1xscorch(6)                       Games Manual                       xscorch(6)
2
3
4

NAME

6       xscorch - Annihilate enemy tanks using overpowered guns.
7

SYNOPSIS

9       xscorch
10
11       xscorch [options]
12
13       xscorch --help
14

DESCRIPTION

16       Xscorch is a clone of the classic DOS game, "Scorched Earth". The basic
17       goal is to annihilate enemy tanks using overpowered guns :). Basically,
18       you  buy  weapons,  you target the enemy by adjusting the angle of your
19       turret and firing power, and you hope to destroy their tank before they
20       destroy yours.
21

GAMEPLAY

23       First, fiddle with the options in the main menu.  There are a number of
24       options which are described below, which may make the  game  easier  or
25       harder.   The  default options make for a reasonable level of gameplay.
26       Most of the game configuration is controlled from the  user  interface,
27       although  there  are  a  few  command-line  options which are mentioned
28       below.  Once you are ready to begin a new game, you might want to  Save
29       Options  to  save your configuration, then select Begin Game to start a
30       new game.
31
32       Gameplay is divided up into several rounds.  Each round consists of two
33       parts:   the  Inventory  phase  and the Battle phase.  In the Inventory
34       phase, you can buy weapons to shoot at your opponents, and  accessories
35       to help defend your tank.  See the Inventory section below for informa‐
36       tion on the weapons and accessories you may buy.  In the Battle  phase,
37       you  setup  defenses,  choose a weapon, aim and fire at your opponents.
38       See the section on Battle below, for more information.
39

INVENTORY

41       The player has the option to buy weapons and accessories  to  make  the
42       game  more  interesting.   Weapons are just that: an assortment of mis‐
43       siles, including ICBM-like warheads, napalm, lasers, and  a  number  of
44       custom  weapons to bring down specific defenses.  Accessories are meth‐
45       ods to make gameplay easier for the player and increase their chance of
46       survival,  with  guidance  systems, shields, fuel, batteries, and other
47       odds-and-ends.
48
49       At the beginning of a round, each player is given an opportunity to buy
50       or  sell weapons and accessories.  Each player may have up to 99 of any
51       item in their inventory.  A few weapons have an  infinite  supply  (for
52       example, Baby Missiles) - these weapons cannot be purchased.
53
54       Weapons  and  accessories are sold in bundles; the price for the bundle
55       is displayed in the inventory, and you must buy  items  as  a  complete
56       bundle.  The exception to this is when a player attempts to buy more of
57       an item than their inventory can hold; in this case, the bundle will be
58       broken  and  the  weapons are sold on an individual basis, with a small
59       markup applied.
60
61       Weapons and accessories may also be sold  from  a  player's  inventory.
62       Again, items are generally sold as a bundle.  The player will receive a
63       reduced amount of money for the sale - hey, the middleman has  to  make
64       money somewhere :)
65
66       In  the Inventory screen, two panels are displayed, listing the weapons
67       and accessories that are available.  The Tab key  will  switch  between
68       the  various  panes.   Up Arrow and Down Arrow will allow the player to
69       scroll through the list of items, Right Arrow will buy  a  bundle,  and
70       Left Arrow will sell a bundle of the currently highlighted item.
71
72       For each item, the name, bundle size/total price, and current inventory
73       are displayed.
74
75       Items which can neither be bought or sold will appear darkened.  If the
76       player  has  maxed their inventory for that item, or they cannot afford
77       to purchase the item, or the item has a  higher  arms  level  than  the
78       player  is allowed, then the item cannot be purchased.  Items which can
79       be bought will appear with an arrow pointing to the  right,  and  items
80       which can be sold will appear with an arrow pointing to the left.
81
82       The items that are available are listed in the next two sections.
83

