Die to Survive - Railshooter

Here is a short video of a more improved crosshair with animations. I think i will go this way as you get feedback from the crosshair for every shoot. I think this will add a little detail that help, even if you maybe not really notice while playing it is there.

And thank you again @Roy_Wierer.Seda145 for pointing out this color blindness. I will make some changes and have mostly yellow for all cursors and crosshairs with red and black outlines (If i am right and this build in overlay from UE shows correct how such people see colors, yellow should always work. The red colors are more like black shadows then). This also works with the colors for all i hade in mind from the begin with.
Just look at the images i created for the game. I love to use this colors :slight_smile:

Edit:
I also tested to do this while overlapping an enemy. I dont think i will use such as it needs a lot of tracing to work correct. UE5 already needs more power and this will only hurt performance without adding to much to the game.
Looks cool and mabye i reconsider this but at the moment i search more for performant ways.

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Here is another test for color blindness and how to check this with a color palette.

Also testing the cursors and how they look animated and response while shooting.

I used the source from one of the links from @Roy_Wierer.Seda145 to rebuild the color palette and used this in UE5 for this test.

I am not sure how save this is to use because i dont have color blindness, but if the palettes are ok then this should work. The color palette is easy to use to test something like a cursor for example. And you can double check this with the build in color blindness modes from UE while activate the different modes and check the colors in the palette they are refering to.

Maybe it would be a good idea to create this and make this avaiable for everybody who is interested in checking this out. But i will look at more sources to check if the colors i use are right first.

Edit:
I added a camera shake to shooting and taking damage for more immersion.
I have writen the function already with UE 4.24 before moving to UE5. Just did not longer work with UE4.26 and UE5.0.
Today i wanted badly to use this again because it feelt so good. And now with UE 5.1 it just works again :slight_smile:
Not a perfect balanced shake because i was just testing if i can make it work again, but i think this in addition with crosshair response works pretty well.

I was planing to use this long ago for the upgrade system to use this as a recoil function if you shoot and you could make the recoil lower by upgrading the weapons.

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That palette color checker is pretty cool :slight_smile: . I think it’s more of a tool to a developer than a player cause most people will know they are color blind and will only choose one of the options XD. Unless they pick their own colors? kidding must draw the line somewhere :wink: . I can’t confirm , I don’t have color blindness.

Personally I don’t like the camera “shake” it’s a bit like someone is pulling the hair of the character with every shot. Maybe it feels like that because that’s the only moment the camera moves? I don’t know. It goes from totally frozen to elastic band. What would it look like if the shake goes back and forth like a quick very subtle zoom in / out?

Edit* I like the shake effect as it is a lot more when the character is hit at 0:55, there it also has some functionality making it more difficult to hit things up close.

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Sure it is only for devs with this what i wanted to say. I was more talking about to build some sort of component actor for this and make it available for all who want to try this without spending time to build there own :slight_smile:
The palette is more so you can check in engine how the color could look like as a reference without starting the build in UE option for this.

I was testing after finishing the recoil mostly how it would feel while playing the game.
I guess you are right with your poinion (i share this after testing). What looks nice at the first tests feels like can be anoying very fast inGame. But it can always been activate later if i find a usefull way. Or maybe as an option for people who like this.
Maybe a very small movement just a tiny little could work also, need to test this.

I think the shake ontakedamage will stay, this one i really like. It could be also be as an upgrade option where when taking damage would not have so much of an impact.

Maybe this would work with bigger enemies, but this way it just dont feels very good to myself while playing. Feels more like this would only anoy players :slight_smile:

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Either small or very fast I think would improve it in all cases. I had similar experiences with css animations in web development where a 0.2 second animation felt too slow / sluggish or even annoying. Firing a gun happens really fast. If you don’t want to simulate some kind of body movement but focus on making the shooting extra satisfying then I think the animation should be 2x or 3x or even faster. Right now the gun sound, the cursor animation and the camera animation all play at different speeds, I’d align at least the cursor and the camera animation . The cursor animation speed looks fine but it could even be faster. Gets that fast paced feeling in

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After reading this i know what feelt wrong. I just could not find out what it is.
It is the sync of all things the bothers me, i just could not see it.
Thank you @Roy_Wierer.Seda145 , this helped alot again :slight_smile:

Need to test this later again. At the moment i wanted to know if it works, and it does. So all functions are in place and ready to use. This is the most important to me. The rest is fine tuning.

