AS2 Help Request - Line that follows mouse.

[Jaxn Fury]

Hi guys, i'm a new member here on theCAFE, i've been browsing the forums looking for help on a particular piece of code i am stuck on. Its for a college project and i see that you guys seem to know your stuff so i thought you may be able to help me.

I'm making a fairly small puzzle game for college and one of the parts of it is a wire game, here is a pseudocode description of it.

1.You click on a coloured connector, when you do it draws a coloured wire (a simple line) to your mouse pointer like a piece of string.

2.You must take that coloured wire and click on the corresponding coloured connector at the other side.

3.If the connector is the right colour the line snaps to the connector and stays there.

4.If the connector is the wrong colour the line snaps back to the original connector and you must start again from step 1.

This would be required to work in ActionScript 2.0.

At the moment i have virtually no idea how to do this as this is probably quite ambitious for what is required for my course (i like to try and be fancy).

I have found code for simulated string but it is extremely complex and i also don't know if i could add the interactivity to it that i need.

Any help would be great, and if someone could throw together some working code that i could reuse that would be even better.

Regards,

Jaxn Fury

[mkeefe]

I recommend you break the application into its pieces, such as:

1. Dragging an object with a mouse
2. Detecting when an object is over another (hit test)
3. Verifying the correct object is being hit (conditional statement)
4. Animation or scripted motion for the wire

Hope this helps,

Matt

[Jaxn Fury]

Hi mkeefe,

Thanks for the reply.

The breaking it down is fairly simple, it's the actual code that puzzles me, i just don't know what code to use.

The parts that i am mostly stuck with is the code for;

When connector is clicked....
Set a start point for the wire (line)

Mouse cursor is moved.....
Draws a coloured line to mouse cursor

Next connector clicked....
The line snaps to connector if correct colour
else......
The line disapears/clears if wrong colour is clicked (start again)

Some notes;

The wire isn't an object, so it isnt drag and drop.
The wire just needs to be a simple, straight line - drawn by flash.
The connectors are objects (the start and end point of the line).

I know i'm asking for you to do alot of this code for me but if i can be provided with the basics of what i need i should be able to take it further.

Thanks,

Jaxn Fury

[kiwicolin]

Hmm been a while since I wrote this code, but here's the parts I remember off the top of my head...

init();
function init ()
{
lineStyle(2,1,60);
}
function onMouseDown ()
{
moveTo(_xmouse,_ymouse);
onMouseMove = draw;
}
function onMouseUp()
{
delete onMouseMove;
}
function draw()
{
lineTo(_xmouse,_ymouse);
}



To get rid of mouse cursor and replace with a dot (create the dot symbol in the library first and use properties to name it dot)


function onEnterFrame()
{
attachMovie("dot","dot",100);
dot._x =_xmouse;
dot._y = _ymouse;
Mouse.hide();
}

[Jaxn Fury]

Hi kiwicolin,

Thanks also for the reply, however this is a little different than what i was thinking of.

I decided to throw together a small pictoral guide (the swf file below) to help show you what i mean.

Have a look and let me know if you have any questions.

Regards,

Jaxn Fury

Wire Example.swf

[mkeefe]

Here is some starter code that may help you:

// Create a container
var line:MovieClip = this.createEmptyMovieClip("lineContainer_mc", 10000);

// Create mouse listeners
var mouseListener:Object	= new Object();
mouseListener.onMouseDown	= showLine;
mouseListener.onMouseUp		= deleteLine;
Mouse.addListener(mouseListener);

// Called when the user presses the mouse down. Creates the line
function showLine():Void
{
	line._x = _xmouse;
	line._y = _ymouse;
	line._visible = true;
	line.createEmptyMovieClip("line_mc", 2);
	line.onEnterFrame = drawLine;
}

// Called when the mouse is released. Deletes the line and line drawing event
function deleteLine():Void
{
	delete line.onEnterFrame;
	line.line_mc.removeMovieClip();
}

// Redraws the line, snapping to the location of the mouse cursor
function drawLine():Void
{
	with(line.line_mc)
	{
		clear();
		lineStyle(5, 0x000000); // stroke width, color
		moveTo(0, 0);
		lineTo(_xmouse, _ymouse);
	}
}

PS: Congratulations, this is the first AS2 I had to write this year... I was like a lost coder in a jungle of variables I didn't know!

AS3 forever

Matt

[Edited on 2/24/2009 by mkeefe]

[Jaxn Fury]

Excellent mkeefe, had a quick look at this and its great. I'll play about with it and let you know how i get on.

Thanks very much,

Jaxn Fury

P.S. Only using AS2 as tutors don't know enough AS3 yet - spent loads of money on AS3 books for college too..... sigh.

(EDIT)

Also - thank you so much for your time guys, really appreciate the quick responses.

JF

[Edited on 2/25/2009 by Jaxn Fury]

[kiwicolin]

LOL I hear you Matt. Haven't done AS2 in a while either

[mkeefe]

Originally posted by Jaxn Fury
P.S. Only using AS2 as tutors don't know enough AS3 yet - spent loads of money on AS3 books for college too..... sigh.

This has always annoyed me both as a part-time teacher and developer, that schools do not keep up to date. You gotta work with what you have, but I strongly recommend you learn AS3. However, be careful you cannot simply "move over".

I recommend picking up the DVDs that Colin offers here at PhotoshopCD.com

Good luck

Matt

[Jaxn Fury]

Yeah i fully intend to learn AS3, i just need to know enough AS2 to get these college projects done.

After all - i did spend all that money.