Enemy wave patterns

tekkendp

Hello all.

I'm very new to this - just found about Gamesalad yesterday. I have been working on my own shoot 'em up. I really need help with my enemy wave patterns. I want to have a pattern like in Galaxians. Where they swoop down, and then settle down and move left to right. Does anyone have any tips please.

Thanks in advance - TDP.

BeyondtheTech

GameSalad does not yet have "Actor Paths" yet, which would have an enemy travel in a predefined pattern. However, you can make use of math equations such as sin() that will move Actors in curves, as well as building your own patterns by using Attributes:

in theory

Create an Actor Attribute called Movement.
For 2 seconds, set Movement Attribute to 1
After 2 seconds, for 2 seconds, set Movement Attribute to 2
etc.

Create Rules such as if Movement is 1, go down
if Movement is 2, go right...
if Movement is 3, go up...
etc.

tekkendp

Wow!!! Thanks for the speedy response. Loving the sense of community here.

Will give that a try. Thanks BeyondtheTech. (you haven't watch Gungrave by any chance have you - your name made me think of that anime).

tekkendp

Double post. Sorry.

quantumsheep

Quantum Sheep, the math genius*, is asking for help.

Brace yourselves.

I want a 'wavy' path for an enemy coming in from the right and moving to the left of the screen.

I had a look at this on the wiki: http://gamesalad.com/wiki/how_tos:gsc_wave_movement

Under the 'sine movement' section, there's an explanation of how to get an actor moving left to right.

I tried this, and it works fine. But as I said, I want it to move right to left.

I tinkered with the equation but to no avail. Anyone have an idea of what I should change to make it go the other way? I'm sure it's something very simple I'm missing!

Cheers in advance,

QS

*this may be a lie

rebump

Look up the graphs associate with tan, cot, parabolas and just plain old diagonal lines (y=mx+b). You may be able to use an equation based on some of them by setting the actor into motion in either a strictly horizontal or a strictly vertical way. Then constrain the other coordinate value (i.e. if starting move is horizontal, constrain Y - if starting move is vertical, constrain X) to one of the equations related to those items I mentioned previously. You may be able to "rotate" any graphs you find by just swapping X for Y and Y for X.

Been meaning to look into this myself but it is not pertinent to my projects currently.

quantumsheep

rebump,

Firstly, thanks for trying to help.

Secondly, you lost me at 'graphs' :O

I've tried swapping x for y and subtracting instead of adding etc to no avail.

I really don't think anyone realises just how shockingly bad I am at math. A 10 year old could do better, and I'm not exaggerating.

Ime aphraid mi strengphs lye inn writting

firemaplegames

Hey QS,

Just put a minus sign in front of the Time Attribute in the equation.
You know, negative Time!

quantumsheep

It worked!

Marry me?

QS

rebump

@QS: Sorry...my response was mainly to the OP, tekkendp. :-(