I've begun to focus more on learning programming, rather than learning enough programming to attempt some of my projects.

step 1. learn to code in python and unity

step 2. build some small games implementing or at least attempting to iterate my ideas.

step 3. get better at coding

step 4. start building prototypes of my bigger ideas and producing practice prototypes - various website ideas including a robot game engine and space simulation social network, a 3rd person shooter mixed with a streets of rage-style platform beatemup structure to build an action-adventure game based on a story I'm writing, various other ideas.

step 5. get better at coding...

I am discovering the define method.

I have a problem with my program:

"I'm trying to figure out def methods: My program is not working."

#this is the start of my program:

def game():
    again = ""
    buy = ""
    wallet = 30
    attributes = {"Dexterity": 30, "Wisdom":30, "Health":30, "Strength":30}
def start ():
        print (attributes)
        while again != "n":
            if attributes == "":
                print("goodbye!")
            else: #program continues on for awhile, cut off here for brevity

#this is the end of my program
elif choice == 4:
                        #sell an attribute
                            sellAll = input ("which attribute would you like to sell all of?:")
                            if sellAll in attributes:
                                wallet += attributes[sellAll]
                                del attributes[sellAll]
                                print ("You have ", wallet, " dollars left"); print (attributes)
                            else: print ("that is not a legit attribute!")
                            again = input ("play again y/n")
                            if again == "y": start ()
                            if wallet <= 0: print ("you can't play anymore"); break

replay = input("Are you tough enough to play? y/n")
if replay == "y": game(), start ()
 

I clearly am trying to use define method when I don't fully understand how it works.

Originally the game worked, when I just used one define method - "def game ()"

But I started trying to use two to solve the problem that the game wasn't returning to the start of the program within the loop.

That's when I ran into problems.

Hi. With Python the manual that comes with it is your best friend. There is a Python Tutorial in it.

# A define does a thing, it's a function
def SayHallo():
    print("hello") #This prints hello

def DoMath(InA,InB):
    print(InA + InB) #This prints the sum


#To use our code we just call it outside our function
SayHallo()
print("<--->" *8)
#We can reuse a function as much as we want
DoMath(5,10)
DoMath(15,70)
print("<--->" *8)
#Normally Enumerations are used for storing data. Python uses lists.
#There is no need to use dic for stats. You can just use vectors although dict are easier to use in the lng run
Stats =  {("Dexterity", 30),("Wisdom", 30), ("Health", 30), ("Strength", 30)}
for StatName, StatValue in Stats:
    print("Stats: "+ StatName + " = " + str(StatValue))


#Classes are used for complex objects
class Player():
    #This def is special as calling it allows us to define self
    #It is also a constructor
    def __init__(self, InPlayerName):
        #Defining The stat like this makes it easy to call
        self.Health = 30
        self.Name   = InPlayerName
        #Defining as list allows for call by name
        self.Stats  = {"Dexterity": 30,"Wisdom": 30, "Strength": 30}

    def PlayerTakeDamage(self,InAmount): #Because of init we need to add self to use 
        self.Health -= InAmount

    def GetWisdom(self):
            return self.Stats["Wisdom"]


Player1 = Player("Bob") # Things after the self in init are needed for construct
Player2 = Player("Piet")# These are instances that means they are copies
print("##"*16)
print(Player1.Name + "'s Health is " + str(Player1.Health)+ " and his wizdom is "
      + str(Player1.GetWisdom()))

#Also print player 2
print(Player2.Name + "'s Health is " + str(Player2.Health)+ " and his wizdom is "
      + str(Player2.GetWisdom()))
print("##"*16)

#We let the player take damage
Player1.PlayerTakeDamage(25)
#Print to see the change
print(Player1.Name + "'s Health is " + str(Player1.Health)+ " and his wizdom is "
      + str(Player1.GetWisdom()))

#Also print player 2
print(Player2.Name + "'s Health is " + str(Player2.Health)+ " and his wizdom is "
      + str(Player2.GetWisdom()))

I hope this helps. If not I will solve it for you however it looks like you want to do it on your own first.

wow that's really useful, thanks! I think i can have a go at getting my program working from here.

so am I getting closer?

how is my indentation? Do I need indentation or is there an alternative?

