XBATTLE 5.4.1
A concurrent multi-player battle strategy game
Developed by:
Greg Lesher (lesher@cns.bu.edu)
Based (with permission) on the original by:
Steve Lehar (slehar@cns.bu.edu) 0.0-4.0
Greg Lesher (lesher@cns.bu.edu) 1.0-5.4.1
FTP Release:
ftp://cns-ftp.bu.edu/pub/xbattle/xbattle-5.4.1.tar.gz
ftp://cns-ftp.bu.edu/pub/xbattle/xbattle-5.4.1.tar.Z
Web page:
http://cns-web.bu.edu/pub/xpip/html/xbattle.html
DESCRIPTION
This is version 5.4.1 of xbattle, by Greg Lesher, based on the original by
Steve Lehar released in 1991, and including certain enhancements,
modifications, and bug fixes suggested by a number of contributers from all
over the world. The extensive changes from version 5.1, the last official
xbattle release, are outlined below. The latest version can be obtained by
anonymous ftp to cns-ftp.bu.edu in the pub/xbattle direction in compressed
and gzip-ed tar format (xbattle-5.4.1.tar.Z and xbattle-5.4.1.tar.gz). There
is an xbattle Web page (http://cns-web.bu.edu/pub/xpip/html/xbattle.html),
which contains the latest release information, tutorials, file archives,
and a comprehensive on-line manual.
xbattle is a concurrent multi-player game which combines elements of
strategy with arcade-like action to capture a wide range of military
scenarios. The game is based on X Windows, which you must have installed
to run xbattle. Opponents play from separate displays, with commands being
executed concurrently -- the players do not take "turns", but rather they
all issue their commands simultaneously. There can be any number of
players, with each player assigned to a specific team, indicated by marker
colors. The game board is a matrix of cells (square, hexes, etc.) that can
be occupied by colored troops, with the goal of the game being to eliminate
the enemy from the board by attacking cells occupied by enemy troops. A
wide variety of command line options (and previously configured game files)
provide an abundance of different scenarios and gaming environments.
If you have never used xbattle before, we strongly suggest you read through
the online introduction at the Web site specified above. To get the feel of
the game, you can run the tutorials (called "tutorial1" and "tutorial2")
that are supplied with the game. These are shell scripts that run on unix
systems and start up a series of small example games that you can play around
with to learn the various options available with the game. If you are not on
a unix system, print out the tutorials and type in the embedded command lines
by hand. If you are interested in the philosophical and game design issues
of xbattle, or want to get immediate notice of the latest releases, updates,
and bug fixes, send email to xbattle_request@gnu.ai.mit.edu and we will put
you on the xbattle mailing list.
INSTALLATION
After un-gzip-ing ("gzip -d" or "gunzip") and un-tar-ing ("tar -xf") the
release, create a makefile using "xmkmf", then compile using the command
"make". If you want to be able to alter default values (board size,
colors, etc.) copy the file "xbattle.dot" into your home directory ($HOME)
or from wherever you will be starting xbattle as ".xbattle". For those
having problems getting "xmkmf" to work correctly, you may be able to copy
the default "makefile.std" to "makefile" and execute "make" without risking
an xmkmf encounter. See the INSTALL file for more detailed instructions.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN VERSION 5.4.1 AND VERSION 5.4
Version 5.4.1 of xbattle includes fixes of several bugs reported by various
players. These bug fixes are outlined below.
SCUTTLE SYNTAX ALTERED
Changes to the build and scuttle command made scuttling very difficult when
not used in conjunction with the build command. In version 5.4, the
scuttle_cost option determined how many troops were expended to scuttle
each growth unit of a city. In the new version, scuttle_cost determines how
many troops are expended to scuttle [int] growth units (default: 5), where
[int] is determined by:
-scuttle [int] enable scuttling with [int] units
When used in conjunction with the build command, the scuttle argument has
no effect.
BUG FIXES
On some machines the "char" type is assumed signed, while on others it is
assumed unsigned. A new typedef for signed and unsigned char types has
been created.
Issuing a scuttle command in a non-city cell previously cost friendly troops.
This has been remedied --- in this situation the scuttle command is ignored.
Earlier versions of xbattle would not handle 24 bit color systems correctly
due to a colormap allocation error. Version 5.4.1 should handle most
displays gracefully.
With triangular tiling, the maxval for downward pointing cells was not being
correctly set. They are now.
