Storing/Retrieving Initial RTS Unit Attributes

Unity Engine
1

I have a game with 6 races and 6 units per race for a total of 36 units (more coming). Right now, all of my code is based off the idea that each unit type and its important variables can be found in a series of nested arrays declared in a script called “GlobalVariables.cs” such as:

public static float[][] UnitHealth = new float[][] { new float[] {}, new float[] { 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 }, new float[] { 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 }, new float[] { 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 }, new float[] { 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 }, new float[] { 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 }, new float[] { 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 } };

All of my code is based off the idea that if you know the race (as an integer 1-6) and the unit# (as an integer 1-6) you can find the correct attribute whether that attribute is the unit’s sprite in UnitSprite[Race][Unit] or the unit’s attack in UnitAttack[Race][Unit] or the unit’s speed in UnitSpeed[Race][Unit]. A value of Race = 3 and Unit = 2 will always find the appropriate attributes no matter which array/attribute is being called for.

Now the problem I’m encountering is two-fold:

  1. Is there a more elegant way to handle this? I’m roughly a month or so into C# and Unity. I feel like I can say with confidence that anything I do is not the optimal way of doing it. However, this is the best method I’ve come up with so far and it works, so three-cheers for me.

  2. If this is a worthwhile method to continue with, my next question is this: “how can I present all of this data to me the coder/tester/developer in a presentable way for editing while still getting it into these arrays for use by other scripts?” Right now, all of this data is in a long “string” (above) in the variable declarations which I have to count along to find the right reference location if I want to test changing a unit’s health, for instance, but I’m unsure how to declare the variables more like the example below while still getting them into arrays for the rest of my code to continue working.

I would love it to look something like this (or better), which was how my old code was organized when I only had 6 units and no races to keep track of:

// Builder

    public static float Builder_Cost = 1;
    public static float Builder_HP = 3;
    public static float Builder_Speed = 1;
    public static float Builder_Attack = 1;
    public static float Builder_Attack_Speed = 0.5f;

I read about property drawers, but it seems like an intense way to achieve the visibility and edit-ability I want while still leaving me unsure how to put it all into the arrays.

Thanks everyone for taking the time to help me with my dumb problem :slight_smile:

2

For data stats, like yours, I would prefer to use ScriptableObjects. You can edit these nicely in the Inspector.
If you have 36 different units, you’d make 36 copies, each which can be dragged or edited anytime. Inside each unit, you could have all of the stats.
So, say you look at Race 1, Unit 1. You’d have access to its speed, builder speed, unit health, etc…
After that, you could could even setup Lists , as you have now (you have arrays), but either way.
Let me know if you look into them a bit and see what you think.