[Starlight] Counterattacks + Critical Hits (Patreon)

i did not? expect to have either of these done yet, let alone both.
but things went well, i guess.
so, we've now hit 2/10 of the main mechanics i outlined before that need to be done before the demo.

let's talk about counter-attacks first. players of Fire Emblem or probably most tRPGs will be familiar with these. attacking enemies head-on comes with a risk of being clapped back by them.
i didn't think implementing this would go well because it requires reversing which direction the player's input track is going in combat, and that took some effort... but not nearly as much trouble as i expected. 

you can see the transition from one side attacking to the other in the gif below. i'll be adding a flashier/more noticeable transition for it later, but for now i just want it working.
also the gif filesize is frankly massive and i apologize for that.

we'll also trim down the wait time in there. snappy is important. currently all units counter attack all the time, but once we're further in, they'll only happen when attacking a unit to their front, or certain classes of units from the side. 

the massive gif above also features critical hits, which you can see as the bright orangeish blocks. colors subject to change. 

when attacking, the crit block is a small portion of the normal hit block. hitting the crit block causes the attack to double in damage, but if you're too slow you'll miss the attack entirely. you can see in the above, i hit the first block, crit the second, and missed the third. 

when the player is defending, the enemy can crit as well. when their orange block moves across the input marker, one timed input causes it to transform from a crit block into a normal hit block. a second input before it passes by will cause the attack to be dodged entirely. if the player doesn't hit it at all, then naturally the crit goes through for full damage.
above, i only get one touch on the opponent's crit, so i take normal damage. crit blocks will be somewhat wider than normal hit blocks to give players a chance to hit both inputs, and dodge cooldown does not apply for the first touch. 

that's it for today! parries will be next, and that is likely to be a disaster so please give me your energy.