Thread: Need help understanding a Lab. Don't know if I should make a nested class or extend the class itself.

CSC 275 Lab 7

Instructor: Joshua L. Smith

Question Subject Line: CSC 275 Online Lab 7 Question

Answer Subject Line: CSC 275 Online Lab 7 Solution


You are to develop an entire program that simulates the way a game is handled in the random creation of its characters. Your program should have the ability to create one of 3 types of character. The choices should be an ogre, archer and a swordsman. Each of these characters will share many of the same types of attributes such as name, life and energy and these should be contained in the Super class that we will call Entity (because Character is already a class). Only the archer and the swordsman are playable, which leaves the ogre to be a Non-Player Character (NPC). This means that the Ogre will be a subclass of the Entity, while the archer and swordsman will be subclasses of Playable which is a subclass of Entity. Below is the diagram.



The Playable class should extend the Entity class and should contain some additional methods that dictate the movement of the character by the user. Note that we will NOT be tracking the movement of the characters to help simplify the lab. The playable class should have a method for moving the character in the 4 standard directions (no diagonals allowed). So up, down, left and right.

Class Name: Entity
Class Level (global) Variables:
strName - String
intLife - Integer
intEnergy - Integer

Method Name: getStrName
Parameters: None
Desired Result: Accessor
Data Returned: strName

Method Name: setStrName
Parameters: name
Desired Result: Mutator
Data Returned: none

Method Name: getIntLife
Parameters: None
Desired Result: Accessor
Data Returned: intLife

Method Name: setIntLife
Parameters: life
Desired Result: Mutator
Data Returned: none

Method Name: getIntEnergy
Parameters: None
Desired Result: Accessor
Data Returned: intEnergy

Method Name: setIntEnergy
Parameters: energy
Desired Result: Mutator
Data Returned: none


Class Name: Playable
Method Name: moveUp
Parameters: None
Data Returned: “ has moved up one space”

Method Name: moveDown
Parameters: None
Data Returned: “ has moved down one space”

Method Name: moveLeft
Parameters: None
Data Returned: “ has moved left one space”

Method Name: moveRight
Parameters: None
Data Returned: “ has moved right one space”


Class Name: Ogre
Method Name: Attack
Parameters: damageToInflict – Integer, playerToAttack - Entity
Desired Result: Attack an entity for x amount of damage
Data Returned: None

Class Name: Archer
Method Name: Attack
Parameters: damageToInflict - In-teger, playerToAttack - Entity
Desired Result: Attack an entity for x amount of damage
Data Returned: None

Class Name: Swordsman
Method Name: Attack
Parameters: damageToInflict – Integer, playerToAttack - Entity
Desired Result: Attack an entity for x amount of damage
Data Returned: None


Above is my assignment that I must do.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Below is the pseudo code that my professor want us to use.

 
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Random;
import java.util.Scanner;
 
public class GameDriver {
	static ArrayList<Entity> myList = new ArrayList<Entity>();
 
	public static void main(String[] args) {
 
		Random randomGenerator = new Random();
		for (int idx = 0; idx <= 5; idx++) {
			int randomInt = randomGenerator.nextInt(3);
			Entity temp = new Entity();
			switch (randomInt) {
				case 0:
					temp = new Archer();
					temp.setStrName("Archer" + idx);
					//System.out.println(temp.getStrName());
					break;
				case 1:
					temp = new Swordsman();
					temp.setStrName("Swordsman" + idx);
					//System.out.println(temp.getStrName());
					break;
				default:
					temp = new Ogre();
					temp.setStrName("Ogre" + idx);
					//System.out.println(temp.getStrName());
					break;
			}
			myList.add(temp);
		}
 
		while(true){
			// This leaves the possibility of a player attacking themselves.
			int randomInt = randomGenerator.nextInt(5);
			Entity player1 = myList.get(randomInt);
			System.out.println("Player 1: " + player1.getStrName());
			randomInt = randomGenerator.nextInt(5);
			Entity player2 = myList.get(randomInt);
			System.out.println("Player 2: " + player2.getStrName());
 
