Turn system

[Starlight-30036225]

Currently either player can make a move with any piece whenever they want, with no respect for turns or timing. I need to implement a turn system

[Starlight-30036225]

The first thing to be done for the creation of this system is to stop players from making moves if it isn't their turn. So on the server side i will keep track of which player is currently in focus(its their turn) and if the requested move comes from this player, allow it, otherwise ignore.

I will want this check to be optional for testing purposes, but in the final version this needs to be permanent.

[Starlight-30036225]

private void HandleMove(ConnectionHandler Handler){
        String Composite = Handler.readNextString();

        if (testmode && Handler != focusedPlayer) {return;}

        //gets the start location of the move/piece location
        int Piecex = Character.getNumericValue(Composite.charAt(0));
        int Piecey = Character.getNumericValue(Composite.charAt(1));
        //gets the end location of the move
        int Movex = Character.getNumericValue(Composite.charAt(2));
        int Movey = Character.getNumericValue(Composite.charAt(3));

This check should stop players from taking moves out of their turn

it is important this gatekeeping happens after the move string is read so it can be cleared from the buffer.

[Starlight-30036225]

Now I need to assign one of the clients to this variable.

Whichever player connects first should be fine for now.

[Starlight-30036225]

    protected void SendWelcomeMessage(ConnectionHandler CH) {
        if (focusedPlayer == null) {
            focusedPlayer = CH;
        }

        CH.sendMessage(PacketHeader.BOARD_STATE, game.LoadNotationFromMap());
    }

This code is run when a player connects to the server, the first player will be focused.

I will now swap the focused player after a successful move Problem here is I dont have a reference to the other player to swap with. So I need to create a secondary reference.

        if (focusedPlayer == null) {
            focusedPlayer = CH;
        }
        else if(unfocusedPlayer == null){
            focusedPlayer = CH;
        }

        CH.sendMessage(PacketHeader.BOARD_STATE, game.LoadNotationFromMap());
    }

Updating the assignment here inadvertantly creates a simple spectator. Any client connected after the first two will still be in the player pool but never allowed to make a move.

[Starlight-30036225]

        ConnectionHandler temp = focusedPlayer;
        focusedPlayer = unfocusedPlayer;
        unfocusedPlayer = temp;

This should toggle the players after a successful move.

Lets test it.

[Starlight-30036225]

White player makes a move

white player tries to make another move

Move fails

Black player makes a move

Black player tries to make another move

Move fails

Success

[Starlight-30036225]

Now I need to work on colours being assigned. As currently, I am having to assign colours to the two boards manually.

I rewrote most of the code from this issue to make this work.

I realised that swapping between two pointers was pretty redundant, I could just use a boolean and a conditional operator.

    @Override
    protected void SendWelcomeMessage(ConnectionHandler CH) {

        if (!testmode) {
            if (WhitePlayer == null) {
                WhitePlayer = CH;
                CH.sendMessage(PacketHeader.WELCOME, "WHITE");
            } else if (BlackPlayer == null) {
                BlackPlayer = CH;
                CH.sendMessage(PacketHeader.WELCOME, "BLACK");
            }
        }
        CH.sendMessage(PacketHeader.BOARD_STATE, game.LoadNotationFromMap());

    }

This snippet assigns the new pointers to incoming connections, and sends the player a welcome packet, notifying them of their colour.

This change also greatly simplifies the changes made in the move function

        if (!testmode && Handler !=
                (white? WhitePlayer :BlackPlayer)) {return;}

               ...
                ...

        if (testmode) {return;}
        white = !white;

Now on the client side, I need to allow it to receive a new packet header. As expected, the player client detatches the string from the packet header and passes it onto the player master via this function:

    public void receiveWelcomePack(String WelcomePack) {
        switch (WelcomePack.substring(0, 5)) {
            case "WHITE" -> Board.White = true;
            case "BLACK" -> Board.White = false;
            default -> {
            }
        }
        Board.printMap();

    }

[Starlight-30036225]

The next step is preventing players from making moves with pieces of a different colour. This should be easy enough.

After the piece location is calculated, Ill add a check to see if the colour is correct.

        if (game.board[Piecex][Piecey] == null ||
                (!testmode && game.board[Piecex][Piecey].white != white)) {return;} //Piece is invalid or wrong colour