Previously, it was possible to move a single extra troop into cells which
already contained maxval troops. This has been remedied.
A bug in dig and scuttle caused a segmentation fault when spending all of the
troops in a cell. Several responsible statement misorderings were corrected.
KNOWN BUGS IN VERSION 5.4.1
Running on a Pentium with OSF/1, game crashes for unknown reason when using
the xbts/castle.xbt demonstration board.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN VERSION 5.4 AND VERSION 5.3
The changes from 5.3 to 5.4 have primarily involved cleaning up the code
for official release. During the course of full option-testing, several
anomalies were found and eliminated. In addition, there have been several
minor changes designed to make the game more consistent. A summary of
the functional differences follows. See further below for differences
between 5.1 and 5.3.
CELL SIZING
The former command to change cell size, -square <int>, was replaced by the
new command, -cell <int>. The -square option was maintained, but now
is used to specify a square tiling. Thus the commands are now:
-square use square tiling
-cell <int> area of cell
Cell sizing has been changed so that the cell area remains constant (at
<int> * <int>), regardless of the cell shape. Previously, the argument
determined the length of the side of a cell.
COST FRACTIONS
It is now possible to specify various troop costs (build_cost, scuttle_cost,
fill_cost, dig_cost) in terms of either an absolute number, or as a fraction
of the maximum maxval. If the argument to these options is less than one,
the fraction method is used, else the absolute number method is used.
OTHER CHANGES
Fixed minor bugs related to the horizon and movement methods.
The -erode and -erode_thresh options were changed so that the argument of
the first determines the minimum time before erosion occurs, while the
argument of the second specifies the probability that erosion will occur
at each subsequent update cycle, expressed in a percentage.
The -sea_tones option was fixed so that it actually does something. The
arguments to -dig and -fill were made optional, and now serve as shortcuts
to specifying -sea_tones.
The dig and fill mechanisms were slightly changed, such that the -dig_cost
and -fill_cost arguments were used to change troop values after these
operations. Previously all troops in the cell were used up. A side-effect
is that filling and digging of seas no longer results in loss of movement
vectors.
Fixed bug related to managed cells.
Fixed several bugs related to load/dump/edit commands.
Added support for different maxvals in different cells, as is required by
the -octagon tiling method.
Changed how -scuttle and -scuttle_cost work when not using the -build option.
Each scuttle operation ("s" command) now subtracts 1 troop production point
from a town for every scuttle_cost friendly troops in the cell. This many
troops are also expended.
KNOWN BUGS IN VERSION 5.4
Digging a non-sea cell with horizon enabled crashes the game. The same
error can occur when scuttling.
Troops can move into cells with a maxval of 0.
Scuttling a cell with no city costs troops.
On some platforms (SGIs, in particular), the use of the C "char" type is
assumed to be unsigned, while xbattle counts on it being signed.
The maxval for downward pointing triangles is never set.
24 bit displays are handled incorrectly, resulting in an X error.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN VERSION 5.3 AND VERSION 5.2
The changes from 5.2 to 5.3 have involved additional cleaning up of the 5.1
code, elimination of a number of 5.1 and 5.2 bugs, addition of different
tiling shapes, and a number of relatively minor changes. A summary of the
functional differences follow. See further below for differences between
5.2 and 5.1.
MULTIPLE TILING METHODS
Using the newly created cell shape structure of v5.2, several new tiling
methods have been added to supplement the standard square and hexagon tiling.
These are:
-diamond use diamond tiling
-octagon use octagonal/square tiling
-triangle use triangular tiling
All of these versions involve the periodic tiling of regular polygons. All
options (including commands which depend on specific cell relations, such as
-horizon, -attack, -repeat, and -march) are supported by all the tiling
methods. Try the .xbo files diamond.xbo, octagon.xbo, and triangle.xbo for
quick demonstrations (just use xbattle -<shape.xbo>, since -white me is in
the .xbo files).
CHANGED ARMIES AND BASES
Due in part to ideas of Jim McCarthy (mccarthy@mccarthy.rochny.uspra.abb.com),
the routines for armies and base placement were rewritten to support any
number of sides and any tiling method. Armies/bases are now placed along
tangents evenly placed on the edge of a large (imaginary) ellipse centered
within the board. For less than 5 sides, everything looks pretty much the
same (3 sides is hard-coded to use 90 degree spacings rather than 120
degrees). Things can get a little strange looking for lots of sides, since
the tangents will not be horizontal or vertical, but at least it works.
