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Crash Course 2: Invaders - Part 12
by Hectate (Updated on 2015-05-02)
Part 12: Destroying the Enemy Ships
Now we put those bullets to use! We want to give the enemy some health so it can take a few hits, and then destroy it once it takes too much damage.
Step 83: While still in the Bullet's events we should be looking at the Actor - Type collision event. We're going to use the same collision to also tell the Enemy Ship that it was hit by a bullet.
From the palette, find the Trigger Event [text] in all behaviors for [Actor] block (found in Behavior > Triggers) and snap it above the Kill Self block (we want it to be triggered first).
Type "Hit" into the text field, and then grab the blue Actor Of Type block from the collision event wrapper above and insert it into the Actor spot. The event should look like the image below.
Step 84: Switch to the Enemy Ship actor and access the Events tab for it. Click Add Event and select Advanced > Custom Event.
Step 85: The event wrapper will appear, in the blank field type "Hit". This will cause the previous "tell" block we added (to the bullet) to trigger any code that we put in this event when triggered.
Now, if the enemy was just going to take one hit and be destroyed we could put a kill self block in here and be done with it. However, we actually want the enemy ship to take multiple hits. To track how many hits it can take, we're going to need an attribute to store a "Health" value.
Step 86: Create a new Attribute, select Number for its type, and name it Health Points (click the Attributes button on the Palette, then the Create an Attribute button).
Step 87: Add another event to the Enemy Ship. Create a When Creating Event (click + Add Event, then mouse over Basics, then click When Creating).
Step 88: Now lets actually set the initial Health value. Click on Attributes -> Setters in the Palette and drag over the Set Health Points to [ ] block, snap it inside the When Created Event, and type 3 into the empty field.
Step 89: Now that each Enemy Ship will have 3 health points when they're created, lets do some damage to them when they're hit.
Switch back to the Enemy Ship's Custom Event, and then grab the Increment Number By [ ] block (found in Numbers & Text > Math in the pallete) and put it inside the custom event. Switch the "increment" field to "decrement", and select "Health Points" in the number field (if not there already). Finally, in empty field type "1".
Step 90: Finally, we need to add an Event that checks the number of Health Points the Enemy Ship has left and destroys it if it has 0 (or fewer, in case it gets hit more than once very quickly).
To start, click the + Add Event button, mouse over Basics again, and select When Updating. Next, drag an if block inside the Always block (in Flow -> Conditions in the Palette).
Step 91: Now we add a "Less Than Or Equal To" block (under Flow -> Conditions again, it looks contains a "<=" between two numbers) to the empty field in the if block and then check whether Health Points (found in Attributes > Getters) is less than or equal to 0 or not.
Step 92: Here's where we put the Kill Self block (under Actor > Properties, if you recall).
Now our enemy ships will be killed if they are hit by three or more bullets! Feel free to test this out now. That said, its not very fun for them to just disappear; let's fix that!
Step 92: We want to use our Explosion sound effect we uploaded earlier. If we add a [Play] [Sound] block (found in Sound & Images > Sound) and select our Explosion sound effect from the dropdown menu (click the block and then select the Explosion sound we uploaded earlier), that sound will play right as our Actor is removed from the Scene.
Step 93: Now we need to add an effect to our Enemy Ship Actor Type so the player can tell when it’s hit. Switch back to the Custom Event. We’re going to use blocks under Actor -> Effects in the Palette
For the effects, grab these three blocks:
- Apply Effect [ ] to [Actor]
- Make Negative
- Remove All Effects From [Actor]
We also need to have a Do After timer block (Flow > Time in the palette).
Put the Make Negative block inside the Apply Effect block's blank space. Snap the Do After block in just below this and type ".1" into the blank for the time. Finally, put the Remove All Effects block inside the timer.
With all this in place, test the game. If everything is working, it’s time to create a way for our player to win the game.
130 Comments
The explosion effect is too slow so I replaced after 1.4 seconds to after 0.2 seconds and it became normal again. Any other problems will be fixed by Lorenzius's advice (check other pages if not in page one)
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Everything was fine, until I tested the game at the end of this part. My problem is that some of the enemy ships remain on the screen after being killed. I have tested the game several times. Sometimes, this only happens to one ship; sometimes, it happens to multiple ships. The explosion sound plays, but the ships are still on the screen. I tried tinkering with it unsuccessfully.
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That game doesn't work, need help, but it's nice this e like programing games sometimes
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Thanks for the Lesson. I'm enjoying it. I got a strange effect and I have the remedy:
When the bullets hit an enemy ship for the last time, the enemy ship disappears too soon so that the bullets park right where it hit and stays there on screen. To fix this in the Update, I moved the "Play Explosion"(pink) bar just above the "do after" clip and then reduced the time (to 0.2 seconds) in the "do after" clip so the "kill self" would happen sooner. I like it.
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I have done everything like it is written and my bullets pas trough the enemies. I also tried the advises in the commends but noting is working.
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Step 80 might as well be in Chinese, so unclear. Newbie guide? Yeah right, just skip along assuming everyone gets everything after one go with a photographic memory and genius IQ.
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If you're having problems with the bullets staying stuck in mid air after hitting the ships, and inconsistent shots, follow the solution that Lorenzius provided. Worked perfectly!!!
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