Boss running problems

[isabelle_alejar]

4.4

Hi i tried making a boss that dashes to you and when it hits a wall it becomes dizzy, but i want it to dash only on left and right, never up or down, but since i did player.position - position, it will do any direction, either up, down, left, or right (dont mind that my boss is a dorito, its just a test) and im not used to using state machines (the direction variable is a Vector2 variable) and my boss is following the player like it has no gravity, i want it to have gravity and dash, my direction = player.position - position
Definitely has an issue ( i added if not is_on_floor():
Velocity += get_gravity() * delta, that code works 100%) dont mind my main character, my pixel art skills arent that good

Adding an ELITE enemy to my indie game! #gamedesign #indiegame #indiedev

Something like the enemy in the video

[TokyoFunkScene]

Maybe I misunderstand what you’re going after, but is there a reason you can’t simply only update the boss’s x-direction? Something like:

direction.x = player.position.x - position.x
direction.y = 0
# Add gravity handling on y-direction here.

And maybe then normalize the direction to keep the attack from looking silly in case the player is only a smidgen to the right or left of the boss.

[namelessvoid]

After computing the direction, you could simply set the y component to zero, so that you only have the right/left on the x axis.

Edit: @TokyoFunkScene was quicker and has an code example

[isabelle_alejar]

Okay, i think it only moves left and right now which is good, but, if i jump on it and be slightly to the right, the boss would go to the right very slowly, probably because its mixing up and right or something, so i want the speed nice and consistent, i dont want it to change, and its still flying while following

When the state switches to dizzy, its gravuty turns back on lol

[TokyoFunkScene]

Did you normalize the direction? The boss moving very slowly is what I referred to when I said ‘normalize the direction to keep the attack from looking silly in case the player is only a smidgen to the right or left of the boss’.

To make the boss obey gravity; in your boss script, you probably have a line of code that looks something like this:

velocity = direction * speed * delta

It’s probably somewhere in _process or _physics_process. That would be a good place to handle gravity. Example:

velocity = direction * speed * delta
if not is_on_floor: velocity.y += some_gravity_constant

edit: it looks like you’re doing this in _physics_process:

func _physics_process(delta: float) -> void:
    velocity = direction

You generally want the direction vector to have a magnitude of 1 (or 0, in case the boss is standing still), which is what the normalization is for. Normalization takes a vector and ensures it has a magnitude of 1. Then you can multiply it by a scalar (speed) to set the boss’s velocity.

[isabelle_alejar]

Hi, im not a coding pro, so i have a question, where do i normalize direction? In the “velocity = direction” line or in the direction variable

[TokyoFunkScene]

The direction variable.

Edit: although, either option should be fine.

[isabelle_alejar]

How?

Nvm

[TokyoFunkScene]

_on_area_2d_body_entered changes the direction. So after setting the y-component of the direction to 0 would be a good place to normalize the direction.

Are there other places in your code where you change the direction? If so, normalize there as well. (Also a friendly tip, don’t share code via screenshots but post it as preformatted text. i.e. by enclosing it with three backticks (```). This makes reading and understanding your code much easier.)

[isabelle_alejar]

Uh i dont know why it says this error, by the way heres my full code for the boss only, not the states

@onready var player = get_parent().find_child("player")
@onready var animatedsprite = $AnimatedSprite2D

var direction : Vector2
const SPEED = 500.0
const JUMP_VELOCITY = -400.0

func _ready() -> void:
	#direction = player.position - position
	set_physics_process(false)

func _process(delta: float) -> void:
	#direction = player.position - position
	# Add the gravity.
	if not is_on_floor():
		velocity += get_gravity() * delta
		
	if direction.x < 0:
		animatedsprite.flip_h = true
	else:
		animatedsprite.flip_h = false

	move_and_slide()
func _physics_process(delta: float) -> void:
	velocity = direction.normalized() * SPEED * delta
	#move_and_slide()
	#move_and_collide(velocity * delta)


func _on_hitbox_body_entered(body: Node2D) -> void:
	if body.is_in_group("player"):
		player.take_damage(2)


func _on_area_2d_body_entered(body: Node2D) -> void:
	direction.x = player.position.x - position.x
	direction.y = 0



Why are bosses so complex😔

[TokyoFunkScene]

@isabelle_alejar

@onready var player = get_parent().find_child("player")
@onready var animatedsprite = $AnimatedSprite2D

var direction : Vector2

direction has been declared as a variable, but has not been instantiated yet. Its value is null, yet is accessed in _process and _physics_process. Try instantiating it like this instead:

@onready var player = get_parent().find_child("player")
@onready var animatedsprite = $AnimatedSprite2D

var direction : Vector2 = Vector2(0, 0)

[isabelle_alejar]

Thanks, my error is gone, but… i still have the flying issue

Hmm

[TokyoFunkScene]

Judging by the video, it is falling. Just not very fast. What happens if you change velocity += get_gravity() * delta in:

func _process(delta: float) -> void:
	#direction = player.position - position
	# Add the gravity.
	if not is_on_floor():
		velocity += get_gravity() * delta

with velocity += 10000 * delta? (Change 10000 to some slightly smaller big number if that causes problems. For instance, if the boss phases through the floor.)

[isabelle_alejar]

It gives an error
(Thanks for trying to solve this long irritating problem lol)

[TokyoFunkScene]

Sorry, I forgot velocity is a Vector2.

Try:

velocity += Vector2(0, 10000) * delta

(Replace 10,000 with a smaller number if it causes unexpected behavior.)

[isabelle_alejar]

Hey it works!