SwarmMind-Server

The Server for the SwarmMind game.

Getting Started

Clone the repository and run an npm install. After cloning you go to the file node_modules/flatten-js/index.js and change the last line in the file from module.exports = f to module.exports.default = f. Then you can build with npm run build and start with npm run start.

Exchange format

The server communicates with the client via socket.io events.

Commands

Besides the connect and disconnect events, we provide a listener on the command event. This event needs 3 arguments. unitID, which has to be the ID of the unit that should receive the command, type, which has to be either move or shoot and direction, which has to be north, south, west or east.

State

After each processed round the server sends the new state, using a state event, containing the new roundID, to every client.

The format of the state (as JSON) looks like the following:

{
    "round": 42,
    "players": [
        {
            "ID": 0,
            "x": 1,
            "y": 3
        },
        ...
        {
            "ID": x,
            "x": 3,
            "y": 7
        },
        ...
    ],
    "npcs": [
        {
            "ID": 0,
            "x": 3,
            "y": 7
        },
        ...
    ],
    "commands": [
        {
            "type": "shoot",
            "direction": {
                x: 1,
                y: 1
            },
            "ID": 0
        },
        ...
    ]
}

As you can see, the JSON object contains a member roundID, which holds a number and a member mapObjects, which holds an array of object. Each of them has a member ID, which contains a string, that is either unit or npc, followed by a number that, identifies the unit or the NPC. Also each of them has the members posXand posY, with the exact current location of the object on the grid.

When a client connects, the server sends him an initState event. The initState contains the current game state and has the following structure, where state holds an state object with the exact same structure as the JSONabove and config holds an object with the configuration. At the moment config only holds the members sizeX and sizeY, where the size of the grid is stored.

{
    "state": {
        ...
    },

    "config": {
        "width": 73,
        "height": 42,
        ...
    }
}

Game Over

If the game is over (because all units have been killed), the server sends an gameOver event without any arguments.