Hero Counterattacks

Post by **Bob the Hamster** » Sat Dec 23, 2017 2:56 am

Starting with tonight's nightly build, you will be able to give heroes counter-attacks:

Later I hope to add the ability to override these with equipment, and maybe override them by being hit with attacks, but that will have to wait for another day.

Foxley · Post by **Foxley** » Sat Dec 23, 2017 4:01 am

WHAAAAAAAaaaAAAGHGHGHGHFHGGHGHghghgh (what's next, Petrify and Plague?)

This is awesome. I am very happy right now.

SwordPlay · Post by **SwordPlay** » Sat Dec 23, 2017 4:16 am

oh happy day~

Foxley · Post by **Foxley** » Sat Dec 23, 2017 4:21 am

Also, there's a way to do fake if-elses using attack chaining, and you should be able to emulate any conditional counterattack using tags.

[s]Basically:
* Make an attack that is only used to chain to the real counterattack (i.e. one that does return damage or heals/buffs the counterattacker), and assign this as the counterattack to whatever element.
(e.g. Attack 0 "CSlashChk" will chain to Attack 1 "CntrSlash")

* Set the Regular Chain conditional to a Tag Check corresponding to the piece of equipment that turns on this tag (or any conditional you want)
(e.g. check Tag 2 'Sword is equipped')

* Set the Else Chain to 100% always go to the next "checking attack" that the hero will have available, and have this chain to its corresponding "real" counterattack
(e.g. Attack 2 "CBashCheck", Attack 3 "CountrBash", check Tag 3 'Club is equipped')

* Repeat steps 2 and 3 for each counterattack possibility determined by tags/equipment. The last attack in the series will of course Else Chain to nothing.[/s]

EDIT:
That was actually kind of garbage. Here's a way better method that I just tested with good results.

* Set the counterattack to whatever the first possible attack can be (e.g. CounterSlash, CounterBash, CounterStab)

* Set the Instead Chain for each one to 100% chain to the second possible counterattack, with a Tag Check seeing if the tag required to do that attack is OFF (e.g. Tag 2 'Sword is equipped' is OFF)

* At the very last possible counterattack in the series, have it Instead Chain to Nothing if the appropriate tag is OFF.

This is much better, you don't have to do a "checking" attack and the real attack as well.

Nathan Karr · Post by **Nathan Karr** » Sat Dec 23, 2017 8:26 am

Oooh, I'll finally be able to make spiked armor work!

RMZ · Post by **RMZ** » Sat Dec 23, 2017 1:07 pm

Merry sliming Christmas to me!!!!

THANK YOU! Now I can get these ninjas to be comic-book accurate! From your Secret Santa present in Volume 1, you can see firsthand the opportunity of them making a SUPER BULLET!

The Wobbler · Post by **The Wobbler** » Sat Dec 23, 2017 4:30 pm

I'm glad I've been slow with Kaiju work now, because this is going to make the next hero way easier to set up. Thanks!

Foxley · Post by **Foxley** » Sat Dec 23, 2017 4:44 pm

Something I just thought of: will the Counter/Ctr stat become useful now?

MorpheusKitami · Post by **MorpheusKitami** » Sat Dec 23, 2017 5:04 pm

This is certainly going to make clones of SMT easier on the player half. Although, if both the enemy and the player have a counter to the same attack, will the game notice this and automatically cut it off?

Post by **Bob the Hamster** » Sat Dec 23, 2017 5:59 pm

Foxley wrote:Something I just thought of: will the Counter/Ctr stat become useful now?

The hero counterattacks work just like the enemy counterattacks, and they don't use the counter stat.

Hmmm... Although as soon as I add editor support for zzo38's new "Custom Aim Math" feature, it will become fairly easy to do counterattacks based on the Counter stat

For example, you could give your hero a counterattack that is self-targetting, and has an accuracy based on the counter stat. Then if the attack does not miss, it could chain to the actual counterattack.

I also realize that I really need to add a new attack "Prefer Target" option like "Last enemy to deal damage" or "Last attacker to trigger a counterattack"

MorpheusKitami wrote:This is certainly going to make clones of SMT easier on the player half. Although, if both the enemy and the player have a counter to the same attack, will the game notice this and automatically cut it off?

You can definitely get your hero and an enemy in an endless counterattack loop. (It was already possible to get two enemies in an endless counterattack loop)

I'm not sure what the best way is to allow attacks that only have a limited number of counterattacks. I'll have to think about that one.

The Wobbler · Post by **The Wobbler** » Sun Dec 24, 2017 12:45 am

I'm testing different counters and everything works great so far! Only thing I really need is a plotscripting option, if there isn't one already, for setting hero counters.

Foxley · Post by **Foxley** » Sun Dec 24, 2017 12:56 am

Maybe add a bitset to an attack definition "Cannot counter a counterattack" that will cause it to be ignored/skipped if it's invoked by a counterattack? Could even put the onus on the user by making a "Counterattack" bitset to go along with it.

SwordPlay · Post by **SwordPlay** » Sun Dec 24, 2017 2:09 am

I think you can escape an endless loop by setting/checking a tag to check if counter-attacks are occurring. You can Instead-chain to turning this tag off and end the loop. *idea* would be a lot easier with mass-editing entries or being able to define templates.

You could use an element 'counter' to better map your counter chains.
Will multiple counter attacks occur against multiple elements in a single attack? One counter attack for each element?

Post by **Bob the Hamster** » Sun Dec 24, 2017 2:51 pm

Yes, I do need to add both of those things. Script commands for reading/writing counterattacks, and a way to limit counterattack back-and-forth

FyreWulff · Post by **FyreWulff** » Sun Dec 24, 2017 8:13 pm

End of an era! That counter stat's just been sitting there for two decades now.