NFTs and custom items, Townforge scripting language, a web interface, and new testnetHey all Townforgers!
Sorry its's been a while. There's so much to report that it's hard to list down all the cool stuff while doing justice to all the effort e.g. Mooo's put into things.
NFTs and custom itemsIn Townforge v0.28 further support for custom items as NFTs were implemented as part of in-game consensus and economy.
Some highlights:
- Custom items upon creation can be embedded with Townforge Gold into them; this TFG can later be redeemed by destroying the item.
- Players can create custom items; upon creation of custom player items, the following fields can be determined and a fixed amount of items is created, possibly embedded with TFG, and with a mutable secondary description available, essentially making NFTs possible:
As an example, see creation of Syksy's custom NFT item "Token of Initiation", which I coupled with a 200x200 png image of an early prototype for a Townforge logo and 100 instances of this digital token were created into the Townforge network:
After this, these items can be interacted with in Townforge as any other items; they can be put up for sale, given to other players, etc:
In this case, the intention for this token is to be rewarded to players upon finishing playing a "tutorial script". Which brings us to...
Townforge scriptsScripts are a custom language that can be added to Townforge blockchain by GMs (i.e. me and Mooo). They are intended for example:
- Storyline scripts that try to bring lore into the game ("global scripts")
- Interesting person-specific interactions; in-game item "Runestone" can be embedded with a Townforge script. A basic script could be for example a "welcome sign"; we approve and push to the chain a simple script containing a string variable that is allowed to be modified by a player. The player then embeds it into a runestone placed next to the their cool lot. The modifiable field could be the welcoming sign "Welcome to <some player defined string>, %P!", where %P gets replaced by playername, and this script runs as a pop-up window to anybody clicking the runestone.
- Much more complex scripts can be defined which support script-session specific variables (they disappear when a script finished), player specific variables (player accounts can obtain "permanent" characteristics, e.g. intended for roleplay), or global (these apply to everybody starting a script anywhere, and have potential in e.g. co-operative roleplay)
- Townforge scripts are essentially state machines, where player actions (or random chance) propagate these states until a script ends.
Let's take an example of a simple gambling script, with 51% chance of the script owner (being the main game account) winning a single TFG coin from the player, and 49% chance that player wins a single TFG from the game account:
Once GM has pushed the script to the blockchain, its source code is fully visible. Players can partake in the script, although there's no need to if they don't want to. The scripts can't break consensus rules (such as take money from game account or a player beyond its balance).
Progressing in the script happens when player picks choices; the consensus checks script progression and changes state acccordingly:
For example, upon starting the script, 1 TFG is reserved from my account in the "Thrall's Gamble" script as we don't yet know the outcome of this gambling script (the player may lose or gain a TFG coin by placing a bet against the game):
Looks like playing thrice resulted in me with a net loss 1 TFG to the game
well, house always wins eh...
Some of you have pointed out that the game is missing "war" mechanics. These could be implemented using Townforge scripts even post-launch. Remember that Token of Initiation NFT-item I just created? Yep, it's fully compatible with Townforge scripts, and as long as the game account would have these items they could be handed out as rewards. The possibilities are vast.
TownforgeR / web interfaceA common request is a web interface to Townforge. I've been working on an R Shiny interface, which connects to the Townforge daemon's RPC and sends JSON requests, obtaining information on game state:
TownforgeR is available at:
https://github.com/Syksy/TownforgeR... but note it's highly experimental. But it's kind of a proof-of-concept that anybody can extend Townforge to the direction they wish, as it's essentially aiming to be a web-friendly game client alternative.
TownforgeR works via R statistical language; right now it's communicating with the Townforge daemon's RPC that I have running in the background; here's a simple example for asking in JSON what's the current block height:
However, R Shiny coupled with the package allows web interfaces, so I fire up TownforgeR::shinyTF()
Suddenly we have a nice, web-interface (search functions, rearrangable tables, ...) to the game:
It's very early, but I think you get the point. In the future I hope that I can implement wallet-functionality, so player can not only extract info on game state, but also send input (i.e. game actions). Essentially this would be a web interface to the game.
Testnet v0.28Some of the above stuff came with v0.28, and we're still testing out stuff. As you might imagine, a lot of testing is required with the NFTs, scripts, and other features, so it's almost certain that this won't be the last testnet.
I'll soon post some TFG containing invitation codes for people who want to kick start their game. As always, remember our merge-mining pool at
https://pool.townforge.net which allows you to mine testnet TFG with mainnet Monero without extra effort.
... stay tuned for more
