Space Combat Starter Kit - 6DoF Physics based fighter with AI and more in Blueprint

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1

Hello. I am creating a space combat starter kit in 100% blueprint with VR support.

The main goal of my package is to allow anyone to get started quickly making their own space combat or exploration game, or to learn how it was done by investigating my commented BP.

Currently Included
Space Environment: Four 4K asteroids. Highly efficient, modular, and easy to use asteroid generator (using Instanced Static Meshes with conversion to actors for efficiency). Have literally thousands of destructible asteroids, configure how many, their scale, and the size of the field. Also including Milky Way backdrop
Physics Based 6DoF Fighter: Including a unique mesh, miniguns, missiles (They fire forward and chase, or in VR, they target what you’re looking at and chase). Physics based flight, with 6 degrees of freedom, and Decoupled (F/Left Trigger) mode to maintain momentum while turning for maneuvers.
Enemy AI for the Fighters: Including physics based movement, aim prediction and flight tactics.
3D Music Player: Avoid the madness inducing silence of space by adding your own tracks and interacting with the 3D music player in VR/Non VR.
Tactical Mode: Slow down time, leave your ship, and possess other allied fighters.

Coming Soon
4.13 Support
HUD remade in worldspace UMG for 4.13
Continued Updates/Optimizations
Unique Special Effects (Engine Particle, Explosion Particle, Missile Trail Particle)
Different control loadouts - right now there is one control mode, the goal is to have several so you can choose the type of space flight that appeals to you the most.

Further Out
Capital Ships
Turrets for Capital Ships
Tactical Mode Improvements - order ships around like homeworld in addition to possessing them
Entering/Exiting the ship to First Person Mode
FTL Travel Mode with Procedural Galaxy Map - press a button to load a galaxy map that you can add new levels too, which will switch the level after a warp animation.

Possibly
Replication / Multiplayer

I am currently waiting until I have all completed assets to submit to the unreal marketplace, as well as a few more features.

If you are interested in supporting/owning the project now it is available on Sellfy at https://sellfy.com/p/E0s7/ for 9.99. I aim to price this at 14.99-19.99 on the unreal marketplace pending approval. Buying will give you life-time support and access to future updates. I plan to constantly update this.

If you’d like to see an example of how to use my pack, check out my videos

Latest Updates:
July 19th - Added Custom 4K Asteroids! Made the instanced asteroid field generator more modular (simply add a static mesh and a destructible mesh to the exposed arrays and your new asteroid/model will show up). Optimizations.
July 18th - Added Music Player with 3D menu (VR support), Gamepad Support, Tactical Mode (T/Select [Early - effects are being made, but you can fly around in slow-mo and possess different fighters]), AI firing missiles, missile warning display, general improvements and bug fixes
July 16th - Added 3rd Person Camera Chase Mode, destructible enemy ships, balance / bug changes.
July 15th - added team balance mode to spawners so one side won’t overwhelm the other, added start of modular hud - health section with health bar, weapon section with selected weapon and ammo, and unit tracker with allies / enemies listed
July 14th - added targeting reticules to the hud showing allied/enemy positions, color coded respectively
July 13th - added missiles with VR support (target what you’re looking at)

2

Hey ,

Got a few questions / Suggestions about this Project -

  1. Is there any 3D Path finding solution for the AI in this project? If not look at this - DoN's 3D-Pathfinding / Flying-AI system (with full source!) - World Creation - Epic Developer Community Forums
  2. Is there any plans for Space Carrier and/or Space Station Landings?
  3. Is there any plans for any form of Player Controlled Large ship or Capital Ships?
  4. Is there any form of support for Missiles, Dumb Fired Rockets, or Torpedoes?
  5. Are there any Example “missions”?
  6. How is the players ship logic handled? Is it a simple posses the pawn / Actor?
  7. Can we Eject from the ship if damaged and/or Get of the ship if landed?
  8. Are there any plans for out of the box Cooperative or Versus play?
  9. How is damage handled? Is it component (Engines, Cockpit, Guns, Etc.) based or Just a solid amount of hit points for the whole ship?’
  10. If we purchase the Space Combat Starter Kit on Sellify will we get access to the version on the Unreal Launcher?
3

Pretty good looking pack. Nice work.

4

Hey there, thanks for the feedback :slight_smile:

  1. I wasn’t planning path-finding per-se, my system works by getting distances and applying thrust (although I am working on avoidance as well so they avoid asteroids / larger ships). However, that link you gave is very interesting. I will be constantly updating the AI and I realize 3D pathfinding would be desired here, so I will likely work on this in some form. In fact, my goal is to include multiple methods of flight, why not AI as well?

2 & 3. Yes! I will absolutely be including a space carrier that will be player-controllable. The carrier will use an alternate method of flight allowing the player to see separate ways of programming flight(and feel better for a carrier). The carriers will also have turrets. You can see an example of how they might look here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWbN0wf8GoQ or here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1JFfXqpJdg. Docking at a station is something I’d like to include but is likely a bit of time out, mainly because I’d need a nice model for it.

