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Knight’s Redemption: Melee Combat System
A melee combat system comprising of a light attack, heavy attack, shield block, dodge roll, and a 3-hit combo.
Role: Systems Designer | Technical Designer | Level Designer
Genre: Third-Person | Action | RPG | Fantasy
Platform: PC/ Console
Release Date: In-Development
Knight’s Redemption is a personal Fantasy Action-RPG game that I’m working on. The game centres around a disgraced knight, who ventures into Purgatory to free the souls of his fallen comrades. The Melee Combat System is the core system around which the game is built on.
I was responsible for designing and developing the entire system, the Blueprint Scripting, and Technical Design for the project.
All assets and particles used are kitbashed from the Unreal Marketplace and Megascans. Sounds from Freesound.org. Animations from the Paragon Greystone pack and Mixamo.
Playable Prototype available on itch.io.
Overview
Melee Combat System
Knight’s Redemption revolves around a Melee Combat System consisting of a Light Attack, Heavy Attack, Dodge and Block.
Light Attack
- Quick Attacks, Low Damage.
- Low risk-low reward attack option for players.
Heavy Attack
- High Risk- High Reward attack option for players.
- Slow Attack, Hight Damage
- Consumes Stamina to avoid spamming.
Dodge
- Avoid attacks from enemies.
- Allows players to get to better positions during combat.
- Consumes Stamina to avoid spamming.
Block
- Reduces damage from enemy attack.
- Player still damaged to avoid constant blocking.
Supporting Systems
Enemy AI
- Rushes when in range- promote quick decision making in player.
- Enemy attack telegraphed to player with build-up animation.
- Stunned when attacked- allows players more attack chances.
- Gets stronger as player progresses through the game.
- Drops Souls (Collectibles) when defeated.
Crates
- Blocks player’s path. Destroyed when attacked.
- Drops Souls (Collectibles) when destroyed.
- Gives players incentive to explore the level to collect souls.
Fire Pickup
- Covers player’s sword with fire.
- Increases attack damage- Gives players a means to overcome tougher enemies.
- Causes Fire Damage – Used to clear obstacles/ solve puzzles.
Exploding Barrel
- Barrels explode with time when affected by fire damage.
- Causes radial damage- Player can use to damage enemies/ break weak walls.
- Causes Fire damage- Ignites anything else that can catch fire.
- Explodes immediately if damaged when already ignited.
Switches
- Activates machinery when struck.
- Promotes player interaction with the environment by attacking.
- Used to solve puzzles.
Soul Use
- Souls are the collectible items in the game.
- Used as currency to save the game/ open doors.
- Creates player choice between saving and progressing.
What Worked
- Good balance of fun and challenge.
- Satisfying feedback to the combat.
- System offered variety of approaches to combat.
- Player felt empowered when attacks, dodges and blocks worked.
- Flexible combat system with easy balancing.
- Puzzle and combat encounters were engaging.
What could be improved
- Heavy attack could have radial damage on impact.
- Gameplay could be faster.
- More use of traps and exploding barrel during combat.
- Progression system where souls can be used to improve stats would add more weight to soul usage choice.
- Better telegraph of enemy attack.
- More enemy types/ attack patterns will avoid dominant strategies in combat.
Combat System Breakdown
While advanced combat systems allow multiple ways of fighting, due to the limited time and resources at hand, I stuck to building a system around a head-on melee combat system where the player uses just a sword and a shield.
A good melee combat system should provide the player some variety in the way they deal with an encounter, as well as some depth of mastery engrained in the system for more advanced players.
With that in mind, I broke down the system into three main parts- Attack, Dodge and Block.
Character Stats
- The level, Exp and Max Health stat are not directly relevant to the combat system.
- The Strength Stat is used in determine the damage caused by each attack by the player.
- The Speed stat impacts the speed of each attack as well.
- The defence stat is used to calculate how much health the player loses when they receive damage.
- The Stamina stat relates to the max stamina the player poses, which directly impacts how many times the player can consecutively dodge or how many heavy attacks they can pull off. Player regains 2 stamina every second.
Attack
There are two main mechanics that directly come under the ‘Attack’ component of the Combat System.
- Light Attack
- Heavy Attack
The total damage caused by an attack is a product of the Base Damage of the attack, the Character’s Strength Stat, and any temporary Attack Multiplier.
Total Damage = Base Attack Damage * Strength Stat * Attack Multiplier
The speed of each attack animation is based on the Character’s Speed stat.
Light Attack
Light attacks are fast attacks that do lower damage.
Light attacks done consecutively without interruption result in a combo sequence of up to 3 hits, with each successive hit being slightly more powerful.
Light Attack 1
- Base Damage = 10
- Animation Length = 50 Frames
- Build Up Frames = 0-10
- Attack Frames = 11-23
- Combo Range = 21-34
Light Attack 2
- Base Damage = 15
- Animation Length = 42 Frames
- Build Up Frames = 0-10
- Attack Frames = 11-17
- Combo Range = 23-36
Light Attack 3
- Base Damage = 20
- Animation Length = 56 Frames
- Build Up Frames = 0-16
- Attack Frames = 17-27
- Combo Range = 45-49
The player’s sword applies damage to any actor that can receive damage only within the Attack Frames.
