Lesson 7: Practice Time!

Your HurtPlayer() function is working, but since you’re passing a literal value to the Damage() method, that value can only change when you manually change the code. In this exercise, you’re going to make your HurtPlayer() function more flexible with the return value from another function that you will create.

In Lesson 4: Practice Time, you used conditionals to calculate how much damage or healing should be done by potions, depending on the player’s health. You're going to bring some of that code back in a function called CalculateDamage(). It will return a value of type float. You will store that value in a constant that you will then pass to the Damage() method.

1. Create a function named CalculateDamage(). Within the function, declare two constants of type float: MinHealth, and PotionDamageAmount. Declare one variable of type float called PlayerHealth.

   Verse

        CalculateDamage() : float = 
               MinHealth : float = 1.0
               PotionDamageAmount: float = 80.0
               var PlayerHealth : float = 100.0
   

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2. Create an if … else if … else expression that returns one of three values:

   • PotionDamageAmount, if PlayerHealth is greater than PotionDamageAmount

   • PlayerHealth - MinHealth, if PlayerHealth is less than PotionDamageAmount but greater than MinHealth

   • PlayerHealth, if PlayerHealth is less than or equal to MinHealth

     Verse

                               # If the damage amount would not eliminate the player, do that amount of damage
                                  if (PlayerHealth > PotionDamageAmount):
                                      return PotionDamageAmount
                                  else if (PlayerHealth > MinHealth):
                                      # Give player one more chance if their health is low
                                      return PlayerHealth - MinHealth
                                  else:
                                      # Eliminate player
                                      return PlayerHealth
     

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   The effect of this code is that it will give the player a second chance if they drink a potion that would normally eliminate them.

3. Now that you have made a function that returns a useful result, you need to store that result. Declare a constant float called DamageToDo, and initialize it with the return value of CalculateDamage(). Add this to your HurtPlayer() function.

   Verse

        HurtPlayer() : void =
            Playspace : fort_playspace = GetPlayspace()
            AllPlayers : []player = Playspace.GetPlayers()
            if (FirstPlayer : player = AllPlayers[0]):
                if (FortniteCharacter : fort_character = FirstPlayer.GetFortCharacter[]):
                    DamageToDo: float = CalculateDamage()
                    FortniteCharacter.Damage(50.0)
   

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4. Finally, time to use the result! Pass DamageToDo as an argument to Damage(). Add a Print() so you can see exactly what CalculateDamage() is returning.

   Verse

        HurtPlayer() : void =
               Playspace : fort_playspace = GetPlayspace()
               AllPlayers : []player = Playspace.GetPlayers()
               if (FirstPlayer : player = AllPlayers[0]):
                   if (FortniteCharacter : fort_character = FirstPlayer.GetFortCharacter[]):
                       DamageToDo: float = CalculateDamage()
                       Print("DamageToDo: {DamageToDo}")
                       FortniteCharacter.Damage(DamageToDo)
   

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Now instead of your call to the Damage() method using a literal value, it uses the value returned from CalculateDamage(). You should have already written the call to HurtPlayer() from a previous exercise, but don’t forget to check.

Complete Script

using { /Fortnite.com/Devices }
using { /Fortnite.com/Characters }
using { /Fortnite.com/Playspaces }
using { /Verse.org/Simulation }
using { /Verse.org/Verse }

hello_world_device := class(creative_device):

    # Runs when the device is started in a running game
    OnBegin<override>()<suspends>:void=

On your own, try to create a function similar to CalculateDamage() that returns a result that would be useful for HealPlayer(). If you get stuck, check the Lesson 4 Practice Time for some ideas.

Next Lesson

• 

  Lesson 8: How Input, Parameters, and Arguments Work

  Learn how to define parameters in a function to get the result you need.