Evolution - Programming GPS and OpenStreetMap Applications with Java - page 212

From City to City to Country
Improving the map without changing the software seams to be a good start.
From a purely technical aspect, the CityChase (CC) application runs with
a network that has three features (vehicle types) and about 200 stations.
Therefore, another variation from LC is to move the scenario from London
to another city; if subway links are to remain part of the game, the city
should have a subway.
For the Navigator project, Germany was stripped down to its major
cities according to their population, and it will make sense in a little while
to move the CC scenario back to Germany. The GER map also represents a
network with three features and 38 cities ( stations, nodes). Therefore,
the CC software should also work with this map. The country map adds a
higher magnitude or different granularity to the game parameters in terms
of traveling distances.
From Scenario to Scenario
Of the 38 destinations of the GER map, the largest and internationally recog-
nized cities are Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, and Frankfurt. One CC ROApp
server could be set up for each city to allow the developer community to
test their players in different environments. Each player, running on a
private smart phone, PC, or CPU JVM could set the RO properties to a
dedicated city, register, enter, and play.
The longer traveling distances on the GER map modify the character of
the game. The operators (i.e., the people behind the players) can not be
expected to watch their RO traveling along the Autobahn for hours without
any chance to leave it. The necessity to automate players becomes obvious,
and a new type of ROApp can support this.
This additional ROApp can also run on its own machine, with the same
software. The technical challenge now is the implementation of a single sign
on mechanism and generalized entry and exit rules. All CC ROApp servers
( GER , B , H , M , and F ) run with identical CC software and have contracts with
each other to form one \world." Their networks have to have connectors
for players to enter a scenario.
In this server cloud (see Figure 14.3), the player should learn to find
his way from city to city. For example the CC rules could require every
player to enter at a city not having its own CC server. Then, the player
can travel to Munich, for example, and the GER application would automat-
ically register the player on the CC-M ROApp, since the authentication
and authorization has already been done. Once the CC-M hands over
the city's network, the player could play games until he decides to leave
(or run away from) the scenario and travel to the CC-F scenario. The
ROApp servers could set up a scoring system to keep track of every player