How do I keep track of user movements in board game?

1

Current_space = start point(space 0)

Player1 rolls dice. New_space = Current_space + Dice_roll.

When Player1 rolls again. How do you get New_space equal to the first New_space + 2nd Dice_roll
and so on?

2

I would have a player object that maintains its own state, like board position. Then, a method could be used to move the player X spaces.

var playerOne = player();
playerOne.move(Dice.roll())

Internally, you’re just updating a field:

function Player() {
   //... stuff
   position: 0,
   move: function(spaces) {
        this.position += spaces
    }
   //...
}
3

Sorry. I’m really new to this. Is there a name for this type of operation? Bouncing back and forth between two variables, updating their values?

4

The concept that I described is called encapsulation, and it’s a more advanced, object oriented principle. It’s something that you’ll just “get” after you read and consume other people’s code more.

I would advise you to avoid having more than one variable if they both mean the same thing. If you need to update current_space, then update current_space. new_space is just an unnecessary step. Here’s how you’d have to do it with your code:

current_space = STARTING_SPACE  # 0
new_space = current_space + dice_roll
current_space = new_space

But this can be shortened:

current_space = STARTING_SPACE # 0
current_space += dice_roll

As your application grows, having global variables like current_space can cause lots of problems, and these problems grow as you add more variables. This is why I suggested the player object (or player class, as your code style implies that you’re writing Python or Ruby), which would encapsulate that information in useful ways.

1 Like
5

Thank you very much for the reply. That was easy to understand. I will make sure to lookup and learn more about encapsulation and making objects.