[Tutorial -- One Way to Make a Hotbar--also known as an Action Bar]

Catacomber

So I have figured this out. : ) I took out my wordy stuff here. Tutorial starts below after I digested what Gil had to say. : )

rudfinch

@CAT, I'm in the same boat a couple days ago.. until now still try to set up hotbar/shortcut bar from "Combatant" type HUD.

from what I've learned my trial and error. basically this type of hud is similar to Player HUD in the tutorial but it display assign skill instead.

I don't think it is Control Map related(Think of clickable Player HUD). need confirmation from other/GIL

this have to be assign to skill first before using thou, same as shortcut button on your tutorial. if assign success, you'll see the skill icon/name(what ever you set on the bar) displaying

I do still have some problem displaying the Shortcut HUD. if I set it to individual instead of group. and still don't know how to drag the skill and make the icon follow mouse cursor.

Catacomber

Tutorial is now down below.

avantis

like ^^ I am also looking how. and once I thought manages to make a tutorial video to show my entire interface.

gamingislove

Setting up the shortcut (combatant) HUD is pretty straight forward - you can use multiple labels to create a more complex display of a slot (where assigned slots use text codes like %n to display information of the assigned ability/item).

Assigning shortcuts can either be done through the default shortcut settings in a combatant's settings, the event system's shortcut steps, using sub-menus in menu screens or by simply dragging and dropping (or double click + click) from a menu screen on a shortcut slot (or another slot to another slot).

Using shorcuts is also pretty straight forward - either drag them from the shorcut slot on a target (also double clicking + clicking on target) or use a control map to bind a slot to an input key (set Type to Shortcut in the action settings of a control map key).

It's not really rocket science ... maybe getting a good HUD display, but not the actual mechanic :D

Catacomber

OK, that was really helpful -- Gil---along with using my own blood, sweat and tears and a few prayers. : )

However, I have a question or two. Any help would be appreciated.

I don't want to show a hot bar for my battle members but since they're part of the Player Group what am I to do to get rid of that?

I might have a few more questions but they're insignificant and am ready to do my own tutorial. : ) ^^

Catacomber

Tutorial starts here---- @Gil--I still would like to know if I can not show the Hotbar on my party members--just me. : )

In Base/Control--

Set up an Input key for anything you want to use in the hot bar--attacks, abilities, etc.

Set up a Control Map for each one---under Input Settings, set the input key you set up. Action Settings--Shortcut--for the slot index start with 0 for whichever one you want to go in slot 0 and then for each ability etc. increase the slot number by 1. So I have Attack slot 0, Blast slot 1, Poison slot 2 etc. I checked use auto target.

I use icons for my abilities and attacks (my attacks are abilities) so make sure in Status/Abilities, you set up an icon.

Under Combatants/Combatants--your Hero---make sure you add the Control Maps you set up for each thing you want to be in the hot bar. Make sure you give the Player all those attacks or abilities. Make sure you add a shortcut for each one. Make sure the slot index for each shortcut matches what you set up in the Control Map!

Now make a gui box -- mine is called Player HUD. How you do that is up to you individually because only you know where you want everything positioned.

Now if you don't have a Player HUD HUD, make one to include whatever you want to show like a portrait--hp and mp bars etc. All that is in the regular tutorials. It's a Combatant HUD.

Up near the top, if you want to be able to drag and drop and switch things around within the hot bar, check Enable Drop. You also have to make your abilities etc draggable.

My hot bar which is the shortcut menu is set up as Status Element 3---because I have info about the hero as status element 0, an hp bar for status element 1 and an mp bar for status element 2.

So Status Element 3--

Type Shortcut Slot Start Index 0 Enable Tooltip check Enable Dragging check Use Group Target for me no Use Individual Target for me I checked yes Inactive Color White Cell Settings Rows 1 Columns 4 Horizontal Spacing 10 0 Set Cell Size not checked

Empty Slot display -- you can insert an image here if you want your empty or unassigned slots not to show up while they are empty I didn't do it cause it looks messy

Assigned Slot Display Use Background check Use Image check Image inserted is nice black box for me--you can choose whatever you want Stretch to Fill checked Alpha Blend

Content Text--this is VERY IMPORTANT if you want the image for your attack/ability to show up in your hot bar. : )

Position x 0 y 0 Edit Text %i for icon ^^ Text Formatting---the usual stuff I do for text, nothing special

Display Requirements I didn't use any

Click Action Click Select Target Click Type put in whatever audio you would like to play Element position I checked show box Bounds 10 0 400 80

Background Image didn't use one

Right now I am only using Assigned slots and when I go into battle----I use my shortcut slots now to wipe out the enemy.

But when I started trying this I also used drag and drop---if you want to use drag and drop you have to make sure your abilities are draggable and here in the HUD you check off near the beginning Enable Drop.

You can then drag from your battle menu what you want--but of course you had to set it up like above and within the hot bar itself, you can move things from slot to slot.

Once you have your hot bar set up, you can use events to add to it -- as long as you've set up the Input Keys and Control Maps--it's really pretty cool.

That's about it. : )

gamingislove

Setting up a HUD only for the player can be done by enabling the Only Leaders option, which will not display the group members, only the leader of a group (which is the player for the player group).

Catacomber

Thanks very much! : ) Maybe some might want to set up their party members hotbars via drag and drop and change things around for the party members during battle but not me. : )

Catacomber

You can also use more than one Player HUD by the way to position your status elements like hp, mp and your Hotbar in the scene.

Right now I'm using two. One places my player mp and hp bars at the bottom of the screen.

And one places my Hotbar in the middle. You can set things up however you like using HUDs. : )

I do find one thing annoying about dragable/dropable shortcuts. If I slide one accidentally over from one assigned shortcut to an empty shortcut in the hot bar--I then have two instances of the shortcut--like my Blast ability. Maybe there's a way to avoid this? : )

rudfinch

Thx, nice tutorial

Catacomber

I hope others will make their own. A video tutorial would be better but I'm a bit busy right now. : ) I did what I could and was so very excited to get one up as it's very important for an rpg game.

You can do a lot with Action Bars---I don't know how to curve their display--I don't think ORK can but maybe there is a way. : ) That is, not make them all horizontal or vertical but displaying in a curve--like a semicircle. : )

And you can say have your swords display in one action bar and your spells in another. : ) Etc.

You could probably have slots for passive abilities like mining with a hammer in its own slot too--or anything.

gamingislove

Displaying a shortcut bar in other forms can be done by individually placing the slots - i.e. a HUD element for each slot.