Player able to perform an attack outside of attack state

PhantomFox128

I got an attack script for my player that has a bunch of attacks in it, including a simple, three-hit attack chain. Looks a bit like this:

extends State

var currentAttack = null;

func enter(msg := {}) -> void:
	owner.isAttacking = true;
	if msg.has("standing_light"):
		currentAttack = ("Light1");
	if msg.has("standing_heavy"):
		currentAttack = ("Heavy1");

func physics_update(delta: float) -> void:
	owner.velocity.x = 0;
	
	if currentAttack == ("Light1"):
		owner.animState.travel("AttackLight1");
	if Input.is_action_just_pressed("light_attack"):
		if currentAttack == ("Light1"):
			owner.animState.travel("AttackLight2");
			currentAttack = ("Light2");
		else:
			owner.animState.travel("AttackLight3");
			currentAttack = ("Light3");
	
	if currentAttack == ("Heavy1"):
		owner.animState.travel("AttackHeavy1");
	if Input.is_action_just_pressed("heavy_attack") and currentAttack == ("Heavy1"):
		owner.animState.travel("AttackHeavy2");
		currentAttack = ("Heavy2");

For some context, the player script has an 'isAttacking' bool that gets set to true when the state becomes active and each attack changes what the 'currentAttack' value is (this is supposed to help with combos and allow me to see exactly which attack is currently active for debugging). Everything seems to work fine so far save for one problem I'm having: if the light attack button is pressed during any attack that's not part of the light combo, the 'currentAttack' value gets switched to 'Light3.' The attack that was playing plays through and the attack state ends like normal, but then as soon as the player goes back to their original state, the 'Light1' attack plays, which it shouldn't be doing, and since they're no longer in the attack state, that allows them to move and jump around and whatnot while the attack is playing.

I'm pretty sure it has to do with how the light combo chain is organized, but whenever I try to move the other attacks around, it messes up something. I've tried doing a nested if statement and giving each attack its own if statement, but both of these completely skip over the second attack, and a few other methods I've tried wouldn't allow the chain to go past the first attack. None of this happens with the heavy attack combo above either, it's just the light combo chain.

I'm at a bit of a loss on how to fix this, so any insight is appreciated! I know this might have been a little hard to explain, so if anything needs to be clarified or needs more info, let me know.

pkowal1982

First of all, please format your code according to GDScript guidelines. It will increase your code's readibility, if not for you for sure for others so they will be more willing to help you. Give it a try, rename variables to snake case, remove unnecessary parentheses and semicolons.

Think of changing enter func signature to: func enter(msg := "") -> void:

As for breaking heavy attack chain, that's because you check the attack type in line 17 and then (assuming you are in Heavy1 or Heavy2) after you're sure that condition on line 18 is not met execute block starting in line 21.

PhantomFox128

Came back to this after a couple of days with the solution. It's a simple matter of putting the second attack in an if statement, giving the third attack an elif statement and checking the current attack:

	if currentAttack == ("Light1"):
		owner.animState.travel("AttackLight1");
	if Input.is_action_just_pressed("light_attack") and currentAttack == ("Light1"):
		owner.animState.travel("AttackLight2");
		currentAttack = ("Light2");
	elif Input.is_action_just_pressed("light_attack") and currentAttack == ("Light2"):
		owner.animState.travel("AttackLight3");
		currentAttack = ("Light3");

Again, it's simple, never noticed before, I know better now!

PhantomFox128

@pkowal1982 said: First of all, please format your code according to GDScript guidelines. It will increase your code's readibility, if not for you for sure for others so they will be more willing to help you. Give it a try, rename variables to snake case, remove unnecessary parentheses and semicolons.

Think of changing enter func signature to: func enter(msg := "") -> void:

Please understand that many users are going to be coming from different programming backgrounds and what may be considered "standard" here, is probably normal for them and if it works, it works. I come from using Unity and a lot of how I code things is not only fine there, but works here as well and plenty of other users do it the same way or different from the link you posted. It might not be GDScript "standard," but it works fine, and it's really not that different or hard to read. (For the record, in Godot, I use snake case in my actual code, I just have a tendency to post it differently online.)

As for the enter function, that's how GDQuest implemented the state machine I'm using and it doesn't play nice with normal strings (believe me, I've tried). The current way has worked out so far, I see no reason to change it.

On a final note, while I appreciate someone taking the time to post some suggestions, these have nothing to do with the question I proposed and are completely irrelevant in this case. Please don't do that unless it absolutely contributes to solving the problem at hand.

pkowal1982

@PhantomFox128 I know that people come from different backgrounds, but sticking to coding conventions will make your code cleaner and cleaner code will allow you to solve problems quicker. I hope other part of my answer helped you to find the bug. Have a nice day. :)