Random spawning not so random?

Aileesan

For starters, i'm using GameSalad on a Windows 7 64-bit system

I'm following Jamie Cross's tutorial on the endless runner, and I'm to the point where i'm attempting to get platform random spawns. When I go to preview my scene, the first platform will spawn in the location I place it, and move appropriately, but after that all spawns are fixed and stuck to the bottom (or very close to.) They follow five or six in a row at a time, and then one will move just barely above the others, and then the line will continue (hope that makes sense.)

What am I doing wrong? And how do I fix it?

The only thing I noticed is when I drag a platform (spawn) onto the scene, a secondary choice labeled "Platform (Instance)" pops up beside the "Platform (Prototype)" which, for some reason, has an issue accepting my constraining attribute of defining the Y position. Once I change it, the first block is fine but none of the others are. This is only in the "Platform (Instance)" and not in the "Platform (Prototype)." I'm assuming it has something to do with that, but i'm not sure how to fix it.

Any help or advice is greatly appreciated!

The_Gamesalad_Guru

Prototype actor aka ones with the lock still intact will mirror the changes in the parent actor in the pallet. Once you unlock an actor aka instance actor it will no longer mirror changes you make in the parent actor. Each instance actor needs to me modified individually because they are now independent from the parent. To reconnect an instance to the parent open the actor and click revert to prototype. Caution this will change the code to that of the parent actor and remove any code that doesn't exists in the parent.

Aileesan

Thank you so much!
I feel a little silly for it being that easy.

Although a little off-topic, what caused it to become separate from the parent object to begin with?

tatiang

what caused it to become separate from the parent object to begin with?

When you double-click on an actor on a scene, you will see the lock symbol as a warning. If you click on the lock symbol, it unlocks the actor and creates an "instance" of it with different rules from the "prototype" actor that is found in the Actor's pane at the top-right of the Creator interface.

There are two ways to fix an unlocked actor: (1) double-click on the actor and then click Revert to Prototype; (2) delete the actor from the scene and drag it back on (newly added actors are locked).

Note that there are some times that you will want/need to unlock an actor. For example, if you have five enemies on the scene and one of them is a boss enemy that rotates instead of just sits still, you could unlock it and add a rotate behavior instead of copying the entire actor in the Actor's pane and changing just that one rule/behavior. Another use of unlocked actors is to access the scene attributes (which include camera settings) and other actors' attributes via the scene-->layers menu without using a constrain behavior.