Re: Re:The Digital Battlefield

Alun Thomas writes:

@:) Ok, here's the format I used for ftmap (developed for Mark's most
@:) recent B5 game)
@:) 
@:) 
@:) Firstly, there're some lines describing the map in this order
@:) 
@:) 1) Title
@:) 2) Background gif filename or "-" to use a black background
@:) 3) course trails flag ( 1 == draw them, 0 == don't draw them )
@:) 4) min x co-ord (in game units)
@:) 5) min y co-ord (")
@:) 6) max x co-ord (")
@:) 7) max y co-ord (")
@:) 8) number of pixels per game unit
@:) 
@:) Then there are a series of sections defining the available ship
classes
@:) 
@:) 1) The class name
@:) 2) The file name of the gif used for the class (pointing in
direction 1)
@:) 3) Scale factor for displaying the gif 
@:) 4) Legend flag ( 1==list class in legend, 0==don't list class in
legend)
@:) 
@:) This is repeated for each class, with a line containing a single *
@:) indicating that there are no more classes.
@:) 
@:) After the * line there are a series of sections describing each
ship:
@:) 
@:) 1) Ship Name
@:) 2) Ship Class name (must exactly match a class name from above)
@:) 3) x co-ord
@:) 4) y co-ord
@:) 5) ship heading (1->12)
@:) 6) ship facing (1->12)
@:) 7) ship speed
@:) 8) the ammount the heading has changed by ( +12 -> -12 )
@:) 
@:) This is repeated for each ship, with a line containing a single *
@:) indicating that there are no more ships.

  I think this format is quite serviceable.  I would think that the
question of whether ship's trails should be drawn or not should be
left up to the program and doesn't need to be in the data file.  The
rest of it looks good - the separate heading and facing fields are not
required for standard FT but are a sensible precaution.

  Mark Kochte's data files from the game I played in consisted of a
series of ship descriptions.  The basic ship information looked
something like this:

Ship Name:     EAS THESEUS
Ship Class:    Omega-class 'Destroyer'
Commanded by:  Captain Ludo Toen,  Ludo.Toen@ping.be
Location:      79.1,23.4
Velocity:      4
Heading:       4
Movement Plot: 1S-1
Mass:	       90
Thrust Rating: 2
Jump Engines:  Yes
Scanners:      Enhanced Sensors
Damage Points: [45] 6: 0/0/0/6

  As far as I'm concerned, this is a perfectly machine-readable format
that includes a lot of the information required (although thrust
rating, jump engines and scanners could all be derived from other
data).	I think any computerized FT game needs all of the above
information (facing would also be nice).

  Ships' systems were described like this:

Internal Configuration/Status:
     HBW-3 (F) - DESTROYED
     HBW-2 (A) - fired on the COEUS; 2 pts
       HBW Capacitor (6): 5
     C-battery, (P/F/S) -
     PDAF - anti-fighter
     Enhanced Sensors - DESTROYED
     Fire Control
     Damage Control - repairing
     Jump Engines
       Jump Engine Capacitor (6): 1
     Thrust Engines

  The information here is good but for my tastes a little
inconsistent.  I would suggest a format like

  SYSTEM NAME: SYSTEM INFORMATION

  So a function could grab everything up to the ':' and feed the rest
of the line to a specialized function designed to handle that
particular type of system.  Example:

  HBW-3: (F) DESTROYED
  HWB-2: (A) Hit COEUS for 2 points.
  C-battery: (PFS)
  Jump Engine Capacitor: 1/6 points.

  And so on.  Limiting each system to one line would be helpful.

  The next thing in Kochte's reports was the fighter information.
Although it might be worthwhile to separate the fighters out and treat
them as ships, if that were not done, some minor tweaking would make
the parsing of fighter groups easier.  In particular, an empty line or
some other indicator between fighter group/hangar bay descriptions
would help a lot - especially since a hangar bay may or may not
contain fighters, so it's hard to tell when you're done reading it
(before you start reading the next one, that is).

     Hanger Bay - 6 heavy fighters - launched turn 2 - DESTROYED
     Fighter Squadron A: - 3 ftrs
     Location: 45.0,30.0
     Velocity: 12
     Heading: 4
     Facing: 5
     Other: engaging the QUEENSLAND; lose 1 ftr, inflict 2 pts damage
     Hanger Bay - 6 standard fighters - launched turn 1 - DESTROYED
     Fighter Squadron B: - 3 ftrs
     Location: 39.0,35.0
     Velocity: 4
     Heading: 3
     Facing: 3
     Other: dogfighting with HECATE fighters; lose 0, kill 2

  The last section described damage to the ship during the game, as
follows:

Damage Sustained:
  3 pts from COEUS on Turn 2
  6 pts from HECATE on Turn 3
  4 pts from QUICKSILVER on Turn 5
  Threshold Level 1 reached: Turn 5

  Actually all you need is the damage for this turn - if a program
wants to, it can load multiple report files and get the multi-turn
information that way.

  I think Kochte's report format could be fairly easily banged into an
effective, and even human-readable way of electronically transmitting
FT game status.

-joachim