Hi, New to GE with Ideas and Questions

[EvanBlack]

I am just going to start by saying what you already know.. Game Editor is an amazing little powerful programming tool for games. I can't believe how easy it is to use and how it has JUST THE RIGHT AMOUNT of stuff I need to get started and also gives me the creative power (through scripting) that I need that is also familiar to me.

The game I am trying to develop is a point and click, isometric view, hack 'n slash, that uses "new" ideas and techniques to produce a beautiful and easy to control game.

I have been looking around on this forum for source, ideas, features, and other developmental goodies that would help me advance faster. But now is the time when I need to share what I have found, ask for help, and look for new ideas.

I have designed an isometric system that is PERFECT for Game Editor. Maybe someone else has already thought of an made the idea but then I would say, PLEASE ADD GED!! But if no one has then maybe the community can help me develop mine and we can implement it into making a series of isometric games.

The questions I have are fairly simple to grasp and many of you probably already have the answers I seek.

Question 1: I am trying to make a checker board. I want a 2D array that every other position in the array is 0 while the other elements hold tile data for an AI such as A* to navigate. So that if I click (Left Mouse Button Down) on array tile with position [20][10] the "marker" or AI can navigate from position [0][0] to the position that was clicked without touching any "black" tiles.


Also, if I want to use multiple AI "movers" then how do I keep them from colliding into each other or occupying the same square. I believe the answer is "locking" the tile by an AI before the AI tries to occupy the tile, and check to see if the AI is trying to occupy a locked tile. But I really don't know much about AI or A*. I have been doing research and downloading source and I have a good idea of how it works but I would like some help in explaining if anyone has anything they can share.



Question 3: I saw someone making a Radius Lighting feature, I downloaded the demo and I love it. I think its cool and useful. But there were some things I would like to add, some ideas, such as Color Option, Flicker, Radius, Smaller Squares to improve circular area effect, and others. I would like to use it as lighting for my main actor as he navigates across the map. The problem I had with the feature was when I upped the transparency that it reduced the "Darkness" but if I had higher transparency then the lighting became opaque. How can I use this or something similar to create a more natural feeling artificial lighting?


I will have more questions as I advance my development but as for now these are the main issues that are tasking me. I don't expect anyone to MAKE this stuff for me, because honestly even if you did I probably wouldn't understand how to implement it anyway and would ask for even more help understanding your work.

BUT if you WANT to help me and make some of these features I would GREATLY APPRECIATE the help and support. I have a lot of work to do for my game and I am the only programmer on my team, with one artist other than myself.

Thank you.

RESOURCES, LINKS TO RESOURCES PREFERABLE





EDIT: My AI no long has to follow those rules as I have thought of a better way. The AI would navigate a normal 2D array regularly. The original idea I had would have made a doubly large array that would have been quite inefficient.

The AI has to move with this equation:
UP = X, Y-2
DOWN = X, Y+2
LEFT = X-2, Y
Right = X+2, Y

UDL = X-1, Y-1 (Up Diagonal Left)
DDL = X-1, Y+1 (Down Diagonal Left)
UDR = X+1, Y-1 (Up Diagonal Right)
DDR = X+1, Y+1 (Down Diagonal Right)


Edit: Question 2 some how solved itself when I tried again. This time the player actor was able to move to the exact tile I clicked. So as soon as I have a working demo I will post and it will be nice.

Question 2: How do I link an Actor tile to the positions in the 2D Array? I understand if I make a separate Actor for each tile then I can get each tile to return when THAT tile was clicked. But if I am using cloned tiles then the Actor that is returned on click is the first Actor and not the Actor clicked. So would I need to create each tile with its own Actor individually, or could I use a clone and still get THAT tile to return its position?

As I said, again, the issue with the cloned tiles are that when I use the EVENT (LEFT MOUSE BUTTON DOWN->MOVE TO->PLAYER->EVENT ACTOR) it moves the player to the FIRST tile and not the clone tile clicked.