Able Ability System Info and Support Thread

[intoxicat3]

Feature request: Please let us change EndTime for PlayAnimation node. For example we can use some notifies to change play rate etc

[ExtraLifeMatt]

Yea I can but then I won't be able to show cooldown in my UI without adding and changing some things We did something similar in our action system: just pickup class which is responsible for handling cooldown. You can then create what you want and it's more generic. Of course default can be yours time based cooldowns.

Another example is that some games will start cooldown at action end, and some at beginning, custom class will allow everything.

Really hope you will improve Able as It's currently the best action system @ Marketplace for me.

I'll keep improving it as long as the feedback keeps coming in.

[intoxicat3]

Yea I can but then I won't be able to show cooldown in my UI without adding and changing some things We did something similar in our action system: just pickup class which is responsible for handling cooldown. You can then create what you want and it's more generic. Of course default can be yours time based cooldowns.

Another example is that some games will start cooldown at action end, and some at beginning, custom class will allow everything.

Really hope you will improve Able as It's currently the best action system @ Marketplace for me.

[ExtraLifeMatt]

hope you will add it

Another idea you could consider for cooldowns: custom class that is managing how cooldown is handled. For example I would like to reuse ability after 50 enemy hits or after moving from one spot to another. Currently only time cooldown is supported as far I can know.

You could do that with the CanAbilityExecute logic (and just avoid Cooldown entirely). Although I agree that the cooldown concept could be abstracted a bit more to make it more flexible (rather than inherently just time).

[intoxicat3]

I don't currently have a dynamic animation-only play rate (although I could add that easily now).

hope you will add it

Another idea you could consider for cooldowns: custom class that is managing how cooldown is handled. For example I would like to reuse ability after 50 enemy hits or after moving from one spot to another. Currently only time cooldown is supported as far I can know.

[ExtraLifeMatt]

hmn I think you should try to create fully game or game jam using Able you will then see a lot of things that can be exposed. Just try to be modular, don't create ability for each custom thing as lot of things can be done without adding another abilities. I think your architecture could be more opened to BPs, that's all. Faster to work then.

And I found issue with Play Animation node and Ability Play Rate. When your animation use Dynamic Montage it won't use GetPlayRate from BP just GetBasePlayRate() from CPP which always will be 1.

Really love your plugin don't get me wrong but still I think you should invest more time and try to create full game using it.

I'll look at adding a way to get the context for an Ability (which you can get the running tasks on). There's definitely a balance to be had between exposure to BPs and not letting the user shoot themselves in the foot.

Do you have the Scale With Ability Play Rate turned on? That will call the dynamic binding for the Play Rate (hit the + next to the Play Rate on the Ability and create a binding there). There was a bug with Ability Dynamic Fields not binding at runtime, but if you have the latest that was fixed in 3.1.

I do use Able for my own games (that's where it started actually), but people use it in ways I don't (for example, your Task conditions you added) so I'm always interested to see the feedback. I tend to make lots of discrete Abilities that do one small thing and exit, but others create "Uber Abilities" that drive tons of stuff. Both are valid approaches, just different styles.

EDIT: To be clear, Play Rate is the Ability Play rate. I don't currently have a dynamic animation-only play rate (although I could add that easily now).

[intoxicat3]

hmn I think you should try to create fully game or game jam using Able you will then see a lot of things that can be exposed. Just try to be modular, don't create ability for each custom thing as lot of things can be done without adding another abilities. I think your architecture could be more opened to BPs, that's all. Faster to work then.

And I found issue with Play Animation node and Ability Play Rate. When your animation use Dynamic Montage it won't use GetPlayRate from BP just GetBasePlayRate() from CPP which always will be 1.

Really love your plugin don't get me wrong but still I think you should invest more time and try to create full game using it.

[ExtraLifeMatt]

Can I get active tasks for active running action using Blueprints? (as far I know I can't)
This would be nice - for example I want to show some task progress on UI. Any chance you can add support for getting tasks and time ratios of them?

Why at the Task level and not at the Ability level? You could have 1 Ability that adds a passive ability (that does whatever task you are wanting to keep track of) and then your UI code can simply grab all Passive Abilities currently playing and grab the Ability time ratio from there.

[intoxicat3]

Can I get active tasks for active running action using Blueprints? (as far I know I can't)
This would be nice - for example I want to show some task progress on UI. Any chance you can add support for getting tasks and time ratios of them?

Matt you should seriously consider adding more support to BPs to get data more easily. (still can be const and still blueprintreadonly)

[ExtraLifeMatt]

Able v3.11 has been submitted. Notes below:

• Fixed a crash when playing an Ability in the Editor and having Target Actors present. (h/t TVwj )
• Fix to a crash that can happen in DebugGame / packaged projects. (h/t intoxicat3 )
• Added a warning attempting to use a montage in Play Animation Task when set to Ability Animation Node (which doesn't support Montages).
• Resetting the Preview Actor now preserves transformation.
• Made the editor a bit more robust in trying to recover from Ability Components getting deleted out from under it (due to BP re-compile).

[TVwj]

Can you give me repo steps? Just spawn a Target Actor and Play an Ability?

Just having a target actor spawned in and playing the ability will always cause a crash.
As in, having any target actor in the editor while playing the ability will cause a crash.

[ExtraLifeMatt]

Adding target asset works for me now. However, I get a crash whenever I play the ability when the target asset is spawned in the editor.

Can you give me repo steps? Just spawn a Target Actor and Play an Ability?

[TVwj]

Adding target asset works for me now. However, I get a crash whenever I play the ability when the target asset is spawned in the editor.

[ExtraLifeMatt]

Able v3.1 submitted. Notes:

• Fixed Ability Dynamic Fields not properly binding during runtime.
• Fixed Target Preview Assets not spawning properly.
• Fixed Target Preview Assets not being selectable by clicking on them.
• Hitting "Delete" on your keyboard while selecting a Target Preview Asset in the Editor will delete that instance.
• Added "Location" Target Type which allows you to programmatically specify a 3D location in the world and pass it to a Task.
  • You'll find this option on any Location struct (e.g. Spawn Actor's Spawn Location, Play Particle Effect, Play Sound Effect, etc).
  • To pass a Target Location to your Tasks with that option you must:
    • Add a "Location" Target to your Ability (under the Target drop down, you don't need to mark your Ability as "Must Have Target").
    • Override the "Get Target Location" method in C++ or in the Ability Blueprint. This is where you would grab the mouse location or what not, by default it simply returns the location of the actor running the ability.
    • This value is passed from the Client to the Server in a networked game (as the Server has no concept of a mouse, etc), so just be aware of that. Maybe add some extra verification if needed.
    • This value is stored on the AblAbilityContext and can be grabbed in Blueprints by calling GetTargetLocation on the Context.
• Updated Play Particle Effect / Play Sound Effect to use the internal AblTargetLocation struct so they can use the new functionality. The old fields are still there and will automatically be used if present. If you want to use the new functionality once you move things over, simply reset the deprecated fields (set the socket name to NONE, any vectors to 0.0's, etc).

As always, thanks for your support and patience. Keep the bug reports coming.

[ExtraLifeMatt]

Yeah...only see VERBOSE on logs...don't show in screen

I'd check your Able Settings (in the plugin options), there is an option in that that prevents Verbose from printing to the screen.