[engine] MP Save Per Player

[watbesh]

Hello.

I'm coding some WML for MP modifications, and I found it could be useful if WML can split save-data for each players to put together later. It's hard to explain, so I use examples.

example 1: Character Sheets:

Do you play Tabletop RPGs? Sadly, I don't, but I know a little about how it works; each player brings his/her "character sheet" which includes character's stats, perks, abilities and items. It acts like a "save file". Players, not the Dungeon Master, have the character sheets, so you can play without a person who usually plays as the Thief, the Magic User, or even the Dungeon Master (by letting one of the party members do DM things). ...I think this can be done in BfW, by saving side's data (usually, gold, heroes and recruit/recall list) on each player's computer. Each player loads his/her saved data at the beginning of a "session", and WML handles a "scenario" and acts as the DM.

example 2: Collectible Card Game:

I used to play Yu-Gi-Oh a bit, so I know - you build a deck to use in the game. The easiest example is (probably) well-known "Pick-Your-Recruit Era", where a deck would consist of a leader and a recruit list. There can be other "magic" cards if coded in the era you play.

example 3: Rating System:

Rating systems itself shouldn't be implemented into BfW's MP server, but Save Per Player would partly enable this system (minus matchmaking part). Store your rating score as the save, and update as you win/lose against someone else with a rating score. Let's not talk about its feasibility though.

How it Works
I don't know very well about coding, so this may or may not actually work, but this is the best way of implementing it as far as I can think of.
- A "Load" function in WML, which shows a list of saved data available for the scenario. Keys include; the tag to filter the saves, and the "Empty" data in case the player has no saved data to use.
- A syntax to call the loaded data, so that WML can read and write those like variables. It should act like structures or arrays.
- Auto-save them every side-turn or new-turn, just like done in SP campaigns. Also the data should be able to be saved with a WML "Save" function, and may or may not manually by players. The "Save", automatically or with a WML function, would follow the format of the last "Load" function (plus a file-name if done with a function).
- All players' data could be stored in everyone's computers just in case.

...
(EDIT)

I believe you already can do that. Persistent variables + lua for unsynced actions.

I really had to learn Lua coding...

[Ravana]

I believe you already can do that. Persistent variables + lua for unsynced actions.

[gfgtdf]

You also can store/unsotre data from a selected players clients using get/set_global_variable

EDIT:
Sry didnt read Ravannas answer completely.

[Pentarctagon]

I believe you already can do that. Persistent variables + lua for unsynced actions.

As of 1.13.1 there's also a synced=yes/no key for [set_menu_item], which when set to "no" will unsync everything done as part of the menu.

[watbesh]

Thanks for the replies! I didn't expect that many replies.

[set_global_variable] and [get_global_variable] seem to work. Their wiki page says they allow to let multiple related campaigns communicate with each other, and can be used in MP scenarios.