Ok, this is in part, an explanation, an attempt to understand my problem better, and mostly an opportunity to complain.
So I am trying to get my zombies to move toward the humans. Thats it. This sounds innocuous, but is actually the challenge that first drew me to making a game. Unfortunately, I have completely forgotten my original method.
There are many ways to plot out the coordinates and movement, but in the end the problem is remembering what quadrant you are in. If you look at the nifty triangle picture (My brain hurts too much to bother putting it in this post), you will see I drew it in the top right grid of an x,y chart: so positive, positive.
The problem is that depends, not on my preference, but on the orientation of the zombie. If he is looking left it should be positive,negative; or maybe negative,negative. I have to program it out, in such a way, that the program can intuitively correct the numbers for any direction.
If I was content with a single zombie, I could 'Brute Force' the program. Writing out the code into four seperate 'if then' statements, but that would slow down the program. I am wanting more than just one zombie. One zombie is not a ravaging horde. I do not want 100 zombies, that is just a mob. I want thousands of zombies. That would make me happy.
So I have to hunker down and figure out how to write this process as simply as possible. The fewer lines of code the better (I want 1, but we wishes don't make reality) so I can then shove that code into the biggest array I can make. I want 10,000 zombies, but I am afraid I will be lucky to reach just a simple 1000. Please remember that this process will be continuous for each and every character. Each and every character will be doing other actions as well. It will get very crowded.
Anyway, complaining has helped me feel better. What is my secret plan? Bug my wife.
