Attack/Combo Counter - have any of you implemented something of the sort?

PBoTG

Have any of you implemented a combo/hit counter in your battles? I don't believe it's something in the tutorials but I'm wondering if it's something possible through Ork or should I just try to program it myself lol.

gamingislove

No, there's nothing like that in the tutorials, but you can add this as a custom system using the event system (i.e. the battle events that animate your actions) and variables.

You'd basically increase the hit counter in your battle events each time you hit the target. E.g. the Calculate node can optionally have next slots for hit and miss, so you can make sure to only count actual hits there. The counter itself would be a global float variable and can be displayed by an Information type HUD (using text codes). The HUD can also be shown/hidden based on variable conditions (e.g. on the counter being greater than 0 or a bool variable to toggle it on/off). At the end of the action you'd reset the counter to 0.

PBoTG

Hi again! I figure I can piggy back off of my own thread, but I'm wondering what the best way to make the combo counter disappear if the player hasn't landed a hit within a certain amount of seconds.

example: Player hits Player hits Combo is now 2 player/party stops hitting within 2 seconds counter resets to 0

I'm assuming I can start with a global event at the very least that checks when a combo was last landed...? Maybe with time elapsed - a global event will check if the playerCombo variable is above one hit, and then after that, perhaps another variable to track that combo if more than 2 seconds have elapsed, then reset it back to 0?

gamingislove

Generally, for checking if the last hit was X time ago, you'd set a global float variable (or on the same variable origin you set the combo counter) to the current game time (value type) + the offset you want. So, for 2 seconds, it'd be offset 2.

Now, to check if the time passed, you can use a Check Value node, checking the float game variable you've stored being less than the current game time (with 0 offset).

When or how you do that depends on how your system is overall working. You could e.g. have a global event run each second (or 0.1 seconds, etc.) to do the check and reset the counter.

PBoTG

Ok great. I'll try something like that and get back to you.

Now my next question is something I've asked before but I can't find the answer so I guess I'll ask again!

Is there any way I can shortcut a target selection battle menu to a key? That way I could choose the target and lock on attacks without the target menu coming up every time I attack like it did did before!

gamingislove

Yes, the individual/group targets (see Battle System > Target Settings). Individual targets are only available for the combatant who selected it (e.g. the player), the group targets are available for the whole (player) group.

For your action selections (e.g. in the battle menu or via control maps), you also need to enable using individual/group targets :)

PBoTG

Thanks! I'm gonna continue piggybacking off this thread if that's okay.

1) It appears my characters actions aren't targetting the enemy they targetted. I.E, I go to hit enemy a, but the log says I hit enemy b, despite the damage dealer hitting enemy a. My character also will face this character despite not being targetted to that one. It's almost like the attack is targetted to that rather than the actual target?

2) Is there a way in battle events to see if party members are hitting the same enemy as the player? I wanna make sure the combo counter goes up only if everyone's hitting the same enemy.

gamingislove

1) Depends on which console text it is, e.g. the Perform Action Texts is added to the console when the action is starting, so whatever target was set at that time will be printed. Since you're using damage dealers, this might not be the same target as the one that was hit.

2) Hm, probably using selected data. The Select Combatant allows you to get targets via the Combatant Origin setting.

PBoTG

Hm... I'll try out the selected data.

Is there anyway to switch the selected target depending on which enemy was just hit by the damage dealer? o:

Edit 1) for selected data, what would I put for selected key? I'm assuming I would use all combatants for combatant settings and perhaps last target for the origin?

2)I've noticed a glitch with scene changing and I'm not sure if it's happened to anyone else.

For my battles, I have a white color for fading. Every other scene transition has a black fade. If I do one battle, all of my scene transitions are faded white as opposed to black. If I don't do any battles, it stays as normal. Any idea what could be happening?

gamingislove

The Change Action Targets node is available in battle events to change the target of the action. Abilities/items can also use battle events to animate damage dealer hits, so that should be possible. I don't think it's possible to change the group/individual target of a combatant, though.

1) You can pot whatever key you want, like variable keys it's up to you and onnly used to access the data again. I've thought a bit more about your combo counter, and I think a better solution would be having a counter on the target instead. I.e. using object variables, the target's counter would increase with a hit. If this is somewhat time based (e.g. only hits within 2 seconds count and otherwise reset the counter), you can use an additional float variable storing the current game time + 2 seconds. Before increasing the counter, you'd check if the stored time is less than the current game time (i.e. more than 2 seconds passed).

