1xscorch(6) Games Manual xscorch(6)
2
6 xscorch - Annihilate enemy tanks using overpowered guns.
7 This manpage agrees with version 0.1.13 of xscorch.
9
11 xscorch
12 xscorch [options]
14 xscorch --help
16
18 Xscorch is a clone of the classic DOS game, "Scorched Earth". The basic
19 goal is to annihilate enemy tanks using overpowered guns :). Basically,
20 you buy weapons, you target the enemy by adjusting the angle of your
21 turret and firing power, and you hope to destroy their tank before they
22 destroy yours.
23
25 First, fiddle with the options in the main menu. There are a number of
26 options which are described below, which may make the game easier or
27 harder. The default options make for a reasonable level of gameplay.
28 Most of the game configuration is controlled from the user interface,
29 although there are a few command-line options which are mentioned
30 below. Once you are ready to begin a new game, you might want to Save
31 Options to save your configuration, then select Begin Game to start a
32 new game.
33 Gameplay is divided up into several rounds. Each round consists of two
35 parts: the Inventory phase and the Battle phase. In the Inventory
36 phase, you can buy weapons to shoot at your opponents, and accessories
37 to help defend your tank. See the Inventory section below for informa‐
38 tion on the weapons and accessories you may buy. In the Battle phase,
39 you setup defenses, choose a weapon, aim and fire at your opponents.
40 See the section on Battle below, for more information.
41
43 The player has the option to buy weapons and accessories to make the
44 game more interesting. Weapons are just that: an assortment of mis‐
45 siles, including ICBM-like warheads, napalm, lasers, and a number of
46 custom weapons to bring down specific defenses. Accessories are meth‐
47 ods to make gameplay easier for the player and increase their chance of
48 survival, with guidance systems, shields, fuel, batteries, and other
49 odds-and-ends.
50 At the beginning of a round, each player is given an opportunity to buy
52 or sell weapons and accessories. Each player may have up to 99 of any
53 item in their inventory. A few weapons have an infinite supply (for
54 example, Baby Missiles) - these weapons cannot be purchased.
55 Weapons and accessories are sold in bundles; the price for the bundle
57 is displayed in the inventory, and you must buy items as a complete
58 bundle. The exception to this is when a player attempts to buy more of
59 an item than their inventory can hold; in this case, the bundle will be
60 broken and the weapons are sold on an individual basis, with a small
61 markup applied.
62 Weapons and accessories may also be sold from a player's inventory.
64 Again, items are generally sold as a bundle. The player will receive a
65 reduced amount of money for the sale - hey, the middleman has to make
66 money somewhere :)
67 In the Inventory screen, two panels are displayed, listing the weapons
69 and accessories that are available. The Tab key will switch between
70 the various panes. Up Arrow and Down Arrow will allow the player to
71 scroll through the list of items, Right Arrow will buy a bundle, and
72 Left Arrow will sell a bundle of the currently highlighted item.
73 For each item, the name, bundle size/total price, and current inventory
75 are displayed.
76 Items which can neither be bought or sold will appear darkened. If the
78 player has maxed their inventory for that item, or they cannot afford
79 to purchase the item, or the item has a higher arms level than the
80 player is allowed, then the item cannot be purchased. Items which can
81 be bought will appear with an arrow pointing to the right, and items
82 which can be sold will appear with an arrow pointing to the left.
83 The items that are available are listed in the next two sections.
85
87 This list will be added once the weapons list is reasonably stable.
88
90 This list will be added once the accessories list is reasonably stable.
91
93 This overview is sadly, incomplete.
94
96 Left, Right
97 Change the turret angle. This will adjust the turret angle in
98 increments of 5 degrees. For finer control, hold Shift to
99 adjust the angle in increments of 1 degree.
100 Up, Down
102 Change the firing power, in the range of 0 to 1000. This will
103 adjust the firing power in increments of 20. For finer control,
104 hold Shift to adjust the firing power in increments of 1.
105 Tab Select the next weapon available in your inventory.
107 Shift+Tab
109 Select the previous weapon available in your inventory.
110 B, b Activate a battery. A single battery can restore 5% of damage
112 done to your tank, and therefore restore the maximum firing
113 power by 5% when you are damaged. You must have a battery to
114 discharge in your inventory to excercise this option.
115 E, e Activate or energize the currently selected shields.
117 F, f Activate your fuel tanks. A window will be displayed, indicat‐
119 ing the amount of fuel you have available. As long as you have
120 fuel, you may use the Left and Right arrows to move one unit to
121 the left or right, respectively. In general, you cannot move
122 your tank up a steep hill. Immobile tanks will not be able to
123 excercise this option.
124 R, r Force a redraw of the screen.
126 S, s Toggle the currently selected shields. The currently selected
128 shields are the shields which will be used when you Energize.
129 Shields are classified by a power number with a type suffix: M
130 for magnetic shielding, F for force shielding, and S for your
131 standard, run-of-the-mill shields. If no shields are available,
132 0S is displayed.
