Definitions

ATTACK VALUE

The bonus that a UNIT or BUILDING receives when Attacking another UNIT or BUILDING.

BANK

A record of how much of each type of RESOURCE a player has.

BUILDING

A fixed structure, occupying a CELL of the game grid. A BUILDING provides some cover to UNITs housed there, as well as being a source of new UNITs and RESOURCEs.

CELL

The smallest unit of the game board. A single point on the grid. A CELL has a TERRAIN TYPE and may contain a single BUILDING and one or more UNITs.

CLIENT

Prof. Lane.

COMMAND

A directive issued to a UNIT. Every COMMAND has an assigned unit, a (possibly null) target, and a time to complete. Additionally, some COMMANDs have RESOURCE costs.

DEFENSE VALUE

The bonus that a UNIT or BUILDING receives when it is being attacked by another UNIT or BUILDING. Note that the UNIT/BUILDING does not have to be actively defending (i.e., it does not have to be using the Defend COMMAND) - it receives this bonus regardless of what COMMAND it is executing. When the UNIT/BUILDING is actively defending (using the Defend COMMAND), it receives double its base defense bonus.

DIMENSIONS

Size of the game grid. DIMENSIONS comprises two components: $s_{X}$ (left-to-right) and $s_{y}$ (top-to-bottom) sizes.

FRU

Fundamental Resource Unit. The smallest unit of measure for each resource type.

GAME INITIALIZATION

Setup phase during which game-wide parameters such a board DIMENSION and MAP are set.

GLOBAL CLOCK

An internal timer, maintained by the game engine, that determines relative ordering of events, how long it takes COMMANDs to run, etc.

GLOBAL TIME

The current value of the GLOBAL CLOCK.

MANHATTAN DISTANCE

The distance measured when walking through Manhattan (i.e., when the agent has to travel along orthogonal streets rather than along the diagonal). Simply defined by:

$$d(\LR{x_{1},y_{1}},\LR{x_{2},y_{2}}) = \vert x_{1}-x_{2}\vert + \vert y_{1}-y_{2}\vert$$

$$= \Delta x + \Delta y$$

, rather than the traditional ``Euclidean'' distance (given by the Pythagorean theorem). All distances in the JCiv game world are calculated using Manhattan distance. A.k.a., Manhattan metric or city street distance.

MAP

The terrain definition for a single game instance. Given the DIMENSIONs of the game grid, the MAP specifies a TERRAIN TYPE for each CELL of that board, as well as starting locations for each PLAYER.

MAY

A requirement that the product can choose to implement if desired. Can also indicate a choice among acceptable alternatives (e.g., ``The program MAY do x, y, or z.'' indicates that the choice of behavior x, y, or z is up to the designer.)

MUST

A requirement that the product must implement for full credit.

MUST NOT

A behavior or assumption that must not be violated. Violating a MUST NOT restriction will result in a penalty on the assignment.

PLAYER

A human player, directing UNITs and BUILDINGs through a single client program.

PREVIOUSLY VIEWED

A CELL that was WATCHED at some point in the past, but is not currently being WATCHED. The TERRAIN TYPE for such a CELL is known to the PLAYER, but its current contents are unknown.

RECOVERABLE ERROR

An error condition that the software can ignore, correct, or otherwise recover from. The program MUST produce a warning message and then cleanly continue with no corruption or loss of valid data.

RESOURCE

A material that is necessary to create and maintain UNITs and BUILDINGs. RESOURCEs come in a number of types and are obtained either through the Produce command applied to various TERRAIN TYPEs or by Invadeing a BUILDING and capturing the supplies stored there.

TERRAIN TYPE

The type of land at each cell of the game board. TERRAIN TYPE determines properties of the land such as the RESOURCE that it produces, its MOVE COST, etc.

UI

User Interface provided by the client to allow a PLAYER to manipulate the game state.

UNIT

The smallest group of people in the game. A UNIT is a mobile force that can take actions like Attack, Build, etc.

UNRECOVERABLE ERROR

An error condition from which recovery is impossible. The program MUST produce an error message describing the condition and then cleanly halt.

UNSEEN

A CELL that has never been viewed by any UNIT. An UNSEEN cell should not reveal anything about its contents, including TERRAIN TYPE. For example, an UNSEEN cell MAY be rendered as black.

VISION RADIUS

The distance that a UNIT or BUILDING can see, measured in cells according to the MANHATTAN DISTANCE. A UNIT/BUILDING can see completely in a ``circle'' around it (where ``circle'' in MANHATTAN DISTANCE is what we would think of as a square). The VISION RADIUS is a property specific to a type of UNIT or BUILDING.

VISIBILITY

The part of the MAP that can be seen by a player. Visibility depends on the positions of a player's UNITs and BUILDINGs and their respective VISION RADIUS. See also: UNSEEN, WATCHED,

WATCHED

A CELL that is currently within the viewable radius of one or more UNITs. The entire contents of a WATCHED CELL are displayed to the PLAYER.

WALL CLOCK

The subjective time experienced by the player, measured by absolute time. The ratio of GLOBAL CLOCK speed to WALL CLOCK speed is determined by the system parameter $t_{s}$.