WEAPONS LIST

85       This list will be added once the weapons list is reasonably stable.
86

ACCESSORIES LIST

88       This list will be added once the accessories list is reasonably stable.
89

BATTLE

91       This overview is sadly, incomplete.
92

TANK CONTROLS

94       Left, Right
95              Change  the  turret angle.  This will adjust the turret angle in
96              increments of 5 degrees.   For  finer  control,  hold  Shift  to
97              adjust the angle in increments of 1 degree.
98
99       Up, Down
100              Change  the  firing power, in the range of 0 to 1000.  This will
101              adjust the firing power in increments of 20.  For finer control,
102              hold Shift to adjust the firing power in increments of 1.
103
104       Tab    Select the next weapon available in your inventory.
105
106       Shift+Tab
107              Select the previous weapon available in your inventory.
108
109       B, b   Activate  a  battery.  A single battery can restore 5% of damage
110              done to your tank, and  therefore  restore  the  maximum  firing
111              power  by  5%  when you are damaged.  You must have a battery to
112              discharge in your inventory to excercise this option.
113
114       E, e   Activate or energize the currently selected shields.
115
116       F, f   Activate your fuel tanks.  A window will be displayed,  indicat‐
117              ing  the amount of fuel you have available.  As long as you have
118              fuel, you may use the Left and Right arrows to move one unit  to
119              the  left  or  right, respectively.  In general, you cannot move
120              your tank up a steep hill.  Immobile tanks will not be  able  to
121              excercise this option.
122
123       R, r   Force a redraw of the screen.
124
125       S, s   Toggle  the  currently selected shields.  The currently selected
126              shields are the shields which will be used  when  you  Energize.
127              Shields  are classified by a power number with a type suffix:  M
128              for magnetic shielding, F for force shielding, and  S  for  your
129              standard, run-of-the-mill shields.  If no shields are available,
130              0S is displayed.
131
132       T, t   Toggle contact triggers on/off.  This is only meaningful if  you
133              actually  have some contact triggers of course, and when tunnel‐
134              ing is enabled.  Weapons that are fired after  this  point  will
135              have contact triggers equipped (until you run out).
136
137       0 - 9  Display information about a particular player.  1 gives informa‐
138              tion about Player 1, and 0 gives information about Player 10.
139
140       Enter  Accept your orders.
141
142       Ctrl+Y Bring up the System Menu (this can also  be  accessed  from  the
143              menus).   You can control certain graphics options from the sys‐
144              tem menu, clear the screen of smoke trails, and end a round pre‐
145              maturely.
146
147       Ctrl+Z Pauses the game.
148
149       Ctrl+R Resign from the game.  This will end the game for everyone.  You
150              will be asked to confirm the resignation.
151

SYSTEM MENU

153       The system menu gives you some control over the game  while  it  is  in
154       progress.   In  this menu, you will have options to change how the game
155       is displayed (e.g.  the Graphics Fast  option  described  below).   You
156       also have access to a few useful commands, described below.
157
158       Mass Kill
159              Kills  everyone still alive in the round.  No player gets credit
160              for the kills, and none are considered a suicide.   This  option
161              is useful if all human players have already been eliminated from
162              the game, but the AI players are making no  progress  whatsoever
163              in  annihilating each other.  This option ends the current round
164              only.
165
166       Erase Smoke
167              If you have used smoke tracers or have Trace Paths enabled, then
168              this option will clear all smoke trails from the sky.
169
170       Retreat
171              N/A
172
173       Resign Game
174              Resigns  from  the current round and all remaining rounds.  This
175              option ends the entire game, and will take you back to the intro
176              screen.
177
178       Sound Setup
179              Takes you to the Sound Options window.
180

AI PLAYERS

182       Human  The  humans believe they are the superior mind.  The AI's rather
183              disagree with that sentiment.  Keep this in mind  when  you  are
184              wondering  why  9  AI's would want to simultaneously target your
185              tank...
186
187       Moron  This AI fires at random.  Of all the AI's, this one has  by  far
188              the  highest  suicide  rate.  An alternate name is ``Cannon Fod‐
189              der''.
190
191       Shooter
192              This AI goes for targets it has a line-of-sight to.  It's not  a
193              great player otherwise.  This AI buys weapons that have the best
194              economical yield, but during the game  it  will  select  weapons
195              which have the highest yield.
196
197       Spreader
198              This  AI  is  similar  to  the  Shooter,  except a Spreader buys
199              weapons with the highest yield, without regard for the price.
200
201       Chooser
202              This AI chooses a victim.  Once chosen, the victim  is  attacked
203              until  they  are dead, or the Chooser loses the ability to reach
204              the victim. This AI does not need line-of-sight, but fortunately
205              it cannot compensate for wind.
206
207       Calculater
208              This  AI is like Chooser, except a Calculater can compensate for
209              the wind.  These guys are fairly deadly in a  fight;  they  also
210              tend to allocate large budgets to defense and offense.
211
212       Annihilater
213              This  AI goes for weapons that will cause as much damage as pos‐
214              sible, without much regard  for  individual  victims.   This  AI
215              prefers  spread  weapons to the more focused, precision weapons.
216              A few Annihilaters can clear the  terrain  easily.   These  AI's
217              don't  worry  about  defenses  too much.  With their destructive
218              tendency, they won't survive long anyway - but neither will any‐
219              one else.
220
221       Insanity
222              No one knows what this AI thinks...
223
224       Unknown
225              This  selects  one of the above AI's at random, but you will not
226              be informed which AI was selected.
227

