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.

I would suggest creating the different body part objects for each specific character but........could you really be bothered to do that?

that was my original idea though. but you know creating things like body parts are tedious. i'll take your advice, maybe add a new line to the array to create a set of "bloody-parts" (excuse the pun.) that are created when they die without making things too complicated. thanks.

got the flying body parts working. now, i may need help in thinking of the best way of making a character crouch. i was thinking of using a separate mask for the crouching and reverting to the original standing collision-mask when crouch has been released. any feedback or ideas?
i was thinking about this and the only problem i can consider is if it switches masks there is a possibility of getting stuck.
i'd love to hear what you guys may have to say about this.

you could just change sprite

He's right...why complicate things when the method is right in front?

and just make it check whatsprite it is at so it can face the right way when crouching if the are 2

.....or just don't do crouch.

well facing is automatic but what i meant was the x and y of the crouching sprite... if i change it should i just keep the original x,y so i doesn't 'jump' when switching?

got crouch working now so far i think it's not glitchy yet still running tests.
i know how to generate random numbers. but can i assign a minimum and max value? in case you noticed the gunshots spread only upwards and may need to know how to assign a value so it has a more varied spread.

What you mean like a shotgun?

exactly... i was planning on making the bullets spread but problem is they only spread upwards

i used the on create event:
direction=round(random(45))

i know something's missing since the firing arc only fires upwards and never spreads at an angle less than zero

what I would do is keep it simple and make it so the shotgun fires "five" shots at once in "even" directions, for instance one would go straight , one would go high, one low and two that goes between the other three.
It would also help if each of these "Pellets" were a separate object so to have more control over it/them.