1. BOTMatches
- Posted by Ralf Nieuwenhuijsen <nieuwen at XS4ALL.NL>
Dec 23, 1998
-
Last edited Dec 24, 1998
[[ New version ]]
A new version of my BOTMatch routines, has now been officially released.
The routines of the engine are just more like a generic tile-engine, while
mazewar.e shows how to use those routines to do a specific botmatch, like
blindly find a random door in a maze. Included with this specific botmatch
are two bots: keyboard.bot and lucius.bot
Yes, you can control one of the two bots with the keyboard. The other bot is
the work of Lucius Hilley. It rans into a wall, and then follows it all the
way through.
The new botmatch routines now use sprites, and works in any video mode. (it
nicely scrolls along). The keyboard bot is thus controlled with the cursor
keys, however the numpad offers a set of tools:
Numpad '5': Turn follow mode on/off, when on, the current bot will be
magnetic and be followed.
Numpad '+': Make the next bot current.
Numpad '-': Make the previous bot current.
Numpad arrows: control the viewport. Works best when *not* in follow mode.
By default, you will be in follow mode.
The routines run in any TrueColor, MCGA, ModeX or VESA code due to the by
far superior graphics engine called Neil. For those of you who haven't heard
of it (it isn't available at RDS' site I noticed), you can get Neil at:
http://www.harborside.com/home/x/xseal/euphoria/
So, by now I hope you stimulated your curiosity enough, that you want to see
my tile-engine/botmatch-library in action:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~nieuwen
There is now a direct link on the front-page, you can instantly download it.
Just attack the word BOTMatch with the left button of you mouse, and you'll
be fine.
Robert, will you please add/update the botmatch file on the User
Contribution Page ? You can just have it point to:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~nieuwen/chambers/my%
20work/games/botmatch/botmatch.zip
Also, while you're at it, could you add my site to the 'Sites related to
Euphoria" ? Thanks in advance.
Now, about the future of BOTMatch:
Well, as to simple botmatches, the current code will do. However, I will do
a total rewrite (with all the experience I gained writing this engine) and
begin from scratch. I will at every point make sure, that 'botmatches' are
possible, but I will try to customize it more towards the generic
tile-engine for use in RPG/Advanture games, like the one Paul Martin is
developing. Actually like it appeared I ended up getting what I needed in
Neil (thanks), Paul will end up get whatever he want and is within my
abilities in BOTMatch.
Neil is, by far, the most superior graphics library for Euphoria, and there
is really not any logical reason to use any other, or the standard routines
that came with Euphoria. (if you need more convincing or are unclear how to
use Neil, instead of bothering Pete, you can sent me a mail as well. This
also gives me more time to bother Pete for new and even more nifty
features). And like Neil is the most superior, I want to create a tile/game
engine, that can be used for any type of platform game (above,
side-scrolling), which allows nifty things like visibility information,
animation sequence management, triggers, etc.
I could go all the way and built a sort of interpreter for some new
adventure/rpg language, however why would I abandon Euphoria's simple and
most perfect syntax ? I just need to make the EPI (end-programmer-interface)
so powerful and simple, the Euphoria code really looks like as if it was
written for a special Adventure/RPG interpreter. Together with my recent
eh.. say.. fascination for the ideas behind the language Prolog, I will try
to develop something that is easy, yet as extendible, flexible and powerful
as the end-programmer wants it to be. Is this much to ask? Hard to tell,
currently the bots are controlled pretty easy, however within an event based
system you could really say things like: "when I cant see anyone I will go
towards the sound that appears most like water" .. a perfect freedom for
RPG/Adventure developers, and you can also use it for platform games. You
can give them the 'magic' of a scripted movie like Half-life currently
has.(if you haven't played it yet, you really should. Way better enemies and
its simply a movie, but where you have control similar to any other 3D
shooter. The game really scares the crap out of me.)
So, if anyone has any suggestions for the model to base it on, please send
me a mail..
Also if anyone has any experience with Prolog and is well equipped with
Euphoria, please send me a mail. I would really love to see a prolog-library
for Euphoria... so all programmers out there looking for new projects.. Such
a thing will be appreciated allot.
Ralf Nieuwenhuijsen
nieuwen at xs4all.nl
ralf_n at email.com
Check out my website:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~nieuwen
