Making a program "skip" to another part.

[kenshin143]

I'm making a game and i was thinking about what happens when someone dies and i want to make it so they go back to a certain point like the last shop or w/e. My question is as thus: How do you write it so that the code will take you "back" to another point in your program? or is there even a way to do so. BTW i'm doing this in C++ on visual studio.

[Bazzy]

For games a way could be saving the needed information ( eg: the location ) and then loading them when needed.
To repeat code, you have loops

[Kangaroux]

Use the "goto" keyword.

SomePoint:

....blahblahblahblah....

goto SomePoint; // Go back up to SomePoint ^ 

[firedraco]

Use the "goto" keyword.

No, don't EVER use the goto keyword when you are trying to do something like this, it's not needed and will simply make your code harder to understand/maintain.

[kenshee]

Good god never use goto its evil, just use loops, functions and if/else or switch.

For your particular problem just create a few flags that if the player dies he is resurrected at the last flag.

[Abramus]

Good god never use goto its evil

There are cases when goto is the best option.

[firedraco]

Abramus wrote:

There are cases when goto is the best option.

Agreed. But this isn't one of them.

[Kangaroux]

In order to solve the issue of whether or not to use "goto" (I know it's shun upon but it is really useful in some cases) could you post the code your having trouble with?

[kenshin143]

I'm making a game and while i would love to post the game it's rather long, but in summery it's a mass of functions that simulate battles and towns and other various activities, mostly i would like to know if theres a way to make it skip back to a particular function? say the last town or w/e, thanks in advance for any advice and links that would help.

[helios]

It's possible to goto from one function to another, but having to do that is a serious sign of bad design.

[kenshin143]

i don't see how it's a bad sign of design, since i know of no other way of making checkpoints in a game, because if you die i don't want to just end it. but anyway how do make a checkpoint that once you past it if you "die" it sends you back to the last "checkpoint"?

[helios]

That's exactly where the bad design is. You're coding the game itself in C++. Games like, say, text adventures, are written in a special purpose language specifically designed for that game. The program that implements the language is known as the engine. For games past a certain complexity (for example, games that save state), a game engine is a must.

[KaidzAccount]

Suggestion: Make a prototype with Mark Overmar's Game Maker 7.0, then once you've implemented a checkpoint feature with that game engine, find a way to 'convert' it to C++.

[Galik]

Surely, when the player dies you should only need to change the data that holds where the player is located on the map?

So each time you start the game, you check the player's position in order to decide which function to begin calling:

int function_start(int checkpoint)
{
	bool success;

	//do game stuff

	if(success)
	{
		return checkpoint + 1; // goto next checkpoint
	}
	return checkpoint; // repeat last checkpoint
}

int funcion_woods(int checkpoint);
int funcion_town(int checkpoint);
int funcion_house(int checkpoint);


int main()
{
	int checkpoint(0);
	bool dead(false);

	while(!dead)
	{
		switch(checkpoint)
		{
			case 0: checkpoint = funcion_start(checkpoint);
			break;
			case 1: checkpoint = funcion_woods(checkpoint);
			break;
			case 2: checkpoint = funcion_town(checkpoint);
			break;
			case 3: checkpoint = funcion_house(checkpoint);
			break;
			default: checkpoint = 0;
		}
	}
}

[manojr]

So is it that depending on user input you want to go back to some particular point or just automatically you want to go back?