Actor Templates are a way of setting up an Actor with the same settings without having to copy and paste that same Actor throughout your project.
The buttons in the top-left corner of the window allow you to Manage your Actor Templates.
General
Display Name – is used to identify the Actor Template in the editor.
Scripting ID – is used to identify the Actor Template through scripting.
Parent Template – sets a parent template for this template to inherit settings from. Actor Variables will also be inherited, as will scripting. These must be edited from the parent template.
Icon – sets an optional icon that will be displayed whenever the Pick Actor Template window is shown.
Can be placed on a map – when ticked, Actors created from this template can be placed on a Map.
Place as parent’s actor template – when ticked, Actors created from this template will instead be created from their parent’s template.
Allow changes in placed actors – when ticked, Actors created from this template can be edited once placed. Please keep in mind that when this option is checked, any changes made to the Actor Template will NOT automatically carry over to Actors with modified settings.
Edit Base Actor – opens the Actor window where you can modify the appearance and behavioural settings of the Base Actor that all instances of this Actor Template will use when placed.
Edit Default Actor – opens the Actor window where you can modify the appearance and behavioural settings of the Default Actor that will be placed when this Actor Template is selected. This enables certain settings like Automatic Movement and Generic AI that are normally not present for the Base Actor.
Edit Blocked – opens a “Pick Actor Template” window that allows users to specify which Actor Templates will block the selected Actor Template when a collision occurs.
Base Actor vs Default Actor
Although the Base and Default Actor options seem the same, they function quite differently. The Base Actor contains various options that the Default Actor builds upon.
This is especially useful for Actor settings such as the scripting triggers. An example of this would be if you put a Loaded trigger inside the Base Actor, this scripting trigger will fire for every instance of the Actor and can not be changed when you place the actor on the map. If you put the Loaded trigger inside the Default Actor, the scripting trigger will be included with the actor when placed on the map, however it can be edited or deleted. If you decide to update the Default Actor later, the changes will NOT be applied to actors that have already been placed.
Basically, if every copy of the actor has a script that needs to be run on it, or other settings applied to it, place it inside the Base Actor. If each copy of the script or setting is intended to be changed when placed on the map, place it inside the Default Actor.