EDIT: Okay, the diagram shows 23 gang members each (lol) but that doesn't change anything

You were a little ambiguous on some details, in particular how many sprites your using.

That's because I'm not able to get an approximate number at the moment, but in the diagram below I've attempted to ball park the number.

I'm assuming, you have 1 sprite which is used for each member in the gang and each member uses a different animation set?

Correct.

I'm also assuming you wanted to use this same sprite for all 26 gangs, but for each gang you want to replace all the frames with frames for their gang?

Well, some frames will be different. But the idea is to be able to call up the frames from a file folder for any gang and then replace the frames of a gang that already has its frames in the Animator.

The red dots represent the Bashers and its 23 gang members (with all of its animation frames and angles), the green dots represent the Rammers and its 23 members (with all of its animation frames and angles).

<img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2721/5731839159_22ac7ef893.jpg">

Now, imagine that one of the Rammers 23 gang members animations are in the Animator box and there are several animation angles there as well:

<img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3118/5731853921_96a54d70d3.jpg">

As the first diagram shows, I'm trying to replace all of the Rammers animation frames with the Crushers animation frames by calling the frames up from a file when I press a controller button or press a key.

Let's say your game has 26 different gangs and each gang has its own color. In the gang selection screen, you have a gang called the "Bashers" and their color is red. There are 22 gang members in the "Bashers", so that means that all 22 men have multiple animation angle sets in the animator.

But, you want to select the "Crushers". They have the same number of gang members and the same number of animation angle sets, except their color is navy blue.

How would I call up the Crushers frames from file and replace all of the Bashers animation frames in the Animator?

^^^ I just went back and tested "write as value" again and it did register. Maybe the mix up could've been that when I tried to write it as a value on my first attempt the expression wasn't written exact and I didn't realize it at that moment, but the second time when I wrote it as a string I wrote it exactly.

EDIT: Yep. I just retraced my steps with 'undo', and the above is exactly what I did. Perhaps Steven did the same?

Now I'm wondering; since my example shows it working written as a string, are there any pros and cons to writing it as a string? Or is it a situation where using either one would be okay?

I think I've got it. I tried to do the same thing you did writing it as a value and I kept getting zero as well.

So instead, I tried writing it as a string and it did send the Global Variables value to the ini file. Check it out:

<img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3276/5722180552_f81f186789_z.jpg">

In the ini file it wrote:

[Hello]

Name3=1

You know what would be a fantastic object? One that streamlines Toralord's example all into one object.

Another idea would be an audio-video recording object that begins recording based on an event like: On Enter key pressed or on collision between Sprite A and Sprite B >>> record layout

It could create an .avi that would save to it's own folder, and through event expressions we could call the file up from the folder. It would definitely need functions to have the file delete or save itself based on events, and allow the end user to save whatever recording he chooses... allow pauses, rewinds, and fast forwards...

I know I'm just wishing out loud, but man that would be great!

zero based mean if you use random(4)

the following number will be generated

0 1 2 3 4

so add +1 at the end like;

random(4)+1

Okay I see. I initially tried to do something like (4+1) and was getting a better result but ultimately the same problem, I didn't think to go outside the parentheses with it for some reason. Thanks guys. Solved:

How To Randomly Jump To Different Layouts

<img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2773/5715203234_4ac5a8c774_z.jpg">

Could you rephrase that? I'm not certain of what you mean. I have Layouts 1,2,3 and 4.

I'm using Construct Classic R1 (not 1.1). I built 4 layouts, and in Layout 1 I input a random expression to randomly move to different layouts on a button press:

Button B is down > + System Go To layout random(4) with transition 'None' lasting 0 MS

Overall it works and does randomly jump, except for some reason it decides to close the window often instead of jumping to another layout. Is there something with the expression that could be causing it?

The mouse isn't setting the angle, it's setting the target (or the location to arc to).

To target a different object just replace "mousex" and "mousey" with the object's x and y.

This worked with your newest example, but for some reason it won't respond in the physics example you posted.

Got it. The problem was that only one leg was registering collision for some reason. However, when I switched to using an Ellipse Collision mask on the limb that wasn't colliding, it made me able to dribble in both directions.

Great example Chris.

I found that I was able to get the legs to collide with the ball and take advantage of physics, by allocating a physics behavior to both leg limbs. So the character is able to dribble the ball around like a soccer player.

The only two things I haven't gotten to yet is figuring out why I can't dribble the ball to the left. It's strange, I can move it to the right all the way to the end of the screen, but when I get to the end and try to dribble back to the left the ball won't move. Hmmmm.

Hey guys,

I've been in touch with them about making a contribution. You can bet that I'll be sure to report back here on exactly how things have gone, very soon...