Question Unity 2021.3.20f1 Transform.position doesn't move character

Hello to all. I'm new to coding and I've been having troubles trying to get my ship to move in a Schmup mockup project I'm currently developing. I've searched the forums for days now but can't seem to find out what I'm doing wrong (could be something REALLY obvious, but like I said I'm new to this). I've stored the transform of my GameObject in a Vector2 variable and incremented it with input from the player, but even if in the Debug.Log I get visible changes to the coordinates, the ship doesn't move at all. Any help would be appreciated.

Code (CSharp):

1. using System;
2. using System.Collections;
3. using System.Collections.Generic;
4. using UnityEngine;
5.  
6. public class Ship : MonoBehaviour
7. {
8.     [SerializeField] private float moveSpeed = 10f;
9.  
10.     void Update()
11.     {
12.         ShipMovement();
13.        
14.     }
15.     private void ShipMovement()
16.     {
17.         float horInput = Input.GetAxisRaw("Horizontal");
18.         float verInput = Input.GetAxisRaw("Vertical");
19.         Vector2 shipPos = transform.position;
20.         Vector2 movInput = new Vector2(horInput, verInput) * moveSpeed * Time.deltaTime;
21.         shipPos += movInput;
22.         Debug.Log(shipPos);
23.     }
24.  
25. }

 

Welcome!

Looking at the above code, I don't see you writing the

shipPos

back to the transform.position.

Vector3 is a value type. This means when you assign it, it makes a copy.

You're changing the copy called shipPos, never doing anything with it.

Here's more reading about that sorta stuff:

Value Types vs Reference Types:

https://forum.unity.com/threads/hel...a-game-object-with-code.1047332/#post-6779456

 

Thank you SO much! This is perfect, I'll read more on that, bless you

 

A related note: it being a value type is also why this doesn't work:

Code (CSharp):

1. whatever.transform.position.y += 3;

whatever.transform.position

is giving you a value type, so trying to modify its

y

field is nonsense: you'd be modifying the copy, leaving the original untouched!