Input¶
There are two ways to execute Skills:
- Using the Play Melee Skill instruction.
- Using the Input mechanism and let the Combo decide which Skill to play.
This section focuses on the second one.
How to Input¶
When a character has at least one Weapon equipped with a Combo asset or embedded value, it is ready to receive input commands, and its combat module will decide whether it can play a Skill and which one to run.
There are two instructions to feed characters with:
- Input Charge Instruction should be executed when pressing an attack button/key
- Input Execute Instruction should be executed when releasing an attack button/key
No Charge? No Problem
If your game does not have any charged attacks you might prefer executing the Input Execute directly upon pressing the key, instead of the release, and skipping the Input Charge. This will make the controls feel snappier and responsive, but on the other hand, you won't be able to charge attacks.
The Input mechanism has been engineered to support multi-platforms out of the box. There are 8 abstract bindable keys which are called A, B, C, ... all the way to H.
Keyboard and Gamepads
To allow multi-platform support, simply use Triggers that execute each of the abstract keys from different inputs.
For example, to support both Keyboard and Gamepad controllers, you can use the following Triggers for Keyboards:
- Trigger On Mouse Press [Left Button]: Charge Input A on Player
- Trigger On Mouse Release [Left Button]: Execute Input A on Player
And also add the following Triggers for gamepads:
- Trigger On Gamepad Press [Square Button]: Charge Input A on Player
- Trigger On Gamepad Release [Square Button]: Execute Input A on Player
Input Buffer¶
The Input mechanism supports a technique called input buffering which allows players to input their commands with a slight time window error margin before executing the Skills from the input keys.
Input Buffer for Combos
For example, let's say the player is doing a 3-hit light attack combo. The first time they press the A key, the player character starts playing the skill Light Attack 1, which takes around 1 second to execute.
However, around 0.75 seconds have passed, the player presses the A key again to send the command to do a follow-up Light Attack 2 skill. However, because the first attack hasn't finished, without input buffering the second attack would never start.
With input buffering the input keys are remembered for a maximum amount of time before being consumed.
The Input Buffer window duration can be changed at any time using the Set Buffer Window instruction.
By default it uses a 0.5 seconds window, but if you feel that's too much, you can easily change it with the aforementioned instruction.