Entities inheriting Entity.lua variables, but not its methods - oop

Question

I am building a game with enemies and players, all of which are set up to have various states for animation and behavior. The parent class for both is Entity.lua, from which they inherit variables and methods. However, while both enemies and players are inheriting the variables, for some reason the enemies do not inherit the methods. So, if I try to call snakey:changeState('search'), for example, it gives me an error message "Attempt to call method 'changeState' (a nil value)".
I have used the same sequence for creating entities in several games in the past and never had this problem. In fact, if I create the Player in the same way, file and location as the enemies, I receive no error messages.
Here is the code where I create the entities.
local snakey
snakey = Snakey {
platform = platform,
player1 = self.player1,
player2 = self.player2,
stateMachine = StateMachine {
['search'] = function() return SnakeySearchState(snakey) end,
['chasing'] = function() return SnakeyChasingState(snakey) end,
['idle'] = function() return SnakeyIdleState(snakey) end
}
}
-- snakey:changeState('search')
-- snakey.stateMachine:change('search', params)
table.insert(self.entities, snakey)
The two coded out lines are where I noticed the problem. The first line gives and error and the second does work, but is not satisfactory because it is a work-around.
Here is the code for Entity.lua: I don't include details of the functions for brevity, but all are working properly for when player calls them.
Entity = Class{}
function Entity:init(def)
-- position
self.x = def.x
self.y = def.y
self.gravity = 6
-- many more variables
end
function Entity:changeState(state, params)
self.stateMachine:change(state)
end
function Entity:update(dt)
self.stateMachine:update(dt)
end
function Entity:collides(entity)
-- do something
end
function Entity:onDamage()
-- do something
end
function Entity:render()
- renders sprite
end
Player code (in brief)
Player = Class{__includes = Entity}
function Player:init(def)
Entity.init(self, def)
-- more variables
end
function Player:update(dt)
Entity.update(self, dt)
end
function Player:render()
Entity.render(self)
end
And perhaps the trouble spot, one one enemy's script
Snakey = Class{__includes = Entity}
function Snakey:init(def)
Entity.init(self, def)
-- yet more variables
end
function Snakey:update(dt)
Entity.update(self, dt)
-- entity behavior (works fine, so omitted)
end
function Snakey:render()
Entity.render(self)
end
Thank you very much for your help. I'm feeling quite frustrated because this sequence has worked in the past and I would really like to know why it's not calling those Entity methods.
Adding the class library
--Copyright (c) 2010-2013 Matthias Richter
local function include_helper(to, from, seen)
if from == nil then
return to
elseif type(from) ~= 'table' then
return from
elseif seen[from] then
return seen[from]
end
seen[from] = to
for k,v in pairs(from) do
k = include_helper({}, k, seen) -- keys might also be tables
if to[k] == nil then
to[k] = include_helper({}, v, seen)
end
end
return to
end
-- deeply copies `other' into `class'. keys in `other' that are already
-- defined in `class' are omitted
local function include(class, other)
return include_helper(class, other, {})
end
-- returns a deep copy of `other'
local function clone(other)
return setmetatable(include({}, other), getmetatable(other))
end
local function new(class)
-- mixins
class = class or {} -- class can be nil
local inc = class.__includes or {}
if getmetatable(inc) then inc = {inc} end
for _, other in ipairs(inc) do
if type(other) == "string" then
other = _G[other]
end
include(class, other)
end
-- class implementation
class.__index = class
class.init = class.init or class[1] or function() end
class.include = class.include or include
class.clone = class.clone or clone
-- constructor call
return setmetatable(class, {__call = function(c, ...)
local o = setmetatable({}, c)
o:init(...)
return o
end})
end
-- interface for cross class-system compatibility (see https://github.com/bartbes/Class-Commons).
if class_commons ~= false and not common then
common = {}
function common.class(name, prototype, parent)
return new{__includes = {prototype, parent}}
end
function common.instance(class, ...)
return class(...)
end
end
-- the module
return setmetatable({new = new, include = include, clone = clone},
{__call = function(_,...) return new(...) end})

Answer 1

It turns out that sequence matters. In trying to create the minimum reproducible code I could not reproduce the error. After some searching (and a little frustration), I noticed that in Dependencies.lua I was requiring the enemies BEFORE Entity.lua, but Player.lua was required after. I would have thought this wouldn't matter, since everything was imported into the program on frame 1 and I was creating entities on something like frame 1000, but alas. Anyway, problem solved! Always require parent classes before child classes... Lesson learned. :)