[LilGhost]

Hey, so i'm sure we've all seen the popular games like "Mobsters Vendetta" on facebook or "iMobsters" for iOS and Droid; but i had a question, how do these games automatically restore the users energy and stuff when the user is offline. I know it's a server side script, but for the life of me, i can't think of any rational way someone would do this.

Does anybody have any ideas?

What we know:
- Would be updated using a server side script on a timer.
- Updates to a database.

This post has been edited by LilGhost: 18 March 2013 - 08:51 AM

[modi123_1]

It's probably part of the log in script. Take the current time minus the time since you last logged in.. and figure out (on scale) how much you energy/etc you get back.

[GrooN]

As Modi123_1 said, you could make it a part of the login process, which would eliminate having to calculate peoples energy levels over and over again, even for people who has chsoen to quit the game. Another solution could be to use a cron job (or pseudo cron job, like wordpress), and do the calculation from there. I think those are you options, for timing the operation. When it comes to the operation itself, do as modi said, figure out how much energy the user gets per a specific time period, and then see how many of these periods has occurred since last energy calculation.

[LilGhost]

In your opinion (i haven't tested) would this be alright pseudo code for the operation:

Time() - LastUpdateTime / (3 * 60)

Where a user automatically gains 1 energy for ever 2 minutes.

As for the automatic updating while in game, javascript and then a push command to a php file? the php file of course would do some server side checks to prevent hacking.

This post has been edited by LilGhost: 18 March 2013 - 01:45 PM

[modi123_1]

Absolutely not. Unless you want odd order of operations.

[GrooN]

LilGhost, on 18 March 2013 - 01:44 PM, said:

In your opinion (i haven't tested) would this be alright pseudo code for the operation:

Time() - LastUpdateTime / (3 * 60)

Where a user automatically gains 1 energy for ever 2 minutes.

As for the automatic updating while in game, javascript and then a push command to a php file? the php file of course would do some server side checks to prevent hacking.

Yea, you're gonna need a parenthesis in there.

(Time() - LastUpdateTime) / (3 * 60)

[LilGhost]

modi123_1, on 18 March 2013 - 01:46 PM, said:

Absolutely not. Unless you want odd order of operations.

Then what would you recommend?