Fix some inconsistencies in files README and SERVER_COMMANDS.

[plomrogue] / README

diff --git a/README b/README
index 1264d3cb5e3688dbf51f576eb9d82fab98d64491..ce60e55572fd4d3fdf6922e21cb63a78c8cd69bd 100644 (file)
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -5,42 +5,42 @@ plomlompom tries to build his own roguelike. It doesn't do much yet (although
 plomlompom has insanely ambitious long-term plans).
 
 You can move around a player on an island and meet different enemies. You have 5
 plomlompom has insanely ambitious long-term plans).
 
 You can move around a player on an island and meet different enemies. You have 5

-hitpoints to lose before death; they start with different amounts of hitpoints,
-depending on their species. Your score grows by killing enemies, to the amount
-of hitpoints each killed enemy started with. Dead enemies become dirt, skeletons
-or "magic meat"--such objects can be collected, and "magic meat" can be consumed
+hitpoints to lose before death. Enemies start with different amounts of
+hitpoints, depending on their species. Dead enemies become dirt, skeletons or
+"magic meat" -- such objects can be collected, and "magic meat" can be consumed

 to gain hitpoints. Note that different kinds of movements/actions take different
 numbers of turns to finish.
 
 Enemies' AI is very dumb so far: Each turn, they try to move towards their
 to gain hitpoints. Note that different kinds of movements/actions take different
 numbers of turns to finish.
 
 Enemies' AI is very dumb so far: Each turn, they try to move towards their

-path-wise nearest enemy. If no enemy is found in their surroundings, they just
-wait.
+shortest-path-wise nearest enemy (any animate being of a different species)
+visible to them. If they see no enemy, they just wait.

 
 

-Note that diagonal movement is possible, but takes (40%) longer than orthogonal
-movement.
-
-Once you start a new world, every move of yours is recorded in a file called
-"record". Once you re-start the game, all of your previous moves are replayed
-automatically up to the point wherere you left the game. To start over in a new
-world, simply delete this file.
+Every move of yours re-writes a file "savefile" that describes the new state of
+dthe world, if more than 15 seconds have passed since its last writing. Once you
+re-start the game, the game state is recreated from the "savefile" file. To
+start over in a new world, simply delete this file.

 
 System requirements / installation / running the game
 -----------------------------------------------------
 
 The game is expected to run on Linux systems that contain the ncurses library.
 
 System requirements / installation / running the game
 -----------------------------------------------------
 
 The game is expected to run on Linux systems that contain the ncurses library.

-Do the following steps:
+(It may also work on other Unix-like systems with ncurses, who knows.) Do the
+following steps:

 
 $ git clone https://github.com/plomlompom/plomrogue
 $ cd plomrogue
 
 $ git clone https://github.com/plomlompom/plomrogue
 $ cd plomrogue

-$ make
+$ ./redo

 $ ./roguelike
 
 $ ./roguelike
 

-(It may also work on other Unix-like systems with ncurses, who knows.)
+(If you got a redo build system installed and in your $PATH, you could also do a
+simple "redo" instead of "./redo". The ./redo script calls a simple partial
+shell script implementation of redo stored below build/redo_scripts/, written by
+Nils Dagsson Moskopp a.k.a. erlehmann.)

 
 

-Note that make generates two executables ./roguelike-server and
-./roguelike-client. ./roguelike is a pre-existing shell script that merely
-executes both of them, with the server as a background job. You can also
-ignore the script and start the two by hand.
+./redo generates two executables ./roguelike-server and ./roguelike-client.
+./roguelike is a pre-existing shell script that merely executes both of them,
+with the server as a background job. You can also ignore the script and start
+the two by hand.

 
 Client's keybindings and window management
 ------------------------------------------
 
 Client's keybindings and window management
 ------------------------------------------


@@ -49,8 +49,8 @@ In the client's default window configuration, the window appearing on the left
 sports a list of keybindings available globally, and additionally via the window
 selected as active.
 
 sports a list of keybindings available globally, and additionally via the window
 selected as active.
 

