Action List Parameter - Wait Until Finish problem

mjbcfc

I've searched but couldn't find a similar issue, considering what I'm trying to do it should be a common problem which might point towards the issue being myself (yet again)! Essentially I have an action list that has an NPC walk to a chair and sitting down, I've set this action list up to use parameters (Parameter 0 is the particular NPC and Parameter 1 is the marker that the NPC needs to walk to that is next to a free chair).

So I have one action that tells Parameter 0 (NPC A) to move to Parameter 1 (Marker A) which I set as 'Wait until finish' because the next action is the animation for sitting down which I obviously don't want playing until the NPC reaches the chair/marker. The issue I'm running into is that the NPC reaches the marker however the action list hangs on this action and doesn't recognise it as 'finishing'? I've tested this without parameters (so specifically state NPC A as the character and Marker A as the marker) and it works perfectly with the NPC moving to the marker and once there it recognises the action as finishing and then moves onto the next action correctly. I further tested it and the issue seems to be with the NPC parameter - so if I specifically state NPC A to move to Parameter 1 (Marker A) then this works fine however asking Parameter 0 (NPC A) to move to Marker A doesn't work. The character still moves to the marker fine in all scenarios however for some reason when it is setup using the NPC as a parameter it doesn't seem to recognise the action as finishing?

I can get around this by setting it up differently (separate specific action lists for each NPC or even setting up a trigger space next to the chair that will detect when the NPC is at the chair and then run a separate action list based on that to play the sitting down animation) however for future scenarios I'd prefer for the above issue to be rectified because the use of parameters is amazingly helpful and so simple.

FYI I currently have latest software versions of both - so Adventure Creator Version 1.56e and Unity 5.5.1f1.

Thanks.

ChrisIceBox

Thanks for the bug report.  I shall attempt a recreation, but it'd be helpful to see screenshots of the ActionLists to ensure I'm doing exactly the same thing.  Are these ActionList assets or scene-based Cutscenes?

Edit:
Sorry, can't reproduce.  Is the NPC having trouble reaching the marker?  Check List active ActionLists in Game window? at the bottom of the Settings Manager - is the parameterised ActionList still running when it shouldn't be?

mjbcfc

Chris - I'll have a look when I get back home. The NPC reaches the marker fine however once there they just hang at that point. It is a scene action list, I'll check if the action list is running when it shouldn't be and report back (I'll also include some screenshots of the action list).

mjbcfc

Chris - I'm confused, got back and it now works? I initially clicked the option to List active ActionLists in Game window? (which by the way is an excellent debugging tool that I've somehow missed) and everything seemed to work as expected. I really doubt that just ticking this option had any effect on fixing the problem however I am confused as to why everything works now?

Either way I'm happy, apologies again for bringing up a trivial issue and one that must have been caused by something that I was doing wrong. If the issue pops up again I'll no doubt let you know however for now consider me confused yet happy!

mjbcfc

Chris - Just a quick update, I ran into a separate issue that I've 'solved' however I would like your input. I further amended the logic for the above action lists and at one point I had ActionList A that would set NPC A to walk along Path A, at the end of Path A an action list (Action List would instruct NPC A to move to Marker A. The problem I was encountering was that the NPC would not move to Marker A, when opening Action List B it would show that the action list was hanging on this 'Walk to Marker A' action (so the action list would run as expected and would go through the previous action, which was an animation, however the action for the NPC to move to Marker A would hang because it had 'wait until finish' however the NPC would not move and so the action would never finish).

The way I solved it was to introduce a 0.5 second start delay to Action List B with my logic being that the NPC, when transitioning from 'walking along Path A' onto being told to 'move to Marker A', would run into a clash with their navigation and be 'stuck' between following Path A and moving to Marker A (so I thought the 0.5 second delay would ensure the NPC's Path A was recognised as finished to enable them to walk to Marker A as required). This worked however I was wondering if this has come up before or not? For added context Path A is Forward Only (not loop) and only has 3 waypoints/nodes in the path, Action List B is then run when the NPC reaches the final node/waypoint at the end of the path.

Thanks again for your continued help (and patience lol).

ChrisIceBox

Instructing an NPC to move to a Marker mid-path should interrupt their current movement - so I'm not sure that there's a conflict there in the way you're describing.

However, if the NPC is having trouble reaching the end of the Path - and the Actions are set up so that they won't move to the Marker until they've done so - then you'd get a problem.

Could you share some images of the relevant Actions / ActionLists in question?  I'd need to see exactly how they're interacting with each other - word descriptions aren't enough here, I think.