#program start

def stats():
    again = ""
    buy = ""
    wallet = 30
    attributes = {"Dexterity": 30, "Wisdom":30, "Health":30, "Strength":30}

def UI ():
    print (attributes)
    while again != "n":
        if attributes == "":
            print("goodbye!")
        else:
            choice = int(input("1 = exit \n 2 = spend money on attributes \n for your character. \n 3 = sell an attribute. \n 4 = sell off an entire attribute. \n Choose a number from 1-4:"))
            choices = {1, 2, 3, 4}
            while choice in choices:
                if choice == 1:
                    print ("Goodbye")
                    input ("press a key")
                elif choice == 2:
                #spend coin
                    buy = input ("what would you like to spend money on?:")
                    if buy in attributes:
                        attributes[buy] += 5
                        wallet -= 5
                        print ("You have ", wallet, " dollars left"); print (attributes)
                    else: print ("that is not a legit attribute!")
                    again = input ("play again y/n")
                    if again == "y": UI ()
                    if wallet <= 0: print ("you can't play anymore"); break

#end of program

replay = input("Are you tough enough to play? y/n")
if replay == "y": stats(), UI ()

I think if I want to get this right, the best way would to be to code out a whole adventure scenario and break it down into pseudocode blocks for each element eg  buying weapons, taking damage, entering the tavern. instead of trying to do the whole scenario in one or two define statements. It would be an interesting challenge, that would get me closer to making a game, might try this tomorrow.

3 hours ago, WinterDragon said:

so am I getting closer?

how is my indentation? Do I need indentation or is there an alternative?

Yep, you're getting closer

Indentation looks fine (4 spaces is recommended). I'd refrain from putting things after a colon, ie

if replay == "y":
    stats()
    UI()

instead of

if replay == "y": stats(), UI ()

Note: If you use the "<>" thing in the edit-bar, you get these code blocks, which preserve your indents better. (Copy code, press "<>", paste code in box, select "python" bottom right, press "insert" bottom left.)

The "," in your line is actually an error too, don't try to do more than one thing at a line, Python works best doing 1 thing at 1 line. (This holds for your multi-print lines too.)

When I run the program I get

$ python3 program.py
Are you tough enough to play? y/ny
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "program.py", line 36, in <module>
    if replay == "y": stats(), UI ()
  File "program.py", line 10, in UI
    print (attributes)
NameError: name 'attributes' is not defined

The reason for this is that functions have local variables. See the following example:

def f():
  # Here x doesn't exist yet

  x = 1 # Construct 'x', and give it a value

  print(x) # x still exists as long as we are in function f


# Here we are outside f, and x doesn't exist

f() # Call the function, inside f, x exists for a while, but it disappears again when it returns here

print(x)  # Will give an error, as x only exists within function f.

How to do this instead? The standard solution is to return values to the caller, and store them in variables. The variables are then passed on to the next function:

def stats():
    again = ""
    buy = ""
    wallet = 30
    attributes = {"Dexterity": 30, "Wisdom":30, "Health":30, "Strength":30}

    return again, buy, wallet, attributes

def UI(again, buy, wallet, attributes):
  # Omitting all the other code


replay = input("Are you tough enough to play? y/n")
if replay == "y":
    again, buy, wallet, attributes = stats()
    UI(again, buy, wallet, attributes) 

I added a "return" statement at the end of "stats", which returns the 4 values that you create.

At the bottom of the file, I catch these values into variables, with "again, buy, wallet, attributes = stats()" so the main program gets the values. It then passes them on to the other function.

Other random things I noticed:

lines = ("1 = exit\n" +
         "2 = spend money on attributes\n" +
         "    for your character.\n" +
         "3 = sell an attribute.\n" +
         "4 = sell off an entire attribute.\n" +
         "Choose a number from 1-4:")
choice = int(input(lines))

The "input" line is long, you can break it into smaller pieces by first constructing the string as a separate statement, before asking for input. In my code, I spend 6 lines on making the menu, nicely putting each line under each other, so it's easy to see what it prints. Don't forget the parentheses here, or Python gets confused on missing values behind the "+".

