How should I make an enemy's bullet continue past the player's last position?

Unity Engine
,
1

Hi, I’m making a top down shooter game right now and I’m currently working on a ranged enemy. The enemy should shoot at the player, and it does, but the projectile fires at the player’s last position and stops when it gets there. I want it to continue past. I have 2 scripts here, one for the enemy itself and the other for the projectile:

{
    public float speed;
    public float stoppingDistance;
    public float retreaDistance;
    public float bulletForce = 20f;

    private float timeBtwShots;
    public float startTimeBtwShots;

    public Transform player;
    public Transform firePoint;
    public GameObject projectile;

    void Start()
    {
        player = GameObject.FindGameObjectWithTag("Player").transform;
        timeBtwShots = startTimeBtwShots;
    }

    // Update is called once per frame
    void Update()
    {

        Vector3 direction = player.position - transform.position;
        direction.z = -100000;      
        transform.rotation = Quaternion.LookRotation(direction, Vector3.forward);

        if (Vector2.Distance(transform.position, player.position) > stoppingDistance)
        {
            transform.position = Vector2.MoveTowards(transform.position, player.position, speed * Time.deltaTime);
        }
        else if (Vector2.Distance(transform.position, player.position) < stoppingDistance && Vector2.Distance(transform.position, player.position) > retreaDistance)
        {
            transform.position = this.transform.position;
        }
        else if (Vector2.Distance(transform.position, player.position) > retreaDistance)
        {
            transform.position = Vector2.MoveTowards(transform.position, player.position, -speed * Time.deltaTime);
        }

        if (timeBtwShots <= 0)
        {
            Shoot();
            timeBtwShots = startTimeBtwShots;
        }
        else
        {
            timeBtwShots -= Time.deltaTime;
        }
        void Shoot()
        {
            GameObject bullet = Instantiate(projectile, firePoint.position, firePoint.rotation);
            Rigidbody2D rb = projectile.GetComponent<Rigidbody2D>();
            rb.AddForce(firePoint.up * bulletForce, ForceMode2D.Impulse);
        }
    }

And the projectile one:

{

    public float speed;
    public GameObject hitEffect;

    private Transform player;
    private Vector2 target;

    void Awake()
    {

        player = GameObject.FindGameObjectWithTag("Player").transform;

        target = new Vector2(player.position.x, player.position.y);

    }

    void Update()
    {
        transform.position = Vector2.MoveTowards(transform.position, target, speed * Time.deltaTime);
    }

    void OnCollisionEnter2D(Collision2D collision)
    {
        GameObject effect = Instantiate(hitEffect, transform.position, Quaternion.identity);
        Destroy(effect, 5f);
        Destroy(gameObject);
    }

   
}
2

Just replace your MoveTowards with a transform.Translate instead.

MoveTowards is meant to move an object towards a specific position in the scene, and will stop the object after reaching the position. For a bullet though, you likely only want it to move forwards “forever”, not reaching any specific position.
transform.Translate will do just that.

1 Like
3

Where do I put the transform.Translate? It shows as an error if I replace MoveTowards with it because it doesn’t like the Vector2.

4

In your projectile script, instead of this:

transform.position = Vector2.MoveTowards(transform.position, target, speed * Time.deltaTime);

You would do this:

transform.Translate(Vector2.up * speed * Time.deltaTime);

Passing Vector2.up in transform.Translate is likely what you’re looking for. That will make the GameObject move upwards on the Y-axis relative to its rotation.

You can use whatever other vector you need if Vector2.up isn’t the direction you want the projectile to travel, however.

See: Unity - Scripting API: Transform.Translate

5

Ok, thanks for the clarification!