Providing some variable input
While writing the grapple ability, I wasn't sure where to put the code for the swapping between dash and grapple and that gave me an idea on how to improve the code in the game. Throughout the code we had a large number of Input.GetKeyDown checks, which were insanely repetitive and did not properly describe what the key was being used for.
This is the script I ended up making:
using System;
using UnityEngine;
public class PlayerInput : MonoBehaviour
{
//Movement Input
public bool moveLeft {get; private set;}
public bool moveRight {get; private set;}
public bool jumpKey {get; private set;}
public bool jumpKeyReleased {get; private set;}
//Movement Ability
public bool moveAbilityInput {get; private set;}
public bool moveAbilityInputRelease {get; private set;}
public bool grappleSelected {get; private set;}
public bool dashSelected {get; private set;}
//Combat Abilities
public bool meleeInput {get; private set;}
public bool punchAbilityInput {get; private set;}
public bool eatAbilityInput {get; private set;}
public bool bombAbilityInput {get; private set;}
//General UI Inputs
public bool consumeItem1Input {get; private set;}
public bool consumeItem2Input {get; private set;}
public bool interactInput {get; private set;}
public bool toggleMapInput {get; private set;}
public bool inventoryInput {get; private set;}
private void Start()
{
dashSelected = true;
}
private void Update() {
moveLeft = Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.A);
moveRight = Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.D);
jumpKey = Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.Space);
jumpKeyReleased = Input.GetKeyUp(KeyCode.Space);
meleeInput = Input.GetMouseButtonDown(0);
moveAbilityInput = Input.GetMouseButton(1);
moveAbilityInputRelease = Input.GetMouseButtonUp(1);
punchAbilityInput = Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.LeftShift);
eatAbilityInput = Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.Q);
bombAbilityInput = Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.E);
consumeItem1Input = Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.Alpha1);
consumeItem2Input = Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.Alpha2);
interactInput = Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.W);
toggleMapInput = Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.M);
inventoryInput = Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.I);
NextAbilityScroll();
}
private void NextAbilityScroll()
{
if (Input.mouseScrollDelta.y != 0)
{
grappleSelected = !grappleSelected;
dashSelected = !dashSelected;
}
}
}This script allowed us to keep track of all the key binds in one place and change them if necessary, possibly opening up the possibility for player changed key binds if we had time.
The reason I made all the inputs {get; private set;} was to prevent any external scripts modifying the key by accident. The only small annoyance with this would be that when making a new system that requires an input, you would have to go to this file to add it, but I still think this script is a better way of doing it.
Combat buff: 3-Hit Combo
One of the main pieces of feedback was that our combat was very easy and boring. The first thing I set out to change was the melee attack by adding a 3-hit combo that the player could perform in quick succession.
Before I started, I wanted to alter how the melee attack was called, as it was instantly called when the player pressed the attack button. However, this did not link with the animation, where the player did not punch until the second frame, so it didn't make much sense. I used an animation event to achieve this, this event is triggered by the animation itself on the second frame. When the player presses the attack button, it will set the animator bool for attacking to true and begin the attack animation, which triggers this code when the event is called:
private void AttackAnimationEvent()
{
canAttack = false;
Debug.Log("This Attack is: " + currentAttackNumber);
MeleeAttack();
}This event then triggers the melee attack method:
void MeleeAttack()
{
Collider2D[] enemiesHit = Physics2D.OverlapCircleAll(attackPointTrans.position, attackRadius);
foreach(Collider2D Enemy in enemiesHit)
{
Enemy.GetComponent<EnemyStats>()?.OnHit(baseAttackDamage + UpgradeDamage, this.gameObject);
}
comboTimer = maxcomboTimer;
inComboWindow = true;
}I like this way of doing the attack as it allows us to add a delay before attacking, making the animation and the code more consistent. One issue with this system however, is that having the animator Boolean set to true, moves over to the attack animation but will also loop the attack animation if not disabled, which I fixed by adding another animation even that resets the attack Boolean to false.
Onto the Combo system, when the animation triggers the melee attack is begins a timer, which acts as a combo window so if the player represses the attack button within that window it will trigger the next attack:
private void HandleComboTimer()
{
if(inComboWindow == true)
{
if (comboTimer >= 0)
{
comboTimer -= 1 * Time.deltaTime;
if(playerInput.meleeInput)
{
if (currentAttackNumber < 3)
{
currentAttackNumber ++;
inComboWindow = false;
animator.SetInteger("AttackNumber", currentAttackNumber);
}
else if (currentAttackNumber == 3)
{
comboTimer = 0;
StartCoroutine(MeleeCooldown());
}
}
}
else if (comboTimer <= 0)
{
currentAttackNumber = 1;
animator.SetInteger("AttackNumber", currentAttackNumber);
animator.SetBool("IsAttacking", false);
StartCoroutine(MeleeCooldown());
inComboWindow = false;
}
}
}One of the main issues with this way of doing it is that sometimes it would not be reset when performing other actions mid combo, like dash, dying or getting hit. So I had to create a method that those actions can call to reset the combo manually. This is not a great way to do it as this couples the code, instead i should have made an event for each of those abilities that this script could listen out for and then reset the combo window. Another problem, is that the player can still move while performing this combo so I may look into either reducing move speed or stopping the movement.
Enemy Respawn:
We wanted the enemies in the game to respawn when resting at a checkpoint similar to souls-like games. This was simple since the enemies themselves were not destroyed when killed but simply disabled and hidden, so it was just a case of reenabling them. I also had the enemies save their original location and return to it when they were respawned, as some enemies would wander far away from where they were meant to be. I also reset their colour back to white as they were set to become red when they take damage and then a coroutine would change them back but when they die, the coroutine does not finish, so they respawned red.
One issue with disabling them on death is that sometimes, their AI movement would stop working and they would just stand there. I believe this is something to do with their current state within the script not being reset. One way I considered to respawn the enemies would be to just instantiate enemies at the respawn positions, as that would reset their AI. Originally I dismissed this idea as it would not work with the save system, as it saved whether each unique enemy was dead when saving the game, so making new enemies would overflow that system and cause a big save file, but now that enemies are respawned, there is no longer a need to save whether or not they are dead, so this could work..
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