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- Fighters -

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    Welcome! In this section we will be talking about Fighters and see the basic attributes that we can change about them! This is an advanced Section and it is highly assumed that you either checked all the Documentation (especially Unreal parts) or already know how Unreal Engine works. So let's start!

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 1- Components

  • First lets take a small tour about what each Components are doing. Some components are editable while some are system-only, which should NOT be touched and handled by UF2D itself.

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  • We will be going through everything in "Omen_Char" and video shows where to find and open it!

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  • PS: "_char" prefixes are not a must. Unreal Blueprints tend to look same from outside so it is okay to have things such as "_char" for Characters, "_Comp" for companions etc.

  • ​Here is the list of all the Components in a regular Fighter. We will be going through each of component briefly and see how we can edit them later!

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  • Ground is the red box you see around the Fighter's feet. It is a static box to let you easily position the Fighter.

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  • Character Collision Box is the one that carries all others components. When Fighter needs to move, this is the component that does all the action. It also prevents other Characters getting too close to each other.
     

  • World Collision Box dictates the Stage limits of a Fighter. You may increase this box's X extend to keep the Fighter in Stage when close to boundaries of it. Good for extra large characters.

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  • Movement Calculator Boxes are System-Only and should NOT be edited by any means. They carry the logic of Fighters pushing each other.

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  • Col Visualizers are just there for showcasing Collision Boxes, nothing game related.​

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  • Flipbook Container and other Scene Components holds all the Flipbooks of a Fighter.

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  • Character/Shadow/Reflection FB Main Components are as their name suggest, Fighter's visual sprites that are animated. Character FB can be positioned and scaled freely and the rest will follow. The "Main" prefix will be important when additional sprite slots are added in future releases.

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  • Masked Shadow Caster is a flipbook that is a System-Only component, allowing the Sprite to cast dynamic shadows as if it is not Translucent.

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  • Arrow Components are System-Only and mostly related to me for testing purposes.

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  • Audio Container and the components linked are for important for Fighter Audio that System-Only components

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  • State Module Container is a System-Only component that holds State Modules of a Character. Every SM that is spawned gets attached to it.

 2- Graphs

    Fighters have 3 Graphs at start. However, none of them are a must to have. They can be deleted at will (Event Graph itself can't) and have your own. You can even have one Graph that contains it all. Having 3 just makes it tidier and easier to work with. Also note that most of the codes and how Fighters behave are stored in State Modules.

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  • ​Event Graph is mostly clean and got no code in it. Omen_Char just welcomes us with a Comment. Feel free to have anything in there once you get a firm grasp of things.

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  • ​Input System is where the Input State Definitions and their functionality is stored. We will be checking how to use it in "Creating a Fighter (Omen)" tutorials.

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  • ​Act System is a single event called "Reset Act System" stays.

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  • This event is called in various places and can also be called in anywhere if a developer wants. It is used mainly in "Fighter_MainSM" which is the main state module for all Fighters that hold States such as Standing, Jumping etc.

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  • Every time a Fighter gets his control back by any means, this event is triggered and a bool variable called "Act System Bool List" is reset to its default values.

 3- Variables

  • Character Blueprints has tons of variables of their own. Fighters also inherit all of it. There are 3 sub categories that we will be talking shortly about and rest is Unreal Engine's own "Pawn" blueprint variables that we don't deal with much.

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  • System Variables - DO NOT EDIT is the category that contains all the variables that should not be touched and is internally updated in game via UF2D itself. It is strongly advised to leave them alone unless you know what you are doing, as deleting / changing the values might break the Fighter you are working on.

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  • Preload Asset System contains Folder Targets to load everything within said Folders and Subfolders. When a Fighter is selected to play, all these folders load with it. We will get to use it when we are making our first Fighter!
     

  • Gameplay Components contain extra functionality that a Fighter needs. Most of them can be left alone but not "Animation System" as it contains the animation data a Fighter needs.

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  • Character Variables are safe to change and important to separate the Fighter from others. So let's check what they are about right below!

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  • Character Name is the name that is shown on Fighting Zone UI.
     

  • Author Name is an optional variable of the developer.

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  • Win Quote is the sentence that shows up in Win Quote Screen after a match ends. And the Flipbook is the one that shows up in the
    same menu.

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  • Max Health is the total Health Points your Fighter will have and once it is zero it will be knocked out.
     

  • Health Segments is used if you want your Character to have its health represented by multiple health bars such as a boss character.

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  • Max Power List is an Array that can contain all sort of powers a Fighter. Make it the regular Hyper Move bar to a Guard Meter, it is all up to you. We will get into these systems later on when UI is updated!
     

  • Attack / Defense Power Multipliers are there to increase / decrease how much a Fighter does/receives damage globally. 1.0 means no change, 2.0 means double amount and so forth.

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  • Damage Reduction List is an Array that lowers the damage of all incoming attacks. For example, having 25 Defense would reduce the attack damage by 25%. Note that UF2D supports more than one Attack Type without a limit (for ex an Attack is physical while another one can be Fire).

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  • Attack / Defense Type Multiplier List is unlike "Power Multipliers" above, are for specific attack types. If you are making a simple Fighting Game, there is mostly only one Attack Type so the list can be left with 1 item only (stating attack is a Physical for ex).
     

  • Default Laydown Time is how long a Fighter should lay down on the ground after receiving an attack that would make him fall.

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  • KO Sound is for which sound to play when the Fighter is knocked out.

  • Buffer Online List is an advanced variable. Normally UF2D can support up to 5 input buffers but most of the time 1 is enough and so is the default value.

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  • Base Forward / Backward Speed is related to the speed a Fighter that walks around when in control and on ground as Player uses movement keys.
     

  • Jump Curves are there to change the way your Fighter Jump and Fall. Mostly related to the movement keys like above.
     

  • Can Crouch / Jump toggles whether your
    Character can do those actions are not.

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  • Main State Module is the State Module BP that contains all the State data that a Fighter must have in order to function properly such as Idle, Moving, Guarding, Receiving Hit etc. All Fighters have "Fighter_MainSM" as default and If you want to have a different Idle State for ex, it is strongly suggested to make a Child BP out of it.

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  • Intro and Outro State Modules are also baseline and must not be empty as they are triggered when a Round starts and ends. No need to make child BPs out of them. You can have your own State Modules for them. Please refer to the default SMs for more information about what's unique about them compared to regular SMs.
     

  • Guard / Dizzy Sys State Modules are there to make the Character be able to get guard broken once the meter is empty and get dizzied when it gets enough hits. Generally default values are enough but there will be more work done about them later on!
     

  • FZ Self UI State Module is there to let a Fighter have its own unique interface while in Fighting Zone (aka its own power bars etc).
     

  • Health Recovery State Module is used for getting health back in time when a certain Attack causes some damage to be recoverable. This is an additional internal support for making Marvel vs Capcom like games easier!

  • Collision Visual Toggles are for easier and better visualization of important Collision Boxes and Ground Display.

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  • Collision Boxes will also visible in game if toggled on for a specific Fighter.

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    This documentation will grow in size in time. Feel free to check the documentation about making a  Fighter. Thank you for your time!

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