Thursday, March 11, 2010

Creationism

Yesterday I got the first type of Crasher enemy installed into the code that will eventually be Paper Zeppelin. In the Design Doc, which is I haven't posted yet cause it's not done yet, when enemies or players are destroyed instead of exploding they fall towards the ground. If they hit something else, a cascade of destruction will happen. This particular mechanic should also make multiplayer a little more communication oriented. I mean if the other players are destroying enemies all willie and/or nillie, it will probably put you in danger of their particular crap. It's a different way of thinking about a shooter.
Anyway, I got the Crasher type going down in a big ball of flames. However, it's not working yet. You see, when I hit an enemy will a bullet, they both get erased from time and space and a crasher is summoned. That's not quite right. Truthfully, the crasher is summoned right before I make with the erasing, so I still have variables to use. The issue is that I cannot get the crasher to appear where the enemy just was. The enemy position variables seem to be locked behind some kind of iron door. The stupid thing is that I can clearly use the damn numbers, since the drawing and collision functions clearly work. But as soon as I explicitly ask for them, it falls down. Further, unlike the work around I was able to cleave for the bullets, this particular information only exists in the abstract.
The really dumb thing is that, hypothetically, the different classes are really just a bunch of data in a table. The cells are full of different stuff, but basically, it's a table. They're numbered somehow, and the column means something. So, hypothetically, if I were to say, "Hey, you, get me the number from Row 7, Column 5," it shouldn't be a fuggin issue.
Instead it tells me that I don't have the correct access level. It's something I assume comes from the enemies having Public or Private numbers and attributes. I'm not exactly sure though, and it makes hate well right up from the deep recesses of my brain like a black oil.
So I guess what I'm saying is, "Good news everybody! I got another framework type of thing built and installed, and it almost works!"
I'll pound my cranium on this wall until one of us gives.

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