Combat Beginnings // DEVLOG #5

In this Devlog we begin implementing some early combat systems and features.
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Follow the progress on the game more closely on Twitter: / firedragon04
#gamedevelopment #devlog #gamedev #unrealengine #unrealengine5 #ue5 #blender #blender3d
🔖 Chapters:
00:00 - Introduction and Movement Gym
01:15 - Adding a Lock-on System
02:06 - Showcasing the Lock-on System
05:11 - Importing our Sword/Shield
06:45 - Showcasing our weapons
08:48 - Adding Attacks
10:03 - Showcasing Attacking
13:08 - Lock-On Target and AI Systems
15:50 - Showcase of it all working together
18:11 - Future Plans
20:58 - Outro

[@venizz5112]

Another Space64 devlog to make my day. Let's go!!

[@firedragon04]

Sorry that this is a bit of a shorter Devlog, I ended up getting sick and not quite finishing all the combat features I wanted to add, but I'll revisit combat in a future Devlog and polish it more. ▶ New Devlogs every Friday! I'm glad we finally have the sword and shields in-engine though, let me know what you all think - I can't wait to show you what I've been working on in Devlog 6 next week, a lot has changed!

[@firedragon04]

We’ll revisit combat in a later Devlog and finish up these systems from this Devlog and also get our own enemy creatures in the game in a future Devlog. I had some lofty goals for this Devlog but getting sick knocked me sideways a bit. Next week’s Devlog is a return to form though as I reveal to you just how big these planets are going to be and a new feature that has been staring at you since Devlog 1 but one which no one has guessed in the comments yet.

[@ninjago86Gaming]

@@firedragon04 Idea: Make a title screen!

[@frederickdalley7871]

Really enjoying the devlogs so far! I know all the polishing will happen much later down the line, but a couple things from an aesthetic standpoint: - Maybe try tilting the 2 shields (or just 1) so they're more (or are) horizontal, so the big one acts as dedicated chest protection and the other for the waist - a lil burst and jolt when shields are activated like a lightsaber powering on. - Right now the player looks like they're "trundling" or jogging as opposed to running - maybe having them reach forward or stoop more could give their movements more momentum. - Also w/ the run have u considered having each arm on the Same side swing in opposition to one another as well: so BigRight & smallLeft swing forward as BigLeft & smallRight swing back. Might give the movement a bit more balance? - Similar thing for the slashing animation: wind-up/anticipation, impact & follow-through, recovery - and balance by having the other parts of the body move in union or in opposition during the attack? Looking forward to the next devlog!☺️

[@firedragon04]

These current animations are all temporary but I love all your ideas for the polished animations later down the road once all the features are in. The characters max speed is a “jog” you’re right, there’s a reason for that… more on that next week 😉 These slashing animations (while being slow) are also only altering the main right arm, future attack animations will be full body and have the features you describe. I talk about all this in next week’s Devlog too, excited for everyone to see it.

[@dylansample5782]

As someone that is just now learning Unreal to get into game dev, I've really been enjoying this series. It's inspirational.

[@His-Games]

I'm really loving this series and the game - and the length imo is perfect. Great work so far!

[@GodOfWarConnoisseur]

Really cool. I love it. 20:43 is gorgeous

[@MajatekYT]

I finally figured out what I don't like about the auto jump. The animation has a slight acceleration-like speed up before reaching the apex of the jump, making it feel lurching and generally not satisfying. I know most (if not all) animations are placeholder, but it's something to keep in mind as automating the jump already takes away a fair amount of player agency and it's crucial to make it feel good. On other topics, it could be cool that the Metroid-esque item/equipment progression system gives you more and more weapons/items until all hands have something - ie: the shield is the first thing unlocked, followed by the plasma cutlass/sword, and then a laser pistol, and so on. Also, I love it when scifi games don't just use arrows/triangles/etc for the HUD reticules, but use esoteric symbols and glyphs that fill the same function (ie: showing where you're aiming), but otherwise can't be translated into English. Makes things more alien and gives the world more depth. Okay, that's enough from me! Thanks for posting these devlogs at all despite just recently getting over being unwell!

[@firedragon04]

Thanks. Really useful insights. Yeah the auto jump animation is using a bit of root motion currently which is causing that lurch you mention. But I have to completely rework the jumping system soon as it isn’t working well with new features I add in Devlog 6 and 7 so more on that soon.

