Devlog 4

2021 December 7th

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Note

The study about fundamental of AI system in UE4 is finished

Well it's a part of system called "Behavior Tree"

It took me a bit longer than expected because of things in life

But at least my first layer of foundation is nearly established

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I have many ideas I wanna do in the future

At least after the first foundation laid I'll try to work on

the first full project, well it's kinda in the level of prototype

that will have to wait of course because I need some time off

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About Devlog

I heard how people think how to use devlog

I'm using it as a form of personal diary but for this specific project

Everything in my devlog will also reflect on many aspects

I don't use devlog as a form of drawing people in

because it's better if people could study from my mistakes

I do need money, I need fans/customers

But I'm not going to let those basic needs control me

To be honest, it's not like I'm anything special

It's just that I'm a needy person and with just money

It's not enough, even if you give me trillion euro

even if everybody in the world are my fans

It's not enough, I'm too ambitious

Well you can worshipping me as god too

But that's also not enough

Or rather I don't really care about money, fame, or respect

I wanna just do what I want and live happily

That's sound humble but I perceiving these as higher value

than any of aforemention stuffs

yeah, I'm also changing how I note the devlog

It'll become less scientific and more personal

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Objective

This time it'll be the basic function of enemy

by implementing behavior tree

the timeframe will likely be a week from now

but I'd rather finish within this week

because there are still more things to be done

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the final goal of this project

is to have player and enemies attack each others

In short it's the most basic foundation I need

After I could make everything works

I'll called it the end of this project

It'll be soon because I think nearly everything is done

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well I do need to make the player attack feels better

The problem now is it's too hard to control

I think that I also need to experiment with camera

because your everyday 3rd person camera is just bad

at least it's bad for my games

Though it's still be the 3rd person perspective

I think it's gonna be hybrid between this and topdown

I'll see how it turn out later

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END 0523PM

2021 December 8th 0830AM

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Note

I woke up at midnight after I slept for like 4 hours

I tried to work on implementing the AI

of course there are some hiccups

At first I tried to setup stuffs

I got distracted by some thought about

Making new build in PoE

Well at least after spent an hour I got rid of it out of my head

Then after I setup I realized that I couldn't remember

How to attach the behavior tree to a character

In unity it'd be just drag and drop

But I know it's unhealthy that way around

So I searched for how to do and ended up at official doc

Well it's the same page of the first time I learned UE4

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Then after I tried to follow I got stuck

Because I created "Actor" not "Character"

It's ended up without the part to attach AI controller

Yes, it need AI controller to attach Behavior tree

by using "Run Behavior tree" -> Event On possess

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At first the logic didn't work

Part of it is I didn't set the condition right

Because condition require IsPlayerAlive->True

But the variable has never set

Because I got the service node under the decorator

Which is required the value to set beforehand

So in short I have to move service node

that set player values to the top node

so that it set the value before I check for other conditions

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I'll continue to work at least on design after some food

Probably implement the whole system because it's small

Well I'm kinda tired we'll see

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END 0840AM

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1157AM

After some food I tried to implement the move logic

The preset tasks are not as I expected

So I had to implement my own movement task

I called it MoveToPlayer, the function is obvious by name

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The problem right now is I underestimate my own abilities

I planned to finish this within a week but it's took me a day

So be it I'll end today's session and think about next plan

Well it's actually unfinished cuz I didn't setup animation

So if nothing come up I'll just setup animation and find something

because I have no idea what I wanna do next

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Actually, I still have to implement the damage system

So that the objective of this project is completed

Well it's easy cuz I already implemented the system

Only thing left is apply to enemies

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END 1214PM

2021 December 9th

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0110AM

The day is starting for me, I slept too late

I did some exercise and eat some food

I watched youtube videos, check my email

Well I won't mention these things after this

It's my daily routine which I'm trying to stick to

It went down the drain when I was sick

especially the exercise part

the sickness discouraged me from doing exercise

even though I should do some exercise

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The project right now is third person template

I keep the basic movement here because

I don't want to think too much about it yet

The attack system is working

which including the interaction between objects

and the part that I use particle as the medium

Well it's just empty collision that play particle

The interaction between objects is

to transmit the damage number to another object

that come into contact

Including the recurring attacks

And the solution to prevent snapshot from attacking

it's temporary but it works as intended

which is great

And lastly the AI chasing player

It's basically work, well it's basic type so it must work

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What do I need to do right now?

