Making a team-based mini-game: need help with the team making system.

Dear ComputerCraft experts,

I am making a PVP based mini-game using MiscPeripherals. You need to make teams and I was wondering how I could do this. My dad said I had to use an array, but I have no idea how to use it. He has more than 20 years experience with programming. Could someone maybe give me a push in the right direction?

How it works is as follows:
First the first team has to assemble. This means every player in the waiting room has to sign in. This as well for the second team. If a team has more players than the other, the team with less players has to agree with it.

What I like to do is write out everything I need my program to do first. It makes it a bit easier, for me at least, to see what exactly I need to do.

So let's do that shall we?

GamerNebulae, on 22 June 2013 - 04:16 PM said:

First the first team has to assemble.This means every player in the waiting room has to sign in. This as well for the second team. If a team has more players than the other, the team with less players has to agree with it.

I'd suggest taking a look here for a nice table tutorial. Tables in lua are not hard to use.
If you have a lot of players I would suggest have several Player Detectors sending the player name and team to a main computer.

As for evaluating team size, well that's actually very easy. In the link above there is a section on the '#' operator. I'd suggest reading that if you want to get team size. After that it's a simple if statement.

Links I think you will find useful:
Modem API Wiki Page
os.pullEvent Wiki Page
MiscPeripherals Page

This is what I have for now:

function TeamMaking()
  for x = 1,4 do
    while true do
      event, player = os.pullEvent("player")
      if event == "player" then
        teamOne[x] = player
      end
    end
  end
end

peripheral.wrap("right")
teamOne = {}

The thing with player detectors is that they dont return a side. So they must click like this: redplayer blueayer redplayer blueplayer etc.

If you dint understand the code, give me a PM or just here :)/>

local teamplayers = nil
repeat
   teamplayers = tonumber(read())
until teamplayers

local redteam = {}
local blueteam = {}

for i = 1, teamplayers * 2 do
   local _, player = os.pullEvent('player')
   if i % 2 == 0 then
      redteam[#redteam.+ 1] = player
   else
      blueteam[#blueteam + 1] = player
   end
end

this should work, written from my ipod

peripheral.wrap("right")
teamOne = {}

function TeamMaking()
  for x = 1,4 do
	while true do
	  event, player = os.pullEvent("player")
	  if event == "player" then
		teamOne[x] = player
	  end
	end
  end
end

That should work, but like Engineer said, if you are getting both teams from the same input then you would have to have each player specify which team.
Alternatively you could just have 2+ player detectors and each one could be a different team.

GamerNebulae, on 22 June 2013 - 06:16 PM said:

This is what I have for now:

function TeamMaking()
  for x = 1,4 do
	while true do
	  event, player = os.pullEvent("player")
	  if event == "player" then
		teamOne[x] = player
	  end
	end
  end
end

peripheral.wrap("right")
teamOne = {}

What if there is more than 4 players? You should have some way of telling the players that couldn't make it on the team. (ex. "1vannn cannot join this team because there is already 4 people joinned!")

Also, I think there is a way of doing this - a math.random loop until that team is filled. So it'll be like this..

if teamOneCount > 1 and teamTwoCount > 1 then
   numb = math.random(1,2)
   if numb == 1 then
	 teamOne[x] = player
   else
	 teamTwo[x] = player
  end
end

I don't think thats such a bad idea. Of course friends trying to play together wouldn't like it..

This is what I had in mind, not the most pretty, but it should work:

function TeamMaking()
  for x = 1,4 do
    while true do
	  term.clear()
	  print("Any more players? Y/N")
	  term.setCursorPos(23,1)
	  anyMorePlayers = read()
	  if anyMorePlayers == "N" then
	    numberPlayersTeamOne = x
	    for x = x,4 do
		  teamOne[x] = "noPlayer"
	    end 
	    return false
	  else
	    event, player = os.pullEvent("player")
	    if event == "player" then
		  teamOne[x] = player
	    end
	  end
    end
  end
end
peripheral.wrap("right")
teamOne = {}

GamerNebulae, on 23 June 2013 - 03:56 AM said:

This is what I had in mind, not the most pretty, but it should work:

function TeamMaking()
  for x = 1,4 do
    while true do
	  term.clear()
	  print("Any more players? Y/N")
	  term.setCursorPos(23,1)
	  anyMorePlayers = read()
	  if anyMorePlayers == "N" then
	    numberPlayersTeamOne = x
	    for x = x,4 do
		  teamOne[x] = "noPlayer"
	    end 
	    return false
	  else
	    event, player = os.pullEvent("player")
	    if event == "player" then
		  teamOne[x] = player
	    end
	  end
    end
  end
end
peripheral.wrap("right")
teamOne = {}

Whats up with the infinite loop? That will infinetlly waitor a player..
I siggest you do something more controlled maybe something like *cough* I *cough* created..

