WEBVTT 00:06.850 --> 00:07.880 Welcome back. 00:07.900 --> 00:15.280 Now I've got my exec calc damage open here, and we're performing a couple of calculations that involve 00:15.280 --> 00:22.630 some sort of magic numbers, some coefficients that scale these values, these attributes that we're 00:22.630 --> 00:27.400 capturing so that they make sense for the calculation. 00:27.400 --> 00:34.720 In other words, without them, the calculation may not be so natural or appropriate for RPG combat. 00:34.750 --> 00:40.810 We have our effective armor, which we're calculating using target armor times. 00:40.810 --> 00:47.950 This coefficient looks like I used times equals, which actually changes the target armor variable here 00:47.980 --> 00:49.120 our local variable. 00:49.120 --> 00:49.960 But that's okay. 00:49.960 --> 00:56.230 This still works because the result of this highlighted expression is going to be the result of this 00:56.230 --> 00:57.070 calculation. 00:57.070 --> 01:01.660 So target armor times this amount, it actually does return that. 01:01.660 --> 01:06.280 So this is the same as target armor times without the equals there. 01:06.280 --> 01:12.140 But if that confused you, it's totally fine to just have the star without times equals. 01:12.140 --> 01:12.980 Anyway. 01:12.980 --> 01:17.210 We have a 0.25 coefficient for source armor penetration. 01:17.210 --> 01:24.530 So for points of source armor penetration results in 1% of target armor ignored. 01:24.530 --> 01:27.320 That's what this equation means. 01:27.320 --> 01:32.030 But this coefficient may not make sense at all levels of combat. 01:32.060 --> 01:39.710 This may make sense at the beginning of the game when all of the participants in combat have relatively 01:39.710 --> 01:41.000 low stats. 01:41.000 --> 01:48.110 But perhaps later on in the game when all participants in combat are level ten, for example, this 01:48.110 --> 01:49.730 coefficient may need to change. 01:49.730 --> 01:51.940 It may need to go down, for example. 01:51.950 --> 02:00.560 So for that reason, these hard coded magic values are probably not the best way to do this in a serious 02:00.560 --> 02:01.790 RPG game. 02:01.910 --> 02:07.460 So for that reason, I'd like to explore a solution for this. 02:07.460 --> 02:13.010 Now, we know that if we want something to change based on level, then a curve table is nice. 02:13.010 --> 02:20.960 We can specify how those values change and I'd like to use a curve table for damage calculation coefficients 02:20.960 --> 02:27.470 because this is a great opportunity to do so and we can have a single source that we can access those 02:27.470 --> 02:28.040 from. 02:28.190 --> 02:30.740 Now, where should we put those coefficients? 02:30.740 --> 02:37.640 Well, I'd like character class info our data asset because it has our common class default values. 02:37.640 --> 02:45.170 So we could easily put a scalable float here or just a curve table that we could access values from. 02:45.170 --> 02:51.890 And that curve table could store curves for each of our coefficients that we need so far. 02:51.890 --> 02:58.430 We just need to we need a coefficient to multiply source armor penetration by and we need a coefficient 02:58.430 --> 03:00.050 for effective armor. 03:00.050 --> 03:02.720 So I'd like to make a curve table for those. 03:02.840 --> 03:06.410 So I'm going to browse to the folder that contains this. 03:06.410 --> 03:13.310 This is ability system data and I'm going to make a curve table for our damage calculation coefficients. 03:13.310 --> 03:17.870 So I'm going to right click, go to miscellaneous and choose curve table. 03:18.500 --> 03:20.360 Oops, I selected data table. 03:20.360 --> 03:21.200 Let's go back. 03:21.200 --> 03:29.960 What I want is a curve table and for this we have an opportunity to check out the constant curve. 03:29.960 --> 03:31.490 Interpolation type. 03:31.940 --> 03:39.110 Constant is great because we only need a certain value from one level to the next level. 