CPSC 231: Assignment 7 (Worth 8%)

"The Hobbit is a tale of high adventure, undertaken by a company of dwarves, in search of dragon-guarded gold.  A reluctant partner in this perilous quest is Bilbo Baggins, a comfort-loving, unambitious hobbit, who surprises even himself by his resourcefulness and his skill as a burglar.

Encounters with trolls, goblins, dwarves, elves and giant spiders, conversations with the dragon, Smaug the Magnificent, and a rather unwilling presence at the Battle of the Five Armies are some of the adventures that befall Bilbo.  But there are lighter moments as well: good fellowship, welcome meals and song."

• The 2D character array that represents Erebor has been declared and initialized with the proper starting positions (as shown in the partially completed program 'hobbit.p' in the assignment directory).   Characters are used to represent different things in this game: "*" is a solid wall, "B" is the hobbit Bilbo, "C" is the dwarven chalice, empty areas are represented with spaces  ("F" will be used to represent Smaug's fireballs in the full version of the game).  Your representation of Erebor must use these starting positions.  Smaug does not physically appear in the game, only his fireballs appear (in the later version) so you don't have to allocate array elements to show him onscreen.

• After initialization the program will loop until the player chooses to quit the game (there are no win or lose game conditions for this version of the game).

• For each iteration of the loop the game will do the following:

1. The array is displayed onscreen along with the alphanumeric legend along the left and top of the array.  The variable "hasChalice" in the main procedure is set to false so your program should display a message indicating that Bilbo is still searching for the chalice.  (In later versions of the game the message displayed here will depend upon whether it is true or false that Bilbo has reached the chalice).

2. The main menu will display two options: (m): move Bilbo to another square, (q): to quit the game.  For this version of the assignment, only the quit game option has to work .  In addition the main menu will contain a 'hidden' (meaning that it doesn't show up when the other menu items are shown onscreen) cheat menu that will shown up if option 'C' or 'c' is selected. 

3. When invoked from the main menu, the cheat menu will display three options: (d): Turns debugging mode on or off (set the global variable 'debugOn' to true or false)², (t): teleport Bilbo.  The teleport option need not be implemented for this version of the assignment, (q): quit the cheat menu and return to the main menu.  Note: entering and leaving the cheat menu uses a player's turn and causes time to pass.  For this version of the assignment there is no visible effect to the player, the program is in "mode 1" by default and nothing aside from the player is moving in Erebor.   In the fully working version (when mode 2 & 3 have been implemented) Smaug's fireballs will appear and disappears after the player has expended his or her turn.

Extra features:

Unless indicated or there is some other compelling reason you can implement the features below in whatever order or combination that you desire.  Correctly implementing basic assignment and all the extra features makes you eligible to receive an "A+" (GPA = 4.3!).   The "other submission requirements" (shown below) and the coding style requirements must also be fulfilled.   Prior to implementing the features below you should get the 'teleport' option in the cheat menu working (to allow you and your marker to be able to quickly test your program).  Implementing some of the features below but missing the teleport option will  cost you two letter "steps" so don't forget to do it.   The teleport option will allow Bilbo to magically disappear from his current square and reappear in any other square inside the array except for ones that contains a wall.

1. Bilbo can move (worth 1 letter 'step'): When option 'm' is selected at the main menu the player will be shown the choice of movement options that are possible.  The values 1 - 4 and 6 - 9 correspond to the 8 compass directions that the Bilbo can move (selecting option 5 will allow the player to pass on his or her move).   When Bilbo moves, the square where he currently resides will be cleared and he will appear at his new destination .  The program should continue prompting the player for a direction if a value outside of this range of 1 - 9 is entered for the direction.  You do not have to check if the destination square is occupied to receive credit for this feature (that's to be implemented in the next feature).  If the player moves onto an occupied square then it will appear that Bilbo has 'erased' the character that was previously located there.

2. The program checks that the destination doesn't contain a wall (worth 1 letter 'step'):  If the player tries to move Bilbo into a wall then the program should display a suitable error message and continue prompting the player for a movement direction until either one is provided or direction '5' is entered (don't move).   If the player moves Bilbo into the dragon fire then a suitable lose game message should be displayed and the game should end.  For this version of the game, your program does not have to enter mode 2 if Bilbo moves onto the square containing the chalice (which is part of feature #4). 

