Part 3: creating and using a skillbook

This article is part of a 3-part series on how to create, edit and use a new skill.

Part 1: creating a new skill

Part 2: creating a skill from existing

Part 3: creating and using a skillbook

This article describes how to create a skillbook, from which skills can be learned. The data used in this article was created in part 2 in the series.

Description

Skillbooks are items that can be found or bought in the game, and provide the player with new learnable skills.

To create and use a new skillbook, we need to:

1. Create a new skillbook object in the Stats Editor
2. Create a new skillbook template in the Root template panel
3. Set the skillbook's OnUse action to learning a skill
4. Spawn the skillbook in a level

Step 1: Creating the Stats Object

_{Copying a skillbook stats entry, like we did for the WaterBolt skill}

First, we need to create a new skillbook stats entry. We do this the same way we did it for the skill:

• Open the Object stats document in your project
• Open the Object stats document in the Shared project
• Find and copy the SKILLBOOK_Air_LightningBolt entry

The new object needs a unique name in order to create a new object. If we don't rename it, the entry will only override the existing object in another project. I renamed my object from "SKILLBOOK_Air_LightningBolt" to "SKILLBOOK_Air_WaterBolt".

I also modified the following fields:

• RootTemplate (see further down for creating a new skillbook template, we assign this the same way we did the projectile template)
• Requirements, from 1 Aerotheurge to none

Step 2: Creating the Root Template

_{Copying a root template}

To create our new skillbook template we:

• Open the Root template panel
• Filter the root templates by item templates
• Filter the item templates by "lightningbolt"
• Select and right-click the "BOOK_Skill_Air_LightningBolt" template, which is the skillbook for the LightningBolt skill
• Click "Create new from selected..."

_{The Create Object Wizard}

To create our new skillbook template, we perform the following steps in the create object wizard:

• Select our project (1)
• Assign skillbook stats entry in the "Stats" property (2)
• Rename the template (3)
• Create the template (4)

Note that the "OnUseAction" property also needs to be changed to be able to learn our skill, but I do this later.

_{Creating a new folder}

Our root template also has to be in a folder to be assignable in the stats editor. If you already have a folder of your own, you can skip this step.

To create a new folder:

• Right click the "Root Templates" folder (at the top) in the root template panel
• Click "Add Folder"
• Name your folder

_{Moving our skillbook template to the new folder}

Don't forget to move our new template to our newly created folder (1) and save the root templates (2)!

_{Assigning a root template to our object stats entry}

There is one last thing we need to do in the Stats Editor: assign our root template to the object's stats entry. To do this:

• Open your Object document in the Stats Editor
• Navigate to the "RootTemplate" field on your stats entry and double click it
• Find your root template in the root template selector (the popup box)
• Double click it

Then you can save and close the Stats Editor.

Step 3: Setting the On Use Action

_{Setting the On Use action on our skillbook template}

We also need perform one final (very important) step on our skillbook root template; choosing what to do when the item is used.

To change the "On Use" actions:

• Find your root template in the root template panel (1)
• Find the "OnUseActions" property and open the custom editor (select the property and click the [..] button) (2)
• Select our skill in the "SkillBookID" dropdown on the "Skill book" action (3) ^[1]
• Apply the changes (3)

^[1] You may need to reload your project in order for the SkillBookID dropdown to refresh.

Step 4: Using our Skill

_{Place an instance of our skillbook template in the level}

And that's it, our skill is ready to use!

To learn our skill, we need to place our skillbook in a level:

• Select the template in the root template panel (1)
• Select the Creation Interaction Mode (2)
• Place the item anywhere in your level (preferably near your player character) (3)

_{Using our skill}

Last but not least, start the game (Ctrl+Enter), pick up the skillbook, learn your skill and destroy your enemies!