From cls6@midway.uchicago.edu Thu Jan 27 21:14:05 EST 1994 Article: 1418 of rec.games.bolo Newsgroups: alt.netgames.bolo,rec.games.bolo Path: news.itd.umich.edu!destroyer!newncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!uchinews!ellis!cls6 From: cls6@ellis.uchicago.edu (Cory L. Scott) Subject: FAQ: rec.games.bolo v.1.9 - General Info (1/2) and administrivia Message-ID: <1994Jan25.050651.17612@midway.uchicago.edu> Followup-To: cls6@midway.uchicago.edu Sender: news@uchinews.uchicago.edu (News System) Reply-To: cls6@midway.uchicago.edu Organization: University of Chicago -- Academic Information Technologies Date: Tue, 25 Jan 1994 05:06:51 GMT Lines: 441 Xref: news.itd.umich.edu alt.netgames.bolo:7653 rec.games.bolo:1418 Ok, folks - here's the new FAQ, divided into 2 sections. There will not be a standalone version of this version, because it is temporary. Things that are going on and randomly bouncing around my mind: 1. Scot May and I are working on revising the strategy section. (Part II) It's not done - by any means of the word - it'll be a while, so the old strategy tips are still there. 2. Maps, Brains, One-Liners, and Strategy are all now in Part II. 3. Waiting for the new version to come out to make all these changes. 4. Added posting maps section and "a.n.b is defunct" section. 5. Waiting for approval of this new FAQ format by the news.answers powers that be. 6. This thing is getting HUGE. . . 7. Thinking about adding a section on hacks. Any comments? 8. Added fpm.uchicago.edu and Bolo registry. Here it is. . . --------------------- rec.games.bolo Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) - Part I Version 1.9 - January 24, 1993 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Compiled and maintained by Cory L. Scott (aka Kimboho) (cls6@midway.uchicago.edu) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This file is meant to be displayed in good ol' Monaco 9 point. You are strongly encouraged to read this FAQ before posting to r.g.b. If you have any questions or comments about this FAQ, please email cls6@midway.uchicago.edu. The FAQ is divided into two sections for space reasons. The first part is dedicated to the basics of Bolo and the USENET group devoted to it, and the second part deals with maps, brains, and strategy. There are two versions of the FAQ: one is in plain text, and the other is a standalone document for the Macintosh. The text FAQ will be posted twice a month, and the standalone FAQ will be posted once a month to rec.games.bolo ONLY and is available at cybercow.rh.uchicago.edu. The text version is also available via anon FTP at cybercow.rh.uchicago.edu and rtfm.mit.edu. Table of Contents ----------------- PART I: BOLO BASICS I. First off, what is Bolo? II. How do you play Bolo? III. What's the current version of Bolo? IV. What's going to be in the new version of Bolo and when will it be out? V. What kind of stuff do I need to play Bolo? VI. Okay, now that you know about Bolo, where can you get it? INTERNET BOLO I. Internet Bolo sounds neat! How can I play, find a game, etc.? II. What if I'm in Europe? How do I find a game? III. I connect to the Internet via modem, and use telnet and FTP with good speed, but when I play Internet Bolo, it's just TOO slow. What's up? IV. Is there a Bolo player registry? V. Issues of etiquette APPLETALK BOLO I. How can I find out about games on an Appletalk net? II. Can I play AppleTalk Bolo with ARA? REC.GAMES.BOLO AND OTHER MISC. STUFF I. I've got a new idea for Bolo! Shouldn't I post it to r.g.b right away? II. What is alt.netgames.bolo? What the difference between the two groups? III. Shareware Fees PART II: BOLO FACTS AND STRATEGY I. ONE-LINERS A. Vital statistics B. Interesting Things C. Lag fun II. MAPS A. Where can I find other maps or create my own? B. What are some of the guidelines I should follow for making maps? C. How do I post and download maps from r.g.b from or to my machine? III. BRAINS A. Now what's this about Brains? B. Where can I get Brains? C. How do you write Brains? VI. STRATEGY A. Overall strategies B. Taking pills C. Other strategies ----------- BOLO BASICS ----------- First off, what is Bolo? ------------------------ Let's let the author do the talking: "Bolo is a 16 player graphical networked real-time multi-player tank battle game. It has elements of arcade-style shoot-em-up action, but for the serious players who play 12 hour games with 16 players working in teams in different networked computer clusters around an office or university campus, it becomes more of a strategy game. You have to play it to understand." --- Stuart Cheshire How do you play Bolo? --------------------- Bolo has a large amount of options and elements to its play. Once you get a copy of the program, you should read and print out the documentation, which is much more detailed than this explanation. Basically, you are a tank that travels around a map, which has trees, rubble, water, trees, deep water, walls, grass, swamps, and roads to deal with. Your tank has ammo (commonly called bullets or shells), mines, armor (also called shields), and the capacity to carry trees. The map is created by a player before hand. The two most important elements on the map are pillboxes and bases. Pillboxes are originally neutral, meaning that they shoot at every tank that happens to get in its range. They shoot fast and with deadly accuracy. You can shoot the pillbox with your tank, and you can see how damaged it is by looking at it. Once the pillbox is subdued, you may run over it, which will pick it up. You may place the pillbox where you want to put it (where it is clear), if you've enough trees to build it back up. Trees are harvested by sending your man outside your tank to forest the trees. Your man (also called a builder) can also lay mines, build roads, and build walls. Once you have placed a pillbox, it will not shoot at you, but only your enemies. Therefore, pillboxes are often used to protect your bases. Bases are used for refueling your tank. Like pillboxes, they start out neutral, meaning that anyone can run over them, and they will belong to that player. Bases cannot be moved. You can take over a base by shooting it. Therefore, Bolo becomes exciting when you have 3 or more people fighting for control of pillboxes and bases, traveling around the map, and shooting each other. You can also form alliances with other players for team play. Again, this FAQ doesn't exist to teach you the basics of how to play the game. That's what the documentation is for. What's the current version of Bolo? ----------------------------------- The current version of Bolo is 0.99.2. What's going to be in the new version of Bolo and when will it be out? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The new version should be released soon, according to Mr. Cheshire, and will have bug fixes for the lag effects of the enchanted canoe and "base grab without ammo" attack. Mines may change. The gunsight will have an option that will allow it to be left on all the time. Farming mined trees should still be okay. He is also going to write code to alert you when Bolo detects a player moving too fast for the terrain, taking too much damage without dying, or firing too many shots without refuelling. The short term plan is to get the next version out as soon as I can. That will automatically invalidate all the hacks, and while the hackers are working on new hacks I'll get the security features done.(Note: Some of these things are still in development and are subject to change.) What kind of stuff do I need to play Bolo? ------------------------------------------ Bolo is only available for the Macintosh. Stuart Cheshire, the author, has made it very clear that he will not port Bolo to DOS or Windows machines. Therefore, donŐt ask whether or not there will be a port of Bolo for any other machine - it just isnŐt going to happen. There's rumors of a port to X-Windows, but don't count on it anytime soon. Mac emulators for other platforms have had limited success, but none have been able to play network games. Bolo can be played on any Mac. Its preferred memory size is 1,100 K, but you can cut that down by turning off the sound effects. A color monitor is not necessary, but often useful. Unless you want to play by yourself, you need to be connected to some kind of network. You can play Bolo over an Appletalk network or over the Internet, if your machine is directly connected to the net and is running MacTCP, which is the standard way of how Macs talk over the Internet. If you're using a high-speed modem, you can play with your friend via Appletalk Remote Access (using an older version, 0.98). SLIP connections to the Internet are not recommended, since a direct Internet connection is so much faster, and Bolo works by forming a ring of networked Macs where one player sends the game packets to a neighbor, who sends packets to the next neighbor on the ring, and so on. Therefore, the rest of the players of the game will be waiting on your slow modem connection, which is commonly called lag. Also, note that Bolo is not a client-server system, which is a common misconception. Instead, Bolo creates a ring out of the Macs, using either DDP on AppleTalk or UDP over the Internet. When a new player joins, Bolo sends a packet to each machine in the game to figure out the delay between it and all Macs, then it adds itself into the ring in such a way as to minimize the total time around the ring. (Thanks to Peter Lewis for that final explanation.) However, if you're totally isolated and/or have no friends, there is a small bit of hope. See the section on "Brains." Okay, now that you know about Bolo, where can you get it? --------------------------------------------------------- You can find the bolo package at the usual suspect FTP sites for Mac software, such as sumex-aim.stanford.edu. Don't ask if someone can mail it to you. It's easily available. You can gopher or anon FTP it at bolo.stanford.edu, depending on Stuart's whims and the availability of his machine. As well, you can get it at bolo archive sites such as saloon.intercon.com, fpm.uchicago.edu, or aurora.alaska.edu. Some of these sites also carry older versions of Bolo. For example, you can get bolo-0992.hqx by anonymous FTP at sumex- aim.stanford.edu in the directory /info-mac/game/bolo. ------------- INTERNET BOLO ------------- Internet Bolo sounds neat! How can I play, find a game, etc.? ------------------------------------------------------------- As mentioned before, you need to have a Macintosh running Bolo 0.99.2, with a direct connection to the Internet with MacTCP installed. Therefore, if you can telnet, gopher, or check your mail directly with your Mac, you can play Internet Bolo. Just check UDP/IP in the first dialog box, type in the IP address of another Mac playing Bolo, and go! Don't use UDP/IP Multicast yet, since MacTCP doesn't support it. Here's a summary of the various known ways of accessing the Internet directly: 1. A Mac with MacTCP installed connected via an ethernet card to a network that has a direct connection to the Internet. 2. A Mac with MacTCP installed connected via a LocalTalk connection to a network that has a direct connection to the Internet. The router must be able to assign IP numbers. 3. A Mac with MacTCP installed connected via a SLIP/PPP connection to a machine on the Internet. This, due to modem speed, is very slow, and is not recommended, except if you're playing with one or two other SLIP players. 4. A Mac with MacTCP installed connected via Appletalk Remote Access to another Mac connected to the Internet. You have to set your configuration to either Ethertalk or LocalTalk in MacTCP, and have a router on the other end be able to assign IP numbers. This, also, is very slow and not recommended, unless you're playing with one or two other ARA/Internet players. Remember, the proper port to use is 50000. To find an Internet game, there are various ways to do it. There is a BoloTracker, set up by Mike Ellis, out there that gets and gives information about Internet games in progress. For example, if you start a new game, there's an option to select whether or not the BoloTracker will be notified. If it is, your IP address and other vital information, such as the map's name, number of pills and neutral pills, number of players, etc., will be sent to the Tracker. This information will be updated throughout the game and made available to folks who wish to examine it. If you want to see what games the BoloTracker has registered, just telnet to gwis.circ.gwu.edu 1234. There is also a program called Bolo Finder, by Peter Lewis, which will telnet to the BoloTracker itself and display the pertinent information. You can get it at mac.archive.umich.edu, in the directory /mac/game/war/bolo/tracker. You can also organize games and discuss strategy with folks on the IRC channel #bolo. For more information on IRC, look for the IRC FAQ on alt.irc. Now, before you go off "Bolo-Tracking" and start randomly joining games, THINK. If you're in France, and the game is Australia, and you join, you'll cause massive lag, destroying the game for everyone. Some suggested joining guidelines follow: * If there are more than 6 players in a game... stay out * If there are more than 4 players and no bases free... stay out. * If there are 2 or more people from outside the country... stay out. * If you get the "Network Delay too long" error... stay out. Don't repeatedly try to join. * Most importantly... if someone asks you to leave (esp. if there are no free bases), then it is common courtesy to leave. Also, while you're joining, check the Network Info box. If you see a massive amount of "Recovering" or "Active/Passive Restart" or "Failed" and a total ring delay over 325, then quit, before you destroy the entire game. (Yes, we know it will hang your Mac for an indefinite matter of time. That will be hopefully fixed in the next release.) Remember, if someone asks you to leave - LEAVE. There are plenty of games out there. What if I'm in Europe? How do I find a game? -------------------------------------------- European Bolo tracker host site address: ray.abo.fi (130.232.80.3) Quoted from kwhitty@finabo.abo.fi: Ultimately, all EuroBolo-ers will set the machine name in the "Bolotracker..." box in Bolo to ray.abo.fi. They would also set the preferences in Peter Lewis' Bolo Finder program (or Matt Slot's next version of Bolo Tracker) to ray. Games in Europe would be registered on ray, while US games would still be registered on gwis.circ.gwu.edu. I connect to the Internet via modem, and use telnet and FTP with good speed, but when I play Internet Bolo, it's just TOO slow. What's up? