Give Your Avoider Game Some Life… Points

Do i actually HAVE to do that garbage collecting in part 12 to make it work?
Anoyingly, it dont show how many lives i got. And when i put that new var in, it says duplicate…something.
Do i have to do that?

Fixed:) Thank you. Wow, you know Michael, just following those 12 tutorials, i have learned a lot of AS3! I had like 80% more errors that i asked you for help about, but i solved them all by myself and how? – Remembering what you told us! Your tutorials are GREAT, seriously if there was Tutorial awards, my vote would definently go to you!

I have And i laughed so much at that
Sometimes it’s best to give your brain time to figure things out on its own, without your interference. So if it feels like you’ve been BANGING YOUR HEAD TO A BRICK WALL and getting nowhere solving your problem

Funny because its so true! same as this;

What a lot of new programmers do here is sit and stare at the above lines of code, trying to figure out just where the heck a problem could be occurring, and getting annoyed because it all looks fine.

The up is what i did :<

Is this regarding visual basics?

I’ve completed this, but I’m not sure what’s wrong…
I’ve commented out stuff and tested what stuff was before the tutorial to figure out that the location of the problem is the setValue part.

playerLives = 3;
gameLives.setValue( playerLives);

What happens is it compiles the file without any errors or warnings, but then when I click the start button I get the following in the output:

TypeError: Error #1009: Cannot access a property or method of a null object reference.
    at AvoiderGame()
    at DocumentClass/onRequestStart()
    at flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEventFunction()
    at flash.events::EventDispatcher/dispatchEvent()
    at MenuScreen/onClickStart()

But if it’s commented out, it works fine (don’t know about the parts in the tutorial after that though).

I’ve checked your .fla and as far as I can tell, everythings the same. I’ve checked: instance name, Lives properties, Lives.as, and the stuff in AvoiderGame.as.
While I do have added features, none should effect this.

PS. I do know the AvoiderGame.as is run properly until it gets to that one line. It doesn’t do anything after (used a trace).

I’m not sure what I changed (I went to the past version and redid the tutorial), but I fixed it.

My next goal is to make HP, which is separate from lives. Then, see if I can add in HP for the enemies, and speed up the shooting (I added in the shooting feature that you have the tutorial for).

Hi. My lives bar doesnt work, and i have no lives like before. QWhat is the problem?

package 
{
    import flash.display.MovieClip;
    import flash.utils.Timer;
    import flash.events.TimerEvent;
    import flash.ui.Mouse;
    import flash.events.KeyboardEvent;
    import flash.ui.Keyboard;
    import flash.events.Event;
    import flash.media.SoundChannel;

public class AvoiderGame extends MovieClip 
{
    public var gameLives:Lives;
    public var playerLives:int;
    public var gameClock:Clock;
    public var gameScore:Score;
    public var backgroundContainer:BackgroundContainer;
    public var army:Array;
    public var bullets:Array;
    public var enemy:Enemy;
    public var avatar:Avatar;
    public var gameTimer:Timer;
    public var useMouseControl:Boolean;
    public var downKeyIsBeingPressed:Boolean;
    public var upKeyIsBeingPressed:Boolean;
    public var leftKeyIsBeingPressed:Boolean;
    public var rightKeyIsBeingPressed:Boolean;
    public var spaceBarIsBeingPressed:Boolean;
    public var backgroundMusic:BackgroundMusic;
    public var bgmSoundChannel:SoundChannel;    //bgm for BackGround Music
    public var enemyAppearSound:EnemyAppearSound;
    public var shotSound:ShotSound;
    public var explodeSound:ExplodeSound;
    public var sfxSoundChannel:SoundChannel;    //sfx for Sound FX
    public var currentLevelData:LevelData;
    public var ticksSinceLastShot:int;

public function AvoiderGame() 
{
    playerLives = 3;
    gameLives.setValue( playerLives );
    currentLevelData = new LevelData( 1 );
    setBackgroundImage();
    ticksSinceLastShot = 0;
    currentLevelData = new LevelData( 1 );
    setBackgroundImage();

