Why does my character controller not move?

Question

I want my character to move based on which cube it has collided with last. It gets variable value from another script. But it only moves forward, the others (although they print value) do not move at all. What are the errors?

 var speed:float = 0.1;
 var direction:Vector3 = Vector3.zero;
 var character:CharacterController;
 var front:Vector3;
 var back:Vector3;
 var right:Vector3;
 var left:Vector3;
 
 function Start()
 {
     character = this.GetComponent(CharacterController);
     front = Vector3(0,0,0.05);
     back = Vector3(0,0,-0.05);
     left = Vector3(-0.05,0,0);
     right = Vector3(0.05,0,0);
 }
 
 function Update()
 {
     if (CollComp.dirVar)
     {
         Debug.Log(CollComp.dirVar);
     }
     switch(CollComp.dirVar)
     {
         case(1):
         direction = Vector3.zero;
         direction = front;
         break;
         
         case(2):
         direction = Vector3.zero;    
         direction = right;
         
         case(3):
         direction = Vector3.zero;
         direction = back;
         
         case (4):
         direction = Vector3.zero;
         direction = left;
         
         default:
         direction = Vector3.zero;
         break;
 
     }
     character.Move(direction * speed * Time.deltaTime);
 }

Answer 1

I suspect that the character is moving, but as fast as a wounded snail! The actual speed is 0.05 * 0.1, or 0.005 units per second! It would be better to use unit vectors for the 4 directions and adjust only the public variable speed - like this:

 var speed: float = 5.0;
 var direction:Vector3 = Vector3.zero;
 var character:CharacterController;
 private var front:Vector3;
 private var back:Vector3;
 private var right:Vector3;
 private var left:Vector3;
 
 function Start()
 {
     character = this.GetComponent(CharacterController);
     front = Vector3.forward;
     back = -Vector3.forward;
     left = -Vector3.right;
     right = Vector3.right;
 }
 
 function Update()
 {
     if (CollComp.dirVar)
     {
        Debug.Log(CollComp.dirVar);
     }
     switch(CollComp.dirVar)
     {
        case(1):
        direction = front;
        break;
 
        case(2):
        direction = right;
 
        case(3):
        direction = back;
 
        case (4):
        direction = left;
 
        default:
        direction = Vector3.zero;
        break;
 
     }
     character.Move(direction * speed * Time.deltaTime);
 }

I also removed some unused lines of code (no need to zero direction before assigning the desired direction) and changed the default value of speed - but be aware that the Editor has the memory of an elephant, and will keep the old speed value until you modify it manually in the Inspector.

Why does my character controller not move?

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