Suggestion for the next build: how to make the Active Object much easier to use

[fawfulfan]

There's something about the Active Object that has frustrated me for a long time: not every action has a corresponding event. This means that it's very hard or sometimes even impossible to design a condition based on the state of some variables in the Active Object.

To that end, here are a list of new events for the Active Object that I am proposing should be added into the next build:

IMMEDIATE CONDITIONS:
-Active Object has started moving
-Active Object has reversed
-Active Object has wrapped around play area
-Movement of Active Object has been changed
-Movement of Active Object has been changed to a specific Movement
-Order of Active Object has been changed
-Layer of Active Object has been Changed

NORMAL CONDITIONS:
-Compare Maximum Speed of Active Object to a value
-Compare Movement Number of Active Object to a value
-Active Object is flashing
-Compare Order of Active Object to a value
-Compare Layer of Active Object to a value
-Which Effect is enabled?
-Compare Effect Parameter of Active Object to a value
-Compare Effect Image Parameter of Active Object to a value
-Compare Alpha-Blending Coefficient of Active Object to a value
-Compare RGB Coefficient of Active Object to a value
-Which Ink Effect is enabled?
-Compare Semi-Transparency of Active Object to a value
-Compare Scale of Active Object to a value
-Compare X Scale of Active Object to a value
-Compare Y Scale of Active Object to a value
-Compare Angle of Active Object to a value

[donnovan]

Some of those conditions can be manually created with custom movements or by referencing them with flags or string states (i.e. when you change the ink effect, set a flag or change the string to whatever, then the condition is flag is on or state is equal to stuff and junk), I do know that a lot of them can also be accessed by simply doing a "compare two general values" in the special conditions (i.e. first value is 'effect value' the second is whatever value you want to comare it to)

[Fanotherpg]

And have you checked under special object compare teo general values and then selecting object options? Most of those is there - or at least i believe so.

[Pineapple]

At the very least, the help file should be made more helpful.
The compare 2 general values option is fairly well hidden if you don't know to look for it. I don't think I knew about it until at least 6 months after actively (every day) using MMF2.

[ChrisBurrows]

As has already been said above, each condition you listed can be tested for easily by comparing two general values.

Get creative.

[MuddyMole]

You should not be using "compare two general values" - that won't work with multiple instances.
It's really not hard to just store these things in alterable values etc though, like Domnovan says - either set the alterable value at the same time as you set the variable, or just when you're about to test it.

eg.
+ Always
-> Active: Set X_Scale to XScale( "Active" )

+ Active: X_Scale = something
-> Do something...

If anything, it would be better for Clickteam to remove all of these kinds of conditions, just to make things more consistent - if you use any extensions, they *very* rarely have a condition for every property, because it's simply not necessary.

[Coopman86]

You should not be using "compare two general values" - that won't work with multiple instances.

Close. This will work with multiple instances, however it won't work if you have a line of code that requires that instance to interact with another object (i.e. object collides with jerk, compare 2 values: jerk has 10 apples) it runs into issues, though I don't think you should have to use these in situations like this, the only thing I really use it for is comparing the effect value to something. I'd say clickteam really needs to make instancing simpler for the user.

At the very least, the help file should be made more helpful.

Agreed. There are many finer things that aren't listed in the editor, for instance, holding shift and clicking the crop button in the animation editor crops all frames, holding alt and clicking a somewhere with the action point or hotspot sets for all frames, etc. I don't recall seeing those useful hot keys anywhere (I have to thank sketchy for pointing those out, really goes to show you how useful the community is for most problems you can run into).

[King_Cool]

There are many finer things that aren't listed in the editor, for instance, holding shift and clicking the crop button in the animation editor crops all frames, holding alt and clicking a somewhere with the action point or hotspot sets for all frames, etc. I don't recall seeing those useful hot keys anywhere (I have to thank sketchy for pointing those out, really goes to show you how useful the community is for most problems you can run into).

Niiiiiice!
Didnt know about that
I usually go through all of the Animation Frame and reposition the Hot Spot/ Action Point maunaly ( if i forgot to position them correctly from the very start )

[MuddyMole]

Close. This will work with multiple instances, however it won't work if you have a line of code that requires that instance to interact with another object (i.e. object collides with jerk, compare 2 values: jerk has 10 apples) it runs into issues, though I don't think you should have to use these in situations like this, the only thing I really use it for is comparing the effect value to something. I'd say clickteam really needs to make instancing simpler for the user.

No. The "compare two general values" condition does not filter instances - it works like a simple on/off switch. It only tests the value of one instance (the newest), and then depending on the result, the associated actions either affect all instances or are completely ignored. If you compare a value directly, the action affects only the specific instances which meet the condition.

eg.
+ HitPoints("Tank") = 0
-> Tank: Destroy
-> Add 10 to Score

If you use "compare two general values", nothing at all will happen until the newest Tank object's HitPoints drop to zero - and then all the Tanks will be destroyed at once, and the score will be set to 10.
If you compare the values directly, individual Tanks will be destroyed only as their own HitPoints reach zero, and each time a tank is destroyed the score will increase by 10 (note: if several tanks are destroyed at the exact same time, the score will still only increase by 10).

[Coopman86]

No. The "compare two general values" condition does not filter instances - it works like a simple on/off switch. It only tests the value of one instance (the newest), and then depending on the result, the associated actions either affect all instances or are completely ignored. If you compare a value directly, the action affects only the specific instances which meet the condition.

eg.
+ HitPoints("Tank") = 0
-> Tank: Destroy
-> Add 10 to Score

If you use "compare two general values", nothing at all will happen until the newest Tank object's HitPoints drop to zero - and then all the Tanks will be destroyed at once, and the score will be set to 10.
If you compare the values directly, individual Tanks will be destroyed only as their own HitPoints reach zero, and each time a tank is destroyed the score will increase by 10 (note: if several tanks are destroyed at the exact same time, the score will still only increase by 10).

You forgot to add the "Pick one of" condition.
Still doesn't make it the most reliable way to do it, but it does work.