Will player variables stick on map change/server shutdown/restart?

[iViscosity]

For example, say I do something like this:

Code: Lua

1. function Setdata( ply )
2.     ply.health = ply:Health()
3. end
4.  
5.  
6. --<player disconnects/reconnects>
7.  
8.  
9. function PlayerInitialSpawn( ply )
10.     ply:SetHealth( ply.health )
11. end
12. hook.Add( "PlayerInitialSpawn", "Set health to last known value", PlayerInitialSpawn )
13.  

Will that ply.health stay even after they leave?

[Bytewave]

No. Variables you add to objects (ie the Player object) remain only for the lifetime of that object. When a player disconnects, that object is destroyed, along with all associated fields.

To set persistent data, look at SetPData and GetPData, which store data in the server database. Do note, however, that GetPData returns strings, so you'll want to use tonumber to convert data back to numbers. Also, you should probably set these values on the server so players can't tamper with them (not that you need to worry about that).

[iViscosity]

Right, I wanted to see if there was a different way. I guess I can always get that on connect then set a variable to it. I've used PData before, but using it too much can cause perf issues.. Wasn't sure but thanks anyway

[Bytewave]

PData shouldn't be that non-performant. Yes, it relies on the server's SQLite DB, but I don't see why it would cause performance issues unless you're updating it super often.

[iViscosity]

Right, using it too much. In my case, though, now that I think about it, it will only be used on player connect/disconnect which isn't that often on my server so it should be fine.

[Megiddo]

The PData implementation is very light -- https://github.com/garrynewman/garrysmod/blob/master/garrysmod/lua/includes/extensions/util.lua#L333 . You should only have issues if you were calling it multiple times per second.

I do have to say that I've seen odd behavior from player tables in the past, and try to avoid them now. Not sure if it's other addons mucking the tables up or what, but I've seen data randomly disappear from the player table.

[Bytewave]

I do have to say that I've seen odd behavior from player tables in the past, and try to avoid them now. Not sure if it's other addons mucking the tables up or what, but I've seen data randomly disappear from the player table.

To add on to the odd behavior, there is one annoying quirk of PData: it doesn't store by SteamID64, it stores by UniqueID, which is just a CRC32 hash of gm_STEAMID_gm. Sure, that works, but there's bound to be collisions in there somewhere.

[iViscosity]

The addon I'm creating also uses MySQL which I have setup to store SteamID64s, but in-case whoever is using the addon doesn't have a database to store the information, I'm using PData.