Defining an Elemental Skill for an Active Self power

Origins: Genshin only supports creating an Elemental Skill out of the Active Self (Power Type). This is because in the actual game, you can only use these when clicking E (or whatever key you binded it to)!

An Elemental Skill, in Genshin, is one of your character's "active" abilities/talents. You may know this as just "Skill" in other games.

Tutorial

Important: this example guides you through defining an Elemental Skill for the Active Self (Power Type), as well as specific use cases that could be helpful in the future. It is required for you to have read and understood Defining a Power in JSON first, as well as looked through Active Self (Power Type)!

To declare an Active Self (Power Type) power as an Elemental Skill, just add the "elemental_skill" field.

Let's create a power named cool_power.json inside the <namespace>/powers folder. The <namespace> part is basically the namespace of your datapack (the ID that specifies your datapack from others). Since this is a tutorial, I'll use tutorial, however you may use any namespace you want. The full path for this power for me would be data/tutorial/powers/cool_power.json.

{
    "type": "origins:active_self",
    "name": "My Cool Power!",
    "description": "A really cool power!",
    "key": "key.origins.secondary_active",
    "cooldown": 50,

    "elemental_skill": {

    },

    "entity_action": {
        // ...
    }
}

Now that you have that, we have declared this power as an Elemental Skill. However, it's missing a few key data, such as: What icon should it use? Should it render the cooldown? Should it appear as disabled? I will walk you through on how you can fill this Object.

Displaying the cooldown text

Let's say you want the cooldown text of the Elemental Skill to be hidden. You can do so by using the show_cooldown field. For this example, we want the cooldown text of our Elemental Skill to be shown, so we use true as the value instead.

{
    "elemental_skill": {
        "show_cooldown": true
    }
}

"Disabling" the Elemental Skill

Let's say you want the Elemental Skill to appear "disabled", or grayed out. You can do so by using the disable_condition field, which takes in a Entity Condition Type object. If this condition is true, then the Elemental Skill will appear disabled. However, having the Elemental Skill as disabled will not affect the actual power. This means that the power may still be used despite the Elemental Skill appearing as disabled, depending on the conditions.

For this example, we want to disable the Elemental Skill when they are sneaking. We can use the origins:sneaking condition type for this.

{
    "elemental_skill": {
        "show_cooldown": true,
        "disable_condition": {
            "type": "origins:sneaking"
        }
    }
}

Creating icons for the Elemental Skill

Now, you would want to have an icon for this Elemental Skill. Icons are textures, which means that they are supposed to be in a Resource Pack, not a Data Pack! Unlike icons for an Elemental Burst, icons for an Elemental Skill are much simpler, fitting within a 76x76 circle in a 76x76 grid.

For your convenience, I have created a template for you to use. You can also resize this image as well, so long as you don't change the original ratio (because that will mess up the precision).

The blue circle is the guide where your icon fits inside the Elemental Skill.

Now that you have done that, it's time to create a Resource Pack to store the texture in.

For this tutorial, let's store it inside the assets/<namespace>/skills folder, as elemental_skill.png. Again, <namespace> refers to the ID that seperates this resource pack from others. Since this is a tutorial, I will use tutorial, so the file path for me would be assets/tutorial/skills/elemental_skill.png.

Back to our data pack, you'd want to use the icon you just created. To do so, you can use the icon_conditions field.

{
    "elemental_skill": {
        "show_cooldown": true,
        "disable_condition": {
            "type": "origins:sneaking"
        },
        "icon_conditions": [
            {
                "icon": "tutorial:skills/elemental_skill.png"
            }
        ]
    }
}

Note that if the mod cannot find the icon you supplied, a pink and black-checkered icon will appear instead! This makes it easier for you to know that your icon isn't working properly!

Declaring an Elemental Skill power

Now that our Elemental Skill power is finished, we need to declare it in our Origin. This is similar to how you declare powers inside an Origin, but this time, for only one power.

Let's create an origin with the file name test.json inside the <namespace>/origins folder. Since this is a tutorial, I will use tutorial as the namespace.

{
    "name": "Test",
    "description": "My amazing origin!",
    "impact": 1,
    "powers": [
        // ...
    ]
}

Since we want to declare our cool_power.json power as an Elemental Skill for this Origin, we should add an elemental_skill field to this Origin object, then add our cool_power.json power to it.

{
    "name": "Test",
    "description": "My amazing origin!",
    "icon": "minecraft:command_block",
    "impact": 1,
    "powers": [
        // ...
    ],
    "elemental_skill": "tutorial:cool_power"
}

And that's it! When you select the Test Origin, you should be able to see your new, shiny Elemental Skill icon on the lower left of the screen! It should be beside the Elemental Burst icon, if you have one.

