Learning how to use Game Objects

Question

Hey everyone,

I'm slowly learning how to use game objects but I'm running into some problems. To help illustrate the questions I want to ask here's a short script attached to a object called "HUD".

var partymember1 : GameObject; var partymember2 : GameObject; var pmember1switch : boolean = true;

function OnGUI(){

 if (pmember1switch == true){

     var pmember1win = GUI.Window (0, Rect(50, 50, 80, 70), 
         pmember1button , "Select party member1:");
 }

 var punchbutton = GUI.Window (1, Rect(100, 50, 80, 70),
         punch, "Click");

function pmember1button (windowID){

     var SoldierSelect = GUI.Button(Rect(10, 25, 60, 20), "Soldier");

     if (SoldierSelect == true){

         Debug.Log("Soldier was selected");
         partymember1 = new GameObject ("PartyMember1");
         partymember1.AddComponent("Soldier");
         pmember1switch = false;
     }

     var MedicSelect = GUI.Button(Rect(10, 45, 60, 20), "Medic");

     if (MedicSelect == true){

         Debug.Log("Medic was selected");
         partymember1 = new GameObject ("PartyMember1");
         partymember1.AddComponent("Medic");
         pmember1switch = false;
     }

} // the following function doesn't work
function punch(windowID){

     var punchpmember = GUI.Button(Rect(10, 25, 60, 50), "Punch!");

     if (punchpmember == true){

         partymember1.HP = partymember1.HP -1;
     }

}

So here we have a window with 2 buttons on it and when either is clicked a new character is selected for a party member slot and a corresponding script is attached(suppose we are making group oriented RPG or a strategy game). This is just an example so the Soldier and Medic scripts only have 1 line in them; var HP : int = 100;

The first question is, how do I access functions and variables in the new game object like I'm trying to do in the punch function? Obviously we wont know which character is selected until the player makes a decision so referencing a specific script wont help. I've read about a messaging system but I've also noticed some people saying it's inefficient. I'm pretty sure this has been answered before but I spent a long time wading through unityAnswers and found tons of examples similar but not exact enough to help so I figured I would just ask.

The second question is, if I wanted to do character selection for a much more complex game are there better ways to do it than this example? (suppose you want to be able to save your game, add dozens of different characters, have multiple functions in the character scripts, carry character parameters from one scene to another).

Thanks a ton!

Answer 1

Use inheritance to make all characters damageable -

class Character extends Monobehaviour { var hp : int; var job : Job; function Damage( amount : int ) { hp-= amount; }

class Medic extends Character {
}
class Soldier extends Character {
}

Now both Medic and Soldier objects can be used like -

partyMember1.GetComponent(Character).Damage(1);

Since Soldier is a Character and has all the functions and properties of a chractare.

Use arrays and enums for extendability -

var partyMembers : List.<Character>; // a list of all party members

private var currentMember : int; // which member we're choosing a job for

// All possible jobs - enums are lists of integers that can be referenced by name for readability purposes
enum Job {
  Soldier, Medic,

  max // for ease of use in loops
}
// String names for the jobs
private var jobNames : String[] = ["Soldier", "Medic"];

private var jobTypes : Type[] = [Soldier, Medic]; // these would be the names of the scripts you'll add to the new objects

function OnGUI() {
  // display a button for each job
  for ( var job : int = 0; job < Job.max; job++ ) {
    if ( GUILayout.Button( jobName[ job ] ) ) {
      AddPartyMember( job ); 
    }
  }

  // Display a health / damage button for each member who's had a job chosen
  for ( var member : int = 0; member < partyMembers.length; member++ ) {
    var health = partyMembers[member].hp;
    job = jobName[ partyMembers[member].job ];
    if ( GUILayout.Button( member + ": " + job + ": " + health ) ) {
      partyMembers[member].Damage(1);
    }
  }
}

function AddPartyMember( job : Job ) {
  Debug.Log("Adding new " + jobNames[job] + " as member " + currentMember );

  // create a new game object named Party Member X
  var newMember : GameObject = new GameObject("Party Member " + currentMember);

  // a Job is an integer (that's how enumerations (enums) work), and jobTypes is a list of each job class as it corresponds to the jobs in the enum Job
  // that is -
  // jobTypes[ Job.Soldier ] is equal to "Soldier" (or Soldier, depending on how that needs to be set up)
  // jobTypes[ Job.Medic ] is equal to Medic
  // Whatever job gets passed in to this function will then be added to the new party member
  newMember.AddComponent( jobTypes[ job ] );
  // Now, since we are the programmer, we know that all jobTypes extend Character
  // (that is, "class Soldier extends Character" and "class Medic extends Character")
  // And we can get the just-added component, no matter what it is, since we know it's a Character
  // Get that Character component and change its job and hp to the desired values
  var c : Character = newMember.GetComponent( Character );
  // ideally this would be handled in some kind of Initialize function per class, but for simplicity's sake here ya go
  c.job = job;
  switch( job ) {
    case Job.Soldier: 
      c.hp = 100;
      break;
    case Job.Medic:
      c.hp = 75;
      break;
  }
  // partyMembers is an array of Characters - we can add c to it because c is a Character (even though c might also be a medic or soldier)
  partyMembers.Add( c ); // adds the new character to our list
  currentMember++;
  Debug.Log("Success.");
}

You can then add Save, Load, etc functions to Character and every Medic and Soldier will have access to those (in addition to its own).

Learning how to use Game Objects

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