Creating/ Deleting Active Objects

[Kid_Roleplay]

Okay!

Say you've got a big object, a player object, both in animations and many, many events! And after you've developed on your game for a good few months, you decide that you want to make a second character choice, another large player object!

Is there a way to delete your current object without wiping it out of the game entirely? As in not remove all the events as well so you can make the object be created at the start of the frame depending on which character is chosen by the player? Sort of like saving memory, only asking the game to load up just one of the two huge objects instead of both at a time just to have one be deleted or rather having two on at the same time will screw up all the events! >.<

[Altonelty]

Yes!

You can create a Player Select Screen near the beginning of your game. Also create a counter and make it a global object. Give it a name like "Player Select Counter" for example. Also give it a maximum value of 2. At the player select screen, whichever character the user selects will set the value of the counter to 1 or 2. Add this to your events:

Start of Level
+ "Player Select Counter" = 1

Create "Big object 1" at 0,0 (Or wherever your player starts)


Start of Level
+ "Player Select Counter" = 2

Create "Big object 2" at 0,0

You can also use this if you want your characters to carry things such as weapons or abilities into the next level until they lose them in the game. i.e., getting hit by an enemy (which should change the global value of the appropriate counter!)

Be sure to set all global counters to their default values at the very beginning of the game in case the user decides to restart the game from the menu.

[Kid_Roleplay]

Well, that's not exactly the prob.

I already know how to create characters and a choice between two different characters. Thing is, my character is already in the frame when it starts. What I'm trying to do now is to delete one of the characters off of the frame without removing all of the events in the process so that I CAN make creation triggers at the start of the frame. >.<

This is all 'cause I'm trying to introduce a second playable character into the mix without it having to load both and thus use up more memory.

~Pouts a little, considering all of the events and triggers he'll have to change so it's recognizable by more than one character.~

[Altonelty]

Ok, I think I know what you mean. Hopefully this will help:

In the area off the playfield, create an object thats just a basic square. At the start of the frame, have no characters within the frame, but in the area off the playfield and overlapping the square object. Set an event that will "destroy" the character objects if they overlap the square object. This should delete the character but keep the events in check. Because the characters were loaded at the very beginning of the stage to begin with, the trigger will be able to create them at the desired starting position within the frame.

I did this once in a beat 'em up style game and it worked very well. I also do this with every object that will be used in the current frame. For instance, in games where power-ups appear, they can be created at any point because they were already previously loaded. Hope that helps!