How to store different structures in a structure

Development Programming & Scripting Blueprint
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1

I have a concept of array with items, i.e. itemdatabase from which I get an index which I then use to reference my items in inventory and other places.

The problem I have is that some items are quite different with different properties.
So they have different properties (which I need to read and write).

From a coding point of view, I add new properties as well so, regression testing is a pain because using a single structure occasionally breaks code.

I have an item type that I thought might be used to point me to the item type’s structure , however, this means I need to use enums OR array indexes for lookups, ( array indexes have the mutation problem and enums means I compare strings to enums.

It all feels a bit wonky.

Any advice is appreciated. (I do BP only)

2

Well it almost seems like you are recreating a relational database with this

Attributes would be a second set of struct with a parent child relationship.

Attribute would need to contain the parents id (its foreign key).

3

Honestly I’d simplify it overall. I wouldn’t pack all of that into a single parent struct.

Have an Inventory variable for each “type” of inventory item. Types would be items using the same data structure. As @3dRaven said… database. You’d have a table (variable) for each specific type following a strict field type structure (struct).

  • Health/Meds
  • Consumables
  • Ammo
  • Weapons
  • Gear
  • Armor

Keep the prototyping setup as simple as possible to reduce breaking. Once you figure out the final requirements, then start packing structures and arrays.

4

can you create structs on the fly like make array or make set?

5

No. You need to create the structure file, then create a variable to represent that structure in the actor class.