03:39.110 --> 03:42.320 It doesn't need to smoothly change between levels. 03:42.530 --> 03:43.700 Let's see how this works. 03:43.700 --> 03:52.310 I'm going to select Constant, create a curve table and call this c t underscore damage calculation 03:52.310 --> 03:53.750 coefficients. 03:54.590 --> 03:57.920 And we'll open this up and we'll have a new curve. 03:57.920 --> 04:04.910 I'm going to rename this default curve and we can call this first one armor penetration. 04:05.600 --> 04:07.430 And these are all coefficient curves. 04:07.430 --> 04:14.810 So this is really armor penetration coefficient, but rather than just sticking coefficient on the end 04:14.810 --> 04:19.010 of all the names of the curves, I'll just name it armor penetration. 04:19.160 --> 04:20.960 Now we need a key. 04:20.960 --> 04:25.310 And notice the symbol here is not a triangle anymore but a square. 04:25.310 --> 04:31.280 And if I click that, notice that it looks just like adding a key to a curve table. 04:31.280 --> 04:33.500 It doesn't look any different than before. 04:33.590 --> 04:40.500 But we'll see as soon as we add multiple curves and take a look at the curve view, how this differs. 04:40.520 --> 04:46.880 Now at level one, I'd like to use the value that we're using for armor penetration 0.25. 04:47.000 --> 04:48.830 So I'm going to stick that in here. 04:48.920 --> 04:50.000 0.25. 04:51.550 --> 04:59.140 And I'd like this to stay at 0.25 for a while, up to, say, level ten, for example. 04:59.170 --> 05:01.060 Now, how can I do that? 05:01.060 --> 05:07.930 Well, I can click on the square and click the three dots next to the two and select Retime keys. 05:07.930 --> 05:16.690 At two, we can choose ten and at ten, I want to change this value now with 0.25, Let's think about 05:16.690 --> 05:18.330 how the mathematics works. 05:18.340 --> 05:21.030 Let's say source armor penetration is 100. 05:21.040 --> 05:23.860 Well, this multiplies it by 0.25. 05:23.890 --> 05:31.960 So that would make this multiplication 25 100 -25 is 75 divided by 100 is 0.75. 05:31.960 --> 05:37.630 So we're taking off 25% for 100 source armor penetration points. 05:37.930 --> 05:41.800 Now, I'd like this to be more harsh as we level up. 05:41.800 --> 05:48.580 So at level ten, I want to multiply source armor penetration by an even smaller value. 05:48.580 --> 05:55.730 So it takes even more armor penetration points because as these characters level up, source armor penetration 05:55.730 --> 05:57.890 may get really, really high. 05:57.920 --> 06:03.620 So I'd like to stick this to a lower value, say 0.15. 06:03.620 --> 06:07.510 And in addition to that, I'd like to go up to level 20. 06:07.520 --> 06:09.410 So I'm going to add another point. 06:09.410 --> 06:14.600 It's set to 19, but I'm going to retime it at level 20 and at level 20. 06:14.600 --> 06:22.310 I'd like this to go down even more like 0.85 or I should say 0.085 and we can just go ahead and go up 06:22.310 --> 06:22.940 one more. 06:22.940 --> 06:24.230 We'll go up to 40. 06:24.230 --> 06:32.600 So let's retime this at 40 and at 40 we're going to make this pretty low, like 0.035, for example. 06:32.930 --> 06:37.730 Okay, so what does a constant curve interpolation type look like in Graph View? 06:37.760 --> 06:40.970 Well, let's go to Graph view and select armor penetration. 06:40.970 --> 06:42.290 And here's what it looks like. 06:42.290 --> 06:43.550 It looks like steps. 06:43.550 --> 06:49.910 This is sometimes known as a step graph and it basically just means that between level one and ten, 06:49.940 --> 06:52.460 we have one constant value 0.25. 06:52.460 --> 06:54.260 So it doesn't matter what the level is. 06:54.260 --> 06:59.360 If it's between 1 and 10, we'll always get 0.25 from that. 06:59.390 --> 07:09.500 If we pass in 11, then we get the value here 0.15 and any value between 10 and 20 we get that value. 07:09.500 --> 07:10.760 So it's a constant curve. 