Yes, and it’s much more difficult than I had imagined.
Until now, using the modular system in the bbgFramework proved to make it a cinch with one exception that I will explain later. The browser module processes the visual window frame complete with back, forward, etc buttons, status and address bar.
The address bar or URI then process any URL input into something readable for the database. The database table thus far consists of domain names as the PRIMARY index with title, level and type columns to supplement. Processed URLs are stripped of protocol and www. if provided which means subdomains are considered separate indexes. The type column is of 4 different values so far: official, website, store and server:
- If the entity type is official then it loads the actual website into the Object frame, which is (at the moment) only the ctrlhack forums and wiki pages. This is so the user can go to the forums within the game.
- For website, the browser will process the entire short-form of the URL and load the fictitious website into the browser. All of the websites are hard-coded files in a directory to grab from. So if the user goes to somesite.com/path/to/something.html or http://www.somesite.com/about, it will load /www/somesite.com/path/to/something.tpl or /www/somesite.com/index.tpl respectively. Although, this process is very fast at loading, as it uses Smarty’s {include} syntax, hopefully, I’ll be able to come up with something more dynamic in the future especially something not using hard-coded files. This may actually happen as I come up with all the fictitious websites as the story and game background develop.
- Server types will be used later but not by the browser module. They will be a separate entity with completely different options and visual appeal. As for an insight to what I mean… think of the Gibson hack of the supercomputer in Hackers (1995).
- As for store types, the engine dynamically produces the list of items available with their respective stats. There is a working search feature using a crude method of MYSQL’s LIKE operator. Like some of the fictitious world wide web with normal websites, the stores will mimic a lot of real internet commerce sites like newegg.com and amazon.com and with that they will use a shopping cart for hardware purchases (for your server) which brings me to the exception I mentioned earlier I found for the framework .
Using the magic function: __get() made me realize I cannot use recursive arrays, so my plans to use the Session object for the shopping cart make it all but easy. This has actually been my stopping point for the last few days because I am unable to figure out how to do this in a logical manner otherwise. At the same time, I cannot think of anything to move on to as I have already completed skill manipulation, settings, menubars, etc. I do still need to work on the GUI but I didn’t want to start on the stylizing until I had the basic skeleton to all the major features first.
So I’ll move on at least in theory…
Another interesting note on the fictitious web is that every brand name and company in the game will have servers and websites for you to check out as a user and even hack. Some of them may even be apart of the ongoing story. I want the game to be extremely open and every user have the ability to explore and discover things without penalties. Actually hacking websites they find through their explorations may prove fatal if they are not careful but there will be plenty of tools (programs) for them to use prior to figure out their target beforehand.
So that’s the basic progress of the game and the major feats of the browser thus far. Keep in mind, this may change and the game is always open to suggestions and feature requests.
Other suggestions that have come to mind in the past month or so are…
- …having a sort of government built into the game with a Most Wanted list for cyberterrorists and the like. There will also be an equally opposite campaign for the black hats out there so there are also bounties for them to capture based on good-alignment hackers.
- …a sort of podcast or “webisode” that is actively encouraging hacks and giving out tips from the view of a hacker group that is very renown in the game. This is sort of based on the “Hack the Planet” show from the Hackers movie.
- …an on-going story that develops as the hackers go. An example of what I mean would be, lets say the ABC Company gets hacked regularly by the users, and they are unable to maintain themselves and eventually lose clientele, are bought out by XYZ Company who then revamps their security and installs A.I. bots on with router configurations to block flood traffic. This means that the once weak ABC Company is now upgraded into a formidable target with more than likely better rewards. (ie; credit cards, client information, etc.)
Anyway, that’s what has been on my mind… Now I am going to watch Watchmen again on the HiDef and enjoy myself. Hopefully, afterwords, I’ll figure out a place to start coding again.
Thanks for reading and please let me know what you think, or if you have any suggestions.
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