[Visionaries] A hint of Sourcery in the air

[Peter Minten]

Hi folks,

I decided to reactivate Sourcery as the example project for DG-Scheme and Forum. 
I also decided to reform some things to fully use the power of DG-Scheme and 
make the game more fun (read more complex :-).

In the new game setup a board is the heart of the game. The board is 10x10 
squares, the rows labeled with numbers, the columns with characters (like in 
chess). Here's the board:

   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 9 |   |   |   |   | S | S |   |   |   |   |
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 8 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 7 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 6 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
   +===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+
 5 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 4 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
   +===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+
 3 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 2 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 1 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 0 |   |   |   |   | S | S |   |   |   |   |
   +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
     A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H   I   J

The S fields are the two (E0+F0 and E9+F9 are conceptually one field) Seats Of 
Power, they represent the players on the field. The lines 3/4 and 5/6 are 
teritorial lines, they mark the teritory of the players (the squares that 
players can build in).

In the first three turns of the game the buffer (rows 4 and 5) is a barrier that 
 doesn't allow anything to get through. Thus the first three turns are always 
peaceful.

In a turn the player may do all of the following:
* Create any number of pieces, provided he can pay for them.
* Activate a user trigger on one or more pieces, though only one user trigger 
per turn per piece.
* Attack with one or more pieces.
* Move one or more pieces.

Every piece occupies one square. There are roughly three types of pieces:
* Creatures
* Artifacts
* Generators

Creatures are pieces that are (usually) capable of attacking, defending and 
moving. Artifacts are (usually) pieces that generate an (magic) effect every 
turn they are on the board, some artifacts stay around as long as they are not 
destroyed, others (often called spells) stay only for a certain number of turns. 
Generators are like artifacts though they generate energy instead of an effect.

Normal attacks are attacks where a creature attacks another piece, if there is a 
path to that piece that is no longer than the attack range of the creature. It's 
also possible to block an attack on another piece with a creature, if there is a 
path to the attacked piece that is no longer than the defense range of the creature.

The power of Sourcery lies in the fact that all pieces are objects that can have 
user defined functions that are triggered when a certain event occurs (for 
example when the piece is attacked). The functions may use a subset of the 
DG-Scheme Base lib and the user function lib of Sourcery and thus are really 
flexible.

Greetings,

Peter