Actions

This section will have a look at actions, how they are created and handled during play and how to add new actions.

Overview of Action system

Actions are used to represent actions taken by characters. This include things like moving, fighting and drinking potions. Every time an action is taken by a character, new instance of Action class (or rather subclass of it) needs to be created.

Action creation during play

Actions are instantiated via ActionFactory, by giving it correct parameter class. For example, for character to move around, it can do it by:

(.execute (action-factory (MoveParameters character
                                          Direction.west)))

This creates a WalkAction and executes it, causing the character to take a single step to given direction. Doing this all the time is rather cumbersome, so there are convenience functions at pyherc.ports that can be used:

(move character Direction.west)

For checking if an action can be performed, following ways are generally supported:

(.legal? (action-factory (MoveParameters character
                                         Direction.west)))

(move-legal? character Direction.west)

The first example will always be supported. The second example is generally supported, but not always.

Interface

Each function at pyherc.ports should return either (Right character) if the action was succesfull, or (Left character) if it couldn’t be completed. First parameter of the function should be the character who is performing the action. Following these conventions allows us to define more complex actions as terms of simpler ones:

(defn lunge [character direction rng]
  (monad-> (move character direction)
           (attack direction rng)
           (add-cooldown)))

Character is threaded through consecutive calls. If any of the calls fail for any reason, calls after that one are automatically bypassed.

Extending

ActionFactory has been designed to allow easy adding of new actions. Each action has a respective factory function that can create it. These factory functions are registered at the startup of the system in pyherc.config.Configuration class. When an action is requested, each factory function is called in turn, until a correct one is found.

Factory function has general structure of:

(fn [parameters]
  (if (can-handle? parameters)
    (Just Action)
    (Nothing)))

If factory function can handle the request, new action is returned, wrapped inside Just. In case function can not handle this request Nothing is returned.