Enemy move randomly

Question

To make things quick, I have an arrangement of tiles that a player and an enemy are on.

public static var floor1:Array = new Array(7);
        floor1[0] = [0,1,1,1,1,1,0];
        floor1[1] = [1,1,1,1,1,1,1];
        floor1[2] = [1,1,1,0,1,1,1];
        floor1[3] = [1,1,0,0,0,1,1];
        floor1[4] = [1,1,1,0,1,1,1];
        floor1[5] = [1,1,1,1,1,1,1];
        floor1[6] = [0,1,1,1,1,1,0];
        public function Main()
        {

            var tilew:int = 60;
            var tileh:int = 60;

            for (var i:int=0; i<floor1.length; i++)
            {
                for (var u:int=0; u<floor1[i].length; u++)
                {
                    var cell:MovieClip = new Tile();
                    cell.gotoAndStop(floor1[i][u]);
                    cell.x = ((u-i)*tileh);
                    cell.y = ((u+i)*tilew/2);
                    addChild(cell);


                    cell.addEventListener(MouseEvent.ROLL_OVER, mouseover);
                    cell.addEventListener(MouseEvent.ROLL_OUT, mouseout);
                    cell.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, mouseclick);
                    cell.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, beginfloor1);


                }
            }

            var player:Player = new Player();
        addChild(player);
        player.mouseEnabled = false;
        player.x = 5 * (tileh);
        player.y = 5 * (tilew/2);


        var enemy:Enemy = new Enemy();

        addChild(enemy);
        enemy.mouseEnabled = false;
        enemy.x = 9 * (tileh);
        enemy.y = 9 * (tileh/2);

My goal is to have the enemy move randomly on tiles in his range. What I did was create a square graphic called enemyVisionArea that checks which tile is hitting the enemy, which is basically surrounding tiles.

I have a timer function that tells the enemy to move every 5 seconds if the player isn't near him and if he's next to an available tile.

function timerenemy (event:TimerEvent){
                if (enemy.enemyVisionArea.hitTestObject(enemyMover) && !player.visionPoint.hitTestObject(enemyMover.tileMiddle))
                    {
                        enemy.x = (enemyMover.x)+55;
                        enemy.y = (enemyMover.y)+20;
                        trace("moved");

                    }
            }

enemyMover is a variable that I made equal to the tile objects.

function beginfloor1(event:Event)
            {
                enemyMover = event.currentTarget as Tile;

            }

It just stays where it is. I'm just want to have the enemy move on its own on any tile that its enemyVisionArea is hitTesting a nearby tile. The beginfloor1 function doesn't seem to be working. Is there any way I can declare enemyMover = event.currentTarget as Tile and have the enemy move on a random tile that its enemyVisionArea is hitTesting?

If this is confusing, I can post the full code.

Answer 1

You are assigning 49 enterframe listeners which are called in sequence, and they ALL change one single variable to the cell they are attached to. Of course, the last tile is what's always assigned.

I expect that you want an enemy to check if there's a tile available for it to move to. You are essentially checking for one tile which is enemyMover - how do you determine what's that tile? You have to check all available tiles that are around the enemy, make a list of them and select one out of that list that's not the current tile, then move the enemy there.

So, first you need a complete tileset to be addressable from somewhere. The best way will be to declare a class-wide var tileset:Array and fill it where you make new tiles. Drop the Event.ENTER_FRAME listener from the code there, as it's useless. Then, in your timerevent that's for the enemy you do check all of the tileset if they are within your enemy's vision area (you use hitTestObject, I'd use clear distance grid-wise or coordinate-wise - it's a whole lot faster), if so, you add them to the TEMPORARY array you create within that function. Of course, if your enemy is at the currently processed cell, you ignore it - you have to move your enemy, not make him stand in place. Then, select (somehow, it's up to you) what cell your enemy should move to, and execute a move. Yes, if you want your enemy to move randomly, select a cell at random by its index via Math.floor(Math.random()*selectedcells.length).