07:10.790 --> 07:16.160 That's how it's going to work and that gives us a curve for armor penetration. 07:16.160 --> 07:19.430 Let's add a curve for our effective armor. 07:19.430 --> 07:21.440 That's the next coefficient. 07:21.440 --> 07:23.450 We need effective armor. 07:23.600 --> 07:26.150 So we're going to go ahead and click plus curve. 07:26.150 --> 07:35.600 I'm going to rename the curve to Effective Armor, and we have the same time scale values in our case 07:35.600 --> 07:40.220 level scale values, and we're going to start off at 0.333. 07:41.500 --> 07:45.070 And this value can get lower as we move on. 07:45.070 --> 07:49.360 So at level ten, we're going to make this 0.25. 07:49.390 --> 07:55.690 At level 20, we're going to make it 0.15 and at level 40 we're going to make it 0.85. 07:56.020 --> 07:58.840 And if we look at the graph, this is what it looks like. 07:59.170 --> 08:02.730 Oh, I should have made this .085. 08:02.740 --> 08:03.280 Right? 08:03.280 --> 08:05.560 So 0.085. 08:05.560 --> 08:07.480 So it's actually getting smaller. 08:07.570 --> 08:09.400 So we don't have that big jump there. 08:09.400 --> 08:11.770 And here's what the step curve looks like. 08:11.800 --> 08:13.150 Pretty nice. 08:13.570 --> 08:14.230 Okay, cool. 08:14.230 --> 08:15.700 So we have two curves. 08:15.700 --> 08:22.480 We can add this curve table to our character class info and we're going to do that in C plus plus. 08:22.480 --> 08:26.590 So I'm going to save all and close and open my data asset. 08:26.590 --> 08:32.770 So in ability system, we're going to go to the public folder actually ability system data, character 08:32.770 --> 08:33.840 class info. 08:33.850 --> 08:37.870 We're going to add a pointer to a curve table. 08:38.020 --> 08:40.360 So let's add a T object pointer. 08:40.660 --> 08:48.560 You curve table and we'll call this damage calculation coefficients. 08:50.320 --> 08:54.910 And this can be you property Edit defaults only. 08:54.940 --> 08:56.940 Common class defaults. 08:56.950 --> 09:03.940 We could even put this in a subcategory of damage and we can set this in the editor. 09:03.940 --> 09:06.160 So let's go ahead and launch. 09:09.440 --> 09:10.970 And back in the editor. 09:11.000 --> 09:17.990 Let's open up that data asset and here's our damage subcategory and damage calculation coefficients 09:17.990 --> 09:23.840 is here and we can get that damage calculation coefficients curve table and set it there. 09:24.050 --> 09:30.590 So now if we have access to the data asset, we have access to those curve values and we can get those 09:30.590 --> 09:32.090 in our calculations. 09:32.270 --> 09:36.740 So closing and saving again and we're done with character class info. 09:36.770 --> 09:37.640 I'm going to close that. 09:37.640 --> 09:42.500 We're back into exit calc damage, and I'd like to access those values here. 09:43.010 --> 09:44.840 So how are we going to do that? 09:44.960 --> 09:51.050 Well, we know that that data asset exists on the game mode, and if we can access the game mode, we 09:51.050 --> 09:52.760 can access the data asset. 09:52.970 --> 10:00.080 Now, I don't want to have to get the game mode every time I need some kind of value on that data asset. 10:00.110 --> 10:04.000 It'd be nice if I had just some easy way to get that data asset. 10:04.010 --> 10:08.660 So my ability system blueprint function library comes to mind. 10:08.810 --> 10:15.090 I'm going to open up my aura ability system library and make a static function that can return that 10:15.090 --> 10:16.110 data asset. 10:16.290 --> 10:23.340 This will make things easy for me, so I'm going to do a static function that returns a you character 10:23.340 --> 10:27.840 class info pointer and scrolling up. 10:27.840 --> 10:34.290 I see that the header file for character class info is already included, so no need to forward declare 10:34.440 --> 10:39.750 and I'm going to call this get character class info. 10:41.010 --> 10:48.480 Now this will require a world context object, so I'm going to add that as a required input and we'll 10:48.480 --> 10:55.920 go ahead and give this a new function macro blueprint callable or a ability system, library slash character 10:55.920 --> 10:59.940 class defaults and we can define the function. 