Assigning a class movieClip an additional class

[kingofnukes]

normally if i wanted to add a class movieclip i would do something like:

var newChar:specificChar = new specificChar();
this.addChild(newChar);

Now is there a way where I could declare newChar to become a player or AI by adding another class to it.

[kingofnukes]

bump

[Dazzer]

public class playerChar extends specificChar

public class nonPlayerChar extends specificChar

[kingofnukes]

yeah, but how can i say, spawn a character AS a player or AI. That way I don't need to make a player and AI class for each character since I plan to make a generic AI that can work equally with each AI.

[Dazzer]

All the more you should create separate classes for each.

Trust me. More classes = Win (in most cases).

But if you're adamant, you can store a variable in your specificChar class. And pass that in through the constructor.

[hobbbz]

implements

playerClass implements characterClass extends MovieClip

AIClass implements characterClass extends MovieClip

implements means that the subclass is required to implement all the methods and variables of the class it's 'implementing'. Extends of course means that the class is a subtype of a specific class. In this way you can guarantee that if you define the method moveLeft() in characterClass, that it must be made available in playerClass and AIClass.

[kingofnukes]

hobbbz, could u give me a real world example? lets say I have 2 characters charlee and leeroy which both have a class that extends a class called character. How would I make one a player and one AI, determining which during spawn?

ex: createCharacter("AI", "Charlee");

[Dazzer]

You can subclass.
So you have SpecificCharacter
Then you can have PlayerCharacter, and AICharacter, that are both subclasses of SpecificCharacter. Then you can do this



var player:SpecificCharacter = new PlayerCharacter("Name");

[spasticfantastic]

You can use a decorator pattern for this, which is essentially a good use of interfaces. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decorator_pattern