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[Kamani]

Double thank you! Now I should be able to start working towards my enemies fireballs.

Edit: I am trying to make an enemy that follows the player by hovering and shoots at them (and has ghostly, so it can walk through walls). I think I can figure out the shooting part, but I can't get it to hover but also be able to move up or down without breaking something. Generally, it can't go down and it flies through a wall and out of the level, or it falls and stays on the floor until you make it move up by being above it. Any ideas?

[IndigoFenix]

Vertical motion is still somewhat unfinished, and some of it can be counterintuitive if you're making a platforming area.  The "default" mode of the game is top-down, platforming physics and AI are intended to replicate the top-down behaviors of an object as accurately as possible.  So vertical distance remains vertical distance, whether it is using the y or z positions, _z always refers to the distance from the "floor", and stalking behavior only takes horizontal distance into account.

This is also why there are so many bugs with vertical areas right now; a lot of physics and AI doesn't incorporate vertical distances properly.  I'll try to fix up at least some of those soon.

For what you are trying to do though (I'm not even sure how a ghostly sprite should treat floors in sidescrolling areas), your best option may be to code it yourself in the _update function by modifying the sprite's _x and _y values.  Things like

Code: [Select]

If _x < @._x
    Set _x to _x + 1
End if

And so on.  This will give you more control over the object's behavior and let you make it move exactly how you want it to.  Remember that you can create your own variables (built-in variables always start with an underscore) and check them in-game by clicking on the sprite.

[Kamani]

Not sure how well this will go. I haven’t done any kind of programming for ages. I might just have to do horizontal enemies. Oh well. Thanks for the answer! Maybe I can figure out another way to do this. Techniques maybe??

[IndigoFenix]

If I understand what you're trying to do, the update function is probably the easiest way to do it.  Something like this:

Code: [Select]

If _x < @._x - 64
    Set _x to _x + 1
Else if _x > @._x + 64
    Set _x to _x - 1
End if
If _y < @._y - 64
    Set _y to _y + 1
Else if _y > @._y - 64
    Set _y to _y - 1
End if

This should make the sprite follow the player and hover at around 64 pixels above them.  You can then use a regular projectile technique for shooting.

Or you can wait until I improve the AI for flying.  But if you're going to be making enemies with unique movement patterns getting used to coding isn't a bad plan.

[Kamani]

Don’t know if I’ll do any others, but I’ll try that. Thanks!

Edit: Oh, wait, I have no clue where you put code when editing objects. I'll take a closer look later.

[IndigoFenix]

I fixed up some of the bigger bugs with targeting in sidescrolling areas; it's not perfect but it should at least prevent you or enemies from attacking targets halfway across the room.

Dash-attacking upward will be removed later (since it's an inconsistency between sidescrolling and top-down physics) but I might add a "high jump" to allow the default sprite to climb one-tile "stairs" without increasing their maximum jump distance.  That seems reasonable enough.

Oh, wait, I have no clue where you put code when editing objects. I'll take a closer look later.

Functions tab.  The _update function will run each frame.

[Whisperling]

I've been watching this for a while, but I just decided to tackle the world editor. I went ahead and made a hub world (called, very unimaginatively, the temple of worlds). Doesn't exactly have a ton of content, but it's making it a lot easier for me to navigate from place to place without reloading the game every five seconds.

Ah, speaking of which, I don't suppose it'd be possible to make an alternate keybinding for bouncing out? Using the escape key just freezes the game for me, or at least lags it to the point of unplayability. Seems likely to be an issue on my end rather than yours, but it's still pretty annoying.

[Kamani]

Menu is Q. Escape is pause.

[Whisperling]

Menu is Q. Escape is pause.

...Okay, that makes a lot more sense. Thanks.

[Kamani]

Yeah, it mixed me up before. Happy to assist.

Edit: That code works perfectly. Thanks! Now I just have to figure out why my enemy won't shoot down. They only shoot in the 180 degree arc between 0 and 180 degrees, so they can't shoot you if you are below them. I'll keep working at it in the meanwhile. I seem to recall that my tests showed that it was a problem with my bullet, not my shooter.

Edit: Actually, with the recent edits in 2D movement, it is impossible to shoot up or down, just sideways. Not entirely sure what to do here. Unless I made seeker bullets, but that would be for something else...

Edit: Well,I made a seeker fireball monster. Only issue is that I can't make bullets move through walls without being ghostly. Well, and I still can't make a regular fireball shooter, but I got sidetracked.

[IndigoFenix]

Actually, with the recent edits in 2D movement, it is impossible to shoot up or down, just sideways. Not entirely sure what to do here. Unless I made seeker bullets, but that would be for something else...

Hmm...yeah, that is a reasonable effect.  The idea is for the sidescroller movement to mimic the top-down movement - if a sprite can't face or aim upwards in top-down mode, it can't aim upwards in sidescroller mode either.  You can give a projectile a fixed vertical angle, but the proper solution would be to make sprites capable of aiming at a target with a different z-value in both modes.  I'll make that.

[Kamani]

Thank you. I kind of figured that was the goal. Glad that side scroller shooting will be able to work better.

Edit: Spring allows you to cross over the default sign in top down. A. Should this be possible? B. How can I prevent it on certain signs most effectively? C. Seems cool in top down, especially since it means players can get up one block jumps now.

[IndigoFenix]

Oh...huh.  Didn't think of that.
The simplest option for blocking off a space right now would be to use a new, invisible tileset.
I'll need to work out a better solution.  Also for jumping on top of solid objects in general, since that doesn't really work well right now.

[Kamani]

Eh, I need the block past the sign to be accessible, so that doesn’t really work. I’ll wait for now.

[IndigoFenix]

Are you talking about the sign in the first room?  That works using the tilemap method.

You create a new tileset, maybe with the block image, then make the block tile solid and add the tile to the space with the sign.  This will cause the sign to work as it did before.

I've made it so that when you die, you return to the beginning of the world instead of the room (unless the world builder is active).  There will be more options for save points added in later.