[Adonthell-devel] RPG character and Map character integration

[Kai Sterker]

I've been working on the map view implementation and am currently at
the point, where a Python script (the view schedule) needs to update
the position of the map view based on the position of a character (so
that the view stays centered on the character as he moves around the
map).

The way the schedules are implemented, they get the instance of the
view (from which they can acquire the map) and a tuple with additional
arguments (which can only contain ints and strings, otherwise it
cannot be serialized when saving the state of the view). In order to
access the character from the schedule, I would pass in the character
Id. And that is where I ran into issues.

So far, we have two parts of the character implementation: one for
role playing purposes (containing the unique id) and one for moving
about on the map (containing graphics and location). And so far, they
are distinct. I checked the v0.3 code base, and there the map
character extended the rpg character class. But I do not really like
this implementation. The idea was to have all rpg characters
instantiated, even if they are not present on the current map, so that
they can be affected by plot related events (i.e. changing their
dialogue or schedule, stats or inventory). So it should be possible to
load the rpg character instance and place it on a map later. So here
are more ideas:

1) Let the map character instance be a member of the rpg character
class (as its graphical representation, which can be loaded or
unloaded at need).
2) When adding a character to a map, specify also the rpg instance Id
and keep in map character instance
3) Instead of just the Id, store the rpg instance itself in the map character
4) Keep mutual references from map character to rpg character and vice versa

The problem is, I do not know which would be the best. For each, I can
find pros and cons:

1)
+ The two character classes belong together. Given the Id, they can
easily be retrieved from the same place.
- Maybe there shouldn't be such tight relation between rpg and map stuff
- Given the map character instance, there's no simple way to get the
rpg instance (i.e. character fell from cliff, need check stats, apply
damage)

2)
+ Map and RPG stuff is kept separate
- Map and RPG Instances need to be retrieved from two different places
- We'll run into the same problem with items (also have rpg and map
instances), which have no unique id (yet). I'd rather find a solution
that works for both

3)
+ RPG character instance can be either accessed via Id or map character instance
- Maybe there shouldn't be such tight relation between rpg and map stuff
- Given just the id, there is no easy way to get the map character
instance (exactly the issue with the mapview schedule)

4)
+ Given Id or either map/rpg character instance, other instance can be
accessed very easily.
- design nightmare (cyclic references are evil)
- probably run into issues with building win32 dlls, which can't have
undefined references

With the above, I'd tend to solution #2. It shouldn't be a huge deal
to add a unique id to items in order to apply the same solution here.

But I'd also like to hear what you guys think ... any better ideas?

Kai