How do I stop automatic stretching of the other axis for instances when stretching one of its axis? - actionscript-3

Question

When applying code for a laser weapon projectile (an instance of the laser beam itself) which would enable the laser to to act similarly to that of a real one, I had everything working great... except for the fact that the projectile kept stretching in the y axis as well as the x axis, instead of just the x axis. Now, I've found out that something like scaleMode needs to be disabled, but the best I've found is a line of code that goes like "stage.scaleMode = StageScaleMode.NO_SCALE;", which is meant for the stage and not instances themselves and if I tried to apply something like this for an ADDED event within the laser beam's class code I get error 1120 saying . Here is the code I think is necessary to present here from the beam's class:
package
{
import flash.display.MovieClip;
import flash.events.*;
public class weapon3projectileCode extends MovieClip
{
private var _root:Object;
public function weapon3projectileCode()
{
addEventListener(Event.ADDED, beginClass);
}
private function beginClass(event:Event):void
{
_root = MovieClip(root);
this.scaleMode = StageScaleMode.NO_SCALE;
this.scaleX = .25;
this.scaleY = .2;
}
private function entFrame(event:Event):void
{
if (_root.gamePaused == false)
{
x += speed;
if (stretchWhile < stretchTill)
{
this.width += 25;
this.x = _root.playerShip.x;
this.y = _root.playerShip.y;
}
else if (stretchWhile < shrinkTill)
{
this.width -= 25;
}
else if (stretchWhile >= shrinkTill)
{
this.width = .25;
removeEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, entFrame);
_root.projectilePlayerContainer.removeChild(this);
}
stretchWhile ++;
if(this.x > (stage.width+ this.width))
{
removeEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, entFrame);
_root.projectilePlayerContainer.removeChild(this);
}
}
if (_root.removeProjectiles == true)
{
removeEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, entFrame);
_root.projectilePlayerContainer.removeChild(this);
}
}
}
}

Answer 1

You should specifically alter scaleX instead of width. You need to have your laser drawn by say 100 pixels long and say 10 pixels wide (to taste), then once you determine the desired distance of your laser, you set its scaleX to desiredWidth/100, this should eliminate your laser scaling by Y.