    backgroundMusic = new BackgroundMusic();
    bgmSoundChannel = backgroundMusic.play();
    bgmSoundChannel.addEventListener( Event.SOUND_COMPLETE, onBackgroundMusicFinished, false, 0, true );
    enemyAppearSound = new EnemyAppearSound();
    shotSound = new ShotSound();
    explodeSound = new ExplodeSound();

    downKeyIsBeingPressed = false;
    upKeyIsBeingPressed = false;
    leftKeyIsBeingPressed = false;
    rightKeyIsBeingPressed = false;
    spaceBarIsBeingPressed = false;

    useMouseControl = false;
    Mouse.hide();
    army = new Array();
    bullets = new Array();

    avatar = new Avatar();
    addChild( avatar );
    if ( useMouseControl )
    {
        avatar.x = mouseX;
        avatar.y = mouseY;
    }
    else
    {
        avatar.x = 200;
        avatar.y = 250;
    }

    gameTimer = new Timer( 25 );
    gameTimer.addEventListener( TimerEvent.TIMER, onTick, false, 0, true );
    gameTimer.start();

    addEventListener( Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE, onAddToStage, false, 0, true );
}

public function onBackgroundMusicFinished( event:Event ):void
{
    bgmSoundChannel = backgroundMusic.play();
    bgmSoundChannel.addEventListener( Event.SOUND_COMPLETE, onBackgroundMusicFinished, false, 0, true );
}

public function onAddToStage( event:Event ):void
{
    stage.addEventListener( KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN, onKeyPress, false, 0, true );
    stage.addEventListener( KeyboardEvent.KEY_UP, onKeyRelease, false, 0, true );
}

public function onKeyPress( keyboardEvent:KeyboardEvent ):void
{
    if ( keyboardEvent.keyCode == Keyboard.DOWN )
    {
        downKeyIsBeingPressed = true;
    }
    else if ( keyboardEvent.keyCode == Keyboard.UP )
    {
        upKeyIsBeingPressed = true;
    }
    else if ( keyboardEvent.keyCode == Keyboard.LEFT )
    {
        leftKeyIsBeingPressed = true;
    }
    else if ( keyboardEvent.keyCode == Keyboard.RIGHT )
    {
        rightKeyIsBeingPressed = true;
    }
    else if ( keyboardEvent.keyCode == Keyboard.SPACE )
    {
        spaceBarIsBeingPressed = true;
    }
}

public function onKeyRelease( keyboardEvent:KeyboardEvent ):void
{
    if ( keyboardEvent.keyCode == Keyboard.DOWN )
    {
        downKeyIsBeingPressed = false;
    }
    else if ( keyboardEvent.keyCode == Keyboard.UP )
    {
        upKeyIsBeingPressed = false;
    }
    else if ( keyboardEvent.keyCode == Keyboard.LEFT )
    {
        leftKeyIsBeingPressed = false;
    }
    else if ( keyboardEvent.keyCode == Keyboard.RIGHT )
    {
        rightKeyIsBeingPressed = false;
    }
    else if ( keyboardEvent.keyCode == Keyboard.SPACE )
    {
        spaceBarIsBeingPressed = false;
    }
}

public function onTick( timerEvent:TimerEvent ):void 
{
    ticksSinceLastShot = ticksSinceLastShot + 1;
    gameClock.addToValue( 25 );
    if ( Math.random() < currentLevelData.enemySpawnRate )
    {
        var randomX:Number = Math.random() * 400;
        var newEnemy:Enemy = new Enemy( randomX, -15 );
        army.push( newEnemy );
        addChild( newEnemy );
        //gameScore.addToValue( 10 );
        sfxSoundChannel = enemyAppearSound.play();
    }
    if ( useMouseControl )
    {
        avatar.x = mouseX;
        avatar.y = mouseY;
    }
    else
    {
        if ( downKeyIsBeingPressed )
        {
            avatar.moveABit( 0, 1 );
        }
        else if ( upKeyIsBeingPressed )
        {
            avatar.moveABit( 0, -1 );
        }
        else if ( leftKeyIsBeingPressed )
        {
            avatar.moveABit( -1, 0 );
        }
        else if ( rightKeyIsBeingPressed )
        {
            avatar.moveABit( 1, 0 );
        }
    }

