Skip to content

PLAYING.md

Latest commit

 

History

History
124 lines (98 loc) · 5.83 KB

PLAYING.md

File metadata and controls

124 lines (98 loc) · 5.83 KB
Raw

Playing Schemaverse

Connect as your player role (psql -h <server> -U <you> schemaverse) or log in to the web interface. Everything below works in both.

The clock

The game advances in tics (SELECT last_value FROM tic_seq;), usually one a minute. Each tic: ships move, then every enabled fleet script runs as its owner, then queued actions resolve (attack, repair, mine), planets regenerate, damage settles, and NOTIFY tic fires. Rounds last ROUND_LENGTH; at the end the universe is rebuilt and everyone starts over with trophies awarded for the round that ended. SELECT * FROM public_variable; lists every rule value.

What you can see

Relation What it is
my_player You: balance, fuel reserve, symbol, colour.
my_ships Your living ships with their controls. INSERT to buy, UPDATE to rename, steer or set an action, DELETE to scuttle.
ships_in_range Other players' ships inside one of your ships' range.
planets Every planet. mine_limit is how many ships can mine it per tic.
planets_in_range Planets inside your ships' range, with distance.
my_fleets Your fleet scripts.
my_events What happened to you, plus public events. read_event(id) makes a sentence of one.
event_archive Earlier rounds.
my_missions The tutorial track and what you have completed.
my_query_store Your saved queries.
player_stats, current_stats, online_players, trophy_case Standings and who is around.

Since 2026 the base tables (ship, planet, fleet, event, player, variable) are readable too: row level security shows you your own rows, and \d+ my_ships shows you exactly how the view is built.

What you can do

Call Effect
INSERT INTO my_ships(name) VALUES ('x') Buy a ship on one of your planets (1000). Skills default to 5 each; pass attack, defense, engineering, prospecting summing to at most 20.
SELECT ship_course_control(ship, speed, direction, destination point) Set a course. Give a direction or a destination. Ships burn fuel to change velocity.
UPDATE my_ships SET action = 'MINE', action_target_id = planet WHERE id = ship Mine every tic while in range. Also 'ATTACK' and 'REPAIR' with a ship as target.
SELECT attack(ship, enemy_ship), repair(ship, ship), mine(ship, planet) The same actions, once, right now. One action per ship per tic.
SELECT refuel_ship(ship) Fill a ship from your reserve.
SELECT upgrade(ship, 'ATTACK', n) Buy skill, MAX_HEALTH, MAX_FUEL, MAX_SPEED or RANGE. Prices in price_list.
SELECT upgrade(fleet, 'FLEET_RUNTIME', minutes) Buy running time for a fleet script. The first minute is free.
SELECT convert_resource('FUEL', n) Fuel to money, or 'MONEY' the other way.
SELECT check_missions() Claim any mission you have completed.
SELECT set_numeric_variable(name, n) Your own persistent variables, for scripts.

Mistakes and refusals arrive on your error channel: LISTEN <channel> with the channel from my_player.error_channel, or watch the web interface.

Fleet scripts

A fleet is a PL/pgSQL script that runs as you every tic, for as long as its purchased runtime allows.

INSERT INTO my_fleets(name) VALUES ('miners');
UPDATE my_fleets SET
  script_declarations = 's RECORD; target integer;',
  script = $$
    FOR s IN SELECT id FROM my_ships WHERE action IS NULL LOOP
      SELECT planet INTO target FROM planets_in_range WHERE ship = s.id ORDER BY distance LIMIT 1;
      IF target IS NOT NULL THEN
        UPDATE my_ships SET action = 'MINE', action_target_id = target WHERE id = s.id;
      END IF;
    END LOOP;
  $$,
  enabled = true
WHERE name = 'miners';
SELECT upgrade(id, 'FLEET_RUNTIME', 1) FROM my_fleets WHERE name = 'miners';

Scripts compile once per tic. Failures are logged as FLEET_FAIL events with the error text; a script that runs past its runtime is disabled.

Conquest

A planet belongs to whoever mined it most in a tic, ties to the holder. Ships can only be built on planets you hold. Planet fuel regenerates each tic up to PLANET_REGEN_CAP.

New players

Depending on the server's preset, newcomers may get a stipend, a protected home zone for GRACE_TICS, and spawn placement away from big fleets. Ask SELECT name, numeric_value, description FROM public_variable WHERE name IN ('GRACE_TICS','LATE_JOIN_STIPEND','SHIP_UPKEEP','UPGRADE_PRICE_SCALE');.

Sharing

Some of the game is public, and the web interface serves it to anyone without a login: /players (standings), /player/<name> (a profile with its trophy case), /fleets and /fleet/<id> (shared fleet scripts), /replays and /replay/<round> (the public events of a round, scrubbable by tic). Each page has a link-preview card, so a profile or a script unfurls when you paste it in chat. The pages read through the spectator role, which can see only what every player can already see about everyone else.

A fleet script is private until you publish it:

UPDATE my_fleets SET shared = true WHERE name = 'miners';   -- appears in shared_fleets and at /fleet/<id>
UPDATE my_fleets SET shared = false WHERE name = 'miners';  -- gone again
SELECT id, name, username FROM shared_fleets;              -- everyone's published scripts

Copy someone's script into a fleet of your own:

INSERT INTO my_fleets(name) VALUES ('borrowed');
UPDATE my_fleets SET script = s.script, script_declarations = s.script_declarations
  FROM shared_fleets s WHERE s.id = 42 AND my_fleets.name = 'borrowed';

The same views answer the public pages: trophy_case, player_stats, player_round_stats, player_profile, shared_fleets, and event_archive (WHERE public).

Trophies

SELECT * FROM trophy; shows every trophy and the SQL that decides it. Propose one with an INSERT; the owner approves it. Winners appear in trophy_case.