Ghoul - Leap and Ground Slam

Author: Zak Levine

Date: April 14, 2023

A big draw to games is the skills and abilities available to the player and the enemy. Many games have implemented a forward leap and ground slam capability to add diversity to the skills. There are two main parts to adding this ability. Those parts are setting up the AI and Player controls and making the abilities themselves.

The leap forward was a simple mechanic that lerps the location from the current locations towards an x offset over time. However, for the AI, I added that if the distance to the player were less than the offset distance, then the Ghoul would be lep straight to the player on the x and y planes instead. The main issue I encountered when setting this portion up was when the AI should leap and set up the player version of the skill. To get the Ghoul to jump towards the player, I set up the AI to leap after the player is in sight and within a range of less than the max offset but greater than 200 distance, this way the Ghoul could jump directly onto the enemy, and start the next portion, the Ground Slam, if available.

The ground slam ability does massive damage to any enemy within its bounds. It also only occurs after a leap if the player holds the button down or the AI's cooldown is over. The most significant issue I had with this skill was the Ghoul being able to either move during the slam or be unable to move after the talent was complete. To fix the first issue, I set the Ghoul's speed to 0 after the ability started and reset it after the ability finished. The fix worked for the AI but did not work for the player because the player would get stuck afterward. I realized the bools for the AI, and for the player were different, so to fix the issue, I needed to add a branch that checked the tag of the Ghoul and set different bools, whether it was the player or the AI. This change fixed the player movement issue, allowing for more functionality that made the ability more consistent.

These skills worked well for the Ghoul and allowed for a more exciting combat experience as the Ghoul and against the Ghoul.

Ghoul Showcase:

Ghoul Possessed Showcase: