Controlling Enemy Planes' Movement in Shoot 'Em Up (Shmup) Games

KanataEXE

If you want to control enemy planes' movement like in the video, do you use AnimationPlayer or do you combine it with Path2D?

I was thinking of only using the AnimationPlayer, but then there's Path2D. 'Course, it might become complicated.

Then again, using AnimationPlayer on a whole scene is already complicated as it is.

Megalomaniak

Every enemy unit type would likely get a specific behaviour and I'd probably do it all in code.

cybereality

You would do it with code, yeah. Each enemy would have a script to control their behavior (you can reuse for similar ships). For example, the diagonal ship would have a velocity of (10, 10) or (-10, -10) and then you use a for loop to spawn 6 of them in a diagonal line. They each have their own logic, such as shooting when they see the player, or retreating if they hit a certain Y position, etc. so it looks like they are moving together, but they are all moving by themselves.

KanataEXE

Wait, really? I always thought them to be scripted using AnimationPlayer related, not coded.

The only code would be shooting and aiming at the player.

cybereality

I doubt it. Those old arcade games were coded in assembly with little or no GUI tools.

KanataEXE

cybereality

Right, I keep forgetting this is an old game from 1997.

But still... I think I'm gonna use the AnimationPlayer node to control the movement.

Wolfe

KanataEXE But still... I think I'm gonna use the AnimationPlayer node to control the movement.

You could use an AnimationPlayer with each plane to animate their dedicated movement pattern, then play the animation when the plane spawns or appears on screen. It would combine the independent behavior of the original method with the familiar interface of the AnimationPlayer, and you would not have to animate an entire complex scene all together.

Alternatively, you could probably have a master AnimationPlayer for the level that activates the animations for the planes when desired, without having to animate all their movement patterns in the one big animation.

KanataEXE

Alright, so... I give this idea of using AnimationPlayer to animate enemy movement. But then, lots of errors happen.

I thought that using AnimationPlayer to solve enemy movement is the answer, but it seems not.

It looks like I have to use Path2D. Or as someone said, I make each ship has different behavior, but that will make a lot of work.

Note:

I put the enemy node under the tilemaps. The idea is that it will move together with the background. That way, I don't have to add velocity.

Edit:

I probably should not write this past my sleeping time, but I really need to get this feeling out.

KanataEXE

Wolfe Alternatively, you could probably have a master AnimationPlayer for the level that activates the animations for the planes when desired, without having to animate all their movement patterns in the one big animation.

Basically, the planes have their animation and the master AnimationPlayer (which is on the level scene) activates them?

Wilco.

cybereality

You can have the enemies on another layer above the tilemap that also moves (at the same speed) that way it will look like one thing. For example a Node2D.