Composition vs inheritance (think Enemy)

I hope you don't get annoyed with this question. I understand the concepts as unity is mostly composition ie: components all put together on a game object BUT if you think about enemies, then do tendo to have many of the same characteristics in lots of games. Therefore, it is an OK design practise to use inheritance for enemies. They all attack, take damage, move around, fire stuff etc... So it makes sense to create a super class. I'm just asking.

 

That's a very dangerous trap to fall into:
Saying "they all attack, take damage, move" is a very generous statement.
You might have turrets or towers that won't move. You might have creatures that don't attack, but can be killed (think critters from starcraft). You might have threats that don't have health, but can attack the player.

Composition over inheritance is not a unity exclusive thing. It's the preferred method in oop, for a reason too. Having these components depend on each other very lightly means you won't have to rewrite 10 components over and over, because one thing is slightly different.
Of course you can always just have these systems as individual components with controls, then a more complex enemy ai component, that requires the previous components and orchestrates them accordingly.

 

Absolutely ok. And remember, one does not exclude the other. They can both be used.

 

That's very interesting. With regards "controls" - I have no idea what they are. Have you got any links where I can read up on that "strategy".

 

I mean public methods so that the ai component can interact with them. Basically an interface between them

 

Maybe I need to post again but is there any chance of explaining how to use interfaces. I know what they are but I have no experience of using them. If not, no probs. Thanks for your help guys.

 

I didn't specifically mean interface here as the actual coding term, rather just the fact, that you can interact with them somehow through their interface.