Trainz175

Positive depths appear more "on top". Try -100.

On the contrary, positive depth has always been away from the viewer and negative is towards. =)

"In GameMaker:Studio a low depth (of negative numbers like -1000) means that the instance will be drawn "closer" to the player and on top of all instances with a lower depth, while a high depth (of positive numbers like 1000) means that the instance will be drawn "further away" from the player and beneath those instances that have a lower depth."

I think it depends on the player. Leveling can either feel like a chore, or it can feel natural and fun.

To me, anything that forces you to level to stay competitive is going to feel like a chore. Not to bash on call of duty, but I despise their system. I don't like being forced to level so I can compete with someone that is level 50 who has prestiged 6 times. If I'm just starting out, I would have to be really good with no perks and the low tier weapons to compete with someone who has playing a lot longer than me. Perks are fun to unlock, don't get me wrong. But when placed in an environment that forces you to constantly play in order to stay/be competitive is not fun. It becomes a grind.

It's the same idea for gear outside of leveling. Like world of warcraft, if you want to pvp in a competition setting, not only do you have to level your character to the max level, you then have to grind out the gear so you can then start playing in a balanced manner. Some people like these kinds of play. They're just not for me.

For systems I like. Skyrim. It may be a fairly new system, but it nailed how to do leveling in my eyes. Doing anything in the game will not only help your effectiveness in that skill area of whatever you're doing, but also raise your overall level. The leveling experience is satisfying because you don't have to think about "Man, I have to go kill 60 boars or 50 players so i can get this perk or level up." Leveling comes to you, not the other way around. You play the game you want and get rewarded in more than just 1 way. If you want to level your skills faster its your choice, Nd not the demand of something else.

I also consider indirect leveling to be a good model as well. Zelda being a prime example. You don't gain "levels" in a written fashion, instead you find hearts which increase your health or fairies to increase your magic which in a lot of games is considered to be gaining levels. Again, this type of system flows naturally, as it should. When finding a heart or fairy it feels good to be rewarded for your exploring and fighting.

I think you will probably need to mix almost all the options with what has been discussed. Players won't need to send too much information when in an area by themselves. As was stated before, you could handle mobs locally until someone comes in range, in which the server will have to take over.

As far as calculating distance to another player goes, you would need constant updates from the player in order to do that anyway. I think checking and sending key presses would be the best option. While lost packets can occur, you can have backup code to ensure a decent stability. Such as checking the x and y every few seconds. You're going to have to send a lot of information back Nd forth regardless. I would try mixing ideas first, like key presses and checking x and y every 2-3 seconds.

As for bullet tracking. It should be completely serverside. It'd be too easy to flaw the system if it wasn't. If the server said the bullet hits, then its probably the best judge in the first place. The moment the player clicks for a bullet, I'd go as far as to say let the server create the bullet itself. Which sends the information to the clients, the only updating and tracking you'd need is collision checking. The bullet won't need to be updated otherwise, cause if it doesn't hit then it didn't matter where and how it went.

The idea of the server creating the bullet could potentially sound chaotic, but I don't think it would. Heck, you could even have the player create his own bullet just for the sake of no potential lag, but the true bullet would be seen by the server. This would limit the amount of information you'd have to send to the server and that the server has to then send out. In Ll honesty I think it'd be worth a shot, if it proves unreliable then lesson learned. Again, its one of those things that will take a lot of traveling information whether you want it to or not. Mainly because information has to be sent or it just won't be smooth.

I'm sure its going to prove to be challenging to do. But this is definitely a good topic.

Basically, what the code is doing is:

Create a variable
Assign the variable to baddie level.
Randomly choose a new level for baddie.
(While loop) check to see if the new level is the same as the previous level. If it is redo the random level until it isn't.

To answer your other question, all you'd have to do is add more levels. If you want to add more levels, you simply add 4, 5 or whatever else to both of the "choose" functions and you're all set.

Well by the looks of it, you're not telling the system that once you have a shield, you don't need to make another. So it's reading both statements as true, as far as i can see. Try editing it to have it acknowledge that it has already created a shield. You can use another variable or change the global.shield value to -1 or something. And once you collide with another shield set it back to what you want, and rinse and repeat.