Player movement script not working

[Jonathan_Reeves1]

Hello, I have been following the course with everything working correctly up until we implemented apply_force(). For some reason I am not able to get the spaceship to move. I thought maybe there was just something off with that particular code so I kept moving forward and after setting up my input mapping for both the right arrow key and the D key I am still not able to make the spaceship fly to the right. Below are both of my scripts.

level.gd:

extends Node2D

# Called when the node enters the scene tree for the first time.
func _ready():
	print("Hello, world!")

player.gd:

extends RigidBody2D
	
func _physics_process(delta):
	if Input.is_action_pressed("move_right"):
		apply_force(Vector2(25, 0))

I am not sure if the issue is with my scripts or if it might have been with how I created the scenes and tied them together. I am going to be trying to duplicate the issue on a different computer as I am traveling so I will update this post if I resolve the issue before an answer is found.

[CoreyKnecht]

I’ve compared your code to mine and it looks ok from here. I’ve got 300 as my magnitude, but I tested with 25 and there was still movement, so that’s not the issue.

In general, checking your control flow from beginning to end with print() statements is a great way to isolate issues when debugging; in this case, I’d put one inside the if-statement, and one directly inside physics_process() (there was a similar issue recently caused by the script not actually being attached to the node).

Have you implemented the other 3 directions yet?

[AzuDev]

Remember to include move_and_slide() at the end of your movement function in order to make it work as spected

[Jonathan_Reeves1]

I haven’t implemented the other move directions as I am not able to get the move_right to work properly. I didn’t want to continue until I was able to actually get the spaceship to move.

I was able to get things to print from the _physics_process and _process functions but when I tried to use the apply_impulse and apply_force methods they weren’t working.

[CoreyKnecht]

Actually, move_and_slide() doesn’t exist on RigidBodies - that’s how CharacterBodies are moved. These forces work in a different way =)

[Jonathan_Reeves1]

I haven’t quite made it to that part. I stopped progressing through the lecture when I realized that something was really wrong. When I was trying to get the apply_impulse function to work and it wasn’t I continued to go through the lecture but when the input commands weren’t working when I had built another game where they were working just fine I knew something was wrong. I am just not sure where I went wrong.

[AzuDev]

ohh my bad. I implemented a different approach for the project

[CoreyKnecht]

So if I’m understanding correctly, this didn’t return a print statement:

func _physics_process(delta):
	if Input.is_action_pressed("move_right"):
        print("move_right pressed")
		apply_force(Vector2(25, 0))

If that’s the case, you might want to double-check your input mapping in the project settings. I made a few mistakes there myself at this stage ^v^

It’s also worth doing this for the moment to see if your force code is correct (remove the conditional):

func _physics_process(delta):
	apply_force(Vector2(25, 0))

[Jonathan_Reeves1]

No worries. Haha. Thank you for trying to assist anyways.

[Jonathan_Reeves1]

So I just did the print statement again just to make sure that everything is working and when I press either the D key or the right arrow key “move_right pressed” is printed to the console. I think there might be something wrong with my scene and not my code.

[CoreyKnecht]

Yes, given that we now know your code’s control flow works and your input mapping is done correctly, that seems pretty likely. Now we know more!

Can you post a screenshot of your scene tree, and maybe the Player’s Inspector as well for good measure?

[Jonathan_Reeves1]

Oh I just decided to start over. Test myself on what I have learned so far to see if I remember how to do the steps on my own. But if I run back into the issues I will post another question. Thank you for helping me troubleshoot.

[AzuDev]

Sure!! We all learn from each other!!