Designer: Designing Abilities

What are Abilities?

To but it shortly, Abilities are "moves" that CombatEntities can use during combat. An Ability deals 0 or more damage, consumes an arbitrary number of Resources, and applies an arbitrary number of CombatEffects to its target.

Required JSON Fields:

Field Name	Field Type	Description	Value Restrictions
name	str	The name of the Ability. This is the lookup ID for the Ability	No two Abilities may share a name
description	str	A flavorful description of what the Ability does	None
on_use	str	A message that is printed during combat when the Ability is used	None
target_mode	str	The desired targeting mode for the Ability	See here for more on TargetMode
damage	int	How much the Ability should decrement the primary resource of the target(s)	Must be >=0

Optional JSON Fields:

Field Name	Field Type	Description	Value Restrictions
effects	dict	A JSON object mapping lists of CombatEffects to a CombatPhase	See here for structure info
requirements	list	A list of Requirements. Each Requirement must be met for the Ability to be used	See here for more on Requirements
costs	dict	A JSON object mapping Resource names to costs	Each cost may be a float or an int. For more on Ability costs, see here
tags	list	A set of arbitrary tags used to determine the "type" of the Ability.	Any str is valid

Formatting for Abilities

Like some other JSON strings, Abilities offer some special formatting cues for on_use. A "static" on_use value might look like:

"on_use": "A move was used"

You can insert a {wielder} shortcut and TXEngine will automatically replace that with the name of whatever CombatEntity used the Ability!

"on_use": "{wielder} used an Ability!"

Formatting for CombatEffects

CombatEffects print a statement when they trigger. You can reference the name of the CombatEffect's target in its trigger_message with the shortcut {target}.

For example:

"trigger_message": "{target} restored stamina."

"trigger_message": "{target} was burned and lost health!"