  1. Yep there are missiles, they also have VR support (non VR they fire forward at your target and chase, in VR they target what you’re looking at, fire and chase). Different weapon types and switching between them for dumb-fire rockets is something I don’t currently have, but a great idea. I will add that!

  2. There is an ExampleMap that has a placed asteroid field, background, and spawners on the sides which spawn AI for each faction, but I don’t have anything more complex than that. One thing I want to include is a warp system for getting between levels, once I have that, perhaps I should include some hand-crafted mission examples?

  3. I’ve tried to keep it fairly simple but structured. The player ship is a child of the base class “PhysicsFighter” who’s controller is the playercontroller. Likewise AI are a child who’s controller is my AIController. You can thus play from camera position or set a starting spawn or whatever you would like.

  4. I actually have a quick tutorial series (here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iFA0gcoIlE and here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGubirVqYPg) on entering/exiting the ship. It’s not currently included in my project as I’m waiting on my carrier model to be finished (have nowhere to actually walk about at the moment), but once you can go inside that, I will likely include getting in/out of ships.

  5. As of yet the project is not replicated and I’m working on finalizing, cleaning up and finishing a few more features before I do that. But in a couple months, that seems like a perfectly natural next step :slight_smile:

  6. As of right now it’s just hit points for the ship, but that’s simply because I haven’t had the time yet to get to component based damage. That will be included along with disabling engines, “double damage” critical zones on the carrier and such.

  7. This I can not Guarantee. To be honest I don’t believe there is a way to gift unreal marketplace assets. If you want it from the marketplace, I suggest waiting.

Thanks! :slight_smile:

6

OK, got a few more questions / Suggestions -

  1. Are there any plans for a 3D Interaction system seen in this video for Smaller Craft? Such as Fighters, Bombers, etc.
  2. Are there any plans for an Auto pilot and/or Faster Than Light travel in this Starter Kit?
  3. Would it be possible to get two player Fighter or Bomber? So Pilot and Co-Pilot/Gunner.

Large / Capital Ships -

  1. Do you have any plans for anything similar to Star Trek Bridge Crew for Large / Capital Ships? Either as a Separate Package or In this package.
  2. If as a Separate Package - Do you have any plans for integration with the Space Combat Starter Kit?
  3. I would recommend looking into how battle star Galactica did point defense for the ship. Example

Side notes:

  1. I would also recommend making more use of the Cockpit interior space for UI elements so for example - Making use of sides of the cockpit, The top of the canopy, etc.
  2. It would also be great to see a Red Diamond or something to know what target(s) we locked on to.
  3. I would also recommend breaking UI elements down into MFD form. So Targeting Computer, Weapon Interfaces w/ Ammo, Radar, etc. Should be separate MFDs.
7

Haven’t seen the viper demo before, didn’t realize there was such a nice tool. You’re right, it does set a high bar. I’m hoping my addition of AI and (soon) turrets will help put my project a bit over the edge. Plus a few other things in the works. But thanks for letting me know about that project, it’s good to know what I’m competing against.

3D interaction: Do you mean like ladders and stuff like shown in the video? If so, I don’t currently have plans for this simply because I don’t have access to a very reliable animator/modeller, and that’d drive up the cost for me. Maybe there’s a few little things I can do though, like animated guns/turrets?

FTL Travel: Yes, I plan to include a procedural galaxy map that the player can use to switch between levels, which will load a level and switch the background and all that. Included will be a FTL/warp animation. This will likely come next month.

Two player craft: This is an awesome idea, but I can’t do that until I have replication, which at the moment I’d say is 2-4 months away, given the work I have to do in the meantime to get the project up to par.

Large ships:

1/2: At the moment I don’t have plans to include a “bridge mode”, but it’s a good idea, and I will be including capitol ships. If I do some fanciness with world size, I can probably make that work… So “maybe”, but at the moment it isn’t the focus of my pack.

  1. BSG point defenses and the general combat of BSG is a huge inspiration for my pack :slight_smile: once I have turrets, I will definitely have a similar style to that. Turrets will fire metal, flak (explosions at a distance) and be in large size and small size, and aim at ships of their respective sizes. The goal is to get lots of bullets flying around efficiently and in a cool manner.

Side notes:

1/3. The cockpit interior is what we’re currently working on. My modeller is adding a seat to it, and I’m working on adding elements such as health, ammo, etc to the display. It will definitely be separated as you suggest, and kind of like Elite Dangerous, so that there’s different elements like the “health” section and “ammo” section, and the user can move these around as they desire.

  1. Adding this tonight :slight_smile: Going to add squares that are color coded for enemies based on their faction, and it’ll turn into a rotating diamond when missiles are on route.

Thanks again for all the feedback and suggestions! :slight_smile:

9

Hey Welcome :slight_smile:

10

Hey, I bought it and it works brilliantly. Any chance it will be compatible with 4.11?

11

Hey, awesome, thanks :slight_smile: Hope you like it. I’ll be updating it every 1 - 3 days. Soon I will have custom asteroids and particle effects, the asteroids are being made now and I’m close to finding an FX artist. I update the file on sellfy everytime I update for the record.

