Question

Ok, so I’ve been stuck on this for about three hours now and I finally feel like asking for help.

Basically, I am trying to remove all instances of an enemy object from the screen when my player ship makes contact with one of them, as he then loses a life and is put back into a safe position on the screen.

EDIT: This is all the code from my Enemy Dude .as file, a bit overboard maybe but nonetheless.

package
{
    import flash.display.MovieClip;
    import flash.events.*;
    import flash.media.Sound;
    import flash.media.SoundChannel;
    public class Enemydude extends MovieClip
    {
        private var _root:Object;
        private var speed:int = 6;
        private var shipps = this
        public function Enemydude()
        {
            addEventListener(Event.ADDED, beginclass);
            addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, entFrame);
        }

        private function beginclass(event:Event):void
        {
            _root = MovieClip(root);
        }

        private function entFrame(event:Event):void
        {
            x -= speed;
            if(this.x < -64)
            {
                removeEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, entFrame);
                _root.removeChild(this)
            }
            if(_root.gameover)
            {
                x = -700
                removeEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, entFrame);
                removeEventListener(Event.ADDED, beginclass);
            }
            for (var i:int = 0; i<_root.playerBulletContainer.numChildren; i++)
            {
                var bulletTarget:MovieClip = _root.playerBulletContainer.getChildAt(i)
                if (hitTestObject(bulletTarget))
                {
                    removeEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, entFrame);
                    _root.removeChild(this);
                    _root.playerBulletContainer.removeChild(bulletTarget);
                    bulletTarget.removeListeners();
                    _root.Score += 10
                    makeExplosion();
                }
            }
            if(hitTestObject(_root.mcship))
            {
                makeExplosion();
                shipPos();
                removethis();
            }

        }
        private function makeExplosion() 
        {
            var sndExplode:snd_explosion1;
            var sndExplodeChannel:SoundChannel;
            sndExplode=new snd_explosion1();
            sndExplodeChannel=sndExplode.play();
            var newExplosion01:explosionEffect=new explosionEffect  ;
            newExplosion01.x=this.x;
            newExplosion01.y=this.y;
            _root.explosionContainer.addChild(newExplosion01);

        }
        private function shipPos()
        {
            _root.lives -= 1;
            _root.mcship.x = 80;
            _root.mcship.y = 225;
            for each(var i:Enemydude in _root.enemies)
        {
            removethis();
        }

        _root.enemies.length = 0;
        }
        public function removethis():void
        {
            if(parent) parent.removeChild(this)
            removeEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, entFrame);
        }
    }
}

EDIT: And this is the code I now have that relates to the Enemydude in my main timeline, quite sorry about all this.

var enemies:Array = [];
var Shipheight:Number = 300;
var Enemytime:int = 0;
var Enemylimit:int = 16;

    if (Enemytime<Enemylimit)
        {
            Enemytime ++;
        }
        else
        {
            var newEnemy01 = new Enemydude();
            newEnemy01.y = Shipheight;
            newEnemy01.x = stage.stageWidth + 64;
            addChild(newEnemy01);
            enemies.push(newEnemy01);
            Enemytime = 0

function shipY(event:Event):void
{
    Shipheight = Math.ceil(Math.random()* 250) + 80;
}

Thank you for your help in advance, any advice is appreciated.

Answer 1

I suggest storing your enemies in an Array.

For example, create the array enemies:

var enemies:Array = [];

And then amend your code to:

else
{
    var newEnemy01 = new Enemydude();

    newEnemy01.y = Shipheight;
    newEnemy01.x = stage.stageWidth + 64;

    addChild(newEnemy01); 
    enemies.push(newEnemy01);

    Enemytime = 0;
}

That way you can remove all of the enemies using this new array:

for each(var i:Enemydude in enemies)
{
    i.remove(); // Or whatever function Enemydude has to remove itself.
}

// Empty the enemies Array.
enemies.length = 0;

---

Here’s the .remove() method you could make for Enemydude:

public function remove():void
{
    if(parent) parent.removeChild(this);

    // Remove any event listeners etc from this object.
}