Add or change the dodge¶

The dodge is one array on the combat component. Fill Dodge Montages on a character and that character can dodge. Leave it empty and it never will, and nothing else has to change.

Everything on this page is in one Details panel. Open the character Blueprint, select BP_CombatComponent in the Components list, and look at the Dodge category. The same three fields exist on the player, on the human NPC and on the infected, because it is the same component on all three. See How melee combat works.

The key is IA_Dodge, on Space by default. See Change the controls.

The three fields¶

Field	What it does	Note
`Dodge Montages`	The dodge animations. An empty array means this character cannot dodge.	It is an array, so it can hold more than one
`Dodge I Frame Time`	How long, in seconds, the dodge protects you, counted from the moment it starts
`Dodge Chance`	Chance from 0 to 1 that an AI dodges a strike it sees coming	Read by AI only

What each character ships with:

Character	`Dodge Montages`	`Dodge I Frame Time`	`Dodge Chance`
`BP_PlayerCharacter`	`AM_Combat_Dodge_01`	`1.5`	`0`
`BP_NPCCharacter`	`AM_Combat_Dodge_01`	`1`	`0.35`
`BP_ZombieCharacter`	empty	`1`	`0`

Dodge Chance is 0 on the player because the player dodges on a key press, never on a roll. Raising it on BP_PlayerCharacter does nothing.

The movement comes from the animation¶

There is no dash code, no launch, no curve. The character moves because the dodge montage carries root motion. Distance, direction and speed of the dodge all live in the animation you pick, so a dodge that is too short or too fast is fixed in the animation, not in a field.

Warning

An animation with Enable Root Motion off plays in place. You get the pose and the protection window, and no displacement at all. Nothing logs an error, so this is easy to spend an hour on.

Add your own dodge animation¶

Have your animation as an Anim Sequence on S_HumanoidCharacter. The combat sequences that ship are in Content/TheLastTemplate/Animations/AnimSequences/Characters/Combat/.
Open the sequence and tick Enable Root Motion.
Right click it, then Create, then Create AnimMontage. Save it next to the others, in Content/TheLastTemplate/Animations/Montages/Characters/Combat/.
Open AM_Combat_Dodge_01 and give your montage the same slot. A montage in the wrong slot plays on the wrong half of the body.
Open the character Blueprint and select BP_CombatComponent. Under Dodge Montages, add an element and pick your montage.
Compile, save, and test in the level.

AM_Combat_Dodge_Attack_01 also ships in that folder. It is not assigned to the player, to the human NPC or to the infected, so it is free for you to use or replace.

When the player is allowed to dodge¶

Three things have to be true. All three are honest limits, not bugs.

Empty hands. A gun or a throwable in hand puts the character on a different overlay and the dodge is refused. This check sits on the player, not on the shared component, so it never restricts AI.
An enemy is on you. The dodge needs combat mode, which means an AI that has taken the player as its target, inside Combat Threat Range (500 on BP_PlayerCharacter). It is the same signal that pulls the camera in, so if the combat camera is active you can dodge. See Change the combat camera and the impact feeling.
Not busy. You cannot dodge out of your own punch, out of another dodge, out of a stagger, or out of a finisher.

Waiting for your attack turn does not block a dodge. That was left open deliberately: the attack pacing should delay your next punch, not stop you from getting out of the way.

The window where nothing can touch you¶

Dodge I Frame Time is a plain duration in seconds, started the instant the dodge begins. It is not tied to the length of the montage. A longer animation does not buy you a longer window, and a short one does not cut it short. Tune the two separately.

The protection is targeted. It covers you against the enemy whose strike you dodged, and against that enemy only. A second attacker standing beside them still lands their hit. There is one exception: if no attacker had been identified when you dodged, the window protects you from everyone for its duration. Threat detection runs a few times per second, so this happens on a dodge thrown before anything has been seen.

Keep it under the attacker's `Attack Hold Time`¶

Attack Hold Time is in the same panel, on the attacking character, and it is the gap that character waits before it may strike again. BP_NPCCharacter ships 1.2 with Use Attack Hold on. If your Dodge I Frame Time is longer than that gap, a single dodge also carries you through the enemy's next strike.

The player ships at 1.5, which is above 1.2, so a player dodge currently covers the follow up too. Set it under 1.2 if you want one dodge to buy exactly one strike. Go the other way, past 2, and a well timed dodge makes the player untouchable by that enemy for two swings.

Use Attack Hold is off on BP_PlayerCharacter and on BP_ZombieCharacter. The infected has no hold to compare against, so against infected only the duration matters.

Give a character no dodge at all¶

Leave Dodge Montages empty. That is exactly how the infected ship: BP_ZombieCharacter has an empty array, so it never dodges, and no switch had to be turned off. There is no separate checkbox, and there is no branch per class. The data turns the feature off.

The same applies to any character you build. A new enemy type that should never dodge is a component with one empty array.

Let an AI dodge on its own¶

An AI needs no input. When it sees its current opponent start a strike, and that opponent is within Max Attack Range (220 on all three characters), it rolls once against Dodge Chance. One roll per incoming strike, not one per frame, so raising the value makes dodges more likely and never makes them spammy.

0 never dodges.
0.35, the human NPC value, slips roughly one strike in three.
1 dodges every strike it sees coming, which is very hard to fight.

Dodge Chance and a filled Dodge Montages are both required. Either one missing and the AI stands and takes it.

Two limits to know. The AI only reacts to the opponent it is already fighting, so a strike from a third party is not dodged. And nobody backs off or circles while waiting for their turn, so a dodging NPC steps aside and comes straight back in. For the rest of the melee AI numbers, see Tune melee AI.

Check it works¶

Place a BP_NPCCharacter that is hostile to the player and walk up to it with empty hands. The camera pulling in tells you combat mode is on.
Press Space. The character must travel. If it plays the animation and stays put, root motion is off on the sequence.
Let the NPC swing and press Space as the swing starts. The punch should pass through you.
Set Dodge Chance to 1 on BP_NPCCharacter, then punch at it. It should slip every strike.
Put Dodge I Frame Time at 0.1 on the player and try again. The dodge still moves you, but a strike now connects, which confirms the field is the only thing controlling the window.

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