Add animation to AI so that it's not sliding toward player

design attack pattern for AI

the rough idea is to have AI start attacking when

the AI is in attack range

It'd be good to add line of sight

so that the AI won't attack
when they don't have clear line of sight

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After the AI

I have to integrate the damage system to AI

so that both player and AI can interact

then I can work on making player's attack better

well I won't try to make new particle

to make it more beautiful

I mean that I want to make it feel better to use attack

Right now the attack only good when I use in Top-down games

I don't know the solution yet

But there is still so much to do before that

So I'll think about it later

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END 0141PM

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0546PM

I went to sleep since about 0230PM

after I research on how should I implement animation stuffs

I just went to bed because I felt heavy and sleepy

I'm glad that I decided to went to bed

cuz I slept like a baby

It's fulfilling

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Well gotta start working now

I don't know if it'll finish today but I'll do something

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END 0600PM

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0708PM

The animation setup is completed

I adjusted the moving speed to acceptable pace

Because too slow the animation looks weird

It's the preset for running anyway

And I also didn't put complex code to make it adjusted

to the max speed ratio

Well I might have to in the future tho

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When the AI run faster or equal to player

It'll slowly catch up and that's kinda horrifying

So I made it slower than player, just like many games

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I still have no idea how should I work on attack pattern

I'm thinking about shooting projectiles

Because it's easier to dodge projectiles than doing laser beam

I still don't have animation but it doesn't matter now

The core idea here is to make AI attack when they got in range

And there is some delay before and after attack

The projectile will be thrown like a baseball

So I'll have to work on the projectile part too

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I'll at least put some outline for behavior tree first

Because I'm starting to need some rest

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END 0716PM

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1002PM

I'm such a workaholic

I planned to take some rest but my mind was wandering

It's like I must finish this task before I rest

And so I did the part to make basic line of sight

It's actually using AI perception

and I spent quite a while before I made it works

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I did take a warm shower half way in(around 0830 to 0900 PM)

Yeah, remember to take good care of yourselves

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After I rest and get some sleep I'll work on the attack part

Basically making the projectile that work like baseball

And have the AI use it when it see player

I wanted to use when player is in range

But it's kinda hard to do that right now

cuz I don't know how would I do it

It might require me to study other systems instead

So I'll treat the line of sight as the range which AI see player

And make the AI move toward player when not in range

Well it's basically the game without stealth mode

When enemies always know where you are

I think this is simple enough

I don't need something more complex than this

At least not in my first several games

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The tech demo part is closer to the end

I mean there are only AI attack, damage calculation

and rework on player attack

The hardest part now is the player attack

Because it's gonna be hard to make it feels good

But once I achieve the goal

I can progress with the next step -> Prototype

Well my plan is just to finish this tech demo

So the prototype gonna be my next project

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END 1013PM

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2021 December 11st
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0153AM

I slept like the whole day yesterday

Well it's not straight up sleep

rather sleep -> awake -> sleep

I woke up at around midnight

I spent some time looking at information

about stuffs to implement bouncy ball

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I got a cup of black coffee

and a row of crackers

At first I thought about eating some instant noodle

But I'm refrain from that

Cuz don't wanna have stomachache

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I casually work on the project while enjoy my time

And yeah it's pretty smooth time

And it seems my first objective is completed

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The next thing should be how to make AI shoot

Well the logic kinda works now so it's fine

But I have to implement the task

I'm still not sure how should I implement it yet

It's been quite a long time since I did the spawn projectile

Well it's just small thing though

I'll just need to find some information about it

For now I'll call it a day for dev work

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END 0213AM

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1029AM

I feels like I wanna finish this part of work

So that I could spend my time to analyze it

I think there will be some difficulty

Because of how I want it to work

But if I don't actually care about that

I think it's pretty simple to make it works

Well I'll start to work after I get some food

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END 1035AM

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0152PM

I made the projectile shoot toward player

Well it's shoot in front of AI

And AI is looking at player

But the problem is it won't notice the terrain

It seems that the ball will only hit player right now

I don't know what the problem is yet

On the other hand

If I enable simulate physics

the ball won't launch

but it'll notice terrain

Right now I have to choose one

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About the AI

At first it won't stop moving even after aborted

So I forced it to stop by using move to self

so that it'll stop once the condition met

It works as intended so there is no problem here

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Well let's just allow it pass because it doesn't matter

I won't try to work with physics for long

In the future there will be only particles anyway

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So the next part is to integrate damage system

To both player and AI to interact with each others

But I'll just do it later

Cuz I'm pretty sleep, it's been 14 hours

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END 0202PM

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I notice that there are a lot of typo problems but I won't try to fix them

part of it is that I think this week I worked a bit too hard

even though I'm trying to take it easy and prevent the burnout

When I realized that I'll take the sunday off and start the planning for next week on monday

It's like 2 weeks left before christmas so I want to enjoy the holiday

I hate when the work is not done while resting

If I don't finish in time maybe I should just embrace the fact that things won't go as planned?

Well I should always keep that in mind

But I'll do everything in my power to achieve my goals