Randomly select a page state

Hi guys,

I am implementing a question system into my game where if a user enters a trigger they are given a question to answer. This trigger works however it only displays the one question I tell it to. I am aiming to have say 5 questions that I want to randomly be displayed to the user, so they could receive any of the 5 questions when they enter the trigger.

I thought I could do this by somehow randomly calling the appropriate page state for that question. Here is my method for when the player is questioned (calls when they enter the trigger) and my page states:

Code (CSharp):

1. void PlayerQuestioned()
2.     {
3.         var questions = [SetPageState(PageState.Question), SetPageState(PageState.Question2),
4.             SetPageState(PageState.Question3), SetPageState(PageState.Question4), SetPageState(PageState.Question5)];
5.  
6.         questions[Random.Range(0, questions.Length)]();
7.     }
8.  
9.     void SetPageState(PageState state)
10.     {
11.         switch (state)
12.         {
13.             case PageState.None:
14.                 MainMenuPage.SetActive(false);
15.                 GameOverPage.SetActive(false);
16.                 ScoreboardPage.SetActive(false);
17.                 AchievementsPage.SetActive(false);
18.                 TimerPage.SetActive(false);
19.                 QuestionPage.SetActive(false);
20.                 break;
21.  
22.             case PageState.MainMenu:
23.                 MainMenuPage.SetActive(true);
24.                 GameOverPage.SetActive(false);
25.                 ScoreboardPage.SetActive(false);
26.                 AchievementsPage.SetActive(false);
27.                 TimerPage.SetActive(false);
28.                 QuestionPage.SetActive(false);
29.                 break;
30.  
31.             case PageState.GameOver:
32.                 MainMenuPage.SetActive(false);
33.                 GameOverPage.SetActive(true);
34.                 ScoreboardPage.SetActive(false);
35.                 AchievementsPage.SetActive(false);
36.                 TimerPage.SetActive(false);
37.                 QuestionPage.SetActive(false);
38.                 break;
39.  
40.             case PageState.Scoreboard:
41.                 MainMenuPage.SetActive(false);
42.                 GameOverPage.SetActive(false);
43.                 ScoreboardPage.SetActive(true);
44.                 AchievementsPage.SetActive(false);
45.                 TimerPage.SetActive(false);
46.                 QuestionPage.SetActive(false);
47.                 break;
48.  
49.             case PageState.Achievements:
50.                 MainMenuPage.SetActive(false);
51.                 GameOverPage.SetActive(false);
52.                 ScoreboardPage.SetActive(false);
53.                 AchievementsPage.SetActive(true);
54.                 TimerPage.SetActive(false);
55.                 QuestionPage.SetActive(false);
56.                 break;
57.  
58.             case PageState.Timer:
59.                 MainMenuPage.SetActive(false);
60.                 GameOverPage.SetActive(false);
61.                 ScoreboardPage.SetActive(false);
62.                 AchievementsPage.SetActive(false);
63.                 TimerPage.SetActive(true);
64.                 QuestionPage.SetActive(false);
65.                 break;
66.  
67.             case PageState.Question1:
68.                 MainMenuPage.SetActive(false);
69.                 GameOverPage.SetActive(false);
70.                 ScoreboardPage.SetActive(false);
71.                 AchievementsPage.SetActive(false);
72.                 TimerPage.SetActive(false);
73.                 QuestionPage.SetActive(true);
74.                 break;
75.         }
76.     }

Currently I only have Question1 in my page states, but I hope you get my idea. I do not want to randomly select any of the other page states, simply the page states I will call Question1, Question 2, Question3, Question 4 and Question5.

Have I gone about this the right way? I am a novice. The [ bracket is currently marked as an invalid expression term when surrounding the page states in the PlayerQuestioned() method.

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

I think this is what you where trying to do.
Take 5 states, pick from them randomly. and then turn a bunch of stuff on or off

Code (CSharp):

1. void PlayerQuestioned()
2.     {
3.         PageState[] questions =  new PageState[] {PageState.Question, PageState.Question2, PageState.Question3, PageState.Question4, PageState.Question5};
4.        
5.         SetPageState(questions[Random.Range(0, questions.Length-1)]);
6.     }

 

I think that Random.Range will be the int version, so you don't want to -1 as the high value is exclusive in the int version.

So Range(0, 5) would return a value of 0-4 for example.

 

I think you're right as I've just done some testing and question 5 is never showing up, but question 1 - 4 are showing up. Do I just remove -1 then or does it require just a 0?

 

That worked perfectly, except the last question is not showing up so I think what Brathnann is adding to your point may be right too!

 

Never mind i just removed the -1 entirely, now it works perfectly! Thanks both of you!

 

Yep, that's all you had to do. Random.Range with floats is inclusive, thus the top number is included. But if you use ints, it's exclusive. It's a common mix-up since the behavior is different.

 

cool, i'm glad you guys worked it out. I don't always remember why I put that -1 in the random.range. It's a bad habit that bites me in the butt.