BLACK AND WHITE SUPPORT
Added back in the black and white monitor support which was lost in the
transition from v5.1 to v5.2. Note that with black and white monitors, many
of the drawing methods (-draw option) are unusable since terrains are not
stored as GCs (stipples), but rather as once-drawn pixmaps. In short, if
you are using ANY kind of terrain, either -draw 2 (DRAW_PIXMAP) or -draw 4
(DRAW_MASKING) will automatically be invoked (the former will only work with
square cells).
IMPLEMENT -NOSPIGOT OPTION
Thanks to Germano Caronni (caronni@tik.ethz.ch), the -nospigot <int> command,
which has been in the xbattle option list for a long time without a
corresponding implementation. With this command activated, troops will
automatically cease attacks when they are highly outnumbered, preventing the
"spigoting" (perhaps "siphoning" would be more appropriate) which can empty
whole supply lines into needless slaughter. Neighboring supply lines are
shut off whenever the troops in a cell are outnumbered by a ratio given by
the argument to the -nospigot command.
OTHER CHANGES
A dozen or so generic bug fixes, many due to Jim McCarthy
(mccarthy@mccarthy.rochny.uspra.abb.com) (the fixes, not the bugs).
Added way to change "map" color, seen when a cell's terrain is unknown (with
-map and -localmap options) and the "mark" color, used for the grid. These
colors are now defined just like side colors (e.g. "-color map 255 0 215").
Fixed -map and -localmap options such that cells are redrawn correctly when
they swith from unknown to known terrain (and vice versa).
Fixed biased horizon so that it works with all tiling methods.
Fixed bugs with -march option, simplifying the march code and march vector
drawing in the process.
Genericized definition of direction and marching vectors, allowing for simple
addition of new regular polygons for future tilings.
Genericized default color initialization (see parse.h).
Cleaned up inefficiencies in the way horizons were handled, which had
resulted in many unnecessary (and time-consuming) explicit checks of cell
visibility.
KNOWN BUGS IN VERSION 5.3
No known bugs.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN VERSION 5.2 AND VERSION 5.1
The changes from 5.1 to 5.2 have involved a major restructuring of the code,
as well as many outward changes. Version 5.2 is more-or-less backward
compatible with 5.1, but there are some important exceptions. These
exceptions are: stored and dumped file formats differ and .xbattle default
structure differs. A summary of major functional differences follows.
COMMAND LINE PARSING
The command line parsing routines were completely rewritten, using a more
generic method of specifying options. A quick look at options.h will show
that each option is now specified by a argument string, a number of
parameters, and two default values (an integer and a float). While this has
little direct effect on the user, it makes adding new options much easier
than before, and has resulted in a score of new options related to default
values, such as the cost of a paratrooper (-para_cost) or the range between
rbases (-rbase_range). Extending the parsing routines also allowed me to
incorporate more complex default functions, such as specifying colors and
stipple patterns in the command line. Since all the default values
previously loaded from the default .xbattle file are now command line
accessible, the default storage format was changed to be just like a .xbo
file (see new .xbattle).
Old default values which are now specifiable include:
-build_cost <int> cost to build city segment
-dig_cost <int> cost of each dig step
-erode_thresh <int> threshold for erosion
-fill_cost <int> cost of each fill step
-guns_cost <int> cost of each artillery shell
-guns_damage <int> damage done by each artillery shell
-hill_tones <int> number of allowable hill levels
-para_cost <int> cost of each paratrooper
-para_damage <int> invading strength of each paratrooper
-rbase_range <int> minimum distance of rbase from enemy base
-sea_tones <int> number of allowable sea levels
-forest_tones <int> number of allowable forest levels
-sea_value <float> darkness of seas for b/w games
Color definitions are now handled by:
-color <str> <r><g><b> set RGB values for color <str>
-color_inverse <str> <str2> set color <str> inverse to <str2>
-stipple <str> 8*<hex> stipple (b/w) pattern for color <str>
The palette is created (there is a default too) by adding colors as they
are specified using -color. These colors can be used for side colors or
for inverse side colors.
