[Released] Game Kit Controller: Engine with melee, weapons, vehicles, crafting & more! 3.77c

Community Showcases
5821

In general, pushing is a good one. Pushing back, pushing down, pushing into a wall, pushing through an open window, pushing off a ledge (and if they catch the ledge, stepping on their fingers), pushing into the water, pushing into a fire, pushing into a puddle with a live wire, pushing back onto small rocks or whatever that makes a person stumble, pushing down a steep slope, push in front of a moving vehicle, etc. Also, you could perhaps demonstrate that you can not only push someone up against a wall, you can push up against a van, a tree, or whatever is set up for it. Or would the system automatically detect when there is a collider behind it, and how high the collider is?

It sounds simple, but it’s a very interesting mechanic rarely found in games (tactical pushing). Of course, the same sorts of reactions could occur after knocking someone back with a heavy blow or explosion … if the AI system can handle that.

1 Like
5822

Intimidation interactions might have a role, like grabbing someone or holding them with one hand against the wall.

We already have disarm / grab weapon. Not sure if anything else could be done there.

We have carry animations. I suppose a person could optionally struggle while being carried …?

One person could stick out a foot to trip someone.

Non-violent interactions could include high five, handshake, fist bump, hug, kiss.

Sports could involve throwing things back and forth like a ball or frisbee. There could also be a person raising arms to catch but missing.

1 Like
5823

Yes, I configured an example for the push, and have others in mind.

I have planned to add options to also trigger a shared action system or another based on the looking direction of the characters (player-AI), so for example, the push would be back or forward or any other similar action.

Here the player can push an enemy with a quick, and a new option added is to trigger the ragdoll mode on the characters, or even to kill them during the action, either the movement is a finisher or just an action for a temporal shocked state on the character/AI.

In this case, the second action is activated due to not being close enough to the ledge.

“Also, you could perhaps demonstrate that you can not only push someone up against a wall, you can push up against a van, a tree, or whatever is set up for it. Or would the system automatically detect when there is a collider behind it, and how high the collider is?”

It is not dependient of the object behind, it can be set any zone on the scene and the system will play the respective shared action, eithere toward a wall, or a tree, or any other surface, like glass, triggering different animations.

And thanks for the suggestions, I will take them into account for more examples and options to take into account :wink: Don’t hesitate to tell me any other.

Regards.

1 Like
5824

Most of the critical shared motions people would want to do would be combat, and there are a lot animation kits with wrestling moves, grappling, flipping, finishers, and things like that where an attacker and their target NPC are synced up. I wouldn’t expect you supply things of that nature, though of course it’s clear you’re trying to make room in the kit for such things to be incorporated by the customer.

This is maybe a bit of a tangent, but on the topic of AI reactions, let’s say a NPC notices that the player or other NPC they are fighting has an impaired status, like blinded, stunned, slowed, injured, low on hit points, or weakened in some way. That would inspire an appropriate reaction, which might be a finisher.

Or, let’s say their target is retreating and the AI has a way of preventing escape, like a net or glue bomb or something. The AI could maybe recognize what looks like a retreat (range increasing)?

1 Like
5825

Yes, the shared action system is made for that purpose, either fixed places on scene or used in any place from a certain action on the player or AI, for a special attack, as yuo can see in a previous video post that the shared action system can be triggered from the close combat system.

In this video, the second shared action is triggered from doing a close combat attack combo, so if you reach a certain attack type, it triggers the special attack which is the shared action, so it can be triggered like that.

It is going to be applied on the melee system, so it can trigger the same type of actions from using swords, or axes, etc…

And yes, for example the flash grenade can trigger an impaired status and make a rotating kick, which is a shared action.

About the retreating, no, the AI would just recognize the target is moving away from the AI, so it would try to get closer to the target inside its range attack.

But the AI can also trigger the shared action to the player or any other AI, so it could trigger it.

Trapping a target could be an action that I could configure on the AI in another update, through its ability system, as in the last video, the AI can trigger the shared action from the ability system, but it could also trigger it from its close combat system, just like the player can too.

