Say you have a base enemy class, but you want to have 100 different enemies... is there an efficient method to create 100 enemies (say from a base class), and provide them all with some unique value or function without having to code in all 100 enemy classes?
Maybe I should ask, what's a good way to do this without so much maintenance? Or would I have to create all 100 enemy classes with a unique value in my code?
Sounds like a bad design rather than a question of programming technique. Are you sure the differences require 100 different classes?
Read them from a data file.
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poly meaning many and
tics meaning blood sucking parasites
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yes, 100 enemies each with a unique value. So would it be more efficient if I made them read from a data file? And is there any other method for this?Originally Posted by dennis.cpp
Edit: For clarity, let's say each enemy will have a different amount of health points, attack stat, or defense stat.
Last edited by Darkroman; 09-21-2012 at 10:53 AM.
You're saying Yes, but then your description to me immediately says No.
You don't use inherritance when the values are different, you use inherritance when the behaviour is different!
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Linus Torvalds: "But it clearly is the only right way. The fact that everybody else does it some other way only means that they are wrong"
OK, awesome! So should I just call new instances of the class with the constructor giving different values to stats on program loading time instead?
Darkroman, you seem to have a strong misconception of object orientation. Try and explain in your own words what you think a class is and what you think an instance of this class is. Helping you apparently has to start there.
This is ok if only the values differ and not the functions as mentioned in your 1st post.If so,maybe overloading the functions or let them abstract in the base class is ok.
But iMalc's post is critical to understand
A class is like the main category of something (polygon). An instance is an object from the main category (from polygon you can make an instance of it for square, rectangle, hexagon, etc). That's the best way I can really describe them.
Not really.Let's say we have the base class Polygon,and tho child classes,the Triangle and the Square.So now i create two Squares objects and three Triangle objects.Now the 1st and 2nd squares are instances of the class Square.I want you to tell me what is true for the 1sr,2nd and 3rd triangle
What you are describing is a "class hierarchy", not the difference between a class and an object.
A class is a description of the attributes of a type of thing. An object is an actual instance of the thing. So a class is a type, like int, whereas an object is an actual instance of a type, like an int variable called i. Some real-world examples:
Code:Class Object -------------------- ------------------------------ Human You Tree A specific tree Concept of a square An actual instance of a square Concept of a car An actual car
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