Attempting Crash Course 2

Following the instructions as written and I don't know if I missed a step or failed an investigation check, because when I put the star field in the scene, it ends up in the upper left corner of the scene and not all the way across it.

I even tried resizing the image in the approved software, according to math, and it's still less than a quarter of the entire scene.

Does anyone have a fix for this?

What I wouldn't give for a free transform tool...

If it's a background, set it to loop.
In all cases, make sure you are importing it at x1 scale (top right corner of the import window). You can also disable all the unecessary scales under the game's settings.

I can't find where to set it as a loop, and I swear I've clicked everywhere by now [Screenies attached]

I have tried just about every permutation of importing that I could think of and it still does the bad thing

The "Repeat Background" checkbox on the right side.

It still took me an age to find it -_- I am a dummins.

Thank you and bless you for your help

BACK AGAIN with problems with Course #2

...hooray...

This time with Part 14.

Again, followed the instructions as written, and can NOT get the win text on the screen.  I tried altering the numbers to x=10 and y=10 in case it was a screen size thing, but nope. Does not appear when I kill all the enemy ships

I even tried to debug it  by setting the victory count to zero on creation.

[Also set the ships to "cannot be pushed" so they don't drift off screen when hit. Might not be relevant]

What did I miss this time?

For starters, you missed a screenshot of your code so we can see what you are doing. Hard to help without that. There's a camera icon on the bottom right corner of the window to get it.
I'll be pre-emptive and post this here: https://youtu.be/diMrZg95Oqw
You migth see what you are missing with this tutorial.

Sorry! I should remember to do that in future. I screenied all my code [I think] and here it all is with place of origin in the caps.

I left the debugging attempts in for these

1) Do every is not do after. Looks like you mistook the two in your first screenshot.
2) Your "code6" screenshot doesn't quite make sense. You are setting a game attribute called a number to 0, and later on you increment that number.
3) Use print blocks to check the values of "Victory Counter" and "WIn?". Unless you have another scene behavior switching to actor space, that boolean of yours is the only thing preventing your code from executing. You can also simply remove the if statement and draw your text directly to confirm it.

Either that or your font of choice is camouflaged in the background.

Swapped to "do after", removed debug attempts, and changed the colour of the text. That worked. [Still can't grok what a "print block" is, instructions didn't mention this to my recall.] Thanks again and sorry for being a pest.

Print block prints to the log viewer (big button at the top) whatever you place into it, used to determine values and check if code has properly executed or not for the most part.

I've been trying for WEEKS to accomplish challenge 3. I can make the aliens not shoot themselves with judicious jiggery-pokery, but... I cannot get the bullets to move down screen. They go sideways, the aliens move in weird ways, the game lags because too many bullets. It's going weird and I have no idea what's happening.

Screenshots of my last two attempts included.

A few tutorials that cover your issues: https://youtu.be/j10SMwy2prM and https://youtu.be/LxN6yGSOkD4
The short version: x-dir and y-dir accept values between -1 and 1.
The update event happens 100 times per second.
A do every will keep repeating unless you have the exit condition inside of it. External if checks won't be able to interrupt it. Another tutorial on the subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A3mmm32l6g

Managed to stop the bullet spray going sideways. Yay?

Realised I didn't need the "When Updating" thing and nested the If statement inside a "do every" loop.

Alien ships still desyncronise and the bullets just stay where they were put. Also, one of the alien ships just... self-immolates without coming into contact with a single bullet. Very bizarre.

Pay no attention to the "when updating" in my first pic, it's basically the same code in a "Do Every" setting, just without the "when updating"

I even tried the degrees in case that would work. I can NOT get these bullets to move down screen.

Push sharply instead of gently.
And regarding your first screenshot, watch again the second video I linked.