133 T, t Toggle contact triggers on/off. This is only meaningful if you
135 actually have some contact triggers of course, and when tunnel‐
136 ing is enabled. Weapons that are fired after this point will
137 have contact triggers equipped (until you run out).
138 0 - 9 Display information about a particular player. 1 gives informa‐
140 tion about Player 1, and 0 gives information about Player 10.
141 Enter Accept your orders.
143 Ctrl+Y Bring up the System Menu (this can also be accessed from the
145 menus). You can control certain graphics options from the sys‐
146 tem menu, clear the screen of smoke trails, and end a round pre‐
147 maturely.
148 Ctrl+Z Pauses the game.
150 Ctrl+R Resign from the game. This will end the game for everyone. You
152 will be asked to confirm the resignation.
153
155 The system menu gives you some control over the game while it is in
156 progress. In this menu, you will have options to change how the game
157 is displayed (e.g. the Graphics Fast option described below). You
158 also have access to a few useful commands, described below.
159 Mass Kill
161 Kills everyone still alive in the round. No player gets credit
162 for the kills, and none are considered a suicide. This option
163 is useful if all human players have already been eliminated from
164 the game, but the AI players are making no progress whatsoever
165 in annihilating each other. This option ends the current round
166 only.
167 Erase Smoke
169 If you have used smoke tracers or have Trace Paths enabled, then
170 this option will clear all smoke trails from the sky.
171 Retreat
173 N/A
174 Resign Game
176 Resigns from the current round and all remaining rounds. This
177 option ends the entire game, and will take you back to the intro
178 screen.
179 Sound Setup
181 Takes you to the Sound Options window.
182
184 Human The humans believe they are the superior mind. The AI's rather
185 disagree with that sentiment. Keep this in mind when you are
186 wondering why 9 AI's would want to simultaneously target your
187 tank...
188 Moron This AI fires at random. Of all the AI's, this one has by far
190 the highest suicide rate. An alternate name is ``Cannon Fod‐
191 der''.
192 Shooter
194 This AI goes for targets it has a line-of-sight to. It's not a
195 great player otherwise. This AI buys weapons that have the best
196 economical yield, but during the game it will select weapons
197 which have the highest yield.
198 Spreader
200 This AI is similar to the Shooter, except a Spreader buys
201 weapons with the highest yield, without regard for the price.
202 Chooser
204 This AI chooses a victim. Once chosen, the victim is attacked
205 until they are dead, or the Chooser loses the ability to reach
206 the victim. This AI does not need line-of-sight, but fortunately
207 it cannot compensate for wind.
208 Calculater
210 This AI is like Chooser, except a Calculater can compensate for
211 the wind. These guys are fairly deadly in a fight; they also
212 tend to allocate large budgets to defense and offense.
213 Annihilater
215 This AI goes for weapons that will cause as much damage as pos‐
216 sible, without much regard for individual victims. This AI
217 prefers spread weapons to the more focused, precision weapons.
218 A few Annihilaters can clear the terrain easily. These AI's
219 don't worry about defenses too much. With their destructive
220 tendency, they won't survive long anyway - but neither will any‐
221 one else.
222 Insanity
224 No one knows what this AI thinks...
225 Unknown
227 This selects one of the above AI's at random, but you will not
228 be informed which AI was selected.
229
231 Players/Rounds:
232 Number of Players (integer, 2-10)
234 Set the number of players participating in the game.
235 Number of Rounds (integer, >= 1)
237 Set the number of rounds to play for this game.
238 AI Type (list)
240 Select the AI type. Human players are ``Human''; the remaining
241 AI's are documented above.
242 Player Name (string)
244 Give a unique name for each player.
245 Tank Style (list)
247 Select the type/shape of the tank, for each player.
248 Economics:
250 Interest Rate (float, 0-0.30)
252 Interest rate for savings, compounded once per round.
253 Dynamic Interest (toggle)
255 If enabled, interest rates will change during the game.
256 Initial Cash (integer, 0-1000000)
258 Amount of money each player should start with.
259 AIs Can Buy (toggle)
261 If enabled, computers are permitted to buy items. The AI's are
262 very uninteresting if this option is turned off.
263 AIs Buy Aggressively (toggle)
265 If the previous option is enabled, the AI's will buy items con‐
266 servatively. With this option, the AI's will allocate larger
267 budgets and buy bigger items early in the game.
268 Free Market (toggle)
270 N/A
271 Scoring (list)
273 Specify how scoring works, selecting from Basic, Standard,
274 Greedy, or possibly other methods defined in the configuration
275 file:
276 Basic Players only receive money for kills and survival.
277 Standard Players receive less money for kills and survival,
278 but they will also receive money for damaging an
279 opponent.
280 Greedy Players are paid as in Standard scoring, but with
281 bonuses for unused inventory at the end of the
282 round.
283 The Lottery (toggle)
285 If the lottery is enabled, there will be a random drawing at the
286 start of each round. A random player will receive a bundle of a
287 random weapon for free as the lottery award. This is a great
288 way to inject a little extra life into AIs who are usually con‐
289 servative buyers. Plus it's always great fun when you get a
290 free Annihilator...
