Callling a variable and setting values only once, not every frame.

Questions & Answers
1

Hello. I feel this is a bit of a beginner question, but I couldn’t wrap my head around it. I’ve tried using getter and setter for this, but I didn’t manage to get it to work. I’m still new to a lot of coding aspects, so please bear with me on this.

What I am trying to do, is to give a character a set amount of stat points when that character reaches a new level. Then, naturally, what I want to happen is that the character only gets the stat points once, not every frame it is true that the character is that level.

My current code:

public class CharacterLevelScript : MonoBehaviour {

	public int currentLevel;
	public int currentExp;
	public int statPoints;

	public GameObject[] enemies;

	void Start () {
		currentLevel = 1;
	}
	
	void Update () {
		List<GameObject> enemyList = new List<GameObject> ();
		enemies = GameObject.FindGameObjectsWithTag("Enemy");
		foreach(GameObject enemy in enemies) {
			enemyList.Add(enemy);
		}
		
		foreach(GameObject enemy in enemyList) {
			EnemyHealth eh = (EnemyHealth)enemy.GetComponent("EnemyHealth");
			if(enemy.gameObject) {
				if(eh.curhp <= 0f) {
					currentExp += eh.xpGiven;
				}
			}
		}
		if(currentExp >= 0 && currentExp <=100) {
			currentLevel = 1;
		}
		else if(currentExp >= 101 && currentExp <= 500) {
			currentLevel = 2;
		}
		else if(currentExp >= 501 && currentExp <= 1000) {
			currentLevel = 3;
		}

What I’ve tried working with, but failed to get it to work:

	public int currentLevel;
	public int CurrentLevel {
		get {
			return currentLevel;
		}
		set {
			statPoints += 5;
			currentLevel = value;
		}
	}
4

I know you have acepted an answer. But that’s a really ugly way to do it.

Consider this code.

 private int _currentLevel;
 public int currentLevel {
     get {
         return _currentLevel;
     }
     set {
         if (value > _currentLevel){
             statPoints += 5 * (value - _currentLevel);
         }
     _currentLevel = value;
     }
 }

A few notes

  • Wasn’t sure if level can go down and you can loose stats. Ignored this possibility.
  • Added checking that the new level is actually higher then the existing level before adding stats
  • Allowed the level to increase multiple levels in one step
  • Changed the access level of the backing variable to private. You never want a public backing variable
  • If statPoints is not changed anywhere else and is totally dependent on level you could define it via a formula instead of using increments

Hope this helps. Properties are really powerful and valuable. I’d hate to see you leave them behind because you couldn’t get them to work.

2

How about this…?

if (currentExp >= 0 && currentExp <= 100 && currentLevel != 1)
{
    currentLevel = 1;
    statPoints += 5;
}
else if (currentExp >= 101 && currentExp <= 500 && currentLevel != 2)
{
    currentLevel = 2;
    statPoints += 5;
}
else if (currentExp >= 501 && currentExp <= 1000 && currentLevel != 3)
{
    currentLevel = 3;
    statPoints += 5;
}
3

Doesn’t get much more simple than this, you don’t have to define what happens for each level. If you want to double the needed exp to level up, just do so each time the code runs.

	public int currentLevel;
public int currentExp;
public int statPoints;
public int statPointsToAdd;
public int expToLevelUp;

void Start () {
	currentLevel = 1;
}
void Update(){
		if(currentExp>=expToLevelUp){
			currentExp=0;
			statPoints+=statPointsToAdd;
			currentLevel+=1;
		}
}

}