December 2015
LLOB update
Steve Mitchell: “I’ve been busy with Lore Lords in the last few weeks. After adding recruitment targets I decided to switch focus to the ‘testing interface’ to be able to start issuing and reading system messages. These messages are how the game simulation is going to react to the human players and AI players. I now have the first command issuing message working (setting the destination for a target leader) and resulting reporting (confirming the change). The test console interface has been added using a windowed display with some basic buttons and text areas, however it will allow me to issue any command as any user and see any reports – very handy when testing. I can now set any one of 160 leaders to any of 3120 destinations and watch the debug data as they fight their way across Britain!”
“I’ve even tested including a built in HTTP server, as eventually external users will communicate with the game via either email or HTTP. Although initially running through ‘localhost’ on port 8080, I will switch to a static IP accessed via a domain name later when we get real users. However there are no web pages (no PHP or HTML files on the server) planned. My initial tests are using HTTP and GET for incoming data and python creating a dynamic return HTTP response for debug. As my standardised message structure currently uses XML (less curly brackets than JSON and more familiar to HTML users), I will add initial support for that in a bidirectional connection. JSON may be added later, as many programmers are becoming more used to this data interface.”
“Connections will be authenticated by username password. Early days here however, just testing combining the HTTP server running in python within the same program as the simulation. However, I won’t complete the HTTP prototype interface until I have a need for multiple human users. I can cope with my resident test interface for now. Nice to see the HTTP proof of concept up and running though.”
