Editing Basics of Module Creation (section)

== Combats ==
[[File:A sample combat briefing moment.png|thumb|How it looks in the editor...]]
[[File:Combat Briefing In-Engine.png|thumb|...and in the game.]]
Much like with conversations, before you can add a 'combat briefing' moment to your module, you have to have a combat for it to brief you about. Head to those icons in the top-left, and the second one will take you to your (probably empty) list of combats.

''Making'' a combat is well beyond the scope of this module-making tutorial; you'll have to work out how to do that somewhere else. The good news is that using the 'import' button right next to it, you can pull in ''any map you have ever downloaded'', including ones from within other modules. The bad news is that most maps are dependent on settings from Instant Action or the module context they were originally supplied within, so they won't work out of the box. But at least you'll have the terrain drawn in?

Once you've got a combat ready to go, you can create a combat briefing moment. The elements of a combat briefing are:

* A '''dropdown''' where you select which combat this briefing will launch you into.
* A '''text box''' which becomes the text box shown on the right-hand side of the combat briefing screen.
* A selection of possible '''media''' to display in the middle of the combat briefing screen. This is usually set to 'combat' which shows that funky rotating map of the battlefield you're about to fight on, but you can set it to a variety of different things -- including a funky rotating map of a completely different battlefield, if for some reason you want to do that. Probably something metavault-related.
* You can '''skip briefing screen''' if you want to go straight from the beat into the fight.
* You can '''autoplay''' a combat briefing, which won't normally have much effect because the player can use the Esc key or right mouse button to back out to the beat screen again, but I guess in combination with skip briefing screen you could drop the player right into the action this way.

A key thing to note about combat briefings is that they have '''two outputs.''' One unlabelled for if the PCs win, and one labelled 'on PC defeat' for if they lose. If you leave either unlinked then a victory (or defeat, as appropriate) loops them back to the beat and they can try the fight again -- but it'll also trigger any level-ups or full repairs the beat allows, which can lead to some weird shenanigans. Best to remember to hook it up to something else.

Speaking of which:

'''Important:''' In theory the outputs from a combat can be linked to anything. In practice, at the time of writing, this doesn't work. '''A combat moment can only output directly to a beat.''' If you try anything else it'll go wrong. ''Yes, this includes endpoints''. Beats only.
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