The Art of Combat - Melee Combat System for the Unreal Engine

The Art of Combat is the complete combat system for the Unreal Engine.

Hi everyone!

I am very pleased to announce that my combat system for my upcoming game, Adrayvia, has been accepted by Epic Games and is slated for release come March, 2016.

The Art of Combat is designed entirely in blueprints to be a plug and play solution for combat designers. Its features include attack systems with multiple chaining sequence types that accept several input types and special attacks, tracing components, parry and counter systems, damage dealing and receiving systems, feint system, two targeting systems - Lock on and APR, RPG elements, simple material instancing system, hit system, player control and AI control systems, perception systems, projectile systems, animation blueprints (default is the Epic Skeleton Rig), montage setups, 3D widgets, parent-child hierarchies, simple emitter system for notifies, and a game instance.

This is a quick summary of the the functions of the system:

  • Player Possession

  • AI Possession

  • Attack Systems

  • Defense Systems

  • Targeting Systems (Aggro-Perception-Range and Lock-On)

  • Iai system that handles Manual and Automatic Equip and Holster Systems

  • Damage Systems

  • Slomo Systems using Time Dilation

  • Camera shakes

  • Camera Zoom In and Out

  • RPG Elements - Health, Energy

  • Automatic Ready to Fight System based on Perceived Threats

  • Projectile Systems

  • HUD showing Health and Energy levels for the Player Character

  • 3D Health Bar for the Player Opponent

  • Level Blueprint Actor for instant Initialization of AI Systems

Update For June 2017
New Blueprints and Improvements in the coming update:

  • New Complete Archery System (Ranger Class with the ability to use melee attacks as well as ranged attacks)
  • New Steam API Integration For Singleplayer/Multiplayer
  • New AI Personality Improvements (The AI is now even more intelligent, using a combination of certain variables and probability for Action Design like AI Aggression Level (Aggressive, Reactive, Passive), Preferred Hate Rank Level of Target (High, Mid, Low), Current Energy Checking Priority (Defines the probability of the AI to “want” to check its energy levels to make sure it has sufficient energy), Energy Refill Threshold (High, Mid, Low)
  • New Character Improvements (Gender Definition - This can have several applications from customizing characters’ looks to their sound effects (it is already tied to the SFX sounds for damage receipt), New Graphs - AI Graph, Ranger Graph, Defense Graph (Parries, Parry Counters, Responsive Evade System, Feints, Feint Counters, Blocks and Guard Breaks), Attack Graphs (Quick, light, heavy attacks, Throw Projectiles), Movement Graph, Targeting Graph, Equipment Graph, Damage Graph, Hits Graph, RPG Graph, Attack Techniques Graph, Special Techniques Graph, SFX Graph
  • New Projectile Classes (One Parent and children for different kinds of projectile movements - linear, angular, etc)
  • New Projectile Deflection System (Built into the character and projectile blueprints, similar to Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm’s Kunai/Shuriken deflection system)
  • New Modular RPG Component (Contains code for very detailed and visually visible (in the UI) Regeneration and Draining of Stats, Level Ascension (by Experience Points), Class/Sin Assignment, Attributes that affect Stats like Vitality, Insight, Acuity, Strength, Precision etc, Stats that are affected by Atrributes like Health, Health Regen Rate, Energy, Physical Damage, Magic Damage, Melee/Ranged Accuracy etc, Stat Point Assignment (Auto/Manual Distribution of Stat Points For the player and AI), Modular Animation Montage Assignment, etc
  • New Game Mode Templates For Various Battle Scenarios (Survival, Versus)
  • New Multiplayer Multiplayer Lobby Template and Mode Templates For Online, LAN and Local Multiplayer gaming
  • New Animation Blueprint with several new notifies, new animation graph segments, more robust state machine for each class, new SFX Graph
  • New Announcer Blueprint and Announcer Sound Class
  • New Pickup Systems
  • New Special Technique Blueprints
  • New and Improved AI and Player Controller Blueprints
  • 6 New Example Maps for the various game modes
  • Several New UI Widgets (Front End Menus and several Sub-Menus, In-game HUDs, Game Mode-Specific HUDs , Notification Interfaces, RPG Character Management (Stats, Equipment, AI, Overview))
  • New Render to 3D Blueprints
  • Revamped Character Blueprint (Now instead of having two character blueprints for the player and AI, all the code is handled in one character blueprint for player and AI control)
  • Improved Game Instance Blueprint
  • Improved Multiplayer Support (All the code has been optimized for better multiplayer networking bandwidth usage, and best practices for RPC are now in place)
  • Ready For Integration with other Marketplace Assets like the Footsteps Sounds Blueprints, Kubold Animations, Options Menu Kit…
  • And yes, unbelievably, still much more…

