CPSC 233: Assignment 5 (Worth 11%)

New concepts to be applied in this assignment

1. Inheritance & software reuse 

Your mission for this assignment

You are to take your program from the previous assignment and to augment it by implementing special classes of ships that extend the basic star ship.  In the full version of the game the human player will control a Federation star ship while the computer controlled ships will include ones from: the Klingon empire, the Dominion and the Borg collective.

The Federation

The United Federation of Planets (or the Federation for short) is an egalitarian union of hundreds of different species and cultures.  To bring together such a large and often divisive number of races under one governing body requires that something other than combat is used to settle differences.  One of the founding races of the Federation and perhaps the most ubiquitous are humans.   Most humans are equal part explorer and diplomat providing the glue that holds the Federation together.   Their ships are well equipped with defensive and offensive weapons that are not designed to start conflicts but to end them.

The Federation is a peaceful union of numerous races.  Tagline: "To seek out new life, to explore new worlds."

The Klingon Empire

This warrior race has a genetic predisposition to hostility and a well-known streak of fatalism.   Klingons are also famous (or perhaps infamous) for their get-togethers in which there is a great deal of boasting, growling, wrestling and of course feasting and drinking (i.e., a lot of extroverted revelry) takes place.   If you look beyond their boisterous and aggressive exteriors the Klingons are perhaps the most noble race of all: they hold honor above their own life.  Klingon ships are designed with powerful offensive capabilities that suit their warlike natures.

A young Klingon warrior wielding a Bat'leth.  Tagline:  ("A Klingon warrior is always prepared to fight.")

The Dominion

The Dominion is a mighty interstellar empire composed of  several hundred dominated races led by a race of shape shifters (know as the "Founders"), administered by the devious, cloned race (the "Vorta") and defended by genetically bred soldiers (the "Jem'Hadar").  The founders are the dominion and dominion is the founders.  The Dominion was created by the founders to impose (their) order on the galaxy.  Much like Klingon warships, the ships of the Dominion are built for a fight.  The dominion is in a different part of the galaxy ("The Gamma Quadrant") from where the Klingon empire and the Federation reside ("The Alpha Quadrant") and only the chance discovery of the Bajoran wormhole allowed for contact between the specifies from the different quarters of the galaxy.

A Jem'Hadar soldier on guard. Tagline: "Victory is life!"

The Borg collective

The Borg are a cybernetic life form which is part organic, part artificial life with a singular unifying goal, the consumption of useful technology.  They do this by "assimilating" other species (i.e., turning them into Borg) which they claim will, "..raise the quality of life for that species." The Borg skill at assimilating new technology allows their ships to adapt their defensive systems which will reduce the effectiveness of some enemy attacks over time.  Each attack on a Borg ship allows them to gain more information about the energy used in the attack which in turn allows the Borg to adapt their defenses to the attack.  Like the members of The Dominion the Borg are from another quadrant of the galaxy (in this case "The Delta Quadrant") and only the advanced Borg propulsion systems (the "transwarp drive") have made contact between humans and the Borg possible.  The Borg have an orderly machine society and their ships reflect this by their geometric designs: cubes, spheres and diamonds.  (However you only need to implement the cube for this assignment).

An attacking Borg drone. Tagline: "You will be assimilated."

Grading: Working submissions

Some of the new classes needed for this assignment

1. FederationStarShip
2. KlingonAttackCruiser
3. JemHadarBattleship
4. BorgCube

Basic submission (C):  

Extra features

1. Implement the special capabilities of the Federation star ship (worth 2 letter steps).   

• Regenerative shielding:  If the current shield value is less than the maximum of 6000, at the end of each turn the shields will regenerate by 10% of the maximum shield value up to the original maximum shield value.  Because regeneration occurs only at the end of the turn (after the combat phase) a ship that has been destroyed will not have it's shields regenerate.  The regenerative capability only applies to the shields, the hull of a Federation ship does not repair itself (worth 1 letter step).
• Quantum torpedo: In addition to the standard phasers of a star ship, Federation ships are armed with an unlimited number of quantum torpedoes.  The attack phase will be split into two parts: the first will allow the player to fire a quantum torpedo, the second will allow the firing of the phasers.  Each weapon can be fired independently of the other.  Like the phasers the quantum torpedo has a range of one sector.  The quantum torpedo is a weapon that is specially designed to totally disrupt the energy shielding of any ship (shield value goes down to zero)  but there is no effect if the shields are already set to zero (worth 1 letter step). 

A Sovereign class Federation star ship.

When debug mode is turned on the program should show the shield value of the targeted enemy before the torpedo was fired (point value before being hit by the torpedo) and the shield value after it was fired (it should now be zero).

2. Implement the special capabilities of a Jem'Hadar battleship (worth 1 letter step). 

• The Dominion uses a different type of phaser than the one used on most star ships.  Instead it emits a charged beam of anti-protons. This weapon will inflict 200 to 800 points of damage per attack (possible values: 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700 or 800).  The beam can be fired once per attack phase.  Worse still (for the target) is that shields will have no effect against this type of energy weapon.   Regardless of what the current shield value of the target is, the anti-proton beam will directly reduce the hull value of the target.  The shield value of the ship being targeted by the Jem'Hadar ship will remain unchanged.  (A ship can be destroyed by having it's hull value set to zero or less while it's shields remain untouched).

A Jem'Hadar battleship.

When the program is in debug mode it should show the amount of damage generated by the Jem'Hadar anti-proton beam, the shield and hull value of the player's ship before and after the attack.

