Buu's Swords
Released: June 8, 2016
Tags: Lua, SWEP, Blender, 3D Modeling, 3D Animation
Buu's Swords is, as the title states, a collection of swords for Garry's Mod. The game has long had an issue of melee weapons available online being of subpar quality, as typically mod authers would just perform a single hitscan test on the crosshair (many not even taking into account the travel time of the weapon in the animation). I opted for something better, and evolved it into a full melee combat system reminiscent of Dark Souls. The weapons in this addon can swung at different speeds depending on the sword's weight and handling (typically switching the sword to a two hand grip will be faster and hit harder), and if the user times their inputs correctly they can chain together multiple swings. However, the addon also provides users the ability to block with the swords or with a shield, and this can be used to parry attacks to then give the user a a chance to counter. A user can also counter opponents who are blocking too much by breaking their guard.
Since this weapon system was the first of its kind, I decided to design it to target roleplay servers and chose to sell it on a Garry's Mod addon marketplace known as gmodstore. Because of this target audience, I also designed the addon to be very customizable, allowing server owners to configure the different abilities (blocking without a shield, parrying, backstabbing, etc...), features such as the weapon durability, options regarding shields (do shields block all damage? Do players lose shields upon death? etc...) among many other things. The source code is similarly heavily documented and even provides suggestions as to what functions can be used for what features a server owner might want to implement (for instance, a stamina mechanic). The addon was designed to work with roleplay gamemodes such as DarkRP, NutScript, Clockwork, and Helix, but it also works in many other sandbox-derived gamemodes out of the box.
One of the selling points of the addon is also its Weapon Designer tool, which allows server owners to create swords and shields out of weapon models available in their server. This allows a server to have its own unique weapons with zero programming or modeling experience required from the server owner.
I had plans for a few other updates for this addon, such as a blacksmithing system (to go with the weapon durability mechanics), support for projectile weapons like bows and crossbows, and support for polearms. I ended up not really doing these upgrades because I shifted my focus away from Garry's Mod, as well as customer support not being a very fun experience. Despite how long the addon has been around, it is still unmatched in terms of quality and mechanics, and is still the go-to choice for medieval-themed game servers.