 
			if(player1 instanceof Archer){
				randomInt = randomGenerator.nextInt(1);
				if(randomInt == 0){ // Move
					randomInt = randomGenerator.nextInt(4);
					switch(randomInt){
						case 0: System.out.println(player1.getStrName() + ((Archer)player1).moveDown()); break;
						case 1: System.out.println(player1.getStrName() + ((Archer)player1).moveUp()); break;
						case 2: System.out.println(player1.getStrName() + ((Archer)player1).moveRight()); break;
						default: System.out.println(player1.getStrName() + ((Archer)player1).moveLeft()); break;
					}
				}else{ // Attack
					System.out.println("Attacking");
					randomInt = randomGenerator.nextInt(5);
					((Archer)player1).attack(randomInt, player2);
				}
			}else if(player1 instanceof Swordsman){
				randomInt = randomGenerator.nextInt(1);
				if(randomInt == 0){ // Move
					randomInt = randomGenerator.nextInt(4);
					switch(randomInt){
					case 0: System.out.println(player1.getStrName() + ((Swordsman)player1).moveDown()); break;
					case 1: System.out.println(player1.getStrName() + ((Swordsman)player1).moveUp()); break;
					case 2: System.out.println(player1.getStrName() + ((Swordsman)player1).moveRight()); break;
					default: System.out.println(player1.getStrName() + ((Swordsman)player1).moveLeft()); break;
					}
				}else{ // Attack
					System.out.println("Attacking");
					randomInt = randomGenerator.nextInt(5);
					((Swordsman)player1).attack(randomInt, player2);
				}
			}else{ // Player is an ogre
				System.out.println("Attacking");
				randomInt = randomGenerator.nextInt(5);
				((Ogre)player1).attack(randomInt, player2);
			}
 
			Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);
			System.out.println("Please enter 1 to continue, 0 to quit.");
			int keepGoing = input.nextInt();
			if(keepGoing == 0){
				break;
			}
		}
	}
}

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here is the class I'm currently creating.

 
public class entity
{
 
   static String strName;
   static int intLife;
   static int intEnergy;
 
 
   public static void setStrName( String strName )
   {
        strName = strName;
   }
 
   public String getStrName()
   {
    return strName;    
   }
 
   public static void setIntLife( int IntLifejr)
   {
       intLife = IntLifejr;
   }
 
    public int getIntLife()
   {
       return intLife;
   }
 
   public static void setIntEnergy( int intEnergy )
   {
        intEnergy = intEnergy;
   }
 
       public int setIntEnergy()
   {
       return intEnergy;
   }
 
 
 
 
 
 
}

I emailed my professor on what exactly he wants me to do with this problem. He is prone for responding to emails late. So I wanted to ask you the community to see what I should do exactly. Or least try to figure out what he wants.

I see he wants to me to make multiple classes. But I don't know if I should extend my entity class or make nested classes. Any idea guys?

Thanks again!

No, not nested classes. Subclass by definition is a class that is an extension of another super class.

Class names should be capitalized, but that's what you were told to do in the instructions. Read and follow them carefully.

GregBrannon,

Thanks for the reply. I figured I would do that. I was over thinking it I guess. I'll come back to the post if I have anymore questions.

Hello everyone,


I made great progress on this assignment. Here is what I have so far.

 
 
 
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Random;
import java.util.Scanner;
 
public class GameDriver {
 
    static ArrayList<Entity> myList = new ArrayList<Entity>();
 
	public static void main(String[] args) {
 
		Random randomGenerator = new Random();
		for (int idx = 0; idx <= 5; idx++) {
 
		    int randomInt = randomGenerator.nextInt(3);
			Entity temp = new Entity();
 
			switch (randomInt) {
				case 0:
					temp = new Archer();
					temp.setStrName("Archer" + idx);
					//System.out.println(temp.getStrName());
					break;
				case 1:
					temp = new Swordsman();
					temp.setStrName("Swordsman" + idx);
					//System.out.println(temp.getStrName());
					break;
				default:
					temp = new Ogre();
					temp.setStrName("Ogre" + idx);
					//System.out.println(temp.getStrName());
					break;
			}
			myList.add(temp);
		}
 
		while(true){
			// This leaves the possibility of a player attacking themselves.
			int randomInt = randomGenerator.nextInt(5);
			Entity player1 = myList.get(randomInt);
			System.out.println("Player 1: " + player1.getStrName());
			randomInt = randomGenerator.nextInt(5);
			Entity player2 = myList.get(randomInt);
			System.out.println("Player 2: " + player2.getStrName());
 
 
			if(player1 instanceof Archer){
 
			    randomInt = randomGenerator.nextInt(1);
 
				if(randomInt == 0){ // Move
					randomInt = randomGenerator.nextInt(4);
					switch(randomInt){
	                    case 0: System.out.println(player1.getStrName() + ((Archer)player1).moveDown()); break;
			    case 1: System.out.println(player1.getStrName() + ((Archer)player1).moveUp()); break;
		            case 2: System.out.println(player1.getStrName() + ((Archer)player1).moveRight()); break;
		           default: System.out.println(player1.getStrName() + ((Archer)player1).moveLeft()); break;
					}
				}else{ // Attack
					System.out.println("Attacking");
					randomInt = randomGenerator.nextInt(5);
					((Archer)player1).attack(randomInt, player2);
				}
 