11:01.510 --> 11:03.970 And this is going to be quite simple, actually. 11:04.000 --> 11:07.900 We're going to get the game mode just like we're doing in give startup abilities. 11:07.990 --> 11:13.630 And from that game mode we're going to access character class info and we can simply return it. 11:13.630 --> 11:19.600 So I'm going to copy these lines and paste them down here and simply return our game mode Character 11:19.600 --> 11:20.680 class info. 11:20.680 --> 11:22.630 So we'll have a return statement there. 11:22.630 --> 11:24.250 And that's all we need to do. 11:24.280 --> 11:30.430 Now this return statement here has to return something, so we'll return null pointer in the case that 11:30.430 --> 11:31.720 the game mode is null. 11:31.900 --> 11:37.420 So if we call this on a client where the game mode is a null pointer, well we'll get a null pointer 11:37.420 --> 11:38.170 then. 11:38.650 --> 11:41.890 So get character class info is handy. 11:41.890 --> 11:47.770 In fact, we can replace some lines of code and give startup abilities if we want to just use get character 11:47.770 --> 11:52.180 class info instead of going through the same process. 11:52.270 --> 11:59.170 So right here where we're saying character class info, we can just call get character class info passing 11:59.170 --> 12:01.640 in world context object. 12:03.470 --> 12:06.770 And then we don't have to get the game mode right there. 12:07.550 --> 12:13.520 We can do the same thing here in initialize default attributes where we're getting the character class 12:13.520 --> 12:14.150 info. 12:14.180 --> 12:21.560 We don't have to get the game mode anymore so we can remove those lines and replace this line here with 12:21.560 --> 12:25.460 get character class info passing in world context Object. 12:26.900 --> 12:33.650 And we have the character class info and of course Avatar actor could be const class default info could 12:33.650 --> 12:34.250 be const. 12:34.250 --> 12:40.550 But for now, let's stick to what we're doing and that is to get character class info here. 12:40.580 --> 12:43.920 This makes it easy to access character class info. 12:43.940 --> 12:48.020 Now character class info has the curve table. 12:48.020 --> 12:49.160 Let's go back and look at it. 12:49.160 --> 12:51.850 It's called damage calculation coefficients. 12:51.860 --> 12:56.030 We can access that if we can access character class info. 12:56.240 --> 13:01.940 So closing that, I'm going to go back to exec calc damage and see if we can access character class 13:01.940 --> 13:08.630 info and then we can get that curve table and get our coefficients that we need. 13:09.080 --> 13:14.900 So right here I can say you character class info. 13:14.930 --> 13:18.860 That's a pointer called character class info. 13:20.600 --> 13:31.010 And I can go ahead and alt enter to include the header file for it and I can use you ora ability system 13:31.010 --> 13:35.270 library or just added the include for that. 13:35.270 --> 13:42.530 And we can use get character class info and we can pass in a world context object and we have access 13:42.530 --> 13:44.210 to a couple of them. 13:44.210 --> 13:46.790 We can pass in source Avatar for example. 13:47.210 --> 13:51.320 So I'm going to go ahead and use the source avatar for the world context object there. 13:51.710 --> 13:58.010 Once I have character class info, then I can access the data table from it, which is called damage 13:58.010 --> 13:59.900 calculation coefficients. 13:59.900 --> 14:02.630 So taking character class info. 14:05.300 --> 14:11.250 We can get damage calculation coefficients and we can get values from the two curves. 14:11.270 --> 14:14.990 So how do we get values from a curve table? 