Help needed for finding functions to hook

Hi, I'm new to hacking so I'm afraid that I might be looking at this whole process the wrong way. Basically, I want to read the local players data, other players data, visible enemy data, and tile/map data. I'm not trying to cheat, I just want to be able to identify values and hook functions that will give me access to those values so that I can read them. Anyhow, here's what I think my process should be:

1. Identify value in Cheat Engine (such as the local players HP).
2. Find what accesses the address of that value and view its assembly code.
3. Identify what function the assembly code is in with Cheat Engine's mono disector.
4. Try and figure out what the function does and, more importantly, identify its parameters.
5. If I find out that a parameter is something relevant (like a player object or something), hook the function with C++ (not sure how, I'm still looking into how it's done).

So am I thinking of it wrong? How do people seem to find functions to hook so easily? And are there any better ways to achieve what I want? I know it's a big question, so any help is greatly appreciated