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Your first art

Designer · 30 min · No code

Result: a new Art called Stone Cleave. It hits hard, Breaks the enemy, and has its own cooldown. It sits on the palette and you use it on a minion in the gym.

Before you start

How an Art is put together

An Art is one data asset. Everything that makes it different from another Art lives there: name, power, cooldown, range, area, reactions, animation, palette look. The shared Art ability reads it and does the rest, so a standard Art needs no Blueprint and no code.

Piece Sample Needed?
Art definition Battle/Arts/DA_XenoCore_AirSlash Always
Art ability Blueprint GA_XenoCore_BackSlash Only for custom behaviour. Leave Ability Class empty to use the shared one.
Montage AM_XenoCore_BackSlash Optional; reuse an existing one to start
Cooldown tag Cooldown.XenoCore.Art.AirSlash Always, and unique to this Art

DA_XenoCore_AirSlash is the data-only example: it has no ability Blueprint of its own. Keep it open beside yours for reference, but do not duplicate it. A copy brings Air Slash's Break and side-Slow effects along with it; start every new Art blank.

Steps

1. Create a blank Art

  1. In the Content Browser, right-click Content and choose New Folder. Name it MyGame, and inside it make a folder Arts.
  2. In MyGame/Arts, right-click empty space and choose Data › Data Asset. In the class picker, search for and pick XenoCoreArtDefinition, click Select, and name the new asset DA_StoneCleave.

DA_XenoCore_SlitEdge and DA_XenoCore_StreamEdge in Battle/Arts were made this way, if you want finished examples to compare against. No character learns them in the shipped tables.

2. Give it its own cooldown tag

Every Art needs a cooldown tag no other Art uses.

  1. Double-click DA_StoneCleave to open it. Under Art, find Cooldown Tag and click its drop-down to open the tag picker.
  2. Click the + button at the top of the picker (its tooltip reads Add New Gameplay Tag). In Name, type Cooldown.MyGame.Art.StoneCleave. For Source, pick a tag file of your own project rather than XenoCore's: a template update replaces XenoCore's tag file. If the list offers only XenoCore's and Lyra's, first make one in Project Settings › GameplayTags with Add new Gameplay Tag source... (for example MyGameTags.ini). Click Add New Tag.
  3. Tick the new tag so it is selected.

Two Arts sharing a tag share a cooldown

If Stone Cleave used Air Slash's tag, using either Art would put both on cooldown. Saving DA_StoneCleave catches it: the editor reports an error, "Cooldown Tag ... is also used by DA_XenoCore_AirSlash". Leaving the tag empty is an error too, because the Art has a cooldown.

3. Set what it does

Still in DA_StoneCleave:

  1. Display Name: Stone Cleave. Description: A heavy blow that Breaks the target. The palette shows name: description.
  2. Category: Break. Attribute: Physical. Effect Type: Damage. Target Type: Enemy.
  3. Power: expand it and set Value. Open Battle/Arts/DA_XenoCore_AirSlash beside yours to see its Power › Value, and set yours to about double that. Leave Curve empty. Value multiplies everything, so it must never be 0.
  4. Cooldown Duration: 12. This is in seconds. 0 means no cooldown, which is only for Talent Arts.
  5. Effects (under Art › Effects): this list is what the Art inflicts. Click + to add one entry, expand it, and set Effect GE_XenoCore_Reaction_Break, Chance 1, Condition Always. Leave Duration at 0: a reaction carries its own duration.
  6. Montage (under Art › Animation): AM_XenoCore_BackSlash, to reuse an existing strike for now.
  7. Under Art › Palette, set Palette Glyph to the one Air Slash uses and Glyph Colour to something distinct.
  8. Leave Ability Class empty.
  9. Save.

Other settings worth knowing, all on the same asset:

Setting What it does
Distance How close the user must be. Used out of range, the character runs in and strikes on arrival. 0 = no limit.
Area, Area Radius, Cone Angle Single target, a circle around you or the target, or a cone
Target Type Enemy, yourself, one ally, or the whole party
Effect Type, Attribute Damage or heal or neither; physical or ether stats
Positional Bonuses Extra power from behind or the side
Montage Play Rate, Impact Fraction Animation speed, and when in the animation the hit lands

4. Teach it to the party

Which Arts a character learns lives in a learnset: a Data Table the character's pawn Blueprint names as its Art Learn Table.

  1. Open your leader's learnset, Characters/Party/Learnsets/DT_XenoCore_ArtLearnset_Kael for Kael. (To find any character's table, open their pawn Blueprint, click Class Defaults, and look at XenoCore › Arts › Art Learn Table.) (DT_XenoCore_ArtLearnset_Default is the table on B_XenoCore_PartyMember_Base, used by the colour-mannequin sample members, not by the VRoid party.)
  2. Click Add in the Data Table editor's toolbar to add a row. Right-click the new row, choose Rename, and name it Lv01_StoneCleave (the name is free text; this form sorts by level). With the row selected, set in the Row Editor below:
    • Art: DA_StoneCleave
    • Unlock Level: 1
    • Default Slot: -1. This means learned but not placed on the palette; you'll place it yourself in the next step.
  3. Save.

Each sample character has their own table

Kael, Mira, Nia, Dorran, Isolde, Sabine and Tamsin each point at their own learnset in the same folder: DT_XenoCore_ArtLearnset_Kael, _Mira, _Nia, _Dorran, _Isolde, _Sabine and _Tamsin. Add the same row to each one you want to learn Stone Cleave, or it will not reach them.

Test it

  1. Open Maps/L_XenoCore_Gym and press Play.
  2. Open the menu (pad Y, keyboard I) and go to Arts. With your leader selected, put Stone Cleave in an empty palette slot.
  3. Close the menu and engage a minion. Stone Cleave is on the palette in its colour.
  4. Use it. The minion shows Break, and Stone Cleave greys out for 12 seconds.

If it doesn't work

The Art greys out and won't fire

It is on cooldown. (A Talent Art also greys while the Talent Gauge is not full.) Range and position never grey an Art: out of range, the character runs in to reach the target first, and a side or back position only adds its bonus.

It fires but does nothing

Power is 0, or the Effects list is empty and Effect Type is "no damage or healing".

Stone Cleave isn't in the Arts menu

The row is in a learnset that character's pawn does not use as its Art Learn Table (the seven sample characters each have their own), or its Unlock Level is above the character's level.

Saving DA_StoneCleave reports an error

The Message Log names the problem: an empty Display Name, an empty Cooldown Tag, or a Cooldown Tag another Art already uses. Fix it and save again. See What saving an Art definition checks.

You now have

Your own Art, used in combat, and the knowledge that an Art is data.

Next: Your first enemy