Hey folks,
I'm working on a sequel to my almost totally unheard of platform game Flags of Doom.
It's a platformer in the Jumpman (the C64/Coleco etc game) tradition and relies heavily on moving/destroying/falling platforms.
I created a platform movement system that uses MoveTo as I didn't quite like using the node-based behaviour for my particular uses. I don't like to bring in too many plug-ins.
Anyway for this system I create two classes - platforms (and ladders and other such thing) and nodes, objects I can place on the layout that "attract" platforms.
In the capx you can see my method *almost* works.
docs.google.com/open
You can walk to the right and a platform flies to the right and stops, by design. You can jump on the lower platform and it starts to move in a repeating pattern, while 2 more platforms move at will.
The code uses For Each to compare that the platform and the node have the same "path" and "sequence" - platforms that are "active" automatically start to move toward the node of the same sequence and path. When they end their route, the sequence goes up one and they move to the next node, UNLESS they go above the "maxsequence" for that platform, at which point the platform goes back to start.
It appears to work as intended. You can go into the capx and adjust any of the values and the platforms will change their path.
The problem?
At some point (you have to wait a looooong time in this example, but in the full game, I've seen it happen almost instantly), one of the platforms will just *stop* and become immovable.
It only happens when more than one platform is moving at once, and seems to be related to how I "picked" them, but I wasn't able to figure out what the problem was after dozens of tries.
I'm understanding something wrong fundamentally in how picking works, and I'm afraid to go much further in the game until I understand it better.
So, gurus, how do I fix this? What am I doing wrong.
I warn you, you may not see the *stopping* behaviour in this example, as it seems to take a long time. I also apologize for it being so easy to "die" in this example, it's just excerpted from the game, where those bits work completely differently. If you die, the example keeps playing anyway, so you can see what I mean.
Thanks! I'd love to have some info on this.