We all want to be able to make our own modifications to Blockland, whether to add new features, set or work around limitations, or change the way the game is played. The problem is that all of the code that controls game play is stored in encrypted files. One great feature that Blockland, and the Torque Game Engine it's based on, supports is encapsulation. For those of you that are new to programming, encapsulation at its most basic level means storing one item within another. Take a plastic Easter egg for example. The plastic egg is the container (the 'Parent') and the pieces of candy within are its children. You can't really change the way the egg (or 'Parent') works without destroying it, but you can change its candy (or children).
In Blockland, the Parent is the main game code. All the code stored in those .dso files cannot be changed. Now, when someone creates normal add-on code that does not overwrite any of the game's built-in functions, the creator's code becomes part of the main game code. If you overwrite a built-in function (serverCmdPlantBrick), you might lose a very important piece of functionality.
How do we get around this? Packages! Here's an example package:
package NewPackage
{
function paintProjectile::onCollision(%this,%obj,%col,%fade,%pos,%normal)
{
<any special actions you want performed when this projectile collides>
Parent::onCollision(%this,%obj,%col,%fade,%pos,%normal);
}
};In the above example, our NewPackage includes a method that adds to functionality of the paint can's projectile collision. Note that, after inserting our own, new code, we call the Parent (main game code) to run its normal collision code. We pass to the Parent::onCollision() method the exact same number of parameters that our method receives.
Now, before you run off to try this on your own, there's one very important line of code you'll need to add here:
activatePackage(NewPackage);Packages in Blockland or TGE can be enabled or disabled using activatePackage(<package name>) or deactivatePackage(<package name>). If a package if not activated, you cannot make use of its specialized methods.
Well, those are the basics. Just remember:
Parent (main game code.)
{
Packages (collections of our methods that extend the ones built into the game.)
{
Methods (individual functions that we create. must call Parent to retain original functionality.)
}
}
is how you do it
