Spawning Random Enemies with Polymorphism

Hi everyone. I am creating a game and I am pretty much done. This game is for a class though and I just realized that I need to add some Polymorphism to this game. I have already created a way to make levels random, so I could probably do it in a similar way, but I need to use Polymorphism. I know how to do this in JAVA, but not in C#/Unity. Do I need to create a separate class for each enemy? Anyone familiar with this? if so, could you push me in the right direction?

//Should I do something like this?

Code (CSharp):

1. void Start () {
2.         //Should I do this with every enemy
3.         Enemy myEnemy = new devil();
4.         Devil myDevil = (Devil)myEnemy;
5.  
6.         //myDevil is just a placeholder, I would make a randomizer variable and stick it in there.
7.         Instantiate (myDevil, EnemySpawner.transform.position, EnemySpawner.transform.rotation);
8.    
9.     }

Thank you in advance.
Rachel Goldstein

 

Basic polymorphism is pretty easy. Just make your enemies derive from a base class called "Enemy".

Code (CSharp):

1.  
2. using UnityEngine;
3. using System.Collections;
4.  
5. public class Enemy : MonoBehaviour {
6.  
7.     // Use this for initialization
8.     void Start () {
9.    
10.     }
11.    
12.     // Update is called once per frame
13.     void Update () {
14.    
15.     }
16. }
17.  

Code (CSharp):

1. using UnityEngine;
2. using System.Collections;
3.  
4. public class Devil : Enemy {
5.  
6. }
7.  

You will also want to look into abstract and override. Here's a link from MSDN: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ebca9ah3.aspx

 

Thank you so much Cody!!! I will look into abstract and override. I might post back again if I don't understand it. Thank you!!!

Rachel

 

I'm just not getting it. Could you expand a little bit with an example....I'm sorry!

 

I can certainly do a bit more for you after I finish up my dinner. It's quarter past five here on the west coast and I'm starving. If nobody beats me to it I should have a little something for you in an hour

 

Hopefully this will clear things up a bit more for you:

Code (CSharp):

1. using UnityEngine;
2. using System.Collections;
3.  
4. public class Enemy : MonoBehaviour {
5.  
6.     // Use this for initialization
7.     void Start () {
8.        
9.     }
10.    
11.     // Update is called once per frame
12.     void Update () {
13.        
14.     }
15.  
16.     public virtual void Attack() {
17.         //Let's say every enemy can do a melee attack; so in here we would code up our melee attack.
18.     }
19. }

Code (CSharp):

1. using UnityEngine;
2. using System.Collections;
3.  
4. public class Devil : Enemy {
5.     public override void Attack() {
6.         //Let's say that devils have a ranged fire attack; we use this override void to call that attack instead of the attack method from the base class.
7.         //This method overrides the base melee attack and replaces it with a fireball or something
8.         //This is basic polymorphism. Classes that inherit from one another, but can have different results when calling the same method
9.     }
10. }
11.  

 

You've already introduced inheritance from MonoBehaviour.

You've got polymorphism with Component and MonoBehaviour. How about a simple script to disable every component on a given GameObject?

 

Oh wow! Thank you so much...this helps so much! Thank you soooo much! I really appreciate your help!

 

This is a very good idea. I used this for part of my game where parts of the players body had to show up and disappear. I didn't think about using that here until now. Thank you!!

 

Very true. I was kind of throwing it down quick and dirty haha.