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I've been working on a shooting game, one where the bad guys come from one side of the screen and you are positioned on the other, firing a weapon at them.
Currently, the weapon firing is just if you click on the enemy character, you hit. Otherwise you miss. This is simple and works decent, but I was considering another option.
This option would be that when you clicked on the enemy, the missile would be a character or object that would move rapidly across the screen to the target. I think it would add another level of depth to the game, and I could possibly achieve cool things like:
1.    Allowing high powered bullets to continue through enemies into others.
2.   Bow type weapons would look much better.
3.   Automatic fire would be better
4.   Lasers, I have ideas for lasers.
My problem is that all of the enemies are already characters, and characters and objects are limited per screen as I have been told. I could see maybe twenty enemy characters on screen at once as things stand.
I used AGS for a good bit back in the day, and understand a good bit but I am still learning. So, any ideas on how to pull this off without characters would be wonderful. I've read over the manual and nothing is popping out to me.

Any help is appreciated, thank you.

Any of you guys play the Pen and paper Shadowrun? It's pretty good, if you like the video game you should try it out. Shadowrun has always been my favorite rpg, so much so that I have been involved in artwork for the companies monthly missions for at least the last five years.

I haven't made playing this game a priority yet though, but it sounds like it's good eh?

Hey Andail
I tried the old "Spoiler" tags and met up with failure....so thanks for the info. I'm living in the past on most of this stuff. Like all the scripting, it was different when I was digging into it back in the day. But it is so much better I can tell already.
Also, cEgo.FollowCharacter (null) did the trick. Thank you sir!

I decided on Characters. Today has me doing some testing and getting re-acquainted with AGS. Here is where I am script wise, cEgo being the Zombie.
// room script file
function room_RepExec()
{
    if (IsTimerExpired(1)) {
   cEgo.ChangeRoom (1, 620, 420);   
  Display("Timer 1 expired");
  Display ("Reset Zombie 1");
}
if (cEgo.Room==1){
   cEgo.FollowCharacter (cChar1);
}

}//Zombie scripts
function cEgo_AnyClick()
{
Display ("Zombie destroyed");
cEgo.StopMoving ();
cEgo.ChangeRoom (2);
SetTimer(1,200);
}

So, I'm sending the character to another room until a timer ends. But I am getting a weird bug:
The character appears for a split second on top of the character it is following before it is reset. Weird huh?

Now, this all may be moot, because on re-evaluation of this issue, I am wondering if instead of resetting the Zombies after they are killed, I would be better suited to have a grunch of zombie characters stabled up, and just call them at the start of each event, and set hit points at that stage. As long as I keep the number under 75 ( no problem) it seems like it may be fine.

So is there a limit of created characters in the editor? Will this route just bog everything down?

Thanks as always for the advice guys. It has helped a ton.

Wow, thank you for the response! That looks a little out of my league though.

I wish I could dig my old "AGS shooter" and look at the code, but thats way too old. I just can't remember how I managed the random targets.

Thanks!

So, you mean like in a shooting gallery set up. I could have zones and change the image and variable to to be "Shootable". Or am I missing more to this concept?

What I am looking for is the classical zombie defense. They enter and walk from the left screen, and a barricade or house is on the right. So they need to move across the screen. Is this doable somehow with Surfaces like you say? Is this a newer AGS feature?

Howdy folks,

I've done something like this years ago, back in the DOS editor days, but I am looking to have a setup where many enemies enter over and over on a screen, and are destroyed by being shot.
I'd love for them to have hit points as well.
So, do I need to make like 300 characters all with their own stats, or is there some simpler way to go about this?

Thanks for any advice.

Like I mentioned, I'm going to try it. But the Wacom would be better IMO. The Ipad can't really run the good programs, doesn't have the sensitivity, and as far as I can tell, sketchbook pro is the only program that allows exporting of images with layers intact. So, my intention would be to draw some good clean line art and maybe import it into my computer to be re-worked.

I've got a wacom intuos 4, medium size. Had it about a year. I love the dang thing. Also, it allows left or right hand use I believe. I don't really use the buttons as I am used to the shortcut keys anyway. But I like the little wheel it has, lets me change brush sizes and zoom. 

I had been using a generic drawing tablet for a number of years. Brand named Aiptech. Seemed to work okay but the nibs wore out fast. But when I upgraded to the wacom it was like going from crayons to a .005 micron pen . So yeah, you can't go wrong with a wacom.

I'm thinking of getting an Ipad, and the wacom brand stylus, and trying it out as a portable sketch device. The programs available are somewhat limited (only about 5 layers available, not many filters, a limited number of brushes) but I kinda want an Ipad anyway and this justifies it with my wife

Happy holidays!