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Stuart Cheshire speaks: I don't know much about modems (as you probably know, I don't have a modem, I have Ethernet...) but I believe some of these modems try to be 'helpful' by compressing your data for you. To do this, they have to hold your data until they have enough to compress. Bolo doesn't really send enough data to be worth compressing, so the modem holds what it has for half a second while waiting to see how much more is coming. After half a second it realizes that no more is coming, and then sends it. This does not help net lag. Turn off all your modem's compression and error correction features, and Bolo will work much better. Is there a Bolo player registry? -------------------------------- A registry of bolo players, handles and email addresses is available. It is posted monthly to r.g.b, and is available via FTP at fpm.uchicago.edu. It will be updated weekly. Email aaron_bratcher@fpm.uchicago.edu with the above information to be added to the registry. Issues of etiquette -------------------- Besides the Internet etiquette mentioned above, there's some other things you should be aware of. * If someone asks you to leave, leave. There's no excuse for destroying another group's game, due to lag or other reasons. * If it's rather obvious you're losing and want to leave, at least concede the game to the other side. Don't just quit. * Profanity via messaging is frowned upon. Don't harass other players for no good reason. The object of the game is to play to have FUN, not to prove you're master of the universe. If you want to assert your manliness, go kick sand in people's faces at the beach: Don't play Bolo. * Don't cheat or hack Bolo to give yourself advantages over other players. If you suspect someone is cheating, a recommended procedure follows: (From Dan Rudman, rudman@engin.umich.edu) 1. Identify the party suspect of cheating. Identify the behavior which is hacked. 2. Message to selected players (with the hacked party UNselected) that you suspect said player of hack, and define the hacked behavior. 3. All other parties should acknowledge in the positive or negative whether or not they agree and can verify. 4. If most of the players verify back with you, then you may announce it to all and see what happens. Smart hackers will admit it and just drop out of the game. If for some reason they do not, please make a note of their player name and IP address and post it to the newsgroup. Be sure to include all the players names who verified. -------------- APPLETALK BOLO -------------- Can I play AppleTalk Bolo with ARA? ----------------------------------- Not with the latest version. The author explains: ------ My understanding is this (but I don't have a modem, or ARA, to test it): ARA messes with network numbers when packets go through the 'gateway' machine, in some way that is not documented in the tech notes. When Bolo games pass network addresses to each other, as they have to, this automatic translation is not done (the ARA gateway has no way of knowing that four of the bytes in the middle of the data packet are actually a network address). Bolo 0.98 did not do any sweep of the ring to find the optimum place to insert, and consequently it was possible for it to 'get lucky' in some situations, and still work despite the ARA address translation (but I wouldn't guarantee it to stay up if the wrong person quit). Bolo 0.99 always does three sweeps of the ring ('pinging' each machine) to find the best place to join, and consequently it ALWAYS falls into ARA's trap. ----- How can I find out about games on an Appletalk net? --------------------------------------------------- Use Distant Early Warning or Bolo Tracker (not to be confused with the Internet Bolo Tracker), both available at mac.archive.umich.edu, in the directory/mac/game/war/bolo/tracker. Since version 0.99, Bolo does a sweep of the AppleTalk zones looking for players. Simply go to the AppleTalk dialog, and wait a few seconds. Zones with players will be marked with little filled blobs next to the names, and zones without players will be marked with little hollow blobs. --------------------------------------- REC.GAMES.BOLO AND OTHER MISC. STUFF --------------------------------------- I've got a new idea for Bolo! Shouldn't I post it to a.n.b right away? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NO. Hold it right there, cowboy. In the Bolo package of documentation, there's a file by Stuart which discusses Bolo's future plans. Read that FIRST, before repeating the already-often-repeated. For example, his priorities for the next release include: * 1000 players across the Internet using IP Multicast. * Security measures to stop people from cheating. * Sound to accompany incoming message. * Allow man to defuse mines that you can see. As well, remember: one thing that's nice about Bolo is its simplicity. As Stuart wrote: One of the main goals in writing Bolo was to try to give it one of the properties that Chess, Othello, and other good board games have -- the "a moment to learn and a lifetime to master" characteristic that gives them lasting interest. The aim is that there are a few simple 'actions' that you can perform in the game, but that they are flexible enough to let you carry out your complex strategies. That's why there is only one kind of tank, one kind of armor, and one kind of bullet. For me to add another major feature, it must add at least as much interest to the game as any of the features that are already there. What is alt.netgames.bolo? What the difference between the two groups? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- alt.netgames.bolo is the old group that was used before rec.games.bolo was formed. Please only post to rec.games.bolo. a.n.b is rather deserted now anyway. Shareware fees -------------- Listen up, folks. Bolo is shareware, which means if you use Bolo, you should pay the $25. Without your payments, Stuart can't put the amount of effort that he puts in now to support Bolo. To make sure your payment arrives, follow this procedure. Enclose a SASE with a note to yourself. And ask Stuart to sign the note and stuff it in the envelope and mail it back to you. If it arrives, you know he got the check. If it doesn't arrive, you don't know he didn't, but at least there's a chance you'll get some info out of it. ------------- End of alt.netgames.bolo FAQ - Part I ------------- Maintained by Cory L. Scott, cls6@midway.uchicago.edu -- Cory L. Scott | "They're inhabitants of alt.tasteless. . .] where cls6@midway.uchicago.edu | they march to a decidedly different drummer, and, University of Chicago | when they're done marching, usually shoot him." -|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-| - Dave Ratcliffe -|-|-|-| From cls6@midway.uchicago.edu Thu Jan 27 21:14:07 EST 1994 Article: 1419 of rec.games.bolo Newsgroups: alt.netgames.bolo,rec.games.bolo Path: news.itd.umich.edu!destroyer!newncar!uchinews!ellis!cls6 From: cls6@ellis.uchicago.edu (Cory L. Scott) Subject: FAQ: rec.games.bolo v.1.9 - Advanced Bolo (2/2) Message-ID: <1994Jan25.050825.17742@midway.uchicago.edu> Sender: news@uchinews.uchicago.edu (News System) Reply-To: cls6@midway.uchicago.edu Organization: University of Chicago -- Academic Information Technologies Date: Tue, 25 Jan 1994 05:08:25 GMT Lines: 624 Xref: news.itd.umich.edu alt.netgames.bolo:7654 rec.games.bolo:1419 rec.games.bolo Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) - Part II Version 1.9 - January 24, 1993 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Compiled and maintained by Cory L. Scott (aka Kimboho) (cls6@midway.uchicago.edu) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This file is meant to be displayed in good ol' Monaco 9 point. You are strongly encouraged to read this FAQ before posting to r.g.b. If you have any questions or comments about this FAQ, please email cls6@midway.uchicago.edu. The FAQ is divided into two sections for space reasons. The first part is dedicated to the basics of Bolo and the USENET group devoted to it, and the second part deals with maps, brains, and strategy. There are two versions of the FAQ: one is in plain text, and the other is a standalone document for the Macintosh. The text FAQ will be posted twice a month, and the standalone FAQ will be posted once a month to rec.games.bolo ONLY and is available at cybercow.rh.uchicago.edu. The text version is also available via anon FTP at cybercow.rh.uchicago.edu and rtfm.mit.edu. -------------- PART II -------------- BOLO FACTS AND STRATEGY I. ONE-LINERS A. Vital statistics B. Interesting Things C. Lag fun II. MAPS A. Where can I find other maps or create my own? B. What are some of the guidelines I should follow for making maps? C. How do I post and download maps from r.g.b from or to my machine? III. BRAINS A. Now what's this about Brains? B. Where can I get Brains? C. How do you write Brains? VI. STRATEGY ----------------------- BOLO FACTS AND STRATEGY ----------------------- Common questions/misconceptions/facts about Bolo ------------------------------------------------ * When a builder is killed, the man comes back to where his tank was when he died, not to where the man died. * It takes 9 shots to kill a tank with full shields. * It takes 15 shots to kill a pillbox with full armor. * It takes 5 shots to destroy one section of wall. * It takes 1 bundle of trees to build a pillbox. * It takes 1/2 of a bundle of trees to build a road or wall. * A tank can hold 40 mines. * It takes 20 seconds to completely refuel a tank with no armor, shells or mines. * It takes 4 mines to kill a tank. * It takes 5 bundles of trees to build a boat. * A tank can hold 40 shells. * A mine exploding next to a tank will damage the tank. * Shooting from a boat, you can only hit land one square from the shore. * Shooting from a boat: 1 hit sets off a mine, 1 hit destroys a piece of bridge, 4 hits turns grass into swamp, 4 hits turns swamp into shallow water, 4 hits turns gravel (dead bldg.) into shallow water. * Here's how alliances work: (From Stuart's FAQ) 1. Select a person whose alliance you would like to join on the "Players" menu and select "Request Alliance" on the "Bolo" menu. 2. If agreeable, that person should then select your name on their "Players" menu and then select "Request Alliance" or "Invite New Allies". If you are in an alliance, the menu choices are "Invite New Allies" and "Leave Alliance". If you are not, then the menu choices are "Request Alliance" and "Cancel Request". Take care that you have the correct players selected on the "Players" menu when requesting/inviting. If you are already in an alliance, you must select "Leave Alliance" first before you can join a new one. * If you leave an alliance while sitting on a base, that base will become "neutral" with no shields left, and it will be (at least temporarily) yours. Any pillboxes you're carrying will be yours. * When you shoot an enemy base and run over it, it will not completely be in your possession until it gathers enough strength to defend itself. * Pillboxes shoot at the nearest enemy. * Pillboxes shoot from their center to your center, but you can hit them on the corners. * Also a base holds (apparently) 90 shots, 90 mines, and 18 armor units (enough to rearmor two tanks with no spare armor units, plus 2 left to defend itself). Hence, it takes 18 shots to destroy a fully-armored base. Although, you can often run over a base when you only pluck 17 shots into it, before it shows an "X" in the status window. * Maximum speed across (shallow) water without a boat is same as across swamp or rubble (call it, "base speed"); across trees is twice faster, across grass is a bit over four times faster, and across road is over five times faster (~5.4) than base speed. * You lose 5 mines and 5 shells, but no trees, per cell of water traversed without a boat (at base speed), except for the first cell so traversed if entered at road speed (no such reprieve if entered at base speed; at grass speed you can make it across a single cell, but for more you lose 2 more mines/shells than entering at road speed). A fully loaded tank entering water from a road can traverse eight water cells and still have 5 shells and 5 mines at the end (40 - 7*5 = 5). * Trees