I cannot advise you not to play 7 Days To Die.

locohost

According to the change log "pick by uid" works with a single look up since r127

[quote:1lz4z8fi]The condition 'Pick by UID' has been reimplemented to work with a single lookup, rather than iterating every instance. This should make it faster, but it also is now the one condition that is the exception to the rule about picking newly created objects in subevents, i.e. you can call a function on a newly created object, passing its UID, and successfully pick the instance, which did not previously work.

https://www.scirra.com/construct2/releases/r127

Great to have confirmation! I should have been aware of this, since I'm using "Pick by UID" for newly created objects rather often. But apparently I didn't store the "single lookup" part in my brain. Thanks R0J0!

PixelRebirth

You didn't understand what i meant.

Hey, I cited you because you were rightfully stating that C2 is for 2D and it shouldn't be competing with Unity. I basically agreed with you and vented a bit of my own annoyment that 3D keeps getting brought up.

So I do hope I understood just fine.

> Can't you already do the collision thing by using a family?

>

No,it can't. Within same object type is much more specific than within family.

Let me clarify what I meant: if you want to test for a collision of two instances of the same object that you pick by UIDs, you can do this with a family.

Pick the first object by UID and then use the condition of the family that contains the object to pick the 2nd one. Then simply use the overlap condition "Object overlapping Family" and you're good.

So unless I'm misunderstanding what you initially asked, this does work fine.

I'm afraid I find your events a bit irritating. You say this was done following a tutorial?

To make sense of it I would like to ask you about what exaclty you want to achieve here. I understand in the beginning there appears to be a certain number of cards you have to memorize and then pick out of a randomized set of 24 cards.

Is it important how many instances of the before shown cards appear to pick? And when you said you still had problems with repeated cards appearing: do you mean once presented cards to pick should be excluded going further on?

What I will say though: don't use copied event sheets for each level, you can simply select the same event sheet containing your game logic for each layout. Also for a game like this, you probably shouldn't even be using different layouts for each level. One will do.

What you really need to learn about are functions, they will make your events more effective and reusable. I suggest you head to the manual first.

locohost

I have no idea how C2 handles "pick by UID" internally. But I will say that it would surprise me if this resulted in meaningful performance issues in most situations, even if it had to search all instances. Of course I can see how it wouldn't be optimal in any way.

I do recall though asking for a variable type that would hold an object instead of a string or number when C2 was still very young. The response basically was to use the UID to reference specific objects. That makes me hope that "pick by UID" is actually well designed and doesn't have to do unnecessary work.

And yes, if you're building plugins you sure need to be aware of javascript to a certain extent at least, hehe. But I don't think this applies to the majority of C2 users.

1) I don't understand these people who understimate casual mobile games. If you want to make big desktop game - it's okay. Good luck. But making games cost lots of money (i.e. professional design) and casual games are the best option for begginers. Someone can make casual game -> gets money from ads etc. -> have money for more serious game.

I think there is a little misunderstanding indeed. Just because you aren't primarly targeting mobile devices doesn't mean you are going for AAA production values or a game with a huge amount of content. A simple 8bit retro platformer is still inherently a core game.

You really make it sound that if you aren't going for casual stuff, you are automatically trying your hand at creating the next Mass Effect.

My advice is to focus more on 2d games not 3d, The idea is to make C2 the engine number 1 for 2d games.

There no way to make engine like Unity without spending huge amount of money.

It's baffling that this is being brought up again and again. Or maybe it's more annoying than baffling really.

Construct 2 is for 2D games. It would be silly and costly to try to compete with the likes of Unity, UDK etc. If you still want to dabble with 3D within C2 I believe Quazi's plugin is a very cool way to do so by now!

new Zoom Behaviour and a new ability to specify 2 instances (UID or IID) within an object type to check for collision

Can't you already do the collision thing by using a family?

Then in code we call Sprite.ChangeAppearance(param1, param2, param...) and the function "ChangeAppearance" gets called and is passed a reference to the calling instance object as the first param, as well as each specified custom param.

I honestly fail to see how this would be any different from simply calling a function "changeAppearance" and using the UID as the first parameter. It seems like you're asking for C2 events to be more similar to coding languages you appear to be familiar with.

