Melee Designer Devices

The Melee Designer creates customized weapons that you can use as loot that drops from enemies, or grant them to players directly using Item Spawner or Item Granter devices. The Customize panel for the Melee Designer is somewhat different from most other devices; refer to How to Use the Melee Designer below for more information.

Some ways you can customize a weapon are:

• Change the rarity for the weapon.

• Give the weapon a cool unique name.

• Choose special charge attacks for the weapon, such as Ground Pound, Drill, or Whirlwind.

• Adjust how much damage the customized weapon does to enemies or the environment with basic attacks, basic attack combos, jump attacks, or charge attacks.

• Adjust how much knockback a basic attack, jump attack, or charge attack inflicts on an opponent.

Set up your weapon the way you want it, then use the Melee Designer to spawn as many copies as you need. Because changes made to the options in the Melee Designer affect every weapon it spawns, you can rebalance your game at any time.

Deleting a Melee Designer device will cause all weapons spawned from it to permanently revert to default settings.

How to Use the Melee Designer

The Customize panel for the Melee Designer device works a little bit differently from other devices in Creative. When you place a Melee Designer and open the Customize panel, you are prompted to choose a weapon type (sword or hammer).

Once you choose the weapon type, you cannot change the weapon for that device. If you change your mind about the weapon type, you have to place another Melee Designer device and choose the other weapon.

When you begin to customize your sword or hammer, you can give the weapon a special name. For example, if you want it to be a powerful unique weapon, give it a special name that connects to the narrative, or theme, or characters of your island.

If you want to create a category of weapons spawned from the current Melee Designer, which all have the same stats and abilities, you can use a more general name such as "Cavalry Sword" or "Knight's Hammer".

If you have many Melee Designer devices, it might be helpful to rename the device with the name you choose for the weapon – that way you can easily see which device spawns each weapon type.

Each Melee Designer device can spawn multiple weapons, and each spawned weapon will have the statistics and abilities you choose in the Customize panel. If you change the customizations in that device, all weapons spawned from that device will have the new customizations. If you delete a Melee Designer device, any weapons spawned from that device will lose all customizations and return to the base weapon defaults.

Normal Weapon Attacks

The sword and hammer weapons have several attacks available, even if you don't choose special actions or charge attacks. This section describes these normal attacks and how you can modify them in the Melee Designer.

Basic Attack

For mouse and keyboard, press the left mouse button to perform a basic attack. For consoles, press the normal attack button or trigger to perform a basic attack.

Basic Attack Combo

To perform a basic attack combo, press the attack control repeatedly. When using the sword, the player can perform a three-stroke combo, a four-stroke combo, or a five-stroke combo. When using the hammer, the player can perform a three-stroke combo with the final stroke hitting twice.

Jump Attack

Press the jump button or key, then the attack control, to perform a jump attack. The player will jump into the air and then bring the weapon slamming downward.

Sprint Attack

Press the attack control while sprinting to perform a sprint attack. The player sprints forward and then performs a powerful backhand slash (for the sword), or a backhand slam (for the hammer).

Special Actions and Attacks

The Melee Designer provides a large number of options for customizing a sword or hammer. Some of these options grant the player special actions or attacks. This section will describe the special actions and attacks that are available, and how they affect a player.

Secondary Action - Dodge

If you customize a weapon with the Secondary Action option and select Dodge Only, a player who uses this customized weapon will be granted a special type of movement while they are using the weapon. By using a movement control (such as the WASD keys on a keyboard, or the left stick of a controller) and pressing the special action button or key (such as the right mouse button), the player will perform a dodge in the following ways:

• Forward: the player will roll forward in a somersault.

  If you set the Secondary Action option to Dodge and Block, players will not be able to do the forward roll. Instead, if the forward movement control is pressed, the player will jump forward while blocking.

• Left: the player will make a short jump to the left.

• Right: the player will make a short jump to the right.

• Backward: the player leaps backward from their original position (potentially disengaging from an opponent or trap).

Secondary Action - Block

If you customize a weapon with the Secondary Action option and select Block Only or Dodge and Block, pressing the secondary action key will move the melee weapon into a blocking position.

If you choose Dodge and Block, the player can block and also use Dodge by following these steps:

1. Press and hold the key or button for Block.

2. Press the movement control (left, right, or backward) and then immediately press the Jump key or button. This should initiate the left, right, or backward dodge. While blocking, the player cannot perform the forward roll dodge; instead they just jump up and forward. This is designed so that the player can perform a Jump Attack while blocking.

Charge Attacks

You can customize a sword or hammer with one of three charge attacks: Ground Pound, Drill, or Whirlwind.

• Ground Pound: the player jumps into the air, performs an aerial flip, and slams the weapon downward with increased force.

• Drill: the player dives forward with the weapon held out in front, and spins like a drill.

• Whirlwind: the player holds the weapon out and spins rapidly in a circle, damaging everyone and everything in its radius.

To perform a charge attack, press and hold the attack control. The weapon begins to glow, and when it is ready to activate there is a visual effect cue. If you customize a melee weapon with the Charge Attack option, you can determine how long the weapon must charge to activate the special attack. The player will be vulnerable while the weapon is charging up, and if they try to attack the charge depletes and they have to start over.

Contextual Filtering

Some devices are affected by a feature called contextual filtering. This feature hides or displays options depending on the values selected for certain related options. This feature will reduce clutter in the Customize panel and make options easier to manage and navigate. However, it may not be easy to recognize which options or values trigger contextual filtering. To help you identify them, in our device docs we use italic for any values that trigger contextual filtering. All options will be listed, including those affected by contextual filtering; if they are hidden or displayed based on a specific option’s value, there will be a note about that in the Description field for that option.