grow first next to existing trees, then in decreasing order, on grass, rubble, crater, swamp, road. * Roughly the number of continuous squares of water you can cross without sinking, if you have a full load of trees and a cyborg (like Nexus) building roads under you automatically: 22 * From Stuart's FAQ: Bolo is the Hindi word for communication. Bolo is about computers communicating on the network, and more importantly about humans communicating with each other, as they argue, negotiate, form alliances, agree [on] strategies, etc. * Different versions of Bolo cannot communicate with each other. * The more weapons you have, the bigger the explosion when you die. Lag can screw things up. For example: * You can run over boats without getting on them and sink in deep sea. * Walls (and land) don't register being shot, so you must shoot more slowly or use a lot of extra ammo during heavy lag. * There are two messages that are displayed when someone quits a game: So-and-so is quitting. So-and-so left game. When they get dropped by netsplit, you only see one: So-and-so left game. * If you're on a boat, and enter a twilight zone of nasty lag, you can fly through walls, pillboxes, bases, everything else. Of course, sometimes the lag abruptly ends, leaving you somewhere really strange. This is often referred to as the "enchanted canoe" effect, from a Ren & Stimpy cartoon. Where can I find other maps or create my own? --------------------------------------------- There's absolutely TONS of maps you can play on. You can get them at sumex-aim.stanford.edu, fpm.uchicago.edu, mac.archive.umich.edu, aurora.alaska.edu, or saloon.intercon.com for starters. Try different ones out for the different types of play you may use. Some are small and some are gigantic. Sometimes maps are posted on r.g.b. So, you want to create your own map, eh? Glad you asked. . . ======================================== Bolo Map Editors section contributed by Pete Gontier (complaints to: gurgle@netcom.com) ======================================== A map editor is an application which supports the creation of Bolo maps. There are two sorts: interactive and random. Interactive editors are similar to the painting and drawing applications with which the reader is undoubtedly familiar. There is most often a variety of tools with which to manipulate the map, adding and changing the various terrain types and objects. When running a random map generator, however, the user might merely be prompted to enter several parameter ranges within which the program generates a map in an automated fashion. Interactive editors have the advantage of giving the user great control over the map, but they also has the disadvantage of giving one possible player (the map creator) too much familiarity with the map's geography. Random map generators, of course, solve this problem, but the maps they generate lack the sophistication of a hand-built map. Some people prefer to start with a map generated by a random program and then fine-tune the map with an interactive program. There is actually a third sort of map editor, but there is only one example of it: Bolotomy. Interactive Bolo Map Editors ---------------------------- BoloMapEditor ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ version rewiewed: 1.0 of March 13, 1993 author: Thomas Barrett (barrett@pacific.mps.ohio- state.edu) distribution: unknown system requirements: 600K documentation: none found in archive This is a no-frills map editor with few tools. Its advantages include a tiny disk space footprint (64K). However, its disadvantages include no Undo command, no control over player starting positions (they are always the same) and no selection tool (which would allow clipboard operations and other transformations). BoloStar (tm) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ version rewiewed: 1.5 of April 26, 1993 author: Keith Fry (keithfry@engin.umich.edu) Dan Rudman (rudman@engin.umich.edu) distribution: shareware, $10 system requirements: 900K/1024K, System 7 documentation: extensive (for shareware) BMAPEdit ~~~~~~~~ version rewiewed: 1.3 of August 18, 1993 (1.4 has just been released - review coming) author: Carl R. Osterwald (carl_o@seri.nrel.gov) distribution: shareware, $10 system requirements: 800K/1024K, System 6.0.4 documentation: average (for shareware); includes Balloon Help Both BoloStar and BMAPEdit are impressive applications. They each have a feature list as long as you would expect from a 1.X-level release of any commercial software. They each are designed and executed extremely well. A few things, of course, set them apart. BoloStar has as much well-written documentation as you might expect from a shareware product, complete with a few recommendations on map editing technique in addition to nuts-and-bolts operational details. BMAPEdit, on the other hand, valiantly attempts to make up for what it lacks in documentation with Balloon Help. BoloStar supports plug-in external command files which can perform operations on the current map selection. BoloStar also supports "scraps", like Bolo map clip art, in a special menu. BMAPEdit has a generally more intuitive interface and has a few more useful built-in features. (Both programs are now distributed with well-integrated random map generators.) Random Map Generators --------------------- CookMapper ~~~~~~~~~~ version rewiewed: 1.5c (no vers resource!) of December 16, 1993 author: John McLaughlin (borric@cairo.anu.edu.au) distribution: freeware, apparently system requirements: 384K (this is probably arbitrary, as it is the THINK C default) documentation: sparse The only random map generator which gives you the option of watching the action in progress -- interesting fractal animation as this generator builds terrain. Parameters: fragmentation, area, number of islands, number of bases, number of pillboxes, island spacing, level of protection for each pillbox, percentage of forest, and check-boxes for roads and boats. This generator seems to be taking the correct approach in that it talks to the user in more intuitive terms than rows and columns, etc., but its maps lack the sophisticated features of maps generated by other programs. MapGenerator ~~~~~~~~~~~~ version rewiewed: 0.97 of April 27*, 1993 author: Markus Julen (julen@inf.ethz.ch) Ambros Marzetta (marzetta@inf.ethz.ch) distribution: shareware, $10 system requirements: 450K documentation: none found in archive *The program's version data claims this is the release date, but the modification date of the file is the 28th. This generator is truly random. The user has no control over the randomness. It tends to generate maps of roughly the same size each, but within each map there are widely varying degrees of land, water, forest, etc. This generator also is happy to generate the "man-made" aspects of a Bolo map, including walls, bases, pillboxes, roads, rubble. It even generates some rather complex man-made areas, like ports, mazes, and super-bases, near which are several bases and several pillboxes. Unfortunately, this program crashed fairly often in testing, which is not suprising since its version number would seem to indicate it is a pre-release version. However, crashing does not result in much lost work, because the program works quickly and it is easy to reboot and run it again. RandomMap ~~~~~~~~~ version rewiewed: 1.1.0 of July 1, 1993 author: Peter N. Lewis (peter.lewis@info.curtin.edu.au) distribution: freeware system requirements: 293K, System 6 documentation: sufficient This random map editor allows a fair amount of control over the parameter ranges of generated maps. Parameters: rows, columns, percentage of land, percentage of forest (on the land), number of bases, number of pillboxes, and base maximum supplies. Unfortunately, while allowing more control, RandomMap does not generate such things as roads or mazes. Miscellaneous Map Editing Tools ------------------------------- Bolotomy (tm) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ version rewiewed: April 29, 1993 author: Alan Witmer (fostex!alan_witmer@dartvax*) Jerry Halstead (fostex!jerry_halstead@dartvax*) distribution: shareware, $8 system requirements: color, possibly System 7, possibly a Quadra** documentation: sufficient *It's possible your mailer will know where dartvax is (dartmouth.edu?), but it's not likely. The authors should mail the FAQ maintainer with better addresses. **This is informal software, folks; the authors haven't had a chance to test on much else. It may run fine on everything. This is a tool to convert any PICT into a Bolo map. It uses sophisticated image analysis algorithms to pick terrain types, sizes, and placements. It doesn't have a huge feature list; it gets its job done and gets out of the way; but there are some adjustments for the user to make so that the transfer goes as desired. What are some of the guidelines I should follow for making maps? ---------------------------------------------------------------- (From Matt Slot, fprefect@engin.umich.edu) Note: This is simply advice on how to make a good map, but different people feel differently about map making, so try different styles if you like. ------ Some maps are neat, others play well, and some just suck. Maps that have a particular shortage of trees, a poor layout of the islands, or most annoyingly start positions beyond the edge of the explored universe. Maps should be well thought out so that: * There is a well distributed selection of bases. No clumps of more than 3 within a 30 square diameter. * Trees are in abundance, and more can grow back easily everywhere. (Note: Some maps have "resource strategies", where trees are precious. Maps like these can also be fun to play. - cls) * Land should not have Deep Water embedded into it or without a suitable shallow water buffer. * Start positions should be within sight of land, but still in deep sea. * If you need to make a big map, make it easy to traverse it. If you make one with lots of islands, make them close enough to be visible to each other. * Remember realism is as important as playability -- but both can make a map very enjoyable. * Large Maps, Small Teams - When playing a 2 on 2 or a 3 on 3, the map should definitely be no bigger than 100 by 100. For 4-6 players, maps between 50 by 50 and 75 by 75 are optimal. For 6-8 players, maps from 70 by 70 to 90 by 90 are optimal. For more players, maps should still be less than 120 by 120. A large map slows the game down to a crawl, where a player must make a long foray into heavily mined territory to find a single base/pillbox, kill it and return home without refueling. To defend more than a small area involves a large network of roads which are easily mined. In general, In either case the game is not one of skill, but who has the most patience (and time!). How do I post and download maps from r.g.b from or to my machine? ----------------------------------------------------------------- How to get maps that are posted: The files should be posted in BinHex 4.0 format. All you need to do is save the article containing the map as text, and run it through a BinHex decoder (such as BinHex 4.0 or Stuffit Expander) on your Macintosh, and a map file will come out. If you're using UNIX's trn, just type s [mapname] (the mapname doesn't matter) and ftp the file to your machine from your UNIX account. You could also cut and paste it into a normal text file and run that text file through the decoder. How to post maps: Just run your map through BinHex 4.0, changing it from an application to an upload. The resultant file will be a simple text file. Just attach that file to your USENET message. Now what's this about Brains? ----------------------------- Brains are small bits of code that allow the computer to control your tank for you. The first brain was Stuart's autopilot. You can use brains for various uses. You can set a slew of brains to fight it out on a new map to determine its playability. You can use them as allies. You can fight against them for practice. Remember, though, for each brain, you have to use a separate copy of Bolo. For example, I sometimes run 3 brains on my Centris 610, and run a 4th copy of Bolo to play myself. That's how you can play by yourself. Just choose Appletalk (even if the machine is isolated), and run three or more copies of the application, with one Brains folder (which hold the different Brain codes), and join in yourself. Ally them to make it more interesting. There are now brains called cyborgs (or borgs, for short). They allow you to control certain parts of the game, while it controls another. For example, a borg might control your builder, so you don't have to mess with getting trees and building roads. Others might be used for navigation. If you don't want people to play with borgs in your game, make sure you turn off computer tanks in the game setup dialog. Where can I get Brains? ----------------------- You can get brains at sumex-aim.stanford.edu, mac.archive.umich.edu, saloon.intercon.com, or aurora.alaska.edu. Each site has different versions and varieties. They are often posted to a.n.b directly. The following list contains the known and publicly available brains. Full Bots: ---------- Indy 1.4 (There's mention of a beta version out therefor 1.5) Dumbot 0.5 Standard Autopilot (comes with the Bolo package) Helper Autopilot .02 Tonto 1.0 (Formerly Milo's Autopilot) Rover .01 Maxwell 1.4 RicklesBot (Just randomly insults players - nothing else) Cyborgs: -------- Nexus 