How do I mark someone as a host and update a big list to them?

ID:2431853
 
Mar 7 2019, 10:17 am
(See the best response by Spevacus.)
Code:
var/players

mob
    step_size = 8
    Login()
        usr << "Welcome to the game. A pre-alpha of the project, \"Hamster Rivals Hangout.\""
        players++
        if(players==1)
            usr.host=1
            usr << "You are the host of the game."


Problem description:

Is this an alright way to mark someone as the host of the game?

Also, I really want the player to be able to send a custom monster/enemy with its own custom icon, name, stats, Monster Card description and Monster Card picture; and it'll get added to a list of different custom monsters that the host of the server can choose which monsters to accept or refuse that they want added to the game.

I used all of the knowledge I have which is all from a Dragon Ball Z BYOND sourcecode that I got in very early year 2002, and wrote this code up so far:

mob/commands
    verb
        Submit_monster()
            set category = "Create"
            set name = "Send a custom monster to the host"
            usr.monstericon = input("Pick the graphic of the enemy:","Icon",usr.icon)\as icon
            usr.monstername = input("What will the monster's name be?")as text
            usr.monsterstr = input("What will the monster's strength value be?")as num
            usr.monsterdef = input("What will the monster's defense value be?")as num
            usr.monsterpicture = input("What picture should be on the monster's rare \"Monster Card?\"")as icon|null
            usr.monstercarddescription = input("What should the information about the monster say on this monster's \"Monster Card?\"")
            //Look for the host in the server and add this information to the list of monsters that players have made


I haven't made a BYOND game in like since year 2002. Is there a way to make it so that a form pops up and asks the user for this information at once instead of one-at-a-time, or do I have to either do it this way or import a HTML form library (the one I downloaded and used in one of my BYOND games in year 2003) or is there some other way?

And how do I look for the host of the server? According to the dragon ball Z fangame source code from 2002, it would be like this:

        for(mob/M in world)
            if(M.host==1)
                M << "Oh, so you're the host"


but that code isn't working too well in the project that I'm working on.

I've looked at the BYOND reference several times but its like looking at a dictionary of coding and I learned some stuff there but there's so much info there I'm not sure where to start.

How can I do all of this stuff with 2019 BYOND's coding standards? I keep copying and pasting code from my previous game that used modified coding from a DBZ BYOND game sourcecode that I got in very early year 2002, but when I copy and paste the coding into my new project that I started working on this month, a lot of the coding doesn't seem to work right.
Mar 7 2019, 10:59 am (Edited on Mar 7 2019, 11:35 am)
Best response
Hey. Addressing your last question first.

You don't want to loop through the world for mobs, especially if you have other mobs that you've placed on the map or created through other means. Rather, you want to loop through just the players. One of the most common ways is to add them to a list on login.

var/list/Players = list()

mob
    Login()
       Players+=src
    Logout()
       Players-=src

Then in order to find them in the world, you would...
for(mob/M in Players)
    if(M.host)
        M<<"You're the host!"

Next, you wanted to add all of that monster information to a list and send it to the host, correct? The problem I see is you're binding this information to the user, rather than to another object. The information would be lost if the user logged out. Buuut, if you make this information as a part of a new object, and then use that object to relay it to the "host," you could avoid that entirely.

Let's see...
obj/Monster
    var
        MIcon=null
        MName=null
        MStr=null
        MDef=null
        MPic=null
        MCardDesc=null

Make an object with which you would change the variables of through the verb you made.
var/list/SubmittedMonsters=list()
mob/commands
    verb
        Submit_monster()
            set category = "Create"
            set name = "Send a custom monster to the host"
            obj/Monster/NewMonster = new
            NewMonster.MIcon = input("What's the new icon?") as null|icon
            //Rest of the criteria.
            SubmittedMonsters.Add(NewMonster)
            usr<<"You've submitted a monster to the host."

Adding this object to a world list, then allowing the "host" to see the list would be a good idea. You can display it in a multitude of ways.

One last thing I should add is you should handle the passing of "host" over to another player once the original host logs out, assuming this is a multiplayer session and will only be hosted on dream daemon by one person. Alternatively, you could make the world.host (the person using Dream Daemon to host your game) your "host" of the game, if you plan on letting people host it themselves.

This is just one of the many ways you could do this, and it's relatively basic. I don't recommend learning from old DBZ game source codes. Find resources that're newer to learn from!

If anyone wants to improve on this answer please feel free.

Edit: Clarified a few things
Mar 7 2019, 4:03 pm
I think for starters you could check for their key to handle who should be host. If you are making it a dynamic host list you might want to add those Keys to a file or a database. But for test purposes I think one simple check as:

if (M.key == "allowed_host_key")


or something like that would suffice.
Mar 7 2019, 5:56 pm
In response to Hmkw
Although this is kinda getting into Dev. Philosophy, I agree with you. Handling the game's "host" in a better way would be ideal.

Piggybacking off of this, you could make yet another list you can draw these authorized keys from, and make a verb for yourself to add more while in-game, then you can save that list to a savefile and work off of that for the future.

You can transfer host powers to another person in the authorized keys list by checking if any eligible players are online when the original host logs out. If not, you could give it to a random player.

Have we answered all of your questions, Abu?
Mar 12 2019, 9:32 am
Doesn't Dream Daemon have a whitelist/blacklist system already built into it? You can already allow specific people and ban specific people. Just use Dream Daemon...