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Home>Articles>Categories>Tutorials>How To Use Loops
Abort Abort If Abort If Condition Is False Abort If Condition Is True Add Health Pool To Player Allow Button Apply Impulse Attach Players Big Message Break Call Subroutine Cancel Primary Action Chase Global Variable At Rate Chase Global Variable Over Time Chase Player Variable At Rate Chase Player Variable Over Time Clear Status Communicate Continue Create Beam Effect Create Dummy Bot Create Effect Create HUD Text Create Homing Projectile Create Icon Create In-World Text Create Progress Bar HUD Text Create Progress Bar In-World Text Create Projectile Create Projectile Effect Damage Declare Match Draw Declare Player Victory Declare Round Draw Declare Round Victory Declare Team Victory Destroy All Dummy Bots Destroy All Effects Destroy All HUD Text Destroy All Icons Destroy All In-World Text Destroy All Progress Bar HUD Text Destroy All Progress Bar In-World Text Destroy Dummy Bot Destroy Effect Destroy HUD Text Destroy Icon Destroy In-World Text Destroy Progress Bar HUD Text Destroy Progress Bar In-World Text Detach Players Disable Built-In Game Mode Announcer Disable Built-In Game Mode Completion Disable Built-In Game Mode Music Disable Built-In Game Mode Respawning Disable Built-In Game Mode Scoring Disable Death Spectate All Players Disable Death Spectate Target HUD Disable Game Mode HUD Disable Game Mode In-World UI Disable Hero HUD Disable Inspector Recording Disable Kill Feed Disable Messages Disable Movement Collision With Environment Disable Movement Collision With Players Disable Nameplates Disable Scoreboard Disable Text Chat Disable Voice Chat Disallow Button Else Else If Enable Built-In Game Mode Announcer Enable Built-In Game Mode Completion Enable Built-In Game Mode Music Enable Built-In Game Mode Respawning Enable Built-In Game Mode Scoring Enable Death Spectate All Players Enable Death Spectate Target HUD Enable Game Mode HUD Enable Game Mode In-World UI Enable Hero HUD Enable Inspector Recording Enable Kill Feed Enable Messages Enable Movement Collision With Environment Enable Movement Collision With Players Enable Nameplates Enable Scoreboard Enable Text Chat Enable Voice Chat End For Global Variable For Player Variable Go To Assemble Heroes Heal If Kill Log To Inspector Loop Loop If Loop If Condition Is False Loop If Condition Is True Modify Global Variable Modify Global Variable At Index Modify Player Score Modify Player Variable Modify Player Variable At Index Modify Team Score Move Player To Team Pause Match Time Play Effect Preload Hero Press Button Remove All Health Pools From Player Remove Health Pool From Player Remove Player Reset Player Hero Availability Respawn Restart Match Resurrect Return To Lobby Set Ability 1 Enabled Set Ability 2 Enabled Set Ability Charge Set Ability Cooldown Set Ability Resource Set Aim Speed Set Ammo Set Crouch Enabled Set Damage Dealt Set Damage Received Set Environment Credit Player Set Facing Set Global Variable Set Global Variable At Index Set Gravity Set Healing Dealt Set Healing Received Set Invisible Set Jump Enabled Set Jump Vertical Speed Set Knockback Dealt Set Knockback Received Set Match Time Set Max Ammo Set Max Health Set Melee Enabled Set Move Speed Set Objective Description Set Player Allowed Heroes Set Player Health Set Player Score Set Player Variable Set Player Variable At Index Set Primary Fire Enabled Set Projectile Gravity Set Projectile Speed Set Reload Enabled Set Respawn Max Time Set Secondary Fire Enabled Set Slow Motion Set Status Set Team Score Set Ultimate Ability Enabled Set Ultimate Charge Set Weapon Skip Skip If Small Message Start Accelerating Start Assist Start Camera Start Damage Modification Start Damage Over Time Start Facing Start Forcing Dummy Bot Name Start Forcing Player Outlines Start Forcing Player Position Start Forcing Player To Be Hero Start Forcing Spawn Room Start Forcing Throttle Start Game Mode Start Heal Over Time Start Healing Modification Start Holding Button Start Modifying Hero Voice Lines Start Rule Start Scaling Barriers Start Scaling Player Start Throttle In Direction Start Transforming Throttle Stop Accelerating Stop All Assists Stop All Damage Modifications Stop All Damage Over Time Stop All Heal Over Time Stop All Healing Modifications Stop Assist Stop Camera Stop Chasing Global Variable Stop Chasing Player Variable Stop Damage Modification Stop Damage Over Time Stop Facing Stop Forcing Dummy Bot Name Stop Forcing Player Outlines Stop Forcing Player Position Stop Forcing Player To Be Hero Stop Forcing Spawn Room Stop Forcing Throttle Stop Heal Over Time Stop Healing Modification Stop Holding Button Stop Modifying Hero Voice Lines Stop Scaling Barriers Stop Scaling Player Stop Throttle In Direction Stop Transforming Throttle Teleport Unpause Match Time Wait Wait Until While
