[Cuis-dev] The Cuis Book for Cuis 6

[Hilaire Fernandes]

Hi Tommy,

Le 16/02/2022 à 00:30, Tommy Pettersson a écrit :
>> I don't understand fully what you want to do, I should ask to physics
>> teachers in my school, but it will be interesting to play with an
>> improved version of the game.
>>
>>> The game already deviates from newtonian physics to be more
>>> enjoyable -- torpedoes point in the direction of velocity --
>>> but this is duely mentioned. My suggestion is to briefly
>>> also mention that a spaceship brought to rotate would
>>> continue rotating until stopped.
>> I will be more than happy to add paragraphs you think will improve the
>> quality of the book.
> To explain it in a simple way (I hope): to rotate a
> spaceship you have to accelerate a spinning motion by
> shortly firing opposite rockets on the sides.
>
> 	<==      ==>
> 	 O        O
> 	==>      <==

Got it!

Oh, you can improve the drawing of the ship too to represent the gas 
exhaust of these four thrusters.

> The spaceship will then continue to spin with constant speed
> until you fire the rockets again in the reverse direction,
> to decelerate the spin to zero.
>
> I first thought the game would be very difficult to play
> this way, but it turned out to be quite fun. You have to
> keep count on how many times you press the left button, and
> then press the right button equally many times to stop
> turning left. You can also accelerate to an insane spin, and
> rapidly fire all torpedoes in a pretty pattern around the
> ship.:-)
>
> I've attached a modified .pck.st file.

It is fun to play!

And it is even more fun, and rewarding, to see a reader (and reviewer) 
of the book to hack the game to improve it!

> I don't know the proper terms for spaceship piloting, so
> there is probably room for improvement. It turned out to be
> very little extra code, and pretty easy to understand.
> Smalltalk is fantastic in that regard. It may still be

There is this Alan Kay mantra about that at the beginning of chapter 7.


> totally unnecessary to complicate the example in the book
> with this extra feature though.

I want to keep the game simple enough, and only modify it to clarify it, 
as you helped me to do so. Nevertheless, your improvements of the game 
makes me think about a place where we suggest to the readers challenges 
to improve the game, then people will share their own package of the game.

> About torpedoe heading: in the Cuis 5 version, when the
> heading was only used to draw torpedoes, it worked. But in
> this version the acceleration of the torpedo is applied in
> its current heading, and that makes the torpedoes behave
> very unnaturally. If I speed up the ship enough, turn it
> around, and fire, the torpedo will actually turn around.
>
> So what do I want?

I think reader should just modify the game as they wish. If they do so, 
we can say the book is a success ;-) The game is an excuse to learn 
Cuis-Smalltalk, nothing more.

> I think my point is that the book uses the formulas from
> Newton's physics model to make it look more like a physics
> simulation than a game. The note about the torpedoes
> direction being an exception from true physics emphasizes
> this view.
>
> There's an excellent bookhttps://natureofcode.com/book/
> that explains the artistry behind making games feel natural,
> by being inspired rather than slavishly following the laws
> of physics.

Nice reference, thanks! Have you read the book in its entirety ?

>
> I think this distinction between games and physics
> simulations should be made clearer in the book, in case
> anyone reading it will become a spaceship pilot in the
> future.:-)

Ah Ah, I hope it will not be likely

-- 
GNU Dr. Geo
http://drgeo.eu
http://blog.drgeo.eu
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.cuis.st/mailman/archives/cuis-dev/attachments/20220216/6c4e81bf/attachment-0001.htm>