Alcohol could be the answer?

It's official - being drunk puts your mind on a clear path to programming enlightenment.

I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't experienced it myself this very Easter weekend. Based on that statement, I can only assume that being completely sh*tfaced leads to some sort of coding Nirvana, but that's an experiment for another day.

I feel a little back-story is required. Every Easter (and August) Bank Holiday I meet up with a collection of like-minded friends in a London suburb and we generally have a laugh, play videogames, get drunk, have a dodgy barbecue, stay up ridiculously late then crash out into a tent that doubles as a greenhouse etc..., I'm sure you get the picture. Anyway, Easter just gone was no exception. Now I wouldn't usually dream of coding at a LAN party, but there were a few chill-out moments between games and this multiplayer issue was getting me down, so I thought "sod it, I'll take the flak" and opened up my development software. As it happens, no one gave a toss. (That's what it's like at these events - anything goes and no one judges you for it - we're all equals there, regardless of profession, race, gender, age, weight, height, Android/Apple allegiance...)

Anyway, after trying different things with the code, I was again getting frustrated with myself for constantly failing with the multiplayer data transfer problems I was having. Of course I was offered drunken solutions to the issue, friends hosted testing servers for me etc, but it simply wasn't happening. So I resorted to more Cider. Magners to be precise. After a while I had a strange sensation of just "knowing". Now I know that sounds like complete crap but I swear, it's as if being a bit drunk opened my mind to new ideas, it aligned my thoughts and made things clearer!

So after a few more drinks, and a few more mods to the code, and few tweaks here and there (nipples included) - I fired it up and lo' and behold I had a connection between the host and the client! I mean a connection I could send data packets across, quickly and reliably. Now I know that isn't a big thing, but to me it's a massive achievement, one that has been eluding me since...er....I can't remember, you'll have to read earlier blog posts.

So even though there is a long way to go, I am one step closer now. And it kinda made the weekend a tiny bit more enjoyable for me. Strange how different things affect different people eh?

Here is a picture of the client sending some data to the server, just for historical reference as much as anything. The data transfer is quick and reliable, and now hopefully I can progress a bit.

This might be laughable to many people, but to me it's a monumental achievement!

So now all I need to do is go through the code line by line, working out exactly how I can use the transferred data in an efficient way. I also need to build a proper datagram; the one I used here was just to see if I could actually get the data across reliably. It's still really early days, but everyone has to start somewhere, right?

I've had many experiences this weekend, some of which have already transformed into treasured memories, and I've learned one crucial thing regarding the development of Tank - if I'm ever stuck on something and there doesn't seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel... 

Have fun,chill out, get drunk and the answer might just reveal itself!