Objects list : How to use it?

[megamarc]

Yes! That's the way to go :-)

You usually will manage two lists:

• The map "landmarks" list. This is the data you load with TLN_LoadObjectList(). Those are the special points in your map (spawn points, event triggers, etc). It is more or less immutable (static) as it covers special points on he map.
  
• The active actors list: this one starts empty, but it's highly dynamic. When you spawn something (enemy, bullet, smoke effect, whatever), you add it there. And when you delete something, remove from this list.
  

Sometimes you'll need feedback from the actors list to the landmarks list: for example, when a spawn point creates an enemy at a specific place, and the player defeats the enemy, you will have to disable (or delete) that spawn point. If not, the enemy will resurrect each time the player goes to that zone again. This is not what you expect: once an enemy is defeated, it's gone forever. You can also remove the spawn point as soon as it spawns the enemy, but there's the risk that the player "kills" the enemy just letting it go offscreen. If the player hasn't legally killed the enemy, it should respawn again if the player goes back. 

I have this effect into account in my sample project "python platformer". When the player kills an enemy -removing it from the actors list-, the spawn point that created it is also removed from the "object list".