Ability Charge Ability Cooldown Ability Icon String Ability Resource Absolute Value Add All Damage Heroes All Dead Players All Heroes All Living Players All Players All Players Not On Objective All Players On Objective All Support Heroes All Tank Heroes Allowed Heroes Altitude Of Ammo And Angle Between Vectors Angle Difference Append To Array Arccosine In Degrees Arccosine In Radians Arcsine In Degrees Arcsine In Radians Arctangent In Degrees Arctangent In Radians Array Array Contains Array Slice Assist Count Attacker Backward Button Char In String Closest Player To Color Compare Control Mode Scoring Percentage Control Mode Scoring Team Cosine From Degrees Cosine From Radians Count Of Cross Product Current Array Element Current Array Index Current Game Mode Current Map Custom Color Custom String Damage Modification Count Damage Over Time Count Direction From Angles Direction Towards Distance Between Divide Dot Product Down Empty Array Entity Count Entity Exists Evaluate Once Event Ability Event Damage Event Direction Event Healing Event Player Event Was Critical Hit Event Was Environment Event Was Health Pack Eye Position Facing Direction Of False Farthest Player From Filtered Array First Of Flag Position Forward Game Mode Global Global Variable Has Spawned Has Status Heal Over Time Count Healee Healer Healing Modification Count Health Health of Type Hero Hero Being Duplicated Hero Icon String Hero Of Horizontal Angle From Direction Horizontal Angle Towards Horizontal Facing Angle Of Horizontal Speed Of Host Player Icon String If-Then-Else Index Of Array Value Index Of String Char Input Binding String Is Alive Is Assembling Heroes Is Between Rounds Is Button Held Is CTF Mode In Sudden Death Is Communicating Is Communicating Any Is Communicating Any Emote Is Communicating Any Spray Is Communicating Any Voice line Is Control Mode Point Locked Is Crouching Is Dead Is Dummy Bot Is Duplicating Is Firing Primary Is Firing Secondary Is Flag At Base Is Flag Being Carried Is Game In Progress Is Hero Being Played Is In Air Is In Alternate Form Is In Line of Sight Is In Setup Is In Spawn Room Is In View Angle Is Jumping Is Match Complete Is Meleeing Is Moving Is Objective Complete Is On Ground Is On Objective Is On Wall Is Portrait On Fire Is Reloading Is Standing Is Team On Defense Is Team On Offense Is True For All Is True For Any Is Using Ability 1 Is Using Ability 2 Is Using Ultimate Is Waiting For Players Last Assist ID Last Created Entity Last Created Health Pool Last Damage Modification ID Last Damage Over Time ID Last Heal Over Time ID Last Healing Modification ID Last Of Last Text ID Left Local Player Local Vector Of Magnitude Of Map Mapped Array Match Round Match Time Max Max Ammo Max Health Max Health of Type Min Modulo Multiply Nearest Walkable Position Normalize Normalized Health Not Null Number of Dead Players Number of Deaths Number of Eliminations Number of Final Blows Number of Heroes Number of Living Players Number of Players Number of Players On Objective Number of Slots Objective Index Objective Position Opposite Team Of Or Payload Position Payload Progress Percentage Player Carrying Flag Player Closest To Reticle Player Hero Stat Player Stat Player Variable Players In Slot Players On Hero Players Within Radius Players in View Angle Point Capture Percentage Position Of Raise To Power Random Integer Random Real Random Value In Array Randomized Array Ray Cast Hit Normal Ray Cast Hit Player Ray Cast Hit Position Remove From Array Right Round To Integer Score Of Server Load Server Load Average Server Load Peak Sine From Degrees Sine From Radians Slot Of Sorted Array Spawn Points Speed Of Speed Of In Direction Square Root String String Contains String Length String Replace String Slice String Split Subtract Tangent From Degrees Tangent From Radians Team Of Team Score Text Count Throttle Of Total Time Elapsed True Ultimate Charge Percent Up Update Every Frame Value In Array Vector Vector Towards Velocity Of Vertical Angle From Direction Vertical Angle Towards Vertical Facing Angle Of Vertical Speed Of Victim Weapon Workshop Setting Combo Workshop Setting Hero Workshop Setting Integer Workshop Setting Real Workshop Setting Toggle World Vector Of X Component Of Y Component Of Z Component Of
Tutorials

