Player Data #

Pragma Engine’s Inventory service manages player data with a sound transactional model that accounts for real-world scenarios like service outages and database instabilities. The Inventory service offers a rich content management system to address live migration so player data can be evolved throughout the lifecycle of a live service game.

Items #

Items are the building blocks of the Inventory service. They store data for anything from the traditional in-game items (gear, currency) to metadata items (player’s stats, loadouts). Pragma Engine has two main data types: instanced items and stackable items. The contents of instanced and stackable items are created within Pragma Engine’s predefined protobuf files. Custom protobuf definitions can be added to ext fields.

Pragma Engine supports hidden inventory items with service calls that return filtered inventory information based on the tags in the configuration. Sensitive information such as matchmaking rating can be stored as an instanced item and hidden from players.

Features #

In this section, we’ll briefly go over several features within the Inventory service:

• Store
• Crafting
• Rewards
• Limited Grants

Store #

The Store system handles the creation of store catalogs. This includes managing the exchange of instanced and stackable items. Stores can be individually managed, enabling special events such as limited-time content sales.

The Inventory service verifies if a player meets the cost requirements of a purchase. Additional custom logic for the requests can be defined in the optional Store Plugin.

Crafting #

Pragma Engine’s Crafting system is feature-rich and extensible to fit any game’s needs. The Crafting system supports anything from a simple exchange of instanced and stackable items to granting randomized rewards.

The logic to verify the requests and the items granted to players is defined within the Crafting Plugin. This allows studios to set dynamic exchange rates of items for players based on their requests and set item limitations.

For an in-depth guide, see the Crafting tutorial.

Rewards #

The Rewards system powers weighted random rolls of rewards content. Pragma Engine has reward tables which provide a lot of flexibility for defining rewards content without the need of additional plugin code.

Limited Grants #

Limited grants are one-time grants given to players on login. They can contain any combination of instanced or stackable items. Below are several scenarios for when players might be granted a limited grant:

• starter pack for new players
• an incentive for returning players
• seasonal events for the entire player base

A start and end time can be set on limited grants, enabling items to only be granted to players during a specified time window.

Network Authority #

The following are the features within the Inventory service catagorized by their network authority:

• client authoritative:
  • Stores
  • Crafting
• server authoritative:
  • Rewards
  • Limited Grants

Client Authoritative Notifications #

When updates are requested to the inventory database through client authoritative endpoints, the response contains information which the SDK Inventory service will use to update the client-side cache.

Server Authoritative Notifications #

When updates are requested to the inventory database through server authoritative endpoints, the Inventory service will first send out a notification to the game-client SDK. The Inventory service SDK will then update the client-side cache accordingly.

Pragma Engine Inventory Service Plugins #

Topics in This Section #