Here's what our class will look like and our initialization of the array. This way, we won't bombard player slot 0 with a lot of sneak attacks. Why -1? Because player slots start from 0, so a negative value will be apt. We'll be initializing the values for the entire array to -1, which will mean that there is no sneak attack planned yet. In the above int array, we'll have the following values: sneakAttack = 5 If that doesn't make sense, let's consider the following situation: Player 0 would like to perform a sneak attack on Player 5. Here's how the structure will behave: sneakAttack = int sneakAttack Īnd just like that, we've got 256 records one for each player slot even the reserved player slots. Let's create an array that will be able to handle information for all of our players on the server. Heads up! Depending on how complicated the information you're handling is, a vector or a map may be better suited.

We'll be storing most of our stateful data in simple arrays since they're faster than vectors or maps. When we would like to keep stateful data, we'll be declaring the necessary variables in the class definition of the plug-in and initializing those variables to default values in our Init() function.

A good number to remember is: 256 this is approximately the maximum number of player slots a BZFlag server can handle (some numbers are reserved, so it's actually less). What stateful data do we need to keep track of? We need to keep track of whom a player has specified as their target. If a server were to restart or the plug-in is unloaded, then all this data would be lost. Any stateful data stored this way will remain in the server's memory. This information could be thought of as 'global variables,' however it's still within the scope of the plug-in (they're actually instance variables). This is a common requirement when building plug-ins especially to communicate data between different events, slash commands, functions, etc. This is the current state of the CTF match. This boolean will be used when checking whether or not to allow a player to grab a team flag. We'll keep a boolean of whether or not CTF is currently enabled.

During a CTF game, we need to check if the teams are fair.

How does the server remember that the player cannot talk each time the player tries to send a message? This is stateful data, the server needs to remember the current state of the player and their inability to talk.

On a server, a player has been /mute'd by an admin.

I won't go into detail what stateful data is because there's a Wikipedia page for it but I will give an example. Stateful Data in Plug-ins to 'Stateful Data in Plug-ins' section

If a player has used the /sneak command, their next spawn location will be dictated by the plug-in.

When a player uses the /sneak command, they will be specifying which player's location they would like to spawn at.

In this chapter, we'll be building a plug-in that allows players to respawn at the same location as a player of their choice. Plug-in Specification to 'Plug-in Specification' section In the last chapter, we went over how slash commands worked at a very basic level and today we'll be going in-depth with slash commands and stateful data. lagwarn - display or set the maximum allowed lag timeĪnd /lagstats? will output: /lagstats - list network delays, jitter and number of lost resp.Interstellar space pirate extraordinaire įor those of you who think I write these chapters ahead of time, you're wrong. lagstats - list network delays, jitter and number of lost resp. For instance, /lag? will output: /lagdrop - display or set the number of lag warings before a player is kicked Part or all of a command followed by a question mark will show only matching commands. flaghistory - list what flags players have grabbed in the past countdown - start the countdown sequence for a timed game checkip - check if IP is banned and print corresponding ban info banlist - List the IPs currently banned from this server ban - ban a player, ip or ip range off the server As an example: /? - display the list of server-side commands Running /? by itself will display all the commands along with a simple one-line explanation for each. There is also in-game help for the various server commands.

Bzflag commands