2D top down RPG animation architecture problem

Question

I have a problem with my sprite animations right now. I have different animations and sequences for each character so an specific archer might do a ranged attack in which he just plays one animation and shoots an arrow at the enemy. The other might be melee and has to move close to the enemy while having an animation for that and when he reaches the enemy do its attack animation and return back to its original position also having its own animation. And I could go on and on for maybe like bosses etc.

As you can see there are many possible animation sequences for quite a variety of characters. My question is what is the best way to program this into my game. Should I have a base class for the battler which has all the common methods and than inherent each character from that class with its own attack sequences? Because that is what I thought of first but I'm affraid its the wrong approach since I will have many classes doing the same kind of sequences. Or maybe should I create a sequence base class and each different animation sequence will inherent from that class. Than play the sequence on the base Battler class?

I'm developing the game in SFML C++ and here is a gif of the battle screen right now so you can get an idea of how a battle is in my game.

Battle scene of my game

Answer 1

The animations and logic for attacks can be broken down into individual logical units and then sequenced via data files. For example, you might have code like this:

AdvanceBehavior(entity, target, speed)
FallbackBehavior(entity, target, speed)
SoundBehavior(entity, sound_id)
AnimateBehavior(entity, anim_id, speed)

and then you can have a data file that specifies how attacks are sequenced:

{
  {
    'name': "fire arrow",
    'sequence': [
      {'id': 'sound', 'sound_id': 'twang.wav'},
      {'id': 'animate', 'anim_id': 'elf_fire_arrow.anim', 'speed': 1.0},
    ]
  },
  {
    'name': "fast strike",
    'sequence': [
      {'id': 'animate', 'anim_id': 'elf_jump.anim', 'speed': 2.0},
      {'id': 'sound', 'sound_id': 'jump.wav'},
      {'id': 'advance', 'speed': 5.0},
      {'id': 'animate', 'anim_id': 'elf_smack.anim', 'speed': 2.0},
      {'id': 'sound', 'sound_id': 'thwack.wav'},
      {'id': 'fallback', 'speed': 1.0},
      {'id': 'animate', 'anim_id': 'elf_jump.anim', 'speed': 1.0},
    ]
  }
}

Your code should contain logic. Your data should contain configuration.

Answer 2

Should I have a base class for the battler which has all the common methods and than inherent each character from that class with its own attack sequences?

If you have a lot of battler types, I don't think you would necessarily want them all to be their separate class if they are very similar to each other otherwise. One approach would be to have them all be of a single type, Battler, with lists of abilities and animations and sprites and what-not attached to them after construction.

Instead of using separate child classes' constructors to then construct the different types of battlers, you could create simple functions that construct a suitable battler for you instead. For example:

Battler createBattlerType1()
    {
    Battler battler;

    //Add animations, abilities, etc.

    return battler;
    }

Or maybe should I create a sequence base class and each different animation sequence will inherent from that class. Than play the sequence on the base Battler class?

To some extent, that sounds like a sensible thing to do to me, however, again I don't think you necessarily need to mix in inheritance at all. If a "sequence of animations" is simply a list of animations to be played one after another, you don't necessarily even need to create a new datatype for it: you could just store it in, say, an array or an std::vector. Then, each "battler" instance could have it's own list of animation sequences appointed to it.