Set value when ScriptableObject is created

Question

In Unity, is it possible to automatically set a value when a ScriptableObject is created?

In the following example, I have a parent class, PickupData, and a child class, MoneyPickupData. Whenever an SO of the child class is created (via right-click in the Editor), I would like it to automatically set its type to EPickupType.Money.

I have tried using the Awake method, and I have also tried using the OnEnable method.

What I find is that when the SO is created, the value will be set to Money for a moment while I type in the name of the SO. But as soon as I press Enter and the SO finishes creating itself, the value gets reset to the first value in the enum.

How can I make it so that the value gets set to Money and does not reset?

Parent class

public class PickupData : ScriptableObject
{
    // The type of this pickup
    public EPickupType type;
}

Child class

public class MoneyPickupData : PickupData
{
    public void Awake()
    {
        // Set the type of this pickup
        type = EPickupType.Money;
    }
}

Answer 1

The answer was sort of included in my question. The problem was the resetting. So I checked the Unity docs and found the Reset method:

Reset is called when the user hits the Reset button in the Inspector's context menu or when adding the component the first time.

This means that the change I make in Awake gets overridden by this automatic call to Reset.

The solution for me was to change Awake to Reset.

public class MoneyPickupData : PickupData
{
    // Reset is called when creating the SO in the Editor
    public void Reset()
    {
        // Set the type of this pickup
        type = EPickupType.Money;
    }
}

Answer 2

In such a case I would probably rather go for a property and do

public abstract class PickupData : ScriptableObject
{
    // The type of this pickup
    public abstract EPickupType type { get; }
}

and then

public class MoneyPickupData : PickupData
{
    // has to override this
    public override EPickupType type =>  EPickupType.Money;
}

so there is actually no way for any Inspector or runtime script to ever change this value.

---

If you really need to support both you could still do it like e.g.

public class PickupData : ScriptableObject
{
    [Tooltip("Default type selection, unless the type property is explicitly implemented")]
    [SerializeField] protected EPickupType _type;

    // The type of this pickup
    public virtual EPickupType type => _type;
}

public class MoneyPickupData : PickupData
{
    // doesn't need to override this but can
    public override EPickupType type =>  EPickupType.Money;
}

which would of course be slightly uncanny because it would still show up in the Inspector but your derived type could decide to ignore this and overrule the property with a fixed type.