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Summon Minions

This setup provides a comprehensive guide for setting up the Summon Minions Ability on the Bull Boss using the Boss AI Toolkit in Unity. It covers core ability settings, VFX and teleport spawn location configurations, ground and aerial summoning modes, predefined spawn point setups, and ability sequence management.

1. Initial Ability & Proximity Setup

Configure the Summon Minions ability inside the Enemy Ability System and adjust probability settings to isolate the ability during testing.

Steps

  1. Select the Bull Boss New GameObject in your scene hierarchy.
  2. In the Enemy Ability System, expand the active Phase group.
  3. Adjust proximity parameters:
  4. Set Min Distance to 0 and Max Distance to 100 meters.
  5. Set existing ability probabilities (e.g., Spit Attack) to 0%.
  6. Click Add Ability Entry to Group.
  7. Set Ability Type to Summon Minions.
  8. Set Summon Minions Probability to 100% for isolated testing.
  9. Set Look Mode to Target.

2. Core Ability & Visual Effects Setup

Configure the casting animation, aura effects, and delay settings for spawning minion entities.

Steps

  1. Skip Check: Enable Skip If Spawned Enemies Exist to prevent summoning a new wave if previous minions are still active in the arena.
  2. Begin Animation: Assign the magic area animation clip.
  3. Casting Effect: Assign the Lightning Aura GameObject (active particle system during casting) to the Effect To Activate field:
  4. Set Effect Fade Out Duration to 3 seconds.
  5. Spawn Effect Prefab:
  6. Search for the Teleport effect prefab (Hovl Studio Magic Effects) in the Project folder.
  7. Assign Teleport to Spawn Location Effect Prefab.
  8. Set Spawn Location Effect Offset to 0.7 (elevates the effect slightly above ground level).
  9. Timing Delays:
  10. Set Spawn Effect Delay to 3 seconds (delay before showing teleport visual indicators).
  11. Set Delay Enemies Spawn After Effects to 0.5 seconds (delay between visual effect appearance and actual entity instantiation).
  12. Set Idle Delay to 1 second.

3. Minion Prefab & Placement Settings

Specify the enemy prefabs to spawn and define their target proximity or sequential spawning options.

Ground Spawn Configuration Options

Parameter Recommended Value Description
Enemies Prefab Knight Prefab Melee minion entity instantiated by the ability.
Number of Enemies to Spawn 3 Total count of minion entities spawned per cast.
Spawn Enemies Sequentially Unchecked If enabled, spawns assigned enemy prefabs one after another.
Spawn Range From Target 20 meters Maximum radius around the player where minions spawn.
Distance Between Each Spawned Enemy 5 meters Minimum spatial separation between individual spawned minions.

4. Predefined Spawn Points (Optional)

Specify exact positional markers for minion spawning instead of using dynamic target-range spawning.

Steps

  1. Right-click in the Hierarchy -> Create Empty and name it Predefined Enemy Spawn Points.
  2. Create three child empty GameObjects inside it:
  3. Predefined Enemy Spawn Point 1 (positioned left of the boss)
  4. Predefined Enemy Spawn Point 2 (positioned right of the boss)
  5. Predefined Enemy Spawn Point 3 (positioned behind the boss)
  6. (Optional) Parent Predefined Enemy Spawn Points under the Bull Boss New GameObject.
  7. Select Bull Boss New and locate the Summon Minions settings:
  8. Lock the Inspector window.
  9. Enable Spawn At Predefined Points.
  10. Drag all three point transforms into the Predefined Points array.
  11. Unlock the Inspector window.

5. Aerial Summoning Setup (Optional)

Enable aerial capabilities to make the boss fly to a designated point before casting the summoning spell.

Steps

  1. Navigate to Summon Minions settings on the Bull Boss New GameObject.
  2. Check Fly At Certain Point.
  3. Fly Target Point: Drag an existing elevated transform (e.g., Fly Point) into this slot.
  4. Set Fly Speed to 3.
  5. Set Fly Animation to Idle (or a dedicated hover animation).

6. Execution Sequencing

Combine the Summon Minions ability with other combat abilities (e.g., Melee Attack) using sequential execution.

Steps

  1. Under the active Phase group, set probabilities to 100% for both Summon Minions and Melee Attack.
  2. Check Play In Sequence.
  3. Reorder the ability list in the Inspector so Summon Minions is positioned at the top above Melee Attack.
  4. Upon execution, the boss will perform the Summon Minions ability first and transition into a Melee Attack once the spawn cycle completes.

7. Verification Checklist

Before running tests in Play Mode, verify the following configuration settings:

  • [ ] Proximity Limits: Group Min/Max distance set appropriately (0 - 100 meters).
  • [ ] Probabilities: Summon Minions set to 100% (and Play In Sequence checked if chaining abilities).
  • [ ] Prefabs & Effects: Teleport effect assigned to Spawn Location Effect Prefab and minion asset (Knight) assigned to Enemies Prefab.
  • [ ] Skip Check: Skip If Spawned Enemies Exist checked if single-wave spawning is desired.
  • [ ] Spawn Points: If Spawn At Predefined Points is enabled, verify all transform slots are populated.