Problems with constrain attribute vs interpolate

Goodnight Games · August 2012

So I've been building a combo system for my game. It works by reseting to the comboTime to 15 every time the player kills an enemy (change attribute comboTime to 15). The comboTime is being constantly drained as soon as a combo becomes active.

The logic I'm using for this is:

Rule: Attribute game.comboTime > 0 then constrain attribute game.comboTime to game.comboTime -.1

The first time it runs it won't constantly subtract it will only subtract once. Every time after this however, it'll continuously subtract like it's supposed to.

I've used interpolate and this works perfectly every time except for the fact I can't reset the duration/time when a new enemy is killed as it will only go to completion.

Does anyone know a work around so I can get constrain attribute to fire right the first time it runs? Thanks!

gyroscope · August 2012

@neondevil

Hi, I'm thinking the Constrain Behaviour isn't right to use in this case, particularly as you want comboTime to change over time. (Although I guess there is a constraint of sorts then, but with a time value....)

Anyway, first decide the length of time you want before the max. comboTime runs out; for instance: if this time is 7.5 seconds, then

Rule: When comboTime > 0
Timer: Every 0.05 seconds ----- 7.5 divided by 150
Change Attribute comboTime to comboTime-0.1

This can be interrupted too, if you needed, by adding an AND to the When rule, a boolean to act as an on/off switch. (Unlike the Interpolate Behaviour which you've discovered you can't interrupt... ;-) )

Goodnight Games · August 2012

@gyroscope

Awesome! I'm a little bit confused. So my rule would be:

Rule: When comboTime > 0 AND boolean = true
Timer: So for me this would be 18/150
Change Attribute (That is inside the timer) comboTime to comboTime-0.1

Then in my enemy I would be setting the boolean to false everytime it hits with a timer to set it back to true after like .05 seconds so everything resets?

Thanks so much for the help!

gyroscope · August 2012

You're welcome, and you've got it, yes. :-) Except to say, you'll have to add the reset conditions. So:

Rule: When comboTime > 0 AND boolean +true
Timer: Every 0.12 seconds
---put inside timer --Change Attribute comboTime to comboTime-0.1 ---run to completion unchecked

When boolean is false
--if needed --- Timer After .05 seconds
Change Attribute comboTime to 18
----and if you wanted the top rule to kick in again as well---
Change Attribute boolean to true

Goodnight Games · August 2012

@gyroscope

So the when boolean is false change the comboTime attribute to 18 etc would go next to the rule that subtracts. Would I also need an and statement in there to make sure it doesn't go off when a combo isn't happening like:

When boolean is false AND comboCounter(What I use to count hits) > 0 then do everything

Or will everything be alright on that front?

Then inside the enemy all I would be to set the boolean to false and the rest will take care of itself.

Thanks again for this, I've been struggling with this for weeks.

gyroscope · August 2012

@neondevil

You're welcome; I hope it works out for you... :-)

So, presuming the Rules above are in your player; and the following is in each of your enemy's Rules:

(I don't know if the enemy is killed by a collision or bullet, or what, but assume it's by collision):

When Actor overlaps or collides with actor of type Player
Change attribute boolean to false

This will trigger the 2nd rule in the actor beginning with - when boolean is false, and includes changing comboTime back to 18 (aah, I put 15, I'll change that in a minute!) then changing boolean to true again; which, in turn, triggers the top rule to start the countdown fresh again...

Problems with constrain attribute vs interpolate

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