Question

I’m working a minimal game with Java and mysql. I encountered some difficulties with how to design my tables correctly. I need some advices: Let me be specific, I have 3 classes:

Node

 public class Node {
     private Integer id;
     private Integer position;
     private Integer foodTax;
     private Boolean hasTreasureMap;
     private Integer currentPlayer; // playerId

Treasure

 public class Treasure {
     Integer id;
     private Integer position; // nodeId
     private Integer goldValue; 

Player

public class Player {
 private Integer id;
 private Integer wealth;
 private Integer strength;
 private Integer start;
 private Integer goal;
 private Integer currentPosition; // nodeId
 private Integer currentGoal; // another nodeId
 private Vector<Integer> path;
 private Vector<Integer> treasureIds;
 private int currentMoveIndex;
 Graph<Integer> telescope;

I’m a newbie to mysql, and database in general. I think I have to use foreign key in this case. However, I’m still vague how to implement it. Besides, there are several constraints:

1. Treasure’s position is fixed.
2. Node position is fix.
3. Only player position can be changed.
4. A node can only have a player at a time.( I try to make it as simple as I can, cause if there are two players in the same node, I don’t know how to handle it )

So the only foreign key here in my opinion is ‘currentPlayer’ id of class Node? Please correct me if I was wrong. Any idea?

Best regards,
Chan Nguyen

Answer 1

IT’s still not clear what you’re trying to store, but you could have a table for Nodes:

Node
   id
   position
   foodTax
   hasTreasureMap
   currentPlayerID /*Refers to Player table*/

Treasure
   id
   nodeID /* refers to Node table*/
   value

Player
   id
   /*unrelated fields such as wealth, strength, start*/
   position /*refers to ID in Node*/
   currentGoal /*refers to ID in Node*/

PlayerTreasures
   playerID /* refers to Player table*/
   treasureID /* refers to Treasure table*/

Paths
   nodeID /*refers to NodeID - I assume that a path is made of Nodes*/
   sequenceInPath /*I assume that the ordering in a path matters*/
   playerID /*refers to the player who owns this path*/

…I have no idea what the Telescope is for. Again, this suggestion might not work, I’m not exactly sure what you’re doing with this data.