Over the coming weeks and months, the scope is going to be expanding massively, and much of the old work is going to be discarded.
Flipper Online is no longer going to be a game isolated to Flipper Devices, but will use entire operating systems as a competitive battleground for user player-versus-player interactions.
Flipper Ønline (FØ /Eff:Null/) is undergoing a significant transformation, expanding its scope from a Flipper-centric game to a full-fledged player-versus-player (PvP) experience leveraging entire operating systems as battlegrounds. While the original cellular automata concept is being discarded, the core principles of Digimon, Megaman, and Scannerz V-Pets continue to inspire its development.
The New Vision:
FØ envisions a competitive environment where players utilize their Flipper Zero devices as "Digivices" to manage and control their unique digital entities within dedicated operating system instances. These entities, previously represented as simple cells, will evolve into more complex and autonomous agents, battling for dominance within virtualized environments.
Key Elements of the Redesigned FØ:
- Operating Systems as Battlegrounds: Instead of a self-contained game on the Flipper, FØ will utilize entire operating systems (potentially Windows 2000 Datacenter or similar) as the arena for player interactions. This provides a vastly expanded and dynamic environment for battles and strategic gameplay.
- Flipper Zero as the Digivice: The Flipper Zero retains its role as the primary interface and management tool for each player's digital entity. Its diverse functionalities (HID scripting, Sub-GHz communication, U2F, Bluetooth, USB storage, etc.) will be leveraged for interacting with and controlling the virtualized environment.
- Evolving Digital Entities: The concept of simple hexadecimal-based cells is being replaced by more sophisticated digital entities. These entities will possess unique characteristics, abilities, and evolutionary paths, inspired by the Digimon franchise. They will be capable of learning, adapting, and potentially even developing personalities through player interactions.
- Player-versus-Player Combat: FØ will focus on competitive PvP gameplay, where players pit their digital entities against each other in strategic battles within the virtualized operating system environments.
- Online Multiplayer: The game will incorporate online multiplayer functionalities, allowing players to connect and compete with others remotely. This will involve a dedicated server infrastructure and potentially a community-driven ecosystem for sharing entities, strategies, and custom game rules.
Retained Elements and Inspirations:
- Digimon, Megaman, and Scannerz V-Pets: The core inspiration from these franchises remains, particularly the concepts of digital companions, evolution, and strategic battles.
- Flipper Zero's Versatility: The Flipper Zero's diverse hardware and software capabilities will be central to the gameplay experience, providing a unique and engaging way to interact with the digital entities and the virtualized environments.
Future Development:
- Expanding Entity Complexity: The design of the digital entities will evolve beyond simple hexadecimal strings, potentially incorporating more sophisticated data structures and algorithms to govern their behavior and evolution.
- Developing the Combat System: The combat system will be refined to provide a strategic and engaging PvP experience within the operating system environments.
- Building the Online Infrastructure: A robust server infrastructure and client-side applications will be developed to support online multiplayer functionalities, including matchmaking, communication, and data synchronization.
- Creating a Community Ecosystem: FØ will encourage community involvement through the development of tools, resources, and platforms for sharing custom entities, strategies, and game modifications.
In Conclusion:
Flipper Ønline is embarking on an ambitious journey to redefine the boundaries of Flipper Zero gaming. By leveraging the power of virtualized operating systems and drawing inspiration from beloved franchises, FØ aims to create a unique and engaging player-versus-player experience that empowers users to cultivate, train, and battle their own personalized digital companions. As the project progresses, the community's involvement will be crucial in shaping the future of this exciting new gaming paradigm.
Ethical Considerations:
- Avoiding Manipulation: FØ should not be designed to manipulate or coerce users into changing their behavior against their will. The platform should empower users to make their own choices and take responsibility for their actions.
- Respecting Individual Differences: FØ should recognize and respect individual differences in values, beliefs, and goals. The platform should not impose a singular vision of personal growth or ethical development on its users.
- Maintaining Transparency: The mechanisms by which FØ facilitates interactions should be transparent and understandable to users, allowing them to make informed decisions about their engagement with the platform.
