Usage timer/weapon cooldown...

Questions & Answers
1

What is a possible way of having a cool-down timer for a weapon?

Please consider that all my work is in C#.

Thanks in advance!

2

One easy way is to use a what I call a time stamp. Anytime you want a cool down you would do something like:

timeStamp = Time.time + coolDownPeriodInSeconds;

The in your firing code, you would only allow the gun to fire if the timeStamp <= Time.time;

if (timeStamp <= Time.time)
{
// Your firing code
}
4

In my opion, this is way better than timestamps.

Simple example using a proper coroutine.

	public bool IsAvailable = true;
	public float CooldownDuration = 1.0f;
	
	void UseAbility()
	{
		// if not available to use (still cooling down) just exit
		if (IsAvailable == false)
		{
			return;
		}
		
		// made it here then ability is available to use...
		// UseAbilityCode goes here
		
		// start the cooldown timer
		StartCoroutine(StartCooldown());
	}
	
	public IEnumerator StartCooldown()
	{
		IsAvailable = false;

		yield return new WaitForSeconds(CooldownDuration);

		IsAvailable = true;
	}
3

You can also use Coroutines in unity. They aren’t that hard to use and save you a lot of time in the future if you plan to have multiple cool downs going on.
Here’s an Example:

void Update()
{
     StartCoroutine(TimerRoutine());
}

private IEnumerator TimerRoutine()
{
     //code can be executed anywhere here before this next statement 
     yield return new WaitForSeconds(5); //code pauses for 5 seconds
    //code resumes after the 5 seconds and exits if there is nothing else to run

}

I recommend looking into Coroutines because you can do a lot with them.