Conditional Elemental Skill icons

Some Origins have "multi-power" abilities, which I consider to be powers that can do different things based on conditions. For example: you could have a normal Elemental Skill, and an "enhanced" Elemental Skill when a resource reaches a certain value or when you're sneaking.

Luckily, we can effortlessly do that here, using the icon_condition field. This is also the reason why icons could have conditions, for cases like these, allowing for more flexibility in rendering Elemental Skill icons for data pack creators!

Let's imagine a power named "Fire and Ice" that:

• Normally: deals damage to nearby entities.
• When the player is on fire: would deal Fire DMG to nearby entities and set them on fire instead.
• When the player is in a cold biome (temperature ≥ 0.5): would deal Freeze DMG to nearby entities and give them Slowness II for 10 seconds.

Let's create a power named fire_and_ice.json inside the <namespace>/powers folder. Again, <namespace> is the namespace of your datapack (the ID that specifies your datapack from others). Since this is a tutorial, I'll use tutorial, however you may use any namespace you want. The full path for this power for me would be data/tutorial/powers/fire_and_ice.json.

{
    "type": "origins:active_self",
    "name": "Fire and Ice",
    "description": "With the balanced forces of Fire and Ice, deals damage to entities around you. If you are on fire, the force of Fire burns brighter, dealing Fire DMG instead. If you are in a cold biome, the force of Ice shines colder, dealing Freeze DMG and applying Slowness II instead.",
    "key": "key.origins.secondary_active",
    "cooldown": 1200,

    "elemental_skill": {
        "show_cooldown": true,
        "should_render": true,
        "icon_conditions": [

        ]
    },

    "entity_action": {
        "type": "origins:area_of_effect",
        "radius": 8,
        "bientity_action": {
            "type": "origins:if_else_list",
            "actions": [
                {
                    "condition": {
                        "type": "origins:actor_condition",
                        "condition": {
                            "type": "origins:on_fire"
                        }
                    },
                    "action": {
                        "type": "origins:target_action",
                        "action": {
                            "type": "origins:damage",
                            "amount": 5,
                            "damage_type": "minecraft:on_fire"
                        }
                    }
                },
                {
                    "condition": {
                        "type": "origins:actor_condition",
                        "condition": {
                            "type": "origins:biome",
                            "condition": {
                                "type": "origins:temperature",
                                "comparison": "<=",
                                "compare_to": 0.5
                            }
                        }
                    },
                    "action": {
                        "type": "origins:target_action",
                        "action": {
                            "type": "origins:and",
                            "actions": [
                                {
                                    "type": "origins:damage",
                                    "amount": 5,
                                    "damage_type": "minecraft:freeze"
                                },
                                {
                                    "type": "origins:apply_effect",
                                    "effect": {
                                        "effect": "minecraft:slowness",
                                        "duration": 200,
                                        "amplifier": 1
                                    }
                                }
                            ]
                        }
                    }
                },  
                {
                    "action": {
                        "type": "origins:target_action",
                        "action": {
                            "type": "origins:damage",
                            "amount": 5,
                            "damage_type": "minecraft:generic"
                        }
                    }
                }
            ]
        }
    }
}

We would want a different icon per variation of the Elemental Skill: an icon for the Fire version, for the Ice version, and for the normal version. Since we already have our wanted conditions for these icons, all we need to do is add them and their respective icon to the icon_conditions field.

{
    // ...  

    "elemental_skill": {
        "show_cooldown": true,
        "should_render": true,
        "icon_conditions": [
            {
                "icon": "tutorial:skills/elemental_skill_fire.png",
                "condition": {
                    "type": "origins:on_fire"
                }
            },
            {
                "icon": "tutorial:skills/elemental_skill_ice.png",
                "condition": {
                    "type": "origins:biome",
                    "condition": {
                        "type": "origins:temperature",
                        "comparison": "<=",
                        "compare_to": 0.5
                    }
                }
            },
            {
                "icon": "tutorial:skills/elemental_skill.png"
            }
        ]
    }

    // ...
}

Notice how the "normal" icon is at the bottom. This is because of the way icons inside icon_conditions are rendered. The first icon to have a condition that is true, or no condition at all, will be the selected icon. If we place our normal icon above our ice and fire icon, our normal icon would always be the rendered icon, regardless of whether the player is in a cold biome or on fire; because the normal icon is always the first icon that passes the test, so it will always be the selected icon.

This feature allows you to create priority between rendering your icons, with "higher" icons having more priority than "lower" icons.

Seperated cooldowns and reversal

Some origins may have abilities that have a seperate cooldown than the one on the Active Self power. This may cause issues with rendering Elemental Skills, as it will appear usable when it is actually on cooldown.

