This is for a shmup? You could create it as a sequence. But if you're talking about a bullet-hell type shmup game, then doing it in code will 100% be easier.
#Patterns
noble elbow
Bullets in bullet hell games often move in mathematically simple ways, so shouldn't be particularly hard to describe in code. You could honestly use both methods, using whichever one works best for the attack in question.
jaunty void
You could also lay out the pattern in a room and then load that room. That would give you precise placement.
noble elbow
At the end of the day the movement of the bullets themselves will still need to either be an animation sequence or code.
Though placing manually in a room will definitely cut out some of that code.
jaunty void
Room placement would be perfect for patterns you can't easily math out.
Apart from that I'd definitely set up most of them with math.
noble elbow
Only thing where I could see a sequence being easier is an attack with complex changes to the hitbox that might be easier to do with drag & drop inside the sequence editor using the interpolation methods it offers. Everything else will be easier as math.
idle lagoon
At the end of the day the movement of the bullets themselves will still need to ...
Any reason why using paths isn't being considered as an option? I use them quite a lot but i rarely see people talking about it. To me it feels way easier to use than hardcoding patterns and less finicky than messing with sequences
noble elbow
Any reason why using paths isn't being considered as an option? I use them quite...
Probably not!
I've never made a shmup and have never used paths for that. For me, I would just execute movement code in the bullet object's step event, and then give it whatever starting values it needs to define that movement in the instance_create function that creates the bullet instances during the attack.
Your method will probably be more refined.