Life Simulation Game - Design a Lifeform
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Design a Lifeform
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Strategy
A lifeform is implemented using a COM automation server. At present, programming knowledge is required to create one - if you would like an option to create lifeforms without requiring programming knowledge, email me to say so.
Sample code for the "plant" lifeform is available for download here as a Microsoft Visual C++ project.
Each lifeform requires a class description such as "plant.plant" which can be used to register the COM class. This must be unique on the target PC so don't re-use these names.
The COM automation server must have the following properties:
[id(1)] long Energy;
[id(2)] BSTR IndividualName;
[id(3)] BSTR SpeciesName;
[id(4)] BSTR ClassDescription;
[id(5)] long XPosition;
[id(6)] long YPosition;
and the following methods:
[id(7)] void Initialise(IDispatch* poWorldDispatch);
[id(8)] BSTR NextAction();
Note that "long" is a four byte integer for non-C++ implementors.
When your lifeform is initialised, you will be passed a pointer to the world object. You should store a reference to this, and use it subsequently to find out information about the world. The World object has the following COM properties:
[id(1)] long MaxX;
[id(2)] long MaxY;
and the following methods:
[id(3)] BSTR GetSpeciesName(long X, long Y);
[id(4)] BSTR GetIndividualName(long X, long Y);
[id(5)] short IsOccupied(long X, long Y);
[id(6)] BSTR LastAction(long X, long Y);
[id(7)] long GetGreennessOfGrass(long X, long Y);
When passing parameters, the coordinates are zero-based, so they range from 0 to 9 in the default world.
Defining your lifeform's behaviour
You lifeform's behaviour is determined by your response to the method call "NextAction". Your implementation should return a string of one of the following forms:
"SitStill"
"Eat(1,0)", "Eat(-1,0)", "Eat(0,1)" or "Eat(0,-1)"
"Defend"
"Move(1,0)", "Move(-1,0)", "Move(0,1)" or "Move(0,-1)"
"Reproduce(1,0)", "Reproduce(-1,0)", "Reproduce(0,1)" or "Reproduce(0,-1)"
Note that the 1s and 0s passed as parameters are X and Y offsets respectively from the lifeform's own cell, so (-1,0) is the cell to the left, and (0, 1) is the cell above etc.
Not all parameter values are checked by the world, so please be careful not to crash it!