Why Assist Controller?

Assist Controllers allow an assist to run code from the start to the end of the match. This has quite a few applications such as:

• Creating psuedo special modes that are stage independent
• Refilling the assist bar upon player ko
• Passive assists that don't require activation, e.g an assist that adds a permanent status effect
• Keeping track of data before an assist spawns

Setting up an Assist Controller

For this example we'll be using the official assist template.

Creating the script

First we create a script in FrayTools with the id assistControllerScript, with the following contents

function initialize() {

}

function update() {

}

function onTeardown() {

}

being just the bare minimum for a script, following the same structure for character, assist and stage scripts.

Modifying the manifest

Now we need to modify the manifest.json for us to be able to use this script.

So given our original manifest:

{
  "resourceId": "assisttemplate",
  "content": [{
    "id": "assisttemplate",
    "name": "Assist Template",
    "description": "An example assist character for Fraymakers.",
    "type": "assist",
    "objectStatsId": "assisttemplateAssistObjectStats",
    "animationStatsId": "assisttemplateAnimationStats",
    "hitboxStatsId": "assisttemplateHitboxStats",
    "scriptId": "assisttemplateScript",
    "costumesId": "assisttemplateCostumes",
    "metadata": {
      "ui":{
        "entityId":"menu",
        "render":{
          "animation":"assist_full",
          "animation_icon_no_palette":"assist_css"
        },
        "hud":{
          "animation":"assist_hud"
        },
        "css":{
          "animation":"assist_css",
          "info":{
            "game":"Fraymakers",
            "description":"My first assist character."
          }
        }
      }
    }
  },{
    "id": "assisttemplateProjectile",
    "type": "projectile",
    "objectStatsId": "assisttemplateProjectileObjectStats",
    "animationStatsId": "assisttemplateProjectileAnimationStats",
    "hitboxStatsId": "assisttemplateProjectileHitboxStats",
    "scriptId": "assisttemplateProjectileScript"
  }]
}

And now our new Manifest Below with 2 major changes:

• First we add a new field assistControllerId with the value "myAssistController" to our entry with the "type": "assist"
• We add a new manifest entry with the id being "myAssistController"
• notice how the assistControllerId and the id of the new manifest entry match.

{
  "resourceId": "assisttemplate",
  "content": [{
    "id": "assisttemplate",
    "name": "Assist Template",
    "description": "An example assist character for Fraymakers.",
    "type": "assist",
    "objectStatsId": "assisttemplateAssistObjectStats",
    "animationStatsId": "assisttemplateAnimationStats",
    "hitboxStatsId": "assisttemplateHitboxStats",
    "scriptId": "assisttemplateScript",
    "costumesId": "assisttemplateCostumes",
    "assistControllerId": "myAssistController",
    "metadata": {
      "ui":{
        "entityId":"menu",
        "render":{
          "animation":"assist_full",
          "animation_icon_no_palette":"assist_css"
        },
        "hud":{
          "animation":"assist_hud"
        },
        "css":{
          "animation":"assist_css",
          "info":{
            "game":"Fraymakers",
            "description":"My first assist character."
          }
        }
      }
    }
  },
  {
    "id": "assisttemplateProjectile",
    "type": "projectile",
    "objectStatsId": "assisttemplateProjectileObjectStats",
    "animationStatsId": "assisttemplateProjectileAnimationStats",
    "hitboxStatsId": "assisttemplateProjectileHitboxStats",
    "scriptId": "assisttemplateProjectileScript"
  },
  {
    "id": "myAssistController",
    "type": "assistController",
    "scriptId": "assistControllerScript"
  }
  ]
}

Once you've done that that you've completed the basic setup for AssistController!

Communicating with your Assist Controller Using from the Assist

To access your assist controller from your assist all you have to do is call getAssistController() on your owner character like so:

var controller = self.getOwner().getAssistController();

From then on you can send and retrieve information from the controller using a combination of exported functions from the controller or exported variables.

So lets say you wanted an assist to behave differently after every 3rd use.

In your assist controller you could expose 2 functions like so:

self.exports = {};
var uses = self.makeInt(0);
function initialize() {

}

function update() {

}

function onTeardown() {

}

function addUse() {
  uses.inc();
}

function getUses() {
  return uses.get();
}
self.exports.getUses = getUses;
self.exports.addUse = addUse;

then in your assist's initialize

function initialize () {
  var controller = self.getOwner().getAssistController().exports;
  if (controller.getUses() % 3 == 0) {
     // do stuff on third use here
  } else {
    // other uses
  }
  controller.addUse();

}