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Symbol structure

Symbols are handled as their own distinct class objects. Based only off a symbol name, several useful attibutes are assigned to the object based on if the symbol name appears in in the config.paytable or config.special_symbols fields. 

class Symbol:
    def __init__(self, config: object, name: str) -> None:
        self.name = name
        self.special_functions = []
        self.special = False
        is_special = False
        for special_property in config.special_symbols.keys():
            if name in config.special_symbols[special_property]:
                setattr(self, special_property, True)
                is_special = True

        if is_special:
            setattr(self, "special", True)

        self.assign_paying_bool(config)

When a new game-board is drawn, a 2D array of symbol objects are generated. At a minimum, the symbol will have the attributes:

  • Name
    • [string] shorthand name, typically 1 or 2 letters
  • special_functions
    • Within the GameStateOverride class, special functions can be applied to a symbol as soon as the object is created. This is done through the abstract function, for example:
def assign_special_sym_function(self):
    self.special_symbol_functions = {
        "W": [self.assign_mult_property],
    }
def assign_mult_property(self, symbol):
    multiplier_value = get_random_outcome(
        self.get_current_distribution_conditions()["mult_values"][self.gametype]
    )
    symbol.assign_attribute({"multiplier": multiplier_value})

`assign_special_sym_function()` is called when the `GameState` is initially created. In this example, we are assigning a multiplier value to any new wild ('W') which is created. Any action defined within `self.special_symbol_functions` with the format `{<name>: @callable_func}` will be assigned to the `special_functions` property.
  • is_special
    • This property is assigned as False by default unless the name appears as a value within config.special_symbols
  • special_property
    • Properties appearing in config.special_functions = {'property': [name]} are set to True by default.
  • assign_paying_bool()
    • This function assigns the properties is_paying and paytable. If the symbol name appears in config.paytable is_paying is set to True and the relevant paytable values are assigned to paytable. Otherwise these values are set to False and None respectively.

Symbol Attributes

In addition to the application of special_functions, attributes are an important characteristic of symbol objects, particularly for checking if there are any special symbols on the game-board which require additional actions. For example if we want to check if a given symbol has a prize or multiplier attribute:

if self.board[reel][row].check_attribute('prize','multiplier'):
    ...

The check_attribute function will return a boolean value if the given attribute exists and its value is not False. I.e.:

if symbol.check_attribute('prize'):
    win += symbol.get_attribute('prize')

Furthermore we can assign properties to a symbol using the assign_attribute method. As an example, if we have a game where we have a special symbol denoted by the enhance tag. Where the effect of this symbol is to add a multiplier value to any active Wild symbols. In the gamestate we could preform the following actions:

if len(self.special_symbols_on_board['enhance']) > 0:
    for sym in self.special_symbols_on_board[wild]:
        mult_val = get_random_outcomes(self.config.mult_values[self.gametype])
        self.board[sym['reel']][sym['row']].assign_attribute({'multiplier', mult_val})