Question

I have this problem: there is this enemy which rotates to my player. While "orbiting" the enemy with my player I can see that the enemy is rotating towards my player.

And then the enemy suddenly turns around 360 degrees and facing to my player again. I don’t know why it does this strange 360 degree turn but it happens every time when I orbit the enemy for a few seconds. I don’t know where the problem might be.

tempEnemy.dX = tempEnemy.x - player.x;
tempEnemy.dY = tempEnemy.y - player.y;
                        
tempEnemy.rotateTo = toDegrees(getRadians(tempEnemy.dX, tempEnemy.dY));
                        
                        
                        
if(tempEnemy.frame < 0) tempEnemy.frame += 360;
if(tempEnemy.frame > 359) tempEnemy.frame -= 360;
                        
                        
tempEnemy.trueRotation = int((tempEnemy.rotateTo - tempEnemy.frame) / tempEnemy.rotateSpeed);
                        
tempEnemy.vX += (player.x - tempEnemy.x) / tempEnemy._speed;
tempEnemy.vY += (player.y - tempEnemy.y) / tempEnemy._speed;
         
tempEnemy.vX *= tempEnemy.decay;
tempEnemy.vY *= tempEnemy.decay;

Update:

private function toDegrees(radians:Number):Number
    {
        var degrees:Number = Math.floor(radians * 180 / Math.PI);
        //trace (degrees);
        return degrees;
    }

private function getRadians(deltaX:Number, deltaY:Number):Number
    {
        var radian:Number = Math.atan2(deltaY, deltaX);
        
        if (deltaY < 0)
        {
            radian += (2 * Math.PI);
        }
        return(radian);
    }

Answer 1

Without seeing your getRadians function, perhaps you’re passing 360° calculating a reflex angle?

Maybe something like:

var degrees:Number = Math.atan2(tempEnemy.y - player.y, tempEnemy.x - player.x) * 180 / Math.PI;
var delta:Number = degrees - tempEnemy.rotation;

while (delta <= -180)
    delta += 360;
while (delta > 180)
    delta -= 360;

Compensate degrees with the resting angle of your enemy display object design.