Mission Accomplished: Time to Play - Programming GPS and OpenStreetMap Applications with Java - page 196

operations for intelligent decision making|again with minimum code to get
developers started. The chaser developers should be aware that Scotland
Yard is a cooperative game, since a single chaser can never catch the runner
alone. The developer can create teams of players communicating during
the game to share algorithms and coordinate a strategy.
The UDP broadcasting technique is described in Section 11.9. After
each coding session, the players should compete in a few games to gain
some experience and observe opponents. Finally, teams can compete in a
well-defined tournament. Note that these tournaments can also be held via
the internet with the developers sitting at home.
This chapter only suggests a concept for team development on a prede-
fined game application. Nevertheless, it is vital for the ROAF development
to distinguish between the game and the ROAF vision. Before investing
too much energy in the game, one should read the nal part of the topic
to make sure the useful improvements for the ROAF will become part of
the ocial online version.

13.3 Interactive GUIPlayer s
An interactive GUI player enhances the development process since it can be
directed by human intelligence. The player allows its operator to actually
see the game and to let him decide where to move.

The player extends

(assists) the operators eyes, hands, and brain.
This section details the client-server process at the application level and
can serve as an approach to other player implementations. First of all, the
GUIPlayer is a London Chase player:
class GUIPlayer extends LCPlayer
This construction combines the GUI and the player in one class. Two sep-
arate classes would require a third class to propagate information between
them. The main method reads the game settings from a local file, creates
player and GUI, and launches the player on a the local JVM. The developer
can choose to supply an initial property file or to store the file after the
first game. In addition, the player is supplied with a game map to support
real-world orientation.
Make sure that the server (i.e., ServerEngine ) is up and running to accept
new players. Once the GUIPlayer is running, the GUI provides the necessary
triggers to sign up at the server and play. For this special game, the
bounding box is predefined and the corresponding map image is loaded. It
can be displayed by clicking the checkbox.
When the user has clicked the button \connect server," the server is
looked up with the settings via the pre-implemented LCPlayer method:
lookupROApp ( host, port, name )