Imperialism Remake Developer Manual

Current development in Python using PyQt5.

Contents:

Coding

Conventions

Note

Currently only as unordered list. Improve (regarding contribution and origin of material).

• Each (significant) submission will be reviewed by another team member who might modify it further.
• Tests have to be programmed for all major parts. Tests have to be performed regularly.
• Code that syntax errors should never be submitted.
• Doc comments have to be added for all methods / classes / modules at submission level. At the latest when the code has matured extensive documentation is a must.
• Always add the GPLv3+ header to new files. Also add name and creation year. They indicate your consent to the open source license.
• Task driven development with short tasks is preferred.
• If chats are conducted, the log will be archived online. Any private information will be deleted before.
• Everything is conducted in the most simple and straightforward way. If a well supported/mature library is available, which is not too complex or overpowered on it’s own, we will always prefer it to coding self.
• Minor tasks will have minor priority. Top priority is always to make the game running, everything else comes later.
• We will not sacrifice clarity for a fast hack. A hack that works somehow but cannot be sufficiently explained or a hack that requires cumbersome or unmotivated modifications should be rejected and the code should be redesigned instead.

Wisdom

• Do not import QtWebEngineWidgets before importing QtCore, app will not exit properly on Windows with PyQt5

State

Short overview of the functionality of the game at current version 0.2.2.

• It shows a start screen with sensitive areas (help center, game lobby, preferences, editor, exit)

• It plays some background music (can be muted in the preferences)

• It displays some html pages (context sensitive) when clicking on the help center or on the little question marks in dialogs

  • The manual has to be built with tools/build_documentation.py before
  • The help is displayed in a browser on the running system, an implementation using QtWebEngine is available but not switched on

• The preferences dialog has a toolbar with placeholder icons (not made yet, see the tooltips for meaning) switching the widget below and some basic stuff to configure

• The editor screen allows to load the one scenario that is included (core/Europe1814.scenario), also a new scenario cac be created and an overview about the nations and provinces can be seen (as a list in the dialogs shown when clicking on the placeholder icons in the toolbar), set terrain (context menu on the map) might not work yet, graphics like borders, rivers, terrain is very crude, navigating the mini map with updates of the map should work

• The game lobby offers four tabs controlled by placeholder icons (start single player scenario inbuilt, load single player scenario, server game lobby, start multiplayer scenario)

  • Clicking on Europe1814 in the first tab shows a scenario preview which allows to select a nation and clicking on “start selected scenario” should show the main game screen but so far shows only a non-functional skeleton

• Internally there is a client-server infrastructure which communicates over TCP/IP as well as a scenario class which hold terrain, nations and provinces and allows to manipulate them

Algorithms

Note

Just some keywords.

• Map graphics (semi procedural)
• Railroad/Resource connection test
• Trade logic
• Battle logic
• AI (Diplomacy, Economy, Military)

Scenario

Introduction

Server Scenario

Scenario Editor

Scenarios can be edited completely with the scenario editor. Game rules are soft coded. Game logic must of course be somewhat hard coded but we try to allow as much freedom as possible.

During development, need to update between versions!

Scenario parameters * Name of scenario * Description of scenario * Date (year, season), Turns, … * Map (see Map parameters) * Major country description * State of industry, work force, army, specialists for each country * State of research, diplomatic relations, gold for each country

Map parameters * Name * Size * Distribution of terrain, resources, infrastructure * Borders, Provinces, Name of provinces * Countries (Major, Minor)

Client Scenario

Scenario File Format

Game data is stored in zipped YAML (JSON like) files. We have scenarios. Saved games are also valid scenarios. There is automatic saving. Upon starting (loading) a scenario, some parameters can be changed, but not all.

Adjustable parameters of stored save games upon load: * Player nation * Difficulty level of AI opponents

If a scenario file refers to sub-files, store a hash value to make sure the referred file is the valid one.

During development, need to update between versions!

Network

Introduction

We use a thin client, that has little to no knowledge about the game mechanics. Communication with the server is via TCP and messages. Messages are simple data structures that are being sent between client and server. They can also be seen as updates or events. The underlying library Qt signals new messages which are then serialized/deserialized (zipped/unzipped). Internally messages are handled by setting listeners to channels.

The server listens on a port, each client is connected to the server by a connection. However clients could be disconnect(ed) during the process, so we must allow re-connection.

Server

• Upon start the server binds to a port, then listens for incoming connections.
• Every new connection is assigned a temporary status.A validation message is sent (regularly) which invalidates the state. If correct return comes, status is kept valid.
• Client should send ID (for re-connecting) or request to get new ID.

Client

source

imperialism_remake package

Subpackages

imperialism_remake.base package

Submodules

imperialism_remake.base.constants module

imperialism_remake.base.network module

imperialism_remake.base.switches module

Global switches (and default values).

imperialism_remake.base.switches.DEBUG_MODE = True

global switch for DEBUG MODE

imperialism_remake.base.switches.FILE_EXISTENCE_CHECK = False

global switch for checking existence if files in constants (not needed if we are creating these files)

imperialism_remake.base.tools module

Module contents

Package base

Very basic functions needed from packages client and server. May only rely on package lib.

imperialism_remake.client package

Submodules

imperialism_remake.client.audio module

imperialism_remake.client.client module

imperialism_remake.client.editor module

imperialism_remake.client.game module

imperialism_remake.client.graphics module

imperialism_remake.client.lobby module

imperialism_remake.client.preferences module

imperialism_remake.client.server_monitor module

Module contents

Client package.

User interface, editor and network connection.

imperialism_remake.lib package

Submodules

imperialism_remake.lib.network module

imperialism_remake.lib.qt module

imperialism_remake.lib.qt_webengine module

imperialism_remake.lib.utils module

Module contents

Package lib

Non game specific code.

imperialism_remake.server package

Submodules

imperialism_remake.server.scenario module

imperialism_remake.server.server module

Module contents

Server package.

Network organization, Client organization, AI.

Submodules

imperialism_remake.start module

Starts the application (a client and a server). Start in project root folder and with ‘–debug’ as parameter if wished.

imperialism_remake.start.get_arguments()

Parses command line arguments.

imperialism_remake.start.get_configured_logger(user_folder, is_debug)

Obtain configured logger, depending on location of user folder and debug mode (set by command line).

imperialism_remake.start.main()

Main entry point. Called from the script generated in setup.py and called when running this module with python.

imperialism_remake.version module

Current version (short and full names).

Module contents

Package imperialism_remake

• Index
• Search Page

Documentation created on Jan 23, 2018