To global variable or not to global variable?

This question is for those with formal programming knowledge.

I know that it is advisable to limit the number of global variable, that said I have a question on how to handle a situation.

I have 10 turrets, each turret can be level 1-10.

The game is multiplayer, and loads via ajax the opponents turrets and level.

All good so far, but a level 1 turret fires a bullet with 5 damage per second (dps). A level 10 turret fires a bullet with 100 dps.

Each Turret has to have the dps information loaded some how.

My question revolves around the "On Created" condition (or another if someone knows a better way).

Possible solutions:

1. An Event sheet that has ALL of the turret information as global variables. This works fine and have used it before.

2. Put all of the information in the turret (or a new sprite as a placeholder and keep things "clean"). (Use instance Variables)

Anyway, just looking for a clean way of handling this, because in reality I have 100 turrets.

Thanks in advance!

I like to use a Dictionary for things like this

For example, the keys could be the level of the turret, and the value could be the DPS

Keys | Values

1 | 5

2 | 15

3 | 30

4 | 50

10 | 100

If one uses a dictionary, are you loading it via a json? At the start of a layer? Putting (loading) the dictionary information in an separate event sheet to keep it straight?

I may be asking obvious questions, just never have found a good way of handling this.

About to have 100 variables, and trying to have a good solution. Gonna be programming this part in the morning.

10 building types x 10 levels dps, same for hps...so 200.

I would use instance variables on the turrets (and buildings and other unit types) so that every unit knows its level, dps, health, cooldown, time to next level, etc.

then I would store all the values for the different levels in an array.

I sometimes use a dictionary with the array to keep the code easier to read.

so, the dictionary might look like the: turrets | 0, buildings | 1, tanks | 2, ...

and then to see what a level 4 turret dps should be:

dps = array.at(dictionary.get("turrets"), 4)

the dictionary and array can be read from local storage, or read from a project file or from a database using AJAX.

Thanks for the input.

Decided to load it all from a json via ajax. Allows for ease of writing it via a spreadsheet and a quick load on start.

I'll just use a function to load sprite details (dps, hps, etc) on ajax complete (ie, once the player gets the base information from the server.)

Thanks much!