Timer help (Game Logic Help!)

julianchiu · December 5, 2013, 5:50am

Hello everybody!

I have this code which activates a “Mole” from appearing and disappearing in different holes. I would like to know if there is a way to make the “Mole” do the same function BUT appear and disappear faster as time progresses. I would really appreciate the replies, thanks!

Code:

– Timer

function startTimer() &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;timerSource = timer.performWithDelay(1000, showMole, 0) end &nbsp;

– Show Mole

function showMole(e)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;if(currentMoles == totalMoles) then &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;alert() &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;else &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;lastBush.isVisible = false &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;local randomHole = math.random(1, 11) &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;lastMole = bushs[randomHole] &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;lastMole:setReferencePoint(display.BottomCenterReferencePoint) &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;lastMole.yScale = 0.1 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;lastMole.isVisible = true &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Runtime:addEventListener('enterFrame', popOut) &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;currentMoles = currentMoles + 1 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;end end &nbsp;

Alex10 · December 5, 2013, 11:49am

You could try using a variable as the timer limit and increase it with each successful function iteration. Something like this:

local timeLmt = 1000
timerSource = timer.performWithDelay(timeLmt, showMole, 0)

function showMole()
timeLmt= timeLmt+50
end

julianchiu · December 6, 2013, 12:23am

okay lets say i want the “mole” to popout faster everytime it gets hit 20 times, how would i use the timeLmt for that? Thanks a lot i appreciate it!

Alex10 · December 6, 2013, 12:35am

If it were me, I’d use a counter that increases on each hit, once the counter gets to 20 I’d increase the speed, then reset the counter and start the process again. Something like this:

local timeLmt = 1000 local showMole timerSource = timer.performWithDelay(timeLmt, showMole, 0) function showMole() if moveObj == isHit then hitCount = hitCount + 1 if hitCount == 20 then hitCount = 0 timeLmt= timeLmt+50 end end end

julianchiu · December 6, 2013, 3:11am

so how would i incorporate the code you gave me into the previous one i wrote at the top? because i did exactly what you said but their speeds stay the same

julianchiu · December 15, 2013, 8:00pm

hey @panc software , i have incorporated the code you have given me and it seems to say this on the Corona Runtime error:

attempt to perform arithmetic on upvalue ‘hitCount’ ( a table value)

Alex10 · December 15, 2013, 8:13pm

yea, you need to declare your “hit” variable ahead of time if that is the path you’re going to take. I didn’t post plug-and-play code as in not familiar with your project.

You can stick a “hitCount = 0” at the top of your code and it should work then.

julianchiu · December 15, 2013, 10:58pm

Thanks a lot problem solved!

is the 0 in the “hitCount = 0” the number needed to increase the hits needed to popout faster or is it “0” by default? thanks a lot , i appreciate it!

Alex10 · December 16, 2013, 2:43am

the 0 there is just the “start” number. The if hitCount == 20 then is what tells the code to “go faster”, when the hitCount number reaches 20.

julianchiu · December 18, 2013, 12:36am

in the
“timeLmt= timeLmt+50” part of the code, the number “50” represents the milliseconds increased in the timer of the objects, right?

so would the higher the number increase the speed or the lower the number is what increases the speed, thanks! Much appreciated!

jbp1 · December 18, 2013, 3:08pm

A different option might be to look at the “enterFrame” event which includes a field for event.time (in milliseconds). As the player progresses you could just adjust the rate at which you trigger other events (like creation/removal of moles):

trigger\_diff = 1000 last\_trigger = 0 function process\_each\_frame( evt ) local current\_time = evt.time if( (current\_time-last\_trigger) \>= trigger\_diff ) then -- trigger a new downstream event (create/remove a mole) last\_trigger = current\_time end -- other logic here to alter the speed of the game if( user\_does\_bad\_thing ) then trigger\_diff = trigger\_diff - 100 -- trigger future events faster elseif( user\_does\_good\_thing ) then trigger\_diff = trigger\_diff + 100 -- trigger future events slower end end Runtime:addEventListener( "enterFrame", process\_each\_frame )

juario_soul · December 22, 2013, 4:22am

helo everyone i have a same problem…

but for me in my game i have a powerups then if i click it i want to add “5” seconds in my time?

–this my code:

timeLimit = 10

timerdown = display.newText(timeLimit, 280, -37, “Arial”, 20)

timer1=timer.performWithDelay(1000,timerDown,timeLimit)

function plus5sec()

timeLimit = timeLimit + 5

end

but ders something wrong when i click plus5sec()

because the timerDown will stop when it comes into 5 seconds…

and i dont know why…

any help …

tnx advance & Merry Christmas

julianchiu · December 22, 2013, 4:57am

@panc software

I appreciate your help on my game, but now unfortunately the code does not work at all within my “showMole function” Once i added the hitCount = 0 variable, the Corona runtime error did not appear but the code does nothing at all now. Here is what I have so far:

Here is my entire code if you kindly would take a better look at it, I am completely stummped!

