Gadget: EMP Pistol

Because the system is tied to a pistol mesh attached to our character, the system is set in the BP_Bot class. Input action event is triggered which will do a forward line trace originating from the pistol. There is a circle attached to the pistol which acts like an indicator to visualize if an electronic device is successfully disrupted. 
Why do we need the circle?  - A traditional crosshair won't be present for this gadget which is replaced by a red laser because of the below reasons:

• The scene is highly contrasting with a lot of black and white areas, it is difficult for the player to spot the crosshair all the time.

• The players will have to aim carefully and patiently as the laser moves with the pistol, and the Aim animation makes the player move their hands very subtly.

• These restrictions help in balancing the power of the gadget which I will talk about more below.

The code will check if the Hit Object implements the EmpInteractionInterface and accordingly visualize through the circle. The interface function is also called on the Hit object which will then execute the disruption behaviour for the amount of time passed with the function.

Interface allows us to achieve two main things - 

• Highly scalable, modular and time saving solution. With this design, only one line trace and a function call can disrupt any kind of electronic device as long as it implements our interface function. In order to add more electronic devices, one only has to create an Actor blueprint, Add the mesh, and implement the interface function and define what it does.

• Because we are passing the disruption time from the character blueprint, there will be a consistency among all the electronics. Upgrading skills which allow players to increase the disruption time for all gadgets can be easily implemented as only one variable at one place is to be increased and the disruption time will update for all electronics. 

Balancing the Gadget -

A pistol capable of disrupting electronic devices for a period of time is a really powerful gadget which often can be abused by the players to make the game easy. It is essential to out balance the gadget and to prevent it from becoming overpowering. 

After a successful disruption, the pistol cannot disrupt any other electronic device for a period of time. Hence an input lock is done after calling the interface function until the Re-charge/Regen Time passes out.
The  absence of an crosshair and addition of a laser helps  balancing the game even more as now players have to patiently and carefully aim before shooting.