How to Customize the FPS Template in Unreal Engine 5.6

How to Customize the FPS Template in Unreal Engine 5.6? I’ll be honest — I didn’t expect to spend my Saturday elbow-deep in AI blueprints. But if you’ve ever worked with Unreal’s default first-person shooter template, you know it doesn’t exactly roll out the red carpet when it comes to working enemy behavior.

So here’s what went down: I cracked open the new FPS template, hit “Play,” and just stood there while the enemies stared into the void. I shot them. They blinked at me. No movement. No response. Not even a death animation.

Clearly, something had to change.

How to Customize the FPS Template in Unreal Engine 5.6?

The issue was hidden in the AI controller settings. Here’s how I sorted it:

• Right-clicked the enemy AI blueprint
• Selected Edit Blueprint
• Searched for “Controller” in the Details panel
• Found the AI Controller Class set to the generic “AIController”
• Switched it over to BP_AI_Controller (the one that’s actually wired to do something)

Compiled, saved, and hit Play again — and boom. Suddenly the AI woke up, locked eyes, and started chasing me like it meant business.

One even shot me in the face. Which was… satisfying, in a weird way. Like watching your kid finally ride a bike — except the bike has guns.

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Swapping Out The Vanilla Characters & Weapons

Now that my enemies weren’t statues anymore, I wanted to give them — and the whole game — a new look.

So I grabbed the Military Weapon Dark Pack (it’s free, by the way — just search it), and dropped the extracted folders into my project’s Content folder. That gave me new models for both characters and weapons. Perfect.

But here’s the thing: swapping a mesh isn’t plug-and-play.

I tried replacing the character mesh directly in the AI blueprint… and it looked like someone put a mannequin through a paper shredder.

Solution? Retargeting.

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Retargeting Animations Without Losing Your Mind

Here’s how I did it:

1. Found the animation blueprint for the current setup — in my case, it was ABP_TP_Rifle
2. Right-clicked it, chose Retarget Animations
3. Selected the new character model as the target
4. Exported everything into the “Military Weapon Dark” folder

Once done, I reassigned the mesh and animation blueprint in the AI character — and everything started lining up beautifully. The character actually moved like a person, not a broken doll.

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Fixing Floating Weapons (aka The Classic Socket Nightmare)

Next up: weapon placement. My new rifle was floating somewhere near the AI’s ankles like a lost dog.

So I:

• Opened the character skeleton
• Previewed an idle rifle animation
• Created a new socket on the right hand (using the same name as the default: hand_r_grip)
• Attached the rifle mesh, rotated it carefully
• Turned off rotation and grid snapping to fine-tune the position

After saving that, everything looked tight. Gun in hand, no awkward floaty nonsense.

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Replacing Weapon Meshes in Blueprints & Pickups

To change the actual weapons used in the game, I had to dig into the blueprints:

1. Opened BP_Weapon_Rifle in the FirstPersonBluePrints → Pickups folder
2. Swapped out the default skeletal mesh with the new Assault Rifle B
3. Did the same thing for the pistol using Pistol B

Then came the data table — the place where the weapon pickups pull their display meshes:

• Located the WeaponList DataTable
• Replaced the static meshes with my new ones (had to create static versions of the new guns first)

Once I hit Play, the pickups were showing the right models, the AI was using the new weapons, and everything clicked together.

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Final Polish: A Functional Combat Test

To wrap it all up, I duplicated a few AI actors in the scene using good old Alt + drag to test how things performed under fire.

And man — seeing those new characters respond, fire back, and drop with custom meshes and proper animations? Felt like magic. Or at least, really satisfying hard work paying off.

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In Short

This wasn’t just a bug fix. It was a full-on transformation of a stock FPS project into something that feels playable, polished, and custom-built.

If you’re messing around with Unreal Engine’s shooter templates, don’t settle for what’s handed to you. Fix what’s broken, and shape it into something that feels yours.

And yeah — AI that shoots back? Pretty essential.

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