1.2.1 Navbot Brainwave 1.0 Note about Indy from its author: Q: "I can't get Indy to work, when I select it from the menu nothing happens." A: You haven't increased the memory size. Indy takes memory form the bolo application heap. If there is not enough memory then Bolo will not load the brain. Bolo requires from 450-1200k depending on the map used, if sound is installed, and if a memory hungry brain like Indy is on. I haven't had any problems with Indy 1.4 running average size maps on a 1200k partition. How do you write Brains? ------------------------ Stuart included some sample code and directions for writing brains in the Bolo package. Also, there is a mailing list which discusses brain programming. To subscribe, send mail to listserv@ncrpda.curtin.edu.au, with any subject, and body subscribe brain Your Name. You can mail to the list by sending to brain@ncrpda.curtin.edu.au. Finally, how about some strategy tips? -------------------------------------- Well, okay. Here you go: ---------- >From Steve Kives (kives@ruhr.engin.umich.edu) I think most anyone can take a lone pb within a half-minute if they are not worried about: 1) running their armor down to zero, and 2) lurkers in the woods nearby. My standard strategy is this: Shoot two spaces near the pb for buildings. These spaces are usually spaces #2 and #3 in a straight line away from the pb. But don't build yet. Rush in and pile on the shots. Plan on receiving one hit, and circle away with no more damage. The pb is 1/3 damaged and angry. Build your buildings and line yourself up, not on the same straight axis with pb/buildings, but just one lane over. This allows careful placement of the crosshairs on the pb, while the pb must shoot through the buildings before any shots hit you. If you have a pb, use a pb in space #3. Keep the cursor on the pb after building. Saddle up the lane after a few seconds, when the pb is only slightly mad, and pour in the glancing blows. If you just built buildings, some shots still get through, and you must tirade after about 2 seconds. If you built a pb, then don't move! When enemy pb is dead, charge forward, simultaneously clicking the mouse button. Man fixes your pb, which is irate. If a vulture comes out of the woods, he is meat. This is a good and realistic strategy in a game crowded with cunning players and many tricks-up-the-sleeves. The whole move takes 30 seconds. Shoot for mines, and shoot the pb in one quick movement. Build obstructions and clear defending mines when waiting for pb to cool a little. Then move in for coup-de-grace and fix your pb in a deft stroke (when shots are not hitting you -- don't get your man killed). This strategy generally deals with problems 1 and 2 mentioned previously. Also, lay a minefield several spaces behind you, and right outside the margins of nearby forests. This helps punish the vultures. As far as base-defenses go, I think the most successful strategy is to lay scattered mines (not chain-reactable) throughout the entire firing rage of your pbs, and a little beyond. Especially lay mines right next to pbs and your bases, though it can make refueling a little delicate. There is nothing more satisfying than seeing an enemy spiker blow his man up. Time to bum-rush his pillboxes! A very important element of pb-defenses is adverse terrain. A swamp is great, otherwise use lots of craters. This severely inhibits enemy builders doing bad things to you, and road- building into your base shows up like a beacon on the pillbox-view function. For the devious, a proven strategy is to sneak up directly behind the enemy attacking your base/pbs. This means, of course, a very wide circle flanking movement, because you cannot let him see you. When sneaking up behind, just charge right in and shoot! Why does this work? Because auto-scroll has a number of failings, and this is one of them. His autoscroll will continue to view your pbs at 10 spaces away, while you sneak up to within a couple of spaces on the other side. This tactic is lethal every time. Of course, nothing beats the pb-gathering tactics of a couple of old- pros who can decoy-kill at light speed. One game, I hooked up with "Stranger" and we did this without any verbal(typing) communication of any kind. Wasn't necessary. Took a pb every 20 seconds for a few minutes (refueling when we had to) and the game was a joke. The other team evaporated to other games when they saw the pbs disappearing that quickly from the status window. If the other team doesn't have similar tacticians, they haven't a chance. A wonderful example of this tactic occurs when you find an enemy(uninhabited) base with two pbs flanking. Draw an imaginary line from one pb, through the other pb, and extended on out several spaces. Shoot for mines first! Put a building on this line (space #1 away from enemy pb). Put a pb on this line next (space #2). Your friend gets behind friendly pb just as you shoot (from furthest possible distance) the farthest pb from your friendly pb. If you do this right, this pb will start blowing away the other enemy pb, which consequently starts to blow away the building, then the friendly pb. But both enemy pbs are dead before anyone is scratched! And your friend should instantly repair friendly pb to help ward off well-armed vultures. This tactic fails when the enemies return too soon and start bickering. But this tactic works WAY too often when the maps are huge. If you like to lurk, find a well-traveled road through the woods. Check for mines in the ambush site, then lay 3-4 mines in a row right next to the road(in the trees). Wait precisely on the opposite side, in the trees. When sucker comes through (even if going slowly for mine-caution) you start shooting first, damaging him and pushing him into opposite row of mines. A few more shots and it's over. AS far as safe-guarding your man goes (dead man is several times worse than dead tank) many players on the Internet need some serious help! I see the same mistakes made time and time again, by players that should have seen the light much sooner. Lesson #1: mines abound! Especially around enemy bases. Doing something with the man? Shoot the prospective location(s) first. It's worth the ammo. By far. Lesson #2: people love to shoot little defenseless enemy builders. I know I do! When sending the man out, and there are enemy tanks around, the man should NEVER cross anything but pavement and grass (or trees, but only if you're being sneaky). Some players are so anxious torpor a pb, that they spuriously send the man over 6 craters and 4 swamp spaces. Gun fodder. ---------- >From Tobin C. Anthony, tca712@rs710.gsfc.nasa.gov My pb strategy is somewhat different on UDP than AppleTalk. On AppleTalk, I just sidled up to a box, move my crosshairs to full range and rest them on the opposite edge of the pb and blast away. The pb depletes a lot of your armor but it pushes you away with each shot. Finally, you are out of range but with little armor. You just wait a minute and gather wood and wait for the pb to chill. Then you can blast it straight on again providing you waited long enough. This method all but depletes your armor but even with the chill-out time it is the fastest way to get a pb. I found that there are no prizes for getting pb's retaining most amount of armor. The thing you want to minimize is the time spent grabbing the pb before your enemy does a pb check and comes blasting away. If one of my bases is close enough, I will even take that cool-down time to replenish my armor. I am not proud. On UDP, I find that netlag usually works against you. You might end up killing the pb but you will get blown to bits as well. It's frustrating to blast a pb and wait there anxiously as the net grinds to a halt. You only see a few shots changing hands but you end up materializing somewhere else far away from the pb with a tantalizing but short- lived 'x' on the statusboard. You can use a lot of the other methods mentioned previously to attack a pb under UDP but there is no substitute for having an ally to act as a decoy(Bolo raison d'tre??). Two allies can start out near a friendly base and end up mowing down a swath of enemy pbs in no time.--- --------------- >From Eric Hiris (hirisej@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu) Using Pillboxes (offensively): 1) spiking the enemy base(s) - that is, placing a pillbox next to the enemies base (for you novices out there, this works best if you place your pb right next to the enemy base - watch out for mines though). 2) attacking enemy pbs. That is using your pb as a superwall to shoot around when attacking a pb. Just be forewarned: there are vultures out there waiting to capture both your pb and the one you are attacking. 3)shooting your own pb when other are near - kablooie! (or is this defense?)Bases: Despite what you might think from discussions in this newsgroup, bases are how the game is won or lost. If one team has all the bases, then everyone else has lost. Period. Therefore, take as many as you can early in the game and defend them to the best of your ability. If you are satisfied with two early in the game, well, uh, good luck. If you take 10 bases right away, you will lose some of them, but so what? You got 8 more. :) Base placement during map making: Personal Opinion: If you are making a map, please please, please do not put bases adjacent to each other. Forests: The importance obviously depends on the map. If there is forest everywhere, trees are almost a non-issue. If there are few forests, by all means, go hide in the enemies for a bit and when no one is around take the forest or destroy it. In some sense, it is like killing all your enemies' men if the remaining forests are guarded well. Another thing to be aware of is that water, walls, roads, and swamp adjacent to forest will eliminate or greatly reduce the regrowth of forest. Use this to your benefit or against your enemies to the best you can. As stated recently in this newsgroup, forest grows back most rapidly on grass when it is surrounded by other trees. Harvesting trees in a checkerboard pattern will result in the fastest regrowth of trees if you are concerned about ecology :) Walls: Some people like them, some people don't. They are mostly used offensively - to hide behind when attacking a pb. Others try to use them defensively, but my experience suggests that except for special situations, walls are generally not effective in defense. The best use for the walltool is to make boats. Roads: Nice, but if you make them, people have a tendency to mine them right away. Roads are best used to cover up gravel and mine blasts in your 'home' area, a place where people will get pb'd to death if they try a mining run. Also two roads will block a waterway that the enemy has been using (or a road and a wall)Mines: I don't know if I want to start this again, but: 1) the most effective use of a mine (I think) is to one mine on squares that share a border with your pb. Therefore, when people try decoy tricks, the man will die trying to build wall if they are not careful. If they do manage to kill the pb, your enemy will hit the mine(s) before and or after the pb and be weakened and slowed down, allowing you time to return for easy revenge. Another note is that placing a pb on or within an area of slow terrain(swamp, mine blasts, rubble) makes it a real pain for a pb to be retrieved after it has been killed - again allowing you time to return for revenge. 2)making water ways. This keeps enemy men with devious plans away from your bases. Also, in regards to the 'big mine controversy' that raged in this group recently: make waterways with mines. As of yet there are no sea mines, so you are perfectly safe going through mined enemy territory on a boat. Let them spend all their time mining! 3) Mine randomly. Yes, this counts as a strategy, I hate it, others love it, but until further notice this is a strategy, like it or not. This strategy allows you to slow the pace of the game down to almost 0. Be warned that your enemy will do the same and the enemy may just circumvent all your mines by making a waterway. Personal Opinion: use in desperation only. ----------------- >From Robert Fullmer (fullmer@owlnet.rice.edu) If you can't take a pillbox without dying, 9 times out of 10, or don't know how to run a two man, or are generally not quite an expert at the game yet, spike only after careful consideration and approval from teammates. Clearly, there are cases where this rule doesn't apply (when you're not an expert but your allies are even greener, for example), but I've had problems in the past with allies that pick up two or three pills from one of my heavily fortified bases and spike them deeper than we're ready to take. We lose the pills, and if they repeat the exercise for long enough, the game. Spiking is an art. It can make the difference when used properly, but can lose the game when misapplied. So this is a call to newbies: If you're thinking about spiking with a pillbox you didn't just capture yourself, check it out with your allies first. ------------- End of alt.netgames.bolo FAQ - Part II ------------- Maintained by Cory L. Scott, cls6@midway.uchicago.edu -- Cory L. Scott | "They're inhabitants of alt.tasteless. . .] where cls6@midway.uchicago.edu | they march to a decidedly different drummer, and, University of Chicago | when they're done marching, usually shoot him." -|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-| - Dave Ratcliffe -|-|-|-| From cls6@midway.uchicago.edu Thu Jan 27 21:14:43 EST 1994 Article: 1418 of rec.games.bolo Newsgroups: alt.netgames.bolo,rec.games.bolo Path: news.itd.umich.edu!destroyer!newncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!uchinews!ellis!cls6 From: cls6@ellis.uchicago.edu (Cory L. Scott) Subject: FAQ: rec.games.bolo v.1.9 - General Info (1/2) and administrivia Message-ID: <1994Jan25.050651.17612@midway.uchicago.edu> Followup-To: cls6@midway.uchicago.edu Sender: news@uchinews.uchicago.edu (News System) Reply-To: cls6@midway.uchicago.edu Organization: University of Chicago -- Academic Information Technologies Date: Tue, 25 Jan 1994 05:06:51 GMT Lines: 441 Xref: news.itd.umich.edu alt.netgames.bolo:7653 rec.games.bolo:1418 Ok, folks - here's the new FAQ, divided into 2 sections. There will not be a standalone version of this version, because it is temporary. Things that are going on and randomly bouncing around my mind: 1. Scot May and I are working on revising the strategy section. (Part II) It's not done - by any means of the word - it'll be a while, so the old strategy tips are still there. 