    if ( avatar.x < ( avatar.width / 2 ) )
    {
        avatar.x = avatar.width / 2;
    }
    if ( avatar.x > 400 - ( avatar.width / 2 ) )
    {
        avatar.x = 400 - ( avatar.width / 2 );
    }
    if ( avatar.y < ( avatar.height / 2 ) )
    {
        avatar.y = avatar.height / 2;
    }
    if ( avatar.y > 300 - ( avatar.height / 2 ) )
    {
        avatar.y = 300 - ( avatar.height / 2 );
    }

    if ( spaceBarIsBeingPressed )
    {
        if ( ticksSinceLastShot >= 10 )
        {
            var newBullet = new Bullet();
            newBullet.x = avatar.x;
            newBullet.y = avatar.y;
            addChild( newBullet );
            bullets.push( newBullet );
            ticksSinceLastShot = 0;
            sfxSoundChannel = shotSound.play();
        }
    }

    var j:int = bullets.length - 1;
    var bullet:Bullet;
    while ( j > -1 )
    {
        bullet = bullets[j];
        bullet.moveABit();
        if ( bullet.y < -10 )
        {
            removeChild( bullet );
            bullets.splice( j, 1 );
        }
        j = j - 1;
    }

    var avatarHasBeenHit:Boolean = false;
    var enemyHasBeenHit:Boolean;
    var i:int = army.length - 1;
    var enemy:Enemy;
    while ( i > -1 )
    {
        enemy = army[i];
        enemy.moveABit();
        enemyHasBeenHit = false;
        j = bullets.length - 1;
        while ( j > -1 )
        {
            bullet = bullets[j];
            if ( bullet.hitTestObject( enemy ) )
            {
                enemyHasBeenHit = true;     
                removeChild( bullet );
                bullets.splice( j, 1 );
                gameScore.addToValue( 10 );
                sfxSoundChannel = explodeSound.play();
            }
            j = j - 1;
        }
        if ( enemyHasBeenHit )
        {                       
            removeChild( enemy );
            army.splice( i, 1 );
        }
        else
        {
            if ( PixelPerfectCollisionDetection.isColliding( avatar, enemy, this, true ) ) 
            {
                avatarHasBeenHit = true;
                removeChild( enemy );
                army.splice( i, 1 );
            }
            if ( enemy.y > 350 )
            {
                removeChild( enemy );
                army.splice( i, 1 );
            }
        }
        i = i - 1;
    }

    if ( avatarHasBeenHit )
    {
        if ( playerLives > 0 )
        {
            playerLives = playerLives - 1;
            gameLives.setValue( playerLives );
        }
        else
        {
            gameTimer.stop();
            bgmSoundChannel.stop();
            dispatchEvent( new AvatarEvent( AvatarEvent.DEAD ) );
    }

    if ( gameScore.currentValue >= currentLevelData.pointsToReachNextLevel )
    {
        currentLevelData = new LevelData( currentLevelData.levelNum + 1 );
        setBackgroundImage();
    }
}

public function setBackgroundImage():void
{
    if ( currentLevelData.backgroundImage == "blue" )
    {
        backgroundContainer.addChild( new BlueBackground() );
    }
    else if ( currentLevelData.backgroundImage == "red" )
    {
        backgroundContainer.addChild( new RedBackground() );
    }
}

public function getFinalScore():Number
{
    return gameScore.currentValue;
}

public function getFinalClockTime():Number
{
    return gameClock.currentValue;
}

}

}