isometric movement

[dascribe]

In isometric games, the diagnal movements are not exactly 45 degrees. Is there a way to retain the effects of the 8 directions movement option, but switch the actual direction the character goes when you press the arrow keys?

if not, is there a way to make the arrow keys diagnal movement?

[nivram]

Try
When pressing Down Key
Active: Set X position to X position ("active")+1
Set Y position to Y position ("active")+2

This is for down only.

Zoric RPG, on my website, uses such a method, except it is grid based.

[dascribe]

The only problem with that is the can of worms it opens for collision and animation. I know there are work arounds, but wanted to keep the lines of code to a minum where possible.

[nivram]

For collisions, put each movement in a group. For pressing down key, maybe turn flag 3 on, which activates Down Group. When the active overlaps backdrop set flag 3 off, deactivate Down Group and make sure you push out of the backdrop 1 pixel after hitting it.
May I ask why movement would effect animations?

[Random]

In my opinion the best solution is to have two views on the game. One, that is top down and has your movements, collisions and everything, and another that is the graphical representation, using a formula for x, y and possibly z to position a graphic for each object.
The first one could be on another layer that you then hide (nice for debugging if you can turn it on and off). With this approach you can do everything you could also do top down (like use the bouncing ball movement for enemies, MMFs collision detection, etc.). If you need help with the formula, just ask.

[nivram]

Good point Random. Another option is to make your own iso grid that is 45 degrees if this is what's holding everything up. Also, there is a iso grid extension.

[dascribe]

RE:animations,etc...

It's been my experience w/ MMF that when you try to create manual movements, you end up having to create a lot of conditions. The start/stop can sometimes get buggy, then you have to say, if arrow pressed in this direction, run x animation, if not, run stopped, unless (for example) throwing punch, then run punch animation. With walking, these additional lines of code are not needed and there is less chance of quirks.

RE: the arial map idea.
I like it, but I was hoping to make a map editor that was pretty flexible and the top down map would create a set of issues due to the different sizes of objects. I do like the top down concept though. Thought about doing that with a Ring King type game. Also thought it would be a way to run 3d and avoid all collision issues. Not a good enough coder to get a 3d extension in place though.

[dascribe]

45 degree iso doesn't look good. At least not with the software I'm using.

[nivram]

With flags I have not encountered buggy animations during movement, but I am out of ideas for your problem.

[dascribe]

Thanks, I appreciate your help. I knew it was a long shot, but I was hoping someone knew of some hotkey or something.