RPG Equipped Item System

Question

I'm making a 2d rpg with libgdx and java. I have an Inventory class with an Array of Items, and now I want to be able to equip items onto the player. Would it be more managable to do

1. have every item have an "equipped" boolean flag
2. have an "equipped" array in the player class

3. have individual equipped fields in player class, e.g.

   private Item equippedWeapon;
   private Item equippedArmor;
   public void equipWeapon(Item weapon){ equippedWeapon = weapon; }

Or just another way completely? Thanks.

Answer 1

There is no correct answer. However, I believe design wise there are better ways to do this. Personally, I would use the 3rd method you described. It would allow you to easily switch out each kind of item. And, whenever calculating damage or some similar action you could have code such as:

if(equippedWeapon != null)
    Damage = BaseDamage + equippedWeapon.DamageModifier
else 
    Damage = BaseDamage

I'm assuming there is a better way to do what I just wrote but you understand what I mean. Just comment if you have any more questions or want some form of clarification.

Answer 2

The best solution will obviously be whatever works for your system, but this is how I've done it in the past:

public class Equipment
{
    WornItem[] wornEquipment = new WornItem[EquipmentSlot.values().length];
    public void equip(WornItem wornItem)
    {
        wornEquipment[wornItem.equipmentSlot.ordinal()] = wornItem;
    }

    public WornItem get(EquipmentSlot equipmentSlot)
    {
        return wornEquipment[equipmentSlot.ordinal()];
    }
}
public class WornItem extends Item
{
    EquipmentSlot equipmentSlot;
    //Item's properties here
    //id
    //name
    //etc.
}

public enum EquipmentSlot 
{
    Weapon, Head, Torso, Legs
}

So if you want to get your weapon, you do:

Weapon weapon = (Weapon) equipment.get(EquipmentSlot.Weapon)

my inventory class is a list of Items

List<Item> items

and Weapon extends WornItem which extends Item