Melee

Melee attacks utilize Montages with Montage Notify Windows to determine when the Melee trace should occur. Universal Monster uses Montages so that the same animation can be used to create multiple types of attacks. If you were to modify the base Animation instead, this would be triggered every time that Animation is played, whether it is played inside a Montage, as a Dynamic Montage, or as an Animation.

Creating A Melee Attack

Navigate to the Melee attack animations and select the ones you wish to use, then right-click on one, hover over Create, then click Create AnimMontage

New Montage files will be created for you and they will already be selected so you can hit Enter to open them

Press the Pause button to make it easier to find the exact positions to trigger the Melee Hit Trace

Drag the red slider to the frame in which you want the Hit Trace to start, then right-click on the line, under the red slider, in the Notifies section, then hover over Add Notify State and choose Montage Notify Window

Drag the red slider again, this time to where you want the Hit Trace to end, then drag the right side of the AnimNotify to the line under the red slider

Select the AnimNotify, then, in its details, give it a Notify Name, then save the Montage file

You can do multiple Hit Traces during the same Montage

Open your Character Blueprint, select the Mesh

Click Add Component and add a Box Collision Component

Rename it to match the Notify Name from earlier (case-sensitive)

In the Box Collision Component's details, click the magnifying glass under Sockets to attach it directly to a bone, then adjust its Box Extent, Location, and Rotation

In your character's list of components, select BP_UMComponent

Add an attack to the Attacks Array and configure it using the Montage you created earlier

I setup 3 attacks using all 3 Montages I created in the first step. I then chose to Randomize each of them so the character would use a random attack each time, if it is not on cooldown of course. One of the attacks was a combo attack with 2 Hit Traces, so I gave this a cooldown of 3 seconds +/- 0.5 seconds while the other 2 attacks have no cooldown. If you have custom Damage Types, you can use them here. Refer to the Attacks Array section for more information.