Creating an Enemy

Creating the Character & Setting up the Components

1. Create a new blueprint derived from Soulslike Enemy (B_Soulslike_Enemy).

1. Assign your character mesh & the relevant Animation Blueprint you'd like to use:

If your character is Epic skeleton compatible, you can use the Animation Blueprint & the Animation Blendspace provided by Soulslike Framework.

1. (Optional) If your character will be using weapon(s), add a Child Actor Component to your Mesh. Select the world actor (derived from B_Item_Weapon_AI) for the weapon you'd like your enemy to use:

For more information about creating AI Weapons, check out our guide on Creating & Editing Weapons for AI.

1. (Optional) Setup your loot table for the enemy under the AC_LootDropManager component. For more information, read about the Loot Drop Manager component here.

1. Setup movement speed & stats/attributes for your enemy under the AC_StatManager component. Additionally, you can override any stat/attribute you want and adjust their values from this component. For more information, read about the Stat Manager component here.

1. Setup AI behavior for your enemy under the AC_AI_BehaviorManager component. For more information, read about the AI Behavior Manager component here.

1. Finally, setup combat related data for your enemy under the AC_AI_CombatManager component. For more information, read about the AI Combat Manager component here.

If your Enemy character will not be using a weapon, ensure that you fill in the Unarmed category correctly under AC_AI_CombatManager.

Creating AI Abilities

Soulslike Framework uses a data-asset based, scored ability system for every enemy's abilities. To create new abilities, click on the Soulslike Framework dropdown and select the AI Ability Creator:

For each ability, you can define the corresponding montage, its score (weight based), its cooldown and custom rules. For more information on creating montages & utilizing notifies, check out our Setup Custom Montages page.

After creating the ability, do not forget to assign it to your enemy's AC_AI_CombatManager!

Advanced: New/Custom Ability Rules

The framework provides two rules - Distance (FAiRuleDistance) & Stat (FAiRuleStat). These rules are structures that contain relevant data. They are located in /SoulslikeFramework/Structures/AI/Rules.

With the use of Instanced Structures, you can create your own rules by creating a new structure with the relevant data and adjusting the EvaluateAbilityRule() function inside AC_AI_CombatManager.

Example #1 - Target (player) Stat Rule

For this example, we'll create a rule which is capable of checking any Stat of the player. Start by duplicating the FAiRuleStat rule and rename it appropriately (or just create a new struct):

Next, adjust the EvaluateAbilityRule() function to take into consideration this new rule we created:

Finally, utilize the rule in any AI Ability you have:

After the player's health drops below 95%, enemy can no longer execute the ability - thus strafing randomly.

Example #2 - Input Reading Rule

For this example, we'll create a rule that is capable of reading player input. Start by creating a new structure and name it appropriately - lets say FAiRulePlayerInput:

For this rule, we want to keep track of the actions the player is executing. We can retrieve this from the AC_InputBuffer component of the player. We will bind to the OnInputBufferConsumed delegate in the Input Buffer Component to detect when an action has been performed. You can do this anywhere you like, but for this example, we'll do it inside AC_AI_BehaviorManager's SetTarget() method:

Now that we're keeping track of the recently triggered actions of the player, we can utilize this new property we created (MostRecentPlayerActionInput) on the AC_AI_CombatManager's EvaluateAbilityRule() method:

Add the new rule to the AI ability you want to use:

Enemy will now dodge when player attacks!