Right now I'm using a method by Ashley for deleting an object at random, but that method is only effective (as far as I know) for sprites.

Both texts and boxes have 'Pick by evaluate' and 'Pick by comparison' so I was wondering if it'd be possible if they were given the 'Pick a random object' condition, just like sprites? I think it can be pretty useful, especially for texts. The option is already there for another object, so it shouldn't be too hard adding it to texts and boxes, right? (or is that the reason why they aren't there to begin with?)

I'm using boxes (will change to sprites) and text fields for hit counters, but I won't be able to use this technique for text fields and boxes without the option (well, I'm sure there are other ways, but none this simple).

I know it's not a grand idea, but small additions like these can be really helpful in some situations

You must be doing it wrong. Families obey ordinary object picking rules. In that event, only the objects that meet the event will be affected.

Got it working! Well, sort of.

Crashes are always bugs, please submit them to the tracker so we can make Construct more stable!!

Just submitted that one and another which was bugging me, though is the tracker working properly? Can't see any other listings like before.

See the attached file. It's a quick example proving events involving families work only on the right instances. It's also got a quick and dirty health bar implementation. The health bars are not in a container with the objects, they just 'naturally' pair up one to an instance if there's the same number of objects of each. This works with ordinary types as well and can be very useful. Hopefully it will help you see the real use of families. They can save a LOT of repeated events. I don't know how I'd manage without them!

At first I tried making it custom, though then I discovered containers and thought I wasted my time since it does it for you! Ah well, the method I was trying to accomplish was much too complicated anyway. Yours is so simple and yet accomplishes the task perfectly. Mind if I use yours?

Ah wait, but I'm spawning enemies... Is there a way to create the same numbers of bars as enemies? Wait, I could just spawn a bar along with an enemy!

Thanks for your help. Guess my understanding of families wasn't too far off.

EDIT: I tried replicating your destroy method, though I'm using boxes and texts which don't have a pick random action. Is it possible to add those in future builds?

Also, this may be a little off-topic, but is there a way to make an object move towards another while keeping the grid movement? So far I've been using rotate to player with a bullet, which complete ignores the grid movement and goes directly towards the player.

I'm struggling to properly understand the concept of families after reading the Wiki. Just to what extent can we use them to make, let's say, enemies? I'm now trying to get an Action RPG system up and running and I'm trying to create two enemies in the 'Enemy' family . I know that families allow me to assign each object the same private variables and allow me to create events for them as a whole, but from what I've tried, the type of events one can set is limited. Also, isn't there a way to make containers part of a family? For example, instead of adding HP Indicator to each object of the family, is it possible to add a container to all the objects at once?

It's very handy for setting health and strength since it creates those variables immediately, but in the end I can't create something like 'Enemy collides with Sword > Subtract 10 HP', since all the enemies in the family will lose 10 HP, unless I'm doing it wrong. From what I've tried I'll have to do it like this: 'Spr1 collides with Sword > Subtract 10 HP', 'Spr2 collides...', etc.

Also doing something like 'Always > Enemy: Add LOS obstacle 'Barrier' seems to crash the program, so I have to do it separately ('Spr1: add...' Spr2:add', etc.).

In the end, will I have to create a seperate event sheet for each enemy which has slightly different behaviour values (e.g - bullet speed, LOS Acc., Grid movement, etc.)?

I probably do have the wrong idea of what a 'family' is.

Since I can't seem to get my other project right, I've gotten started on an Action RPG system, which is only really experimental.

<img src="http://i39.tinypic.com/mi1e94.png">

I know, it looks awful!

The HP, Strength and Defense all increases based on the level and are themselves each based on an equation I came up with.

Well, anyway, I spent so long on creating the Health bar and HP system as I was trying to figure out how I was going to make a unique one for each sprite. Then I discovered the brilliance of Containers. I was relieved and annoyed at the same time... Now it's time to understand how families work!

Looks like a nice project.

I hope Construct (or this) will someday have iPhone support. So many indie developers are making lots of money out of simple games. We'd all be filthy rich!

YES!

Out of a selfless generosity that is exemplary of my character I have posted a cap that includes such a wall. This cap is perfect for using as a template. Nothing needs to be changed, just build your game on top of it.

Whenever I try to run it's an error message pops up and says "There is not enough video memory to open this frame editor. Please close some other editors and try again." This wasn't happening an hour ago with my other files... and there's no process eating up the memory...

EDIT: no cap file loading at all and Team Fortress 2 is really buggy. Must be my dying graphics card

Hopefully all is fine once I restart.

It's hard for me to answer this question since I started gaming late SNES/early PSX.

Well, it's much easier to take the NES route then the hi-res 2D route for many reasons, but I guess it's more to do with nostalgia than anything else. 8-bit games seem to have more of a classic feel to many, since plenty of gamers grew up playing them. It's also much easier to make a great looking retro game than a decent looking hi-res 2D game.

Many people disliked (in comparison to the old NES titles) the new Megaman games, as more powerful consoles allowed for more advanced gameplay and for a different and more current style of design. This led to each iteration feeling less and less like Megaman as the advances weren't for the better of the series. Capcom then announced Megaman 9, which kept true to the old NES title. It came out and people loved its old, simple gameplay. I was never a massive Megaman fan, but Megaman 9, even though it has NES-style art, looks sensational especially compared to later 2D/3D titles.

But advances are mostly always welcomed. A good example is New Super Mario Bros. for DS. Keeps true to the retro gameplay, but also brings in welcomed additions.

Sweet! I was planning on making a custom one, since I thought it wasn't implemented in the Platform behaviour, but I guess there's no need for that. This saves me a lot of time.

Thank you both!

or you can ask me, do i want to do it? i should be all right with making 2, 3 tunes for you.

Thanks for the offer, but it'll benefit me much more if I take the time to learn

I've known about Construct for a while now (sometime in September) and I think I found it through NeoGAF, though I'm not quite sure. I wouldn't have taken a second glance if my brother hasn't been raging on how open-source is great and all.

Before Construct I was messing around with SGDK2, which is a pretty neat tool.

Not really used to the control mapping, but other than that it's very impressive. I realized your character's jump height is determined by how long the jump key is pressed. Is that custom made or is it a platforming option which I've overlooked?

I'm really looking forward to see what becomes of this! That screenshot a few pages back looks beautiful. Keep us updated!

Have you tried putting in a text object tracking the total object count? The runtime can give 'out of memory' errors if you continuously create objects and don't destroy them. All objects except ones marked global are destroyed when you change a layout, so if you're spawning a lot of global objects, they will still exist after you change layout.

If you send me your .cap (to ) I can take a look and see what's going on. You'd need to provide clear instructions though and make it simple to see the problem (sometimes people send me really complicated games and say "just get to level 15, then...")!

Tried the text object counter idea, still showed no abnormal results. Email sent with lots of information explaining what's going on.

Thank you!