At the moment i am about to finish the player profile layout. This is why i test all, i need see if all works because the profile endet up beeing a little complicated.

Here is a small part of it, the weapon part. Not final but it is as always good have something to look at.
It does not hurt puting some in there it is not used yet (easier than adding this later if needet).

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Beside finishing the profile i also need the UI. In this case a base layout for upgrading weapons.
This is a test where i also take color blindness into account while testing (UI is used with build in UE options at runtime).
Looks a little cheap to me and i dont think it will stay this way, because it is made as vector graphic, but this way it is much easier to change the color for this kind of tests.

Edit:
I was thinking and testing what else i could affor as an upgrade option.
Because i think it is more fun to have different impact strenght with different weapons it is already in the game. This can create some funny moments if the impact is more powerfull.

So i will add also “impact Force” as another option. I think about making this more expensive as the normal upgrades, because it is just for fun and also give an option to not use or reset this.
Need to think more about this. But i loved this in the begining as i played with impact force.

This way i think is more like it could be in the end.

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The player profile with an crazy ammount of statistic to gather is almost done.
It is much more data then i will use in the end for now. But if needet i can display almost everything what happen while playing a level now.

Here you can see a test about an arcade style collectables system (fully based on niagara). And the function for calculating impact zones for a dismember point system. Also calculating headshot / hit and miss statistics for the player profile.

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This is a difficult one simply because it might alter the game goal itself. What I mean by that is if the goal is “survive as long as possible” a stat system as the above will definitely help you get there by upgrading. If the game goal is “Get the highest score” the game might feel pointless until you own all the upgrades, because the highest score can not be achieved at any point before you get them. See what I mean?

If it’s more of a fun factor or a way to keep players playing then you might want to take a look at how the following games implemented weapons and upgrades:

  1. Ratchet and clank (ridiculous weapons, much fun).
  2. Resistance FOM 1 (creators of the above weapons, created more serious versions here.).
  3. Path of exile (weapon gems mix, add combine into crazy effects).
  4. Half life 1, weapons unlock over time and get more crazy.
  5. Dusk or Amid Evil (weapons can be found or missed).
  6. Timesplitters (Weapons differ per level based on time and location).
  7. Dark Souls (why? Because it tries to implement a bunch of weapons in a way that “none is the best” just different weapons fit different situations based on their base stats such as damage and speed but also elemental damage vs resisting enemies).

Also, I think that if you want to let players keep stats such as the above I think it would be more interesting to let them keep items such as ammo , cash or grenades or healing items so that they must make it as far as possible with what they get.

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Thank you @Roy_Wierer.Seda145 for pointing this out. And you are absolutly right, surviving and highscores in one gamemode would get in there ways.
I was thinking about this at the start also. This is why i endet up this would only work with different game modes.

This is planed for the game modes.

  • Story Mode
    Here it is more about playing the game to the end. Collect money for weapon upgrades and more or less hidden items. So in the end just meant for replayibillity. I liked always i games if you have some sort of goal beside points.

  • Headshot Mania
    This is the one i like the most because feels right as you see in almost every movie, Here for example the damage make less sence . Maybe at something with armor like a helmet.
    I already work on a new system for the headshot. I noticed even if the head does not fully explode you cant even see the brain, Some things look good on paper and as test with static models but just dont work very well in game. This way it would also be possible have more damage states at a head before fully dismembered.

  • Chasing Points
    This one is meant to be for competition. The idea is to give everybody the same chance. This means it needs to be the same for everybody. Like for everybody the same weapons and the same visible viewport. I also want to add online scoreboards, so it is is really important everbody have the same chance.

I think in this mode very strong weapons would not make much sence. This is because how i set up the point system.
You will build up combo multiplier with hits and loss this if missing a valid target and hit something like a wall. So killing a enemy slower and dismember parts of the body will result in a much better score (i also think about to reset the multiplier if you take damage).

Here you can see a part of how i handle the point system at the moment:

I like this idea. I was already thinking about some sort of rouge-lite mode for the game. I guess your idea is the direction this would lead to.

