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Documentation for the Maniaplanet game operating system

The weapons

In the ActionMaker, you can create custom weapons. A weapon is a set of elements combining several visual effects, and an almost complete customization of the gameplay values and effects.

We'll learn how to create a weapon by making a sort of... kamehameha!

Creating the basic settings of the weapon

ActionMaker home

First you have to create a new weapon by clicking in the second icon at the bottom of the screen and then you choose to create a weapon.

Weapon creation home

  1. Cooldown between each shot (in milliseconds, 1000ms = 1sec)
  2. The cost of one ammo (in unit)
  3. The maximum energy of the weapon (in unit)
  4. Create a custom animation while firing (it's facultative, not that if you create an animation for the weapon, you'll not be able to move until the animation is over. Moreover the animation can stop your character in the air if you activate the weapon while you're in the air) DOESN'T WORK YET!
  5. Customize the visual and gameplay parameters of the weapon
  6. Attribute an icon for the weapon (which will be displayed in the HUD, the file must be in DDS format)
  7. Attribute a custom crosshair for this weapon (in DDS format)
  8. Activate the Script mode where you can code directly the behaviour of the weapon. Can be needed if you want to give a specific behaviour for your weapon
  9. Allowing you to test the weapon with the map or the mode of your choice
  10. Test your map immediately in the default test map

Usually you will set the first three parameters and after that you'll start to customize your weapon.

Creating the core

Imgur

You'll have the interface for creating the core of the weapon, the initial visual design.

Let's first list all the options:

  1. Projectile Mode
  2. Explosion Mode
  3. Sound Mode
  4. Gameplay parameters
  5. Core settings
  6. Trail settings
  7. Effect applied on the core
  8. Add an effect on the core
  9. Point shape
  10. Full sphere shape
  11. Empty sphere shape
  12. Disc shape
  13. Circle shape
  14. Lenght of the visual effect (depending of the shape)
  15. Rotation of the effect
  16. Force of the friction of the bullet (if it's slow down more or less when touching the ground, if the bullet isn't exploding on the impact)
  17. Variance of the length of the visual effect
  18. Variance of the length of the rotation
  19. Lifetime of the visual effect (before restarting the visual effect (like a pulse))
  20. Speed of the fade in of the effect
  21. Number of particules for the effect. More particules there is, more the effect will be detailed but the weapon will be heavier for the computer to display (can be incapaciting if several players use the weapon during a game)
  22. Variance of the lifetime of the effect
  23. Speed of the fade out of the effect
  24. Size of the effect at the beginning of the shot
  25. Size of the effect at the end of the effect
  26. Variance of the size of the effect
  27. Intensity of the effect (can be almost transparent)
  28. Variance of the intensity
  29. Apply a colour for this effect only
  30. Style of the effect

So to create a Kamehameha with the ActionMaker, we have first to create its core, the "heart" of the effect.

Note: The options 14., 15. ,17. and 18. may change according to the shape used (mostly for the disc/circle shape for equivalent fields). Note: We assume that the fields have a value of 0, that way i name only the fields which are modified.

First create the core with the Dots effect with the current settings:

Then we add a Distor effect to give a more living effect to the bullet when it'll be fired with the following parameters:

With those settings now we really have the impression to have an DBZ-like energy ball.

Projectile Core

Those settings allow us to have a core quite stable in term of looking for the purpose we have.

Creating the tail

The creation of tail of the weapon is almost the same than the core except few different options:

And now the parameters for a Kamehameha tail style with a Dots effect!

Now you can see the result of the projectile by loading the test map by cliking on the bottom-right of the screen or simply the travel icon between the global colorization tool and the global scale parameter at the bottom on screen.

Porjectile trail

Time to explode everything

Now that our projectile is ready, it's time to customize the style of the explosion. We'll create first its power.

The power is the visual effect of the impact of the projectile on a player or any solid object in the world.

I've got the power

As usual, most of the parameters are identical like the previous ones, with very few changes:

It's time to setup the power of the explosion:

The result is a okay-ish explosion power style.

Projectile Explosion Power

Attack on Debris

We can create also an effect, the debris, which is like the ground blast of a nuclear weapon. Personnaly i choose a medium disc blast effect like... nuclear weapons!

Projectile Explosion Debris

Put da sound

This part is quite simple, you have to choose a sound for each sequence:

For the moment you're limited to the sound listed in the library.

Last part but not the least: the gameplay

Of course this is one of the most important part of your projectile, maybe the most, the gameplay mechanics of your weapon.

This tab is separated by two tabs: Bullet and Explosion.

The Bullet

The first one indicates the gameplay behaviour of the bullet and the other the explosion itself.

Let's see the options for the bullet:

And there is several movement patterns if you don't want to have a straight forward bullet only with each its parameters.

The few parameters where you need explanations are:

For our weapon, we'll enter the following values:

Projectile Gameplay Bullet

The Explosion

Now that you've setup the bullet, you have to configure the explosion.

And now the settings for our weapon:

Projectile Gameplay Explosion

Now you have a fully usable kamehameha (but a lot overpowered ^^)!

Weapon animation

Few tips on weapon creation