Thank you.
So, for particles I have two different systems for the sword impact effects. The one for enemies is real simple, it’s a particle system that is a component of the enemy pawn and then just enable it when damage the enemy. I did this to get more accurate display of enemy getting damaged, since the sword does actually do the damage in the attacks, I actually fudge that a little bit with the jump attacks and so I needed a reliable system for that.
The other system is slightly more complex but completely accurate to the sword impact. It’s a general effect system for the sword. I fire a line trace down the blade and on hits I get physics material for different effects and spawn them on the trace hit location. So stone or metal or whatever else, when struck, produce their own effects and it’s based on where the blade actually touch the surface, thanks to the trace.
I can use the trace system on enemies as well, and in fact I did for a while but like I mentioned there I wanted more control over how particles spawn on enemy strikes, so I changed to the first mentioned system. But the cool thing is you can still see some sword on sword impacts, you get the sparks since the sword is metal, the trace picks that up, if you happen to strike across the enemy sword.
For player effects it’s the same as the first system. They are components of the pawn, both the blood or blocking sparks effects and I just enable which ever is appropriate. So that’s also completely controlled like that. The enemy sword do not have it’s own effect system. I don’t think it’s really necessary and probably overkill.