solmas

Hello everyone! I'm brand new to Ork but I've been a professional Unity developer for 2.5 years as an artist. I'm working on prototyping a game idea I have and am unsure of how to set up the primary mechanics. I don't need step by step guidance, just a starting point and any wise words you may have for me -- many thanks in advance for your time!

My game is a real-time controller based hack and slash in which combat will run off of 2 primary systems: morale and momentum.

The morale meter will replace the player health bar and will fill and deplete based on player's successful weapon attacks by and to the player. This is the primary mechanic of the morale system.

The momentum meter is similar to the morale meter except that it will fill via successful weapon combos and enemy kills, but will decay over time. This meter will unlock learned elemental magic skills based on percentile thresholds as well as provide bonuses to stats, abilities.

Both of these mechanics will also be balanced by an endurance meter that depletes with player combat effort and rejuvenates when not fighting.

Originally I thought I could run these through the status section of the framework, but it doesn't seem like that's the right way to go after diving into it. Is there any advice as to where I should begin?

solmas

Actually it looks like I've answered my own question by starting the small game tutorial. I'll report back if I still have questions after I get through this. Thanks so much and I'm really excited to dive into Ork!

ThreeNippledWanda

One piece of advice: if you're creating a lot of stats with dynamic values tied to other stats, make sure to arrange them so that all of the stats which can potentially affect others are numbered higher on the list, because that's how ORK prioritizes them. If you create a Momentum stat that's supposed to change based on a Moral stat and the Moral stat is numbered lower, then those value changes won't be passed along even though testing them directly inside of a formula might work. Hence, you probably wouldn't realize a mistake until you're farther along in your project beating your head against a desk wondering why certain numbers aren't adding up, so be conscious of that.

Another tip for best practices is to begin every formula with a "Check Formula Value node" so that you can have multiple complex equations within the same formula. You can either tie the same formula to multiple Variable or Stat value instances by passing along values of 0, 1, 2, 3 etc. at the beginning of a formula, or you can loop back around inside the same formula by creating a "Value" node with it's "Value Type" set to "Formula." You can select this feature via a drop-down list inside the node, and you can link the node to it's own (or any) formula an infinite number of times without creating an infinite loop so long as you're careful never to assign it a value equivalent to what the "Check Formula Value" node placed in front of it is searching for. That is to say, if your "Value node" linking to its own formula is proceeded by a "Check Formula Value" node searching for a value of zero, then make sure the "Initial Value" of your "Value" node is something other than zero. Also, if you think you might ever want to directly alter the value of a "Combined Value" stat, just place it at the head of its own formula so that the changes will register, otherwise it will always overwrite itself.

I've used these tricks inside my own game for setting up features like dynamic material weights tied to the atomic density of various elements, so that something made of carbon steel for instance will weigh accurately based on its declared proportions; a dynamic system of value taking into account certain proceeding variables, including weight, so that a lump of gold will scale far more dramatically as well as consistently upwards in value proportional to its weight (which is also consistent with its size/mass) compared to cheaper materials, like carbon steel; dynamic hardness and hardenability, toughness, conductivity, flammability, diamagnetism and so forth--everything is theoretically possible if you set up your formulas correctly from the start and selectively plot out the order of your variables. ORK becomes a very potent tool once you've wrapped your ideas around it, but the tutorials are kind of, well... (poop emoji).

gamingislove

If you haven't done so, I'd strongly recommend going through the game tutorials before tackling your own project. They're there to teach you all the basics you need to know about ORK, e.g. setting up stats, battle systems and animating battles.

Afterwards, you might already see where and how you can implement your system :)
The morale and momentum sound like Consumable stats (like HP or MP), which can be changed by either the abilities (e.g. use costs, user/target changes) or via the battle events used to animate them. I'm not sure if the momentum should also be reduced by using the abilities (i.e. use cost settings) or just serve as a requirement (i.e. use requirement settings). Dedaying momentum over time can be done in different ways, e.g. status effects.

solmas

Thank you guys very much for the input! I've been through all of the Ork tutorial videos and they gave me a great place to start from. I think you're right gaminislove in that I have a ways to go before I'm ready to dive into building my systems. I'm currently setting smaller goals for myself to build up to that. This week I'm working on wiring up game controls and laying out UI -- I'm aiming to have it completed by the 17th. I'm not sure where I'll go after that.

Thank you ThreeNippledWanda! I will refer back to your post when I start getting into forumlas. I started implementing the core systems and spent a couple of hours trying to understand how my numbers will be crunching together before I came to the conclusion above. I will definitely heed your advice once I get controls, player, an enemy, UI, and combat implemented so I can playtest in real time and understand exactly what you're advising.

I do have a question about controls though -- I'm currently setting up an xbox one controller and have mapped all of my inputs into the Input Manager as well as the Input Keys and Game Controls in Base/Control. I can't seem to get the controls to work with the player yet though and have since lost the ability to operate the main menu with them. I haven't found any tutorials that specifically address controller based input and my primary hint came from video 4 "Event Controller" early on in the time line. Do you guys have any idea where I'm going wrong or which tutorials I'm missing?

Thank you both so much!

Wrofir

Mind posting screenshots of your controller setup in each of those menus? My Xbox controller worked pretty easily.
.

solmas

Definitely!

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1QQDpSKRJJXFhA4Td97egdLuTF1e5ZL92
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1oXcab2z0KhFUiDrF3HKhpzsDswhK9WmH
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1AdSOGlCQsRYgonvcq9bkkGQVGXG4ISx7

There's a strong possibility I'm doing something dumb, I'm quite comfortable admitting I'm not the smartest guy in the room :) Any help will be much appreciated, I'll be working on it for a little while tonight.

solmas

Actually I just now figured it out -- I needed to assign the vertical and horizontal axis to the Player Controls. Like I said, I'm prolly doing something dumb :) Thanks for responding Wrofir!

gamingislove

Also, when input comes from analog sticks, I'd recommend enabling Is Joypad Axis in the input key's settings :)

solmas

Copy that gamingislove, will do - thanks! As a side question, when I have a presentable demo, is there an etiquette to post a link and start a thread for feedback and notes on how it plays? I'm more than happy to build up some good will by playing and giving feedback to others' games as well.

gamingislove

There's the showcase forum for that :)
Just don't post your Unity project (unless it doesn't include ORK or only the free test version), i.e. only a built game.

solmas

Alrighty, though it looks like it'll be a long while before I actually have anything decent to put up there -- the learning curve on this system is pretty high. It's great for helping me figure out the components of all of my systems though!

I have a question about getting my real-time combatants to function. I've gone all the way through tutorial 20, adjusting for real-time gameplay instead of turn based, and I cannot get my spawned opponents to function. The combatant component in the hierarchy shows Is Dead = True as soon as I spawn in the field scene and I suspect that is my issue. Here's a screenshot of the hierarchy:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=12aa5a-HTDsp87A8T4YrLBL5EZlXf53vI

Do you have any idea what I'm missing?

gamingislove

If they're already spawning dead, I'd check your combatant's status value setup - sounds like their max HP is set to 0, instantly killing them :)