How do I stop my character from spinning around when it reaches mouses position

Help Programming
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1

Godot Version

extends CharacterBody2D

var speed = 200

var mouse_position = null

func ready():
Input.set_mouse_mode(Input.MOUSE_MODE_CAPTURED)

func _physics_process(_delta):

velocity = Vector2(0,0)
mouse_position = get_viewport().get_mouse_position()
if Input.is_action_pressed("MOUSE"):
	var direction = (mouse_position - position).normalized()
	velocity = (direction * speed)
	
move_and_slide()

Question

When my character reaches my mouses position, it ends up freaking out and spinning endlessly, I’m fairly new to coding and I’m not sure how to even begin searching how to fix this.

2

This is indeed a rather difficult problem to solve, even for advanced coders.

It seems like the character is moving past the mouse position and then quickly has to compensate.

Depending on the situation, different fixes might be adequate.

If your game is rather slow paced, with the character no requiring ultra precise movement, a nice fix would be to limit the velocity by a factor inversely proportional to the distance from the mouse. This would make them slow down, the closer they get to the mouse.

for this, replace

velocity = (direction * speed)

with

var length = direction.length()
if length < 150: velocity = direction*speed * (length/150)
else: velocity = direction*speed

If this is more like a high paced shooter situation where precision matters, maybe go for a direct position changing movement, instead of a physics based one
or implement a way to limit the ammount of degrees the character can turn with

extends CharacterBody2D

var speed = 200
var mouse_position = null

func ready():
	Input.set_mouse_mode(Input.MOUSE_MODE_CAPTURED)

func _physics_process(_delta):
	var force_vector = velocity.angle()
	velocity = Vector2(0,0)
	mouse_position = get_global_mouse_position()
	
	if Input.is_action_pressed("MOUSE"):
		var direction = (mouse_position - position).normalized()
		velocity = (direction * speed)
		
		var angle_difference = velocity.angle()-force_vector
		if abs(angle_difference) > PI:
			# vel     =     reset velocity angle and rotate it to the limiting factor 
			velocity = velocity.rotated(-velocity.angle()).rotated(-sign(angle_difference)*PI+velocity.angle())
	
		move_and_slide()

The way this works is by taking the previous angle of movement and comparing it to the new one. If the difference is larger than 90 degrees in radians (i.e. PI), the angle is set to PI, so it is slowed down. If this is still to fast try changing both PI to sth like 2.0 or 1.5 (PI is 3.14).

Im actually not quite sure I got the math right, since I didnt test it, but try playing around with (sign(angle_difference)*PI to get it to work as you want.

This would probably result in them running in a circle around the mouse when they get there.

Good luck with your further coding journey :wink:

3

Just stop moving when you’re close to the mouse cursor. Something like this:

var delta = mouse_pos - pos
var dist = delta.len()
velocity = Vector2(0,0)
if (dist > 2):
	var direction = delta.normalized()
	velocity = direction*speed