[@YourFavouriteColor]

I've got a conceptual idea for you. I think the two arms using two shields is a really strong concept visually. I think that could be pushed further with them having slightly asynchronous movement, one shield kind of drags behind another as the shield animations play. that much is just cosmetic. My main idea involves your combat system. What if the character has that main sword which is the "damage doer," and he also has a sidearm in the second hand, which "trails" the sword but adds properties to the main attack? The animations would be slashes that use both arms, one blade, then slightly asynchronous, comes the second blade.(you can reference some general grievous attack animations for what I mean). So in this game, your "magic meter" and spells are controlled by this secondary weapon that alters, enhances, and effects properties of the main sword. Food for thought!

[@Fighter05]

Destroy Actor automatically has garbage collection. Collect Garbage scans the entire scene and removed any unreferenced objects and deletes them, So collect garbage is useful when you are say restarting a level and want to remove any projectiles or player built objects etc, where a large memory scan is an acceptable due to the large hitch it causes. Anytime you try to access an Actor that has called Destroy Actor will pull an error. This is because Unreal tries to find the optimal place execute the garbage collection for performance. Usually you need to wait like 1 processing tick maybe 2 or 3, so like 0.5 to 1.5 seconds for Unreal to completely remove the actor. What you need to do is on your targeting script you need to call IsValid. In Unreal, IsValid will check if the target is in the scene but for your case it also checks if the actor is pending a kill or to be removed from memory. So only allow the targeting to succeed if IsValid is True and if is False do not attempt to referenced the nullptr target because Unreal doesn't want you two since its going to remove it from memory as soon as it is possible. Nullptr or bad memory access errors, any red errors, will completely crash out your game once you build it into an executable. Its just the nature of C++ which is the basis of Unreal 5.

[@firedragon04]

This is a really great explanation and a huge help, thanks so much.

[@StiffAftermath]

Dood, dont worry about video length. Im sure even at an hour, noone here would even mind! Serious! Thank you for your great work! It has been a real joy to be on this journey with you 😊 [EDIT] BTW, I love the gouraud shaded polygons of the hero!

[@sactecnos2708]

I know it is attached to changes but I highly recommend you making the animations go a bit faster. The actual hit and visual feedback from the attacks and movements seem to display a bit after the character starts to actually perform them. It could help making the character feel more dinamic and responsive. Rather than that I dont have anything to say but congratualtions for all what you have done, it's awesome!

[@firedragon04]

Yeah I do tweak these a little by the end of this devlog even but I will continue to refine them. I want to give the character faster more "strike" like attack animations when they're stood still and then these wider swipes/swings of the sword for when they're moving. I think that balance will help keep the balance. Also right now these attack animations are only driving the animations to play on that upper right arm - in the future they'll be more of the character animated when attacking - I'm excited to make that happen and show it to everyone.

[@funagengames1177]

I love how frequently you’re putting out these videos! I know it’s hard work. It’s really fun to see things coming together piece by piece.

[@hugogozdzikowski780]

Love your videos! Very inspiring.

[@jzeltman]

Another great devlog. Don't apologize for being sick. Hope you're feeling better :)

[@knowariddle9462]

I think a great example of your intended visual style would be the game Amid Evil

[@AntonCorazza]

This really does look cool

[@markaster7677]

I love these devlogs so much, they re really fun!!!

[@LastNight0]

Also very cool game man, digging the style and aesthetic. Will be following your progress in the future

[@lennysmileyface]

With your jump pads there is a way to calculate the trajectory of a particular launch angle and speed. So you could make an accurate parabolic path. Plus your red arrow would line up. It's called predict projectile path by trace channel.

[@firedragon04]

Oh interesting 🤔 I’ll have to look into that and check documentation on it. Right now I’m very much just treating these as WIP functions and features but this seems like a functional improvement to add polish. Thanks 😊

[@AviusL]

I personally love long devlogs. Short videos are annoying with all the ads ^^ Been loving the videos. :)

[@firedragon04]

I’ll be testing different lengths and ofcourse some weeks will be shorter depending on how much progress I’ve made versus other weeks where I’ve made lots of progress and have a lot to show. This week’s Devlog, on Friday, is a much longer one though!

