Stats Overview
Life is short... Unless you have a Phoenix Down!
The Stats module is divided in two main sections:
Stats tab in Preferences Window: Allows to define all the different stats, attributes and status effects and their initial default values.
The Stats component for Game Objects: This is where the current values are stored for each game object's stat and attributes, as well as all of its status effects and stat modifiers.
The Stats Preference Window has 3 distinct tabs that separate the 3 concepts that shape an entire progression system: Stats, Attributes and Status Effects.
Stats
Stats are numeric values that represent a particular characteristic of a character or object. For example, how strong a character is or what is his maximum amount of health.
A stat has the following properties:
Unique Name (ID): This is for internal use only and uniquely identifies that stat among the rest
Title: The title or name of the Stat. This text can be localized
Description: A small description of the Stat. This text can be localized
Short Name: Some games prefer to show an acronym of the stat instead of the full name
Color: The color that represents the Stat
Icon: The icon that represents the Stat
These properties are common between Stats, Attributes and Status Effects. A Stat has also a base (or default) value and a Formula object field.
Because a Stat is something that dynamically changes during gameplay, the Stat value is the result of applying the base value to a pre-defined formula.
Formulas are a very powerful objects that parse a mathematical expression and return the result. More information about Formulas in the Formulas section.
For example, a common case is where the Strength stat is the current strength base power. The formula in this case would be the returning the base value of the Stat.
Attributes
Attributes are very similar to Stats but their value ranges from 0 up to a maximum defined by a Stat. For example, the current health of a character is an attribute.
Apart from the common properties with a Stat (title, description, short name, color and icon) an Attribute also has a reference to another Stat, which defines the maximum value that Attribute will have during runtime and the percentage filled at the beginning.
For example, you can use the vitality stat as the maximum amount of health a character can have and have it filled only 50% at the beginning of the game.
Status Effects
The Status Effects are, as their name implies, temporary effects that happen to a character or object that enhance or decrease one or more of it Stats.
A common example of a Status Effect is the Poison, which drains life from the affected character over time. Here's a breakdown of a Poison Status Effect:
Type: There are Positive (or Buffs) status effects, Negative (or Debuffs) and Other.
Duration: If a Status Effect has a duration, it wears off passed a certain amount of seconds.
Max Stack: The amount of Status Effects of the same type a character can have active at a given time.
A Status Effect also has 3 Action objects that are executed at different life cycles.
On Start: These Actions are called when a Status Effect is added to a object
While Active: These Actions are constantly executed while the Status Effect is active
On End: These Actions are called right after the status effect is removed or wears off
Notice that the While Active Actions are executed again after finishing. It's a good idea to add a Wait action so it halts the execution for 0.1 seconds at least.
Formulas
Formulas are one of the key components of the Stats module. They allow to execute mathematic expressions at runtime as well as using custom Game Creator symbols.
For example, the formula stat[strength] + dice(2,6) - 10 returns the final value of the stat named strength plus a random value of 2 rolls of a dice of 6 faces minus 10.
The full list of all available symbols can be found in the Formulas section as well as in the built-in documentation of the Formula object in Unity (so it is easier to write them).
The Stats Component
Once you have all your Stats, Attributes and Status Effects defined in the Preferences Window, you can add the Stats component to any game object.
The Stats component tracks the information of the scene instance. You can add a Stats component to any game object and even modify each Stat's default values per object.
During game play, the Stats component information changes and displays the current runtime values so it is easier to debug.
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