How To Use Loops Last updated April 06, 2021

Table Of Contents

  1. What are loops?
  2. Rule Loops
  3. While Loops
  4. For-loops

What are loops?

Loops are a great way to repeat a bit of code over and over again, with slight adjustments each time. They are useful when you have to do something at regular time intervals, have a specific part in a rule that should repeat as long as a condition is true, or want to execute a set of actions for each element in an array.

Rule Loops

Rule loops are the simplest type of loop available - they simply reexecute a rule when the action is run. The actions that cause a rule to loop are:

Here's an example. Let's say that you want to heal the player in bursts of 20 every 0.2 seconds for a total of 100 healing per second when they hold Interact. To do that, you can do a rule like this:

rule("Heal the player when they hold Interact")
{
    event
    {
        Ongoing - Each Player;
        All;
        All;
    }

    conditions
    {
        Is Button Held(Event Player, Button(Interact)) == True;
    }

    actions
    {
        Heal(Event Player, Null, 20);
        Wait(0.200, Ignore Condition);
        Loop If Condition Is True;
    }
}

Note the Wait action. Here, the Wait action specifies how fast the rule will repeat. The lower the number in the Wait action, the faster the rule will repeat, down to a minimum of 0.016 seconds per execution. If you don't have a Wait action, it's the same as running the code an infinite amount of times in one frame, which crashes the server. To avoid this, always add a Wait action to rule loops.

While Loops

While loops are not used as often as the other types of loops, but they are still a useful kind of loop to know. Instead of repeating a rule according to some condition, While loops will repeat an action or series of actions. The actions you need to know for this section are:

Another example: let's say you have a custom ability that functions similarly to Soldier:76's sprint, in that it has no cooldown and can be used for as long as the player wants. Let's say that this ability will spawn a large red ring effect when it begins, then creates a lot of ring effects under the player while it's active, and another large red ring effect when it ends. To do that, we can use this rule:

rule("Ring effect ability")
{
    event
    {
        Ongoing - Each Player;
        All;
        All;
    }

    conditions
    {
        Is Button Held(Event Player, Button(Ability 1)) == True;
    }

    actions
    {
        Play Effect(All Players(All Teams), Ring Explosion, Color(Red), Position Of(Event Player), 10);
        While(Is Button Held(Event Player, Button(Ability 1)));
            Play Effect(All Players(All Teams), Ring Explosion, Color(White), Position Of(Event Player), 3);
            Wait(0.016, Ignore Condition);
        End;
        Play Effect(All Players(All Teams), Ring Explosion, Color(Red), Position Of(Event Player), 10);
    }
}

A couple things to note about this script. First, the End action terminates the While loop. If you copy this rule into the Workshop Editor, you will see that the actions between the While and End actions are indented slightly. This marks that they are in the loop.