One last feature of the new command line parsing scheme is that every
command can be issued as a negative by prefixing it with "no_". Thus -grid
and -no_grid have opposite effects. This is especially useful for
cancelling out individual options issued in the default .xbattle file or in
a .xbo file, and for biasing individual players (i.e. -red { -no_guns
-no_para } me). When negated, options take no parameters since they are
just being turned off.
TERRAIN DISPLAY
The previous method of keeping track of terrain (hills and seas and such)
was abandoned, and a more flexible approach taken. This has allowed, among
other things, multiple sea depths. Thanks largely to suggestions and code
from Jack Bennetto (bennetto@physics.rutgers.edu), terrain generation was
completely revamped, leading to much more realistic looking board layouts.
The relevant new commands are:
-peaks <int> number of terrain peaks (and troughs)
-peak_bias <float> peak distribution bias (0.0-2.0)
-trough_bias <float> trough distribution bias (0.0-2.0)
which control the number of peaks, and the distribution of levels --- the
lower the bias values, the flatter most of the terrain is (1.0 default).
Terrain colors are now completely specifiable via;
-sea_color <int> <r><g><b> RGB values for sea level <int>
-hill_color <int> <r><g><b> RGB values for hill level <int>
-forest_color <int> <r><g><b> RGB values for forest level <int>
Each level can be independently specified or a reduced set of levels can be
specified, with xbattle automatically interpolating the non-specified levels.
When seas are filled, their hue is changed to that of shallower water, rather
than the previous block-reduction method. The old method is supported by:
-sea_block use block-fills rather than hue-fills
DRAWING METHODS
Significant internal changes were made to the way everything is drawn in
version 5.2. Tiling-specific (i.e. hex or square) drawing commands have
been almost completely eliminated, which will soon lead to alternative
tiling schemes (e.g. octagons & squares). One side effect is that
side-specific hex sizes can now be used. The only other external change
is the way cell drawings are updated. The method is specified by:
-draw <int> specify a troop drawing method
with the following available options:
-draw 0 (SIMPLE) erase
-draw 1 (BACKING) erase backing pixmap, copy to screen
-draw 2 (PIXMAP) copy blank pixmap to workspace, copy to screen
-draw 3 (WINDOW) copy screen to workspace, erase, copy back to screen
-draw 4 (MASKING) copy screen to workspace, clear center,
OR in cell, copy back to screen
The old default method (SIMPLE) just erased the cell onscreen, then redrew
the contents, resulting in flickering cells. Methods 1-4 are flicker free,
but are somewhat slower due to the need to copy things from pixmap to window.
OTHER NEW AND MODIFIED COMMANDS
Due to a suggestion by Simon Lai (sjlai@broncho.ct.monash.edu.au), added
a method to limit the number of cities a side can build in a game:
-build_limit <int> limit cities each side can build
The maximum troop values can be specified with biases for each side:
-maxval <int> maximum cell troop capacity
Due to a suggestion by Jack Bennetto (bennetto@physics.rutgers.edu), added
a shorthand method for loading .xbo (option) files:
-opt_file.xbo shorthand for -options opt_file.xbo
Added a command which allows loading just the terrain and cities from a
dumped (or edited) .xbt file. Troops and towns and whatnot can be super-
imposed over this map. When used with -edit, it has the somewhat different
effect of generating default terrain for editing (instead of just a flat
board to which terrain can be manually added). The command is:
-overwrite just use terrain from loaded file
OTHER CHANGES
Genericized keyboard bindings for process control and editing, but still
need to be compiled in. See keyboard.h and edit.h.
Added keyboard-based setting of direction vectors (good for small cells and
people who lack fine motor skills).
Genericized most internal constants, converting to #define in constant.h
Changed -map, -localmap, and -basemap to show "unknown" color if terrain is
not visible. Currently hardwired in as bright pink.
Rewrote store/replay routines to take advantage of new drawing methods,
resulting in more efficient game storage.
Rewrote dump/load routines, resulting in more efficient and comprehensive
board storage.
Add in X-Windows based error management, thanks to Eduard Martinescu
(martines@martinescu.rochny.uspra.abb.com).
KNOWN BUGS IN VERSION 5.2
Cell sizes are linked to a side, not a player, so that if there are multiple
players on a side, they must all have the same sized cells.
March works, but looks goofy.
For hexes only, -map, -basemap, and -localmap are partially broken,
incorrectly redraws cells as they become visible or invisible.
Side-based horizon bias is broken --- all sides must have same horizon.
Black and white support broken.