CONFIGURATION OPTIONS

229       Players/Rounds:
230
231       Number of Players (integer, 2-10)
232              Set the number of players participating in the game.
233
234       Number of Rounds (integer, >= 1)
235              Set the number of rounds to play for this game.
236
237       AI Type (list)
238              Select the AI type.  Human players are ``Human''; the  remaining
239              AI's are documented above.
240
241       Player Name (string)
242              Give a unique name for each player.
243
244       Tank Style (list)
245              Select the type/shape of the tank, for each player.
246
247       Economics:
248
249       Interest Rate (float, 0-0.30)
250              Interest rate for savings, compounded once per round.
251
252       Dynamic Interest (toggle)
253              If enabled, interest rates will change during the game.
254
255       Initial Cash (integer, 0-1000000)
256              Amount of money each player should start with.
257
258       AIs Can Buy (toggle)
259              If  enabled, computers are permitted to buy items.  The AI's are
260              very uninteresting if this option is turned off.
261
262       AIs Buy Aggressively (toggle)
263              If the previous option is enabled, the AI's will buy items  con‐
264              servatively.   With  this  option, the AI's will allocate larger
265              budgets and buy bigger items early in the game.
266
267       Free Market (toggle)
268              N/A
269
270       Scoring (list)
271              Specify how  scoring  works,  selecting  from  Basic,  Standard,
272              Greedy,  or  possibly other methods defined in the configuration
273              file:
274                   Basic    Players only receive money for kills and survival.
275                   Standard Players receive less money for kills and survival,
276                            but  they  will also receive money for damaging an
277                            opponent.
278                   Greedy   Players are paid as in Standard scoring, but  with
279                            bonuses  for  unused  inventory  at the end of the
280                            round.
281
282       The Lottery (toggle)
283              If the lottery is enabled, there will be a random drawing at the
284              start of each round.  A random player will receive a bundle of a
285              random weapon for free as the lottery award.  This  is  a  great
286              way  to inject a little extra life into AIs who are usually con‐
287              servative buyers.  Plus it's always great fun  when  you  get  a
288              free Annihilator...
289
290       Physics:
291
292       Air Viscosity (float)
293              N/A
294
295       Gravity (float, 0-10)
296              Specify  the  gravity, in pixels per cycle squared (one cycle is
297              roughly 50 milliseconds).
298
299       Ground Damping (float, 0-10)
300              Specify the ground damping, used in tunnelling calculations.
301
302       Maximum Wind Speed (float, 0-10)
303              Specify the maximum wind speed, in  pixels  per  cycle  squared.
304              The  actual wind velocity is initialised once per round, to some
305              value in (-max, max).
306
307       Wind is Dynamic (toggle)
308              Normally the wind remains constant through a round.  If this  is
309              enabled, the wind will change once per turn.
310
311       Suspend Dirt (percentage)
312              N/A
313
314       Tanks Fall (percentage)
315              N/A
316
317       Borders Extend (integer, >= 0)
318              This  specifies  how  far  off-screen weapons should be tracked,
319              when you are playing with no walls.  When this  value  is  zero,
320              weapons  will  disappear as soon as they leave the screen in the
321              horizontal direction, even if wind would have brought them  back
322              on-screen.
323
324       Walls Are (list)
325              Specify  how weapons behave when they hit a boundary.  Note, the
326              ground is always ``concrete'' -- this specifies  how  the  sides
327              and ceiling behave:
328                   None       The sides and ceiling are open.
329                   Concrete   All sides are solid.  Weapons hitting any bound‐
330                              ary will explode.
331                   Padded     Weapons  hitting  the  sides  and  ceiling  will
332                              bounce off, although at a reduced velocity.
333                   Rubber     Weapons  hitting the boundary will bounce off at
334                              exactly the same velocity.
335                   Springy    Weapons hitting the  boundary  will  bounce  off
336                              with an additional ``kick'' to the velocity.
337                   Wraparound The ceiling is open.  Weapons going off one side
338                              will reappear on the opposite side.   Explosions
339                              will  also  wrap around the screen if they deto‐
340                              nate near an edge.
341                   Random     One of the above types of walls are selected  at
342                              random.
343
344       Landscape:
345
346       Sky (list)
347              Specify the background sky.
348
349       Hostile Environment (toggle)
350              N/A
351
352       Land Generator (list)
353              Specify the generator to use to create the land.
354
355       Bumpiness (percentage)
356              Specify the noise on the generated landscape.
357
358       Weapons:
359
360       Arms Level (integer, 0-4)
361              Specify  the maximum arms level for the game.  Only weapons with
