Third Person Controller Design

Ive been working on setting up a third person controller for a few hours now and cant quite figure out how to do it the way Im looking for. If I use Vector3() to assign the GetAxis(), I set up the x and z axes precisely. No matter what, the character will move in strict x and z axes. I want the character to roam freely. So, if I set up the W key to move forward, I want that key to move forward no matter the direction of the character.

So, what I want is to have W and S to move the player forward and backward no matter which way they face. And I want the character to rotate left and right if I use the A and D keys. Does anyone have an algorithm or an example to help me get this moving? To be clearer, I want it to work like World of Warcraft player movements.

Thanks!

You can use

playercharacterobject.transform.forward

to get a vector 3 which is essentially the direction the character is facing (assuming your models/prefabs are sensibly aligned) and then multiply that by the speed you want to move (per frame or per fixed update), before adding it to the character’s position.

E.g. : Stick this on any object in a scene to get the idea.

using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;

public class DumbController : MonoBehaviour {

	public float spd=10;
	public float rotSpd=25;
	// Use this for initialization
	void Start () {
	
	}
	
	// Update is called once per frame
	void Update () {
		if (Input.GetKey(KeyCode.A)){transform.Rotate(new Vector3(0,Time.deltaTime*rotSpd, 0));}
		if (Input.GetKey(KeyCode.D)){transform.Rotate(new Vector3(0,-Time.deltaTime*rotSpd, 0));}
		if (Input.GetKey(KeyCode.W)){transform.position+=(transform.forward*spd*Time.deltaTime);}
		if (Input.GetKey(KeyCode.S)){transform.position-=(transform.forward*spd*Time.deltaTime);}
	}
}