Edit:
After testing again a lot now i also noticed some other things that seems like i need to reconsider. Beside the weapon system really wants to bite me :slight_smile:

For example the statistics. I can show in there how often you hit or miss a valid target with just the numbers. But after looking at this i dont know if someone really want to see numbers like

  • Shoots fired 10 000
  • Hitted 6 000
  • Missed 4 000
    Maybe it is better to to this as percent like only show :
  • Shoots fired 10 000
  • 60 % hitted
    Not sure, but maybe it would feel better if you read this percentage. This sounds more positive.

Really a lot of things still to think about.
Maybe i should have done this just as an arcade game with only one weapon and highscores :rofl:

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I think this is the most important. How it makes someone feel. It’s good to show detailed scores in a game like this though. It’s hard to know what someone “wants” if you don’t have any statistics of this from other games. Take a look at the online shooters which update regularly like Overwatch and see what they want to show the player. It’s common that anything that makes a player feel bad would be hidden or worded in a differend way. Instead of saying “missed X shots” you would better post that percentage as “accuracy rate”. In games like this one it is common to have an accuracy rating per weapon so that players can make a tactical decision what weapon to use on what enemies etc.

I love your game modes btw, the headshot mode is also really fitting.
It’s not clear what you mean by this:

You are using various meshes for the dismemberment process but it doesn’t need to be a complex process to register a hit and a damage event. In its most simple state, you can do a line trace against a characters head by shooting and retrieve the hit bone name. The bone used on the character skeleton can be associated with armor, a dismembered % state and with a damage multiplier. Very useful, because when you attach one armor mesh to another on a character it is usually also attached to a bone.

pseudocode:

struct CharacterHitDefense {

number DamageMultiplier

name DefensiveMultiplier

Percentage Dismembered

}
class YourCharacter {

Map<Name, CharacterHitDefense> DefensePerCharacterBone

}

from DefensePerCharacterBone you can then read its multpliers and dismemberment state by its bone name.

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Yes i totally agree, you never tell what someone does wrong if possible. Using a positive wording to explain what happend and how to do better is always the better way.
I will have a look again into what the big companys display as stats. I collect now almost all data, just not sure at the moment what will be enough and at wich point this turns just into an overload of informations.

What i meant with this is more for display reasons. You can see it in the pictures below.
The upper ones are the states i meant. While playing the second state is almost never to see. This just dont work well if it is not a very bright environment.
The lower pictures are from HotD2. It is clear to see always.
This what i meant with i will change the states. I will just redo a few models to test this and if it works better i will change all the models (It is all in one model with 1 UV map, this just worked better in terms of performance but the quality is a little lower).

And thank you for the code example, appreciate this.
I already use linetrace to get the bone names and use TMaps to sort and call them.
I do something similar as you mention for the armor. I have a function in place that simply have also health for every part that can be dismembert.

This way i can independent from any attachment control at wich point this could be dismembert (was with impact force from weapons in mind build).
It is already running but the health value is set to 1. So it does basicly nothing beside a simple bool calculation at the moment.

Part of the Code i use to select the hitpoint

This is a part of the code how i handle impact at certain bone names.
I the functions that are called are some RND calculations also.

Edit:
I just tested something else, something what boders me the whole time and now seems like i found out what it is. Here is a set of models i used for testing how good you can see a difference between them.


If i look at this myself i can clearly see in this picture they are looking different.
But InGame they almost look the same. Only if i do some really heavy changes like dont show the top you can see the difference (also at very bright scenes and if they are very close).

So i guess i will need to change this also. I think doing something like cuting parts from the pants and/or the top will help (lucky that i already have a function for this implemented).
Seems like i need a heavy color difference to make this looking more varied.

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I toke the HotD2 pictures as reference and build a first model of how the head could look like. And as i build it i realised if i attach this as static model i could use insane detail, because of nanite.
As far as i am aware it is only possible using nanite with SM and not SK models at the moment.


Hopfully this is much better to see then. Need to test this first InGame.

Edit:
My favorite so far. I love to prototype such things.

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Differences in characters are best noticed through details which tell their story. Of course you could do generic differences such as hair and character height, race, weight, gender, but generic is forgettable the moment after you notice it. Think of how they lived their lifes / zombie lifes. Zombie A worked in an area were hard helmets were required. He was using a saw tool at the moment he was bitten and the saw ended stuck in his shoulder while he became a zombie. Zombie B just arrived at work, she had just put on one of her boots when her coworker bit her. The same storytelling is often used to design areas as well.

