Autoload broke my Code, how do I fix?

[sage mountain]

So, in an effort to have an enemy mob communicate with my main scene, I set my main scene to autoload, so it could be referenced for a signal. (See first image)

However, this has caused an error to happen on boot of my game. I use a "PathFollow2D" node to randomly spawn enemies off screen, and autoload appears to be be doing something on boot that causes this error to crash the game, even though this scene isn't the first to load, and it functioned nomally prior to autoload. (See second image)

Any idea how to fix this issue, or what exactly is causing it technically?

[marble hatch]

can you show what the scene tree looks like? a "node not found" error implies you're trying to reference a node that isn't actually there

[topaz pike]

might have better luck putting it back where it was, and not as an autoload

you can achieve your goal by just making an autoload that contains signals that you can emit and connect from other scripts

# this is an autoload script
# lets call it GlobalSignals

# you define your global signals in it e.g.

signal slime_dead()
----------------------------------------

# this is how to connect to the signal #from other script

GolbalSignals.slime_dead.connect(my_func)
----------------------------------------
#this is how to call it from any other #script

GlobalSignals.slime_dead.emit()
---------------------------------------

As an example

[sage mountain]

ignore my stupid amount of tree nodes the node is there, I think I've caught on to what's happening though.

When the scene is "ready", it attempts to spawn multiple mobs at the start.

I think because I'm autoloading it, it's attempting to call a node that isn't present yet, since it loads the main menu, while trying to spawn mobs since the autoloader detects the scene as "ready".

So, that leaves the question: How could I delay this until the scene is properly done?

[marble hatch]

i think the best course of action is to stop autoloading that scene and instead have a separate autoload script to pass signals and such

[vital belfry]

Also instead of starting the spawn functions on "ready", start them as a callback to receiving a signal.

E.g. somesignal.connect(spawn_mobs)

[sage mountain]

I'll give that a shot, should it be a specific node?

[vital belfry]

If u really dont want a autoload Signals Manager like @marble hatch suggested, alternative you can:

• put mainscene into a "group" and reference it in the other scene via .get_first_node_in_group

[sage mountain]

(the global signals thing)

[sage mountain]

oh, how do I do that?

[vital belfry]

https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/tutorials/scripting/groups.html

[marble hatch]

it can be any node, but for just a simple signals manager you can just extend Node, since all you're after is having it autoload in the scene tree

[vital belfry]

After assigning Main to a group.
Calling `get_tree.get_first_node_in_group("groupname") should return the Main scene

But Zet's method is a neater coding pattern that you should use

[sage mountain]

Ah, this solution doesn't work as groups only appear to work with nodes in the same scene. Attempting to add a node not already in the scene prompts a blank screen when managing groups.

OHHH I CAN JUST AUTOLOAD FROM AN INDIVIDUAL SCRIPT, NEAT

[sage mountain]

Okay, this is currently how I have the node set up. It's separate from both Mob and the Game Scene. That being said, how do I connect this to Mob and Game Scene? I can obviously bridge a signal from Mob, to here, to Game Scene, but I'm not sure how to make the connection properly.

[marble hatch]

you use emit() to emit signals, and you use connect() to connect signals to functions (so that the function will run when the signal is emitted). usually connections will just be made by whatever node needs the connection in their _ready() function. example:

# script 1
func _ready():
    SignalManager.signal_name.connect(function_name)

# script 2
func some_function(some_arg):
    SignalManager.signal_name.emit(some_arg) # args of course aren't necessary in every case, but i'm just demonstrating that they can be used

and in this case a better way to handle it would be to simply have the enemies emit the signal on death, rather than connecting a function to signal so that it can connect to another function

[sage mountain]

Right, I do have them plan to emit the signal upon death.

So how will SignalManager in this case be able to hear that signal, so it can in turn signal the game to update the score?

[marble hatch]

the signal manager doesn't need to hear the signal unless the signal manager itself is going to do something with it. instead you'd have the game manager (whatever is handling score here) handle whatever needs to happen with that. something like:

# enemy script
func death_function():
    GlobalSignalsNode.score_update.emit(score_value) # the enemy tells the signal manager that it died by telling it to emit a signal

# game manager script
func _ready():
    GlobalSignalsNode.score_update.connect(update_score) # connecting the score update function to the signal manager

func update_score(value: int):
    score += value # now this line will run whenever an enemy dies

[sage mountain]

Okay, I think I get it

I got to a point with this error, though, which happens when the score should update (the enemy is killed)

NEVERMIND I FORGOT TO SET HUD TO HAVE ACCESS AS A UNIQUE NAME