Net Dream Framework Complete

ID:105512
 
Dec 9 2010, 10:20 pm (Edited on Dec 9 2010, 10:37 pm)
Keywords: design
Well, now, that wasn't so hard. Partly owed to the fact that I had code laying around I'd been developing for months or years, the basic outer framework of the game I'm creating is complete. A greater part of it being the immense practice I got in coding all of that. I don't know absolutely everything about DM, but I wager I know enough to fake it.

My code can now do the following:
  • Generate a solar system containing planets by simply instantiating a solar system datum.
  • Generate a number of explorable plots of land on the planet that are populated with cellular automata generated rock structures.
  • Link wormholes between solar systems for potentially unlimited solar systems.
In short: the players are able to explore a universe that randomly generates itself with no real end. LummoxJR's Swapmaps makes that relatively easy to uncache assets that are currently not in use, so the universe can get as big as the server has memory and obj/mob count limits allow.

This framework also includes a rather extensive battery of debug procs are available, everything I need to get around, see the status of variables (kudos to Hobnob for that) and to tweak them on the fly.

I do have a rather strange glitch going on with a couple of planet verbs I set up:
  • The planets are set up identically, objects placed on solar system maps.
  • There's two verbs set on the planets. One spawns a process that generates an additional swapmap plot for the planet. The other takes the player to the planet surface.
  • For unknown reasons, some planets will ignore the verbs activation. Sometimes after I run the planet spawn verb. Other times they'll never activate for that planet.
  • Other planets will activate the verbs flawlessly forever.
Boggling. I thought maybe there was a process hanging and "tying up" the verbs on the planet, but I see no evidence of it. Even the profile shows zero processes going on during this. Perhaps the glitch is in the right-click verb activation menu itself?

In any case, I likely won't be using those verbs anyway, likely activating procs directly through a 4.0x skin control, so that's probably moot.

So, basically, I've completed the framework of the universe. Now, I need to actually do something in it. That's going to involve deciding on the kind of game I want to make. I'm going to forgo all bughunting, minor functionality additions, or cosmetic improvements until I've made up my mind here.

It's a big step for me, deciding on the main mechanic is perhaps the hardest part. However, seeing how I've got this nice framework done, I've also a good place to backtrack to if it comes down to that.
Dec 10 2010, 5:10 am
Skin controls would also call verbs. Whether built-in or defined by you, that's how any client interacts with the server.

If you think the problem is related to right-click verb menus, try turning the pop up menus off so right-clicking will call Click() instead. That's technically a verb as well, but it might help you debug. =)
Dec 10 2010, 8:46 am (Edited on Dec 10 2010, 9:04 am)
How I'll often do skin controls is building the verb into something other than the object itself, usually the client object, or the click()/dblclick() proc for the objects, and then have these procedures perform the necessary verification to make sure the player is allowed to call the necessary proc. So it transitions out of verb functionality pretty quickly.

I hope to keep the right-click verb menu functionality if I can, as it's a pretty elegant and well-encapsulated way of presenting a lot of options of things to do with a turf. Although I probably won't use these particular two verbs, they're mostly there to facilitate easy terrain generation and verification the terrain generated.