flipping a sprite and joining sprites

Unity Engine
1

Hi guys.
I have a problem with my 2d game’s main mechanic. The goal of my game is to reunite a herd of elephants in a puzzle environment.
The player starts as one elephants and tilts the device to move the elephant. When another elephant is encountered the player has the option to add that elephant to the herd.
When this happens, the collected elephant locks onto the back of the player or the last elephant in the line, the line of elephants then move as one unit.
My player elephant has a flip function which flips the sprite when the player needs to travel in the opposite direction. Here is my flip function -

void Flip()
    {
        facingRight= !facingRight;
        Vector3 theScale= transform.localScale;
        theScale.x *= -1;
        transform.localScale= theScale;
    }

So far, my collected elephant locks onto the back of the player using HingeJoint2d, however when my player elephant flips, the collected elephant continues to flip repeatedly and rapidly then goes back to normal when facing to the right again.
I’ve copied the flip function to my collectible elephant and currently trying to get it to work properly. here is the code that I’ve been playing with but i’m having no luck -
this is on my collectable elephant (as its a different game object to the player)

public class elephantMove : MonoBehaviour {

    public playerMove playerRight;
  
    bool elefacingRight= true;

    private float elemove;

    Animator anim;
   
    // Use this for initialization
    void Start () {
        anim= GetComponent<Animator>();
    }
  
    // Update is called once per frame
    void Update () {

        elemove = transform.position.x;

        anim.SetFloat ("eleSpeed", Mathf.Abs(elemove)); //set the Speed parameter to the value after the comma

        if(GetComponent<HingeJoint2D>().enabled == true){ // if move is more than 0 and the player is NOT facing right

            if(elemove++ && !playerRight.facingRight) // if move is more than 0 and the player is NOT facing right
                eleFlip(); //see flip below
            else if(elemove-- && playerRight.facingRight) //if move is less than 0 and facing right
                eleFlip(); //see flip below
            elephant now has its own move funtion.
  
        }

    }

    void eleFlip()
    {
        elefacingRight= !elefacingRight;
        Vector3 theScale= transform.localScale;
        theScale.x *= -1;
        transform.localScale= theScale;
    }
  
}

So, when my player elephant flips, I want the collected elephant to flip as well, so I’ve called the player direction in the if statements on line 28 and 30. I’ve also made a move variable which is the x position of the collected elephant. I’ve also said in the if statement that is the x position increases and decreases, carry out the flip function.
This is giving me errors though, saying that these cannot be used together.
Any help will be appreciated here guys, i’m stuck and don’t know what else to try.

Sorry for the long post.
Mark

2

it may also be worth including the code for my player elephant just in case you need to see it in order to help -

public class playerMove : MonoBehaviour {

    //declare the max speed
    public float maxSpeed= 4.5f;
    // the player character is facing to the right by default
    public bool facingRight= true;

    public float move;

    Animator anim;
   
    void Start ()
    {
        anim= GetComponent<Animator>();
    }

    void FixedUpdate ()
    {
        move = Input.acceleration.x; //move equals acceleration.

        if(move < -0.2f || move > 0.2f) // if the device is tilted so far in either direction
        {

            anim.SetFloat ("Speed", Mathf.Abs(move)); //set the Speed parameter to the value after the comma

            rigidbody2D.velocity= new Vector2 (move * maxSpeed, rigidbody2D.velocity.y); //declare the x and y of the rigid body

            if(move > 0 && !facingRight) // if move is more than 0 and the player is NOT facing right
                Flip(); //see flip below
            else if(move < 0 && facingRight) //if move is less than 0 and facing right
                Flip(); //see flip below
            }

        else if(move > -0.1f || move < 0.2f)
        {
            anim.SetFloat ("Speed", 0);
            rigidbody2D.velocity= new Vector2 (0,0);
        }

    }

    void Flip()
    {
        facingRight= !facingRight;
        Vector3 theScale= transform.localScale;
        theScale.x *= -1;
        transform.localScale= theScale;
    }
}