Quickstart Guide

Quick-start guide on how to get up and running quickly and easily The main reason why T.A.R.B.S. engine is different from other engines is due to the limitations. It isn't limited at all. T.A.R.B.S. engine doesn't limit you with GUI or story-line. You aren't even required to build a story. That's all up to you. T.A.R.B.S. engine provides all of the functionality, all you have to do is the easy part. You just need to call the functions.

This example shows how to create a simple battle without using a battle loop

First, you need to import the module.

import TARBSengine

An important step in software development is debugging. Luckily, T.A.R.B.S. comes with a debugger. We can enable it by setting the TARBSengine.debug variable to true. We can also enable logging by calling the TARBSengine.initlogging().

TARBSengine.debug = True
TARBSengine.enable_logging = True

T.A.R.B.S. comes with some default output so you don't have to manually program each output after calling a function. If you'd prefer, you could leave it disabled, but for this project, I'm going to enable it

TARBSengine.use_default_output = True

Next, you need to create a player instance from the Player class

To do that, you need four arguments: name, HP, minimum Attack damage, and maximum attack damage.

player = TARBSengine.Player("Steven", 20, 5, 10)

Now, we can create an enemy from the Enemy class.

For the enemy class, you will need only four arguments: name, HP, (this is the same as maximum HP.) (This is because enemies cannot heal as of now) minimum Attack damage, and maximum attack damage.

zombie = TARBSengine.Enemy("Dave the Zombie", 11, 5, 10)

We have an enemy. Let's give him a purpose. His purpose is to defend a princess. We need a princess though. For that, we will use the NPC class.

princess = TARBSengine.NPC("The Princess")

Now, lets attack Dave. We can do that by calling the Player.atk() function.

player.atk(zombie)

Let's have Dave attack the player now. That can be done with the Enemy.atk() function.

zombie.atk(player)

Thanks to debugging, we can see exactly how much damage the attack did and how much HP the player has left. Let's attack Dave one more time.

player.atk(zombie)

Dave is dead. We can now talk to the princess. The princess is going to give us something. We can create a potion using the Potion class. Let's make a healing potion.

magic_potion = TARBSengine.Potion("Magic Health Potion", 5)

Now, let's make the Princess talk to us and give us the potion. We can do that by using the NPC.talkto() function in the NPC class.

princess.talkto("Thank you for saving me", True)

Using True or False as a second argument will decide if the NPC's name will show up when speaking

Now, let's edit the player's inventory to add a potion.

princess.talkto("You look hurt, here is a magic potion to heal you", True) 
player.additem(magic_potion, 1)

Now that the player has the magic potion, let's use the Player.usepotion() function to drink the potion and heal.

player.usepotion(magic_potion)

Here is the full code if you want to copy it:

import TARBSengine
TARBSengine.debug = True
TARBSengine.enable_logging = True
TARBSengine.use_default_output = True
TARBSengine.initlogging()
player = TARBSengine.Player("Steven", 20, 20, 5, 10)
zombie = TARBSengine.Enemy("Dave the Zombie", 11, 5, 10)
princess = TARBSengine.NPC("The Princess")
player.atk(zombie)
zombie.atk(player)
player.atk(zombie)
magic_potion = TARBSengine.Potion("Magic Health Potion", 5)
princess.talkto("Thank you for saving me", True)
princess.talkto("You look hurt, here is a magic potion to heal you", True)
player.additem(magic_potion, 1)
player.usepotion(magic_potion)

That basic information should be enough to get a simple game up and running. If you would like to learn more about the engine, you can read about it here.