As for 4.11 compatibility, I tried loading the project in 4.11 but all the blueprints disappeared. I can rebuild the project for 4.11 but it’ll take some time to copy and paste everything and all that. I’ll get back to you on this, but itll take me a few days. Also I’ll have to figure out how to host the separate version for you to download, probably by PMing you a link.

12

Yes, I’ve realised you’ve been updating it! The file size keeps increasing. :slight_smile: It seems promising already, I can’t wait to see what else you add.

It disappeared for me too in 4.11! I’ll try to move my project to 4.12 again, I just ran into quite a few errors when I tried.

13

Was talking with a friend on Discord about a project I’m working on while just starting to learn Unreal, and they dropped the link to this.

Color me intrigued! it seems like there’s already a sizable portion of what I was looking to do here (sans walking around capital ships, but you’re planning that yourself as well). Might just snag this tomorrow after I finish my capital ship asset done so I can replace the fighter mesh with mine and see them in engine proper for once.

This is in the standard scale, right?

14

Hey - I just bought this on sellify.

Got a question/Request though - Would it be possible to upload this to itch.io why I am asking is that it has a very nice auto updater and client that you can use to update your product.

Hey @DFX2KX - What do you mean by Standard Scale? Do you mean 1 Unreal Unit = 1cm if so I am assuming that is the case. :slight_smile:

Just curious,

HeadClot

15

@DFX2KX Yeah I haven’t messed with the scale except for VR (I set the world VR scale to 30 so things feel bigger in VR but this can be changed easily).

It should be fairly easy to replace the fighter with your own meshes. I can’t remember if the latest hosted version has a root for the HUD elements but they can be moved individually if not, or the next version has a root that can move them all (and then relative to their root).

The HUD is still a work in progress for sure, it’s what I’m focusing on now while I wait on some models.

@HeadClot

Thanks for the purchase! :slight_smile: I am checking out and hosting my project on Itch.io right now, I hadn’t heard of that before but auto-updating would be a nice feature as opposed to re uploading and downloading the project.

I’ve also been considering giving access to my repository when you purchase it, I just need to set that up for public/semi-private access.

Anyway once I get itch.io sorted I’ll see what I can do about PMing you a code for a version from that site so you can take advantage.

16

Hey thanks for the prompt reply. :slight_smile:

I know that the folks who run Itch.io are very active on social media and the like. So giving out a code should be no problem :slight_smile:

17

@HeadClot yeah the 1uu=1cm scale, mostly because I know not every game uses that scale, and it would be prudent to ask and not assume. Though as said, it’s standard so I should be good there.

The HUD will be good for some examples, though I’m going to have some work cut out there regardless.

It’ll be interesting making the carrier work properly…

18

The pack has been updated with four 4K asteroids (including all masks for their materials) :slight_smile:

[video]Procedural Instanced 4K Asteroid Field - Space Combat SK - YouTube

I’ve also updated the procedural instanced asteroid field to an incredibly easy to configure instanced mesh generator. Simply add a static mesh to the “StaticMeshesToUse” array exposed at the top, add a destructible to the same index in the “DestructibleMeshesToUse” array, and the field takes care the rest - your mesh has been added and converted to an efficient instanced static mesh, but which still has detection to allow it to be destructible.

No more SM_Rock! Though it served me well :slight_smile:

19

Loving the updates!

20

Hey guys, sorry there hasn’t been an update in a few days - I got a new full time job and have been super busy with that. I have been continuing to update the package, I just haven’t been satisfied enough to release a new version - waiting until I finish reticules with aim prediction, just sorting out how I want to handle the art aspect.

I’ve also been playing around with 4.13. 4.13 changes a lot of things about UMG, and makes it far superior when used in world-space (you can actually manipulate them in VR without doing complicated work arounds now, yay!) So I don’t want to mess around with the interior cockpit hud too much when I will probably be remaking all of that in UMG for 4.13.

I need to do a little bit of cleaning up, optimizing and a bit nicer commenting, and then make an infograph, (and maybe a bigger demo scene?) but after that I will submit it to the marketplace as well. Anyone who purchased from sellfy and wishes for the marketplace version can contact me for a refund once that’s out.

I would also really like to get capital ships in, but my modeler has been very busy, and it’s a large task to get it to pass Epics scrutiny. I’m moving that to the “later on” section. The fighter needs some tweaks too, first.

21

Congratulations, nice project. I’m going to buy it just comes out of unreal marketplace.
When it comes out of unreal marketplace?
Hi Angiel

22

Hey there, sorry for the late reply, I did not notice until now

Currently I’m in the process of getting unique particles made for the project.

It is my understanding that Epic won’t let you publish if you’re using assets from the Starter Kit, and they must all be unique, so I must get my own particles for explosions, missile trails, and what not.

Once I have all of that, and I make some optimizations, a bit of clean up, and then an infograph on how to use it, we should be good to go.

I’d estimate that I will be submitting by the end of the month. I’m not entirely sure how long it takes to get approved for the marketplace, but it’ll probably be at least a few months.