teacherpeter's Forum Posts

  • I have a few multiplayer questions.

    I've read through https://www.scirra.com/manual/174/multiplayer and it gives me a sense of how multiplayer works (though not really how to implement it so far, but that's OK for now).

    And then on https://www.scirra.com/blog/142/make-online-multiplayer-games-with-construct-2 I see the following bulleted blurb:

    ...

    "-Support for both peer-hosted games (not needing a server) and centrally-hosted games (using a server)

    -Official Scirra signalling server to connect players to each other"

    Questions to be clarified:

    1. On centrally-hosted games: Can I host my OWN server? Or must I use Scirra's central server? Is it better to just use Scirra's or would using your own probably be faster?

    2. On peer-hosted games: any finished games use this? Is it like TCP/IP? Is it fairly reliable?

    3. How feasible are these things to implement for someone without professional training in programming? I'm pretty thrifty with the C2 scripting system, for the most part, but mutliplayer seems like it must be tough to implement.

    4. Slightly tangential question: It seems possible to have 4 different gamepads hooked up to the computer and use them all in local multiplayer, right? I know C2 has gamepad support, but does it have reliable multiple gamepad support?

    From https://www.scirra.com/manual/143/gamepad

    Multiple gamepad devices can be connected to a single computer. To differentiate between them, most actions, conditions and expressions in the Gamepad object also take a Gamepad parameter. This is a zero-based index of the controller. For example, 0 identifies the first controller, 1 identifies the second, and so on. This allows you to make multiplayer gamepad-controlled games.

    Any guides I missed that expand on that?

  • Thanks for the tips, everyone. And for some reason my first layer was NOT set to transparent. Weird. But now I know!

  • Yeah I ended up figuring it out. Blows my mind that it isn't set to be transparent by default... Weird as heck.

  • This is so stressful. I haven't used C2 in a while and I'm having a problem I remember having when I first tried it out 2 years ago: I have several layers, each layer has things on it, but only the top layer is actually visible.

    Yes, they're all checked as "visible". Default settings all the way. Why can't I see anything on the other layers unless I drag those layers to the top?

  • Seems to me a long time ago there used to be an "Advanced Platforming" plugin or something that included features like wall climbing, double jumps, ground pounds, etc. Can someone please help me find it? I checked the Plugin list and it isn't there anymore that I'm seeing.

  • Hi, so I was thinking about making a fighting game... Would love for it to have AI/vs computer mode, but for the life of me I have absolutely no clue how to approach that. Is it possible? Has anything similar been done? Thanks for your input!

  • Oh duh. Gees what a rookie mistake. I haven't used C2 in like a year and I forgot even the basics. Thanks man.

  • Please check the .capx

    The layers are all setup correctly, I think. I'm sure I'm making a mistake that I'm not seeing. I've got this weird issue where my background layer is visible but all objects on the foreground layer don't appear. Yes, everything is "set to visible" and there shouldn't be any issues with opacity. I've tried deleting the background entirely and keeping the foreground but for some weird reason the foreground sprites don't show up. What am I doing wrong?

    http://www.filedropper.com/whywontyouwork

  • I'm afraid you're right. Still, I'd like to learn how to do it myself one day, but a mathematician is something I am not.

  • Ahhh. Judging by this, programming in C2 would produce a very slow AI. Hmm. Thanks for that.

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  • If it's really that complicated though, then how come there are so many strategy game apps with CPU on the various app stores? I mean, I downloaded an app with Latrunculi, Hnefetafl, and 9 Men's Morris all with computer AI, all apparently made by a one man team. Why couldn't it be done easily since it clearly has been done before? Like I said, I don't want to build an amazing chess engine. I just want a game that'll play.

  • Hey there! Thanks for that. This is a very interesting way to look at it. I'm sure this is going to be useful.

  • I'm starting smaller. A simple game with two pawns on either side that capture diagonally-adjacent pieces but can move orthogonally in 4 directions by one tile. To be honest, I don't want to program chess. I just thought that might be the "road most oft traveled" so that's what I asked. And for my purposes, thinking one turn ahead is enough. I'm not trying to make a grandmaster chess engine. I just want a game prototype I'm working on to play with me.

  • Yes, the more I read on it the more unlikely it seems that I'll be able to figure this out in any kind of timely manner... I guess I just figured there are so many apps out there different abstract board games that there must be a straight path to it by now since others have done most of the work. I'm not sure I'm ready to give up on this yet. It seems that learning how to do it would probably be good for my programming knowledge in the long run, even if it takes a long time. I'm seeing some books written on the topic, a couple beginner guides online that aren't much help...

    Anyway, if anyone knows something I don't, let me know.

  • What exactly do you mean? I'm sure that programming the AI will be hard, but I cannot imagine that it couldn't be done in Construct 2. Difficult is fine. I'm willing to learn. If it is impossible, I'd love to hear from Ashley or a few other veterans before I am willing to write it off completely.

    It strikes me that it might be best to make a very simple example capx before jumping into a full game. Here's what I'm thinking: we'll make this educational for the community!

    I'll make a miniature version of something like checkers. Then, we'll try to figure out how to make a CPU player. We can use this thread to bounce ideas around and I'll update it frequently with my example. Hopefully in the end we'll get a nice little example file that maybe could be included in later versions of C2 which will show how to program an abstract strategy board game and computer AI.

    I'll get to work right now.