So unless I'm sorely mistaken about some aspects of what you've brought up, all of this is already possible with C2 functions. It's a matter of it working differently than you are used to. Also don't forget you can always use the SDK and go ahead creating a behavior that might provide the usability you seek.

Tylermon

I don't think function call will remember picked objects (SOL), in C2. Each function call will start with picking ALL.

As usual rexrainbow is right!

PixelRebirth

Obviously older platforms aren't perfectly supported, just as you wouldn't expect a new game to run on win 98, but the great thing is everything works on modern platforms, at least in my experience. Things can run without obscure updates cause everyone has an up to date browser. There was nothing more annoying in classic than people not being able to play your game because their Direct-x wasn't an obscure fall update.

Hehe, didn't mean to suggest anything should be running well on very outdated platforms. That's also why I immediately got a recent tablet model when I wanted to give mobile development a serious shot.

I also do very well remember the quarrel about DirectX with Construct Classic. I don't think the situation is that much better now with Construct 2. When we are just talking web-based played on a PC: if the user has only Firefox or even IE , chances aren't so bad your game will run jerky. And I do think casual players will be reluctant to install a certain browser just to play your game. And even with Chrome, what if the current update botched the performance...

On the other hand if we are talking core games: basically every other game on Steam does install DirectX stuff when you fire it up the first time. I don't think gamers do perceive this as a hinderance. (Node Webkit exported projects in C2 also include dxwebsetup.exe, because it might be needed.)

Sure I do get the gist of what you are saying and generally it is right that everything works on modern platforms. It is still a slippery slope to keep things running at reasonable framerates and juggle the different third party exporting options.

HTML5 + Javascript is really a great choice for a game engine, the performance isn't optimal, but that sacrifice is worth it for the portability

At the beginning of Construct 2 I held a very negative stance towards HTML5. Once C2 developed further and my own experience grew, there was a certain enthusiasm about being able to develop for almost any device. Only owning an older android device, I even went ahead and bought a Nexus tablet.

Unfortunately I was pretty soon disenchanted, because the performance was and still is a very fragile thing if you're trying something remotely advanced. Construct 2 heavily relying on third parties for exporting options to different platforms doesn't help the issue either. If there's a problem with these, it is not only out of your own control, but Scirra can't do anything about it directly either.

Overall it gives more of the impression of a bit of a mess rather than a great breakthrough in portability. To me at least.

Granted, it also depends on what kind of games you want to develop. C2 attracts a whole "new" group of developers, who want to make game apps. Casual games rather than, well, core games. I can see this being a good business decision for Scirra. At the same time I can't deny it makes me feel a bit alienated.

All I really want in C2 is a better editor sdk for plugin devs, and all the other features would then come from it eventually.

In a podcast interview not too long ago Ashley stated this would be one of the major things for Construct 3. I also got the impression that C3 might come earlier than expected and C2 will then stop being extended, but still maintained. Don't kill me please if I'm incorrect here.

Far as I'm concerned, the behaviors and all the built in stuff are to blame. Most other engines have you make your own platform engines and such, as well as level editors, data tools, etc. With C2 you don't really learn much of anything...so if you start with C2 you'll likely always be a "noob". Not to say I don't appreciate behaviors and all, but ultimately we'd be better off with more features to make our own exactly how we want..

Can't say I quite agree with you on this one. Overly relying on behaviors will indeed leave you in the dark on how certain things actually work. But the way the C2 event system works will teach you a lot about programming in general. Because it is just that: programming. Without having to care about syntax.

Regarding many things you can apply the same logic to jump into Javascript (for example)relatively quickly. And that will enable you to do your own plugins. Which then enables you to do even more things exactly how you want.

So I do believe you can start out with C2 and it isn't a given that you'll always stay a "noob".

Anyway, from the OP I rather got the idea this was a casual thread about things that can be annoying in development and hard to figure out, especially if you're not a rather math savvy coder type. Which would be a far greater issue if it wasn't for C2 of course. Many if not the majority of users wouldn't be developing games if it wasn't for Construct.

That being said, I also do know the feeling very well not being able to figure something out that seemed trivial when you were planning it in your head. It's easy to feel stupid and overthink stuff in an endeavor as complex as game development. And I do bet it also happens to people with a real coding background from time to time.

scirra.com/forum/plugin-dialog-box_t65159

Yes, as I said above I'm aware of your plugin. But unfortunately it doesn't use IDs and I really wanted that feature.