			}else if(player1 instanceof Swordsman){
 
			    randomInt = randomGenerator.nextInt(1);
 
				if(randomInt == 0){ // Move
					randomInt = randomGenerator.nextInt(4);
 
					switch(randomInt)
					{
			case 0: System.out.println(player1.getStrName() + ((Swordsman)player1).moveDown());   break;
			case 1: System.out.println(player1.getStrName() + ((Swordsman)player1).moveUp()); break;
			case 2: System.out.println(player1.getStrName() + ((Swordsman)player1).moveRight()); break;
			default: System.out.println(player1.getStrName() + ((Swordsman)player1).moveLeft()); break;
					}
 
				}
				else{ // Attack
					System.out.println("Attacking");
					randomInt = randomGenerator.nextInt(5);
					((Swordsman)player1).attack(randomInt, player2);
				}
 
			}else{ // Player is an ogre
				System.out.println("Attacking");
				randomInt = randomGenerator.nextInt(5);
				((Ogre)player1).attack(randomInt, player2);
			}
 
			Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);
			System.out.println("Please enter 1 to continue, 0 to quit.");
			int keepGoing = input.nextInt();
 
			if(keepGoing == 0){
				break;
			}
		}
	}
}
 
 
 
 
 
 
public class Entity
{
 
   static String strName;
   static int intLife;
   static int intEnergy;
 
 
   public static void setStrName( String strName )
   {
        strName = strName;
   }
 
   public String getStrName()
   {
    return strName;    
   }
 
   public static void setIntLife( int IntLifejr)
   {
       intLife = IntLifejr;
   }
 
    public int getIntLife()
   {
       return intLife;
   }
 
   public static void setIntEnergy( int intEnergy )
   {
        intEnergy = intEnergy;
   }
 
       public int setIntEnergy()
   {
       return intEnergy;
   }
 
 
 
 
 
 
}
 
public class Player extends Entity
 
{
 
        public String moveUp()
    {
        String moveUpString = " Has moved up one space. ";
        return moveUpString ;
 
    }
 
       public String moveDown()
    {
        String moveDownString = " Has moved down one space. ";
        return moveDownString;
 
    }
 
        public String moveLeft()
    {
        String moveLeftString = " Has moved left one space. ";
        return moveLeftString;
    }
 
           public String moveRight()
    {
        String moveRightString = " Has moved right one space. ";
        return moveRightString;
    }
 
 
}

I'm waiting for a response from my teacher and class mates. But I wanted your guys opinion. Please look below.

Class Name: Ogre
Method Name: Attack
Parameters: damageToInflict – Integer, playerToAttack - Entity
Desired Result: Attack an entity for x amount of damage
Data Returned: None

Class Name: Archer
Method Name: Attack
Parameters: damageToInflict - Integer, playerToAttack - Entity
Desired Result: Attack an entity for x amount of damage
Data Returned: None

Class Name: Swordsman
Method Name: Attack
Parameters: damageToInflict – Integer, playerToAttack - Entity
Desired Result: Attack an entity for x amount of damage
Data Returned: None


What in the heck is going with these parameters for these character methods? I'm not familiar with the syntax. It looks like he is performing operations in my parameters and then returning them. Any idea what might be going on?

It looks like he is performing operations in my parameters . . .

What are you talking about? Who is 'he', and what is 'he' doing?

My professor GregBrannon,

Sorry maybe I wasn't clear. If you look at the parameter row for each method i.e ogre, archer, swordsman you will see that it looks like he(my professor) is performing operations. Instead of performing the operation in the body it looks like its being done in the parameters of the methods. Does that make sense now? : )

I admit stupidity and concede. Doesn't matter.

Originally Posted by GregBrannon

I admit stupidity and concede. Doesn't matter.

What do you mean?

It meant I didn't understand, didn't want you to waste your time explaining it to me, and that I was going to sleep. Well, the last part wasn't communicated, but that was the reason. I've reread:

What in the heck is going with these parameters for these character methods? I'm not familiar with the syntax. It looks like he is performing operations in my parameters and then returning them. Any idea what might be going on?

hoping for total enlightenment, but it's not happening. It sounds like you're confused about something your professor is doing, but I don't understand the mechanism or the context. Please point to the code you're confused about or describe the process that causes this transformation resulting in your confusion. Either there's something you're not telling us, or I'm being thick and not seeing the obvious.