14:15.020 --> 14:20.570 Well, we could take this curve table, use the arrow operator to see what kind of. 14:21.800 --> 14:24.020 Functions we have now. 14:24.020 --> 14:25.910 One of them is fine curve. 14:25.910 --> 14:30.900 And if we find a curve, we have to specify the row name for the curve. 14:30.920 --> 14:38.300 Now we named these after our attributes that the coefficients are supposed to affect, so we have to 14:38.300 --> 14:42.350 pass in an F name specifying the name of that curve. 14:42.380 --> 14:44.660 For example, we have the armor penetration. 14:44.660 --> 14:46.820 We can use armor penetration. 14:48.410 --> 14:50.600 This requires a context string. 14:50.600 --> 14:56.270 We can just pass in an empty F string and warn if not found is true by default. 14:56.360 --> 15:01.200 So once we find the curve, we can evaluate the curve at a given level. 15:01.220 --> 15:07.460 So this find curve returns an F real curve and that's a pointer. 15:07.460 --> 15:09.560 So we have F real curve. 15:10.520 --> 15:15.140 And we'll call this armor penetration curve. 15:15.620 --> 15:18.080 That's a real curve pointer. 15:18.080 --> 15:20.870 And we can take armor penetration curve. 15:21.830 --> 15:24.410 And from this curve we can evaluate. 15:24.410 --> 15:31.700 So eval is just a way to get a value on the curve at a given input for a given level. 15:32.510 --> 15:38.390 So if we call eval, we have to pass in a level, and for that reason we're going to need the level 15:38.390 --> 15:41.120 of our source character, right? 15:41.150 --> 15:45.300 We need a way to know what level that character is. 15:45.320 --> 15:46.990 So how can we get the level? 15:47.000 --> 15:49.040 Well, we have an interface, don't we? 15:49.070 --> 15:51.050 We have our interaction folder. 15:51.050 --> 15:56.000 Here's our combat interface, which has the function get player level. 15:56.120 --> 16:02.300 So if we can get the combat interface for both our source and target, we can know what their levels 16:02.300 --> 16:02.670 are. 16:02.690 --> 16:07.640 I'd like to get those way up here at the top where we're getting our source and target avatars. 16:07.640 --> 16:12.630 So we'll just store an eye combat interface pointer for each of these. 16:12.650 --> 16:22.370 First, I'll make a source combat interface and I'll just cast to it Eye combat interface cast Source, 16:22.400 --> 16:23.300 Avatar. 16:24.020 --> 16:25.340 Now, here's the thing. 16:25.370 --> 16:30.980 Source Combat interface has to be const because source avatar is const. 16:30.980 --> 16:35.270 But that's a problem because we want to call get player level. 16:35.300 --> 16:37.460 That's not a const function. 16:37.460 --> 16:38.870 So there's an issue here. 16:38.870 --> 16:45.230 If we make source combat interface const, we get rid of the error there, but then we can't call source 16:45.230 --> 16:48.170 combat interface get player level. 16:50.330 --> 16:52.630 Because that's not a const function. 16:52.640 --> 16:57.760 As you can see, the error says the function is missing the const qualifier. 16:57.770 --> 17:05.210 So in order to call get player level source, combat interface can't be const, which means source avatar 17:05.240 --> 17:06.380 can't be const. 17:06.380 --> 17:12.140 So we're not going to make this const anymore and Target Avatar will no longer be const and then we'll 17:12.140 --> 17:16.040 have to non-const eye combat interface pointers. 17:16.070 --> 17:22.520 We'll make this other one for target combat interface, which is going to cast Target Avatar. 17:23.060 --> 17:27.080 So now that we have these two interfaces, we can get the player level. 17:27.080 --> 17:34.940 So back down here in our eval call, we're going to get the source combat interface and call get player 17:34.940 --> 17:36.880 level and pass that in. 17:36.890 --> 17:41.090 Now Eval is going to give us the armor penetration coefficient. 17:41.120 --> 17:47.060 This can be a const float called armor penetration coefficient. 