Playing against a human opponent
Finding and Challenging a Worthy Opponent
Now that you spent some time sharpening your pong skill against the machine, it is time to go out and face a worthy foe.
Open the net drawer by choosing Game->Connect menu item (Cmd-K) if it is not open already. In the upper half, a table will list all available people waiting to be challenged. (Note that you also become available in other people's machine as soon as you launch rendezvousPong and not engaged in a match.)
Choose one in the list and double click or press the challenge button in the drawer.
This will initiate a gauntlet to the other party. If the party accepts your challenge, then you are on.
Once the connection is made, you will notice that the grey button on the bottom of the window will turn blue via a transitory green phase. At the same time, your name will be dropped off the (rendezvous) list of available games displayed on other's computer.
Starting a Match
The defender can initiate a match by double clicking on the table. Once a match starts, and when the game is paused due to a scoring event, the scoring party initiates the next round by clicking again. Whenever you start a new match (Cmd-G), the current game control parameters are transmitted to the other party so that you have the same ball speed, paddle shape and other vital characteristics.
Ending a Match
A match automatically ends when either party gains five credits. You will be encouraged to start another match by double clikcing.
If you decide to forfeit a game in the middle of it, be it because of your shrewd tactical decision or due to a sudden knocking on your door, you do so by choosing Game->Stop (Cmd-G) menu item.
Your opponent will be notified of your disgraceful retreat in due manner. The match will not be recorded in the Statistics. If you want to change some parameters to your advantage (speed or trick options), this will be the good time to do so before you start a rematch.
Disconnecting from Human Opponent
So, you had a few matches with your friend and lost big time. You had enough of his tanting. The blue button on the bottom of the window indicates that the obnoxious person is still connected to your machine, and is just ready to challenge you once again! Quick, press the button to lose him. When it becomes grey, it means you are safely disconnected. You can disconnect also by pressing the button in the net drawer (which should say disconnect). Or by choosing Game->Disconnect (Cmd-K) in the menu. When you disconnect, you will become available again in the game list on other people's machine.
Other Goodies
The Nature of Simultaneity: Spying on Opponent's Move
While pong is the simplest game you can imagine on the super-desktop computers these days, it poses a serious technical challenge for rendezousPong as it involves other people across the network. How to achieve seamless game flow without swamping the network with game state variables every miliseconds? Unlike most multiplayer games where momentary time-lags can be masked away by other busy activities on the local machine, pong operates in a stark environment where the player has nothing but the ball and paddle to keep track of. Any inconsistency will be acutely noted and lead to an uncomfortable feeling.
We are proud to have found ways to get around this challenge, and hope all users of
rendezvousPong will be pleasantly surprised.
The most important thing is to preserve integrity of (quasi-)simultaneity of
the paddle-ball contact event at all cost, while keeping the net traffic to a minimum.
Every thing else follows pretty much mechanically, independent of the other party.
We have to pay a small price for achieving smooth dynamics of the game and paddle manueverability:
It helps to have the opponent's paddle in the dark (choose "None"), the mode we recommend as default.
In this "ghost" mode, the opponent's paddle will be visible only upon its impact on the ball.
The suspense will be all yours. You can have it frequently updated by shifting the slider
named "Opponent's Paddle Update" in the Ball and Paddle tab of the tool chest.
If for some reason (bad network condition is the usual culprit) the game flow becomes unstable, try again in the "ghost" mode.
Chatting
When you are connected to another person, and when the match is in the paused state
(that is, the ball is not moving) you can chat.
Just type a short sentence directly into the pong window
and press return to send the message to the other party.
It will appear in the center of the table only on the opponent's screen.
The transcript of the chat messages will accumulate in the small text view located in the net drawer (opened by Game->Chat menu item (Cmd-T)).
Window Sizing
A neat feature of rendezvousPong is that the pong table size need not be fixed.
It can be changed on the fly, even during the game play.
Every aspect of the game scales accordingly, and therefore,
you will have seamless continuity except that now you have a longer or shorter table and
the ball consequently traversing larger or shorter distance during a given duration of time.
Two opponents may play the same game over network, yet using a pong table size wildly different from
what the opponent sees as shown below:
Caring for Your Competitive Spirit : Taunting and Statistics
When you win a match, the losing party will be notified by the phrase of your choosing. You may want to choose this carefully, as you do not want to provoke the loser too much. But you also deserve to declare your superiority as you have committed yourself to the match with total concentration for a few minutes. The phrase can be changed in the General tab of the tool chest. It will become a small pleasure of yours as your winning history begins to decorate the statistics table. Just don't forget that there is a Reset button which can wipe it out if it happens to be embarassing.
