NAME battleball - military version of soccer
SYNOPSIS
battleball [options] Players ...
DESCRIPTION
BattleBall is essentially the game of soccer, played with military
vehicles rather than with people. Each player drives a tank or flies a
helicopter, and tries to move the ball down the playfield to the other
team’s goal. In BattleBall, the teams’ "goals" are their headquarters
buildings, positioned at the ends of the playfield. Hitting another
team’s headquarters building with the ball scores a point, knocking the
building over in the process. Yes, realism was my ultimate goal in
this game.
OPTIONS
-ag ##l
Set players’ auto-gunner settings. The argument of this option
is three characters: a single-digit number specifying firing
accuracy, a single-digit number specifying firing frequency, and
one of the following letters specifying target selection:
a - fire at all targets
b - fire only at the ball
v - fire only at vehicles
n - no targets (i.e. do not fire)
This option affects players which appear after it on the command
line. The default is 43a.
-ff d|b|t
Make accidental ’friendly fire’ from fellow teammates:
d - dangerous (the default)
b - blocked or
t - transparent.
-grav #
Set gravity. Defaults to 0.031 m/iteration^2.
-help Show the help screen
-id # Set the inter-frame delay. If the game runs too slow, set this
lower; if the game seems to lag behind your keystrokes, set this
higher. Defaults to 30 milliseconds.
-mtns #
Set the number of mountains. Defaults to 8.
-noag Disable human players’ auto-gunner capability.
-noap Disable human players’ auto-pilot capability.
-nobang
Disable ’bangs’ (the flashes at the end of a gun barrel)
-noflyby
Disable aircraft fly-bys.
-nopause
Disable players’ use of the pause (’P’) key.
-noresize
Do not automatically resize the window to fit the graphics.
-noshade
Disable shadows. Uses less cpu time.
-out Allow vehicles to go outside of the playfield.
-pts # Set number of points required to win. Defaults to 3.
-rad # Set the ’radius’ of the playfield. Defaults to 100 meters.
-sb Single-buffer the game windows.
-sd # Set the startup delay. The game will wait for this many seconds
for players to get ready.
-simple
Use simpler graphics. Uses less cpu time.
-snum #
Set number of shells per player. Defaults to 3.
-spow #
Set shell power. Defaults to 1.6.
-svel #
Set shell muzzle velocity. Defaults to 1.5 meters/frame. At
higher velocities, some collisions may not be reliably detected.
-train Include a train running on a track around the playfield.
-trees #
Set the number of trees. Defaults to 12.
-wf Use wireframe rendering. Uses less cpu time.
PLAYERS & TEAMS
Battleball is played with teams of human and computer players. Up to
six teams can play at once, and teams may have any combination of human
and computer players. Human players are created by giving the name of
an X display on the command line. Computer players are created by using
the magic name ’comp’ instead.
Computer players may be created with specific auto-gunner settings.
Use ’comp’, followed by (no space) the three characters used in the -ag
option, e.g. ’comp67b’. This overrides the -ag option.
Commas between names put players on the same team; spaces between names
separate teams. Teams may have any mix of human and computer players.
At least one player (one team) must be specified on the command line.
However, soccer with just one team is rather boring; using two or more
is strongly suggested.
Each team is assigned a color. Tanks, helicopters, and headquarter
buildings are all marked with the team’s color.
PLAY
When the game starts, each player is seated in her vehicle, in front of
her goal, facing the ball at the center of the playfield. Vehicles
are, of course, armed with cannons, but these are primarily a means to
an end. Gunfire is good for forcing obstinate opponents out of your
way, but gunfire doesn’t destroy anything. Gunfire is also good for
blasting the ball across the playfield and into your opponent’s HQ.
You use the keyboard to control your vehicle. The commands that are
available at any given time are shown at the bottom of the screen.
Commands for all vehicles:
’I’ (or up arrow.) Move forward.
’J’ (or left arrow.) Turn left.
’K’ (or down arrow.) Move back.
’L’ (or right arrow.) Turn right.
Space Fire.
’P’ Pause.
’Q’ Quit.
’T’ Transform tank to helicopter or vice versa.
’A’ Toggle autopilot.
’G’ Toggle autogunner.
’V’ Switch between view from vehicle, and view of vehicle
from HQ.
Tab Show teams and scores.
Extra commands for tanks:
’E’ Raise barrel (shots go farther).
’S’ Rotate turret left.
’D’ Lower barrel.
’F’ Rotate turret right.
The current angle of the barrel and turret are shown beneath the main
display, next to the team insignia.
Commands for helicopters:
’E’ Go up (note, your helicopter cannot fly on the ground).
’S’ Fly left.
’D’ Go down.
’F’ Fly right.
’Y’ Pitch forward.
’H’ Pitch back.
The current elevation and pitch are shown beneath the main display,
next to the team insignia.
The controls which are available to your vehicle are always shown at
the bottom of the screen.
SCORING
When there are two teams, scoring is the same as it is in soccer:
scoring a "goal" is worth 1 point. When there are more than two teams,
scoring a goal earns 2 points, and the other teams besides the losing
team receive 1 point each for defending their headquarters.
EXAMPLES
battleball :0
Starts a game with only one player on only one team, a human
player on the local X display. Not a very interesting game.
battleball :0 comp
A single human player vs. the computer, one-on-one.
battleball ford:0 chevy:0
Two humans, head-to-head, one on the display "ford:0", one on
"chevy:0".
battleball flavio:0 chirp:0,roar:0
Sets up a one-player team against a two-player team.
battleball parrot:0,comp raven:0 comp,comp
Creates three teams with a mix of human and computer players.
battleball dunce:0 comp75a comp,comp
Creates three teams. The first computer player gets special
auto-gunner settings; the other computer players get default
settings.
BUGS
Using multiple X displays introduces certain security risks (which are
beyond the scope of this document). Networked games will require the
use of the incredibly insecure xhost(1) command or the less insecure
but rather complicated xauth(1) utility. Do not play this game with
people you don’t know and trust.
Using multiple X displays also imposes performance overheads. You will
need fast network connections for multi-player games.
The game must render 3d graphics for each player in the game. This can
slow the game down dramatically as the number of players increases.
You can use various options to speed up the game, but you will
eventually reach a point of diminishing returns.
SEE ALSO
See battleball -help and /usr/share/doc/battleball/README.gz for more
information.
AUTHOR
Battleball was written by Philip A. Hardin.
This man page was written by Chris Waters <xtifr@debian.org>.