Finally, you don't need to call the UI function, like you do:

while again != "n":
    # ...
    while choice in choices:
        # ...
        again = input ("play again y/n")
        if again == "y": UI ()

Instead, let the top-while handle that:

while again != "n":
    # ...
    while choice in choices:
        # ...
        again = input ("play again y/n")
        break # Break out of the "while choice in choices", so it jumps to the "while again != "n" statement, and loops back to the input.

wow you guys are great! thanks! I'm learning alot, I think I'm actually learning faster by asking for help than I have been just trying to crunch with the books by myself.

by the way I downloaded py2exe but it won't load it says there is a dll file missing, did I put it in the wrong place or is it just a faulty file that I downloaded or the wrong file - it may be the wrong file as my pc is a 64bit os and I accidentally downloaded the 32bit version, I don't know if that's why it won't work?

2 hours ago, WinterDragon said:

the 32bit version, I don't know if that's why it won't work?

Should still work. Chances are you have a dependency missing. Can you name the missing file?

Your code is making good progress. When creating a new mechanic you should attempt it on it's own first and then add it into your game.

So for example the buy and sell part, see if you can get it to work outside of the game first.

MSVCR71.dll is the missing file. And thanks, yea I'll do that. I've got a bit of an idea of the different elements of the adventure game, so I'll have a go at writing, planning and coding them as separate programs before putting them together as a game.

still not working...

I may have to hit the books again, or maybe you can explain what I've done and why it doesn't work?

def stats():
    again = ""
    buy = ""
    wallet = 30
    attributes = {"Dexterity": 30, "Wisdom":30, "Health":30, "Strength":30}

    return again, buy, wallet, attributes

def UI(again, buy, wallet, attributes):
    replay = input("Are you tough enough to play? y/n")
    again, buy, wallet, attributes = stats()
    while again != "n":
        print (attributes)
        print("1 = exit \n 2 = spend money on attributes \n for your character. \n 3 = sell an attribute. \n 4 = sell off an entire attribute. \n Choose a number from 1-4:")
        choices = {1, 2, 3, 4}
        choice = int(input ("what would you like to do?:"))
        if attributes == "":
            print("goodbye")
        else:
            while choice in choices:
                if choice == 1:
                    print ("Goodbye")
                    input ("press a key")
                elif choice == 2:  #etc...

Having us debug your code doesn't scale very well, code gets too long, and we have huge problems understanding what "it" means in "it doesn't work", since we don't know what the intended functionality is. Last but not least, this is something you should be able to figure out, debugging a problem is a part of programming.

Please expand a report with a description of what is wrong. If it throws an error, show the error. If it lists line numbers, indicate what line it is. If it is not a crash, explain how it doesn't do what you expect, so we get a glimpse of intended behavior. (A program only gives real behavior, and since you have a problem with it, that is not the same as intended behavior, but only you know the latter.)

In this case, I can't do much, code looks ok at first sight, except for the last line, where it misses at least one line of code. Since it's incomplete, I can't run it, and you haven't supplied an error description at all, so I don't have a starting point.

As in a lesson about debugging, what do you make from the error message? What do you think the problem is? What have you tried?

it (the program) focuses alot on indentation, so I've been fixing that alot. man I miss line numbers. But anyway, I'm trying to take some of your advice and not rely so heavily on having the whole thing be under def methods, using while loops more, but I think I may need to go back to the book about the correct way to use while loops and define functions/methods? the problem I keep having is defining stats, then defining user interface, which seems to work, then I have the core of the program (which won't run because I haven't done the define and use method properly) - which is the if elif - choices and resource trading which are both in the same section and I need them both to work at the moment either they both work but don't loop properly ie the program runs but the loop doesn't go back to choices only lets you reenter your resource trading choice within the selected choice (ie 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) or I get error messages.

error message: >>> t
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<pyshell#2>", line 1, in <module>
    t
NameError: name 't' is not defined

the error I'm struggling with is it doesn't print anything on the screen when the program starts.