Path movement, Counter, Gamepad, Hiscore

A few things which should be included/ supported...

Path movement for Sprites

Counter Object

Gamepad support

Hiscore object...

Or are they already included and I don't know where to find them?

Path movement should be a plugin or behavior, not necessarily just for sprites. It has been requested a few times. Would be nice to have.

Counters can be made with anything by adding and subtracting private variables. It is totally not necessary to have a separate counter object.

Gamepad support is a big thing. Currently there is none except for XBOX360 controllers. It's been requested a lot, and hopefully someone will make a plugin before 1.0.

Hiscore object? Why? What would it do that you can't already do with Construct? You could store your own high score info in a file with encryption if you wanted. You don't need a separate object for that either.

[quote:3pg0y3m5]Counters can be made with anything by adding and subtracting private variables. It is totally not necessary to have a separate counter object.

There's one benefit TGF/MMF-style counter object would have compared to the other alternatives though, you could draw the numbers for it yourself, meaning you could have custom graphic -counters made with ease.

With Construct, to get custom graphic counters, you'd need to use the SpriteFont object, which has its own problems... I guess the best solution would be just to get a more working SpriteFont object, it'd solve this issue and offer more usability in general.

Wellokayfine you have a good point about the counter object

Yes, custom graphics for the counter... thats my problem at the moment too...

Tonight I play around with the SpriteFont Object, maybe it works.

I was wanting to make a path movement behavior recently, but problems with the plugin SDK have been preventing me from setting up some necessary things. I'm gonna have to take it up with the developers at some point.

:O what things?

I have a pretty clear idea of what I would like to see in a path plugin:

object, not behavior (so it can be used along with behaviors such as bullet, RTS and others)

representation on editor is an image, not visible in game. In the editor you would only be able to place the waypoints, linking them would have to be done in runtime using UID (though an ini-based waypoint editor that sets them up would be cake)

attributes:

• x
• y
• radius: how far from the center is considered being AT a waypoint)
• outgoing: vector with ID of waypoints that can be reached from this waypoint and weight for that edge).
• Incoming: Internal vector like the outgoing vector, only with the incoming edges. Useful for defensive AI and such.

actions

• add waypoint
• add incoming waypoint (by UID)
• add outgoing waypoint (by UID)
• pick next waypoint towards destination(this would be A* search)
• pick incoming waypoints
• pick outgoing waypoints

conditions

• object is here (matches all waypoints that have a position within their radius)

expressions

• get X
• get Y
• get radius
• get UID

Thats what's in my head right now, however I'll finish 2.5d before tackling this. How does that compare to what you had in mind?

I don't think they mean Path as in Pathfinding, but rather drawing a set path for objects to follow. A Pathfinding plugin like you're describing would be something totally different.

Anyway, if it's at all possible I think the IDE side of things should link the waypoints for you automatically. It would make the plugin much more intuitive for new users. One would sort of expect it to work that way, after all. Having to link your waypoints using events isn't very user friendly.

You could use the same sort of method that making custom masks for physics objects does, by having an "edit path" link in the properties.

Also, support for two kinds of paths would be nice... Loop (which would work exactly like the mask editor for physics, where it auto-closes a shape) and Line, which would basically make an open line.

As for movement along the two kinds of paths, Loop would default to tracing the path in one direction repeatedly and Line would default to a ping-pong sort of behavior back and forth from end to end. Again, I'm just thinking of ease of use here, as these are pretty much the most basic sorts of things that people are looking to use Path movement for.

I think a Path movement should also have an option to "Orient to Path," like Flash does. As in, the object will point along the path in the direction it's moving.

Oh, and some Exact and Interpolated settings. Exact would follow the path exactly as you drew it, with sharp corners. And Interpolated would make nice beziers through the corners.

Just throwing out ideas here, take them for what you will

Yeah whats needed is something that works like the timeline object.

Something where when you click the object a pop up window comes up, and you can input your coords.

You can actually do that now with the timeline object, but I think what people really want is a screen that pops up and you click on it to set your nodes. Of course as soon as we get that someone will ask for bezier curves... not that I blame them.

The path behavior I was planning would probably work similar to the custom collision editor for the physics behavior when it comes to point placement. But I was also planning on supporting branching paths and curved paths and stuff.

I really need to figure out what's up with the SDK so I can start work on it.

Hiscore object? Why? What would it do that you can't already do with Construct?

Well the high score board is much friendlier in Game maker. You can have say the top 5 names and scores all sorted with no work at all. I think that would be nice to have.

Though I thought I remember seeing a post that a high score board would be added before 1.0 came out. Can't seem to find that post now though.

-

A Path behavior would be awesome!

I don't think they mean Path as in Pathfinding, but rather drawing a set path for objects to follow. A Pathfinding plugin like you're describing would be something totally different.

a specific path for an object to follow is a special case of pathfinding

I agree on the difficulty of using events to set waypoints, but I see no other way :s perhaps there is one and I can't see it due to not being familiar with the SDK

For curved paths you could add control point variables to the path object (curvature or an extra point for bezier or whatever you please) and move your object accordingly.

Moving an object in a straight line would be really simple

guy is at path

-pick next waypoint

-set angle towards path

tada! linear path. If its not looped you'd have to check if there actually is any waypoint.

Anyway, I should be coding this instead of talking about it

For curved paths you could add control point variables to the path object (curvature or an extra point for bezier or whatever you please) and move your object accordingly.

Actually, an even simpler way to do (basic) curves/turning is to just use "Rotate towards object" and "Move at angle" commands. I will upload an example .cap I made in the uploads section in a sec...

Edit: Here it is: http://www.scirra.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=5634

Ok! My racing game scirra.com/arcade/racing-games/lamboracing-4313 uses path finding to move the AI car around the track.

Which acts just like NODES with out writing all the points.

On start of layout

find path sprite 1,

on path found move along path,

On arrive and car is overlapping sprite 1, find path to sprite 2,

on path found move along path,

on arrive and car is overlapping sprite 2, find path to sprite 3,

on path found move along path.

on arrive and car is overlapping sprite 3, find path to sprite 1,

on path found move along path.

which completes the loop and the AI just keeps driving around the track.

Carbincopy

Ok! My racing game scirra.com/arcade/racing-games/lamboracing-4313 uses path finding to move the AI car around the track.

Which acts just like NODES with out writing all the points.

On start of layout

find path sprite 1,

on path found move along path,

On arrive and car is overlapping sprite 1, find path to sprite 2,

on path found move along path,

on arrive and car is overlapping sprite 2, find path to sprite 3,

on path found move along path.

on arrive and car is overlapping sprite 3, find path to sprite 1,

on path found move along path.

which completes the loop and the AI just keeps driving around the track.

Are you sure you meant to post this in a 5 year old thread for software that is now retired, i.e. Construct Classic?