Zania day 20: General debug

Extract to a directory, keep the directory structure and run Zania.swf

I had originally conceived the idea of Zania to be multiplayer and that most of the data will be stored in the cloud somewhere. As development progressed, I had forgotten about the way I built the architecture. Remembering this, I realized that this game probably stopped working for anyone reading my blog once I converted all data to xml. The idea was, that I’d store these game data on some server somewhere as read only and everyone who played have to query the data from there. This allows me to balance the game by changing just a file. (and creating ample opportunity for a ddos attack).

So up until now, I have been sending the compiled flash movie to people without regards to the missing data that the movie needs, not realizing that it will not work for anybody who opens it. So until I get to the point where I have time to change the code to load the data from a web address, I’ll just post the zip file with the directory structure instead. By clicking on Zania.swf, you should be able to play. The simple ai will chase you and machine gun you down once you are within range. Please note that you shouldn’t play this for too long since I haven’t made any destructors to kill the bullets. Although watching the bullet bounce off the ship is satisfying, it will eventually freeze your computer because there’s just too much bodies that needs to have its physics computed.

Completed work:

Null object reference at published work. Not seen in debug mode. (Do this first)

AI GetPosition call results in null reference. Body has not finished creation while the actor class has completed. Sigh… as ync calls.

Incomplete work:

Change restitution for the bounce effect.

Change all xml data loading path to a web address. (Later, have a preloader for any one solarSystem)

Need to bring shooting action to the SolarSystem spawner and create a new constructor for bullets.

Right now it’s the ship that spawns the bullets.
- Do I want ships to spawn the bullets?
Bullets does not need interaction with the rest of the system besides the physics
- Physics already linked.
OnCollision event? Bullet upate? Or the solarSystem’s job?
Need to add timer to bullet lifetime otherwise the world will be filled with bullets that takes up computation time
- Add a new constructor to actor class to create bullets
  - Ship need to get the orientation and speed vector of the firing body before calling bullet constructor
- Destroy the bullet a few frames after collision
  - add collision variable to bullet constructor