3. Implement the special capabilities of a Borg cube (worth 2 letter steps).

• Borg ships have the most advanced propulsion system in the game, the transwarp drive.  Instead of having a maximum travel range of one sector like everyone else, Borg cubes can move up to 3 sectors per turn.   This means that when you are randomly generating the distance to be travel the change in the row or column value will be equal to 0, 1, 2 or up to 3 sectors (worth 1 letter step).  (It can be quite a nasty jolt to have a Borg ship suddenly come along when you are already in the middle of a pitched battle with someone else).   Note: Because this ship can travel multiple sectors, when the 'impossible' mode of the previous assignment has been invoked if the destination sector happens to where the player's ship resides the Borg cube will not move "on top" of the player's ship but instead it will remain in it's current location.  In the following example the Borg cube in the example below is supposed to move 3 units up and left towards the player's ship.  However this location is currently occupied by the player's ship so the  Borg ship will not move.

	0	1	2	3
0	F
1
2
3				B

A Borg sphere ship traveling at transwarp (faster than warp) speed.

• As Borg ships are attacked they are able to adapt the technology on their ship to reduce the effectiveness of the enemy's energy weapons so that successive hits will inflict less and less damage over time (worth 1 letter step).

First hit by opponent during the game	No damage reduction
Second hit by same opponent	Damage is reduced by 25%
Third hit by same opponent	Damage is halved
Fourth and successive hits during a game	Damage is reduced by 75%

All fractional values are rounded when determining damage.  For example, if 355 points of damage were randomly generated by a phaser hit on a Borg cube and this were the 4th attack then the damage inflicted would equal 88 points (355 / 4 = 88.75 which is rounded to 89 points).  Note however that the Borg ability to adapt only applies to energy based weapons like the phaser.  It will have no effect on either the quantum torpedo or the photonic cannon. 

A Borg cube under attack by a Federation task force

When the program is in debug mode the program should show the full amount of damage generated by the player's phasers, the number of times that the Borg ship was hit by the player's ship and the damage that will actually be inflicted on the cube.

4. Implement he special capabilities of a Klingon attack cruiser (worth 2 letter steps). 

• All Klingon ships are equipped with an invisibility shield (called a "cloaking device") that not only bends visible light rays but also distorts the scanning devices of other star ships.  The drawback is that this device uses up so much energy that a ship cannot fire it's weapons while cloaked.  In terms of this game the cloaking device will provide the Klingon ship with the advantage of attacking before anybody else.  Thus the damage inflicted by the Klingon ship will be displayed before the other player's get to attack.  The main implication is that the Klingon ship has the ability to destroy the player's star ship before the player can fire.  If this is the case then the game will display the damage inflicted and then it will end indicating that the player has lost. The Klingon ship will not show up when the galaxy is displayed until the attack portion of each turn.   Instead a blank space is displayed in the grid. During the attack phase the ship has an onscreen appearance of a 'K'.  After the attack phase is over the ship will cloak and disappear again and a blank space gets displayed in that sector (worth 1 letter step).
• Klingon warships do not use phasers as their primary energy-based weapon but instead use another energy based weapon: "a disruptor" that wreaks havoc on the shields of the enemy.  The damage for Klingon disruptors is calculated in the same way that phaser damage is calculated in the previous assignment (ranges from 80 - 800).  However the damage deducted for disruptor fire on the shields is doubled.  Damage deducted from the hull value is normal (worth 1 letter step).

Example: The human player is taking on a Klingon attack cruiser.

Human player's ship
Ship's system	Point value
Shields	600
Hull	400

The damage generated for the cruiser's disruptor fire is 700 points.  Because the disruptor fire has double the effect on shields, only 300 points of damage are required to cause the shields on the human player's ship to go down.  That leaves 400 points of disruptor energy left.  This damage is now deducted from the hull of the human player reducing it zero.  Because Klingon ships attack first the human player's ship is destroyed and he or she has lost the game.  The results of the attack on the human player's ship is displayed and the game ends indicating that the player has lost.  

A Negh'var class attack cruiser de-cloaked for attack

If the game is in cheat mode then the game should display: 1) The amount of disruptor damage generated 2) The amount deducted from the shields 3) The amount deducted from the hull (if any)

Grades for non-functional assignments

D level assignment

The student has invested considerable work in the assignment¹ and the code compiles but it doesn't fulfill any of the above requirements.

D- level assignment

The student has invested considerable work in the assignment¹ but it doesn't compile.

Other submission requirements

In addition to having fulfill the generic assignment requirements the requirements specific to this assignment include:

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 static variables or methods).  For additional details see the marking guide for coding style.

2. Include a README file in your submission:  For this assignment your README file must indicate what grade level has been completed (e.g., 'A') and which features have been implemented This will allow your marker to quickly determine what he or she must look for and speed up the marking process.  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, if it cannot be determined who the assignment belongs to then no grade will be given for the assignment, an 'F' will be assigned).

3. Assignments (source code/'dot-java' files and the README file) must be electronically submitted via email (to me and your TA).  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.  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 version of the source code file will result in the loss of a letter 'step'.  Omitting the electronic version of your assignment will only allow you to receive a maximum grade of 'D-' because it's too time consuming for your marker to check every program with a hand trace.  I suggest that as you complete the various features of the assignment that you immediately submit each version so if you forget to submit the final version you will at least have something that your marker can grade because you won't be allowed to submit anything after the deadline.

4. 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

Sources of information for this assignment

Note: The use of the Star Trek © trademark was for educational purposes only and not meant as a copy write challenge.