than they have) or (if the opposite is the case) move towards for purposes of
attack. If they see no enemy, they search for and consume "magic meat".
-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
+Every move of yours re-writes a file "save" that describes the new state of the
+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 "save" file. To
start over in a new world, simply delete this file.
System requirements / installation / running the game
own window manager choice, instead of relying on plomrogue-client's bizarre
in-client window management.
-Replay game recording
----------------------
-
-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.
+Save files and replay game recording
+------------------------------------
+
+By default, the game state is saved in the file ./save, and read from there on
+(server) restart. Another file name to use can be given with the -l option (i.e.
+start the game with "./roguelike -l alternate_savefile"). To start over in a new
+world, remove ./save, or use the -l option with the name of a file that does not
+exist yet.
+
+Once you start a new world, every game action of yours is appended to a file
+called "record_" plus the save file name. 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 playback at the respective turn number. (Don't forget to delete /
+empty a game's record file when deleting its save file, or different game's
+moves will get mixed up in one record file.)
Hacking / server internals and configuration
--------------------------------------------
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
-(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
+(written to by ./roguelike-client), ./confserver/world, ./record_save and
+./save.
+
+All source files are thoroughly documented to explain more details of the
+PlomRogue engine'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 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.
Normal mode
-----------
-In normal mode, the server on start up checks for the existence of ./savefile
-and, on success, reads all commands from it. If no savefile exists, commands
-from ./confserver/world are read instead – and written to the file ./record.
+In normal mode, the server on start up checks for the existence of ./save and,
+on success, reads all commands from it. If no save file exists, commands from
+./confserver/world are read instead – and written to the file ./record_save.
Afterwards, the command "MAKE_WORLD" with the current Unix time as argument is
-interpreted (and also written to ./record).
+interpreted (and also written to ./record_save).
In any case, from then on, further commands are read in from ./server/in. New
commands must be appended to the file – which is what the client does. All
-commands from ./server/in except meta commands are also written to ./record.
+commands from ./server/in except meta commands are also written to
+./record_save.
Every fifteen seconds, if any turns have passed, ./savefile is written – with a
list of all god commands necessary to recreate the current world state. On each
Replay mode
-----------
-In replay mode, commands from ./record are read. If a turn number is given as an
-argument, the file is read until the given turn is reached, or, if the turn
-number is higher than the last turn of the recorded play, the last turn. If no
-turn number is given as argument, the record file is replayed until turn 1 is
-reached. Meta commands in ./record are not understood.
+In replay mode, commands from ./record_save are read. If a turn number is given
+as an argument, the file is read until the given turn is reached, or, if the
+turn number is higher than the last turn of the recorded play, the last turn. If
+no turn number is given as argument, the record file is replayed until turn 1 is
+reached. Meta commands in ./record_save are not understood.
From then on, ./server/in is also read. Meta commands sent by the client are
interpreted normally, but any player and god command merely furthers reading of
-./record by one line and is otherwise ignored.
+./record_save by one line and is otherwise ignored.
Command list
============