Let me know if that is clear. I want to show more examples and in another video, explain how is configured, as it is very simple to adjust right now with the current improvements added once this system is available in a new update.

Regards.

2 Likes
5826

Does the combat / ability / AI system take into account small variances in range?

Let’s say I have different attack moves for super-close range, arm’s length, just beyond arm’s length, that kind of thing. Can the AI discern which attack is the proper one to pick based on such short range considerations?

And can the AI choose to use single target attacks when faced by a single up close attacker, or a multiple target attack when there are several enemies nearby?

Not saying that’s something you need for your AI, but maybe to have under consideration so it’s easier for developers to incorporate.

As for a target advancing or retreating, do these sorts of things get noticed by the GKC AI in a way that we can use for reactions? I’m not sure if the behavior right now is to auto-follow on retreat, or if there’s a retreat flagged event that in turn can trigger an auto-follow behavior (or potentially something else, like that grappling hook type ability to drag the target to you).

5827

Yes, the abilities on the AI can check for distances, to use within certain range from the target, either close or far, as it has an option for a custom min distance to trigger for each ability, so a grenade can be thrown from 20 units and a throw fire cast can be made from 3 units.

The AI has also a check to use close or long range attacks based on the distance to the target, totally customizable.

Also, the abilities can change in runtime to use one other another randomly or inside a certain list.

Lot of more options and customization and behavior are planned in next updates too.

And no, for now, the AI only knows is the target position and if the AI is on the range for the current attack type or not, to get closer or not.

There are also options to jump to a target inside a range too.

Regards.

5828

Hi everyone.

Here another shared action example for a stealth kill and throw the dead body on a dumpster, as in a future, the AI will be able to detect and react to objects on scene, like dead bodies, so this can be used as a mechanic to hide them, so the other AI doesn’t find it:

Have a few more examples in mind to configure, can’t wait to show them, the improved system is allowing to configure this kind of actions in about 2-3 minutes, including adjustments.

Regards.

1 Like
5829

Hi everyone.

Almost all ready on the new shared action system, I am setting more examples:

Any suggestion to set an example similar to this kind of finishers?

Regards.

1 Like
5830

This is such a great mechanic for games! In my experience, players love to use the environment to their advantage. Like, they’ll do the extra effort to lure a NPC near an exploding object before setting it off.

I also like the hiding the dead body in the dumpster ability. Can we drag a body through a doorway into another room, like a closet?

If you’re just looking for different examples of the same thing as getting kicked out of the window - things which can presently be done in GKC - there’s kicking them into the water, kicking them onto a trapdoor or other trap, pushing them into traffic, and there’s kicking them back into something electrical or into a fire.

A lot of sports would use this action / reaction system, with a relatively simple version being like ping pong.

BTW, I know we have flight and jetpack type abilities. Can we pick up and carry a person in flight and drop them?

1 Like
5831

Sorry for the time to reply.

Haha, glad to hear that. And yes, dead bodies can be grabbed and carried like physical objects on player’s arms. In this example, I just wanted the whole shared action included the throw in the dumpster inside the animation, though of course, you can adjust the animation to end on the crack neck part, so the player can decide if to grab the dead body or leave it there.

Yes, I want to configure an example of kicking an AI into the water, so they can drow there (and when the AI can swim, to add an option for them to get out of the water or just die there). Thanks for the other suggestions, will take them into account :wink:

And yes, if I remember properly, you can also grab dead bodies while flying or using the jetpack.

Regards.

5832

Can the player or AI NPC grab a “live” NPC and carry them?

This could be done as an attack, flying them into the sky and then dropping them, or as an assist, transporting a character from one place to another.

I’m also reminded of the teleportation attack seen in the movie “X-Men: First Class,” where a person is grabbed by a character with teleportation, and then teleported along with them into the air, then dropped.

I suppose since we have teleport ability (and presumably the ability to teleport targeted objects), grabbing someone and then taking them with you when you teleport should be a thing that can be done.

5833

The player can grab alive AI if they enter in ragdoll mode, as they will get up once they are dropped.

