smooth player knockback on firing projectile

Questions & Answers
1

maybe I’m missing something obvious?
But I’m looking to have my player get knocked back a little each time he fires a projectile.

Currently, no matter which forceMode I use, the knockback is instantaneous. I’m hoping to get it a little more smooth. I’ve also tried lerping the Vector3 and using a co-routine.

See the code below.
Actual knockback is in the Shoot() method.

Any ideas?

private void Update()
    {
        if (Input.GetMouseButtonDown(0) && Time.time - lastTimeStamp >= timeBetweenCasts && pieMenuScript.pieSelection == PieMenu.spellMenuSelection.None)
        {
            //reset the timer
            lastTimeStamp = Time.time;

            //TODO: Object pooling

            RaycastOnMouseClick();
           
        }
            
    }

   private void RaycastOnMouseClick()
    {
    
        Ray ray = Camera.main.ScreenPointToRay(Input.mousePosition);
        RaycastHit groundHit;
        Debug.DrawRay(ray.origin, ray.direction * 100f, Color.red, 2);
        if (Physics.Raycast(ray, out groundHit, 300f, layerMask))
        {
            mousePosition = groundHit.point + new Vector3(0f, spawnPoint.position.y, 0f); //adding the spawnPoint.position to this ensures that the projectiles stay parallel to the ground
            direction = (mousePosition - spawnPoint.transform.position).normalized;
            Shoot(groundHit);
        }
    }

    
        
    void Shoot(RaycastHit hit)
    {
        if (ManaManager.instance.currentMana >= manaCost)
        {
            ManaManager.instance.ManaCost(manaCost);
            manaImage.fillAmount -= manaCost / ManaManager.instance.maxMana;
            Quaternion pointDirection = Quaternion.LookRotation(direction);
            var projectileInstance = Instantiate(projectile, spawnPoint.transform.position, pointDirection).GetComponent<ShootProjectile>();
            Instantiate(castParticle, spawnPoint.transform.position, pointDirection); //instantiate cast Particle effect
            if (playerKnockback)
            {
                playerRigidbody.AddForce(-direction * playerKnockbackForce);
            } 

        

        }

        else
        {
            Debug.Log("Not Enough Mana");
        }
    }
2

so I’m stupid.
I had forgotten all about my characterMovement script, which is setting a velocity based on Input. Got this all figured out now, was able to fix it with a bool, and toggling that at the appropriate time

void Moving(float h, float v)
    {
        if (!isBeingKnockedBack)
        {
            movement.Set(h, 0f, v);
            movement = movement.normalized * moveSpeed;
            rb.velocity = movement;

        }
    }