Changing States / Finite State Machine

thatoneguy117

Hey guys! I've just started using GS and I think its awesome! I've been lurking for a bit and I just created my account and this is my first post!

Well, anyway, basically I have a couple of states controlled by changing a attribute.

I have an object that passes over 240 and it changes the attribute to 2

When it = 2 it moves to the object

When its under 240 it changes it to 1

When it = 1 it repels

I have a couple of other ones, but thats the main idea.

Basically I want to know how I can repeat these commands. When it = 1 or 2 it works fine, but once. I would like to know how to make it so when its always above 240 how I can run the command multiple times. Like run it every 3 seconds or something like that. I've been stuck on this for AWHILE so any help would be greatly appreciated thanks!

ThatOneGuy

thatoneguy117

Anybody?

thatoneguy117

Anybody???

Rob2

have you not thought about using a timer behaviour?

thatoneguy117

I tried doing that.

I had when attribute = 1

every 3 s -> move to

and I had every 3 sec when attribute = 1 -> move to, but that didn't work either.

Literally it just didn't do anything.

scitunes

http://gamesalad.com/game/play/76893

chosenonestudios

thatoneguy117

scitunes said:
http://gamesalad.com/game/play/76893

Thanks Scitunes, I'll check it out.

thatoneguy117

For my game I need to control whats going on and I have more than 2 states.

Also the second actor that actually uses these commands below 240 and above 240 doesn't use them all the time.

But basically I'm just asking once a attribute is active how can I continue to use these commands.

Example: when attribute is above 240 move to, but move to will only work once as the attribute is active. It will work again after the attribute is flipped off and turned back on, but how can I make it so it will continually run every couple of seconds as the attribute command is true?

scitunes

create an integer attribute called switch set it to 0

Timer Every Blah seconds
change self.switch to (self.switch+1)%2

This will cause it to alternate between 0 and 1

Then have a rule

When self.switch = 0
Do blah blah blah
Otherwise
Do blah blah blah

CodeMonkey

You can give it a state 0 that it is not moving or has finished completing its task. And the rule that checks which state to send it to, have those also check if the state is 0 and change the state to something else.

thatoneguy117

CodeMonkey said:
You can give it a state 0 that it is not moving or has finished completing its task. And the rule that checks which state to send it to, have those also check if the state is 0 and change the state to something else.

So after it finished its task change it to state 0?

CodeMonkey

yep. though you would need to decide how it knows when that task is done.

thatoneguy117

Thanks CodeMonkey, I'll check it out

thatoneguy117

Ugh, CodeMonkey I can't get this to work at all. I might have misunderstood you though. Could you maybe go into more detail? Could anybody else help me with this?

thatoneguy117

thatoneguy117

Anybody?

amigoni

Hi,
I had a similar problem with one of my games.
I created an integer called flying state within the actor. I then had a set of rules that governed the behaviour of 6 different flying states. For example
State 0 - Don't Move
State 1 - Move Down
State 2 - Move Up
State 4 - Move in a Wave
etc.

Each of these states was a rule that would have as one of the conditions Flying State = the corrisponding flying state number.

So for example I had my character move down as State 1. Once it touched the ground I would have a rule to change the flying state to 2 which would make it move up. Then in flying state 2 I had a rule with a timer that after 1 second it would change the flying state to 3 so move in a wave.

Hope it helps

amigoni

Hi,
I had a similar problem with one of my games.
I created an integer called flying state within the actor. I then had a set of rules that governed the behaviour of 6 different flying states. For example
State 0 - Don't Move
State 1 - Move Down
State 2 - Move Up
State 3 - Move in a Wave
etc.

Each of these states was a rule that would have as one of the conditions Flying State = the corrisponding flying state number.

So for example I had my character move down as State 1. Once it touched the ground I would have a rule to change the flying state to 2 which would make it move up. Then in flying state 2 I had a rule with a timer that after 1 second it would change the flying state to 3 so move in a wave.

Hope it helps

thatoneguy117

Hey, thanks amigoni. Thats how I have mine set up to except I can't have it changing states preset. I need it to be dynamic. Any other suggestions? You or anybody else?

amigoni

Do you mean that you want it to change states randomly? If so you need a random generator separate from the actor.

thatoneguy117

amigoni said:
Do you mean that you want it to change states randomly? If so you need a random generator separate from the actor.

Sorry, what I mean is I need it to change based off a set of commands I.E.

When attribute is above 240 change to state 1
When attribute is below 240 change to state 2
Etc.

The thing is I need it to be able to run the commands multiple times without having to change the attribute.

CodeMonkey Helped me with this and almost got it working.

I got it so it would change to state 0 and reload back to the other ones and this worked GREAT.

One problem though after the object that is chasing (state 1) change x and y coordinates via change attribute it no longer worked. So I need something that takes this into consideration with the other commands also, Thanks.

amigoni

Sorry but I need something more concrete to help you what are the parameters?

It seems that all you have to do is have a rule.

if is above 240 change attribute self.state to 1
otherwise change attribute self.state to 2

thatoneguy117

Thats what I did, but the problem is if it stays above 240 for awhile that state will only work once, unless you change the state again, but I need it to work multiple times.

amigoni

It makes no sense. Why would it only work once and why is it time dependent. If you can explain it another way or in more detail I might be able to help you.

It should make no difference how long it stays about 240.

thatoneguy117

I'm not sure why, but codemonkey obviously knows this too. That's why he told me too clear out the states of the object.

Sorry, maybe I'm explaining this really bad, but I'll post some images when I get back to my house. I should be back in a hour and twenty.

Again, thanks for your help

thatoneguy117

New, updated thread here: http://gamesalad.com/forums/topic.php?id=9999#post-72654