17:47.690 --> 17:54.240 And now that we're evaluating armor penetration coefficient at the source character's level, we can 17:54.240 --> 18:01.440 use that in our calculation here instead of the magic number 0.25 and we can do the same thing for our 18:01.440 --> 18:03.330 effective armor coefficient. 18:03.330 --> 18:07.860 So down here, just before we do that calculation, we can do that too. 18:07.860 --> 18:10.470 So we're going to say f real curve. 18:11.450 --> 18:16.880 Pointer effective armor curve equals. 18:17.330 --> 18:19.220 Character Class info. 18:19.790 --> 18:22.220 Damage Calculation Coefficients. 18:22.490 --> 18:23.810 Find curve. 18:24.860 --> 18:30.230 F name and the curve Rho is called effective armor. 18:31.050 --> 18:35.220 The context string is going to be just an empty string. 18:37.170 --> 18:45.480 And once we have that curve, we'll make a const float called Effective Armor Coefficient. 18:47.450 --> 18:54.530 And set that equal to effective armor curve eval. 18:55.280 --> 18:58.940 Passing in and this is the effective armor of the target. 18:58.940 --> 19:08.870 So this has to be target combat interface, get player level and we can take effective armor coefficient 19:08.870 --> 19:11.150 and use that instead of the magic value. 19:11.150 --> 19:12.560 0.333. 19:12.890 --> 19:21.350 Now these curves can be const pointers, so we'll make these f real curves both const and character 19:21.350 --> 19:26.270 class info can also be const, so we'll make that const as well. 19:26.270 --> 19:28.580 So now we can simply test this out. 19:28.610 --> 19:31.580 Now we know what those values should be at level one. 19:31.580 --> 19:36.590 And so far all of our characters and enemies are level one. 19:36.590 --> 19:43.310 So we just need to test this out and make sure that we get those values that we set in the curve tables 19:43.310 --> 19:44.120 curves. 19:44.120 --> 19:48.840 So let's test this out and we'll just use breakpoints to check those values. 19:50.320 --> 19:54.350 And we'll see if we have any problematic situations that cause crashes. 19:54.370 --> 19:56.170 Let's go ahead and press play. 19:56.800 --> 19:58.600 And I forgot to add breakpoints. 19:58.600 --> 20:06.010 So let's go ahead and add a breakpoint just at the end of the execution calculation and we'll press 20:06.010 --> 20:07.960 play and cause some damage. 20:09.050 --> 20:10.310 There we go. 20:10.310 --> 20:11.810 And no crashes. 20:11.810 --> 20:14.570 We got our break point and we can check these values. 20:14.570 --> 20:17.480 Let's take a look at armor penetration coefficient. 20:17.930 --> 20:22.640 I'm expecting 0.25, giving it a second to evaluate it. 20:22.640 --> 20:24.320 And there it is 0.25. 20:24.320 --> 20:32.150 And for effective armor coefficient I'm expecting 0.333 and there it is Now yes, there's a bunch of 20:32.150 --> 20:33.860 zeros and a four at the end. 20:33.860 --> 20:40.850 In your case it might be a different value that is due to floating point precision or as I like to call 20:40.850 --> 20:44.810 it, floating point imprecision, because it's imprecise. 20:44.810 --> 20:49.400 It's not going to be precise to this many digits, which is totally fine. 20:49.430 --> 20:53.810 This many digits out is a very, very small level of inaccuracy. 20:53.810 --> 20:59.600 But this is a good reminder that floating point values are rarely equal to each other, which is why 20:59.600 --> 21:06.590 I almost always use a less than or equal or a greater than or equal when comparing two floats. 21:06.590 --> 21:09.450 So that's just kind of a side tangent there. 21:09.450 --> 21:12.480 But I'm seeing that these values are correct. 21:12.480 --> 21:19.470 And another really good way to test this out is to change the level of the thing that we're hitting. 21:19.470 --> 21:23.700 For example, this here is a BP goblin, Spear two. 21:23.700 --> 21:25.200 It has its own level. 21:25.200 --> 21:28.590 It's set to level one, but I'm going to set it to level 11. 