2) That's due to there only being one actual screen fader - so if one changes the color (i.e. also fading red, green and blue) and the next one only fades alpha value, the color will still be the same. You might want to change your screen fading to fade all values (red, green, blue and alpha) to make sure they're the correct color :)

PBoTG

Thanks! Fixed the fading.

I have the time based for the combo all set up and working - I suppose I should just add it to the target then so its not focusing on every target.

Though I still do have an issue with targeting and I think that won't work until I fix it?

I tried a ranged magic attack that should hit it's target - but it ignores the target I'm targeted to and goes to a different one instead. Which I think may be related to the log showing a different target then the one my icon is over. I'm not too sure how to fix that!

gamingislove

There could be different reasons for that, e.g.:

group/individual target not allowed for that ability (although you'd have to actively set it up that way)
source calling the action (e.g. battle menu, control maps) not set up to use group/individual targets
target out of range and using auto targeting instead

I'd need to see your settings to say more ... or a small Unity test project where it happens :)

PBoTG

Ok if this doesn't help debug it I'll make a test project later today!

Then a video with targetted/attacks and spells showing they don't hit the target I switched to o:

gamingislove

Based on the settings, I'd say that this is due to using both group and individual targets.

The cursor marks your combatant's individual target, but the group target isn't marked by any cursor, so it could be a different combatant without you knowing (since it's auto selected and doesn't use any way to change it). The actions are probably used on the group target.

I'd recommend to either only use group or individual targets, or if you want to have a group target for your your other party members and the player attacking an individual target, disable using group targets in the battle menu or control map :)

Edito: Also, next update will add an event node to change group/individual targets of a combatant.

PBoTG

It was autotargetting on the control map as opposed to using the enemy under the cursor! fixed.

But now I do have another question that I don't remember if I asked before!

Sometimes my battles don't end. It's like it doesn't register that there are no more enemies. A lot of the time it's if I use a long range attack or a character starts a long range attack as soon as the last enemy is dead. The attack will cast and my party will keep on attacking or doing nothing.

I have no idea how to fix it since when it doesn't happen like that, it's seemingly randomly. If they're not attacking during this, they do nothing. Any idea what's going on?

Or sometimes the attack doesn't cast and they get looped into casting forever without actually hitting anything. I haven't changed the events which work most of the time except when this happens so I'm not sure what's up.

Next is sometimes while switching to different characters in battles, I can't perform any actions but running around. No attacking, no targetting, or opening the menu. If I switch to the next character, the character I was previously controlling continues on with their battle AI though.

gamingislove

Hm ... I'd need a Unity test project where it happens to look into it. Do they keep using new actions or is one of them stuck on an action? I'd guess that one of the battle events from an action is still performing and keeping the battle alive ... or there's still an enemy alive somewhere :)

Which method are you using to switch between combatants?

PBoTG

It can go one of two ways

1) 1 has started to get stuck on an action before a battle ends (I've gone back to backups and haven't changed the event so I'm unsure why lol.) so the other combatants continuously attack nothing 2) One uses an action at the very end of battle and the battle doesn't end while the others do nothing.

To switch combatants I use the button I chose in ork to switch them! I only have it set to the current battle group so it doesn't switch to anyone currently outside of the battle.

I fixed number 1 from happening, but number 2 seems to still happen.

Another issue with switching characters I've noticed and camera events. I use a touch/mouse camera. If I have a camera event, press my button to switch characters while in the collider of an event, and leave that event, the camera doesn't come back on and stays stuck in the last position and no longer follows the player.

I jimmyrigged it by making an event that turns back on the touch camera script when I trigger exit the camera events colliders, but I'm sure there's a better way to go around this. Because now if I do that, if I switch scenes the touch camera is disabled. any idea?

gamingislove

Which battle system are you using?

I'll check out the camera events - switching the player while the player is in one of the events is probably not a use case that's caught by it :)

PBoTG

I'm using real time!.

And okay - I figured that to be the case. Thanks for looking into it :D

gamingislove

Hm, are you using real time areas or regular Battle components? Also, is it always the same action that blocks the battle end or is it different actions?

Camera event will be fixed in the next update :)