New AI movement suggestion

[Redsatori]

So, I have been playing around with the editor for a few days now, and I had an idea that I am trying to implement. It is not working quite as I planned with rotations.

I would like to see a horizontal and vertical movement option. I don't know how feasible this is to implement into the editor and overall game design, but it would be something like the following:

moveHorizontal, part#, speed, minimum, maximum, startPoint
moveVertical, part#, speed, minimum, maximum, startpoint

What these would do, is move a part either horizontally or vertically. They would be relative values. It would work similarly to the way rotation currently works, but would simply move a piece along either the x or y axes.

Let me know what you think of this, and whether or not it is implementable. Until then, I will continue working on my trig until I figure out how to do this with rotations. (I am currently about 60% finished figuring out the math of it by my calculations.)

EDIT:
I have the horizontal motion tweaked as much as possible within the limits of the Zeta Flow script engine. you can see what I'm talking about here:

Redsatori - Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind

[Mouzi]

You could also make it this way : P
http://zetaflow.skylogic.ca/ZetaFlow.php?ID=2706
But it's not that good for some things like for that example of yours.

[Redsatori]

That is much smoother than the way i ended up implementing it. I would love to see the script and setup you used for that one Mouzi.

Currently, on my space invaders level, it has a bit of an arch going on. That is definitely something I'd like to get rid of if at all possible.

[Mouzi]

It's actually quite simple.

[swartzer]

That's pretty slick! I was trying to get the same effect, but the best I could do was a flattish curve, by putting an axis of rotation way off the screen and rotating through a tiny angle at very slow speed.

I wish I'd thought of your trick; it's obvious enough in hindsight, like many clever ideas. You can get horizontal or vertical (even diagonal) motion, or various kinds of flattened circles, if you change the spacing and initial position. Changing the rotation speeds can make some interesting looping effects. This gives me some ideas; thanks for showing us how to do it!

[Mouzi]

No problem :) Too bad I'm not that good in creating cool levels so it's not useful for me :/

EDIT:
This one is also pretty fun:
http://zetaflow.skylogic.ca/ZetaFlow.php?ID=2730

[swartzer]

That's quite the trick! At first glance I thought, "Huh? What's the big deal?" Then I fired at those pieces and saw what you meant. It took me a while to figure it out, and I won't spoil the secret just yet, in case others want to work it out on their own.

[Redsatori]

My brain is having issues trying to figure out how to get sprites on the screen that have no actual use. lol. I will figure it out eventually.

[Mouzi]

Do you know any other cool tricks? :P

I wonder what MD means with this one "there's still one i'm surprised no one's discovered yet...hehe... "

[swartzer]

I wonder if he meant your sprite trick. I can see some uses for it beyond just ornamentation. Maybe this weekend I'll have time to build a level that takes advantage of it.

[Mouzi]

The problem with that sprite thingy is that when you add movement there the parts may sometimes destroy you.

And by the way; here's one trick again :D

[Sethum]

I give up. How do you make the objects sprites? Please PM me if you don't want to post it out. Depending on the mechanic, this could be very useful to me in my art levels. Thanks!

[Mouzi]

It's not really that useful as the sprite parts will always need
a mirrored counterpart and placing them offscreen makes them solid again.