Let's run through what this action does when the player presses and releases Ability 1:

  1. The player starts holding Ability 1.
  2. The rule executes.
  3. A large red ring effect is played at the Event Player's position.
  4. The rule enters the While loop.
  5. A smaller white ring effect is placed under the Event Player every 0.016 seconds.
  6. Step 5 repeats as long as the player holds Ability 1.
  7. The player releases Ability 1.
  8. The While loop terminates.
  9. Another large red ring effect is played at the Event Player's position.

It's important to note that just like the rule loop, this also requires a Wait action to set the speed of the execution and to not crash the server with an infinite amount of actions.

For-loops

For-loops are a bit confusing to understand, since the name is a bit misleading. A for-loop takes a variable, a set of actions and some other values, and does the following things:

  1. Sets the variable to the Range Start.
  2. Executes the actions in the for-loop.
  3. Modifies the variable by the Step.
  4. Checks if the variable is greater than or equal to the Range Stop.
  5. If it's greater than or equal to the Range Stop, ends the for-loop.
  6. If it's less than the Range Stop, goes to step 2 and continues the loop.

For this section, you'll need to know the following actions:

This may all be a bit confusing, so here's an example. Let's say that you have another ability, which blasts all nearby enemies away from you. You cannot use just one Apply Impulse action for this, since each player will need to be launched in a different direction. You would have to create a rule like this:

variables
{
    player:
        0: index
        1: playersInRadius
}

rule("Blast nearby enemies away from the player")
{
    event
    {
        Ongoing - Each Player;
        All;
        All;
    }

    conditions
    {
        Is Button Held(Event Player, Button(Jump)) == True;
    }

    actions
    {
        Event Player.playersInRadius = Players Within Radius(Event Player, 8, Opposite Team Of(Team Of(Event Player)), Surfaces);
        For Player Variable(Event Player, index, 0, Count Of(Event Player.playersInRadius), 1);
            Apply Impulse(Event Player.playersInRadius[Event Player.index], Direction Towards(Event Player,
                Event Player.playersInRadius[Event Player.index]), 15, To World, Cancel Contrary Motion);
        End;
    }
}

Let's explain step-by-step what this rule does. Let's assume that there are three enemies near the player - Player1, Player2 and Player3.

  1. The player variable playersInRadius is set to the array of all enemies within 8 meters who are in line of sight to the Event Player ([Player1, Player2, Player3]).
  2. The for-loop starts. In this case, the player variable will be index (it's a common practice to call variables used in loops either i or index), the range start is 0, the range stop is 3 (since there are 3 enemies nearby), and the step is 1.
  3. index is set to 0.
  4. The first impulse executes. If you're confused by the bracket and dot notation, that's Value In Array(Player Variable(Event Player, playersInRadius), Player Variable(Event Player, index)). Basically, it takes the indexth value in the playersInRadius variable, and since arrays start counting from 0, it takes Player1. It then knocks that player away from the Event Player.
  5. The variable index is incremented by 1.
  6. The game checks if the loop should end. Currently, index is 1, which is less than 3, so it continues.
  7. The second impulse executes. This time, it takes element 1 in the array, which is Player2 (remember, arrays start counting from 0, so Player1 is the number 0 element in the array), and knocks them away from the Event Player.
  8. The variable index is once again incremented by 1.
  9. The game sees that index (now 2) is still less than 3, so it continues the loop.
  10. The third impulse executes. This time, it takes element 2 in the array, which is Player3, and knocks them away from the Event Player.
  11. The variable index is incremented by 1.
  12. The game notices that index (now 3) is equal to 3, and terminates the loop.

Success! We have knocked all nearby enemies away from the Event Player. To recap, the for-loop takes a variable, sets it to Range Start, and repeatedly executes a set of actions, incrementing the variable by Step each time, until it reaches the Range Stop. You might have also noticed that there's no Wait action in this rule - this is because the loop only executes a couple of times, and there's no fear of it running an infinite amount of times in a single frame.

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