Flipper Ønline (FØ /Eff:Null/)
A Flipper Zero Multiplayer Game Inspired by Digimon, Megaman and Scannerz V-Pets
F0 is a complex cellular automata. Each Flipper Zero device acts as a self-contained digital entity with unique characteristics determined by hexadecimal code. This code influences the Flipper's appearance, mood, and stats. The game leverages these pre-programmed behaviors to create a world where Flippers interact with their environment and each other based on a set of rules. This rule-based system, combined with the Flipper's ability to access frequency interactions, hopes to achieve a level of autonomy that pushes the boundaries of traditional gaming experiences.
The F0 entity is primarily designed using three layered components:
- a Bit-Value array stores modifiable firmware interactions
- plaintext bin files with no extension containing hexadecimal strings act as the core cells
- a matrix array acts as both the combat grid and as the next evolution in our project, combining and processing individual cell interactions to create a more capable and unique, emergent entity.
The application reads and writes data to- and from- bin files and interprets the firmware logic for processing components from your Flipper's SD card.
Each cell exists as a 5-bit hexadecimal string within a plaintext file, with no extension. This means that you can use the existing text viewer and hexadecimal editor apps on the Flipper Zero for modifying cells.
Each cell consists of a Shape, a Protrusion of a shape, a Health value, a Size, and a Mood value, creating a layered, fractal-like entity.
There are three options for each attribute, and each attribute influences the others during cell interaction, for a total of 5^3+1 possible cell states at inception.
0x157AF
0x349BE
0x208A0
(Remember: each Bit-Value category can only be used once. Refer to the Bit-Value Array below for updated firmware rules.)
Each hexadecimal bit value 0-F is only used once, and each category of value can only be used one time per cell.
The process of cell combat modifies the hexadecimal strings during interaction, eventually writing the 0 bit to Shape to denote that a cell is dead.
Reviving a cell simply involves editing its file to remove the 0 bit from its hexadecimal string and then setting a new shape bit value within the string.
You can also choose to reset or edit the mood, size, protrusion and health values to anything you want.
| Bit-Value | Use | Category |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Null | Null |
| 1 | ○ | Shape |
| 2 | △ | Shape |
| 3 | □ | Shape |
| 4 | Bump (○) | Protrusion |
| 5 | Spike (△) | Protrusion |
| 6 | Block (□) | Protrusion |
| 7 | Small | Size |
| 8 | Medium | Size |
| 9 | Large | Size |
| A | •⌣• | Mood |
| B | •_• | Mood |
| C | •︵• | Mood |
| D | Min | Health |
| E | Mid | Health |
| F | Max | Health |
For more information, refer to Cell Processing
(Work In-Progress)
When cells are interacting, their values are copied to a matrix array for pre-processing, and for simultaneously processing multiple interactions across numerous cells per clock cycle.
Cells on the matrix seek to copy themselves across each of the matrices, interacting with- and consuming enemy cells as they go.
The matrix starts with one user cell and one enemy cell at either ends. Each cell is processed simultaneously, and they may copy themselves to any of the open slots in the matrix adjacent to the cells current slot.
If two competing cells seek to occupy the same matrix slot, they are processed against one another until one cell dies.
The matrix continues processing until either the user cell shape or the enemy cell shape is the only one left occupying the matrix.
Users can set one cell of each shape for pre-selection during automatic battles.
See Core Gameplay Loop for more.
Matrices can be processed two different ways:
- by copying values from bin files directly to the matrix, editing the strings, then copying the values back
- by referencing a cell file by name to edit it directly
A matrix cell that references itself can loop or recurse.
Matrix cells that reference another matrix or themselves can be made to terminate when a cell Doesn't reference another matrix during the current or next parse.
Matrices have a unique format;
- each vertical line is closed with [Square Brackets]
- a pipe | separates each horizontal entry
- spaces and line breaks are ignored
Matrix files have no extension and share a folder with cells.
At the most basic level, cells follow a simple roshambo model of interaction.
○ -> △ -> □
This remains true of both the Shape and Protrusion of each cell interaction.