Now, you could use a disable_condition and make the Elemental Skill appear disabled, but the cooldown is still shown.

Luckily, Origins: Genshin has a solution for this problem too: the cooldown field. The cooldown field allows you to set a power to act as it's cooldown, which could either be a Resource (Power Type) or a power type with a built-in cooldown.

Now, what would happen when your cooldown is handled differently? Built-in cooldowns in Origins go from 0 to max, where max is the cooldown value, but some people prefer to handle their cooldowns going from max to 0. That causes a new problem: the cooldown rendering in reverse. You'd see the cooldown number going up instead of down.

How do we solve it? Rewrite the cooldown? Well, you can, but that would be incredibly tedious. Instead, Origins: Genshin has a solution for this problem as well: the reverse field. Setting reverse to true allows for the renderer to know that the power's cooldown goes from max to 0 instead of 0 to max, so it will render your cooldown properly instead of reverse, given that your cooldown does indeed go from max to 0.

Displaying charges

In Genshin, an Elemental Skill can have charges, which is the number of times an Elemental Skill can be used in rapid succession without waiting for the cooldown. Additionally, the cooldown for each charge is seperate, and only one charge can be refilled after the cooldown period.

Some Origins have powers that use the concept of charges, where you gain one of something every cooldown, and you use something to keep using your power.

Sadly, Origins: Genshin only allows a charge count up to 3. This is to keep parity between the maximum charge count in Origins: Genshin with Genshin Impact itself, with Yae Miko having the highest charge count of 3.

A filled charge will be visualized with a blue diamond , while a used charge will be denoted with a gray diamond . Do note that if your charges is 1, then no charges are rendered.

Let's imagine a power named "Leap" that, allows you to leap forward. We would want this skill to have 2 charges, and each charge would have a cooldown of 200, or 10 seconds. Our cooldown would be in a sub-power.

{
    "type": "origins:multiple",
    "name": "Leap",
    "description": "Leaps forward. great for mobility!",

    "handler": {
        "type": "origins:active_self",
        "key": "key.origins.primary_active",
        "cooldown": 1,
        "condition": {
            "type": "origins:resource",
            "resource": "tutorial:leap_cooldown",
            "comparison": ">=",
            "compare_to": 200
        },

        "elemental_skill": {
            "show_cooldown": true,
            "should_render": true,
            "icon_conditions": [
                {
                    "icon": "tutorial:skills/elemental_skill.png"
                }
            ]
        },

        "entity_action": {
            "type": "origins:and",
            "actions": [
                {
                    "type": "origins:add_velocity",
                    "y": 1,
                    "space": "local",
                    "client": true,
                    "server": false
                },
                {
                    "type": "origins:add_velocity",
                    "z": 1.5,
                    "space": "local",
                    "client": true,
                    "server": false
                },
                {
                    "type": "origins:change_resource",
                    "resource": "tutorial:leap_cooldown",
                    "change": -200,
                    "operation": "add"
                }
            ]
        }
    },

    "cooldown": {
        "type": "origins:resource",
        "min": 0,
        "max": 400,
        "start_value": 400
    },

    "adder": {
        "type": "origins:action_over_time",
        "interval": 1,
        "condition": {
            "type": "origins:resource",
            "resource": "tutorial:leap_cooldown",
            "comparison": "<",
            "compare_to": 400
        },
        "entity_action": {
            "type": "origins:change_resource",
            "resource": "tutorial:leap_cooldown",
            "change": 1,
            "operation": "add"
        }
    }
}

To declare an amount of charges, we can use the charges field. Since we want to have 2 charges, then we should use 2.

{
    // ...

    "elemental_skill": {
        "show_cooldown": true,
        "should_render": true,
        "icon_conditions": [
            {
                "icon": "tutorial:skills/elemental_skill.png",
                "charges": 2,
                "charge_render": {
                    "type": "SPLIT"
                }
            }
        ]
    },

    // ...
}

When you load it up in game, it does show as 2 charges. However, when you use the skill, you may see that the charges are being added immediately! This is because it's using the power's cooldown value, which is 5. Let's make the Elemental Skill use our "cooldown" sub-power instead. Here, we don't need to set reverse to true, because our cooldown goes from 0 to max.

{
    // ...

    "elemental_skill": {
        "show_cooldown": true,
        "should_render": true,
        "icon_conditions": [
            {
                "icon": "tutorial:skills/elemental_skill.png",
                "cooldown": "tutorial:leap_cooldown",
                "charges": 2,
            }
        ]
    },

    // ...
}

Now, your "Leap" ability should have 2 charges, along with a proper cooldown!