[@FioreFire]

As your player character's moveset gets more and more complex, I'd strongly recommend looking into Finite State Machines if you haven't already (I think behavior trees can be used for that too? I'm not familiar with Unreal's blueprint systems). Instantly solves the kinds of issues you've had before with buggy interactions between different actions that shouldn't be able to happen at the same time

[@firedragon04]

Oh really? That would be amazing, I’ll have a look into them. My main character’s event graph is turning into a crazy mess at the moment too so I was going to tidy it more but I think I’ll look into Finite State Machines first. Thanks!

[@longdongsilver3267]

Silly idea, but maybe you could make big arm cannon be formed from 4 different components, 1 on each arm. The 4 individual components would have their own unique feature (like one could be that laser zip thing you mentioned), and when you combine all 4 (like have the character put his 4 arms together in front of him), you get the big cannon.

[@FireallyXTheories]

Being able to attack while moving makes me wonder if I'll just never lock onto enemies and just hit and run like a maniac. XD Always happy to hear about multi-use items. Much more fun to play around with!

[@smrod1224]

Feed the algorithm everyone! Like comment subscribe on this! I want this era of games to make a modern comeback! So tired of pixel based nostalgia games

[@llh1043]

Very nice man

[@hamslice2344]

When you kill the enemies they do get destroyed from the world and become no longer referenceable. That's actually what is causing the error in your AlienMC_Character blueprint. In that blueprint, passing the enemy actor reference you are using into an "is valid" node before continuing execution with it would fix that for you. Great videos, love the progress! Arm cannon looks sick.

[@firedragon04]

Amazing thanks, when I revisit combat and actually have enemies fall over/die/disappear out of the world I'll remember to check if they're valid.

[@superdenzie1578]

Really inspiring thanks!

[@ShaneStapler]

i really like the long ones xd

[@firedragon04]

Next week… it’s a long one!

[@jasronus2382]

This is so cool! Always loved the way the zelda games did combat so happy to see how you took inspiration from that. I have one thought about the target icon though which I would like to share... It seems a big big and might take up a bit too much attention away from the actual enemy and its design (the future design that is lol) and I'm wondering if this is a thing you're thinking about or not. Maybe it won't be an issue, maybe it's not important, but I feel there might be some things that could be done. There are two ways that I can see to maybe "solve" this: One is making the icon smaller or the arrows thinner. Maybe as the enemy is further away, the icon gets smaller too, or maybe making the arrows further away from each other leaving more open space in the middle. Another idea is changing the design completely and doing something inspired by Breath of the Wild specifically. Instead of a rotating arrow circle, there could be just one arrow above the head. Anyway, just some thoughts I had but the game is obviously still in SUPER early dev so totally understand if this isn't a priority. I think you've already done a lot in such a short amount of time and it is super inspiring to watch you work! Keep up the good work and see ya in devlog #6!

[@firedragon04]

Thanks so much! I've been considering adding an arrow above target's heads when you 'look' at them, then showing the central target reticle when you lock onto then. But just an arrow on lock on that maybe changes colour between 'look at' and 'lock-on' isn't a bad idea at all - thanks for that :) I'm super excited for everyone to see Devlog 6 next Friday, it's by far my favourite Devlog so far, I add a feature I've been dreaming about since before Devlog 1 and I also start to block out the full size of Planet 1 which I think might scare some people when they see the size of it... but exploration and traversal are at the heart of this game and it's time for it to start becoming more unique and different from some of the games I'm inspired by... it's time for its own identity to be written!

[@jasronus2382]

@@firedragon04 Wow that sounds amazing! Can't wait to see it! I really appreciate you reading about my thoughts, and of course, the direction on how to do the targeting system comes down to aesthetic and design in the end. Really hyped to see Planet 1 in it's full glory! In my opinion, the bigger the map the better ;)

[@firedragon04]

@@jasronus2382 The real surprise is how you're going to get around the worlds... how you're going to explore them and how I'm going to add 'fun' to exploration.

[@jasronus2382]

@@firedragon04 YES!! Can’t wait!!

[@javierdurini]

Great video man, I'm surprised at how fast this is progressing also please keep the sin and punishment OST on the background for the devlogs

[@firedragon04]

I'll switch up the music tracks I use every Devlog, add new ones, bring different ones back, change the track from different OSTs - stuff like that. But I love Sin and Punishment's OST too so I'll always use it from time to time.

