Help Please! Linking/un-linking the same actors so they behave the same/differently in a scene
Tishara R
Member, PRO Posts: 6
Hello! I'm very new to GameSalad, and have to make a prototype for a class I'm taking. I was hoping that someone could help me out, I'm not sure if there's a function I'm over looking or if it's not possible to do on GameSalad.
I'm making a trivia-like game where you're presented with (2) choices that adapt according to previous responses; think of it like the more you get wrong, the more misleading options you're shown. On screen, in one round, you are shown multiple questions simultaneously that each have 2 options.
I've created an actor for my answers that correspond to a table with 2 columns that hold the 2 options. The problem I'm running into is that when I drop multiple 'answer' actors onto my scene they all show the same pair of options because the actor is linked to the same table row.
I would like to be able to create actors in pairs such that they draw the two column options from the same row, but are separate from the other pairs of actors in the scene. I also want the actor pair to disappear from the screen once an option has been selected, but for the other actors to remain.
So what I'm asking for is whether there are behaviours to link some of the same actors, and/or those that allow them to function independently. I tried splitting them by layer, but there doesn't seem to be an option to apply behaviours to actors that belong to a certain layer.
Thank you for taking the time to help out, I really appreciate it! 
Comments
Have you tried using instances? Unlocking the actors in a scene, which would make them unique? You may have already tried that or it doesn't help you though... (instances can be found once selecting an actor on a scene and then there is a tab that has a locked symbol on it, so press that to unlock the actor. It will then respond solely to those rules/behaviors/conditions.)
i’m not sure if i’m reading it right, but you could use tables to store all your text data in side by side columns, then within the actor that calls on the data, use a unique identifier self attribute, that would call on the data in the table, depending on its assigned value.
Thank you so much! This is in fact what I'm doing.
But my problem is associated with being able to put several of the same actors on the same scene with different values drawn from the same table. But I've worked around that by just creating multiple actors. It's tedious but it's what I need to do.
Hmmm I'm not able to find that feature. But it does sound helpful. What I have ended up doing is creating multiple identical actors that draw different values from the same table; it's a roundabout way of doing it though, I'm sure there's something I'm missing.
As I mentioned in other comments I have (partly) resolved this by creating multiple identical actors. However, I now require to destroy an actor in one scene and for the same actor to be present in the next scene and behave the same way. Yet, once the actor is destroyed, it has disappeared from the next scene. I tried to include the spawn actor behaviour at the top of the actor, but that just threw a bug in and my game would not start. Any idea what's going on there?
To unlock an actor, select it in a scene, (well, depending on which Gamesalad software your using,) and then you should see a tab that says prototype and one that says instance. The instance one allows you to, once unlocked, to basically turn that actor into anything you want, with whatever rules you want. A bullet could act completely different than other bullets, etc. You can even change the way a particular actor looks. I don't know if this stuff could help you though.
Are you on a Mac, a PC (Creator), or Online Creator?
Online Creator link: creator.gamesalad.com
when you destroy the actor, are you using any attributes to trigger the destroy behaviour?
if you’re using a global/game attribute, eg a set up that says if destroyBox is true, destroy this actor, it will keep destroying that actor through the game until the attribute is told to change its value. if you are using a self attribute, it will reset each time the actor is spawned.