CSC152 2004F, Class 24: Project Discussion

Admin:
* No class Wednesday or Friday
* Be responsible to your roommates, show up to class on time!
* Homework due.  (Email me your stuff.)
* Homework assigned.
* Today's goal: You talk, I type, we discuss

Overview:
* UI group
* AI "group" (Kevin)
* EE group
* Last group
* New groupings

/UI Group/

Once upon a time, a user logged in to our system with id and password [check user name and password against something].  [determine what room the user was in].  [get information on the room].  The user discovered that she was in a gym-like room with a stage to one side.  Loud music is playing and there is a keg of non-alcoholic beer in the corner.  WHOOPS!  NO EVENT MANAGER ANY MORE!  User sees a list of events that are happening in this room.  Where do you want to go?  (Show compass.)  
* pickBuilding(???)
* pickRoom(???)

Note: The world is responsible for keeping track of user ids and passwords.

* boolean isValid(String userId, String password)

Note: The world is also responsible for keeping track of user stats.

* ??? getStats(String userId)

/EE World/

* No race.  Perhaps some background (Savvy east-coast young woman).
* Techniques for "levelling-up":
  * Attend a certain number of classes.
  * Pass the classes.
  * Pass classes by going on quests.
    * We have to write these.
    * We might write a program to generate quests.
    * Quest is like a puzzle: 
      * Find the four rabbits on campus
      * Find Jen Krohn's dog
    * Currently really vague
* Abilities for people
  * Differ according to discipline
  * Some standard things (e.g,. "borrow" from Cowles)
* Characters have counters
  * Sobriety
  * Sanity
  * Sleepiness
* Events can change those counters
  * Study break improves sanity
  * Sleep decreases sleepiness
* NPCs
  * Friends (normal students)
    * Can carry stuff into rooms.
  * Hookups (beauty, sketchiness)
  * Profs
* Computers: How you find out about things happening on campus.
* Room setup:
  * There are buildings
  * Within buildings there are rooms
  * Different rooms have different capabilities
    * You can't hook up in Noyce
    * You can't sleep in Bucksbaum
* Game clock runs "faster" than normal time.
  * Things can only happen at appropriate times.
* Combat systems:
  * Hookups
  * Arguing
* Methods:

/AI/

* NPCs should respond when other players in the room
  * Enter the room
  * Talk (to the NPC or generally)
  * Pick up something
  * Initiate combat
* Possible responses depend on ...
  * Ownership of object (If you take Strauber's "Big Box of Political Values" ...)
* Can the NPCs grow like regular characters grow?

/Other World Group/

* Only three majors
* Arguing and DAG-based attacks
* "Smack" - a non-damaging attack
* Lots of emotes that do things to other users
* Observation about people: ints are "permanent" characteristics (change mostly on levelling), doubles are "variable" characteristics (change fairly regularly)
* Each room is an object with
  * Description
  * Array of objects
  * Array of people
  * No world map in which things reside
  * No neighboring things
* How do you figure out where you can go?
  * No answer
* Takes time to go from place to place
* Two ways to go places: walking and running
  * Running is faster, but increases on tiredness
* Chances of random encounters
  * Based on major (Science majors ignore the world around them)
  * Humanities majors

Some quick notes from Sam:
* Simplify!  Why not just 
	interactWith(String verb, String personobject)
		throws InvalidActionException, NoSuchPersonException
	useObject(String what, String how)
		throws InvalidActionException, NoSuchThingException
* There's a reason that lots of these things only let you move to a neighboring space
* Design question: Do we tell a person that (s)he should interact with another person, or do we tell the world that two people are interacting?
	...
	interact(String actor, String verb, String target)

Homework (everyone):
* Design World, Person, Thing, Place with a *few* key methods.  Think carefully about the design of those methods.
* Decide whether World is the only kind of object we can call methods on, or whether the other objects allow that too.
* Think about how we're going to signal one person taht someone else has talked to him/her.

/Design Suggestions: Start Simple!/