Place/remove (task #21): all four block types (Hull/Thruster/Power/Storage)
now have working place chains on BP_PlayerCharacter (keys 1-4), plus a
remove key (X) that raycasts to a targeted block, verifies it via
Array_Contains against PlacedBlocks before destroying it (guards against
deleting terrain/ship/other actors), and calls RemoveBlockFromArray.
Stat aggregation (task #22): rewrote RecalculateStats on BP_ShipPawn to
iterate PlacedBlocks with a ForEachLoop, casting each element to its block
class and summing bonuses onto base values, instead of reading four fixed
Slot_* variables. Multiple blocks of the same type now correctly stack
(e.g. two Hull blocks = +100, not capped at one). Also fixed a real bug
found during manual playtesting: AddBlockToArray/RemoveBlockFromArray never
actually called RecalculateStats (dead-end exec pins), so stats never
updated after the initial BeginPlay call regardless of what was placed.
Ship-relative placement: raycast hit location is now converted into the
ship's local space, clamped to a 600-unit radius, snapped to the 200-unit
grid, then converted back to world space. Recomputed every tick from the
ship's current transform, so placement always stays near/aligned with the
ship instead of landing at arbitrary world coordinates. Also fixed a
related bug: the raycast never checked bBlockingHit, so a miss (e.g. aiming
at open sky) silently fell back to world origin (0,0,0) -- coincidentally
the ship's spawn point -- making blocks appear to "teleport" there and then
trail behind once the ship moved. Added bHasValidBuildTarget, gating all
four placement branches on an actual hit.
Mouse-look: extended the UnrealMCPython plugin itself (hot-patched via
Live Coding) with a new "InputAxisKey" node type wrapping
UK2Node_InputAxisKeyEvent::Initialize(FKey), since the existing "InputKey"
node type only supports press/release button semantics, not continuous
axis values. Wired Mouse X/Y to AddControllerYawInput/AddControllerPitchInput
(Y inverted), switched bUseControllerRotationYaw/Pitch back on, and
repurposed the old A/D actor-rotation logic into A/D strafe via
AddMovementInput(RightVector). Also added mouse-wheel zoom on the ship's
CameraBoom (TargetArmLength, clamped 300-2000).
Visual polish: ship mesh was a single scaled Cone; added a cylinder
fuselage and two wing panels for a recognizable ship silhouette. Added
distinct colored materials per block type (Hull/Thruster/Power/Storage)
plus a translucent ghost-preview material, replacing the default gray
checker look. Added a SkyAtmosphere actor to fix the "will render black"
sky light warning that made the level unreadable.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
BuildGhost: a pre-placed cube actor (not runtime-spawned, to avoid
the SpawnActor Class-pin problem for this piece) referenced via
GhostBlockRef. Shown and moved to SnappedLocation each tick while
bBuildMode is on; hidden otherwise. Collision left enabled on the
ghost (couldn't find the right property path to disable it through
this tool -- BodyInstance.CollisionEnabled isn't a flat property);
minor known edge case where the raycast could self-hit the ghost,
not addressed yet.
B key toggles bBuildMode. While active, Tick line-traces from the
character's eye height along its forward vector, breaks the hit
result, and snaps the impact point to a 200-unit grid via
Vector_SnappedToGrid, storing the result in SnappedLocation. No
visual feedback or placement yet (next: ghost preview, then
place/remove).
Uses BreakHitResult (a multi-output-pin CallFunction on
GameplayStatics) to extract struct fields, since a dedicated
"BreakStruct" node type isn't supported by this tool -- works fine
as a plain function call.
ResourceNode_01 placed in the landing zone. E key on the character:
checks distance to the resource node (via a typed ResourceNodeRef
variable, same object-reference technique as the ship/character
cross-refs), and if within 300 units calls AddStorage on the ship
(through ShipPawnRef) and destroys the node. AddStorage increments
StorageAmount up to StorageCapacity, printing feedback either way.
Smoke-tested in PIE: no runtime errors.
ACharacter defaults bUseControllerRotationYaw to true, which makes
the Controller's rotation overwrite the actor's rotation every tick
-- stomping our manual AddActorLocalRotation calls almost immediately
(visible as a barely-perceptible tick instead of a turn). Plain Pawn
(the ship) doesn't have this default, which is why the same rotation
logic worked fine there. Disabled it on both the class default and
the placed instance.
F key on the ship: teleports the player character to just above the
ship's location and possesses it. F key on the character: possesses
the ship back. Same controller, so possessing one pawn automatically
unpossesses the other.
Notable implementation detail: GameplayStatics::GetActorOfClass
looked like the obvious way to find "the other pawn" at runtime, but
this MCP plugin's pin_defaults mechanism can't correctly set a Class-
type pin (it accepts the string silently but the compiler later
rejects it as an invalid default) -- there's no supported node type
for a class-literal either. Worked around it by adding real object-
reference variables (PlayerCharacterRef / ShipPawnRef) via
unreal.BlueprintEditorLibrary.get_object_reference_type() directly
through the Python escape hatch, marking them instance-editable, and
wiring the actual actor references between the two placed level
instances. Avoids needing any runtime class lookup at all.
BP_PlayerCharacter (Character-based): first-person camera, WASD
movement + A/D turning (same input scheme as the ship), SuitOxygen
stat that depletes each tick, clamped at 0. Not auto-possessed yet --
that's the ship exit/enter transition (next task). Placed one
instance in L_TestFlight near the ship spawn.
Also reverted level gravity to default (-980): FloatingPawnMovement
(ship) never reads world gravity regardless of its value, but
CharacterMovementComponent (this character) needs real gravity to
walk normally. Zero gravity was an unnecessary leftover from Phase 0
that would have broken on-foot movement.
