Multiple functions - more concise way to type this?

Ninjadoodle

Hi guys

I have five monsters, and I want them all to blink at random intervals. I've setup 5 function with timers and this works fine.

I'm however wondering, whether there is a more consise way to set this up?

Thank you heaps in advance!

local monster1BlinkTimer = Timer.new(math.random(1000, 5000)) local function monster1Blink() self.monster1Eye.mc:gotoAndPlay(1) monster1BlinkTimer:reset() monster1BlinkTimer:start() end monster1BlinkTimer:addEventListener(Event.TIMER, monster1Blink) monster1BlinkTimer:start()   local monster2BlinkTimer = Timer.new(math.random(1000, 5000)) local function monster2Blink() self.monster2Eye.mc:gotoAndPlay(1) monster2BlinkTimer:reset() monster2BlinkTimer:start() end monster2BlinkTimer:addEventListener(Event.TIMER, monster2Blink) monster2BlinkTimer:start()   local monster3BlinkTimer = Timer.new(math.random(1000, 5000)) local function monster3Blink() self.monster3Eye.mc:gotoAndPlay(1) monster3BlinkTimer:reset() monster3BlinkTimer:start() end monster3BlinkTimer:addEventListener(Event.TIMER, monster3Blink) monster3BlinkTimer:start()   local monster4BlinkTimer = Timer.new(math.random(1000, 5000)) local function monster4Blink() self.monster4Eye.mc:gotoAndPlay(1) monster4BlinkTimer:reset() monster4BlinkTimer:start() end monster4BlinkTimer:addEventListener(Event.TIMER, monster4Blink) monster4BlinkTimer:start()   local monster5BlinkTimer = Timer.new(math.random(1000, 5000)) local function monster5Blink() self.monster5Eye.mc:gotoAndPlay(1) monster5BlinkTimer:reset() monster5BlinkTimer:start() end monster5BlinkTimer:addEventListener(Event.TIMER, monster5Blink) monster5BlinkTimer:start()

antix

I don't think it's a good idea to have loads of timers going off everywhere. Having a manager that updates your monsters each frame and handles stuff like blinking and such would be a better solution. See my post in your other thread

Ninjadoodle

Hi @antix

Thank you for the reply!

I've managed to consolidate the code by doing this ...

for i=1, #monsters do   monsters[i].counter = 1   monsters[i].blinkTimer = Timer.new(math.random(1000, 5000)) monsters[i].blink = function() monsters[i].eye.mc:gotoAndPlay(1) monsters[i].blinkTimer:reset() monsters[i].blinkTimer:start() end monsters[i].blinkTimer:addEventListener(Event.TIMER, monsters[i].blink) monsters[i].blinkTimer:start()   end

This seems to work very well. These timers are only for a single level and they are going to be cleared as soon as the level is complete.

The scope of this level doesn't really get much bigger than 10 monster with random blinks and a few event listeners.

Would this still cause problems in your opinion?

antix

It shouldn't cause problems at all. It's only when your projects start getting larger will you run into issues. I've been there, done that so I try to make everything as efficient as I can nowdays.