Flash Game Score not working AS3, please help? - actionscript-3

Question

So Im creating a game and all I wanted to add was a counter that increments constantly until a player loses the game.
I created my score class and it looks like this:
package
{
import flash.display.MovieClip;
import flash.display.Stage;
import flash.text.TextField;
import flash.events.Event;
import flash.utils.Timer;
import flash.events.TimerEvent;
public class Score extends MovieClip
{
public var second:Number = 0;
public var timer:Timer = new Timer(10);
private var stageRef:Stage;
public function Score(stageRef:Stage)
{
x = 537.95;
y = 31.35;
this.stageRef = stageRef;
timer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, clock);
timer.start();
}
function clock(evt:TimerEvent):void
{
second += 1;
scoreDisplay.text = String("Score: " +second);
}
}
}
and this is my engine class that adds it to the stage:
package {
//list of our imports these are classes we need in order to
//run our application.
import flash.display.MovieClip;
import flash.display.Stage;
import flash.events.Event;
public class Engine extends MovieClip{
private var enemyList:Array = new Array();
private var ourBoat:Boat;
private var score:Score;
public function Engine() : void{
//create an object of our ship from the Ship class
ourBoat = new Boat(stage);
score = new Score(stage);
//add it to the display list
stage.addChild(ourBoat);
stage.addChild(score);
So that creates a timer on the stage and continuously increments, but when I compile, I get no errors and my timmer for some reason doesn't work, it just displays random numbers, please help! If there is a better way of doing this please enlighten me.

Answer 1

I'm assuming scoreDisplay is a named Object on stage. You may find it useful to add trace()s to the script in each function that is called. That way you can see which ones are being called correctly. For example trace("Engine Instantiated."); and trace("Timer Event Received"); will tell if your class is being instantiated correctly. If it is and the trigger is not working you know your issue is between these two points. Then work your way toward the middle of the code execution until you find the problem.
You could also add an event listener to the stage for enter frame events and use that to trigger your count function. This event is always broadcast, so using should use less resources than adding a timer.

Answer 2

Are you sure scoreDisplay is large enough? Your number would increase by 100 every second, which if your textfield is only 2 characters long you will see random numbers.

Answer 3

First, you do not need to pass the stage class to MovieClip childs, once they're added to stage, you can access the stage with the this.stage property.
Second, the Timer class delay parameter is described as following in the documentation:
delay:Number — The delay between timer events, in milliseconds. A
delay lower than 20 milliseconds is not recommended. Timer frequency
is limited to 60 frames per second, meaning a delay lower than 16.6
milliseconds causes runtime problems.
Therefore, if you are really tracking seconds, your timer should be :
public var timer:Timer = new Timer(1000);
EDIT:
Here's how I would implement the score you described on the comment:
public class Score extends MovieClip
{
public var second:Number = 0;
var pointsPerSecond : Number = 10;
private var stageRef:Stage;
public function Score(stageRef:Stage)
{
x = 537.95;
y = 31.35;
this.stageRef = stageRef;
this.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, onEnterFrame);
}
function clock(evt:Event):void
{
second += pointsPerSecond/stage.frameRate; // Note that if the game is running slow (flash cant keep the frameRate you asked for), the score will also grow slowly
scoreDisplay.text = String("Score: " +second);
}
}