Using fileIO for RPG character data

#1 I used file IO to do just that - keep track of all kinds of stuff for an RPG game including save game data. What would you like to know?

#2 If I could have your source? :)

Hehehe... I'm not sure where to start exactly. How about:

I have a simple game set up with a player object set up with a controls behavior and class "player".

How would I use fileIO to:

1) prompt the user to either create a new game, or load a game
2) if the user chooses to create a new game, prompts the user to enter a character name
3) upon character creation, create a text file storing the character name, level and max health. and then how would I access those values in my behavior, and subsequently save them to the file?

#3 When I get home later today I will post a sample of my save game and load game process to give you an idea of how I'm doing it.

#4 That would be awesome... thanks!

#5 Ok, I save my game data in different text files to organize them better, here is a single function to save the game variables. This should hopefully give you a pretty good idea on how to save variables to files for save games, etc.


function SaveCore()
{
%fo = new fileobject();

%file = "~/save" @ $saveid @ ".sav";

%fo.OpenForWrite(%file);

%fo.WriteLine("saveid " @ $saveid);
%fo.WriteLine("clock " @ $clock);
%fo.WriteLine("mastertime " @ $mastertime);
%fo.WriteLine("savename " @ $savename);
%fo.WriteLine("morale " @ $morale);
%fo.WriteLine("disease " @ $disease);
%fo.WriteLine("diseasetime " @ $diseasetime);
%fo.WriteLine("diseasecheck " @ $diseasecheck);
%fo.WriteLine("upgradepoints " @ $UpgradePoints);
%fo.WriteLine("capturedcities " @ $CapturedCities);
%fo.WriteLine("location " @ player.GetPosition());
%fo.WriteLine("difficulty " @ $Difficulty);
%fo.WriteLine("starving " @ $starving);
%fo.WriteLine("foodcontime " @ $checkFoodConTime);
%fo.WriteLine("lastcombat " @ $lastCombat);

%fo.close();
}

And here is I load these same variables back into the game -

function LoadCore()
{
%fo = new fileobject();

%file = "~/save" @ $saveid @ ".sav";

%ret = %fo.OpenForRead(%file);

if(%ret == -1)
return;

for(%line = %fo.ReadLine();%line !$= "";%line = %fo.ReadLine())
{
%word = GetWord(%line, 0);

switch$ (%word)
{
case "clock":
$clock = restWords(%line);
case "mastertime":
$mastertime = restWords(%line);
case "morale":
$morale = restWords(%line);
case "disease":
$disease = restWords(%line);
case "diseasetime":
$diseasetime = restWords(%line);
case "diseasecheck":
$diseasecheck = restWords(%line);
case "upgradepoints":
$UpgradePoints = restWords(%line);
case "capturedcities":
$CapturedCities = restWords(%line);
case "location":
%position = restWords(%line);
case "difficulty":
$Difficulty = restWords(%line);
case "starving":
$starving = restWords(%line);
case "foodcontime":
$checkFoodConTime = restWords(%line);
case "lastcombat":
$lastCombat = restWords(%line);
}
}
}

#6 You know what, you can save each line as TorqueScript, then just Exec the file to run the script. I've found that to be the simplest method of saving to a file; all the work is in the save, not the load.

#7 I am having a weird problem. The code works, but...
My file is set at: ("~/game/save.dat")
It can write. It echoes out the correct stuff when I read the file using script upon different executions of the program. However, when I go to the actual folder, the file is not there. I even did a "save.dat" search in Windows and it came up with no results.

#8 @Ki: Have you tried to make sure that Windows is not hiding any files? A .dat file might be considered a protected OS file, and thus hidden by Windows (the registry is a .dat file, after all).

#9 @ Steve D -> ty man, this was very usefull for me :)