Sink Ships – How It Works

Boards & Ships

• Two 10×10 grids: your board and your opponent's.
• Fleet types: Carrier (5), Battleship (4), Cruiser (3), Submarine (3), Destroyer (2).
• Placement rules: no overlap and no touching (including diagonals). Ships can be placed horizontally or vertically.
• Hits and misses are tracked per cell; a ship is sunk when all its cells are hit.

Single-Player AI Mode

• The AI places ships randomly following the no-touch rule.
• You can toggle Reveal AI ships for debugging in the AI tab.
• Manual placement: enable Manual placement, rotate with the Rotate button, clear placements, and Lock placement to preserve your setup across restarts.
• AI turn logic: AI fires at your board after your shot resolves; win/loss messages appear when a fleet is sunk.

Peer-to-Peer (PvP) with Copy/Paste Signaling

We use WebRTC data channels for direct communication without servers. Signaling is done manually by copy/paste:

• Host: Create offer, copy the code, send it to your opponent. Paste their answer to connect.
• Join: Paste the host's offer, create an answer, copy the code, and send it back.
• Once connected, messages are relayed over a reliable data channel. Spectators connect to a separate spectate channel.

Spectating

• Host can create a spectate offer; each spectator provides an answer.
• Spectators receive broadcast updates from both players.
• UI shows both boards for viewers; messages can be relayed to spectators.

Temporary Chat

We provide text inputs and Send buttons on Host, Join, and Spectate views. For test purposes, the Send buttons are currently non-functional (no network calls or UI updates). This allows UI layout validation without backend logic.

Limitations & GitHub Pages Notes

• No centralized matchmaking or TURN server; copy/paste signaling required.
• GitHub Pages can host static assets but cannot run a signaling service; use manual exchange or GitHub Actions to publish builds.
• NATs without public STUN reachability may fail to connect.

Roadmap

• Functional chat with message relay for players and spectators.
• Spectator view enhancements and replay mode.
• SVG ship visuals, animations, and accessibility improvements.