Gonna suck not having you around dude. Have fun polishing boots....and...Crap I don't know anything about the military that I didn't learn from Top Gun. Try to find a good wingman?

You seem to be off to a good start. Looks really nice. I think every digital artist has a different way of handling layers. I handle mine pretty much like you did.

The more I think on it, the more I have to agree that we could use with more restrictions on gun ownership.

Currently you can't own guns if you are a Felon of any kind, or commit domestic violence. Beyond that I am uninformed. Oh, and some people on probation can't have guns either. Purchasing a gun requires a 15 minute background check and you are set. Also, committing any crime with a firearm automatically ups the penalties significantly.

More required training and safety requirements couldn't hurt. It's just that I always fear change that is spurred on by emotional issues, tragedy, things like that. There were some pretty questionable decisions regarding our liberty after 9/11. We should learn from that. 

Also, current legislation is misinformed IMO. I can see the re-in statement of the assault rifle ban soon. Which I feel is a bad place to start. Sure, all that tactical gear looks intimidating, but most gun crimes are committed with handguns. That ban also restricts hi-capacity magazines to government or law enforcement. This has minimal effect in my eyes. Folks can just pack more ten round mags. And although there are some massive magazines out there, they almost always jam. So I don't see those as the pressing issues.

So, I could live with restrictions on firearms. Although I don't think most restrictions would help as much as people want.

The bigger issue, to me, is how we handle mental health issues. I mentioned before that I had some experience in law enforcement, and I can tell you that jails are full of people who shouldn't be there. People who should be receiving proper mental care are just jammed in a cell and forgotten about. The mental health facilities WILL NOT take them unless they become a danger. Seriously. And they will not take them if they consider their mental issues to be caused by drug abuse.

And to top it off, those places are horrible. I always hated going in to them. We would keep suicidal people at the jail in a special cell and monitor them 24/7. And one of the few times the mental health facilities would take a suicidal inmate, I dropped him off at about 2 in the morning, and found out the next morning he had hung himself. Really, the whole thing makes me sick and it needs to change.

Nikolas, to address you point on gun collectors and keeping guns locked up:

Pretty much everyone I know that owns firearms keep them locked in massive safes. I do. And truthfully, for most people they sit in those safes most of the time. My firearms all have locks on them inside that safe, or have the bolts removed. I keep my ammunition well away from the weapons, and locked as well.

Some people carry sidearms hunting. I never have. I know lots of folks that take a sidearm when horse-riding, loaded up with shot rounds for snakes or any other aggressive animal.

Oh, I meant no offense Ponch. Those are just my personal reasons for not carrying. Also, like you mention the gun always pokes you.

I used to be a sheriff deputy, and carried a glock on my hip for over six years. I have the typical assortment of rifles for hunting and plinking. I can conceal carry but I never have, for fear of two things:

I believe most situations are only escalated with guns. If someone robs me they can have my shit. If I have a gun I might start thinking thoughts and get myself in trouble.

Wearing a gun everyday, I fear I would get too comfortable and forget about it. Possibly misfiring it or leaving it laying around.

That said, I am against gun control in general. If you want to conceal carry go for it. I like my guns for hunting (which feeds my family) and I take my children out and we shoot and they learn to respect guns.

People always want to outlaw "assault rifles", and for the most part, those rifles are just hunting rifles with tactical gear on them. If you lower the magazine capacities, people will just pack more ten round

magazines with them when they do these things. If you outlaw guns, folks will just start using explosives....or some other device. And there are so many guns over here I don't think it would really work anyway.

Yes! I went 32 bit for the alpha channels. Thanks a ton!

Hey folks, I can't find info on this. But in my game (640x480) the standard GUI will pop up when I hover over it but it shows nothing. I can click around and get various results, and all the boxes that pop up containing buttons have the buttons all greyed out. Oddly, when I hit the escape key to exit the game all those buttons appear just fine.

Any ideas what this is about?

Thanks for any help. 

Yeah, there was just a guy in China that slashed up 22 kids with a knife. So, not necessarily a North American thing.

It's a tragedy for sure. I think of all the little folks that won't be going home to their families and it just makes me sick.

Thanks a ton guys!

I’ve looked over all the comments and I think the wisest choice for me is to keep the black lines. I actually took some advice from this thread and lightened some of my images. This weirdly made a world of difference to me. Also, I’m messing with the yellow shade layer and liking what I see, although it is very easy to overdo.

Thanks  guys! I’ll try to post an updated picture soon!