While loop issues

Help and Feedback Scripting Support
#1

Hi all, I’m having some trouble with a concept i’m trying to make. Essentially, I am making a system where an NPC finds the nearest enemy part or nearest enemy NPC. The NPC has an attached hitbox to it (using region3) which I want it to allow it to determine whether the enemy is within range of the NPC, by checking if it is inside the region3, so it can perform actions like stopping the NPC and attacking the enemy.

My problem mostly resides inside of a while loop I coded, which will repeatedly call the function to find the nearest enemy part and move to it. It also is meant to constantly check what items are inside of the region3 so it can perform the actions I stated before. It seems to be finding the nearest enemy well, but it is “skipping” the checking of what parts are inside of the hitbox attached to the NPC.

After hours of testing and trying to search up articles, I felt like there was not a sufficient amount of information to fix my problem. Here’s my code:

local noobCharacter = script.Parent
local humanoid = noobCharacter.Humanoid
local rootPart = noobCharacter.HumanoidRootPart
local targetPart = nil
local smallestDistance = math.huge
local regionArea = script.Parent:FindFirstChild("Hitbox")
local positionA = regionArea.Position - (regionArea.Size / 2)
local positionB = regionArea.Position + (regionArea.Size / 2)
local hitbox = Region3.new(positionA,positionB)

local function getTarget()
	for i, v in pairs(workspace:GetDescendants()) do
		if v:IsA("ObjectValue") and v.Name == "Enemy" then
			if v.Parent:IsA("Model") then
				local distanceFromNpc = (v.Parent.PrimaryPart.Position - rootPart.position).magnitude
				if distanceFromNpc < smallestDistance then
					--print(v.Parent.Name .." ".. tostring(distanceFromNpc))
					smallestDistance = distanceFromNpc
					targetPart = v.Parent.PrimaryPart
				end
			else
				local distanceFromNpc = (v.Parent.Position - rootPart.position).magnitude
				if distanceFromNpc < smallestDistance then
					--print(v.Parent.Name.." " .. tostring(distanceFromNpc))
					smallestDistance = distanceFromNpc
					targetPart = v.Parent
				end
			end
		
		end
	end
end

local targetIsInRegion = true
while true do wait(1)
	
	local partsInRegion = workspace:FindPartsInRegion3(hitbox, nil, math.huge)
	
	getTarget()
	for i, v in pairs(partsInRegion) do
		if targetPart ~= nil then			
			if v == targetPart then
				targetIsInRegion = true
				break
				
			else
				print("tp is not in region")
				targetIsInRegion = false
				break
			end
		end
		--print(v.Name)
    end
	print(targetIsInRegion)
	if targetPart ~= nil then
		   
		humanoid:MoveTo(targetPart.Position) 
		getTarget()
		
		targetPart = nil
		smallestDistance = math.huge
	else
		wait() 
		getTarget()
		targetPart = nil
		smallestDistance = math.huge
	end
	print("loop done")
end

Main thing to look at is simply the while loop. If anyone can figure out what is going on and can provide a simple solution, or any alternative methods to writing the code above, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

#2

Firstly I suggest using while wait(1), it’s more efficient.

I think the problem is that you’re finding the parts in region, but then using the parts in workspace to find the nearest part.

try

local function getTarget(partsInRegion)
	for i, v in pairs(partsInRegion) do
		--Do something
	end
end

local partsInRegion = workspace:FindPartsInRegion3(hitbox, nil, math.huge)
	
getTarget(partsInRegion)
#4

Nice. Thanks for this feedback, the code seems much easier to understand. I’ve done what you have suggested and put the pairs loop inside of the getTarget() function. It works well until the NPC locates an enemy. Then the pairs loop stops for some reason.

local function getTarget(partsInRegion)
	for i, v in pairs(partsInRegion) do
		if v then
			print("there are parts in the region")
		end
	end
end

while wait(1) do
	local partsInRegion = workspace:FindPartsInRegion3(hitbox, nil, math.huge)
	getTarget(partsInRegion)
	if targetPart then 
		humanoid:MoveTo(targetPart.Position)
		targetPart = nil
		smallestDistance = math.huge
	end
end

Theres a print function inside of the pairs loop but it immediately stops printing when it finds a target.
This is a little off the main issue, but it would be helpful for a bit of assistance. Thanks for the help so far tho :slight_smile:

(note that i cut off a part of the function as it seems to be irrelevant to this problem. if you would like to see it I can edit this post with the added code)