monokkel]

I'm now putting my final touches on update 1.6. Since UE4.11 took so long it thus seems like those of you who have not personally asked me for version 1.5 will jump right to 1.6 when 4.11 is released sometime this month. The biggest changes in 1.6 are heightmaps and multiple factions, but it also includes many other small and large improvements. Can't wait to see what you guys do with all the new features

[Ariegos]

@markps: Hi there! In the update I'm currently working on it will be possible to add any number of factions and set them up as either allies or enemies. It will also be possible to specify whether a unit is player or AI controlled on an individual basis, making things like summoned units or mind control easy to implement.

Sounds wonderful! Looking forward to it.

[AxelRantila]

I'm now putting my final touches on update 1.6. Since UE4.11 took so long it thus seems like those of you who have not personally asked me for version 1.5 will jump right to 1.6 when 4.11 is released sometime this month. The biggest changes in 1.6 are heightmaps and multiple factions, but it also includes many other small and large improvements. Can't wait to see what you guys do with all the new features

If there are support for multiple factions, I know what I will start developing in a heartbeat.

It will be a digital implementation of a board game I designed as a part of my group during my education, and in terms of game design, is the project that I am the most proud of having created

[Monokkel]

There is indeed support for multiple factions. You can add an arbitrary number of factions and set up which factions are considered enemies and whether or not units are controlled by the AI individually for each unit. I think it is always a good idea to test out ideas for TBS games as boardgames while developing, and that you already have designed a board game that is fun to play is a great starting point for making a game. I hope I'll be able to play it myself some day

[Monokkel]

Update 1.6 is done! I've sent it to Epic and it should hopefully be up by the time UE4.11 is. This means that update 1.5 was indeed skipped in the end, but at least everyone will soon get an even more awesome update! The jump from 1.4 to 1.5 is pretty massive and with the changes in 1.6 the difference will be even greater. On the bright side I am done with almost all features I consider essential in the base toolkit, which means that there will probably not be any major changes to the underlying systems from this point on. Future additions will mostly be additive rather than transformative, and come for the most part in the form of example maps. Here is the update log (new tutorial videos will be made shortly after the toolkit is uploaded):

v1.6 (being processed by Epic)

1. Support for multi-level grids. Multi-level grids are generated automatically from underlying meshes.
2. Added walls and platforms that turn semi-transparent when zoomed in or hovered over. Especially useful for multi-level grids. A simple example map is included demonstrating their use.
3. Support for multiple factions. An arbitrary number of factions can be added. Units can be setup individually to be allies or enemies of the various factions.
4. Any unit can be designated as AI or player controlled, regardless of faction. Allows for hot seat multiplayer among other things.
5. Added option for using custom pathfinding specified for each unit. Included examples such as units that can pass through friendly units, units that ignore difficult terrain and units that cannot move diagonally.
6. The path spline now uses a linear instead of a curved spline, which usually looks a lot better. Movement is still guided my a curved spline, as this makes for the most fluid movement.
7. The default grid mesh can now be set as a hierarchical instanced static mesh, further increasing performance on large maps compared to regular instances static meshes.
8. Various smaller changes including blueprint organization and commenting improvements.

[Lobohotpants]

I just purchased your package from the store and so far it's been great. I have a question about your up-coming multi level grid update. Does this include stacked grids? For example, I want to create a building like in x-com where you can walk from the first floor, up some stairs and to the 2nd floor, etc... Is that possible?

[Monokkel]

Absolutely! XCOM was my main inspiration for creating the toolkit, so this is something I always wanted in. Here is a screenshot of it in action:

[XavTheOne]

Hello.

I have a problem, when I play the camera spawns in the level at the current pawn but is not possessed.

I have modified the BP's in many ways but the spawning of the camera in Game Mode and the Camera BP remains the same. The inputs are also bound correctly in the project settings.

I was wondering if you had any thoughts about what might be causing this? And also if you could explain where/how the camera is possessed or assigned to the player controller in your BP?