A new year and have started by getting back into the groove of development. There are fewer distractions and no more holidays so I started by searching for the best vfx for a special attack. I lined them up and watched them in game. Once I found the ones I liked I created a new blueprint where the time of the attack and the radius of the collision would change depending on which vfx was spawned. This was supposed to tie in with one of the challenges of the fight, but I couldn’t find a good way to bring my idea to life. Instead, this turned into a normal attack to dodge and I created a whole new puzzle for the fight.
Puzzles with several objects are always a problem for me. Either I have one blueprint with several objects or several objects from one blueprint that needs to be able to communicate with each other. I went for one object and one blueprint. It wasn’t difficult once I settled with the core of the puzzle. The player has to light them in the right order. But the order will be hidden at first. I already know how the numbers will be revealed, but I have yet to implement it. It will be very easy anyway. I wanted to randomize the numbers every time the level reset and I made do by using an array in the level blueprint. The array assigns a random number to the lanterns then removes that integer from the array. After some testing I got it to work consistently and while the puzzle is fairly straightforward forward it should add a layer of challenge to the fight.
With those parts done I moved on to the last part of the level which is the boss herself. I added the camera pan since so I could have that in place already. Then I moved the spawn of the boss to the center of the lanterns. I put the notifies on her moving animations since everything is covered in red liquid. Since the boss’ weapon is a unique shape that changes length I tried adding several collision boxes to the whip. I made sure the boxes were locked to the different bones of the whip so it could cover all the empty spaces. It was looking good so far, but I didn’t add enough boxes and they were too short. So I added more and made them longer. I attached a hit event to each collision box and it shouldn’t register more than one hit because it uses the same array to check for actors to ignore. On the attack state it loops through the array of collision boxes I put at the begin play of the boss.
The whip can successfully hit the player and I put the attack state on the whip instead of the boss’ animation because it is clearer when the whip is in a damaging movement. It has been a while since I’ve done so much in one day and it feels good to make a lot of progress.
I will continue adding the attack state to the animations of the boss. Then more effects for her and possibly other boss phases.
GoldenGratus Games 