Well, not much of a contribution, but since I spent a ton of time trying to find the best approach to this, maybe someone will find it handy.

Basically it uses the cursor keys and rotates the entity in 90 or 180 degree pan increments depending on which direction it is facing and which key is hit, and moves the robot forward or backwards on the mouse_clicks.

--IMPORTANT NOTE - This is only for objects that will face in the pan directions of: 0, 90, 180, 270. If your entities pan is not facing these directions, they will not turn. --

Code:

---

//face directions
define face_up,    0;
define face_down,  180;
define face_right, 270;
define face_left,  90;

define speed,      skill18;//movement speed
define turnspeed,  skill19;//turning speed
define energy,     skill20;//health

//movement distances
define force_x,    skill46;
define force_y,    skill47;
define force_z,    skill48;   

//stores and sets robot states
define mode_move,  skill49;
  define no_turn,  0;
  define turn,     1;
define mode_turn,  skill50;
  define no_move,  0;
  define move,     1;

//a pointer to the robot
entity* player;

//turning function
function face_direction(targ,dir){
	
  while(my.mode_turn == turn && dir == 0) {
    if(targ == 90  && dir == 0)   {
      my.pan = min(targ,(abs(my.pan)+my.turnspeed*time)); 
    }
    if(targ == 180 && dir == 0)   { 
      my.pan = min(targ,(abs(my.pan)+my.turnspeed*time)); 
    }
    if(targ == 270 && dir == 0)   { 
      if(my.pan == 0) { my.pan = 360; }  
      my.pan = max(targ,(abs(my.pan)-my.turnspeed*time)); 
    }
    
    if(my.pan == targ) { my.mode_turn = no_turn; my.mode_move = move; }
  	
    wait(1);
  }
  
  while(my.mode_turn == turn && dir == 90) {
    if(targ == 0   && dir == 90)  { 
      my.pan = max(targ,(abs(my.pan)-my.turnspeed*time)); 
    }
    if(targ == 180 && dir == 90)  { 
      my.pan = min(targ,(abs(my.pan)+my.turnspeed*time)); 
    }
    if(targ == 270 && dir == 90)  { 
      my.pan = min(targ,(abs(my.pan)+my.turnspeed*time)); 
    }
  	
    if(my.pan == targ) { my.mode_turn = no_turn; my.mode_move = move; }
  	
    wait(1);
  }
  	
  while(my.mode_turn == turn && dir == 180) {
    if(targ == 0   && dir == 180) { 
      my.pan = max(targ,(abs(my.pan)-my.turnspeed*time)); 
    }
    if(targ == 90  && dir == 180) { 
      my.pan = max(targ,(abs(my.pan)-my.turnspeed*time)); 
    }
    if(targ == 270 && dir == 180) { 
      my.pan = min(targ,(abs(my.pan)+my.turnspeed*time)); 
    }
  	
    if(my.pan == targ) { my.mode_turn = no_turn; my.mode_move = move; }
  	
    wait(1);	
  }
  	
  while(my.mode_turn == turn && dir == 270) {  	  	
    if(targ == 0 || targ == 360 && dir == 270) { 
      targ = 360;
      my.pan = min(targ,(abs(my.pan)+my.turnspeed*time)); 
      if(my.pan == 360) { my.pan = 0; targ = my.pan; }
    }
    if(targ == 90  && dir == 270) { 
      my.pan = max(targ,(abs(my.pan)-my.turnspeed*time)); 
    }
    if(targ == 180 && dir == 270) { 
      my.pan = max(targ,(abs(my.pan)-my.turnspeed*time)); 
    }
  	
    if(my.pan == targ) { my.mode_turn = no_turn; my.mode_move = move; }
		
    wait(1);
  }
}

//robot action
action player_robot {
  player = me;
  if(my.speed == 0)     { my.speed = 10;    }//default move speed
  if(my.turnspeed == 0) { my.turnspeed = 3; }//default turn speed
  if(my.energy == 0)    { my.energy = 100;  }//default health
  my.force_x = 0;
  my.mode_move = move;
  my.mode_turn = no_turn;
	
  while(my.energy > 0) {
		
    //face directions
    if(key_cuu && my.mode_turn == no_turn && my.mode_move == no_move) {
      my.mode_turn = turn; face_direction(face_up,my.pan); 
    }
    if(key_cud && my.mode_turn == no_turn && my.mode_move == no_move) { 
      my.mode_turn = turn; face_direction(face_down,my.pan);
    }
    if(key_cul && my.mode_turn == no_turn && my.mode_turn == no_move) { 
      my.mode_turn = turn; face_direction(face_left,my.pan); 
    }
    if(key_cur && my.mode_turn == no_turn && my.mode_move == no_move) { 
      my.mode_turn = turn; face_direction(face_right,my.pan); 
    }
		
    //move directions
    if(mouse_left == 1 && my.mode_turn == no_turn) {//forward
      my.force_x = my.speed;
    }
    if(mouse_right == 1 && my.mode_turn == no_turn) {//reverse
      my.force_x = -my.speed;
    }
    if(mouse_left == 1 && mouse_right == 1 
    || mouse_left == 0 && mouse_right == 0) {
      my.mode_move = no_move;
      my.force_x = 0; 
    }
		
    move_mode = ignore_passents + ignore_sprites + activate_trigger;
    ent_move(vector(my.force_x*time,0,0),nullvector);
    wait(1);
  }
}

---

Hope you find it useful!

-raiden

tring to get the entity to turn only while it moves forward or backwards?

just a bit confused on the limited angles and what your trying to get.

Hi grimber, well the initial idea was to make an optimized turning code that when you press the arrow key, you turn in 90 degree increments, so if the robot was facing 0 pan, and I hit hit the left arrow key, it would turn its pan based on speed from 0-90, as well as for the other directions too.

The thing I found difficult was forcing the bot to turn the shortest directions to get to the target pan desired. My first attempts for a target of 0 pan, and the bots pan was at 270, the bot would go from 270, incrementing down to 0, this was the long route and didn't look right at all.

The seperate loops for the individual turning directions was the best I could come up with.

Also, the modes do keep the turning and movement seperate, seems more robotish to me if you seperate them.

Any suggestions to optimize the code grimber would be appreciated.

-raiden