Strange problem with buttons and movie clips...

[hubridbunny]

hey all,

i've been having trouble with this all day, and i can't quite figure out what's wrong.

there's an NPC in my game that is supposed to speak. right now, there's a button ("arrow_btn") inside the NPC movie clip ("evilulu_mc") that is supposed to progress the conversation when pressed.
the conversation starts on frame 3 of evilulu_mc, so naturally the button on frame 3 is supposed to gotoAndStop to frame 4, and the button on frame 4 to frame 5, and so on. frame 3 to frame 4 works fine, but for some reason the arrow on frame 4 goes BACK to frame 3 instead of going to frame 5! why?

code on evilulu_mc:

on (release) {
    this.gotoAndPlay(3);
}

code on frame 3 button:

on (release) { 
this._root.gotoAndPlay(4); 
}

code on frame 4 button:

on (release) { 
this._root.gotoAndPlay(5); 
}

[brickhouse420]

when you go to a button's actionscript on the root level and put a code, that code will always run when initiated.

Since you have

on (release) {
    this.gotoAndPlay(3);
}

Every time you press and release this evilulu_mc (or what ever btn has the actionscript) it will run that command. You have two options.

on (release) {
if (!evilulu_once){
    this.gotoAndPlay(3);
evilulu_once = true;
}
}

or you can not have any commands on the btn, and inside it you can have a button that makes it go to the next frame. And on the next frame don.t include that code.

[rusel]

Use this code for to solve your problem.

on (release) {
if (!evilulu_once){
this.gotoAndPlay(3);
evilulu_once = true;
}
}

[hubridbunny]

i tried taking the code off evilulu_mc and putting a button inside it instead, but then it didn't do anything at all when clicked. and with the if (!evilulu_once){ code, it goes to frame 3 and stops. what am i doing wrong?

[gorlummeeguvnor]

post the fla. perhaps you should be using gotoAndStop() instead so the playhead stops on frame 4 rather than gotoAndPlay() which plays from frame 4. but without the fla - who knows

[hubridbunny]

here's a mediafire link to the .fla.

sorry i had to upload it on another site, but it was 76.5 kb too big, even after i purged the library.

[gorlummeeguvnor]

you are using an out of date way of writing code.
- double click the evilulu_mc and on the first frame in the movieClips timeline write -
- Frame1 -

stop();
this.onRelease = function() {
    this.gotoAndStop(3);
}

- Frame 3 -

stop();
this.onRelease = function() {
    this.gotoAndStop(4);
}

Frame 4 -

stop();
this.onRelease = function() {
    this.gotoAndStop(5);
}

I hope you see what I am doing. and so carry on for however long you need to.

[hubridbunny]

same thing as before; it goes to frame 3 and stops. and when i take the code off of evilulu_mc nothing happens when i click it, even though the movie clip on frame 1 (within evilulu_mc) has the this.gotoAndStop(3); code.

maybe i need to use an if(condition), else{null;} code or something so that after going to frame 3 it acts on the arrows' codes and not evilulu_mc's?

[gorlummeeguvnor]

hope this works - it works for me. i wont be reading my emails for 2 or 3 days so if you have a problem let me know and when i can i will get back to you.
Merry Christmas

[gorlummeeguvnor]

even though the movie clip on frame 1 (within evilulu_mc) has the this.gotoAndStop(3); code.

rereading your post.
Just in case you cant open the fla - its in flash8 - the code I gave you needs to be inside the evilulu_mc where you placed all the stop()'s. And delete the on(release) handler that you put on the evilulu_mc.
good luck

[hubridbunny]

hope this works - it works for me. i wont be reading my emails for 2 or 3 days so if you have a problem let me know and when i can i will get back to you.
Merry Christmas

can you just tell me what codes go where? i can't open the file, and it seems like no one online is willing to convert it for me.

thanks for helping.

[gorlummeeguvnor]

what version of flash are you using?

[hubridbunny]

Flash MX.

[gorlummeeguvnor]

please post the flash mx fla

[hubridbunny]

okay. and don't worry about the character with the blue hair; she's supposed to move using the arrow keys, and i got that code to work, but i had to take that out of this file so it would be less than 300kb.