21:28.590 --> 21:29.040 Why? 21:29.070 --> 21:31.680 Because that's when it's effective. 21:31.680 --> 21:33.300 Armor coefficient should go up. 21:33.300 --> 21:40.290 So now I'm going to go ahead and hit it with a fireball and take a look at the effective armor coefficient. 21:40.290 --> 21:42.930 And it was 0.333. 21:42.960 --> 21:44.970 Now it's 0.25. 21:45.090 --> 21:47.820 Armor penetration coefficient is also 0.25. 21:48.030 --> 21:49.020 Excellent. 21:49.020 --> 21:55.530 And we know that it should have an even different value if we set that level to, oh, let's say 40 21:55.530 --> 22:01.380 or 39, I'm going to set it to 39 and damage it. 22:02.020 --> 22:12.100 And now the effective armor coefficient is 0.15 and just double checking in our damage calculation curve 22:12.130 --> 22:13.060 table. 22:13.240 --> 22:21.490 Effective armor at level 39 should be 0.15 and as soon as we hit 40 it'll go to 0.085. 22:21.490 --> 22:22.330 And why not? 22:22.360 --> 22:25.360 Why don't we just test out level 40? 22:27.240 --> 22:34.380 We should see 0.085 and we see 0.085 with some floating point in precision. 22:35.770 --> 22:36.490 Excellent. 22:36.490 --> 22:37.780 This is great. 22:37.810 --> 22:45.400 Now, our magic numbers have been replaced by data driven values, and now they can change based on 22:45.400 --> 22:46.230 level. 22:46.240 --> 22:54.400 And that gives us a way to have even more control As the player progresses gets higher in level, the 22:54.400 --> 23:00.010 enemies get higher in level, and as things start to get out of whack a little bit, we can scale these 23:00.010 --> 23:07.390 values according to our curves and have a little bit more precise control over how the mechanics work. 23:07.390 --> 23:09.250 And what values should these be? 23:09.250 --> 23:15.010 Well, that's going to depend on the game and is going to require a lot of playtesting. 23:15.160 --> 23:22.750 But this is great because now as we add more calculations, we have access to that curve table and we 23:22.750 --> 23:24.910 can scale things based on player level. 23:24.910 --> 23:26.380 So things are looking great. 23:26.410 --> 23:32.260 Now, if you're wondering why I'm creating all these local pointers and not checking to see if they're 23:32.290 --> 23:40.100 a null pointer, that's because I don't expect to run this function in any situation where these pointers 23:40.100 --> 23:41.000 should be null. 23:41.000 --> 23:45.890 I'm considering it an error or a mistake if those pointers become null. 23:45.890 --> 23:51.410 So accessing those pointers when they're null is going to crash the program and the crash will point 23:51.410 --> 23:55.790 to here, which means that something is wrong and needs to be fixed. 23:55.790 --> 24:03.200 So rather than having it fail silently and not crash the program, I'd rather just leave it here and 24:03.200 --> 24:04.370 crash the program. 24:04.370 --> 24:11.300 And if I wanted the crash log to be more descriptive, I could use assertions here and check these values 24:11.300 --> 24:18.110 and put a specific message to the output log in the case that these are null and attempted to be accessed. 24:18.110 --> 24:24.500 But in this case, if the game crashes and points to one of these lines here, I'm going to know why 24:24.530 --> 24:26.600 and address it then. 24:26.600 --> 24:35.150 But as we saw, the game should not crash because these curves are going to be valid because we've set 24:35.150 --> 24:37.570 the curve table in the data asset. 24:37.580 --> 24:42.560 So really the only reason it would be null is if we had forgotten to do that, Right? 24:42.560 --> 24:44.420 So this is looking great. 24:44.420 --> 24:45.800 Combat's looking good. 24:45.800 --> 24:52.640 I'm going to set this character back down to level one and we can continue with our damage execution 24:52.640 --> 24:55.730 calculation and we'll do that in the videos to come. 24:55.730 --> 24:56.810 I'll see you soon.