Object with a physical representation (Part, Model) + custom properties

[ocean fog]

Greetings,

**Context **: I want to create what I call Citizens, which require a physical representation (a part), but also custom properties (ex : GridPosition, Age, CurrentTask...).

What I tried :

• Creating a Citizen object, and creating a Model property containing a Part object (obtained from ReplicatedStorage). *Issue *: When setting the parent of the part to workspace (to move the citizen), there is no reference to the citizen object (from the part), which is an issue. Code :

Citizen.__index = Citizen

function Citizen.new()
  local newCitizen = {}
  setmetatable(newCitizen, Citizen)

  newCitizen.Model = game.ReplicatedStorage.Models.Citizen -- a Part Object
  -- custom properties... (newCitizen.Age...)
  
  return newCitizen
end```

- Creating a Citizen object, which is the actual Part object from ReplicatedStorage, and adding custom attributes to it. *Issue *: the Part is an instance and not a table, I can therefore not use setmetatable (or do not know how to obtain a table from an instance). Code :
```local Citizen = {}
Citizen.__index = Citizen

function Citizen.new()
  local newCitizen = game.ReplicatedStorage.Models.Citizen -- Part Object
  setmetatable(newCitizen, Citizen) -- invalid argument : table expected

  -- custom properties
  newCitizen:SetAttribute("GridPosition", Vector2.new(0, 0)
  newCitizen:SetAttribute("Age", 0)
  
  return newCitizen
end```

**Question **: Is there any way to do something like this in a clean way? Is it possible to inherit from a class like Part/BasePart? I basically want to create an object but have a physical representation (Part/Model) linked to it, and other custom properties, while being able to manipulate all of these easily with methods of mine (like Citizen:Move, Citizen:SetTask...).
If you need any other precision please ask me.

Object with a physical representation (Part, Model) + custom properties

[karmic nymph]

you dont need it

but you could assign IDs to each citizen

make a dictionary of the tables for each citizen

just set that ID as a attribute of said citizen

u can easily get it by using GetAttribute and can easily reference it in the table by just looking at your dictionary of citizen objects

@ocean fog hope it helps, gn

[ocean fog]

I see, what I understand is OOP is not useful in this context and I can use a part as the object by setting custom attributes to it

I'll try that out, thanks for your time

[karmic nymph]

well i actually think OOP is a model example for this

what i meant is keeping some dictionary of all current citizen tables

assigning them an ID

assigning the citizen model the same id

depends on what you expect to use it for

if its just a few constant properties you are better off with no tables but if its some functions and whatnot u can just use the OOP way

u gotta think about that to build your constructor function properly

[ocean fog]

what I understand you propose is this :

local Citizen = {}
Citizen.__index = Citizen

function Citizen.new()
    local newCitizen = {}
    setmetatable(newCitizen, Citizen)
    
    local ID = 0 -- example, should be unique
    newCitizen.ID = ID
    ReplicatedStorage.Models.Citizen:Clone():SetAttribute("ID", ID)

    -- other properties, custom
    newCitizen.CurrentTask = nil
    newCitizen.Age = 0
    newCitizen.Spawned = false

    return newCitizen
end

Also yes, I need methods to manipulate the object, should it be physically via the part/model or virtually via properties such as, in this situation, the citizen's age, current task...

[karmic nymph]

that doesnt require OOP

also no

i meant more like this

{[0] = {...}, [1] = {...}, ...}

[ocean fog]

and inside for example table[0], the table represents a citizen with a "model" key, and other properties

[signal escarp]

** You are now Level 1! **

[karmic nymph]

yeah

that being said for your intentions i think OOP wouldnt be the best

i mean do you plan to have different functions for different citizens

thats where OOP comes in handy

[ocean fog]

yes, which could require some sort of inheritance

[karmic nymph]

in that case yeah

[ocean fog]

I'll think about it, thanks for your time