Looking for some advice - Need to change the way interactions are done

Temmy

Hey there folks!

Recently, I made a game for Ludum Dare 41 (you can check out the page here) which I hacked together over a weekend, but now I want to take the idea forward into something bigger and less held together by virtual masking-tape.

At first I thought I'd use the opportunity to just learn how to code everything from the ground up in C#, but assuming that might take decades, AC looks great as a utility, and lays the groundwork for some of typical systems adventure games tend to have meaning I can spend more time on creating the game itself.

If you've checked out my LD project it's a blend of 3D and the classic actions of point & click adventure games. Instead of using raycasting and the like, the idea hinges on physical connections between the objects / action you fire out as projectiles and what they hit. I felt it was a nice mash-up, and the idea lends itself to some proper skill elements in a adventure game setting.

Big question; could you point me in the direction of what I'll need to start poking at to make this work alongside using AC? How would I override the typical 'use' 'talk to' and 'examine' cases so they no longer rely on raycasting?

I've spent a couple of days with AC so far but was really pleasently surprised how easy the FPS tutorial was. It looks like a fantastic bit of kit, and would love to use it.

All the best,

Tem

ChrisIceBox

Welcome to the community, @Temmy.

The default "Use", "Talk to" verbs etc are all defined in the Cursor Manager.  You can replace them with just one "Use" if you've no need for variance.

Raycasting for Hotspots is the default behaviour, and this is due to the Settings Manager's Hotspot detection method being set to to Mouse Over.  Both this, and the Interaction method, can be set to Custom Script, allowing for a total override of the interaction system.

You're going to want to comb through the "Custom interaction systems" chapter of the Manual, which covers the principles involved - and also points to the Custom Interaction System Example script that comes included with AC.

You'll certainly need to be familiar with C#, but the intention behind this feature is to allow those who want to use AC's Editor to quickly define interactions, but their own script for the way in which they're triggered.

Temmy

Thanks for the welcome and the information @ChrisIceBox

Awesome. A bit of manual reading today it is then!