Yes, use blitz arrays within a type if the amount of child types is finite. For 'infinite' type lists, the pointer chain is the only way to go.
I hope you didn't misunderstand what I mean about these pointer chains. If you, say, remove a weapon object, it doesn't break the chain. It's just that one of the objects in the weapons chain is pointing at null. The weapons and the list of weapons are completely different types.
Deleting objects from the pointer chain is a bit difficult (link of the last object has to be changed before deleting). As I was implementing this into my game, I noticed that simply deleting the whole list and recreating it from scratch was faster than modifying it. It of course depends hugely on what are you using it for.
I hope you didn't misunderstand what I mean about these pointer chains. If you, say, remove a weapon object, it doesn't break the chain. It's just that one of the objects in the weapons chain is pointing at null. The weapons and the list of weapons are completely different types.
Deleting objects from the pointer chain is a bit difficult (link of the last object has to be changed before deleting). As I was implementing this into my game, I noticed that simply deleting the whole list and recreating it from scratch was faster than modifying it. It of course depends hugely on what are you using it for.