The next hit in the combo sequence is executed when the player hits the attack key within the Combo range Frames. The combo sequence implemented is restricted by the availability of appropriate attack animations.
While executing the light attack, the player can still move around, allowing the player to move to more advantageous positions while continuing to attack.
A light attack can also be canceled by with a block or dodge. This allows the player to avoid receiving damage if the enemy attacks while the player is attacking.
Thus, the intent of the light attack is to allow the player to perform low damage attacks quickly and with lesser vulnerability to being attacked. It is a low risk-low reward means of attacking.
Heavy Attack
The Heavy attack is one slow, yet powerful attack that does significantly higher damage.
- Base Damage = 50
- Animation Length = 56 Frames
- Build Up Frames = 0-24
- Attack Frames = 25-30
- Recovery Frames = 30-56
Each Heavy attack also reduces 25 stamina, ensuring that the player cannot spam the heavy attack continuously.
Hitting an enemy with a heavy attack also causes them to get stunned for 2 seconds.
While executing a heavy attack, the player will not be able to move, nor will they be able to cancel the attack with a dodge, block, or light attack.
Receiving damage during the build-up period of the heavy attack would result in the heavy attack being cancelled while the player still loses 25 stamina.
Thus, a heavy attack allows for a player to execute a slow attack that performs high damage, while making the player more vulnerable to damage due to the inability to move, dodge, or block and there is also a stamina cost to consider. Thus, it is a high-risk-high-reward means of attacking.
Dodge
The dodge component of the melee combat system consists of a single dodge mechanic.
By pressing the dodge button, the player initiates a roll dodge that makes the player impervious to damage while the dodge animation is playing.
- Animation Length = 35 Frames
- Perfect Dodge Frames = 7-11
The dodge component of the melee combat system consists of a single dodge mechanic.
By pressing the dodge button, the player initiates a roll dodge that makes the player impervious to damage while the dodge animation is playing.
- Animation Length = 35 Frames
- Perfect Dodge Frames = 7-11
Perfect Dodge
While being in the enemy attack range, if the player dodges their attack at the right time, a perfect dodge is executed, which doubles the player’s current attack multiplier for 3 seconds.
Attack multiplier = Attack multiplier * 2
This adds some element of mastery in the dodge mechanic by giving an advantage to players who nail the dodge timing.
While the player is dodging, they will be incapable of blocking, attacking, or moving in any other direction.
Block
The block component of the melee combat system consists of a single block mechanic.
- Animation Length = 8 – Infinite
- Block Start Frame = 2
By pressing and holding the block button, the player raises the shield to block attacks. On releasing the block button, the player drops the shield.
While the player is blocking, the temporary defence multiplier is increased to 10. The total damage the player receives is the damage caused divided by the defence multiplier.
The block component of the melee combat system consists of a single block mechanic.
- Animation Length = 8 – Infinite
- Block Start Frame = 2
By pressing and holding the block button, the player raises the shield to block attacks. On releasing the block button, the player drops the shield.
While the player is blocking, the temporary defence multiplier is increased to 10. The total damage the player receives is the damage caused divided by the defence multiplier.
Perfect Block
When the player blocks an enemy attack at the right time, they initiate a perfect block.
A perfect block not only blocks the enemy attack without the player receiving any damage, but also causes the enemy to be stunned for 2 seconds.
In this time, using a light attack causes the player to kick the enemy back 20 units while causing 20 damage to the enemy. This can be used by the player to kick the enemy into the various traps placed around the level, that either damage or kill the enemy.
This again adds some element of depth and mastery to the block by rewarding players who manage to nail the timing of the block with more attack variety.
Melee Combat System Flow
- All the mechanics of the combat system can be initiated from the Idle State at any time.
- It is possible to interrupt the Light Attack with any of the other Mechanics, even in the middle of the combo. This however resets the combo as well.
- While the Heavy Attack, Dodge or Block is being performed, it is not possible to interrupt it at any point.
Feedback System
What makes a combat system really click is the game feel associated with using it. This is achieved at the basic level by implementing a feedback system integrated along with the melee combat system. This feedback system is achieved with visual, sound and gameplay elements in all components of the combat system.
Attack
While executing light attacks, there is a very brief time dilation that occurs the moment the attack connects with anything that can be damaged. This is to emphasize the weight of each attack. Additionally, there is also an impact particle that spawns at the point of contact of the attack.
Heavy attacks do all that and add a camera shake at the end as well to really drive in the weight and power of the heavy attack.
Dodge
Whenever the player executes a perfect dodge, there is a brief time dilation that makes the dodge seem more epic. The player’s sword also spawns a power particle effect right after to indicate that there is a temporary attack buff.
Block
While the player is blocking attacks, sparks occur from the shield to indicate that the attack struck the shield. While executing the perfect block, the shield sparks and a loud metal strike sound occur together to again really sell the block.
