bullet rate[simple]

[ChaseNYC]

well, I presume this is a simple question, I have scanned the forums a bit and cannot seem to come up with any conclusions to my problem. I am making space invaders style game and I am using one of the tutorials from flashkit which uses the following code for shooting:

onClipEvent(load){
 _root.laser._visible=false;
 laserCounter=1;
}

if (Key.isDown(Key.SPACE)) {
		
		laserCounter++;
		_root.laser.duplicateMovieClip( "laser"+laserCounter, laserCounter );
		_root["laser"+laserCounter]._visible=true;
		trace(laserCounter);
	} 

//this is in the bullet/laser action

onClipEvent (load) {

  laserMoveSpeed=20;
  this._y=_root.spaceship._y - ((_root.spaceship._height / 2) + (this._height)); 
  this._x=_root.spaceship._x;

}

onClipEvent (enterFrame) {

  this._y-=laserMoveSpeed;
  if (this._y>600){
    this.removeMovieClip();
  }

}

now, the code works fine for what it is supposed to do; however, my problem lies in the fact that I do not want it to be the case that if the user holds down the spacebar it will shoot the bullet at the maximum speed, I would like to figure out some way that(these times are not exact but just examples) if the spacebar is held down it will shoot a bullet every 2 seconds; and if the user taps the spacebar they can shoot up to one bullet every second. Hopefully this makes sense, I apologize greatly if this question is explained somewhere else but I did look around and could not find any examples.

Thanks in advance,

ChaseNYC

[Fall_X]

Just use a variable, each time you shoot you set it to 40 (or more or less). Each frame, if it's higher than 0 and fire is pressed, extract 1 from it. If fire is not pressed, and it's higher than 20 (or whatever), set it to 20 to allow more rapid firing when tapping. Only allow users to shoot if it's equal to 0. Something like that should work.

[ChaseNYC]

Just use a variable, each time you shoot you set it to 40 (or more or less). Each frame, if it's higher than 0 and fire is pressed, extract 1 from it. If fire is not pressed, and it's higher than 20 (or whatever), set it to 20 to allow more rapid firing when tapping. Only allow users to shoot if it's equal to 0. Something like that should work.

i'm a little confused about your suggestion I kinda have an idea so that there would be a variable... bare with me this is not actual AS but rather just in my own programming language code

readytoFire = 20
currentFire = 0
  if key.space.keydown = true and currentFire >= readytoFire then
     call firebullet
  end if

  if key.space.keydown and currentFire < readytoFire then
     currentFire = currentFire + 1
  End if

  if key.space.keyup and currentFire < readytoFire then
     currentFire = currentFire + 2
  End if

this way you get to fire quicker is you aren't holding down the spacebar... however i don't understand how this would work seeing as the whole game is on one frame... im not sure what would call the if statements and what wouldnt make it add to 20 instantly because it just keeps running... it's really hard to explain what i'm confused about but exactly what is calling these if statements and why wouldnt it instantly call these if functions over and over and get to 20 instantly? I guess the main point is that as of now the whole game is in one frame therefore adding to the counter each frame wouldnt work...

[tonypa]

See if this helps.

In load event set the time variable:

onClipEvent (load) {
	_root.readytoFire = getTimer();
	_root.laser._visible = false;
	laserCounter = 1;
}

Change the code checking for SPACE key:

if (Key.isDown(Key.SPACE)) {
	//get current time in ms
	var thisTime = getTimer();
	//check if enough time has passed from last shot
	if (thisTime<_root.readytoFire) {
		//shoot after 2 seconds
		_root.readytoFire = thisTime+2000;
		//save the last time laser was shot
		_root.lastTime = thisTime;
		//creating laser
		laserCounter++;
		_root.laser.duplicateMovieClip("laser"+laserCounter, laserCounter);
		_root["laser"+laserCounter]._visible = true;
		trace(laserCounter);
	}
} else {
	//space key is not down
	//reduce time until next shot if it was set from key down event
	if (_root.readytoFire == _root.lastTime+2000) {
		//shoot after 1 second from last shot
		_root.readytoFire = _root.lastTime+1000;
	}
}

[ChaseNYC]

got really excited... but it doesnt work... i havent processed the code in terms of understanding all that is going on yet so i'm not sure what to trace however hitting spacebar does not lead to any bullets/laser coming out...

edit: so i've added two traces in part of the code:

var thisTime = getTimer();
	//check if enough time has passed from last shot
	trace (thisTime + " : " + _root.readytoFire);
	if (thisTime<_root.readytoFire) {
		trace("ready!");
		//shoot after 2 seconds
		_root.readytoFire = thisTime+200;

so it returns that thisTime is continually growing and _root.readytoFire stays at a consistant 25 however; the second trace never comes up making me believe something is wrong with that if statement because... err just needs to be > instead of <... time to play around and see if i can get it to work to my liking... thank you oh tonypa guru!

[tonypa]

Uh, sorry, use > of course.