362              this arms level or lower may be purchased by any  player,  under
363              normal circumstances.
364
365       Bomb Icon Size (integer, 0-4)
366              Specify  the  size  of the bomb icons, while they are traversing
367              their path in the sky.  This does not affect the size of  explo‐
368              sions, or the size of the smoke paths (if trace paths is on).
369
370       Tunneling (toggle)
371              If  set,  weapons  are  allowed  to tunnel through land.  If you
372              enable this, you will want to buy contact triggers if you want a
373              particular  weapon to always detonate on impact (instead of tun‐
374              neling through land).
375
376       Scaling (float)
377              Scale the size of explosions by this value.   If  playing  on  a
378              very large or very small playing field, you might want to adjust
379              this value.
380
381       Trace Paths (toggle)
382              If enabled, all weapons leave a smoke trail to reveal their tra‐
383              jectory.  If this option is off, you can still use Smoke Tracers
384              to determine the path a weapon will take.
385
386       Useless Items (toggle)
387              Some weapons are not  useful  given  the  current  configuration
388              (e.g.   contact  triggers  are  irrelevant  if tunneling is dis‐
389              abled).  If this option is enabled, then weapons which will have
390              no effect are not listed in the inventory screens.
391
392       Graphics:
393
394       Screen Width (integer)
395              Set the width of the playing field, in pixels.
396
397       Screen Height (integer)
398              Set the height of the playing field, in pixels.
399
400       Dithering (toggle)
401              If  enabled,  the land and sky gradients will be dithered.  This
402              option is particularly useful on 16-bit displays, where the gra‐
403              dient  is  very  noticeable otherwise.  This does slow down land
404              generation somewhat.
405
406       Animation (toggle)
407              If enabled, explosions and other effects will be animated.  This
408              option can also be controlled from the System Menu.
409
410       Graphics Are Fast (toggle)
411              If  enabled,  all graphics are always as fast as possible.  This
412              option can also be controlled from the System Menu.
413
414       Computers Are Fast (toggle)
415              If enabled, graphics are fast when there only  computer  players
416              are  alive.   This option can also be controlled from the System
417              Menu.
418
419       Gameplay Options:
420
421       Mode (list)
422              Determines if all players will fire at  once  (Synchronous),  or
423              whether each player will fire independently (Sequential).
424
425       Teams (list)
426              N/A
427
428       Order (list)
429              Determines the player order.
430
431       Talk Mode (list)
432              Determines who is allowed to talk.
433
434       Talk Probability (percentage)
435              Determines the likelihood that a player will speak at the end of
436              a turn.
437
438       Extended Status (toggle)
439              If set, the  status  bar  will  contain  an  additional  row  of
440              extended information during the game (things such as trigger and
441              battery inventories, life, wind).
442
443       Tooltips (toggle)
444              If set, tooltips will be displayed where available.   A  restart
445              is required to change the value of this option.
446
447       AI Controller:
448
449       Human Target Practice (toggle)
450              AI's  will always prefer human targets to AI targets (except for
451              AI's that fire at random).  When playing against 9  Calculators,
452              this can make your day pretty lousy.
453
454       Allow Offset Targetting (toggle)
455              Generally,  when a weapon hits a shield it does less damage than
456              an explosion detonating right outside the shield  (weapons  hit‐
457              ting the shield do not have a chance to detonate).  This changes
458              the AI targetting behaviour so they will deliberately  aim  out‐
459              side the shield, if their intended victim has raised shields.
460
461       Always Offset (toggle)
462              If  the  above  option  is set, this option will force the AI to
463              always offset  its  targetting  as  if  the  player  had  raised
464              shields.   This  allows the AI to compensate for cases where the
465              player may simply not have had their turn yet to raise  shields.
466              The  downside is the AI will never attempt to score a direct hit
467              with this option enabled.
468
469       Enable Scan Refinement (toggle)
470              If set, harder AIs are allowed to refine their  trajectories  by
471              computing  trajectories  that take into account player shielding
472              effect and various other factors they do not normally  consider.
473              This  option  could  slow  down gameplay a bit but makes the AIs
474              much more difficult.
475
476       No Budget Constraints (toggle)
477              AI's will spend as much money as they  can,  disregarding  their
478              budget preferences.
479
480       Sound Setup:
481
482       Enable Sound (toggle)
483              When set, music and sound effects will be played.
484
485       Use HQ Mixer (toggle)
486              When set, mikmod's high-quality mixer will be used.
487

COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS

489       --help Display a brief synopsis of the command-line options available.
490
491       --insanity
492              This is insanity, Max!  Or what if it's genius?
493
494       --yields
495              Display weapon yields, and economical yields.
496
497       --geometry=wxh
498              Specify  an  initial window geometry for xscorch, where w is the
499              width and h is the height of the playing field.  Useful for dis‐
500              plays  less  than  around  800x600 resolution.  Note this option
501              overrides the settings in the config file, but you can save  the
502              new  options  to  your  config file so you don't have to specify
503              this every time.  You may also use -g.
504
505       --config=file
506              Load an alternate user config file, in file.
507
508       --sound
509              Enable music and sound effects.  You may also use -S.
510
511       --nosound
512              Disable music and sound effects.  You may also use -s.
513
514       --hqmixer
515              Enable use of the high-quality mixer, if sound is enabled.  This
516              may use a lot of CPU power on older machines.
517
518       --nohqmixer
519              Disable use of the high-quality mixer, if sound is enabled.
520
521       --name Set  the  name  of  your player, if you are initiating a network
522              game.  By default, your user name is used.
523
524       --port Set the port number to use in a network game.   This  option  is
525              only  relevant  if  you  also specify --client or --server.  The
526              default is dependent on the protocol number, but is  some  large
527              port number.
528
529       --client=server
530              Start  xscorch  in  client  mode,  and  connect to server (which
531              should already be running).  If --name and --port are not speci‐
532              fied, reasonable defaults are used.
533
534       --server
535              Start  xscorch in server mode, and wait for connections from the
536              clients.  --name may be used in conjunction to specify the  name
537              of this player.
538

NETWORK MODE

540       This is very unstable right now, and therefore is not documented.
541

FILES

543       ~/.xscorch/config
544              User's default configuration for xscorch.
545
546       tankprofiles
547              Profile bitmaps for the tanks, usually stored in the local share
548              directory.
549

SEE ALSO

551       The xscorch home page  at  <http://www.xscorch.org/>.   There  is  also
552       additional documentation in the source distribution.
553

AUTHORS

555       xscorch  was  written by Justin David Smith <justins(at)chaos2.org> and
556       Jacob Luna Lundberg <jacob(at)gnifty.net>.  (Please do not  list  these
557       e-mail  addresses  on webpages, or list them in other packages, without
558       contacting us first.)
559
560       This manual page written by Justin David Smith <justins(at)chaos2.org>.
561       Copyright(c) 2001,2000 Justin David Smith.
562
563
564
565Justin David Smith                 May 2001                         xscorch(6)
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