Timesplitters future perfect had a zombie level with somewhat memorable zombies, because they looked somewhat different (suits / gender / colors etc.) but was still too generic to be quality. Lots of copypasta and very little storytelling.

https://youtu.be/DC4rhThFVa8?t=185

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I love the idea of storytelling with enemies and environment.

2 games inspired me to try to do this, the first is the house of the dead series, and the second is left 4 dead. I played this games hundert of hours.
House of the dead i use more for the core gameplay, and left 4 dead for the gore system and as reference how to do storytelling.

The stroytelling is just perfect. What i love the most was the witch bride sitting alone at a place where the wedding should be. Also the guest zombies where dressed for this.

Left 4 dead naild the storytelling. If i think about the specials, you know what is coming even if you only hear the sound and you can really see the into every crowd.
And for every place the have some zombies you see and know they are belong in this place. So many examples for this, the airport, hospital and so on.

I try to do something similar, just if you build almost all by yourself you are a little limited by doing so. Left 4 dead where around 300 people, so try to a game like this with would be insane.

But i want to do the best i can do even if it is only for a pretty small playerbase. But i want them to have as much fun as possible with what i can do. This is also the reason why i often change things. I just think what i like and dont like and if i find a better way i will try to realise this.
Like you cant really see what happens to the head after a headshot. :slight_smile:

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Oh yes that one was great :slight_smile: and how she freaks out if you touch the radio :slight_smile: . I have played L4D2 for hundreds of hours myself. Weird I didn’t think of that immediately

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And this is how the new heads would look like in the game after a headshot.
I think it is much easier to see now (and to be honest i love to look at this myself much more as before :slight_smile: ).

I use this as a static nanite mesh. Will do some variations of this so it does not look boring. Not sure if i will select them random, damage based or many based on impact.
Now after knowing this works i will have also a look into the inner skelleton. Maybe this can be done similar.

Edit:
Turned out depending on the animations running, using nanite SM is kinda hard. This needs more testing, seems like i will need very exact and perfect overlap from sk and sm without much movement so the seams are hiden.
Here i test if it is possible to make a better overlap for the seams. Maybe i cant use as much as i do now for the neck for nanite.

I changed the part at the neck so there is almost no movement now. Not final but at least i made it work. The hair can be detached seperate later.

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I test at the moment how to improve the display of gore. I already build new head models i need to rebuild the whole concept of the inner gore and how to use other gore models like what to display after a hit in the belly for example.

So here is a picture of some of the concepts i try. This ones i would need to use as an attachment. The are to big to use them in then model itself.

Because i will use dismembering as point counter i thought it would be a good idea to make it more fun to watch. And something like this you will see very well. Need only some sort of skel inside and flesh.


Edit:
Like this, not very realistic but you can see better trough the stomach without flesh. So it is just better to see and this is what i want to archive with this :slight_smile:

Edit:
Still testing this but even as there are no textures and the cuts are not very precise at the moment, i think it is good to see. This is very close to what it will look in the end. The downside of this is i can only use it for 1 point, so middle, left or right at the same time. And it needs to be an SK model.

Here with textures and at runtime. Almost done, just a a few tweaks for the textures and adding the blood mask after a hit in the belly.
I will update this post this again if it is finished with all functions and also the left and right side and new heads added with some gameplay.

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Hi there @Thorsten09,

Hope you’ve been well :slight_smile:

It’s so nice to be able to look through this thread and see all the updates. It’s come so far! Especially the noises/growls becoming more and more spooky.

Looking forward to the next update! :smiley:

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Thank you @PresumptivePanda .

I decidet to go all in with the gore now, even if i dont think i could sell it this way in my own country :rofl: germans have strange laws if it comes to this kind of games.

After playing again L4D for inspiration i noticed something i almost forgoten. The Boomer … i loved if he explodes. So i will do something like this.
Not sure how often and when or how this will be triggerd right now though. I think to often would be boring.

Edit:
As i think about this… maye i make also an bigger special out of this, with some sort of weak point a the belly you need to hit to kill him. If he reachs you then he would kill you :heart_eyes:

And as i redo the whole gore system with all code behind i wanted to add this also before i need to change this later again.

A first view of the lower part after the zombie is cut/exlpodes.

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