Get it now:[COLOR=#FFFF00]http://unrealengine.com/marketplace/the-art-of-combat[/COLOR]

Thank you!

Update!

Here are examples of The Art of Combat’s use in games (Disclaimer: These are Adrayvia showcase videos, my personal game project, not showcases of The Art of Combat):

What price point are you looking at?

About $149.99, sir.

nice system , most of the animations look like kubold’s sword animset pro

Looks awesome man!

Thanks a lot! It is important to note that the first and second videos are only meant as showcases of a little of what you can do with the system - it is not included in The Art of Combat, as it is a video of the gameplay of Project Adrayvia.

Is there or are you going to program an indicator on opponents that indicates when when theyre going to attack so the player can counter them? Like on games such as shadows of mordor or green lantern or assassins creed? Basically like Fight System Similar to AC Complete on gumroad for unity? What you have here looks beautiful! When im asking about might even be in this project already; it was just hard to tell in the vidoes, because it wasn’t obvious; Is there anyway I can buy it before March and get the updates as they come? I would like to start learning it as soon as possible and what your doing is exactly what I need; and it will allow me to make the game I’ve always wanted too. I’m fairly “learned” with everything but my stregths fall into animation, and character design and creation. I’m so stoked I found this, I will pay the 149.99 price tag. You will be making my dream come true with this. I will check back at this forum, or you can reach me at I would be so happy to be playing around with it and learning it as soon as possible as well as make my payment. I have complete faith in what Iv’e seen. -

I would actually like to see more of the combo vids, are you putting up any more showing it off?

“Is there or are you going to program an indicator on opponents that indicates when when theyre going to attack so the player can counter them? Like on games such as shadows of mordor or green lantern or assassins creed? Basically like Fight System Similar to AC Complete on gumroad for unity? What you have here looks beautiful! When im asking about might even be in this project already; it was just hard to tell in the vidoes, because it wasn’t obvious”

I already have this implemented in Project Adrayvia, as what I call the Stop Motion Feature, although I haven’t added an on-screen indicator yet. When it’s complete and thoroughly tested, I’ll add it to The Art of Combat as well as an update.

“Is there anyway I can buy it before March and get the updates as they come?”

I do have it on Sellfy, but since they use Paypal for payouts and Paypal does not allow receipt of payments in Nigeria, I won’t be able to receive the payments. So for now it’s still exclusive to the Marketplace.

I am really psyched that you are interested in my work, and I’ll do my best not to let the Unreal Community down.

Thanks!!

Yeah, I’ll be posting another showcase video in a few days at the most for Project Adrayvia, and then some more showcase and tutorial videos for The Art of Combat.

Thank you Maxx_Rexx ! i suppose I will have to wait than. That’s incredible you will add the indicator! -when you can! You don’t know how much I will appreciate it. I’ve already put the money aside. Talked to my wife about it. Interested in Project Adrayvia as well. I’ll be following that. All I can say is thank you thank you thank you. Sooooo stoked.

