Gameplay Abilities
There are two types of Gameplay Abilities to consider when working with the Inventory System:
Inventory Abilities: These are essential for the Inventory to function and should be granted by default to the character.
Managed Abilities: These are assigned to Equipment Definitions and are added or removed when certain states are active.
All Inventory Abilities extend from NinjaInventoryGameplayAbility.
Ability Animations
Abilities can also extend from NinjaInventoryAnimationAbility, which adds animation properties to the base Inventory Ability.
Animations are provided from a Data Table, using InventoryAnimationTableRow as the row structure. This entry has the following properties:
Property | Description |
|---|---|
Montage Query | Gameplay Tag Query applied to the incoming Gameplay Tag Container. |
Montage To Play | A soft reference to the Animation Montage to play. |
Montage Section | The section in the montage. |
Each ability creates its Gameplay Tag Container in an appropriate way, and this container is matched with the Montage Query. Once a valid animation is found, it is asynchronously loaded and played. The asset handle remains valid while the ability is active.
Another important parameter in Animation Abilities is the Animation Strategy, which defines how the presence of a valid animation affects the ability's execution:
AlwaysExecute: Performs the inventory operation regardless of whether an animation is found.
WhenAnimationStarts: Performs the inventory operation when the animation starts.
WaitForGameplayEvent: Waits for a gameplay event triggered by the animation.
Activate Equipment
This ability is designed to activate equipment obtained via a Gameplay Tag Query or Trigger Payload. If an Equipment Instance cannot be obtained, the ability is canceled.
Equipment Tag Query
The first way to target an item is via a Gameplay Tag Query. Be as explicit as possible to avoid incorrect items, though you can deliberately retrieve more than one item if needed.
For example, the following query collects all Equipment Instances from both Primary Slots (main-hand and off-hand) that are currently deactivated.
Trigger Payload
If you need more precision in selecting the item, you can activate the ability via a Gameplay Event.
The ability expects to find an Equipment Instance in the Payload, checking both Optional Objects for the Equipment Instance. This strategy takes priority over the Equipment Tag Query.
Equip/Store Animation
For the equip/store animation, the ability prepares a container with the following details:
Adds the Gameplay Tag set in the Animation Event Tag.
Adds all Equipment Tags from the item that has been found.
To ensure precise timing in your animation, allowing items to change their states at specific frames, you can add the Send Equipment Event animation notify. This can be used in conjunction with the WaitForGameplayEvent setting.
The Notify expects the following details:
A Gameplay Event Tag matching the ability's Animation Event Tag.
A Gameplay Tag Container indicating which of the pre-selected equipment should be modified.
Deactivate Equipment
This ability is designed to deactivate equipment obtained via a Gameplay Tag Query or Trigger Payload. It's a variation of the Activate Ability and follows the same specifications.
Consume Item
This ability is designed to apply the Consume Effect from an item and decrease its stack as needed.
Similar to the Activate and Deactivate abilities, it searches for consumable items using either a Gameplay Tag Query or a Trigger Payload. If a Consumable Item cannot be obtained, the ability can play a Not Found animation, or if this animation is not set, it will cancel the ability.
Consume Animation
For the consume animation, the ability prepares a container with the following details:
Provides all Item Tags from the item that has been found.
Provides tags for the Item Found and Item Not Found scenarios.