My first question.

[Brother_B]

Hi everyone.

For my first game I'm doing the old breakout.

Two questions.

1: I shoot the ball with a mouse click, but before that I want the ball to be visible and follow my paddle called "middle_paddle", how would i do that?

2: I have black bricks called "black_brick" that i want to be hit three times before they will be destroyed, can i do that without changing the names on them?

Best regards from Sweden.

/Bengt

[Shawn]

1. Well you could have 2 actives one for the ball following the paddle and another ball active for the one you shoot. Set Ball 1 to always be 0,0 from middle_paddle (adjust the hotspot of the paddle or just adjust the Y value for 0,0 to have it sitting on top of the paddle. Such as 0,-5 or something). Then when user clicks launch Ball 2 from Ball 1, then destroy Ball 1.

2. Use an Alt Value for the bricks. Have Alt Value A = 3. If Ball collides with black_brick, subtract 1 from Alt Value A of black_brick. Alt Value A for black_brick = 0, destroy black_brick.

Hope that helps

[Brother_B]

@Shawn
Regarding the ball following my moused controlled paddle.
Can you explain a bit more so i understand how you think.

Regarding to the bricks:
Would that work with multiple black bricks ?
I would like to hit one brick three times before it destroys it, not hit three bricks to destroy one, if you know what i mean.

[Shawn]

Okay I uploaded some images to show you better what I mean.

First one shows you what the events you need look like:



This one shows you how to navigate to set position in the event editor (right click and view image to enlarge):



And this shows you how to set it relative to your paddle object:

[Shawn]

Regarding to the bricks:
Would that work with multiple black bricks ?
I would like to hit one brick three times before it destroys it, not hit three bricks to destroy one, if you know what i mean.

Yes if you set the alt value it's on a per-brick basis. It won't destroy all of them. In the properties of the brick active object in the frame editor, move to the values tab. Then click New and just set Alterable Value A to 3.

I added a pic to show you what I'm talking about:



In other words, each time the ball collides with an individual brick it will subtract 1 from that particular brick's alt value.

[Brother_B]

Shawn.

I thank you for every nice answer. When i get this kind of answers i learn and can adapt them to other games.

And hopefully others too.

/Bengt

[Shawn]

No problem you're welcome

I'm glad I could help!

[Brother_B]

I solved the ball and paddle problem with only one ball and an alterable value.

If the "alterable value = 0 and always" the ball is stuck to the paddle, but when i press the mouse button the "alterable value = 1"
and shoots away.

Just want to share with my solution.

/Bengt

[Shawn]

That's great! It's always a good thing when you discover your own ways of doing things. It's a good way to learn.

[RickyRombo]

If the "alterable value = 0 and always"...

I'm glad you're learning alterable values!
It took me a while to realize their power.

But I'd just like to mention that you don't need an always in that event, as always is basically only useful on its own.