Missile launch system

Unity Engine
,
1

Hi there,

I am trying to make a missile launcher system on a mech that I have created. It has 4 Launch tube points, so far it fires one missile from one of the launch points. I would like to have the missiles fire from the launch tube points in sequence. I have tried creating a public transform array called LaunchTube and added the launch tube points in the inspector.

It still launchers 1 missile from the same point. Not 100% sure what to do next, I’m guessing I will need to loop through the FireMissile() code?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

sing UnityEngine;

public class Launcher : MonoBehaviour
{
    [SerializeField] public float fireRate;

    [SerializeField] private bool fire;

    [SerializeField] private float nextLaunch;

    [SerializeField] private GuidedMissile missile;

    [SerializeField] private Transform target;
       
    public Transform[] LaunchTube;

    public AudioSource LaunchSFX;

  
    private void Start()
    {
        LaunchSFX = GetComponent<AudioSource>();           
    }


    private void Update()
    {
        fire = Input.GetKey(KeyCode.E);

        if(fire && Time.time >= nextLaunch)
        {
            nextLaunch = Time.time + fireRate;
            FireMissile();
        }
    }

    private void FireMissile()
    {
       
        LaunchSFX.Play();
        var launchTubeId = LaunchTube.Length;

        launchTubeId++;
        if (launchTubeId > (LaunchTube.Length - 1))
            launchTubeId = 0;


        GuidedMissile newMissile = Instantiate(missile, LaunchTube[launchTubeId].position,             LaunchTube[launchTubeId].rotation, null);
        newMissile.target = target;

       
    }

    }
2

Hello,
I’ve only watched at your FireMissile method and I have to point out something.
Think through what the values are at each steps:

var launchTubeId = LaunchTube.Length; // tubeId = 4 (4 tubes)
launchTubeId++; // tubeId = 5
if (launchTubeId > (LaunchTube.Length - 1)) // tubeId is therefore bigger than the length of the array (4)
    launchTubeId = 0; // so tubeId = 0

Your code makes it launch from only tube 0.

2 Likes
3

I support this endeavour!

I’m pretty sure @diXime has found at least one of your problems, but let me offer you a robust way to find any future problems like this, since this type of logic stuff comes up all the time. I don’t think I can code for ten minutes without inadvertently doing the same thing.

With most simple malfunctions like this, what is often happening in these cases is one of the following:

  • the code you think is executing is not actually executing at all
  • the code is executing far EARLIER or LATER than you think
  • the code is executing far LESS OFTEN than you think
  • the code is executing far MORE OFTEN than you think
  • the code is executing on another GameObject than you think it is

To help gain more insight into your problem, I recommend liberally sprinkling Debug.Log() statements through your code to display information in realtime.

Doing this should help you answer these types of questions:

  • is this code even running? which parts are running? how often does it run? what order does it run in?
  • what are the values of the variables involved? Are they initialized? Are the values reasonable?
  • are you meeting ALL the requirements to receive callbacks such as triggers / colliders (review the documentation)

Knowing this information will help you reason about the behavior you are seeing.

You can also put in Debug.Break() to pause the Editor when certain interesting pieces of code run, and then study the scene

You could also just display various important quantities in UI Text elements to watch them change as you play the game.

If you are running a mobile device you can also view the console output. Google for how on your particular mobile target.

Here’s an example of putting in a laser-focused Debug.Log() and how that can save you a TON of time wallowing around speculating what might be going wrong:

https://discussions.unity.com/t/839300/3

1 Like
4

Thanks for the suggestions gents. Much appreciated