Smaller cells out-speed larger cells.
Mood, Size, Protrusion and Health are all modifiable values: they change during cell interaction.
If a Bit-Value for a Shape does not exist in the cell, it is considered dead (the same as a 0 Bit-Value being written).
Both the Shape and the Protrusion of a cell can be set to 0. Any other Bit-Value in a cell that gets set to 0 will be reverted to its minimum value (ie. Small for Size).
(Work In-Progress)
Matrix Logic is liable to constant optimization and iteration.
First:
- Compare Speed > Smaller Moves Sooner
- Process Protrusion > Loser Changes Form
Then:
- Roshambo on Main Shape > Losing Shape -1 HP
Mood:
- If Happy then hits enemy > set Protrusion as Enemy Shape
- If Happy then Hit > Neutral
- If Neutral then Hit > Sad
- If Sad then Hit > Set Protrusion 0
Health:
- If HP Min & Hit = Set Shape 0 (dead)
- If HP Max & Hits enemy > get bigger
(Work In-Progress)
The current user interactions involve editing the cells between grid combat, scanning them as they're cloning on the matrix, scanning NFC cards for effects during combat, and healing the currently scanned cell during combat.
Cells compete on the matrix by randomly being scanned into existence (yada yada this part for now. subghz or gyro step scanning.)
When an enemy loses on the grid, their cell is copied to your data repository to be used in future battles, and a copy of the matrix at the time of completion is also saved.
These matrices will be useful later (see Online Multiplayer)
- Flee
Cell tries to move away after interaction - Move
Cell tries to move anywhere before interactions - Split (Copy Self)
Cell tries to copy itself to an adjacent slot before or after interaction
- Heal
You may heal each cell once per grid combat. - Scan
When you scan a cell on the matrix, information displays detailing the current health, mood, size, shape and protrusion on that cell. Only one cell may be displayed at a time, and you may only heal a currently-scanned cell. - NFC
You can scan certain NFC protocols to add power ups and new effects to your cells abilities on grid.
See Combat Matrix for more.
The current file structure is as follows:
~
/ext/apps/F0/
- run_f0.js
/rules/
- bit-value_array
- matrix_array
/scripts/
- scan.js
- alert.js
- grid.js
~
/ext/apps_data/f0/
/cells/
001
0x00000
/matrix/
001
~
/ext/contacts/
(Work In-Progress)
The game does not need to be run with a GUI.
Cell interactions can be processed at the system level without drawing their interactions to the display.
- Text Viewer
- Hex Viewer
- Hex Editor
- Multi Converter
- Programmer Calculator
- Shop
- Gyro Step-Counting
- Raspi 2040 Firmware Integration
- Gameboy Cartridge Reading & Writing
- Serial Data Transfer via Link Cable
(Cancelled until further notice due to power concerns)
- LLM Integration
(Work In-Progress)
This is the primary communication platform for all things Flipper 0nline! Early Development, news and community games will be posted here.
Discuss with an admin if you want to bridge this room into your services!
- Desktop Applications
- Connecting
- Gameplay Loop
- Expand single-bit values 0-F to 2-bit values 0-FF
- Expand 3x3 Matrix to layered 9x9 variant
- Layered Matrix Processing Logic
- Server Integration
Join the public chatroom listed under Community Comms to join our team!
F0 Licensing
2024
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License") modified with Commons Clause Restriction; you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at
http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.
Commons Clause Restriction
The Software is provided to you by the Licensor under the License, as defined below, subject to the following condition.
Without limiting other conditions in the License, the grant of rights under the License will not include, and the License does not grant to you, the right to Sell the Software.
For purposes of the foregoing, “Sell” means practicing any or all of the rights granted to you
under the License to provide to third parties, for a fee or other consideration (including without
limitation fees for hosting or consulting/ support services related to the Software), a product or
service whose value derives, entirely or substantially, from the functionality of the Software.
Any license notice or attribution required by the License must also include this Commons Clause
License Condition notice.
Tl:Dr; Do whatever you want as long as you do it for free.