Engineer, on 23 June 2013 - 04:01 AM said:

GamerNebulae, on 23 June 2013 - 03:56 AM said:

This is what I had in mind, not the most pretty, but it should work:

function TeamMaking()
  for x = 1,4 do
	while true do
	  term.clear()
	  print("Any more players? Y/N")
	  term.setCursorPos(23,1)
	  anyMorePlayers = read()
	  if anyMorePlayers == "N" then
		numberPlayersTeamOne = x
		for x = x,4 do
		  teamOne[x] = "noPlayer"
		end
		return false
	  else
		event, player = os.pullEvent("player")
		if event == "player" then
		  teamOne[x] = player
		end
	  end
	end
  end
end
peripheral.wrap("right")
teamOne = {}

Whats up with the infinite loop? That will infinetlly waitor a player..
I siggest you do something more controlled maybe something like *cough* I *cough* created..

that's not true. I have to iron out if it has 4 players it isn't gonna wait for the fifth, but it should work.

Sorry, but no, it won't work.

You first create a "for" loop, where "x" starts at 1 and increments with each iteration until it would go above 4. That's ok, but then you put a "while" loop inside it that'll iterate forever. Meaning that not one single iteration of the "for" loop surrounding it will complete and "x" will always be 1, as the "while" loop will never end and let the "for" loop continue.

Hence it'll keep asking if you want more players until you finally tell it "N", at which point it'll finally stop - but not before ensuring that no players are in your table.

Without the "while" loop, it'll do pretty much what you want it to do.

One poster wanted to set up something a lot like this, where the system determined which team each player would be on as they walked past the computer according the side of the machine they walked past. Seemed like a good way to do it to me. The idea is that you'd put pressure plates on either side of the computer and pull the player events whenever they were stepped on.

Total rewrite. It started to don't make any sense anymore.

function TeamMaking()
  numberOfPlayers = read()
  numberOfPlayers = tonumber(numberOfPlayers)
  for x = 1,numberOfPlayers do
    while true do
	  event, player = os.pullEvent("player")
	  if event == "player" then
	    teamOne[x] = player
	    return false
	  end
    end
  end
end
peripheral.wrap("right")
teamOne = {}

event, player = os.pullEvent("player")
if event == "player" then
	teamOne[x] = player
	return false
end

This is the part that confuses you, because you have put in a filter "player" in the os.pullEvent, it will only trigger when that even happens. So:

local teamMaking = function()
   local numberOfPlayers = nil
   local t = {}
   repeat -- This part will keep asking until you put in an actual number
	  numberOfPlayers = tonumber(read())
   until numberOfPlayers
   for i = 1, numberOfPlayers do
	   local _, player = os.pullEvent("player")
	  t[#t + 1] = player
   end
   return t
end

-- You dont have to wrap to the player detector
local teamOne = teamMaking()

But, I think this is a better way of doing it: (because its pretty straightforward)

local teamplayers = nil
repeat
   teamplayers = tonumber(read())
until teamplayers

local redteam = {}
local blueteam = {}

for i = 1, teamplayers * 2 do
   local _, player = os.pullEvent('player')
   if i % 2 == 0 then
      redteam[#redteam.+ 1] = player
   else
      blueteam[#blueteam + 1] = player
   end
end

But its up to you really

To come back at those os.pullEvents, you need to have a while-loop, otherwise the event will not happen and the stuff under the os.pullEvent will happen. After some experimenting with tables I found out (I don't have the latest version of CC, wired modems are not implemented yet) that tables you send over rednet are strings. So now I send over the names via rednet and the PC will make a table out of it. Another computer will keep track of the score and time. I will post all of my foundings after it is done.

GamerNebulae, on 25 June 2013 - 05:39 AM said:

To come back at those os.pullEvents, you need to have a while-loop, otherwise the event will not happen and the stuff under the os.pullEvent will happen.

Your while loop does not cause events.

GamerNebulae, on 25 June 2013 - 05:39 AM said:

After some experimenting with tables I found out (I don't have the latest version of CC, wired modems are not implemented yet) that tables you send over rednet are strings. So now I send over the names via rednet and the PC will make a table out of it.

You might find textutils.serialize() useful. It can convert a table to a string that can later be converted back again.

Bomb Bloke, on 25 June 2013 - 06:21 AM said:

GamerNebulae, on 25 June 2013 - 05:39 AM said:

To come back at those os.pullEvents, you need to have a while-loop, otherwise the event will not happen and the stuff under the os.pullEvent will happen.

Your while loop does not cause events.

GamerNebulae, on 25 June 2013 - 05:39 AM said:

After some experimenting with tables I found out (I don't have the latest version of CC, wired modems are not implemented yet) that tables you send over rednet are strings. So now I send over the names via rednet and the PC will make a table out of it.

You might find textutils.serialize() useful. It can convert a table to a string that can later be converted back again.

I know a while loop will not cause events, but the os.pullEvent will keep going until something happens. That is what I meant to say.