3. The program checks that the destination is within the bounds of the array (worth 1 letter 'step'): Each time that the player moves Bilbo the program will check that the destination is within the bounds of the array.  If the player tries to move Bilbo outside of the array then the program should provide a suitable error message and the program will again prompt the player to enter the direction until either a proper direction is provided or the player chooses to pass on his or her move.

4. Mode 2 is implemented (worth 2 letter 'steps'): When Bilbo enters the square containing the chalice a number of things will happen:  1) The 'hasChalice' variable will be set to true so when the array is displayed the program will thereafter indicate that Bilbo has found the chalice (it's not possible to 'lose' the chalice one it's been found) 2) The variable 'smaugMode' will enter mode 2 ("fire breathing").  The latter will mean that Smaug will start breathing fire in the main hall (row 15 - 29, column 1 - 31) in an attempt to incinerate the intruder.   For each empty square (or the one that contains Bilbo) in the main hall, there is a one in ten chance that Smaug will breath fire into it.   If Bilbo is hit by the dragon fire then: the square that he resides on changes to an 'X', a suitable lose game message appears and the game ends.  Smaug  will not breath fire into a square containing a wall.  Squares that previously contained dragon fire will be cleared (Smaug will not breath into the same square twice in a row so that squares that are currently on fire will have the fire die out in the following turn).  In summary: when you write the code for Smaug to blast the main hall with fire the following will occur: empty squares (or the one with Bilbo on it) will each have a one in ten chance of getting hit with fire, squares that contain fire will be cleared back to a space).

5. Mode 3 is implemented (worth 2 letter 'steps'):  When the player has the chalice and enters the deepest part of the tunnel (row = 14, column = 15) then the dragon fires in the main hall will die out (the squares will be cleared) and a message will appear indicating that Smaug is now moving towards the tunnel.  When the player moves off this square (up or down - although the latter wouldn't be a good idea for the player because Bilbo is now trapped by the flames) Smaug will start breathing fire up the tunnel in a last ditch attempt to catch the little thief.  The distance that the fire travels will be determined as follows: 50% of the time Smaug's fire will travel zero squares, 25% of the time it will move up one square while the remainder of the time it will move up two squares.  Again if the fire reaches the square where Bilbo resides then the square should be marked by the 'X",  a lose game message will appear and the game will end.

6. The game can be won (worth 1 letter 'step'): Prior to getting credit for this feature you must first implement mode 2 / feature #4 (the ability to detect that the chalice was picked up by Bilbo) and likely you'll have also implemented some other features like being able to move Bilbo.  When Bilbo reaches any of the empty squares on row 1 (column 14, 15 or 16) with the chalice the game has been won.  When this happens a suitable win game message should appear and the game will end.

Grading: Non-working submissions

D submissions

• The student has invested considerable time and effort into the assignment³, the program does not fulfill any of the above requirements but it does compile.

D- submissions

• The student has invested considerable time and effort into the assignment³, but it does not compile.

Other submission requirements

1. Good coding style and documentation:  They will play a role in determining your final grade for this assignment.  Your grade can be reduced by a letter step or more (e.g., 'A' to 'A-' for poor programming style such as employing poor naming conventions for identifiers, insufficient documentation or the use of global variables other than the debugging variable or variables).  For additional details see the marking guide for coding style.

2. Assignments (source code/'dot-p' file and the README file) must be electronically submitted via submit.  In addition a paper print out of the source code and README must be handed into the assignment drop box (located on the second floor of the Math Sciences building) for the tutorial that you are registered in.  Your README file must indicate what grade level has been completed (e.g., 'A') and which features have been implemented.   Also you should include your contact information: your name, university identification number and UNIX login name so that your marker knows whose assignment that he or she is marking.  Omitting the necessary information from this file will result in the loss of a letter 'step' (assuming that the marker can actually figure out who the assignment belongs to).  Electronically submitting the assignment allows your marker to run the code in order to quickly determine what features were implemented.  Providing a paper printout makes it easier for your marker to read and flip through your source code.  Omitting the paper printout of your program will result in the loss of a letter 'step'.  Omitting the electronic submission of your program will only allow you to receive a maximum grade of D-.

3. As a reminder, you are not allowed to work in groups for this class.   Copying the work of another student will be regarded as academic misconduct (cheating).  For additional details about what is and is not okay for this class please refer to the following link.

Relevant files