Finding and Placing the Device

1. From Build mode, press the Tab key to open the CREATIVE inventory screen.

2. Click the DEVICES tab. You can scroll to select the device, use the Search box to look up the device by name, or use the Categories in the panel on the left.

3. Click PLACE NOW to place immediately, or put the device in the QUICK BAR to place later.

4. Press the Esc key to return to your island in Build mode. Use your phone to position the device, then click to place it. Press the Esc key to detach the device from your phone.

5. Point at the device with your phone. If the CUSTOMIZE popup doesn't open immediately, move closer until it does, then press E to open the Customize panel.

If you're using multiple copies of a device on an island, it can be helpful to rename them. You can choose names that relate to each device’s purpose, so it's easier to remember what each one does.

Device Options

This device has some basic functionality, like changing the rarity, and setting how much damage the weapon does. There are also some advanced options, like changing the player's speed when wielding the weapon, and setting the percentage chance of a critical hit.

You can configure this device with the following options.

Default values are bold. Values that trigger contextual filtering are italic.

Basic Options

All Options (Additional)

Design Examples

Here are some examples of how you can use the Melee Designer device.

• Knockback Weapon
• Special Weapon
• Combo Weapon

Knockback Weapon

There are a few variables that you can change to create a unique melee experience. In this case, the weapon will do no damage but will have increased knockback to allow knocking people out of arenas or rings.

Devices used:

• 1 x Melee Designer
• 1 x Item Granter
• 4 x Damage Volume
• 1 x Player Spawner
• 1 x Creature Manager
• 3 x Creature Placer

1. Create a simple raised arena. 3x3 roof tiles is an effective area.

2. Place a Melee Designer anywhere on the island. Set the initial weapon to Hammer and customize it to the following settings:

   

1. Place an Item Granter beside the Melee Designer. Interact with the Melee Designer, click Spawn Weapon, and pick up the hammer. Press Tab to open your inventory, then drag and drop the spawned hammer onto the Item Granter to register it. Customize the Item Granter to the following settings:

   

1. Surround your arena with Damage Volumes. Use a length, height, and width that will create a cage around the arena, so being knocked out of it will cause contact with the volumes. Customize them to the following settings:

   

1. Place a Player Spawner on the raised arena. Keep the default settings and set its direct event bindings to the following:

   

1. Beside the Melee Designer and Item Granter, place a Creature Manager. Customize it to the following settings:

   

1. On the raised arena with the Player Spawner, place 3 Creature Placers. Keep the default settings.

Here’s an overview of how devices communicate in this Design Example:

You now have the basic functionality for melee weapons that only inflict knockback.

You can vary the amount of knockback dealt by different attacks to incentivize different styles of gameplay. Varying weapons and special moves can allow people to choose one that fits their style. Creating a large arena with platforms and paths that players can knock each other off of can create an interesting new game mode for players.

Special Weapon

Another method of mixing up the style of fighting is creating weapons that can only do damage with their special attacks and jump attacks.

Devices used:

• 1 x Melee Designer
• 1 x Item Granter
• 1 x Player Spawner
• 3 x Creature Placer

1. Create a simple raised arena. 3x3 roof tiles is an effective area.

2. Place a Melee Designer anywhere on the island. Set the initial weapon to Hammer and customize it to the following settings:

   

1. Place an Item Granter beside the Melee Designer. Interact with the Melee Designer, click Spawn Weapon, and pick up the hammer. Press Tab to open your inventory, then drag and drop the spawned hammer on the Item Granter to register it. Customize the Item Granter to the following settings:

   

1. Place a Player Spawner on the raised arena. Keep the default settings and set its direct event bindings to the following:

   

1. On the raised arena with the Player Spawner, place 3 Creature Placers. Keep the default settings.

Here’s an overview of how devices communicate in this Design Example:

You now have the basic functionality for melee weapons that only inflict damage from special attacks and jump attacks.

You can give different special attacks different damage values so the ones that are more difficult to use are more effective. You could also set air slams, dash attacks, and other non-M1 attacks to do small amounts of damage if you want to create more dynamic and varied gameplay.

Combo Weapon

Another method of varying fighting involves chaining M1 attacks with escalating damage.

Devices used:

• 1 x Melee Designer
• 1 x Item Granter
• 1 x Player Spawner
• 1 x Creature Manager
• 3 x Creature Placer

1. Create a simple raised arena. 3x3 roof tiles is an effective area.

2. Place a Melee Designer device anywhere on the island. Set the initial weapon to Sword and customize it to the following settings:

   

1. Place an Item Granter beside the Melee Designer. Interact with the Melee Designer, click Spawn Weapon, and pick up the sword. Press Tab to open your inventory, then drag and drop the spawned sword on the Item Granter to register it. Customize the Item Granter to the following settings:

   

1. Place a Player Spawner on the raised arena. Keep the default settings and set its direct event bindings to the following:

   

1. Beside the Melee Designer and Item Granter, place a Creature Manager. Customize it to the following settings:

   

1. On the raised arena with the Player Spawner, place 3 Creature Placers. Keep the default settings.

Here’s an overview of how devices communicate in this Design Example:

You now have the basic functionality to require multiple M1 hits chained together in a combo to build up damage.

This mode may work best when fighting AI creatures, but having intense combo-building swordfights can also be fun between players. Consider setting the damage to only scale on the fifth swing along with a massive increase in the knockback to create the effect of building up to a massive finishing attack.