How do I call this IEnumerator in unity c#

Question

So I am trying to Increment my total resources every 3 seconds by my PTick variables I tried using it via an IEnumerator and calling it inside the the start method but it only runs once so I tried it in the update and it runs as quickly as it can. is there any way I can get it just to run every 3 seconds. im happy to try alternatives so long as I can get it running every 3 seconds.

this is the script That I'm trying to get working

using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;

public class Resources : MonoBehaviour {

private int foodPtick;
private int PowerPtick;
private int HappinessPtick;
private int MoneyPtick;
private int PopulationPtick;

public int foodTotal;
public int PowerTotal;
public int HappinessTotal;
public int MoneyTotal;
public int PopulationTotal;

void Start () {
    StartCoroutine(ResourceTickOver(3.0f));
}

void Update () {

}

IEnumerator ResourceTickOver(float waitTime){
    yield return new WaitForSeconds(waitTime);
    foodTotal += foodPtick;
    PowerTotal += PowerPtick;
    HappinessTotal += HappinessPtick;
    MoneyTotal += MoneyPtick;
    PopulationTotal += PopulationPtick;
    Debug.Log("Resources" + "food" + foodTotal + "power" + PowerTotal + "Happiness" + HappinessTotal + "Money" + MoneyTotal + "Population" + PopulationTotal);

}

public void ChangeResource(int food,int power, int happy, int money,int pop)
{
    Debug.Log("Old Per Tick" + "food" + foodPtick + "power" + PowerPtick + "Happiness" + HappinessPtick + "Money" + MoneyPtick + "Power" + PopulationPtick);
    foodPtick += food;
    PowerPtick += power;
    HappinessPtick += happy;
    MoneyPtick += money;
    PopulationPtick += pop;
    Debug.Log("New Per Tick" + "food" + foodPtick + "power" + PowerPtick + "Happiness" + HappinessPtick + "Money" + MoneyPtick + "Power" + PopulationPtick);
}

Solution 1

It looks like you aren't keeping your Coroutine alive after you have called it in Start. The call to StartCoroutine will execute once then return, so without a loop of some sort you will only have one call to the coroutine body.

Enclosing the yield statement in a loop will give you one iteration per the waitTime specified. In the Example below you can see that the console logs timestamp updates once every 3 seconds.

using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;

public class NewBehaviourScript : MonoBehaviour {

    // Use this for initialization
    void Start () {
        StartCoroutine(ResourceTickOver(3.0f));
    }

    // Update is called once per frame
    void Update () {

    }

    IEnumerator ResourceTickOver(float waitTime)
    {
        while (true) // Do this as long this script is running.
        {
            print (Time.time);
            yield return new WaitForSeconds(waitTime);
            print (Time.time);

            // Update Resources inside this loop or call something that will.

        }
    }
}

Solution 2

First way using coroutine:

void Start () {
    StartCoroutine(ResourceTickOver(3.0f));
}

IEnumerator ResourceTickOver(float waitTime){
    while(true){
       yield return new WaitForSeconds(waitTime);
       foodTotal += foodPtick;
       PowerTotal += PowerPtick;
       HappinessTotal += HappinessPtick;
       MoneyTotal += MoneyPtick;
       PopulationTotal += PopulationPtick;
       Debug.Log("Resources" + "food" + foodTotal + "power" + PowerTotal + "Happiness" + HappinessTotal + "Money" + MoneyTotal + "Population" + PopulationTotal);
   }
}

second way using Update:

void Update(){
    timer += Time.deltaTime;
    if(timer > waitTime){
       timer = 0f;
       foodTotal += foodPtick;
       PowerTotal += PowerPtick;
       HappinessTotal += HappinessPtick;
       MoneyTotal += MoneyPtick;
       PopulationTotal += PopulationPtick;
       Debug.Log("Resources" + "food" + foodTotal + "power" + PowerTotal + "Happiness" + HappinessTotal + "Money" + MoneyTotal + "Population" + PopulationTotal);
   }
}

third way with InvokeRepeating:

void Start(){
    InvokeRepeating("Method", 3f, 3f);
}

void Method(){
     foodTotal += foodPtick;
     PowerTotal += PowerPtick;
     HappinessTotal += HappinessPtick;
     MoneyTotal += MoneyPtick;
     PopulationTotal += PopulationPtick;
     Debug.Log("Resources" + "food" + foodTotal + "power" + PowerTotal + "Happiness" + HappinessTotal + "Money" + MoneyTotal + "Population" + PopulationTotal);
}