CPSC 233: Assignment 4

Due March 9 at 4 PM

Introduction

Computer simulations are re-creation of a real-world scenario. Simulations are important for many reasons including (but not limited to) safety and cost. Also simulations may assist in decision making by allowing alternatives to be tested before a course of action is chosen. For this assignment you are to implement a simple race simulation (see Figure 1). One competitor is controlled by the player ‘P’ the other is computer-controlled ‘C’,

Figure 1: Race simulation

Each runner will start at Row 1 and travel to Row 50. When one or more racers reach the last row the simulation will end (Figure 2). If the player reaches row 50 first then the game is won. If the computer gets there first then the game is lost. Tie games occur when both of them reach the finish at the same time. Finally if the user quits the simulation prematurely then the race is neither won nor lost. Because of the length of the track only a part of it will be displayed at a time.

Figure 2: End of the race, at least one runner reached the last row.

Each runner can run at one of three speeds: jog, run, sprint. The latter two speeds results in more rows being traveled but they come at a risk. There is the possibility when traveling at higher speeds that the runner becomes winded and if so the runner must jog the next turn. When sprinting there is the additional chance that the runner will burn out and can only jog thereafter. The player can choose his/her running speed. The computer will have an even chance at travelling at one of the three possible speeds.

Also if a runner is traveling faster than a jog, the runner may become distracted ("break disciple") and slow to a jog. This slowing is different from becoming winded. Becoming winded or burnt out is (for this simulation) determined by physical characteristics; the runner's body has given out. Breaking discipline is attributed to mental not physical reasons.

Finally this simulation includes the effect of weather. The weather will consist of two properties: the wind speed and the temperature. Higher wind speeds can reduce the amount of distance traveled (or even push slower runners back!) Higher temperatures increase the chance of getting winded or burnt out. Weather is highly volatile and can change each turn.

Required classes for this program

• UserInterface
• Mode
• RaceSim
• Runner
• Track
• Weather

UserInterface: similar to the previous assignment this class is responsible for all input and output. e.g., displaying menus, getting user input, determining if the user's selection was valid/determining which option was selected.

Mode: Its sole purpose is to determine if the program is operating in the debugging mode. By default the program will not be operating in debugging mode.

public class Mode
{
     public static boolean debug = false;
}

When the program is in debugging mode, messages about the state of the program will be displayed e.g., the previous row before a move, the running speed selected and the destination row. To get credit for implementing the debug mode (Feature #8) the exact content of the messages is left to your discretion but this mode should be implemented early on to aid in testing/debugging. To speed up marking there are some features that must be clearly illustrated as working via the debug mode in order for you to get credit for that feature. These features will be marked as  ("Debug must show feature working"). Because of the unusual nature of this class it can have a static implementation. No other classes except for class Mode should be static (methods are static so an instance doesn't get instantiated).

RaceSim: The 'Driver' class for this program. The starting execution point that should contain a reference to the user interface class:

public static void main (String [] args) {
    UserInterface anInterface = new UserInterface ();
                 :                        :       
}

Runner: the entities that travel along the race course.

Minimum required attributes: current running mode (jog, run, sprint), and something to track if the runner is 'winded' or 'burnt out' (see Feature #7a & b). Also each runner needs an 'appearance' field, a single character that determines how the runner is represented (the runner controlled by the user is a 'P' while the computer player is a 'C'). Finally each runner should track its current location (row/column) on the race track because the destination is going to be based on the current location. These are just a few of the attributes needed for class Runner you will almost certainly have more.

Minimum required methods: everything that modifies/retrieves the attributes (there will be many). It should also include methods that are somehow related to an instance even though they don't directly access or modify the attributes. For example determining if the runner gets distracted (see Feature #7c) should be implemented in one or more methods of this class because whether a particular runner gets distracted is determined for each runner, therefore the functionality should be implemented as a method of class Runner.

Track: similar to the Manager class in the previous assignment it tracks the core data used by the program.  This program's Track class is responsible for storing and managing all the information used in the simulated world (the race track).

Minimum required attributes: the simulated world (a 2D array of references to 'Runner' objects): private Runner [][] raceCourse;  Each element in the race course array will either be null (signifying an empty location on the track) or refer to a runner object.

Minimum required methods: all behaviors associated with managing the data attributes (e.g., displaying the world, changing data in the world - moving runners between locations, checking if the race is finished (when a runner reaches the end).

Weather: There will only be one instance of this class for the whole program. (This is not the same as a class consisting only of static methods! This class should not have static methods.) This simulation tracks two aspects of the weather: the wind strength and the current temperature. There are three possible wind strengths: no wind, mild wind and heavy wind (1/3 chance of each) .There are four temperature states: average, hot, very hot, heat wave (1/4 chance of each).