Thread: Weapon Organization

I am creating a game with several others and am putting myself on a crash course on C++ game design. I made a post in the Project forums. I have most of the basic skills and a very simple idea of AI. I want to know the best way to hold data about different items of the same general type. Would a class or a structure be best?

If you are not going to use functions, use a structure method. But as you are using C++ you really should shy from structs and implement a class. Remeber to make the data members private or protected if you are going to use inheritence, and the member functions public

Yes, use classes! For weapons, I would have a base class of sorts. For example, a possible class hierarchy may be:

Code:

CItem 

CWeapon   CPowerUp
                         
CBow      CHealth

CSword

All items inherit from CItem base class, CWeapon and CPowerUp inherit from this base class. Each type of weapon will inherit from CWeapon. Each type of power up inherits from CPowerUp. This is just a possible hierarchy. Take some time to plan this part, because it will save you lots of code writing. Plus, try to organize these such classes into header files, for MAXIMUM organization!

Thanks for your input! Classes seem the better choice. I am in the process of implementing some classes now

Using class hierarchies for the different items and characters works for small projects. Larger projects should use an entirely data-based approach, i.e. there is an Item class, and all info about it (is it a weapon, shield, armor, ...) is stored in data files and loaded at runtime. This calls for a very flexible interaction system, especially if you want some special items, which is why only large projects do it this way.

The solution I would use.