Stacking reordering/ rotating actives

[amaire13]

Hey all,


2 questions here:

1. How do you change the order of the stacking of the objects in your frame without having to delete everything and repaste them in the correct order?

2. In my game the player pulls out a vector from the main character and then uses that to jump the character. The way my main character is animated involves multiple layers of feature (eyes, body, mouth) The vector is an image of a slime lime that I want to be pulled out and stretched, to rotate from the center of the character to where the user drags it, and then to snap back in at a speed dependent on how far the user dragged out the slime line.

How do I rotate the eyes so that it always follows or "looks" where the user drags the vector, and then, after the user releases the vector/slime line, how do I have the vector/slime line draw back in at a speed dependent on the length the slime line was dragged out and then hit the main character first before it launches him?

Also, after he launches, the body has a special animation for jumping that requires it be rotated in the direction the vector was pulled and snapped from. How do I do this?

Most of what I don't know how to do is how to rotate objects, do help will be appreciated.

[happygreenfrog]

1. Right-click on the object you want to re-order, move over the order sub-menu, and then select "Backward one", "Forward one", "To front", or "To back".

2. When choosing an action for an object to do (like bounce, stop, or change animation), the scale/angle sub-menu has the actions for rotating and stretching objects.

[amaire13]

Thank you, that pretty much fixed everything.

Last thing I have an issue with is after the vector is drawn, I don't want it to simply disappear, I want it to snap back where it decreases in size and reexpands back to its origin at the main character at a rate dependent on how far out the vector was originally stretched.

[amaire13]

Im Relatively new to mmf2 and my game has properties in it that Im Unfamiliar with. I'm gonna try and organize my questions here because I have a lot.

My game involves a character jumping on different platforms. The character is a green slime animated in 3 layers: body, eyes and mouth, and pupils.

The character is launched using a vector pulled from him that, when released, launches him in the opposite direction at a speed corresponding to how far the vector was pulled.

The vector is also an animation: it consists of a green, expandable slime line with a blob of slime at the end. The ball of slime and line of slime are 2 different pictures.

Here's my first question: I know how to construct a working vector system with a simple one pixel active that is extendable, but not with a picture. The picture is of an unextended line of slime that should expand, lengthen and rotate when the user clicks on the slime and pulls it out, originating from the center of the slime and rotating to where the user pulls it.

How do I have the picture expand lengthen, and rotate to where the user drags it? How do I attach the 'ball' of slime at the point of the users click? And this ones tough: instead of just disappearing, the slime Line should 'snap' back into the slime (it should rapidly unexpand and shrink back to the origin) and hit the slime before it launches it: how do I delay the launch and make this happen?

All the art of I have is from a graphic artist (which was free because I know the guy)

Next question: there are several different frames for the slimes face when he's doing different things. There's a face for sitting, jumping, landing, and injured. How do I get these faces, which are all separate frames, to appear at certain times only for certain events, and get them to always stick to wherever the body goes and on that position of the body?

Last question: when the slime lands, I want to run the landing animation for the body then immediately go back to sitting. I have an event that stops the slime when it hits a backdrop and also runs the landing animation, but I don't know how to return it back to the sitting animation after it runs the landing one. How do I order the animations to run in the correct order and switch at certain points?

I have even more questions but I'll leave this for now.

[happygreenfrog]

The first one would probably need an extension. Try the surface object. It allows you to draw shapes while the game is running. It may only look useful for creating graphics programs, but it is actually much more powerful than that. With some skill, you might even be able to make a 3D graphics renderer (though the 3D graphics it renders are probably going to look polygonal).

For the second one, just use a different animation for each one instead of a different frame for each one. There is an action that lets you change the animation.

For the third one, there is a condition for checking when an animation has finished. Use that, as well as the action that lets you change the animation.

[amaire13]

I'll try this extension and tell you how it goes.

I can't put it all in one frame because the eyes need to move independent of one another according to where the vector is pulled. Basically, the eyes and face Move and "look" where the user pulls the vector. The face and eyes should be separate frames but stick to the body at one distinct point and follow iy

[amaire13]

I got everything to work so far thank you. I have another 2 questions.

1. I'm designing my platforms to work like this: The main character will have a detector right underneath him that follows him everywhere. Atop the platform will be 2 detectors: Green and blue. Green will be the largest and originate from the center and extend out until the distance between it and the end of the platform is equal to half of the main character. The rest of that area is blue.

In a nutshell: If the character lands on green, he stays on the platform. If the character lands on green and blue, he stays on the platform. If he lands on blue however, he rotates 90 degrees in the respective direction and falls off the platform.

This will all only work if the detector underneath the character touches the detectors on the platform, not the character touching the detectors.

If the character hits the platforms themselves I will have a movement that will have him "bounce" off of it.

Here's my question: When the character is fully on blue, should I a) run an animation of him rotating 90 degrees and then drop that frame? or b) run a loop that will rotate the frame 90 degrees and then drop him?

I'm not to sure how to create a loop so I will need some help with that.

Question 2: Is my platform system a good idea? Will it work? Does anyone see any potential issues?

[amaire13]

heres the platform BlueGreenBlue

[happygreenfrog]

I got everything to work so far thank you. I have another 2 questions.

1. I'm designing my platforms to work like this: The main character will have a detector right underneath him that follows him everywhere. Atop the platform will be 2 detectors: Green and blue. Green will be the largest and originate from the center and extend out until the distance between it and the end of the platform is equal to half of the main character. The rest of that area is blue.

In a nutshell: If the character lands on green, he stays on the platform. If the character lands on green and blue, he stays on the platform. If he lands on blue however, he rotates 90 degrees in the respective direction and falls off the platform.

This will all only work if the detector underneath the character touches the detectors on the platform, not the character touching the detectors.

If the character hits the platforms themselves I will have a movement that will have him "bounce" off of it.

Here's my question: When the character is fully on blue, should I a) run an animation of him rotating 90 degrees and then drop that frame? or b) run a loop that will rotate the frame 90 degrees and then drop him?

I'm not to sure how to create a loop so I will need some help with that.

Question 2: Is my platform system a good idea? Will it work? Does anyone see any potential issues?

Answer 1: "A" sounds easier, but "B" would make the file size a little bit smaller. You don't need to use a fastloop for "B", though.

Answer 2: I like the idea. Sounds like you are on to a great start when it comes to making games. If you could upload a screenshot or two when you have the main engine done (basically, the code that is used in every level of the game), then I would be able to better give my opinion of the overall game, since I can't see the graphics without looking at a screenshot (or you uploading the individual graphics, which I don't think you want to do).

[amaire13]

I need help fixing this problem. If the platform or character detector was not tall enough (Like, only a pixel), it was completely ineffective. I increased the height of the platform detector and the character detector (the platform detector being stationed within the platform with its top reaching the top of the platform, and the character detector always stationed at the bottom of the character) and now the character will fall at varying lengths into the platform, sometimes falling so far in that it will land in the center of the platform before stopping.

I want the character to stop the second it touches the detector on the platform and not to fall further in. I have it set so that when both detectors meet the gravity speed and speed of the click team movement controller is set to zero, with the clickteam movement controller controlling the character.

How do I make it so that once the two detectors meet, it will stop instantly instead of falling further in before stopping?