Dummy Dot

[wheretheidivides]

So I get these big playmaker sets because I prefer to not have many actions in a state.  that way later on I can come back and find stuff easily.  The issue is that the lines go over each other.  It can be a bit of a mess.  My solution is to have a dummy state to draw the lines to.  the dummy state is off to the side.  That way the lines don't cross but go to the dummy state.  the dummy state just has a finished and no actions.

Sure, this is fine, BUT....I'd like to see a dummy dot.  this dummy dot does NOTHING.  You would not even be able to put and action inside.  it would be just to connect the lines.  that way, you can draw around the other states.

See pic.  The 'DUMMY DOT' would not be a state, but rather just a big dot.  It could have lines to it and away from it and be colored.  No actions inside.

BTW: I used the first FSM I could find so yeah I know if it destroys itself you don't go back to the beginning.  It's just an example.

[escpodgames]

In the next update ( Playmaker 1.8 ) I believe you can set the connecting lines to draw behind the states, not sure if that would help solve your issue but thought I'd mention it

"Added Preference to draw links behind states" on the wiki

[wheretheidivides]

I'd prefer being able to redirect the lines.  When you take a flowcharting class in college, they force you never to overlap the lines.  This is just good flowcharting.  I see how behind would help some, but redirecting in front I thing is more usefull.

[escpodgames]

Another option would be to send an event back to the first state, I've done this a bunch to remove lines going everywhere.

[Lane]

I haven't been recently using the feature LampRabbit mentioned but in earlier versions of the beta it was available so I assume it still is.

It would be nice to have some more control over the line directions, but there are several good ways to approach adding features to control that and it would take some experimenting. Maybe Alex can find somewhere it squeeze this sort of thing into the roadmap.

In the meantime there are some nifty ways to get things cleaned up like using Send Event to go back to a primary state where most of the transitions come from instead of using a FINISHED transition and pointing back to it. This removes the visual readability of how that state finishes but I've found that it generally is easy enough to identify when you see it being used.