2. Maps, Brains, One-Liners, and Strategy are all now in Part II. 3. Waiting for the new version to come out to make all these changes. 4. Added posting maps section and "a.n.b is defunct" section. 5. Waiting for approval of this new FAQ format by the news.answers powers that be. 6. This thing is getting HUGE. . . 7. Thinking about adding a section on hacks. Any comments? 8. Added fpm.uchicago.edu and Bolo registry. Here it is. . . --------------------- rec.games.bolo Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) - Part I Version 1.9 - January 24, 1993 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Compiled and maintained by Cory L. Scott (aka Kimboho) (cls6@midway.uchicago.edu) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This file is meant to be displayed in good ol' Monaco 9 point. You are strongly encouraged to read this FAQ before posting to r.g.b. If you have any questions or comments about this FAQ, please email cls6@midway.uchicago.edu. The FAQ is divided into two sections for space reasons. The first part is dedicated to the basics of Bolo and the USENET group devoted to it, and the second part deals with maps, brains, and strategy. There are two versions of the FAQ: one is in plain text, and the other is a standalone document for the Macintosh. The text FAQ will be posted twice a month, and the standalone FAQ will be posted once a month to rec.games.bolo ONLY and is available at cybercow.rh.uchicago.edu. The text version is also available via anon FTP at cybercow.rh.uchicago.edu and rtfm.mit.edu. Table of Contents ----------------- PART I: BOLO BASICS I. First off, what is Bolo? II. How do you play Bolo? III. What's the current version of Bolo? IV. What's going to be in the new version of Bolo and when will it be out? V. What kind of stuff do I need to play Bolo? VI. Okay, now that you know about Bolo, where can you get it? INTERNET BOLO I. Internet Bolo sounds neat! How can I play, find a game, etc.? II. What if I'm in Europe? How do I find a game? III. I connect to the Internet via modem, and use telnet and FTP with good speed, but when I play Internet Bolo, it's just TOO slow. What's up? IV. Is there a Bolo player registry? V. Issues of etiquette APPLETALK BOLO I. How can I find out about games on an Appletalk net? II. Can I play AppleTalk Bolo with ARA? REC.GAMES.BOLO AND OTHER MISC. STUFF I. I've got a new idea for Bolo! Shouldn't I post it to r.g.b right away? II. What is alt.netgames.bolo? What the difference between the two groups? III. Shareware Fees PART II: BOLO FACTS AND STRATEGY I. ONE-LINERS A. Vital statistics B. Interesting Things C. Lag fun II. MAPS A. Where can I find other maps or create my own? B. What are some of the guidelines I should follow for making maps? C. How do I post and download maps from r.g.b from or to my machine? III. BRAINS A. Now what's this about Brains? B. Where can I get Brains? C. How do you write Brains? VI. STRATEGY A. Overall strategies B. Taking pills C. Other strategies ----------- BOLO BASICS ----------- First off, what is Bolo? ------------------------ Let's let the author do the talking: "Bolo is a 16 player graphical networked real-time multi-player tank battle game. It has elements of arcade-style shoot-em-up action, but for the serious players who play 12 hour games with 16 players working in teams in different networked computer clusters around an office or university campus, it becomes more of a strategy game. You have to play it to understand." --- Stuart Cheshire How do you play Bolo? --------------------- Bolo has a large amount of options and elements to its play. Once you get a copy of the program, you should read and print out the documentation, which is much more detailed than this explanation. Basically, you are a tank that travels around a map, which has trees, rubble, water, trees, deep water, walls, grass, swamps, and roads to deal with. Your tank has ammo (commonly called bullets or shells), mines, armor (also called shields), and the capacity to carry trees. The map is created by a player before hand. The two most important elements on the map are pillboxes and bases. Pillboxes are originally neutral, meaning that they shoot at every tank that happens to get in its range. They shoot fast and with deadly accuracy. You can shoot the pillbox with your tank, and you can see how damaged it is by looking at it. Once the pillbox is subdued, you may run over it, which will pick it up. You may place the pillbox where you want to put it (where it is clear), if you've enough trees to build it back up. Trees are harvested by sending your man outside your tank to forest the trees. Your man (also called a builder) can also lay mines, build roads, and build walls. Once you have placed a pillbox, it will not shoot at you, but only your enemies. Therefore, pillboxes are often used to protect your bases. Bases are used for refueling your tank. Like pillboxes, they start out neutral, meaning that anyone can run over them, and they will belong to that player. Bases cannot be moved. You can take over a base by shooting it. Therefore, Bolo becomes exciting when you have 3 or more people fighting for control of pillboxes and bases, traveling around the map, and shooting each other. You can also form alliances with other players for team play. Again, this FAQ doesn't exist to teach you the basics of how to play the game. That's what the documentation is for. What's the current version of Bolo? ----------------------------------- The current version of Bolo is 0.99.2. What's going to be in the new version of Bolo and when will it be out? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The new version should be released soon, according to Mr. Cheshire, and will have bug fixes for the lag effects of the enchanted canoe and "base grab without ammo" attack. Mines may change. The gunsight will have an option that will allow it to be left on all the time. Farming mined trees should still be okay. He is also going to write code to alert you when Bolo detects a player moving too fast for the terrain, taking too much damage without dying, or firing too many shots without refuelling. The short term plan is to get the next version out as soon as I can. That will automatically invalidate all the hacks, and while the hackers are working on new hacks I'll get the security features done.(Note: Some of these things are still in development and are subject to change.) What kind of stuff do I need to play Bolo? ------------------------------------------ Bolo is only available for the Macintosh. Stuart Cheshire, the author, has made it very clear that he will not port Bolo to DOS or Windows machines. Therefore, donŐt ask whether or not there will be a port of Bolo for any other machine - it just isnŐt going to happen. There's rumors of a port to X-Windows, but don't count on it anytime soon. Mac emulators for other platforms have had limited success, but none have been able to play network games. Bolo can be played on any Mac. Its preferred memory size is 1,100 K, but you can cut that down by turning off the sound effects. A color monitor is not necessary, but often useful. Unless you want to play by yourself, you need to be connected to some kind of network. You can play Bolo over an Appletalk network or over the Internet, if your machine is directly connected to the net and is running MacTCP, which is the standard way of how Macs talk over the Internet. If you're using a high-speed modem, you can play with your friend via Appletalk Remote Access (using an older version, 0.98). SLIP connections to the Internet are not recommended, since a direct Internet connection is so much faster, and Bolo works by forming a ring of networked Macs where one player sends the game packets to a neighbor, who sends packets to the next neighbor on the ring, and so on. Therefore, the rest of the players of the game will be waiting on your slow modem connection, which is commonly called lag. Also, note that Bolo is not a client-server system, which is a common misconception. Instead, Bolo creates a ring out of the Macs, using either DDP on AppleTalk or UDP over the Internet. When a new player joins, Bolo sends a packet to each machine in the game to figure out the delay between it and all Macs, then it adds itself into the ring in such a way as to minimize the total time around the ring. (Thanks to Peter Lewis for that final explanation.) However, if you're totally isolated and/or have no friends, there is a small bit of hope. See the section on "Brains." Okay, now that you know about Bolo, where can you get it? --------------------------------------------------------- You can find the bolo package at the usual suspect FTP sites for Mac software, such as sumex-aim.stanford.edu. Don't ask if someone can mail it to you. It's easily available. You can gopher or anon FTP it at bolo.stanford.edu, depending on Stuart's whims and the availability of his machine. As well, you can get it at bolo archive sites such as saloon.intercon.com, fpm.uchicago.edu, or aurora.alaska.edu. Some of these sites also carry older versions of Bolo. For example, you can get bolo-0992.hqx by anonymous FTP at sumex- aim.stanford.edu in the directory /info-mac/game/bolo. ------------- INTERNET BOLO ------------- Internet Bolo sounds neat! How can I play, find a game, etc.? ------------------------------------------------------------- As mentioned before, you need to have a Macintosh running Bolo 0.99.2, with a direct connection to the Internet with MacTCP installed. Therefore, if you can telnet, gopher, or check your mail directly with your Mac, you can play Internet Bolo. Just check UDP/IP in the first dialog box, type in the IP address of another Mac playing Bolo, and go! Don't use UDP/IP Multicast yet, since MacTCP doesn't support it. Here's a summary of the various known ways of accessing the Internet directly: 1. A Mac with MacTCP installed connected via an ethernet card to a network that has a direct connection to the Internet. 2. A Mac with MacTCP installed connected via a LocalTalk connection to a network that has a direct connection to the Internet. The router must be able to assign IP numbers. 3. A Mac with MacTCP installed connected via a SLIP/PPP connection to a machine on the Internet. This, due to modem speed, is very slow, and is not recommended, except if you're playing with one or two other SLIP players. 4. A Mac with MacTCP installed connected via Appletalk Remote Access to another Mac connected to the Internet. You have to set your configuration to either Ethertalk or LocalTalk in MacTCP, and have a router on the other end be able to assign IP numbers. This, also, is very slow and not recommended, unless you're playing with one or two other ARA/Internet players. Remember, the proper port to use is 50000. To find an Internet game, there are various ways to do it. There is a BoloTracker, set up by Mike Ellis, out there that gets and gives information about Internet games in progress. For example, if you start a new game, there's an option to select whether or not the BoloTracker will be notified. If it is, your IP address and other vital information, such as the map's name, number of pills and neutral pills, number of players, etc., will be sent to the Tracker. This information will be updated throughout the game and made available to folks who wish to examine it. If you want to see what games the BoloTracker has registered, just telnet to gwis.circ.gwu.edu 1234. There is also a program called Bolo Finder, by Peter Lewis, which will telnet to the BoloTracker itself and display the pertinent information. You can get it at mac.archive.umich.edu, in the directory /mac/game/war/bolo/tracker. You can also organize games and discuss strategy with folks on the IRC channel #bolo. For more information on IRC, look for the IRC FAQ on alt.irc. Now, before you go off "Bolo-Tracking" and start randomly joining games, THINK. If you're in France, and the game is Australia, and you join, you'll cause massive lag, destroying the game for everyone. Some suggested joining guidelines follow: * If there are more than 6 players in a game... stay out * If there are more than 4 players and no bases free... stay out. * If there are 2 or more people from outside the country... stay out. * If you get the "Network Delay too long" error... stay out. Don't repeatedly try to join. * Most importantly... if someone asks you to leave (esp. if there are no free bases), then it is common courtesy to leave. Also, while you're joining, check the Network Info box. If you see a massive amount of "Recovering" or "Active/Passive Restart" or "Failed" and a total ring delay over 325, then quit, before you destroy the entire game. (Yes, we know it will hang your Mac for an indefinite matter of time. That will be hopefully fixed in the next release.) Remember, if someone asks you to leave - LEAVE. There are plenty of games out there. What if I'm in Europe? How do I find a game? -------------------------------------------- European Bolo tracker host site address: ray.abo.fi (130.232.80.3) Quoted from kwhitty@finabo.abo.fi: Ultimately, all EuroBolo-ers will set the machine name in the "Bolotracker..." box in Bolo to ray.abo.fi. They would also set the preferences in Peter Lewis' Bolo Finder program (or Matt Slot's next version of Bolo Tracker) to ray. Games in Europe would be registered on ray, while US games would still be registered on gwis.circ.gwu.edu. I connect to the Internet via modem, and use telnet and FTP with good speed, but when I play Internet Bolo, it's just TOO slow. What's up? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Stuart Cheshire speaks: I don't know much about modems (as you probably know, I don't have a modem, I have Ethernet...) but I believe some of these modems try to be 'helpful' by compressing your data for you. To do this, they have to hold your data until they have enough to compress. Bolo doesn't really send enough data to be worth compressing, so the modem holds what it has for half a second while waiting to see how much more is coming. After half a second it realizes that no more is coming, and then sends it. This does not help net lag. Turn off all your modem's compression and error correction features, and Bolo will work much better. Is there a Bolo player registry? -------------------------------- A registry of bolo players, handles and email addresses is available. It is posted monthly to r.g.b, and is available via FTP at fpm.uchicago.edu. It will be updated weekly. Email aaron_bratcher@fpm.uchicago.edu with the above information to be added to the registry. Issues of etiquette -------------------- Besides the Internet etiquette mentioned above, there's some other things you should be aware of. * If someone asks you to leave, leave. There's no excuse for destroying another group's game, due to lag or other reasons. * If it's rather obvious you're losing and want to leave, at least concede the game to the other side. Don't just quit. * Profanity via messaging is frowned upon. Don't harass other players for no good reason. The object of the game is to play to have FUN, not to prove you're master of the universe. If you want to assert your manliness, go kick sand in people's faces at the beach: Don't play Bolo. * Don't cheat or hack Bolo to give yourself advantages over other players. If you suspect someone is cheating, a recommended procedure follows: (From Dan Rudman, rudman@engin.umich.edu) 1. Identify the party suspect of cheating. Identify the behavior which is hacked. 2. Message to selected players (with the hacked party UNselected) that you suspect said player of hack, and define the hacked behavior. 3. All other parties should acknowledge in the positive or negative whether or not they agree and can verify. 4. If most of the players verify back with you, then you may announce it to all and see what happens. Smart hackers will admit it and just drop out of the game. If for some reason they do not, please make a note of their player name and IP address and post it to the newsgroup. Be sure to include all the players names who verified. -------------- APPLETALK BOLO -------------- Can I play AppleTalk Bolo with ARA? ----------------------------------- Not with the latest version. The author explains: ------ My understanding is this (but I don't have a modem, or ARA, to test it): ARA messes with network numbers when packets go through the 'gateway' machine, in some way that is not documented in the tech notes. When Bolo games pass network addresses to each other, as they have to, this automatic translation is not done (the ARA gateway has no way of knowing that four of the bytes in the middle of the data packet are actually a network address). Bolo 0.98 did not do any sweep of the ring to find the optimum place to insert, and consequently it was possible for it to 'get lucky' in some situations, and still work despite the ARA address translation (but I wouldn't guarantee it to stay up if the wrong person quit). Bolo 0.99 always does three sweeps of the ring ('pinging' each machine) to find the best place to join, and consequently it ALWAYS falls into ARA's trap. ----- How can I find out about games on an Appletalk net? --------------------------------------------------- Use Distant Early Warning or Bolo Tracker (not to be confused with the Internet Bolo Tracker), both available at mac.archive.umich.edu, in the directory/mac/game/war/bolo/tracker. Since version 0.99, Bolo does a sweep of the AppleTalk zones looking for players. Simply go to the AppleTalk dialog, and wait a few seconds. Zones with players will be marked with little filled blobs next to the names, and zones without players will be marked with little hollow blobs. --------------------------------------- REC.GAMES.BOLO AND OTHER MISC. STUFF --------------------------------------- I've got a new idea for Bolo! Shouldn't I post it to a.n.b right away? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NO. Hold it right there, cowboy. In the Bolo package of documentation, there's a file by Stuart which discusses Bolo's future plans. Read that FIRST, before repeating the already-often-repeated. For example, his priorities for the next release include: * 1000 players across the Internet using IP Multicast. * Security measures to stop people from cheating. * Sound to accompany incoming message. * Allow man to defuse mines that you can see. As well, remember: one thing that's nice about Bolo is its simplicity. As Stuart wrote: One of the main goals in writing Bolo was to try to give it one of the properties that Chess, Othello, and other good board games have -- the "a moment to learn and a lifetime to master" characteristic that gives them lasting interest. The aim is that there are a few simple 'actions' that you can perform in the game, but that they are flexible enough to let you carry out your complex strategies. That's why there is only one kind of tank, one kind of armor, and one kind of bullet. For me to add another major feature, it must add at least as much interest to the game as any of the features that are already there. What is alt.netgames.bolo? What the difference between the two groups? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- alt.netgames.bolo is the old group that was used before rec.games.bolo was formed. Please only post to rec.games.bolo. a.n.b is rather deserted now anyway. Shareware fees -------------- Listen up, folks. Bolo is shareware, which means if you use Bolo, you should pay the $25. Without your payments, Stuart can't put the amount of effort that he puts in now to support Bolo. To make sure your payment arrives, follow this procedure. Enclose a SASE with a note to yourself. And ask Stuart to sign the note and stuff it in the envelope and mail it back to you. If it arrives, you know he got the check. If it doesn't arrive, you don't know he didn't, but at least there's a chance you'll get some info out of it. ------------- End of alt.netgames.bolo FAQ - Part I ------------- Maintained by Cory L. Scott, cls6@midway.uchicago.edu -- Cory L. Scott | "They're inhabitants of alt.tasteless. . .] where cls6@midway.uchicago.edu | they march to a decidedly different drummer, and, University of Chicago | when they're done marching, usually shoot him." -|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-| - Dave Ratcliffe -|-|-|-| From cls6@midway.uchicago.edu Thu Jan 27 21:14:44 EST 1994 Article: 1419 of rec.games.bolo Newsgroups: alt.netgames.bolo,rec.games.bolo Path: news.itd.umich.edu!destroyer!newncar!uchinews!ellis!cls6 From: cls6@ellis.uchicago.edu (Cory L. Scott) Subject: FAQ: rec.games.bolo v.1.9 - Advanced Bolo (2/2) Message-ID: <1994Jan25.050825.17742@midway.uchicago.edu> Sender: news@uchinews.uchicago.edu (News System) Reply-To: cls6@midway.uchicago.edu Organization: University of Chicago -- Academic Information Technologies Date: Tue, 25 Jan 1994 05:08:25 GMT Lines: 624 Xref: news.itd.umich.edu alt.netgames.bolo:7654 rec.games.bolo:1419 rec.games.bolo Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) - Part II Version 1.9 - January 24, 1993 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Compiled and maintained by Cory L. Scott (aka Kimboho) (cls6@midway.uchicago.edu) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This file is meant to be displayed in good ol' Monaco 9 point. You are strongly encouraged to read this FAQ before posting to r.g.b. If you have any questions or comments about this FAQ, please email cls6@midway.uchicago.edu. The FAQ is divided into two sections for space reasons. The first part is dedicated to the basics of Bolo and the USENET group devoted to it, and the second part deals with maps, brains, and strategy. There are two versions of the FAQ: one is in plain text, and the other is a standalone document for the Macintosh. The text FAQ will be posted twice a month, and the standalone FAQ will be posted once a month to rec.games.bolo ONLY and is available at cybercow.rh.uchicago.edu. The text version is also available via anon FTP at cybercow.rh.uchicago.edu and rtfm.mit.edu. -------------- PART II -------------- BOLO FACTS AND STRATEGY I. ONE-LINERS A. Vital statistics B. Interesting Things C. Lag fun II. MAPS A. Where can I find other maps or create my own? B. What are some of the guidelines I should follow for making maps? C. How do I post and download maps from r.g.b from or to my machine? III. BRAINS A. Now what's this about Brains? B. Where can I get Brains? C. How do you write Brains? VI. STRATEGY ----------------------- BOLO FACTS AND STRATEGY ----------------------- Common questions/misconceptions/facts about Bolo ------------------------------------------------ * When a builder is killed, the man comes back to where his tank was when he died, not to where the man died. * It takes 9 shots to kill a tank with full shields. * It takes 15 shots to kill a pillbox with full armor. * It takes 5 shots to destroy one section of wall. * It takes 1 bundle of trees to build a pillbox. * It takes 1/2 of a bundle of trees to build a road or wall. * A tank can hold 40 mines. * It takes 20 seconds to completely refuel a tank with no armor, shells or mines. * It takes 4 mines to kill a tank. * It takes 5 bundles of trees to build a boat. * A tank can hold 40 shells. * A mine exploding next to a tank will damage the tank. * Shooting from a boat, you can only hit land one square from the shore. * Shooting from a boat: 1 hit sets off a mine, 1 hit destroys a piece of bridge, 4 hits turns grass into swamp, 4 hits turns swamp into shallow water, 4 hits turns gravel (dead bldg.) into shallow water. * Here's how alliances work: (From Stuart's FAQ) 1. Select a person whose alliance you would like to join on the "Players" menu and select "Request Alliance" on the "Bolo" menu. 2. If agreeable, that person should then select your name on their "Players" menu and then select "Request Alliance" or "Invite New Allies". If you are in an alliance, the menu choices are "Invite New Allies" and "Leave Alliance". If you are not, then the menu choices are "Request Alliance" and "Cancel Request". Take care that you have the correct players selected on the "Players" menu when requesting/inviting. If you are already in an alliance, you must select "Leave Alliance" first before you can join a new one. * If you leave an alliance while sitting on a base, that base will become "neutral" with no shields left, and it will be (at least temporarily) yours. Any pillboxes you're carrying will be yours. * When you shoot an enemy base and run over it, it will not completely be in your possession until it gathers enough strength to defend itself. * Pillboxes shoot at the nearest enemy. * Pillboxes shoot from their center to your center, but you can hit them on the corners. * Also a base holds (apparently) 90 shots, 90 mines, and 18 armor units (enough to rearmor two tanks with no spare armor units, plus 2 left to defend itself). Hence, it takes 18 shots to destroy a fully-armored base. Although, you can often run over a base when you only pluck 17 shots into it, before it shows an "X" in the status window. * Maximum speed across (shallow) water without a boat is same as across swamp or rubble (call it, "base speed"); across trees is twice faster, across grass is a bit over four times faster, and across road is over five times faster (~5.4) than base speed. * You lose 5 mines and 5 shells, but no trees, per cell of water traversed without a boat (at base speed), except for the first cell so traversed if entered at road speed (no such reprieve if entered at base speed; at grass speed you can make it across a single cell, but for more you lose 2 more mines/shells than entering at road speed). A fully loaded tank entering water from a road can traverse eight water cells and still have 5 shells and 5 mines at the end (40 - 7*5 = 5). * Trees