Bypass BZFS API - Game Timers & Countdown - Enable countdowns whenever with whatever timing for whoever

[Zehra]

One problem sometimes encountered is granting some form of a countdown within a game. Currently we just give it a starting point, activate it and watch the timer countdown. Instead, what if we could set timers/adjust them on the fly/extend games on demand? This is what is now possible!

Enable flags to have time limits, regardless if they are good or bad, give indicators for the duration of a powerup, set time limits for in game goals/races, show different countdowns depending on team objectives..etc

Here's how to do it:

Include bzfs.h and StateDatabase.h in addition to the standard bzfsAPI.h header. The way I compile plug-ins means it looks like this, but your results may vary.

Code: Select all

#include "bzfsAPI.h"
#include "../src/bzfs/bzfs.h"
#include "StateDatabase.h"

Now we just need two custom utility functions to enable all possibilities:

This one sends an individual timer for a single player:

Code: Select all

void sendPlayerTimerUpdate(int playerID, int timerUpdate)
{
  bufStart = getDirectMessageBuffer();
  buf = nboPackInt(bufStart, (int32_t)timerUpdate);
  directMessage(playerID, MsgTimeUpdate, (char*)buf-(char*)bufStart, bufStart);
}

And this one sends it to all players:

Code: Select all

void sendAllTimerUpdate(int timerUpdate)
{
  void *buf, *bufStart = getDirectMessageBuffer ();
  buf = nboPackInt (bufStart, (int32_t) timerUpdate);
  broadcastMessage (MsgTimeUpdate, (char *) buf - (char *) bufStart, bufStart);
}

Sending any positive value will "activate" the timer if it hasn't been started, or change it if it is already started. Or resume it if the timer is paused:
Example: sendAllTimerUpdate(30); will send a timer of 30 seconds. sendAllTimerUpdate(-1);[/b] will pause any active timer.
In short the following grant timers of 60 seconds:

Code: Select all

sendAllTimerUpdate(60);
sendPlayerTimerUpdate(playerID, 60);

While the ones below will pause the timer:

Code: Select all

sendAllTimerUpdate(-1);
sendPlayerTimerUpdate(playerID, -1);

It's relatively simple to use and merely requires keeping good track of the timers set/sent.

The only slight issue may be issues with replays, but this is relatively minor compare to most problems:
From the code, it appears that Direct messages in terms of packets aren't recorded.
This may be seen in the void directMessage(int playerIndex, uint16_t code, int len, void *msg) compare to void broadcastMessage(uint16_t code, int len, void *msg) which appears to contain methods for recording packets.

Hopefully someone finds this fun and useful!

-Zehra