Unusual issue

[UKRedDevil]

I've got a strange issue what was previously not a problem, I have an entity that has a value and adds 1 every 10 seconds then let's the player take that value followed by resetting it back to 0 but for some reason in the USE hook for the entity it always finds the value to be 0 when the rest of the code shows different.

Here is the code with a few annotated lines.

AddCSLuaFile( "cl_init.lua" ) AddCSLuaFile( "shared.lua" )  
 
include('shared.lua')
 
ENT.color = Color(255, 0, 0, 255) //set the color of the model
ENT.amount = 0 //Records how many elements exist ///////////////////////THIS IS THE VALUE//////////////////////////
ENT.MyHealth = 500 //entity health
 
function ENT:Initialize()
 
    self:SetModel( "models/props_c17/canister01a.mdl" )
    self:PhysicsInit( SOLID_VPHYSICS )
    self:SetMoveType( MOVETYPE_NONE )   
    self:SetSolid( SOLID_VPHYSICS )    
 
    local phys = self:GetPhysicsObject()
    if (phys:IsValid()) then
        phys:Wake()
    end
    
end
 
function ENT:Use(activator, caller)
   ///////////////////////ALWAYS SHOWS VALUE OF ZERO???////////////////////////////////
    if self.amount == 0 then 
        activator:PrintMessage( HUD_PRINTTALK, "There are no elements collected.")
        return 
    end //if no entities exist, exit
    activator:PrintMessage( HUD_PRINTTALK, "You collected "..self.amount.." fire element(s).") //inform the player
    self.amount = 0 //reset the elements
    self:SetNWInt("Amount", self.amount)
end
 
function ENT:Think()
    return
end


function ENT:SpawnFunction(ply, tr)
    if ( !tr.Hit ) then return end
    local ent = ents.Create( self.Classname )
    ent:SetPos( tr.HitPos + tr.HitNormal * 30) 
    ent:SetColor(ent.color)
    //ent:SetOwner(ply) //set the owner
    ent:Spawn()
    ent:Activate()
    timer.Create(ent:EntIndex(), 10, 0, function()
        self.amount=self.amount+1
        ///////////////////////ALWAYS SHOWS THE CORRECT VALUE////////////////////////////////
        ent:SetNWInt("Amount", self.amount) //add 1 element every 10 seconds
    end)
    return ent
end


function ENT:OnRemove( )
    local effectdata = EffectData()
    effectdata:SetOrigin( self:GetPos() )
    effectdata:SetScale( 10 )
    effectdata:SetMagnitude( 10 )
    util.Effect( "HelicopterMegaBomb", effectdata, true, true )
    timer.Destroy(self:EntIndex()) //remove the timer for elemental increase
end


 function ENT:OnTakeDamage(dmg)
    if !dmg:GetAttacker():IsPlayer() then return end //make sure it's a player
    
    if  dmg:GetAttacker() == self:GetOwner() then //Make sure it isn't the owner
        dmg:GetAttacker():PrintMessage( HUD_PRINTTALK, "You cannot destroy your lab.")
        return 
    elseif dmg:GetAttacker():Team() == 1 then  //Alchmists cannot destroy
        dmg:GetAttacker():PrintMessage( HUD_PRINTTALK, "You cannot destroy a lab as an Alchemist.")
        return 
    elseif dmg:GetAttacker():Team() == self:GetOwner():Team() then //Cannot destroy your teammates
        dmg:GetAttacker():PrintMessage( HUD_PRINTTALK, "You cannot destroy a lab owned by someone of the same team.")
        return 
    end
    
    self:TakePhysicsDamage(dmg)
    if(self.MyHealth <= 0) then return end 
    self.MyHealth = self.MyHealth - dmg:GetDamage()
    if(self.MyHealth <= 0) then 
        self:Remove()
        dmg:GetAttacker():PrintMessage( HUD_PRINTTALK, "You destroyed a Fire Alchemy Lab and gained 5 Imperial coins.")
        //dmg:GetAttacker().Coins = dmg:GetAttacker().Coins + 5 //give imperial coins
    end
 end

So basically, in the USE hook self.amount is always 0 but it shouldn't be, could anyone assist?

[James]

Try networking it , or changing the value cause i don't see you saying anything other than self.amount = 0

[UKRedDevil]

In the spawn function I create a timer that increments the value +1 each iteration (10 seconds per iteration)

self.amount=self.amount+1

That code always shows the amount as the correct value and used to work but now has decided to not work since I appended the damage code.
The value is also networked for client side viewing what works 200% but the server side code isn't working for some reason.

[editline]14th September 2011[/editline]

Fixed, the problem was that I called the timer during creation of the entity and I referred to it as self but I needed ent.