Death and respawn

Modules PulseRespawn (depends on PulseCombat, PulseInventory and PulseAbility) and PulseRespawnUI (the death screen, depends on PulseHUD). When a player’s pawn dies, the player waits a few seconds, sees the death screen, picks a respawn point (or lets a rule pick one) and comes back. What the player carried falls into a death bag that only the player and its team can empty.

Overview

Type	What it is
UPulseRespawnComponent	On the player controller: follows the life state of the pawn’s combat component, the waiting time, the choice of the point (server request), the death bag
APulseRespawnPointActor	Pulse Respawn Point: a place in the level, with a team and tags
APulseDeathBag	The bag a dead player leaves: an inventory, its owner as player id, a lifetime
UPulseRespawnSubsystem	The respawn points of the world, on every machine
FPulseRespawnRule	How a point is picked when the player does not choose: Nearest, Random, Last Used (instanced structs)
UPulseDeathScreenWidget	Pulse Death Screen: “You died”, the countdown and one button per point
UPulseRespawnSettings	Project Settings > Pulse > Core > Respawn
UPulseRespawnUISettings	Project Settings > Pulse > Core > Respawn UI

Setup

1. The pawn needs a Pulse combat component (UPulseCombatComponent): its life state tells the respawn component when the player dies. Pawns without one call Handle Player Died on the respawn component themselves.
2. Turn on the automatic Respawn Component in Project Settings > Pulse > Core > Respawn (or with the setup step “Respawn” in the Pulse window). It goes on every player controller.
3. Place Pulse Respawn Point actors. Without points the player comes back at a player start of the game mode (Use Player Start Fallback).
4. For the death screen the Pulse HUD has to be on (bEnableHUD). The screen goes on the main HUD stack and shows the cursor through the Pulse player input manager.

The flow

The state of a player is one struct, FPulseRespawnState (phase, the stamps on the Pulse game clock, the death place, the last point, the number of deaths). It changes only through pure functions in Pulse::Respawn (PulseRespawnTypes.h), which the specs test without a world:

Function	What it does
MakeDead	Dead, the stamps of the delays (game clock), the death place, one more death; a dead state stays as it is
CheckChoice	Whether a respawn request is allowed: dead, the delay passed, the point exists, is usable by the team and selectable
ChoosePoint	The point a rule picks among the points of the player’s team
MakeRespawned	Alive, stamps cleared, the point as last point
FilterByTeam	The points a team can use (enabled, no team or the same team)
CanAccessBag	Whether a player may empty a death bag

1. Death (server): the combat component reports the death, the respawn component sets the state with MakeDead and drops the death bag. The state replicates to the owning client (push model, owner only).
2. Waiting: the death screen counts down on the game clock (Respawn Delay, 5 s). With Auto Respawn the player comes back by itself after Auto Respawn Delay, at the point of the rule.
3. Choice: a button on the death screen calls RequestRespawn(PointId). A client sends a server RPC with a request id of the Pulse request subsystem; the server checks it with CheckChoice and answers with an FPulseResult. A refusal shows its reason on the screen (and is broadcast on Pulse.Message.Request.Failed). The button Respawn lets the rule pick.
4. Respawn (server): in mode Revive the pawn is moved to the point and revived (UPulseCombatComponent::Revive with Respawn Health); in mode Restart the old pawn is destroyed and the game mode spawns a new one there (RestartPlayerAtTransform). The state becomes Alive, Pulse.Message.Respawn.Respawned is broadcast.

A pawn revived by something else (a cheat, a teammate) ends the waiting where it stands.

Respawn points

A Pulse Respawn Point holds one FPulseRespawnPoint:

Field	What it is
Point Id	Stable id; empty uses the actor name (the server writes it into the replicated point). Give saved points an id of their own.
Display Name	Name on the death screen
Team	Team that may use it (Pulse.Team.*); empty for every player
Tags	What kind of point it is (Pulse.Respawn.Point.* or tags of the game); rules can ask for them
Enabled	Off: nobody uses it
Selectable	Off: only the rule picks it, the death screen does not show it

SetPointEnabled and SetPointTeam change a point while playing (server). Games with points of their own (beds, camps) add them with UPulseRespawnSubsystem::SetPoint on every machine.

Rules

The rule of the settings (or of a respawn component) picks the point when the player does not choose one. Every rule only sees the points of the player’s team; Required Tags narrows them further (all points when none has the tags).