No, thank you, thank you very much, Doombody. I wasn’t really expecting this kind of response or interest in my work, and so right now I am really pumped. Really appreciate it. :smiley:

I eagerly await this more than Christmas morning when 10 years old. haha

Hey got a few questions about this kit.

  1. Are the Blue Prints commented thoroughly?
  2. Are you using custom animations? If so will they be included with this kit?
  3. Is there any form of support for Ranged Weapons? Such as Long Bow, Crossbow, Composite Bow, etc.
  4. Is there any support for multiplayer?
  5. Any plans to support mobile devices? Android or iOS for example.

Love what I see so far!

Keep up the awesome work,

HeadClot

You might have to define thoroughly, but yes, I commented all the blueprints into sections. I’ll also be creating tutorials and my mail (ibmaxx@hotmail.com) and Skype ID (IBMAXX1) are available if anyone wants to contact me.

For The Art of Combat, I included the custom animations I used in the videos for The Art of Combat (https://youtu.be/WwrvxH7iwtI). The Art of Combat is designed for you to use your own animations, but the included animations work right out of the box and are rigged to the Epic Skeleton.

There is support for Long-Range combat (throwing weapons, for example). Bows are not implemented YET in the system, but I intend to add the feature as an update. That said, implementing Bow configurations is a simple matter of using the right animations, tweaking the included Zoom functions a bit (Edit the Zoom in timeline to stop it from zooming out to the rest position after a certain amount of time when the bow is drawn), using the right notifies and calling them appropriately. It’s really simple, but I didn’t have bow animations yet when I designed The Art of Combat, so it’ll be an update.

In terms of multiplayer, I haven’t tested out the system in PvP mode, because I focused extensively on the AI, (and I don’t have much experience writing net code), but it was designed with multiplayer design in mind, so it should work. Some adjustments may need to be made to the blueprints though.

While it hasn’t been tested on mobile devices, again, I designed it with cross-platform deployment in mind, because I plan to support mobile devices, so it should work. Simply add/change the controls to controls for mobile to quickly test it out. I might test it out before release if I can, and if I do, I’ll let you know here.

Thanks a lot.

OH NO. You are kidding!
I was interested. This is not a Indy price!!!

This is definatly indie price. It is an entire foundation for a melee combat game and appears well crafted.

Is there full multiplayer support for this?

If so i will be buying for sure.

Multiplayer support is untested at this time, but is a definite goal. I’m working on it as we speak, and I’ll be including it as a future update once I get it up and running, and thoroughly tested.

Thanks!

I am as Indie as they come. Something like this would take me a year to develop with great difficulty and $149.99 gives me the framework to all that time and headache saved. I in no way know the developer; I’m looking forward to this with extreme anticipation. Iv’e seen another system coming out like it in a week. combo system or something. It is going to be 9.99 from what I hear. This however is my choice, because 149.99 saves me so much time and money and headache and puts what I can do as an artist with not a whole lot coding experience into a new realm of possibility. I’m going to be able to develop the game Iv’e always wanted to. I don’t have 149.99 lying around; but you can be sure I’m going to make sure I have it set aside. A person could basically make an AAA game with this! That is my view on the price difference and what you get for your money difference. Well worth the money. Think of the possibilities.

Anyone that uses this system will need to set up some things themselves too, but I already have examples of everything needed to be set up, so just hooking them up and if desired, expanding the code is all that is left. For example, I included custom anims and notifies, which are called from the Anim Blueprint to the Char Blueprint/AI Blueprint and vice versa. This is an example of where one will need to do some hooking up, because there is no way for me to know which anims you intend to use. You’ll simply have to import your anims correctly, set up the notifies as per my examples, set up the event calls as per my examples, and just replace the montages to be played in the Char/AI Blueprints as I already set them. Another example of work to be done might be the Long-range combat. Right now I included the functionality, but you might have to hook up your own anims and meshes to visualize the effect(s).