Working title: Sanity

First topic message reminder :

I know platformers are getting so-so nowadays but i want to make a story intensive game to reel the player in.
I was wondering if anyone can offer help with a platformer AI? I want to try something else besides the usual move left-right type. i was thinking of several separate objects all with a rotating sprite(gun) attached to it walking around a level trying to look for the player and firing at whatever angle they want and jumping onto ledges to get a better shot. Any info and ideas are greatly welcome. screenshots will come soon.
please help me out or i end up looking like this smiley --->

<note: not finalized and may be subject to change>
Storyline:
Deep in a research facility, several containment units have broken down. A lone figure awakens after his stasis chamber breaks down along with several others. A lone guard comes in to investigate, unfortunately he bumps into him. The guard is killed without second thought the moment he approaches him. Taking the guard's weapon with the stranger, he sets himself on a journey to find answers. As he leaves the facility through a path in the sewers, he comes across a city that seemed familliar to him.

yeah that should work, is there blood involved?

Naturally

yaaaaaaaay!
BLOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!

Blood for the blood god!
muhahahaha...
yeah, im doing blood spatters that are pretty similar to thing thing arena. it actually sticks to walls, only difference is that the blood fades away after a certain amout of time to minimize lagginess of the engine.

ps. tried the code and it works perfectly. thanks, never thought that -1 actually meant something more than just my score in playing games... hahaha...

hey guys, i'm making an independent gaming mag for school. any of your games you can share so we can advertise them?
who knows i might use my graphic design skills to make a real gaming magazine. any contributions are helpful. :3

When I get my Metal Sonic game finished completely your more than welcome to use it.

I could probably help with graphic design.

cool... one more thing, i was wondering about the backgrounds for the levels. any idea on doing it effectively... i know how the 'block' system works from the platformer tutorial. i wanna know if you guys have an idea about something less tedious.

my idea was to pre-render the scenery creating the background separately from the platforms... and i was thinking of making the platforms as one whole sprite to make it less time consuming. any feedback?

hmm... no.

i was considering that the sprite thing i cooked up may slow down loading since the sprites are slightly huge...

large sprites take a lot of time for gamemaker to process, and there is a good chance that it could die on you and corrupt itself.
Play it safe and use smaller sprites.

yeah, thought so... i'll stick with creating separate platforms... but i know backgrounds don't load too slow if i just stick with them and overlay them with platforms i think i should be cool. thanks by the way, i can finally use the walking animations i made.

code problem. i think i can make the subimg work so they animate but here's my new problem.

if speed>0
draw_sprite_ext(spr_walking,-1,x,y+27,image_xscale,image_yscale,feet_angle,image_blend,image_alpha)

if i add an if/then statement above, i doesn't animate. i just stays perpetually on the first frame. i was trying to make feet for the poor guys so they have more detail when moving. the may be just feet shuffling but i think my characters deserve it instead of hopping around all day.

i think i'm missing something again...

is there a way around this though?

update: found something out, if i remove the if/then statement and the character starts moving the animation halts to the frame it was on last and stops animating while moving.

hold that thought. BREAKTHROOOOOUGH!
i just added image_speed=-1 in the draw event to make it work!
haha! whee!!! and it only took me a few hours to realize.

go figure....heh heh.

it took some straining but it worked... im using the same engine as a template for a more casual game on the side... it's like medabots+custom robo+steampunk im

what the heck is steampunk?

steampunk's actually a type of art style that uses elaborate gears, it's like the industrial era but more artsy. try googling it. it's actually an art style im trying out too.

in that code you also forgot the { and }

A steampunk game would be killer. You should do that.

note i just forgot on the {} i typed that on purpose but i did add it. thanks for noting that. steampunk art seems interesting not sure how i want it though. i'm actually doing several games at one time. maybe a war of steampunk mechs?

for the game world i was thinking of creating a semi-persistent free-roaming world(i just love hyphenated words) that is a bit expansive. Think: Phantasy star universe... it actually opens up more room for different types of enemies instead of the cannon fodder i created on my first tech demo.

new question: how can i make an object spawn something with different variables depending on what created it?
Example:

enemy A gets fragged and dismembers.
when A dies it releases a body part object. in code can you set variables to the object being created instead like the sprite_index? this is my plan for the dismemberment.
like if another one dies like enemy B, instead of a creating separate object for a body part i want to use the same object with an adjusted sprite index to save the pain of creating body part objects.

simple,simply have the different body as different objects with the different variables set up in itself.
Then when a specific "event" happens, have the enemy create the any of the body part objects you wish with the create events.
does this help?

sounds good...
the idea is great but will that ever create problems when there are a lot of enemies. since they are now separate objects each body part has to jump to obj_enemy.x and y. will it jump only to the one that created it or will it get confused at some point and attach itself to another obj_enemy?

i'll try your idea out. but, just to be clear, the object spawned has no variables other than the gravity and direction so it spawns with a motion. So is it possible to give a sprite index variable through the instance_create function so it knows which object spawned it? because the enemies are now generated with completely random appearances