How to Implement a Skill Cooldown System in Unity C#

In Unity, you can create a cooldown system for a skill by using a combination of a timer and a boolean flag. Here’s an example of how you can implement a cooldown system for a skill in a script attached to a GameObject:

using UnityEngine;

public class Skill : MonoBehaviour
{
    public float cooldownTime = 5f; // The cooldown time for the skill
    private float remainingCooldown = 0f; // The remaining cooldown time
    private bool onCooldown = false; // Flag to check if the skill is on cooldown

    public void UseSkill()
    {
        // Check if the skill is on cooldown
        if (onCooldown)
        {
            // If the skill is on cooldown, display a message or do nothing
            Debug.Log("Skill is on cooldown. Please wait.");
            return;
        }

        // Perform the skill's action here

        // Set the remaining cooldown and turn on the cooldown flag
        remainingCooldown = cooldownTime;
        onCooldown = true;
    }

    private void Update()
    {
        // Check if the skill is on cooldown
        if (onCooldown)
        {
            // Decrement the remaining cooldown time
            remainingCooldown -= Time.deltaTime;

            // Check if the remaining cooldown time is less than or equal to 0
            if (remainingCooldown <= 0)
            {
                // If the remaining cooldown time is less than or equal to 0, turn off the cooldown flag
                onCooldown = false;
            }
        }
    }
}

In this example, the script is attached to a GameObject and it has a UseSkill() method that is called when the skill is used. The script uses a cooldownTime variable to determine the duration of the cooldown, a remainingCooldown variable to store the remaining time until the cooldown is over and an onCooldown boolean flag to check if the skill is on cooldown. When the UseSkill() method is called, it first checks if the skill is on cooldown by checking the onCooldown flag. If the skill is on cooldown, it displays a message or does nothing. If the skill is not on cooldown, the script performs the skill's action, then sets the remainingCooldown variable to the cooldownTime and sets the onCooldown flag to true. In the Update method, the script decrements the remainingCooldown time in each frame and check if it is less than or equal to 0, if it's true, it sets the onCooldown flag to false, which means the skill is ready to use.

You can also use the coroutine function to handle the cooldown system if you want to create a more complex system with visual feedback for the user or you can use the Time.timeScale to pause the game time when the skill is on cooldown.

You can see one of my skill system implementations on the following video.

See you next time,