How can I specify the contents of a multidimensional array and select objects matching the criteria from a list?

Question

Premise

We are creating a tower defense type game. So we want to build a Wave system and be able to set the number of Wave times each enemy will spring up according to their respective types.

• Select the type of enemy to be generated from EnemyFactor
• Select the number of enemies to be generated from EnemyAmount

What you want to achieve

• Select enemy type from list and game object

Applicable source code

    public class WaveListFactor : MonoBehaviour
    {
        public List<EnemyEnum> enemyFactor = new List<EnemyEnum>();

        public List<int> enemyAmount = new List<int>();
    }

    public class WaveList : MonoBehaviour
    {
        public List<GameObject> enemyList = new List<GameObject>();

        public List<WaveListFactor> waveEnemies = new List<WaveListFactor>();
    }

    public class WaveManager : MonoBehaviour
    {
        public void EnemySpawn()
        {
            int enemyFactor = waveList.waveEnemies.waveEnemyFactor;
            GameObject enemy = waveList.enemyList[enemyFactor];
            waveSpawner.Spawn(enemy);
        }
    }

Problems

int enemyFactor = waveList.waveEnemies.waveEnemyFactor;

Now I can't change EnemyEnum in EnemyFactor to int and can't specify the contents of enemyList .

Supplementary information (FW / tool version, etc.)

• Unity 2020.3.20f

Answer 1

I would recommend you rather use a SerializedDictionary<EnemyEnum, GameObject[]> and simply configure beforehand which enum value results in which GameObject prefab options (so you can still randomize a bit)

public SerializedDictionary<EnemyEnum, GameObject[]> enemyList = new SerializedDictionary<EnemyEnum, GameObject[]>();

and then later select one doing

var options = enemyList[enemyFactor];

and then select a random one like eg

var selectedPrefab = options[Random.Range(0, options.Length)];

---

Otherwise you would need some dedicated component on your enemies that provides the information about which EnemyEnum it responds to like eg

public class Enemy : MonoBehaviour
{
    public EnymeEnum Type;
}

and rather have

public List<Enemy> enemyList = new List<Enemy>();

then you could filter your available options using Linq

using System.Linq;

...

var options = enemyList.Where(enemy => enemy.Type == enemyFactor).ToArray();

and pick a random one from the existing matches like

var selectedPrefab = options[Random.Range(0, options.Length)];

if this results in null it simply means there is no matching prefab.

Disadvantage : Each prefab can only belong to one single enum category. That's not the case for the other two solutions.

---

Or even simplier: Why store the information in separate collections at all?

Simply rather have a

[Seriaizable]
public class EnemyInfo
{
    public GameObject Prefab;
    public int Amount;
}

[Seriaizable]
public class WaveInfo
{
    public EnemyInfo[] EnemyInfos;
}

this way you don't have to care about any enum but rather simply define how many instances of which prefab will be spawned.