local score -- Mole local moleGroup = display.newGroup() local moles = {} local lastMole = {} -- Sound local hit = audio.loadSound('hit.wav') -- Variables local timerSource local currentMoles = 0 local molesHit = 0 local timeLimit = 1000 local hitCount = 0 -- Functions local Main = {} local startButtonListeners = {} local showCredits = {} local hideCredits = {} local showGameView = {} local prepareMoles = {} local startTimer = {} local showMole = {} local popOut = {} local moleHit = {} local alert = {} local lifeIcons = {} local lives = 3 local maxLives = 3 local i for i = 1, maxLives do&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;lifeIcons[i] = display.newImage("lifeicon.png") &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;lifeIcons[i].x = 57 + (lifeIcons[i].contentWidth \* (i - 1)) &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;lifeIcons[i].y = 23 end function prepareMoles() &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;b1 = display.newImage('mole4.png', 12, 123) &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;b1.type = "mole" &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;b2 = display.newImage('mole1.png', 50, 32) &nbsp; &nbsp; b2.type = "mole" &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;b3 = display.newImage('mole2.png', 360, 34) &nbsp; &nbsp; b3.type = "mole" &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;b4 = display.newImage('mole3.png', 210, 7) &nbsp; &nbsp; b4.type = "mole" &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;b5 = display.newImage('mole4.png', 193, 168) &nbsp; &nbsp; b5.type = "mole" &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;b6 = display.newImage('mole5.png', 388, 126) &nbsp; &nbsp; b6.type = "mole" &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;b7 = display.newImage('mole6.png', 302, 10) &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; b7.type = "mole" &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;b8 = display.newImage('mole.png', 200, 15) &nbsp; &nbsp; b8.type = "mole" &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;b9 = display.newImage('mole.png', 200, 15) &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;b9.type = "mole" &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; moles = display.newGroup(b1, b2, b3, b4, b5, b6, b7, b8, b9, b10, b11) &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; for i = 1, 11 do &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; moles[i]:addEventListener('tap', moleHit) &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; moles[i].isVisible = false &nbsp; &nbsp; end &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; startTimer() end function startTimer() &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;timerSource = timer.performWithDelay(timeLimit, showMole, 0) end local moveObject = {} function showMole(e) &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;lastMole.isVisible = false &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;local randomHole = math.random(1, 11) &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;lastMole = moles[randomHole] &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;lastMole:setReferencePoint(display.BottomCenterReferencePoint) &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;lastMole.yScale = 0.1 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;lastMole.isVisible = true &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;if moveobj == isHit then &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;hitCount = hitCount + 1 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;if hitCount == 5 then &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;hitCount =0 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;timeLimit= timeLimit+500 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;end &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;end &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Runtime:addEventListener('enterFrame', popOut) end function popOut(e) &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;lastMole.yScale = lastMole.yScale + 0.2 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;if(lastMole.yScale \>=1) then &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Runtime:removeEventListener('enterFrame', popOut) &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;end end function moleHit:tap(e) &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;audio.play(hit) &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;lastMole.isVisible = false &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;local t = e.target &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;if t.type == "mole" then &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;molesHit = molesHit + 1 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;moleHit = display.newText('+1000', 380, 45, native.systemFontBold, 18) &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;moleHit:setTextColor(255, 0, 0) &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;transition.to( moleHit, { time=800, alpha=.01 } ) &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;score.text = molesHit&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;elseif t.type == "mole" then &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;lifeIcons[lives].isVisible = false &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;lives = lives - 1&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;end &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;if( lives == 0) then &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;alert() end&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; end &nbsp;

That is my main coding for the game to function properly. I really appreciate your help on this project and can’t thank you enough! Keep coding and Merry Christmas !

juario_soul · December 22, 2013, 1:36pm

problem solve… ^^

julianchiu · December 24, 2013, 6:12am

How did you solve your dilema @juario soul? That also is another issue I was looking into.

juario_soul · December 25, 2013, 5:09am

hehe i share it to you this is my code… Merry Christmas

timeLimit = 60

timerdown = display.newText(timeLimit, 278, -37, “Arial”, 20)

local function timerDown()

timeLimit = timeLimit-1

timerdown.text = timeLimit

end

timer1=timer.performWithDelay(1000,timerDown,timeLimit)

function plus5sec() – if you use this function its gives plus + 5 seconds into the timer…

result=timer.cancel(timer1)

timeLimit = timerdown.text + 5

display.remove(timerdown)

timerdown =nil

timer1=timer.performWithDelay(1000,timerDown,timeLimit)

timerdown = display.newText(timeLimit, 280, -37, “Arial”, 20)

end

i hope its help 2 u… ^^.

Alex10 · December 5, 2013, 11:49am

You could try using a variable as the timer limit and increase it with each successful function iteration. Something like this:

local timeLmt = 1000
timerSource = timer.performWithDelay(timeLmt, showMole, 0)

function showMole()
timeLmt= timeLmt+50
end

julianchiu · December 6, 2013, 12:23am

okay lets say i want the “mole” to popout faster everytime it gets hit 20 times, how would i use the timeLmt for that? Thanks a lot i appreciate it!

Alex10 · December 6, 2013, 12:35am

If it were me, I’d use a counter that increases on each hit, once the counter gets to 20 I’d increase the speed, then reset the counter and start the process again. Something like this:

local timeLmt = 1000 local showMole timerSource = timer.performWithDelay(timeLmt, showMole, 0) function showMole() if moveObj == isHit then hitCount = hitCount + 1 if hitCount == 20 then hitCount = 0 timeLmt= timeLmt+50 end end end

julianchiu · December 6, 2013, 3:11am

so how would i incorporate the code you gave me into the previous one i wrote at the top? because i did exactly what you said but their speeds stay the same