Rule	Picks
Nearest (default)	The point nearest to the death place; Min Distance skips points too close to it while farther ones exist
Random	A random point, the same for the same seed (the player id and the number of deaths)
Last Used	The point of the last respawn while it is usable, else its Fallback rule (Nearest when empty)

Your own rule: a USTRUCT derived from FPulseRespawnRule that overrides Choose. Rules keep no state; what they know about the player comes in FPulseRespawnContext.

Death bag

When a player dies, its inventory (UPulseInventoryComponent of the controller, pawn or player state) falls into an APulseDeathBag on the ground below the death place:

• All or nothing: the player’s contents become FPulseInventorySaveData and are imported into the bag (Pulse::Respawn::Bag::PlanDropIntoBag: layout, persisted traits, every stack with its traits and id); only when every stack imports, the player’s stacks are removed, both in one ApplyTogether. Otherwise the player keeps everything and the log says why.
• Rights: the owner is a player id (FPulseDeathBagState::OwnerPlayerId), not an actor, so it stays valid after a respawn. The owner and, with Team Can Access Bag, players of the owner’s team may empty it; others see “Not yours”. The bag’s inventory asks Pulse::Respawn::CanAccessBag in CanRequesterModify, so single items move with the inventory requests too.
• Taking: the interaction (“Take all”) moves everything that fits into the player’s inventory (Pulse::Respawn::Bag::PlanTakeAll, stack by stack with the instance traits; a stack that fits in part moves that part). The bag needs a replicated interaction (UPulseRepInteractAbility).
• Lifetime: the bag disappears after Death Bag Lifetime (game clock, 600 s; 0 keeps it) and, with Destroy Empty Bag, when it is empty. Pulse.Message.Respawn.BagDropped is broadcast when it is dropped.

The equipment stays with the player.

Messages

Channel	Payload	Context
Pulse.Message.Respawn.Respawned	FPulseRespawnedMessage (point id, place, chosen or by the rule)	player: the controller, target: the pawn, amount 1
Pulse.Message.Respawn.BagDropped	FPulseDeathBagMessage (bag, owner and rights, stacks)	player: the controller, target: the bag, amount: stacks

Both come from the server.

Blueprint and C++

Function	Where	What it does
Find Respawn Component	any	The respawn component of a controller, pawn or player state
Request Respawn	owning client or server	Asks for the respawn at a point (none: the rule)
Try Respawn	server	Respawns now, returns the result
Handle Player Died	server	Sets the player dead without a combat component
Get State, Is Dead, Get Seconds Until Respawn, Get Selectable Points	owning client and server	For your own death screen
On State Changed, On Respawned	events	Died or respawned; came back (server)

Your own death screen: set Death Screen Class in the Respawn UI settings to any activatable widget, or derive from Pulse Death Screen and bind Backdrop, TitleText, CountdownText, MessageText, PointList and RespawnButton. The default screen makes its buttons from the Modal Action Button Class of the HUD settings.

Settings

Setting	Default	Description
Timing	5 s, no automatic respawn (30 s)	Delays on the game clock
Rule	Nearest	How a point is picked when the player does not choose
bAllowChoice	true	Players choose a point on the death screen
Mode	Revive	Revive the pawn, or Restart with a new pawn
RespawnHealth	1	Health after the respawn
bUsePlayerStartFallback	true	A player start when there is no point
bDropDeathBag	true	The inventory falls into a death bag
DeathBagClass	APulseDeathBag	The bag actor
DeathBagLifetime	600	Game seconds until the bag disappears; 0 keeps it
bTeamCanAccessBag	true	The owner’s team may empty the bag
bDestroyEmptyBag	true	An empty bag goes away
RespawnComponent	off	Automatic respawn component on every player controller
bShowDeathScreen (Respawn UI)	true	The death screen on the Pulse HUD
DeathScreenClass (Respawn UI)	UPulseDeathScreenWidget	The death screen
DeathScreenStack (Respawn UI)	Pulse.HUD.Stack.Main	HUD stack of the screen
DeathScreenInputContext, DeathScreenInputPriority (Respawn UI)	menu, 450	Input while the screen is open

Example

Play the PulseCore example map with a listen server and a client, then PulseCoreGrant (it calls PulseRespawnGrant: a respawn component and a point at the pawn when the level has none). PulseCombatKill kills the player: the death screen counts down, the point button and Respawn bring the player back. The bag lies where the player died; PulseRespawnTeam Enemy on the other player shows that it is “not yours”, PulseRespawnTakeBag empties it for the owner or a teammate.

Cheats

See Console.