DimensionWarped

I don't like to do stuff like this via Skype. It's better to have a record of the assistance so that if people come along in the future, they have a resource to look through for help. The following example isn't in any way meant to be complete... but because it's frequently requested, I've made a Delta 1.4.3 build with a homing attack in it. It's crude and I'm sure there are bugs that need to be addressed, but it should provide at the minimum a stage for getting started. SonicWorldsDeltaV1.4.3_homing.zip

I actually wouldn't have accepted the bounty anyway. I provide programming help to SFGHQ members out of altruism. Anyway, you can't just copy and paste that code. You have to make sure the events are applied to the objects that are actually a part of your simulation. I provided the targeting alone because a homing attack is a very personal thing. It's not like the spindash where we have several consistent examples of how it worked in the original Sonic games. There are no two Sonic games which have the homing attack follow the same behavior. This is one of the main reasons we've never put a homing attack in Sonic Worlds in the first place. Targeting on the other hand is a necessary component no matter how you choose to implement the homing attack. This is where you get to be creative. Once you have the target chosen, you have the ability to implement that behavior without much effort. You simply change the action of your player to an unused action value for the homing attack action and then add logic for when the player is in that action to have the speeds set in a way that would constantly move the player towards that target. Add in some logic so that if you hit a wall or a floor or something like that, you'll switch either to the normal action or the jumping action.

So you were asking about how to target an object by shortest distance in the Skype chat. Attached is an MMF2 tutorial for doing just that in a simple two event fashion. Learn to use the fixed value and fall in love with it as any respectable MMF2 programmer should. Instructions: Movement of the teal sensor is done by drag and drop. The closest enemies group object will get hit by the targeting reticule. Note that you don't have to run this loop every frame. Instead, you can just run it once when you activate the homing attack. Then if the target is -1 at the end of the loop, you do your jump-dash style homing attack and if it's >= 0, you do your homing attack logic by selecting that enemy by fixed value. You can also apply additional restrictions to the selection logic by editing the for each loop event to exclude targets that are say... above the player. You can limit the maximum distance of selection by providing a different squared distance value as I described in the comment. simple_targeting.mfa

Game Maker: Great programming language, terrible tools. GM Studio probably has the best options of any of these programs if you want to work collaboratively on a project. MMF2/CF2.5: Terrible programming language, great tools. Has the simplest options for making a traditional style Sonic game right now. CF2.5 has a lot of untapped potential for performance improvements in the engines people use as well. Construct Classic: Decent tools and a better programming language than MMF2/CF2.5, but it's bogged down by a lack of interest/existing resources as well as some questionable decisions regarding the organization of objects which can have a severe negative impact on performance when lots of objects are in play. Construct 2: I question whether this tool will ever have the features necessary for making a collision heavy platformer like Sonic possible without providing a lot of extra stuff yourself. I'm still wary of HTML5. Might be a good tool if you want to do a collaborative project.

I'm working on a boss for the end of FFZ act 1 actually. A bit slowly unfortunately.

VVZ's score card is the end. The demo isn't exactly polished (Knux for instance is basically unplayable on FFZ future), but then... it is a demo. I think we'll be releasing an updated demo before too long with some extras in it and hopefully most of the nasty stuff from in here cleaned up. I suggested that we up the life count for the demos considerably for what its worth. On the other hand, my only involvement with this project so far has been a couple gimmicks and enemies... so no promises. I hate to spoil your opinion of the old games, but you can't do that in S3K. I'm not sure about the others off the top of my head, but I don't think that was standard behavior in any of them. You are just spoiled on Sonic Worlds. For what it's worth, I prefer that behavior as well.

It's funny because I was expecting something to do with Sonic Boom.

Oh, I suppose I guessed wrong then.

Hey hey, A.T. why don't you consider basing your opinion of a game on factors that actually matter instead of judging it purely based on some minor character design changes that you happen to dislike. Chances are, these designs were chosen by the team making the cartoon show anyway. If you'd been paying any attention at all you would have realized this game isn't even being made by Sonic Team. Also they have always marketed to the younger audience. How old were you exactly when you became a Sonic fan? I personally was six, and I'm probably one of the older people still around here.

Glad you are happy with it.

I'll pass on the reward, but here is a quick example if what you are wanting is what I think you are wanting circle_tracker.zip

You need to define the problem more specifically. Do you just want the triangles spinning, or do you want them to circumnavigate the sphere with the triangles always poking inwards or what? Feel free to use pictures with arrows indicating movement and such to get your point across. In either event, the problem isn't exactly difficult. It's just another minor trigonometry problem for orbit and it's just using sprite rotation and knowing what your angle needs to be in order to get the inward facing. Describe what you want a little better and I'll take a whack at it.

This is such an easy problem to solve with trigonometry though. It's pretty much the most basic trigonometry in existence. All it requires is that you know what sin and cosine are. Being the awesome bastard that I am, I have taken the 20 minutes necessary to create an example and fine tune it a little. EDIT: Included a more S3K style version that has the sprites closer together (forced to change drawing order) and illuminates slightly differently. Also plays the annoying sound effect. character_wheel.zip character_wheel_s3k.zip

Nah, it's an example that tries to animate each frame of the transitions by hand. It's the wrong approach to the problem.

My previous advice still applies. Let me know if you need me to just break down and do the whole thing for you.

I for one think it's interesting to see designs that divert from what we are used to this dramatically (even if some of them are a tad ridiculous) and I like the fact that the stages don't just look like a bunch of shit suspended in the sky. And seeing a game by someone other than Sonic Team is a pretty big plus to me regardless of their background.

That sounds remarkably like the kind of funny thing someone would do as copy protection. Was this distributed through Steam or what?

Well I can certainly tell you guys aren't Digimon nerds. Otherwise you would have known that Xros and Fusion were the same series. (*closes wikipedia tab*) I've only ever actually played one of the RPGs (it was on DS), and it was rather mediocre, so I don't know how much I really care.

I didn't realize that actually. Do keep in mind that I'm not an expert on MMF2 or its various features by any stretch of the imagination. But you left it a little vague there... do you mean it was designed to be used in old qualifiers mode, or do you mean it was designed to be used in new qualifiers mode and you are warning me that it is what it's meant to be?

I like how a bunch of them got changed over time too. It's like early on the hanging bars qualifier was simply called something like group 16, but later it became group bosses. Great. Now we have to make sure we don't use that qualifier for actual bosses (or else change the platform qualifier to a new one by editing a bunch of events).

That's a nonsensical comparison. And the trigonometry is already done for you.

If you don't know how to port the engine to Construct yourself, how can you even be certain Construct is a better option at all? Hell, it's mostly just an exercise in replicating events and making sure you have each object needed for each of the events.

Well, we've kicked the can down the road at the least. I'd still like to get some alternatives to MMF2 Worlds put together. I've personally been occupied with my career lately and haven't been able to dedicate as much time to projects lately sadly, so I don't have much of a leg to stand on there.

It seems... somewhat dysfunctional.

That depends entirely on how it's implemented in both. Direct performance comparisons between CF2.5 (or any MMF for that matter) and Construct are probably pretty difficult.