The player can activate the ragdoll mode on the AI with the grappling hook for example, or by using a sedative projectile type from weapons or powers or abilities.

And yes, I want to try flying AI and combat on the air, to have styles inspired in dragon ball and similar games.

Will think in attacks based on teleport once this combat type is worked too :wink:

Regards.

1 Like
5834

Hi everyone.

More elements ready on the shared action system, this time to allow a position/rotation range for a shared action fixed zone.

This allows that for example, instead of using a fixed position/rotation for the characters on scene for an environmental finisher, the system can adjust the action rotation/position inside and offset and use different directions for the same action zone.

It is not 100% adjusted on the video, but it will be tweaked. You can see here how I can use this shared action for a kick against the furniture from different directions, using this range option.

Regards.

1 Like
5835

Happy halloween, everyone (a little late haha).

I saw many games inspired by old resident evil recently on twitter, so wanted to record a similar clip of a fixed camera view with zombies and destroyabe parts, inspired by resident evil and halloween:

The new shared action system is almost complete, I am doing the last additions and setting some more examples.

Regards.

1 Like
5836

Hi everyone.

Here an example of the shared action system allowing to trigger different actions through the same signal according to if the character is in front or behind the other character. In this case, interaction is enabled when receiving enough damage, leaving the AI as injured for x time, to allow to use the interaction button:

I am also configuring the camera waypoint to allow to set “cutscenes” or camera view changes during the action. I will tweak that in another clip.

Regards.

2 Likes
5837

Hi everyone.

Here an example of the AI using an environmental finisher on the player, as they can also use them against player or other AI (of course, it can be customized):

I added an input stack option on the close combat, so it allows to store a certain amount of attack inputs to auto play it, any suggestion of the logic that should be followed on this type of elements?

Regards.

1 Like
5838

I’m not sure I understand what you’re saying with “an input stack option,” but what I was thinking, looking at your example (which is similar to what we’ve seen before) is that this could be like the classic comic book / James Bond situation of knocking the villain back into some sort of resource in the environment that acts as a finisher. It could be a wood chipper, some sort of electrical thing which electrocutes them, a vat of acid, etc. So maybe the action receiver would writhe and receive some particle effects … if that’s what you mean by things that could be put into the input stack. However, that would probably only happen if the action receiver is a NPC. If the action receiver is the player, they’d probably expect to be able to get up right away or do something to get out of the acid, etc., unless this was a “game over” type scenario in the game.

5839

For input stack, I mean to store inputs for the close combat when you press an attack input and the player was already busy doing another attack, so that last input is stored to play that attack once the previous one is complete.

I am not sure there is a better name for that term. In this case, I added the option to use for melee and close combat, allowing to store x amount (it can be adjuste for hwo much), and it can be reset by other actions, so if you get damage or roll, or block, etc… the input stack list is cleared.

"It could be a wood chipper, some sort of electrical thing which electrocutes them, a vat of acid, etc. "

Yes, that is the kind of actions that can be configured with this new shared action system, either for the player to the AI or viceversa.

These zones are placed on scene and they can send a signal to the player or the AI to allow to activate them, either by input from the player, or an attack from him or from the AI from an attack too, as their system has detected they are inside or close to an environmental finisher.

And yes, there are options to just make characters to get knocked and get up after x time or make those actions to die, in both directions, either player to AI or viceversa.

Of course, the user can adjust that, in case these actions are only usable by the player towards the AI.

Let me know if that is more clear. I want to make a showcase video of this system once this small update is ready.

Regards.

1 Like
5840

Input stack sounds reasonable.

For my design, I only allow one action to be queued ahead of time, and I call it the “action queue.” So the player can only have one current action, plus the one waiting in queue. If you’ve set it up to punch after the kick completes, but then you change your mind and want to cast a fireball instead of a punch, if you hit the command for fireball before the kick ends, it will replace the queued punch action with the fireball. Otherwise, if you hit the command for fireball after the punch has started, it will queue the fireball after the punch.

1 Like