Getting array of all surrounding mobs

Game Mechanics
#1

Right, in my TD game, I am making a tesla tower. If you dont know, a tesla tower has small radius and every once and a while shoots out lightning in all directions harming every mob in radius. I am trying to get an array of all the mobs in radius so I can simply go through a for loop every time the tower “electrocutes” so I can harm all of them. Here is the code:

	public void getMobs() {
		for (int i = 0; i < Screen.mobs.length; i++) {
			if (Screen.mobs[i] != null && circle != null) {
				if (Screen.mobs[i].inGame) {
					if (circle.intersects(Screen.mobs[i])) {
						for (int s = 0; s < mobsIR.length; s++) {
							if (mobsIR[s] == null) {
								mobsIR[s] = Screen.mobs[i];
								System.out.println("TARGETED: " + Screen.mobs[i] + " AT INDEX: " + s);
								return;
							}
						}
					}
				}
			}
		}
	}

The problem is that every time this is called it takes the first mob in radius and assigns it to every number in the the array “mobsIR[]”. I know it seems simple but I cant think of a way to do this :P. Thanks for any help, cMp

#2

Try replacing that return statement with a break statement.

#3

Does the exact same thing. This method gets called every frame update so that’s why neither work.

#4

Why do you return or break at all? Try removing it.

#5

Well when I had the break or return it sets the mob to every other index of the array. Without one its sets every index. Thats rather confusing I am not sure why it does that

#6

how about something like

for ( int i = 0; i < Screen.mobs.length; i++ ) {
   Mob mob = Screen.mobs[i];
   if ( circle.intersects( mob ) ) {
      System.out.println("TARGET: " + mob.name + " in range!");
   }
}

I don’t really know why you have another for loop inside there?

#7

Ah that works fine!! Now I just need a way to set the index that mob was assigned to to null when it is out of range?

#8

I also had another for loop because Screen.mobs is bigger than mobsIR

#9

Well if you only have 1 or very few Tesla’s and not too many objects you can simply do what needs to be done inside the loop itself.

for ( int i = 0; i < Screen.mobs.length; i++ ) {
   Mob mob = Screen.mobs[i];
   if ( circle.intersects( mob ) ) {
      System.out.println("TARGET: " + mob.name + " in range!");
      mob.killObjectByLightning(); // or something
   }
}

Or if you want to save all the mobs that are in range into another list:

tesla.mobsList.clear(); // remove old mobs
for ( int i = 0; i < Screen.mobs.length; i++ ) {
   Mob mob = Screen.mobs[i];
   if ( circle.intersects( mob ) ) {
      System.out.println("TARGET: " + mob.name + " in range!");
      tesla.mobsList.add( mob ); // add mob into the list
   }
}

where tesla.mobsList is an ArrayList for example (instead of a constant size normal array):

http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/util/ArrayList.html

then you could loop through the mobs inside the ArrayList like this (for example):

// this is called a 'for-each' loop, i.e, for each mob in mobsList do { this }
for ( Mob mob : tesla.mobsList ) {
   System.out.println(mob.name + " is in range of the tesla");
}

or

for ( int i = 0; i < tesla.mobsList.size(); i++ ) {
   Mob mob = tesla.mobsList.get( i );
   System.out.println(mob.name + " is in range of the tesla");
}
#10

Perfect, thank you very much I cannot BELIEVE that I didnt think of an ArrayList! These are the best forums in town!