Run derived method instead of the superclass method

So sorry for the dumb sounding title, but I'm not completely sure how to word this question. But in my game, I have a superclass called weapon which handles the basic equipping the weapon off the ground and I am going to make multiple scripts for dealing with different weapons since the firing method won't be the same between them since some 'guns' may not 'shoot' bullets. But I have the weapon being saved to a weapon gameobject on the player and when I click the mouse, it should call the fire method. I would want it to call the fire method no matter which script is attached.
I was thinking that maybe if I used a superclass, I could only call the method from the super class instead of having the check which weapon script the gun has then call that specific method.
Am I thinking about this right? I'm new to scripting for Unity.

Here is the code for picking up the weapon but I haven't started to write the other weapon scripts yet

Code (CSharp):

1. if(other.tag == "Weapon")
2.         {
3.             var tempWeapon = Instantiate(other, weaponEquipSlot.transform.position, Quaternion.identity);
4.             tempWeapon.transform.parent = gameObject.transform;
5.             tempWeapon.GetComponent<Weapon>().equipWeapon();
6.             equippedWeapon = tempWeapon.gameObject;
7.             Destroy(other.gameObject);
8.         }

But I expect when I write the code for firing, it would be something simple where I would call the equipped weapon's fire method.

 

Yep - it's pretty simple.

On Weapon, define a virtual method:

Code (CSharp):

1. public class Weapon : MonoBehaviour {
2.   public virtual void Fire() { }
3.  
4.   void Update() {
5.     if (Input.GetMouseButton(0)) {
6.       Fire();
7.     }
8.   }
9. }

Then in the subclasses you just override it:

Code (CSharp):

1. public class Bazooka : Weapon {
2.   public override void Fire() {
3.     // Do bazooka-specific stuff here.
4.   }
5. }

Alternatively you can make Weapon an abstract class so that it's only possible to have instances of subclasses, and not possible to have an instance of a plain "Weapon". In that case there's just a couple changes:

Make weapon and Fire abstract, and don't provide any implementation for Fire():

Code (CSharp):

1. public abstract class Weapon : MonoBehaviour {
2.   public abstract void Fire();
3.  
4.   void Update() {
5.     if (Input.GetMouseButton(0)) {
6.       Fire();
7.     }
8.   }
9. }

Then in the subclasses you just override it the same way:

Code (CSharp):

1. public class Bazooka : Weapon {
2.   public override void Fire() {
3.     // Do bazooka-specific stuff here.
4.   }
5. }

 

So I would override the fire method, but wouldn't I still need to call the specific weapon class instead of the superclass?

 

Nope. If the weapon reference you have is to an instance of the child class, then the override method will take over.

 

Thank you, that worked! I need to read up a little more on virtual methods so I can understand that better.