grow first next to existing trees, then in decreasing order, on grass, rubble, crater, swamp, road. * Roughly the number of continuous squares of water you can cross without sinking, if you have a full load of trees and a cyborg (like Nexus) building roads under you automatically: 22 * From Stuart's FAQ: Bolo is the Hindi word for communication. Bolo is about computers communicating on the network, and more importantly about humans communicating with each other, as they argue, negotiate, form alliances, agree [on] strategies, etc. * Different versions of Bolo cannot communicate with each other. * The more weapons you have, the bigger the explosion when you die. Lag can screw things up. For example: * You can run over boats without getting on them and sink in deep sea. * Walls (and land) don't register being shot, so you must shoot more slowly or use a lot of extra ammo during heavy lag. * There are two messages that are displayed when someone quits a game: So-and-so is quitting. So-and-so left game. When they get dropped by netsplit, you only see one: So-and-so left game. * If you're on a boat, and enter a twilight zone of nasty lag, you can fly through walls, pillboxes, bases, everything else. Of course, sometimes the lag abruptly ends, leaving you somewhere really strange. This is often referred to as the "enchanted canoe" effect, from a Ren & Stimpy cartoon. Where can I find other maps or create my own? --------------------------------------------- There's absolutely TONS of maps you can play on. You can get them at sumex-aim.stanford.edu, fpm.uchicago.edu, mac.archive.umich.edu, aurora.alaska.edu, or saloon.intercon.com for starters. Try different ones out for the different types of play you may use. Some are small and some are gigantic. Sometimes maps are posted on r.g.b. So, you want to create your own map, eh? Glad you asked. . . ======================================== Bolo Map Editors section contributed by Pete Gontier (complaints to: gurgle@netcom.com) ======================================== A map editor is an application which supports the creation of Bolo maps. There are two sorts: interactive and random. Interactive editors are similar to the painting and drawing applications with which the reader is undoubtedly familiar. There is most often a variety of tools with which to manipulate the map, adding and changing the various terrain types and objects. When running a random map generator, however, the user might merely be prompted to enter several parameter ranges within which the program generates a map in an automated fashion. Interactive editors have the advantage of giving the user great control over the map, but they also has the disadvantage of giving one possible player (the map creator) too much familiarity with the map's geography. Random map generators, of course, solve this problem, but the maps they generate lack the sophistication of a hand-built map. Some people prefer to start with a map generated by a random program and then fine-tune the map with an interactive program. There is actually a third sort of map editor, but there is only one example of it: Bolotomy. Interactive Bolo Map Editors ---------------------------- BoloMapEditor ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ version rewiewed: 1.0 of March 13, 1993 author: Thomas Barrett (barrett@pacific.mps.ohio- state.edu) distribution: unknown system requirements: 600K documentation: none found in archive This is a no-frills map editor with few tools. Its advantages include a tiny disk space footprint (64K). However, its disadvantages include no Undo command, no control over player starting positions (they are always the same) and no selection tool (which would allow clipboard operations and other transformations). BoloStar (tm) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ version rewiewed: 1.5 of April 26, 1993 author: Keith Fry (keithfry@engin.umich.edu) Dan Rudman (rudman@engin.umich.edu) distribution: shareware, $10 system requirements: 900K/1024K, System 7 documentation: extensive (for shareware) BMAPEdit ~~~~~~~~ version rewiewed: 1.3 of August 18, 1993 (1.4 has just been released - review coming) author: Carl R. Osterwald (carl_o@seri.nrel.gov) distribution: shareware, $10 system requirements: 800K/1024K, System 6.0.4 documentation: average (for shareware); includes Balloon Help Both BoloStar and BMAPEdit are impressive applications. They each have a feature list as long as you would expect from a 1.X-level release of any commercial software. They each are designed and executed extremely well. A few things, of course, set them apart. BoloStar has as much well-written documentation as you might expect from a shareware product, complete with a few recommendations on map editing technique in addition to nuts-and-bolts operational details. BMAPEdit, on the other hand, valiantly attempts to make up for what it lacks in documentation with Balloon Help. BoloStar supports plug-in external command files which can perform operations on the current map selection. BoloStar also supports "scraps", like Bolo map clip art, in a special menu. BMAPEdit has a generally more intuitive interface and has a few more useful built-in features. (Both programs are now distributed with well-integrated random map generators.) Random Map Generators --------------------- CookMapper ~~~~~~~~~~ version rewiewed: 1.5c (no vers resource!) of December 16, 1993 author: John McLaughlin (borric@cairo.anu.edu.au) distribution: freeware, apparently system requirements: 384K (this is probably arbitrary, as it is the THINK C default) documentation: sparse The only random map generator which gives you the option of watching the action in progress -- interesting fractal animation as this generator builds terrain. Parameters: fragmentation, area, number of islands, number of bases, number of pillboxes, island spacing, level of protection for each pillbox, percentage of forest, and check-boxes for roads and boats. This generator seems to be taking the correct approach in that it talks to the user in more intuitive terms than rows and columns, etc., but its maps lack the sophisticated features of maps generated by other programs. MapGenerator ~~~~~~~~~~~~ version rewiewed: 0.97 of April 27*, 1993 author: Markus Julen (julen@inf.ethz.ch) Ambros Marzetta (marzetta@inf.ethz.ch) distribution: shareware, $10 system requirements: 450K documentation: none found in archive *The program's version data claims this is the release date, but the modification date of the file is the 28th. This generator is truly random. The user has no control over the randomness. It tends to generate maps of roughly the same size each, but within each map there are widely varying degrees of land, water, forest, etc. This generator also is happy to generate the "man-made" aspects of a Bolo map, including walls, bases, pillboxes, roads, rubble. It even generates some rather complex man-made areas, like ports, mazes, and super-bases, near which are several bases and several pillboxes. Unfortunately, this program crashed fairly often in testing, which is not suprising since its version number would seem to indicate it is a pre-release version. However, crashing does not result in much lost work, because the program works quickly and it is easy to reboot and run it again. RandomMap ~~~~~~~~~ version rewiewed: 1.1.0 of July 1, 1993 author: Peter N. Lewis (peter.lewis@info.curtin.edu.au) distribution: freeware system requirements: 293K, System 6 documentation: sufficient This random map editor allows a fair amount of control over the parameter ranges of generated maps. Parameters: rows, columns, percentage of land, percentage of forest (on the land), number of bases, number of pillboxes, and base maximum supplies. Unfortunately, while allowing more control, RandomMap does not generate such things as roads or mazes. Miscellaneous Map Editing Tools ------------------------------- Bolotomy (tm) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ version rewiewed: April 29, 1993 author: Alan Witmer (fostex!alan_witmer@dartvax*) Jerry Halstead (fostex!jerry_halstead@dartvax*) distribution: shareware, $8 system requirements: color, possibly System 7, possibly a Quadra** documentation: sufficient *It's possible your mailer will know where dartvax is (dartmouth.edu?), but it's not likely. The authors should mail the FAQ maintainer with better addresses. **This is informal software, folks; the authors haven't had a chance to test on much else. It may run fine on everything. This is a tool to convert any PICT into a Bolo map. It uses sophisticated image analysis algorithms to pick terrain types, sizes, and placements. It doesn't have a huge feature list; it gets its job done and gets out of the way; but there are some adjustments for the user to make so that the transfer goes as desired. What are some of the guidelines I should follow for making maps? ---------------------------------------------------------------- (From Matt Slot, fprefect@engin.umich.edu) Note: This is simply advice on how to make a good map, but different people feel differently about map making, so try different styles if you like. ------ Some maps are neat, others play well, and some just suck. Maps that have a particular shortage of trees, a poor layout of the islands, or most annoyingly start positions beyond the edge of the explored universe. Maps should be well thought out so that: * There is a well distributed selection of bases. No clumps of more than 3 within a 30 square diameter. * Trees are in abundance, and more can grow back easily everywhere. (Note: Some maps have "resource strategies", where trees are precious. Maps like these can also be fun to play. - cls) * Land should not have Deep Water embedded into it or without a suitable shallow water buffer. * Start positions should be within sight of land, but still in deep sea. * If you need to make a big map, make it easy to traverse it. If you make one with lots of islands, make them close enough to be visible to each other. * Remember realism is as important as playability -- but both can make a map very enjoyable. * Large Maps, Small Teams - When playing a 2 on 2 or a 3 on 3, the map should definitely be no bigger than 100 by 100. For 4-6 players, maps between 50 by 50 and 75 by 75 are optimal. For 6-8 players, maps from 70 by 70 to 90 by 90 are optimal. For more players, maps should still be less than 120 by 120. A large map slows the game down to a crawl, where a player must make a long foray into heavily mined territory to find a single base/pillbox, kill it and return home without refueling. To defend more than a small area involves a large network of roads which are easily mined. In general, In either case the game is not one of skill, but who has the most patience (and time!). How do I post and download maps from r.g.b from or to my machine? ----------------------------------------------------------------- How to get maps that are posted: The files should be posted in BinHex 4.0 format. All you need to do is save the article containing the map as text, and run it through a BinHex decoder (such as BinHex 4.0 or Stuffit Expander) on your Macintosh, and a map file will come out. If you're using UNIX's trn, just type s [mapname] (the mapname doesn't matter) and ftp the file to your machine from your UNIX account. You could also cut and paste it into a normal text file and run that text file through the decoder. How to post maps: Just run your map through BinHex 4.0, changing it from an application to an upload. The resultant file will be a simple text file. Just attach that file to your USENET message. Now what's this about Brains? ----------------------------- Brains are small bits of code that allow the computer to control your tank for you. The first brain was Stuart's autopilot. You can use brains for various uses. You can set a slew of brains to fight it out on a new map to determine its playability. You can use them as allies. You can fight against them for practice. Remember, though, for each brain, you have to use a separate copy of Bolo. For example, I sometimes run 3 brains on my Centris 610, and run a 4th copy of Bolo to play myself. That's how you can play by yourself. Just choose Appletalk (even if the machine is isolated), and run three or more copies of the application, with one Brains folder (which hold the different Brain codes), and join in yourself. Ally them to make it more interesting. There are now brains called cyborgs (or borgs, for short). They allow you to control certain parts of the game, while it controls another. For example, a borg might control your builder, so you don't have to mess with getting trees and building roads. Others might be used for navigation. If you don't want people to play with borgs in your game, make sure you turn off computer tanks in the game setup dialog. Where can I get Brains? ----------------------- You can get brains at sumex-aim.stanford.edu, mac.archive.umich.edu, saloon.intercon.com, or aurora.alaska.edu. Each site has different versions and varieties. They are often posted to a.n.b directly. The following list contains the known and publicly available brains. Full Bots: ---------- Indy 1.4 (There's mention of a beta version out therefor 1.5) Dumbot 0.5 Standard Autopilot (comes with the Bolo package) Helper Autopilot .02 Tonto 1.0 (Formerly Milo's Autopilot) Rover .01 Maxwell 1.4 RicklesBot (Just randomly insults players - nothing else) Cyborgs: -------- Nexus 