3rd Person Update

So have been working with the 3rd person aspect of the game. So far it is going good. Finally got done with the combo system. Got the model and animation from the asset store to test out and will be replaced later or developed upon it. Was also working on the visual effects on the combo system. So far looking good, will try to do the movements as well.

The Effect:

1. The ground rocks -  For the rock particle effects I used mesh as particles and made them have collision enabled so that they don't go through the ground and instead stays on it. I also set "Gravity Modifier" to 1  and "Velocity over life time" between (2, -10, 5) to (-2, -1, -5) to get the ground shatter look. Enabled the "Size over lifetime" and messed around with it till I got the perfect look. Also there are like 5 of them and each one is in-front of another and I used "Burst - Time" in Emission to tell when they will be activated so looks like the ground is shattering as the Slash is going through the ground.

2. The small lava fountain burst - This is the part where small lava burst happens along the rocks. For this I just used a small dot/particle material to get the look and enabled Trails. Like "The ground rocks" I used gravity and velocity over life time but didn't use collision because I kept its life time at 1.5 with "Size over lifetime". Also like "The ground rocks" there are 5 of them and each is controlled with the Burst Time under Emission.

3. Lava trail - This is the part that makes it look like a lava trail is formed by the slash/projectile. For this one I used a smoke like material. It has low life time as well. Like the two above it there are 5 of them and each again controlled by the Burst - Time under Emission. When all three are combined they give the illusion as if the particles are created as the Slash/Projectile goes through the ground.

4. Slash/Projectile - This is the particle that gets thrown at the end of the combo. The material is a Slash material. I disabled the Shape because I wanted the particle to be made at the centre. Also changed the "Render Alignment" to "Local" under "Renderer" so that it looks like a 3D object. Enabled "Lights" and added a Point Light to it so it looks like light is being produced from it. As for it travelling, I just made a small script that makes it go forward and destroys it once it has stopped emitting.

5. Sword Flame - For this one I used the Default-Particle material. For the Shape I used a box shape with the length of the sword and placed it in the Sword GameObject of the character. Then changed the emission from "Rate over Time" to "Rate over Distance" so that when the sword moves around only then the particles will be emitted and giving a small trail. Also changed the "Simulation Space" to "World". The sword flames are enabled from Animation Event from the 3rd attack move so it gives an elemental build up effect.

6. Flame Aura - This is when the character is about to throw its Slash/Particle a flame like aura is produced. The material for this one is dot/particle material. Enabled "Trails" for this and made them have a bit of "Width over Trail" like about 0.5. I slowed down the simulation speed at start so that it gives an illusion of slow motion. Also slowed down the animation for this attack move and gave an Animation Event(right before throwing the projectile) which calls for getting the simulation speed and animation speed to normal.

7. Sword Slash - This is the slash effect of the sword(NOT the projectile one). It is produced when the character is attacking with the sword. For this I used another Slash material. I changed the size of the particle(Start Lifetime) till it fits nicely. Also gave it a high "Rotation over life time", about 500, to give the illusion that it went with the sword slash. I also added 3 GameObjects in the character where I produce the Sword Slash. I did this so that the sword slash are produced at the right position with the right angle.

8. Animator Controller - Made an animator controller which handles the link of the combo moves. For the fourth combo move I made a Blend Tree state so that I could give the slow motion effect to the animation.

9. Combo System - Made a combo system script of my own which takes care of the combo moves and links. This is also where all the particle effects are produced or called to be produced, normal speed to slow motion vise verse, etc.

NOTE:
I was also thinking of going one week on the 3rd person and one week on the other part of the game so that they both gets developed at steady pace. I did add new features to the strategy part of the game and will try to show case that as well if rendering doesn't want to be a giant pain in the butt.

K Out!