For Each Ordered & Place In Front of Object

So three features I miss so so dearly from good ol' Classic are the System loop "For Each (Ordered)" which allowed you to test an object type's instances for a condition and had that nifty "ascending" or "descending" ordering bit. Real handy. Let me play with Z sorting stuff real easy. I know there's a sweet plugin for it out (I'm using it myself!), but I feel it'd be a handy loop to have anyway.

I also realized how much I miss the "Create Object by Name" action. Being able to use expressions to spawn objects was something I ended up taking for granted in Classic. So powerful, so convenient...

The other one is "Place in front of Object". This was also really handy in Z sorting, because it allowed me to create effects like having the player take out a weapon that would stay on top of the player sprite but still maintain proper "depth" (not showing up on enemies that should be "in front" of the weapon). I feel like that'd be a very widely used one for things like customizing outfits or sprite stacking in isometric top down games and things.

So, yea, I was wondering if there are any plans to include any of these in the near future or, barring that, if anybody knew any good workarounds for #2 and #3? (z-sort plugin works great for #1!)

Other than my deep deep sadness at those missing-in-actions (get it?!<img src="smileys/smiley5.gif" border="0" align="middle" />), despite Classic having the last few features that I really need for my game I'm actually finding a lot of things in Construct 2 that keep me from going back. Way easier for me to come up with a sweet mouse based 8 way movement system in Construct 2 than in Classic, and the Families seem way more stable. I'm pretty excited to be working with it!

I miss these too. And pick by comparison.

For-each ordered and better z ordering are already on the todo list!

As for 'create object by name', as part of obfuscating your project on export to make sure nobody can reverse engineer it, Construct 2 renames all your objects to obscure names. If you used 'create object by name' this would have to be disabled because you can use expressions which aren't known until runtime, and your exported project would have to include the original object names. This could make it slightly (but not much) more practical to reverse engineer the project. Do you think it's worth the tradeoff?

Couldn't the 'create by name' string also be obfuscated in the same way? I have no idea how this works, but if its something like a md5 hash, it would be possible

Here is a workaround for #3

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5426011/examples%209/place_behind_of.capx

Arima

I forgot about that one! Now I miss pick by comparison, too.

Ashley

Wow, I didn't know that! That's an interesting bit of info, and a tough question to answer. I'd say "make an option!" but I'm also not developing it and I wouldn't be surprised if it's quite a bit more complicated than "just making it an option". I personally would find the "create object by name" action worth disabling obfuscations for, but I don't speak for all of the game developers who use Construct 2 so I'd leave it up to a public poll if it can't be made a toggle-able project option with any sort of ease. I just find that action extremely powerful and infinitely useful. As it is now, what I want to do is doable with what Construct 2 allows, I just need to define each condition rather than be able to leave it at "Create object by name: Player.Weapon".

Yay! on the "for each ordered" and better z-ordering though! I'm excited to have those make a comeback!

R0J0hound

I get a pavlovian burst of joy every time I see your avatar in a thread of mine. Simple. Elegant. I love it!

Has anyone found a way to create object by name? I've been looking all over for a solution to this. The best I've found is making a long variable compare list and then create if true. Seems odd that such a powerful command hasn't been added yet. it would compliment the "families" tag so well.

If i might ask for Is to put a Z order list layer so that you can start to put walls on the same order with itself and to keep player alway remain on top because it pretty irritating that i have to keep constantly telling the newly create wall to go behind. Thus makes it more idk in sync with wall set.