Is there a way I can add body parts as a property or child?

Ninjadoodle

Hi guys

I'm not really sure how to explain this, but here goes ...

currently when setting up a monster character, I would make a container, then add a body and an eye.

self.monster1 = ...
self.monster1Body = ...
self.monster1Eye = ...

As you see I specifically preface all the body parts with - "monster1"

Is there a way, to set the bodyparts up as properties of the monster1 container?

self.monster1 = ...
self.monster1.body = ...
self.monster1.eye = ...

I'm not really sure if this is possible and I didn't explain it very well, but hopefully someone understands what I'm asking

Thank you heaps in advance!

PS. I've just tried this and it works. I can't believe I did thing the long way all this time lol.

Is this approach correct or am I going to run into problems?

Thank you again!

antix

It all depends on how many monsters you are going to be managing. You might have self.monster1, self.monster2, and self.monster 3 and this will be fine but if you wanted to have MANY monsters it would be a nightmare to manage. The following code is a simple way to manage game objects. It might not be the best way but it works

local monsters = {}   local function newMonster(name, body, eye) local monster = { name = name, body = body, eye = eye, blinking = false, blinkTimer = 5000, } return monster end   local function UpdateMonsters() for i = #monsters, 1, -1 do local monster = monsters[i] -- GET NEXT MONSTER if monster.blinking then-- PROCESS BLINKING local t = monster.blinkTimer - 1 if t == 0 then -- DO BLINKING STUFF HERE t = 5000 end monster.blinkTimer = t end   -- PROCESS MORE MONSTER STUFF IN HERE   end end   newMonster("inky", 1, 1) -- CREATE 4 MONSTERS newMonster("blinky", 1, 1) newMonster("pinky", 1, 1) newMonster("clyde", 1, 1)   local function onEnterFrame(event) updateMonsters() -- UPDATE MONSTERS end   stage:addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, onEnterFrame)

Ninjadoodle

Hi @ antix

Thank you for the reply, this really helps. I've managed to consolidate my code a lot!

The scope of my "level" doesn't get much bugger than 10 monsters with random blinks and a few event listeners

antix

@Ninjadoodle cool.