Player actions

Unstable: everything in this chapter needs the unstable feature and may change in any release (Stability).

A mod that lets players or administrators do something, such as letting a friend open a chest or picking a reward, declares it once as an action, and the platform offers it in the game’s own interface:

• on the mod’s page of the Mods screen, in the game’s settings rows and buttons;
• for an action with a hint, as a line on the HUD while what it acts on is at hand, such as “[F7] Who may use it: your locker at (2, 10, -4)”, with a key that opens a window of the mod’s actions right there;
• on the server’s console, as the mod’s id, the action and its values, such as a line in a dedicated server’s command file.

Actions are the only way players and administrators act in game: the client keeps typed / lines to itself, and single player has no chat.

use enshwick::actions::{Action, Arg, Outcome, Value};

fn init(load: &mut enshwick::Load<'_>) -> Result<(), enshwick::Off> {
    let texts = load.texts("[en]\n\"set\" = \"Change the weather\"\n")?;
    let actions = load.actions(texts)?;
    let kinds = [("clear", "Clear"), ("rain", "Rain"), ("storm", "Storm")];
    actions.add(
        Action::new("set", "set")
            .admins()
            .arg(Arg::choice("Weather", &kinds))
            .arg(Arg::number("Minutes", 1.0..=60.0, 1.0)),
        move |request| match request.args {
            [Value::Choice(kind), Value::Number(minutes)] => {
                Outcome::done(format!("{} for {minutes} min", kinds[*kind].1))
            }
            _ => Outcome::refused("Pick a weather"),
        },
    )?;
    Ok(())
}

An administrator now finds “Change the weather” under Actions on the Mods screen, with a dropdown and a slider. With the mod’s id weather, the console line weather set storm 10 runs it too, and weather help lists the actions.

Declaring

load.actions(texts) returns the mod’s Actions; call it once, during init, on both sides of a join mod alike. Texts are keys of texts, the mod’s translations, shown in each player’s language; a key without a text shows as it is, so plain English works too. actions.add(action, handler) declares one action:

Builder	What it does
Action::new(id, label)	a button; id is 1 to 32 of [a-z0-9-], its name on the console
Action::per_player(id, label, on)	a list of players with a switch each; on names the players switched on
.help(key)	a line under the label and in the console’s help
.arg(Arg::...)	an argument, in order: player, choice, number, toggle
.allow(fn), .admins()	who sees the action and may run it
.at(fn)	what it acts on for a player, or why there is nothing, which the player reads beside it
.hint()	a HUD line and the key while the subject is at hand; needs .at

Arguments are typed choices, never free text: a player online, picked from a list and named on the console; one of a few options; a number in a range with a step; on or off. A list shows the players online and the ones on names, so a player switched on can be switched off while away.

Handling

The handler runs on the server’s game thread, where world reads work, with a Request: the player, the subject .at found for this run, the values picked in the order of the arguments (a list hands Value::Player and Value::Toggle), the player’s language and where it came from, Via::Interface or Via::Console. request.say(key, values) fills the mod’s text in the player’s language. It returns an Outcome, Outcome::done(text) or Outcome::refused(text): from the interface the text shows as one of the game’s notices and on the screen that sent it; from the console it is the console’s answer.

The server decides everything. It checks .allow and runs .at again on every run, whatever the client showed, and refuses values outside their types and ranges before the handler sees them. A mod’s own permission rules, extension points included, belong in .at, so the interface, the hint and the console all follow them.

The platform’s replies, such as “No player named Bob.”, are under actions.* keys and take the mod’s texts over them.

From the console

A console line names the mod by its id, then the action and its values as words: a player by name, a choice by its word, a number, on or off. A list takes a player and on or off: you.trading-post access Ann on. <mod id> help lists the actions with their words. The console is an administrator with no character, so request.player.entity is 0, .admins() lets it in, and an .at that looks for something near the player finds nothing. Answers are in English.

Where it works

Actions run in the game server: the dedicated server, and a client while it hosts a game, single player included. The interface needs Enshwick on the player’s client. The window and the Mods screen page ask the server each time they open, and the server sends the hints a player has at hand once a second while they change. The key is F7, actions_key in the loader’s settings, read only while the game’s window has the focus and the HUD shows.

Worked example

enshwick-personal-safes declares who may open a Safe as a list action with a hint: .at finds the Safe at hand, the player’s own first, through the mod’s own rules and its extension point; on names the players allowed there; a second action, list, names them.

Testing

With the test feature, the fake loader asks the actions as the loader does: ask_actions(ActionCall::SHEET, &player, language, "", "") returns the sheet, which actions::sheet::decode reads, ask_actions(ActionCall::RUN, ...) runs one from the interface, and console::run("<mod id> <action> ...") runs the console form: the fake hands a line to the mod’s own actions unless console_answer gave its first word an answer.