-Hit "w" (per default keybindings) to switch the "active" window to a view that
-allows changing its geometry. One more hit on "w" switches the window to a view
+Hit "W" (per default keybindings) to switch the "active" window to a view that
+allows changing its geometry. One more hit on "W" switches the window to a view

 that allows changing its window-specific keybindings. The global keybindings can
 be changed in the "Global keys" window, those of the window geometry
 configuration in the "Window geometry keys" window, and those of the
 that allows changing its window-specific keybindings. The global keybindings can
 be changed in the "Global keys" window, those of the window geometry
 configuration in the "Window geometry keys" window, and those of the


@@ -71,40 +71,30 @@ in-client window management.
 Replay game recording
 ---------------------
 
 Replay game recording
 ---------------------
 

-Run "./roguelike -s" to watch a recording of the current game from the
-beginning. Hit any player action key to increment turns (they will not trigger
-the actions usually mapped to them, only repeat the actions done at that point
-in the game as defined in the "record" file). Keys to manage windows, scroll on
-the map and quit the program do their usual thing. Append a number to the -s
-option (like "-s100") to start the recording at the respective turn number.
+Once you start a new world, every move of yours is recorded in a file called
+"record". It gets overwritten when a new game world is started after deletion
+of the "savefile" file. Run "./roguelike -s" to watch the current game's
+recording from the beginning. Hit any player action key to increment turns (they
+will not trigger the actions usually mapped to them, only repeat the actions
+done at that point in the game as defined in the "record" file). Keys to manage
+windows, scroll on the map and quit the program do their usual thing. Append a
+number to the -s option (like "-s100") to start the recording at the respective
+turn number.

 
 Hacking / server internals and configuration
 --------------------------------------------
 
 
 Hacking / server internals and configuration
 --------------------------------------------
 

-The movements/actions available to the player and the enemies are defined and
-can be changed in ./confserver/map_object_actions. Each entry consists of a
-first line of a numerical ID used internally to uniquely identify and manage the
-action, a second line of the number of turns the action takes, and a third line
-of a string that maps the action to the game logic to do when it is called.
-Finally, a delimiter line of "%%" ends the entry.
-
-The different map object types, i.e. species (including the player's human one)
-and item types, can be edited in ./confserver/defs. Here the first value is a
-numerical ID that represents the object type, the second one describes what type
-this object decomposes to when it gets destroyed/killed, the third value is the
-ASCII character used to represent the object visually on the map, the fourth
-value is the number of hitpoints the object starts with (items are dead and
-start with zero hitpoints, anything else moves), the fifth is the string that
-names the object in the game log. Finally, the same delimiter as for the map
-object action definitions file follows. Note that the only valid item use so
-far, consuming "magic meat" to gain hitpoints, is so far hard-coded (this should
-change in the future).
+The game world is set up and made subject to player commands by
+./roguelike-server. It's controlled by commands explained in the file
+./SERVER_COMMANDS. The server usually reads these from the files ./server/in
+(written to by ./roguelike-client), ./confserver/world, ./record and ./savefile.

 
 All source files are thoroughly documented to explain more details of
 plomrogue's internals. The ./roguelike-server executable can be run with a -v
 option for helpful debugging info (mostly: what messages the client sends to the
 server). Server and client communicate via files in the ./server/ directory
 
 All source files are thoroughly documented to explain more details of
 plomrogue's internals. The ./roguelike-server executable can be run with a -v
 option for helpful debugging info (mostly: what messages the client sends to the
 server). Server and client communicate via files in the ./server/ directory

-(generated when the server is first run). The ./server/in fifo receives commands
-for the server as null-terminated strings. The ./server/out file contains a
-serialized representation of the game world's data as it is to be available to
+(generated when the server is first run). The ./server/in file is read by the
+server for newline-delimited commands. The ./server/out file contains server
+messages to be read by clients. The ./server/worldstate file contains a
+serialized representation of the game world's data as it is to be visible to

 the player / the player's client.
 the player / the player's client.