monoidal_effects/effect_ideas

Effect Monoids
==============

Idea
----
Conceptually, a collection of stacking effects can be considered a monoid.

Definition
----------
An effect monoid should have the following defined:

  A set of values that can represent an effect in this group (domain)

  At least one of the two:
   
    A combining function: should be a binary operation that forms a monoid on
    the domain (i.e. is associative, and has an identity)

    A folding function: combines all the elements in a table, according to
    some monoidal combination. Now you get a combining function, just put
    the two elements in a table. Using that combination function to combine
    all the values in the table should be equivalent to just applying the
    folding function.

    If both are defined, then the combining function should give the same
    answer as putting the two elements in a table and folding.

    For optimal performance, you should define both.

  An identity: Something in the domain, that when combined with another element,
  always results in the other element.

  A function to apply effects to the player (A function for cancel is unneeded,
  just apply the identity). Using the identity should put the player in some
  sensible default state.

Optionally, it can have

  A function ran on every change, in case special effects or messages should be
  displayed. This will probably only be run when the player in question is
  online.


Effect Types
============

Definition
----------
Perhaps there can be two kinds of effect types, static and dynamic.

A static effect type should have the following properties

   A name
   A display name
   A set of string tags
   A map from monoids it is in to associated values
   A set of players it applies to (possibly include a special value for global?)
   Whether it is hidden from the players it applies to
   Whether it should be cancelled on death

A dynamic effect type should have the following properties

  A name
  A display name
  A set of string tags
  A set of monoids it can apply to
  A function for serializing the table of monoid things it has
    (Default minetest.serialize)
  A set of players it applies to
  Whether it is hidden from the players it applies to
  Whether it should be cancelled on death


Effects
=======

Definition
----------
The following properties:

  A unique ID
  A type (static or dynamic)
  An associated effect type
  A duration (can be permanent)

If its type is a dynamic effect type, it can also have a table of values
to use. Any value not in the table will be treated as the identity. The default
is an empty table.


API
===
A way to get an effect's information by id

A way to get a relational table of effects (with operations like Haskell's ixset)

  Indexed by:

  Effect monoid (many-to-many)
  Player name (many-to-many)
  Tag (many-to-many)
  Name (one-to-many?)
  Whether it is permanent

Simpler operations on top of the relational interface


Implementation
==============
Effects can be arranged in a relational table like an ixset, but ordered only on
their unique ids. A set with id ordering can be represented with a map from id
to effect record. To serialize, can additionally keep another map from id to
record, that just holds all the effects.

When a player is on the server, the temporary effects they have should be kept
track of and updated, otherwise should be removed from activity.

Only allow effects with a duration of a second?

Configurable effect update timestep?