Game messages and logs

Messages from the game logic

The game logic sends no finished text. A log line, an offer's label and a refusal's reason are each a message: a key in the catalogs and the values of its placeholders, built with msg!. Each viewer's client formats it in their own language.

table.log(msg!("log.marks", cell = space_id.as_str()));

{ "log.marks": "{player} marks cell {cell}" }

• {player} is the line's player. Boardweaver fills it, so a msg! never passes it. Place it where the language needs the name, or leave it out of a message that names no one.
• A value is a number, text, a seated player, another message or a link. The table of values is in Log lines.
• The build checks each msg! whose key is a string literal against the default catalog. A key built at run time is not checked, and shows as its key when no catalog has it.

Log lines

table.log(line) adds a line to the step's log, which every viewer sees in the match's history. A step may write any number of lines, and so may setup for the opening. A line is a message: a key in the game's catalogs (Text in the player's language) and the values of its placeholders. Each viewer's client shows it in their own language. Build a message with msg! and log it as a line by the seat that took the step:

table.log(msg!("log.marks", cell = space_id.as_str()));
table.log(msg!("log.plays", card = link(face.clone(), msg!(format!("card.{face}")))));

Write each message in the catalog of the game's default locale, such as /src/i18n/en.json:

{
  "log.marks": "{player} marks cell {cell}",
  "log.plays": "{player} plays {card}"
}

Boardweaver fills {player} with the line's player, shown by name. Leave {player} out of a message that names no one. Import msg, link and player from boardweaver_sdk.

The build checks every msg! whose key is a string literal against the default catalog: a key the catalog lacks, a value its message has no placeholder for, a placeholder no value fills, a tag such as <b>, or a value named player does not compile, and the error points at the msg!. A key built at run time, such as msg!(format!("card.{face}")), is not checked, so a missing one shows as its key.

A placeholder takes one of these values:

To give a line another player, no player or a kind, build it with LogLine::new(message) and these methods. Import LogLine and LinePlayer from boardweaver_sdk.

table.log(LogLine::new(msg!("log.round", round = 2)).player(LinePlayer::None));

• Every viewer reads every line, whatever they may see of the state. Name only public facts: "takes a card", never the card. This holds for the message, its values, the link keys, the kind and the player.
• The game logic knows seat ids, not names. Pass a seat with player(id), and Boardweaver shows its name.
• A message key that no catalog has shows as the key. The build catches a literal one.
• A line with LinePlayer::None whose msg! has a literal key and a message that places {player} panics, since there is no player to fill it. With a key built at run time, the line shows as its key instead.
• Write a line in each step that players should see as its own row in the game log. A step that writes no line joins another row (Other players' steps).
• player(id) and LinePlayer::Seat(id) name a seated player. Any other id panics.
• Boardweaver fills player itself. A msg! that passes a value named player does not compile, and a Message given one by .arg panics.
• LinePlayer::Actor on the opening, which no seat took, has no player. A message that uses {player} on a line with no player shows as its key.
• A step's lines have limits (Builds, limits and errors). Going past one panics.