StendhalDesign

This small doc tries to create an agreement on what stendhal is about and what it needs to include. It considers the existing [Roadmap] and tries to give a coherent vision of what we are trying to create.

Please use the Discussion tab (found in the menu at the top of the page) to query about things or make suggestions.

Plot

Stendhal's plot is to grow Sheep by taking them with you to the plains or forest to graze.
The task is not as simple as it may sound though, as you will have to protect them from hungry wolves! Use your skill, strength and wit to destroy the attackers.

Lambs must first be bought at a Farm and later sold at the Village when they are plump enough. For each Sheep you sell, when fully grown, you will get extra income.

You will need to spend your money on new weapons, armor and healing potions.

As you can see Stendhal is a minigame that will try to push and thus test everything related to a fully blown RPG:

• task
• actions
• areas

If Arianne is a successful platform to get Stendhal working, the only issue is scaling up the result. :)

Design

Idea

The whole game area will look like:

http://arianne.sourceforge.net/wiki_images/Stendhal_Map.jpg

It is split in to 4 different areas to test the multizones feature of Arianne.
Players need to change zone in order to accomplish their task.

Use cases description

We need to use several use cases to describe our game.

Player's user case

Player is an entity that play the game, it can move, chat, attack, heal.

  Player enter village in entry point
  Player moves to Farm zone

  Player talks with Sheep seller
    Player: Hi
    Seller: Greetings! How may I help you?
    Player: buy Sheep
    Seller: Do you want to buy a Sheep for 50 coins?
    Player: yes
    Seller: Thank you! Bye

  Player moves. Sheep follows Player.
  Player moves to plains
  Player moves around looking for food
  Player protect Sheep of wolves attacks

  When Sheep is big enough Player moves to Village
  Player talks with Sheep buyer
    Player: Hi
    Buyer: Greetings! How may I help you?
    Player: sell Sheep
    Buyer: Do you want to sell this Sheep for 73 coins?
    Player: yes
    Buyer: Thank you! Bye

  Player spend money in new Sheep and equipment
  * Armor
  * Weapon
  * Healing potions

Sheep seller's user case

This seller is a NPC entity that will sell us a sheep to grow it up and make money.

FOREVER do:
  Listen to Player

  If listen "Hi":
    Seller says "Greetings <Player>!"

  If listen "Buy Sheep" from Player:
    Seller says "Do you want to buy a Sheep for 50 coins?"

  If listen "yes" from Player:
    If Player money - 50 > 0:
      set Player money=Player money - 50
      Duplicate Sheep
      Make Sheep follows Player
  Say bye to Player
DONE

Sheep buyer's user case

This buyer is a NPC entity that will buy us our sheep.

FOREVER do:
  Listen to Player

  If listen "Hi":
    Seller says "Greetings <Player>!"

  If listen "Sell Sheep" from Player:
    Estimate Sheep value related to Sheep weight
    Seller says "Do you want to sell buy a Sheep for <estimated price> coins?"
  
  If listen "yes" from Player:
    set Player money=Player money + <estimated price>
    Destroy Sheep
  
  Say bye to Player
DONE

Sheep's user case

Sheep is our key game concept. Sheeps must be grow up to earn money and buy stuff.

  Sheep is in Farm
  Player buys Sheep
  Sheep seller duplicates Sheep
  Sheep follows Player

  If Sheep finds food:
    Sheep moves to food
    Sheep eats food
    Sheep gains weight

  Player sells Sheep
  Sheep dissappear

Wolf's user case

Wolf is the compitive entity on Stendhal. They join to attack sheeps and often also players. They can kill a sheep in not a long time.

  Wolf moves
  If Wolf sees Sheep:
    Wolf attacks Sheep
  
  If Wolf is attacked:
    Wolf attacks Attacker

Entities

The above user cases describe the need for the following entities in our system:

• Sheep
• Sheep seller
• Sheep buyer
• Wolf
• Player
• Food
• Armor
• Weapon
• Healing potion

Let's describe each entity and its attributes and actions.

Sheep

A sheep has the following set of attributes:

• x is the x-position of the sheep
• y is the y-position of the sheep
• dx is the x-speed of the sheep
• dy is the y-speed of the sheep
• hp is the life indicator of the sheep, when it reach 0 the sheep dies.
• weight is the weight indicator of the sheep, the more weight, the more expensive it is.

Sheep tasks should be:

• follow
• eat

The sheeps behaviour is mainly to follow its owner and look for food.
If the Sheep finds food, it will eat.
Sheep will runaway if attacked by wolves.

Wolf

Wolves have the following set of attributes:

• x is the x-position of the sheep
• y is the y-position of the sheep
• dx is the x-speed of the sheep
• dy is the y-speed of the sheep
• hp is the life indicator of the sheep, when it reach 0 the sheep dies.
• atk is the RP attack value. See StendhalDesign#RP

Wolf tasks should be:

• follow
• attack
• patrol
• chat

Wolf behaviour consists of patrolling some assigned areas.
If the Wolf finds a Sheep, it will attack Sheep.
If the Wolf is attacked, the Wolf returns the attacks.
If the Wolf is injured, the Wolf will runaway.

Sheep seller and Sheep buyer

The buyer and seller have the following set of attributes:

• x
• y
• dx
• dy
• attending

seller and buyer tasks would be:

• patrol

NPC behaviour consists of listening to people near them.
If person says "Hi", NPC faces person and generates conversation.

Player

The player has the following set of attributes:

• x
• y
• dx
• dy
• hp
• atk
• money

It has three slots:

• armor
• hand
• backpack
• flock

Player tasks should be:

• move
• attack
• chat

Food

Food has the following set of attributes:

• x
• y
• quantity

Food will be regenerated every X units of time.

Pseudocode

It is a good idea to first write pseudo code of how the design ideas should be implemented, as it will allow us to spot problems that are later harder to solve.