1.2.1 Navbot Brainwave 1.0 Note about Indy from its author: Q: "I can't get Indy to work, when I select it from the menu nothing happens." A: You haven't increased the memory size. Indy takes memory form the bolo application heap. If there is not enough memory then Bolo will not load the brain. Bolo requires from 450-1200k depending on the map used, if sound is installed, and if a memory hungry brain like Indy is on. I haven't had any problems with Indy 1.4 running average size maps on a 1200k partition. How do you write Brains? ------------------------ Stuart included some sample code and directions for writing brains in the Bolo package. Also, there is a mailing list which discusses brain programming. To subscribe, send mail to listserv@ncrpda.curtin.edu.au, with any subject, and body subscribe brain Your Name. You can mail to the list by sending to brain@ncrpda.curtin.edu.au. Finally, how about some strategy tips? -------------------------------------- Well, okay. Here you go: ---------- >From Steve Kives (kives@ruhr.engin.umich.edu) I think most anyone can take a lone pb within a half-minute if they are not worried about: 1) running their armor down to zero, and 2) lurkers in the woods nearby. My standard strategy is this: Shoot two spaces near the pb for buildings. These spaces are usually spaces #2 and #3 in a straight line away from the pb. But don't build yet. Rush in and pile on the shots. Plan on receiving one hit, and circle away with no more damage. The pb is 1/3 damaged and angry. Build your buildings and line yourself up, not on the same straight axis with pb/buildings, but just one lane over. This allows careful placement of the crosshairs on the pb, while the pb must shoot through the buildings before any shots hit you. If you have a pb, use a pb in space #3. Keep the cursor on the pb after building. Saddle up the lane after a few seconds, when the pb is only slightly mad, and pour in the glancing blows. If you just built buildings, some shots still get through, and you must tirade after about 2 seconds. If you built a pb, then don't move! When enemy pb is dead, charge forward, simultaneously clicking the mouse button. Man fixes your pb, which is irate. If a vulture comes out of the woods, he is meat. This is a good and realistic strategy in a game crowded with cunning players and many tricks-up-the-sleeves. The whole move takes 30 seconds. Shoot for mines, and shoot the pb in one quick movement. Build obstructions and clear defending mines when waiting for pb to cool a little. Then move in for coup-de-grace and fix your pb in a deft stroke (when shots are not hitting you -- don't get your man killed). This strategy generally deals with problems 1 and 2 mentioned previously. Also, lay a minefield several spaces behind you, and right outside the margins of nearby forests. This helps punish the vultures. As far as base-defenses go, I think the most successful strategy is to lay scattered mines (not chain-reactable) throughout the entire firing rage of your pbs, and a little beyond. Especially lay mines right next to pbs and your bases, though it can make refueling a little delicate. There is nothing more satisfying than seeing an enemy spiker blow his man up. Time to bum-rush his pillboxes! A very important element of pb-defenses is adverse terrain. A swamp is great, otherwise use lots of craters. This severely inhibits enemy builders doing bad things to you, and road- building into your base shows up like a beacon on the pillbox-view function. For the devious, a proven strategy is to sneak up directly behind the enemy attacking your base/pbs. This means, of course, a very wide circle flanking movement, because you cannot let him see you. When sneaking up behind, just charge right in and shoot! Why does this work? Because auto-scroll has a number of failings, and this is one of them. His autoscroll will continue to view your pbs at 10 spaces away, while you sneak up to within a couple of spaces on the other side. This tactic is lethal every time. Of course, nothing beats the pb-gathering tactics of a couple of old- pros who can decoy-kill at light speed. One game, I hooked up with "Stranger" and we did this without any verbal(typing) communication of any kind. Wasn't necessary. Took a pb every 20 seconds for a few minutes (refueling when we had to) and the game was a joke. The other team evaporated to other games when they saw the pbs disappearing that quickly from the status window. If the other team doesn't have similar tacticians, they haven't a chance. A wonderful example of this tactic occurs when you find an enemy(uninhabited) base with two pbs flanking. Draw an imaginary line from one pb, through the other pb, and extended on out several spaces. Shoot for mines first! Put a building on this line (space #1 away from enemy pb). Put a pb on this line next (space #2). Your friend gets behind friendly pb just as you shoot (from furthest possible distance) the farthest pb from your friendly pb. If you do this right, this pb will start blowing away the other enemy pb, which consequently starts to blow away the building, then the friendly pb. But both enemy pbs are dead before anyone is scratched! And your friend should instantly repair friendly pb to help ward off well-armed vultures. This tactic fails when the enemies return too soon and start bickering. But this tactic works WAY too often when the maps are huge. If you like to lurk, find a well-traveled road through the woods. Check for mines in the ambush site, then lay 3-4 mines in a row right next to the road(in the trees). Wait precisely on the opposite side, in the trees. When sucker comes through (even if going slowly for mine-caution) you start shooting first, damaging him and pushing him into opposite row of mines. A few more shots and it's over. AS far as safe-guarding your man goes (dead man is several times worse than dead tank) many players on the Internet need some serious help! I see the same mistakes made time and time again, by players that should have seen the light much sooner. Lesson #1: mines abound! Especially around enemy bases. Doing something with the man? Shoot the prospective location(s) first. It's worth the ammo. By far. Lesson #2: people love to shoot little defenseless enemy builders. I know I do! When sending the man out, and there are enemy tanks around, the man should NEVER cross anything but pavement and grass (or trees, but only if you're being sneaky). Some players are so anxious torpor a pb, that they spuriously send the man over 6 craters and 4 swamp spaces. Gun fodder. ---------- >From Tobin C. Anthony, tca712@rs710.gsfc.nasa.gov My pb strategy is somewhat different on UDP than AppleTalk. On AppleTalk, I just sidled up to a box, move my crosshairs to full range and rest them on the opposite edge of the pb and blast away. The pb depletes a lot of your armor but it pushes you away with each shot. Finally, you are out of range but with little armor. You just wait a minute and gather wood and wait for the pb to chill. Then you can blast it straight on again providing you waited long enough. This method all but depletes your armor but even with the chill-out time it is the fastest way to get a pb. I found that there are no prizes for getting pb's retaining most amount of armor. The thing you want to minimize is the time spent grabbing the pb before your enemy does a pb check and comes blasting away. If one of my bases is close enough, I will even take that cool-down time to replenish my armor. I am not proud. On UDP, I find that netlag usually works against you. You might end up killing the pb but you will get blown to bits as well. It's frustrating to blast a pb and wait there anxiously as the net grinds to a halt. You only see a few shots changing hands but you end up materializing somewhere else far away from the pb with a tantalizing but short- lived 'x' on the statusboard. You can use a lot of the other methods mentioned previously to attack a pb under UDP but there is no substitute for having an ally to act as a decoy(Bolo raison d'tre??). Two allies can start out near a friendly base and end up mowing down a swath of enemy pbs in no time.--- --------------- >From Eric Hiris (hirisej@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu) Using Pillboxes (offensively): 1) spiking the enemy base(s) - that is, placing a pillbox next to the enemies base (for you novices out there, this works best if you place your pb right next to the enemy base - watch out for mines though). 2) attacking enemy pbs. That is using your pb as a superwall to shoot around when attacking a pb. Just be forewarned: there are vultures out there waiting to capture both your pb and the one you are attacking. 3)shooting your own pb when other are near - kablooie! (or is this defense?)Bases: Despite what you might think from discussions in this newsgroup, bases are how the game is won or lost. If one team has all the bases, then everyone else has lost. Period. Therefore, take as many as you can early in the game and defend them to the best of your ability. If you are satisfied with two early in the game, well, uh, good luck. If you take 10 bases right away, you will lose some of them, but so what? You got 8 more. :) Base placement during map making: Personal Opinion: If you are making a map, please please, please do not put bases adjacent to each other. Forests: The importance obviously depends on the map. If there is forest everywhere, trees are almost a non-issue. If there are few forests, by all means, go hide in the enemies for a bit and when no one is around take the forest or destroy it. In some sense, it is like killing all your enemies' men if the remaining forests are guarded well. Another thing to be aware of is that water, walls, roads, and swamp adjacent to forest will eliminate or greatly reduce the regrowth of forest. Use this to your benefit or against your enemies to the best you can. As stated recently in this newsgroup, forest grows back most rapidly on grass when it is surrounded by other trees. Harvesting trees in a checkerboard pattern will result in the fastest regrowth of trees if you are concerned about ecology :) Walls: Some people like them, some people don't. They are mostly used offensively - to hide behind when attacking a pb. Others try to use them defensively, but my experience suggests that except for special situations, walls are generally not effective in defense. The best use for the walltool is to make boats. Roads: Nice, but if you make them, people have a tendency to mine them right away. Roads are best used to cover up gravel and mine blasts in your 'home' area, a place where people will get pb'd to death if they try a mining run. Also two roads will block a waterway that the enemy has been using (or a road and a wall)Mines: I don't know if I want to start this again, but: 1) the most effective use of a mine (I think) is to one mine on squares that share a border with your pb. Therefore, when people try decoy tricks, the man will die trying to build wall if they are not careful. If they do manage to kill the pb, your enemy will hit the mine(s) before and or after the pb and be weakened and slowed down, allowing you time to return for easy revenge. Another note is that placing a pb on or within an area of slow terrain(swamp, mine blasts, rubble) makes it a real pain for a pb to be retrieved after it has been killed - again allowing you time to return for revenge. 2)making water ways. This keeps enemy men with devious plans away from your bases. Also, in regards to the 'big mine controversy' that raged in this group recently: make waterways with mines. As of yet there are no sea mines, so you are perfectly safe going through mined enemy territory on a boat. Let them spend all their time mining! 3) Mine randomly. Yes, this counts as a strategy, I hate it, others love it, but until further notice this is a strategy, like it or not. This strategy allows you to slow the pace of the game down to almost 0. Be warned that your enemy will do the same and the enemy may just circumvent all your mines by making a waterway. Personal Opinion: use in desperation only. ----------------- >From Robert Fullmer (fullmer@owlnet.rice.edu) If you can't take a pillbox without dying, 9 times out of 10, or don't know how to run a two man, or are generally not quite an expert at the game yet, spike only after careful consideration and approval from teammates. Clearly, there are cases where this rule doesn't apply (when you're not an expert but your allies are even greener, for example), but I've had problems in the past with allies that pick up two or three pills from one of my heavily fortified bases and spike them deeper than we're ready to take. We lose the pills, and if they repeat the exercise for long enough, the game. Spiking is an art. It can make the difference when used properly, but can lose the game when misapplied. So this is a call to newbies: If you're thinking about spiking with a pillbox you didn't just capture yourself, check it out with your allies first. ------------- End of alt.netgames.bolo FAQ - Part II ------------- Maintained by Cory L. Scott, cls6@midway.uchicago.edu -- Cory L. Scott | "They're inhabitants of alt.tasteless. . .] where cls6@midway.uchicago.edu | they march to a decidedly different drummer, and, University of Chicago | when they're done marching, usually shoot him." -|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-| - Dave Ratcliffe -|-|-|-|