Duplicates with different paths...

[james_joyce]

Hey all, newbie question here:

Is there a way to make duplicates of one object use distinct movement paths?

I want to have multiple identical objects roaming around the screen, the only difference being they all use a distinct path for movement. I want to avoid having to enter the events for each object multiple times, as I'm planning to have several dozen of them, and they're all otherwise identical.

Thanks, all!

[Random]

You could use qualifiers..

[DistantJ]

When you write the events for the object, put them inside the object's 'behavior' instead of the event editor for that frame. Then when you clone the object to create the ones with different paths, they will all already have the events built in.

[Random]

Although if you wanna change stuff in the behavior, you have to copy the behavior to each and every of your clones again, which eventually becomes VERY tedious (hi Clickteam! This was a hint!). So keep that in mind when using behaviors. Oh and.. they will -not- be duplicate like this (but also not with qualifiers).

[DistantJ]

You no longer have to enter the behavior and copy all the events, though, it's literally a matter of selecting the behavior from the properties window and clicking copy, then pasting into the properties window for the other objects.

Otherwise a qualifier is your best bet, just be very careful with the ordering of your events and actions, because sometimes you can end up with your qualifier objects ALL responding to something only one was intended to.

[Random]

Except that you also have to delete the old behavior. I wish there was something like a global behavior, that all the clones can share, or an "update all objects where the behavior is called the same"-button.

[james_joyce]

Thanks guys! It looks like qualifiers are the ticket here, but it's also very helpful to know about behaviors. I could use behaviors with duplicates if I named my paths and nodes numerically, then used spread to match them up with the correct node/path. That might be overkill, though.

One thing about using qualifiers: is there a way to carry the events I assign to my qualifiers across frames? Every frame is going to have exactly the same events. I'd like a sort of "library of enemies" that I can just clone in to my frame, if possible, where I just have to select the qualifier to get the correct behavior, regardless of frame.

Thanks again!

[DistantJ]

If you put events inside of the behavior of the enemy, it will be carried with it to any frame you bring it into. Qualifiers will require either copying and pasting the events into each frame or using the application's global events.

[james_joyce]

Oh man, I just ran in to what you're talking about. No qualifiers in global events. That's gonna make it difficult to not repeat myself.

I'll have to see if I can do what I'm doing with behaviors.

Thanks again!

[Random]

Beware.. no qualifiers in behaviors :/

But by making the objects global, at least the behaviors carry over to other frames (I encountered some oddities here, so expect strange things happening eventually).