Finding and reading a script on a mouse-selected GameObject

Question

I can't work out how to access and read changes in a script of a gameObject that has been selected. The script selects enemy objects with right mouse button and player objects with left mouse button. I want to be able to make the enemy null and deselect it when its health reaches zero but I cannot get past the

"NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object"

problem. I have commented out the section of code where it should be accessing the enemy's vitals script to see what its health is.

Here is the script I'm using:

public class CameraDetectClick : MonoBehaviour
{
        Ray ray;
        RaycastHit hit;
        public GameObject currentlySelectedPlayer;
        public GameObject currentlySelectedFoe;
        public EnemyVitals enemyVitals;
        public bool selected;

        void Start()
        {
                enemyVitals = GetComponent<EnemyVitals>();
        }

        void Update()
        {
                if(Input.GetMouseButton(0))
                {
                        ray = camera.ScreenPointToRay(Input.mousePosition);

                        if(Physics.Raycast(ray, out hit, Mathf.Infinity) && hit.collider.transform.FindChild("SelectedPlayer"))
                        {
                                currentlySelectedPlayer = hit.collider.transform.FindChild ("SelectedPlayer").gameObject;
                                currentlySelectedPlayer.active = true;
                                selected = true;

                        }
                        else if (Physics.Raycast(ray, out hit, Mathf.Infinity) && (hit.collider.name == "Ground"))
                        {
                                if(currentlySelectedPlayer != null)
                                {
                                        currentlySelectedPlayer.active = false;
                                        currentlySelectedPlayer = null;
                                        selected = false;
                                }
                        }
            }
                if(Input.GetMouseButton(1))
                {
                        ray = camera.ScreenPointToRay(Input.mousePosition);

                        if(Physics.Raycast(ray, out hit, Mathf.Infinity) && hit.collider.transform.FindChild("SelectedFoe"))
                        {
                                currentlySelectedFoe = hit.collider.transform.FindChild ("SelectedFoe").gameObject;
                                currentlySelectedFoe.active = true;
                                selected = true;
                                //here, the beasty foe has been selected, so I need to grab and monitor its vitals script so I
                                //can see when it drops to zero. This does not work as it says I need to set it to an instance of an object.
                                enemyVitals = currentlySelectedFoe.GetComponent<EnemyVitals>();
                                if(enemyVitals.currentBeastHealth == 0)
                                {
                                        currentlySelectedFoe.active = false;
                                        currentlySelectedFoe = null;
                                        selected = false;
                                }
                        }
                        else if (Physics.Raycast(ray, out hit, Mathf.Infinity) && hit.collider.name == "Ground")
                        {
                                if(currentlySelectedFoe != null)
                                {
                                        currentlySelectedFoe.active = false;
                                        currentlySelectedFoe = null;
                                        selected = false;
                                }
                        }
                }

        }
}

Answer 1

The exception says there is no 'EnemyVitals' script attached on the related object. That's -probably- because you're trying to get that script from an inner game object which the ray hits.

You can get it from the root element with something like this:

component = targetObject.transform.root.GetComponentInChildren<ComponentName>();