help with my enemy ai code

[lazypays]

I'm working on the code for the enemies of my game

I just can't get this code to work

It's fairly simple:
Find out hero's x location as xspot
move to xspot - when enemy x = xspot
get next xspot

here's the code

onClipEvent (load) {
// find where hero is
xspot = _root.hero._x;
}

onClipEvent (enterFrame) {
if(this._x < xspot) {  // move right
	this._x += 2;
}
if(this._x > xspot) { // move left
	this._x -= 2;
}
if(this._x == xspot) { // arrived at xspot - get new xspot
	xspot = _root.hero._x;
}
}

This is just the first part, but I just can't
figure it out. Once the MC gets to xspot it stays there.
It's not going to the next xspot.
I did a trace on xspot and the value never changes.

Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks

[mosterdfles_flash]

the onload event only works when you load the enemy MC ...

So it only track's the hero's position once and then he doesn't anymore... unless you change it into the enterFrame even't...

onClipEvent (enterFrame) {
xspot = _root.hero._x;

if(this._x < xspot) {  // move right
	this._x += 2;
}
if(this._x > xspot) { // move left
	this._x -= 2;
}
if(this._x == xspot) { // arrived at xspot - get new xspot
	xspot = _root.hero._x;
}
}

[lazypays]

Yeah, but i don't want to track the hero's movement

I want to get the x position - store it and move the MC to it
when the MC gets to xspot - THEN it picks a NEW xspot

the problem with the code seems to be with this line

if(this._x == xspot) { // arrived at xspot - get new xspot
	xspot = _root.hero._x;
}

I want the enemy to be kind of dumb
this code should change the value of xspot when
the mc gets to xspot position

[Zakarus2001]

lazypays is right the reason the value never changes is because it only checks it only gets the xpot once, whent he mc loads. You would need something like this...

onClipEvent(load) {
    xspot = _root.hero._x;
}
onClipEvent(enterFrame) { 
   if(this._x < xspot) {  // move right
      this._x += 2;
   }
   if(this._x > xspot) { // move left
      this._x -= 2;
   }
   if(this._x == xspot) { // arrived at xspot - get new xspot
      xspot = _root.hero._x;
   }
}

yeah that should work...
Have fun
~Zakarus2001

//////////////ADDITION//////////////////
I think another problem would be that if the xspot is something like 2.002 or something, the enemie will never get tot hat spot, because it only moves in integers of 2.. so maybe you should do something like...

if (this._x >= xspot-1 && this._x <= xspot+1) {
   xspot  = _root.hero._x;
}

that should fix it

[lazypays]

Yeah, that worked perfectly

Thanks

joe

[hooligan2001]

yeh
xspot = _root.hero._x;
needs to be under onClipEvent(enterFrame) {
because it needs to be refreshed every frame

[Son of Bryce]

How would you set the AI to activate if you are within a certain range of the enemy? Like 100 pixels or something.

[lazypays]

Well the AI was for a shooting game I'm making and
I'm still working on it.

My idea was to get the x and y position of the hero MC
-Then find out which distance was FARTHER Away,
and then move the enemy MC to that specific position
(either x or y, but not both)

When the enemy MC reaches that specific X or Y
position, it picks a new position based on hero MC.

Since the enemy MC is shooting at you, he only has to line
up on one axis to get a clean shot. By moving him to
the farther x or y position he doesn't appear to move at
an angle straight at you.

does that make sense?

anyway here's a quick example of what I was working on
it's not working exactly right, but it's getting close
-use the arrow keys to move and space bar to shoot


http://www.lazypays.com/flash/sample_ai.html