Random Announcement Lobby Interface

[Orby]

I bring you random announcement the lobby interface, and something very simple to add.

Open: ZGameInterface.cpp
Search for: void ZGameInterface::OnDrawStateLobbyNStage(MDrawContext* pDC)
Added:

	pLabel = (MLabel*)pRes->FindWidget("Lobby_RandomAnnounce");
	int RandomMsg = (timeGetTime() / (3 * 60 * 1000) % 2); // 3 min 
	int i = 0;
	for (i = 0; i < RandomMsg; i++);
	switch (i)
	{
	case 0:
  sprintf(buf, "Update: 0.0.0.1");
  break;
	case 1:
  sprintf(buf, "Welcome The Gunz!");
  break;
	}
	if (pLabel) pLabel->SetText(buf);

Open: Lobby.xml
Added:

  <LABEL item="Lobby_RandomAnnounce" parent="Lobby">
  <FONT>FONTa8_O2Wht</FONT>
  <TEXTCOLOR>
   <R>210</R>
   <G>210</G>
   <B>210</B>
  </TEXTCOLOR>
  <BOUNDS>
   <X>15</X>
   <Y>566</Y>
   <W>380</W>
   <H>20</H>
  </BOUNDS>
  <TEXT></TEXT>
  </LABEL> 

Credits: Avrora

[MentaL]

[Military]

Why not use a switch statement instead?

[Orby]

Why not use a switch statement instead?

thanks for the idea @Military Updated the code.

[sharpshot]

I bring you random announcement the lobby interface, and something very simple to add.

Open: ZGameInterface.cpp
Search for: void ZGameInterface::OnDrawStateLobbyNStage(MDrawContext* pDC)
Added:

    pLabel = (MLabel*)pRes->FindWidget("Lobby_RandomAnnounce");
    int RandomMsg = (timeGetTime() / (3 * 60 * 1000) % 2); // 3 min 
    int i = 0;
    for (i = 0; i < RandomMsg; i++);
    switch (i)
    {
    case 0:
  sprintf(buf, "Update: 0.0.0.1");
  break;
    case 1:
  sprintf(buf, "Welcome The Gunz!");
  break;
    }
    if (pLabel) pLabel->SetText(buf);

Open: Lobby.xml
Added:

  <LABEL item="Lobby_RandomAnnounce" parent="Lobby">
  <FONT>FONTa8_O2Wht</FONT>
  <TEXTCOLOR>
   <R>210</R>
   <G>210</G>
   <B>210</B>
  </TEXTCOLOR>
  <BOUNDS>
   <X>15</X>
   <Y>566</Y>
   <W>380</W>
   <H>20</H>
  </BOUNDS>
  <TEXT></TEXT>
  </LABEL> 

Credits: Avrora

Hey! The current logic is wrong, the switch statement inside the for loop might print multiple messages and not a random one.
You should just roll a random number between 1 and your Max Announcements amount, and then switch case statement on the number you rolled.
I also recommend to move the "if(pLabel)" condition to the very beginning because otherwise its redundant to run all the logic.

[zkxjzmswkwl]

What Sharp said is correct.

Also if for some reason you want to do this and not just use a web endpoint, store the strings in system.mrs\strings.xml and pull them from there. Supports localization/don't need to patch the executable if you'd like to change the strings.

That being said it's infinitely better to use a web endpoint that handles the "random" logic itself, and just send a request out to that when a user joins for the first time that session. Then you'd not have to update any files on a player's machine in order to change the announcements.

Or just have the MatchServer store the strings locally in a text file and request a random line from that text file via tcp and output it that way.

[megol]

and I think it would be even better to work with some xml in case you use the game's language system, so you will have it in different languages.
example:

		pLabel = (MLabel*)pRes->FindWidget("Lobby_RandomAnnounce");
		int RandomMsg = (timeGetTime() / (3 * 60 * 1000) % 2); // 3 min 
		int i = 0;
		for (i = 0; i < RandomMsg; i++);
		switch (i)
		{
		case 0:
			sprintf(buf, "%s", ZMsg(MSG_ANNOUNCE_1));
			break;
		case 1:
			sprintf(buf, "%s", ZMsg(MSG_ANNOUNCE_2));
			break;
		}
		if (pLabel) pLabel->SetText(buf);

also create a command similar to admin_wall to print what you write in that system would also be good, you can vary many things there depends on the creativity of each person, I already gave an idea.

[Orby]

The code is there for you, you can update the way you want.

- - - Updated - - -

and I think it would be even better to work with some xml in case you use the game's language system, so you will have it in different languages.
example:

		pLabel = (MLabel*)pRes->FindWidget("Lobby_RandomAnnounce");
		int RandomMsg = (timeGetTime() / (3 * 60 * 1000) % 2); // 3 min 
		int i = 0;
		for (i = 0; i < RandomMsg; i++);
		switch (i)
		{
		case 0:
			sprintf(buf, "%s", ZMsg(MSG_ANNOUNCE_1));
			break;
		case 1:
			sprintf(buf, "%s", ZMsg(MSG_ANNOUNCE_2));
			break;
		}
		if (pLabel) pLabel->SetText(buf);

also create a command similar to admin_wall to print what you write in that system would also be good, you can vary many things there depends on the creativity of each person, I already gave an idea.

Sorry @megol my dislike was by accident.

[Enough]

What Sharp said is correct.

Also if for some reason you want to do this and not just use a web endpoint, store the strings in system.mrs\strings.xml and pull them from there. Supports localization/don't need to patch the executable if you'd like to change the strings.

That being said it's infinitely better to use a web endpoint that handles the "random" logic itself, and just send a request out to that when a user joins for the first time that session. Then you'd not have to update any files on a player's machine in order to change the announcements.

Or just have the MatchServer store the strings locally in a text file and request a random line from that text file via tcp and output it that way.

But for this case, would it be necessary to restart the matchserver every time a local string (within the serverfiles) was changed?

[douth]

You could've just...

const std::vector<std::string> messages{ "Announce 1", "Announce 2", "Announce 3" };
const auto announceId = std::rand() % messages.size();
const auto announce = messages[announceId];

...

std::sprintf(buf, announce.c_str());

...

[zkxjzmswkwl]

But for this case, would it be necessary to restart the matchserver every time a local string (within the serverfiles) was changed?

No, not at all. Just close and re-open the file handle every 5 minutes or so. You can update the announcement file and it'll apply within ~5 minutes maximum. Seems fine to me.