Enemy Logic | Bullets Resetting - c++

Question

First off I'd like to say I'm still very inexperienced, I only started programming last week.
I'm currently developing my first game (and C++ application), I've run into a problem, and haven't managed to solve it, and I'm starting to give up.
I can spawn enemies correctly, but now I want each of them to shoot once each second. The code I'm using for this is as follows:
for (int i = 0; i < 200; i++)
{
if (enemy_basic[i].getPositionY() >= -100 && enemy_basic[i].getPositionY() <= 900)
{
if (enemyBasicLaserNumber[i] < 200 && enemyLaserTimer[i].getElapsedTime().asSeconds() > 1)
{
enemy_laser[enemyBasicLaserNumber[i]].setPosition(enemy_basic[i].getPositionX(), enemy_basic[i].getPositionY());
enemyLaserTimer[i].restart();
enemyBasicLaserNumber[i]++;
cout << enemyBasicLaserNumber[i] << endl;
}
if (enemyBasicLaserNumber[i] >= 199) enemyBasicLaserNumber[enemyBasicNumber] = 0;
}
}
Now, I know there's something wrong in there somewhere, because the bullets keep getting reset back to enemy as soon as there are multiple enemies on screen (as long as it's only 1 enemy it works perfectly), and I still haven't managed to figure out what needs changing, or if I need to do this in an entirely different way.
If someone could just point me in the right direction or help me out in some way, I'd be very grateful!

Answer 1

You should structure your code in a more appropriate Object oriented style. You could create a base class Entity which contains a virtual function update. It also should contains the reference/pointer parent of the entity.
class SceneManager
{
public:
SceneManager();
virtual ~SceneManager();
//put your own parameters
Bullet& createBullet(/* */);
private:
//a list of pointers for polymorphism
boost::ptr_list<Entity> entities_;
};
class Entity
{
public:
Entity(SceneManager& smgr);
virtual ~Entity();
virtual void update(const float timedelta) = 0;
private:
const int id_;
static int count_ = 0;
protected:
SceneManager& smgr_;
//local scale, rotation
Transform transform_;
//position
Vector3d position_;
//the model,sprite representation
char drawable_;
};
class Enemy:public Entity
{
public:
Enemy(SceneManager& smgr);
virtual ~Enemy();
virtual void update(const float timedelta);
void shoot();
};
class Bullet:public Entity
{
public:
Bullet(SceneManager& smgr);
virtual ~Bullet();
virtual void update(const float timedelta);
};
void Enemy::update(const float timedelta)
{
//shooting each second
static float shootDelay = 1;
static Timer timer;
//check if timer has started
if(!timer.started)
timer.start();
//if the timer has reached the desired delay
if(timer.elapsed() > shootDelay)
{
shoot();
timer.restart();
}
}
void Enemy::shoot()
{
//create the bullet via the scenemanager
smgr_.createBullet(/******/);
}
This code is only symbolic code, you will have to use the existing libraries to actually implement the structure. This way of coding is used notably by the Irrlicht and Ogre3D graphic engines, but can be applied as well to the core logic of a game engine.