Statemachine instead?

[straywalker]

Is there a reason why a statemachine pattern is not used for actions instead of a flag?

[bixarrio]

The method Hugo used is a valid state machine. I personally don’t like switch statements so I went with a simple Action delegate method instead. I think building a full state machine to achieve what we did may have been overkill. Perhaps Hugo just opted for the simpler solution. But there’s no reason why you couldn’t replace it with a state machine if that’s what you’d prefer

[Brian_Trotter]

State Machines come in many shapes and sizes. Hugo actually does use simple state machines (an switch on enum is a valid State Machine) in several of the classes, albeit a very simple State Machine).

While you can replace this with a more formal state machine style, I caution against adding too much complication if it’s not truly needed.

[straywalker]

Thanks,

I am more of an enum/switch-person when it comes to few states with some limited scaling - just to be able to see the states clearly and get a good view on enter/exit. But for learning purposes i will look into the Action delegate alternative - as suggested.

[bixarrio]

The Action delegate is simple, really. You just have an Action that executes every frame, and you change it out with whichever code (state) should run. Here’s a simple example

private Action _currentState;

private void Awake()
{
    _currentState = IdleState; // set the initial state
}

private void Update()
{
    _currentState?.Invoke(); // execute the state
}

private void IdleState()
{
    // Do nothing
}

private void AimState()
{
    // Do aim stuff

    // switch state if needed
    _stateTimer -= Time.delatTime;
    if (_stateTimer <= 0f)
    {
        _stateTimer = 0.1f; // shooting state time
        _currentState = ShootState;
    }
}

private void ShootState()
{
    // Do shoot stuff

    // switch state if needed
    _stateTimer -= Time.delatTime;
    if (_stateTimer <= 0f)
    {
        ActionComplete();
        _currentState = IdleState;
    }
}

public override void TakeAction(GridPosition gridPosition, Action onActionComplete)
{
    _targetUnit = LevelGrid.Instance.GetUnitAtGridPosition(gridPosition);
    canShootBullet = true;
    ActionStart(onActionComplete);

    _stateTimer = 1f;
    _currentState = AimState;
}

[straywalker]

This was very good and simple! I think this is the end to my enum adventures…!