[@javierdurini]

@@firedragon04 that's cool I mean most of the OSTs from that era were Great, so I do trust your taste

[@zachnewby4739]

As an Easter egg, you should add a red cylinder robot enemy to the final game.

[@firedragon04]

Just a dead red cylinder hiding in a cave somewhere, broken, discarded, but not forgotten.

[@zachnewby4739]

@@firedragon04 Nice to know you liked the idea.

[@jedyzichterman358]

This might be an odd fit, but I think the particular designs of the zones in the Monster Hunter games might serve as an interesting reference point for the mapping; particularly the maps in MH4 have a lot of verticality to them and interesting ways to showcase your traversal system (as it is decently close to how the MH series does it).

[@mylogic156]

why u tryna sound smart bruh

[@jedyzichterman358]

​@@mylogic156 Given that this is just how I talk normally I will take your comment as a compliment lol

[@mylogic156]

@@jedyzichterman358 My aim was not to bestow accolades upon your rather meager linguistic prowess, but rather to utilize more grandiose lexicon for the sake of intellectual stimulation and entertainment. nerd

[@jedyzichterman358]

@@mylogic156 You must be fun at parties.

[@LastNight0]

Validate the lock on

[@xHosTyL69]

Incredible ! I would love to have your knowledge in blueprint.

[@caveirainvocada9438]

How did you make your character move in circles around the target? I've been trying this for weeks and can't figure it out.

[@novahharold799]

Name idea traveler of the Galaxy 64 and the 64 is edible if you want

[@Tenchinu]

I get this is very early in development, but would love to see you utilize the fact the alien has 4 arms. Initially, I thought the reason he needed 2 arms to carry his shield was that it was so large and heavy. Could be cool seeing the alien utilize all 4 arms independently for things, rather than the two lower ones copying whatever the higher ones do.

[@firedragon04]

I talk about this a little bit at 18:14 but the goal is to very much have the four arms be used in unique and meaningful ways - I want the animations to reflect that and the tools the character gets to be wielded in such a way that only a four-armed character could. At the moment though, I'm really just fleshing out features and implementing mechanics so a lot of that cooler uses of the arms will come much further down the road.

[@joostverbaarschot1823]

Love what your doing, and I know your working N64 feel, but the climbing feels to slow compared to the rest of the movemenr. Love what your doing and your consistency

[@firedragon04]

Thanks, yeah I'll be tweaking the ledge grab cling and free climbing speeds considerably throughout development no doubt - right now it is far too slow though and I want the character to use all four of its arms to clamber up/move around on walls much faster so that is definitely something I'll be tweaking.

[@ajcar110ify]

So I was just thinking. If I had 4 arms and I was going to do sword/ shield fights. I might use shields on the upper arms and swords on the lower ones to better protect myself. Not a criticism just thinking out loud. So excited every new one of these! I think to design concept of modern processes for classic restrictions will be awesome!

[@Oni64]

will the other 2 arms have functions in real time?

[@firedragon04]

Yeah that’s the plan, from equipment to animations. I will talk about some ideas for arms in Devlog 6 this Friday, but I think there’s tons of cool ideas I could implement with them.

[@Oni64]

@@firedragon04 maybe have guns on each arms lol or some side weapons like nades or projectiles.

[@BlazeHeartPanther]

So, does your character have a name yet? or does he have a species name or something like that?

[@firedragon04]

I have a fairly large story written with temporary names for pretty much everything so no names are set in stone at this point.

[@osmanbarralaga3594]

try a little bit of antialiasing in the pixels, i think that and a ctr filter coulf make it look a bit better. Great job I hope see more of the devlog and the game it self.

[@LastNight0]

Your character is destroyed, nothing can happen after destroying it it’s destroyed. If you need something to happen after the character is dead, hide it and disable the ai then run your code then destroy it

[@firedragon04]

Yeah I think my sick brain wasn’t quite able to figure that out when I making this Devlog but when I have actual enemies in, they’ll have a death animation, vanish and then be gone - and I’ll add an isValid check to my lock-on system so that it doesn’t look for the dead enemies.

[@poop_man_69]

When will we see #6?

[@firedragon04]

Every Friday