Trains Game

Getting started:

Case 1: You have a binary of the game. Double-click it and run -> voila!

Case 2: You have a .love version of the game, you'll need to install the awesome Löve2D game engine. Get it at love2d.org (this game was developed for Löve2D Version 0.8.0). Then double click the .love file.

Case 3: You have the source of the game. Get the Löve2D engine and install it. Then open a console, type the path to the love engine (on unix, you might just need 'love', on windows you need the whole path to the Love.exe) and the path to the game folder after it (the one holding the main.lua file). See an example of this in the section Command Line Options!

First, try getting into the tutorials. Once through them, have a look at the Documentation.html file in this folder.

Then, the next step will be to get into the challenges. Once you've mastered them, you're ready to upload your AI and watch it fight others on the online servers!

Setting up your own server:

You can start your own dedicated server (see the section "Command Line Options" below). This server will automatically start running matches using random maps and the AIs located in your AI subfolder. You can watch these matches by starting the game again, without the server option. Start with --host localhost to connect to the server running on your PC.

Command Line Options:

Make sure to add these at the end, after the folder or .love file. Otherwise the Löve engine won't know to run the game. Example:
Linux:

/path/to/love /path/to/game --server -p 4242

Win:

C:\Program/ Files\Love\Love.exe C:\Games\trAInsported --console --server -p 4242

-s or --server or --dedicated: Start in dedicated server mode.
-h IP_OR_URL or --host IP_OR_URL or --ip IP_OR_URL: IP address of server to connect to. You can also use an URL to connect if you have a server running on some web-machine. In both cases, make sure to open the ports on your server's router! [Client]
-p PORTNUMBER or --port PORTNUMBER: Port to use -> must be the same on client and server. (Default port is 5556. Make sure to port-forward that port if the game server is sitting behind a router.) [Client and Server]
-m TIME or --match_time TIME: Time a match will take. [Server]
-c TIME or --cooldown TIME: Time between two matches on Server. (TIME in seconds, minimum 10. - Note: if this is too low, watching clients won't be able to view the match results. 20 seconds is usually a good value.) [Server]
--mapsize NUMBER: Maximum number of tiles the map can be in width and height. Default: 50.
--console Needed on Windows if you want a console. On Unix-Systems, the standard console will be used for output. [Client and Server]
--render: Forces game to rerender all images at startup. [Client]
--mysql USER,PASSWORD[,HOST[,PORT]]: Will enable logging to a MySQL database if --server is activated. It will log into the MySQL server using USER and PASSWORD. Optionally, HOST and PORT can be given to connect to a remote server (default is localhost). You can use --mysqlDB to change the database to use. Otherwise, it will use the 'trAInsported' database. Note: You have to manually create the trAInsported Database beforehand, and make sure that USER has rights to create a table and edit a table on the database.[Server]
--mysqlDB DATABASE: The game will connect to this database instead of the default one. The USER given by --mysql (see above) needs to have access to this database. [Server]
-d DIR or --directory DIR: Needs LuaFileSystem installed! Gives the path to the folder which holds the various user folders, which in turn hold the users' AIs. The path must be absolute, relative paths should not work here!
--chart DIR: If this DIR is given, the game will render a .svg chart of each round's results and store it in DIR.

Uninstalling:

The game creates a folder called trAInsported in your local home folder. Depending on how you uninstall, you might have to remove this manually. They'll usually be in these locations (taken from love2d.org):

Linux: $XDG_DATA_HOME/love/ or ~/.local/share/love/
Mac: /Users/user/Library/Application Support/LOVE/
Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\LOVE\ or %appdata%\LOVE\
Windows Vista and 7: C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\LOVE or %appdata%\LOVE\

Translations:

Before you get started, please check if there is someone already working on the translation and has posted about it on the forum or on GitHub. Feel free to collaborate with them if this is the case! If you want to translate the Game into your own language, please do the following: