Unit Guidelines

When creating new groups and characters, especially when for GC Units, it is important to comply with the guidelines listed on this page.

Some of the Mission Guidelines also apply, in particular the things said about images and workshop terms.

Note

Creating _P groups and characters is no longer required and should not be done for future factions! Just create regular "AI" prefabs, then tick "Set Playable" on the group after placing it in the mission.

Characters

Character Inheritance

Characters should use the following inheritance structure:

• A common AI base character. Example: New Character_FKEY_Base.et, inheriting from existing Character_Base.et (you may duplicate an existing faction base character, this is equivalent in terms of inheritance)
• All other AI characters should inherit common properties from the base character, and only have role-specific properties. In some cases e. g. an intermediary RifleBase / PistolBase character can also make sense.
• If multiple characters are identical with only tiny changes (like name, e. g. vehicle gunner + driver), it can make sense to e. g. create a common CrewBase character which Gunner and Driver inherit from, only changing the name.

Other character guidelines

Characters should also follow these guidelines:

• Medic characters must have a finished loadout. It does not need to meet specific item requirements, but should be "finished" in the sense of not requiring GM intervention.
• Character names should be set in the EditableCharacterComponent, not the PlayableComponent. When available, it is recommended to use localization keys (look at e. g. vanilla units) instead of plain text.
• No longer applicable, since we don't create _P characters anymore: Playable characters must have Playable ticked in their PS_PlayableComponent to be playable. Their name should end with _P.
• If a mission maker needs a very customized prefab variant that is not commonly useful, they may themselves inherit it from an existing character and include it in their mission folder. Always use inheritance for making selective changes.

Groups

Group Inheritance

Groups should use the following inheritance structure:

• A common AI base group prefab, analogous to the character base prefab (a new group base prefab is not necessarily required when just creating a new branch, you only need to do this if you're actually adding shared properties to it). Example: New Group_FKEY_Base.et inheriting from Group_Base.et, or Group_US_LAR_Base.et inheriting from the existing Group_US_Base.et

Other group guidelines

• For squads that contain crew, like e. g. a motorized rifle squad, another group without crew should be created (e. g. rifle squad). These are e. g. useful for spawning of AI (since AI vehicles are placed separately).
• You may include a sources.txt file alongside your groups, listing where your information is from. This can help others who may want to contribute at a later date.

Factions

Faction creation guidelines

• All faction information must be included in a faction config, akin to the existing configs.
• Only a reference to the faction config is added to the FactionManager via the prefab override.