How to Move All Sprites At Once: Cocos2dx v3 C++ - c++

Question

I'm attempting to make a Space Invaders clone. In doing so I'm having a difficult time grouping the invaders together so that they move at the same time.This is due to both CCLayer and CCNode being deprecated in v3.1 in cocos2dx. I saved my sprites to a vector that I can iterate over but when I attempt to move them only move one at a time. I need to group them together so I can move them all at once.
void Gameplay::moveInvaders(){
auto moveLeft = MoveBy::create(2, Vec2(-1, 0));
auto moveRight = MoveBy::create(2, Vec2(1, 0));
auto moveDown = MoveBy::create(2, Vec2(0, 1));
auto stay = MoveBy::create(20, Vec2(0,0));
// create a sequence with the actions and callbacks
auto seq = Sequence::create(moveLeft, stay, moveRight, stay, moveDown, stay, nullptr);
for (int i = 0; i < invaders.size(); i++) {
invaders.at(i)->runAction(seq);
}
Update: I ended up figuring out the issue. Instead of trying to use the sequence I ended up scripting the movements with some control logic and the system timer.
Add this to your init() function:
this->schedule(schedule_selector(Gameplay::moveInvaders), 1.0);
Of the form:
this->schedule(schedule_selector(<Class_Name>::<function_To_call>), <number_of_frames_to_run>);
Then decide what you want to do in your function that will be called that often. I used a couple of boolean and int values to keep a counter. That way I could control the direction the invaders would move.
Hopefully this helps somebody else! I couldn't find what I needed to know because most of the tutorials for cocos2dx were in Objective-C or Javascript.

Answer 1

How about adding all invaders into one sprite, say "InvaderGroup"? All transformations (and need to refer once, but most probably all Actions too) to a sprite are guaranteed to be calculated on children too, so no worries, I suppose.
So many invaders individually watching out for events sounds like overhead, especially the result movement is not supposed to be individually decided. You can use your own Sprite subclass if you prefer, but just to move them around it's not necessary.
P.S.
Your invaders will still be able to roam individually if you want them to, just the co-ordinates will be with reference to the parent Sprite.