Need Help Understanding and Implementing a State Machine for a Combat System

Help and Feedback Scripting Support
1

Hello! Recently, someone suggested that I should use a state machine for my combat system. However, I don’t really understand how a state machine works or what it actually represents in practice. I’m also not sure how to design or implement one for a combat system.

Could someone please explain the basic concept of a state machine, why it is useful in game combat systems, and how I can start creating one step by step? Examples or simple explanations would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance for your help!

2

State machines basically tell the npc how it should and when to behave. It’s much better than handling multiple different possible edge cases.

A basic example would be

Listen for “Idle” state → If not state “Attacking” then → Free roam
Listen for “Attack” state → If state “Idle” then → Find and attack the nearest player

3

Well, then for my combat system I can set a string attribute on the character called State.

When the player is attacking, it will be set to “Attacking”.

I can also define a list of transitions that determine which states the player can switch between, for example:

Idle → Attacking → Stunned

Attacking → Idle → Stunned

Did I get this right?

4

Yes that works, but what I did was create my own state manager module where it makes it easy to change states and detect changes. I would show but I’m currently away from my pc

5

Like this?

local AllowedTransitions = {
	Idle = {
		Attacking = true,
		Blocking = true,
	},
	Attacking = {
		Idle = true,
		Stunned = true,
	},
	Blocking = {
		Idle = true,
		Stunned = true,
	},
	Stunned = {
		Idle = true,
	}
}


local function SetState(player: Player, newState: string)
	local currentState = player:GetAttribute("State") or States.Idle

	if not AllowedTransitions[currentState] then return false end
	if not AllowedTransitions[currentState][newState] then
		warn(`Invalid transition: {currentState} → {newState}`)
		return false
	end

	player:SetAttribute("State", newState)
	return true
end

if player:GetAttribute("State") ~= States.Idle then return end
if not SetState(player, States.Attacking) then return end
1 Like
6

Yo did u eventually implement this state module into your combat system?

7

Hello, yes, I have implemented this into my combat system with some changes

8

U Got dIscord so i can talk to u on there?