Sprinkling GAS on Hover Tanks

Gameplay Ability System update (GAS)

An amazing plugin is available for Unreal Engine to manage nearly every aspect of gameplay, including abilities. The system is so robust, almost everything can be done with it that one can think of. The only catch is that it's complicated and requires considerable time and effort to learn.

I've spent the last few weeks gathering information, crawling through documentation and examples, and finally, implementing some of the main features into Hover Tanks.

The previous HealthComponent on the tanks is scrapped, and health is tracked through GAS's Attribute system. Dealing damage happens through GameplayEffects, and a DamageCalculationExecution. 

New feature: Shields

Like in many shooter games, tanks have shields now, which deplete before we take damage to our health. With shields, I could try duration based and infinite GameplayEffects. Tanks have a constant shield recharge, so if we only ever take moderate damage, our shield will regenerate eventually (infinite effect). However, if we get damaged, the recharge does not start for 3 seconds (because of a duration-based debuff).

New ability: Smoke Screen

With a 10-second cooldown, smoke grenades can be thrown around the tank to provide visual cover. A basic new HUD widget shows the cooldown remaining after we use this ability.

Learning and implementing GAS took significant effort, and I've barely scratched the surface for now. Only after these basic examples do I see how robust and powerful it is, and I've already got a lot of ideas for the future. Stay tuned!