Tutorial details:
Written by: Johan Jansen [Sky_Doq]
Difficulty Level: intermediate
There is a FLA file for this tutorial. Your going to create something like this :



Make 3 layers

1: button ( move it below all other layers )
2: ship
3: laser

Ship

Now draw a ship and convet it to a movieclip ( MC ) call it ship so it can be targetted from the main timeline. In the first frame of the MC as frame action : drag movieclip leave target blank so the ship will be dragged,and now to get it under your mouse, Lock to mouse center.



Laser

Draw something that you want to shoot convert it into a MC call it laser and move it out of your sight.
Make two frames in the first frame action you move the laser by decreasing its y with 5 or something like this

GetProperty("",_y) - 5

If the y is below zero we don't need this MC anymore, so use this satement to destroy it

If GetProperty("",_y) < 0 remove MC



"" = targets this MC

in the next frame enter the same actions and goto and play 1

Button

Draw a rectangle which covers the whole playfield, convert it to a button.
In the button move the drawing from frame "up" to frame "hit" so it will be invisible, you get something like this:



Now in the mainframe of your fla-file edit the buttons actions ( on press )
The laser must be shot from the x and y of the ship, do this by using GetProperty target = ship
Put the x and y into a variable called 'ship_x' and 'ship_y'
Now to create a laser use duplicate MC to make a laser,
because depths can't be the same, your laser will be destroye if it's the same.
Make a variable 'n' let it increase with one, n = n+1 ( expression )
now duplicate the laser and call it laser&n ( expression ) below this, set its x and y right,
with Set Property ( x, ) target = laser&n ( expression ) value = ship_x do the same for the y
and set a "stop" action in the main timeline

If something is not clear to you , you can download the source-file and check it out, or mail me your question: sky_doq@hotmail.com