How to delay a character from spawning

[system]

Hi everyone, I've been at this all day, but have not found an ideal solution. Please bear with me as I am new to Unity. I have made a simple game space shooter type game. I have one character that falls down the screen, and if it collides with the player, the player gets a life added to him. Right now, as soon as the extra life character falls below the camera view, he is automatically respawned at a random location on top and falls back down the scree. My question is, how can I delay the time between spawns of this "extra life" character? Right now, my javascript for the "extra life" character is:

var lifegermSpeed: int;

function Update () {
amtToMove = lifegermSpeed * Time.deltaTime;
transform.Translate(Vector3.down*amtToMove);
if(transform.position.y <=-3){
    transform.position.y = 20;
    transform.position.x = Random.Range(-6,6);
}

}

Thanks in advance for any help with the issue!

[Kona]

You could use WaitForSeconds. I recall it beeing used differently with js than from c# which I use so can't really make an example with your code but here's the unity api for it:

http://unity3d.com/support/documentation/ScriptReference/WaitForSeconds.html

[loopyllama]

use a simple timer or use a coroutine.

for a timer:

http://www.google.com/search?q=unity3d+timer&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&client=safari

for yield/coroutine:

http://unity3d.com/support/documentation/ScriptReference/index.Coroutines_26_Yield.html

[Extrakun]

var lifegermSpeed: int;
var canEnter : boolean;

function Update () {
     // prevent MoveAndSpawn() from being called if the 10 seconds timer is running
   if (canEnter)
        MoveAndSpawn(); 
  }    
}

function MoveAndSpawn()
{

  amtToMove = lifegermSpeed * Time.deltaTime;
  transform.Translate(Vector3.down*amtToMove);

  if(transform.position.y <=-3){
    transform.position.y = 20;
    transform.position.x = Random.Range(-6,6);      
    canEnter = false;
    yield WaitForSeconds(10.0); 

  }

  // can enter this function again
  canEnter = true;
}

You cannot use co-routine in Update(). Move your logic to a new function and call it from within Update(). However, as Update() is called every frame, you need a flag to prevent MoveAndSpawn() to be called again before the 10 seconds is done.

I would suggest that you separate the logic for moving and for re-spawning the life up,though.

[Amoldadu]

When you are spawning a character you should add this code into your GameController script:

IEnumerator Spawn () {
		yield return new WaitForSeconds (4.0f);
		while (timeSpent > 0) 
		{
			Vector3 spawnPosition = new Vector3 (Random.Range (100, maxWidth),transform.position.y, 0.0f);
			Quaternion spawnRotation = Quaternion.identity;
			Instantiate (rawan, spawnPosition, spawnRotation);
			yield return new WaitForSeconds (Random.Range (4.0f, 5.0f));

		}

		yield return new WaitForSeconds (1.0f);
		gameOverText.SetActive (true);
		yield return new WaitForSeconds (1.0f);
		restartButton.SetActive (true);
		yield return new WaitForSeconds (0.0f);
		mainMenuButton.SetActive (true);
		yield return new WaitForSeconds (0.0f);
		BackToLevelsButton.SetActive (true);
	}

IEnumerator Spawn () {
yield return new WaitForSeconds (4.0f);
while (timeSpent > 0)
{
Vector3 spawnPosition = new Vector3 (Random.Range (100, maxWidth),transform.position.y, 0.0f);
Quaternion spawnRotation = Quaternion.identity;
Instantiate (rawan, spawnPosition, spawnRotation);
yield return new WaitForSeconds (Random.Range (4.0f, 5.0f));

	}

	
}