291 Physics:
293 Air Viscosity (float)
295 N/A
296 Gravity (float, 0-10)
298 Specify the gravity, in pixels per cycle squared (one cycle is
299 roughly 50 milliseconds).
300 Ground Damping (float, 0-10)
302 Specify the ground damping, used in tunnelling calculations.
303 Maximum Wind Speed (float, 0-10)
305 Specify the maximum wind speed, in pixels per cycle squared.
306 The actual wind velocity is initialised once per round, to some
307 value in (-max, max).
308 Wind is Dynamic (toggle)
310 Normally the wind remains constant through a round. If this is
311 enabled, the wind will change once per turn.
312 Suspend Dirt (percentage)
314 N/A
315 Tanks Fall (percentage)
317 N/A
318 Borders Extend (integer, >= 0)
320 This specifies how far off-screen weapons should be tracked,
321 when you are playing with no walls. When this value is zero,
322 weapons will disappear as soon as they leave the screen in the
323 horizontal direction, even if wind would have brought them back
324 on-screen.
325 Walls Are (list)
327 Specify how weapons behave when they hit a boundary. Note, the
328 ground is always ``concrete'' -- this specifies how the sides
329 and ceiling behave:
330 None The sides and ceiling are open.
331 Concrete All sides are solid. Weapons hitting any bound‐
332 ary will explode.
333 Padded Weapons hitting the sides and ceiling will
334 bounce off, although at a reduced velocity.
335 Rubber Weapons hitting the boundary will bounce off at
336 exactly the same velocity.
337 Springy Weapons hitting the boundary will bounce off
338 with an additional ``kick'' to the velocity.
339 Wraparound The ceiling is open. Weapons going off one side
340 will reappear on the opposite side. Explosions
341 will also wrap around the screen if they deto‐
342 nate near an edge.
343 Random One of the above types of walls are selected at
344 random.
345 Landscape:
347 Sky (list)
349 Specify the background sky.
350 Hostile Environment (toggle)
352 N/A
353 Land Generator (list)
355 Specify the generator to use to create the land.
356 Bumpiness (percentage)
358 Specify the noise on the generated landscape.
359 Weapons:
361 Arms Level (integer, 0-4)
363 Specify the maximum arms level for the game. Only weapons with
364 this arms level or lower may be purchased by any player, under
365 normal circumstances.
366 Bomb Icon Size (integer, 0-4)
368 Specify the size of the bomb icons, while they are traversing
369 their path in the sky. This does not affect the size of explo‐
370 sions, or the size of the smoke paths (if trace paths is on).
371 Tunneling (toggle)
373 If set, weapons are allowed to tunnel through land. If you
374 enable this, you will want to buy contact triggers if you want a
375 particular weapon to always detonate on impact (instead of tun‐
376 neling through land).
377 Scaling (float)
379 Scale the size of explosions by this value. If playing on a
380 very large or very small playing field, you might want to adjust
381 this value.
382 Trace Paths (toggle)
384 If enabled, all weapons leave a smoke trail to reveal their tra‐
385 jectory. If this option is off, you can still use Smoke Tracers
386 to determine the path a weapon will take.
387 Useless Items (toggle)
389 Some weapons are not useful given the current configuration
390 (e.g. contact triggers are irrelevant if tunneling is dis‐
391 abled). If this option is enabled, then weapons which will have
392 no effect are not listed in the inventory screens.
393 Graphics:
395 Screen Width (integer)
397 Set the width of the playing field, in pixels.
398 Screen Height (integer)
400 Set the height of the playing field, in pixels.
401 Dithering (toggle)
403 If enabled, the land and sky gradients will be dithered. This
404 option is particularly useful on 16-bit displays, where the gra‐
405 dient is very noticable otherwise. This does slow down land
406 generation somewhat.
407 Animation (toggle)
409 If enabled, explosions and other effects will be animated. This
410 option can also be controlled from the System Menu.
411 Graphics Are Fast (toggle)
413 If enabled, all graphics are always as fast as possible. This
414 option can also be controlled from the System Menu.
415 Computers Are Fast (toggle)
417 If enabled, graphics are fast when there only computer players
418 are alive. This option can also be controlled from the System
419 Menu.
420 Gameplay Options:
422 Mode (list)
424 Determines if all players will fire at once (Synchronous), or
425 whether each player will fire independently (Sequential).
426 Teams (list)
428 N/A
429 Order (list)
431 Determines the player order.
432 Talk Mode (list)
434 Determines who is allowed to talk.
435 Talk Probability (percentage)
437 Determines the likelihood that a player will speak at the end of
438 a turn.
439 Extended Status (toggle)
441 If set, the status bar will contain an additional row of
442 extended information during the game (things such as trigger and
443 battery inventories, life, wind).
444 Tooltips (toggle)
446 If set, tooltips will be displayed where available.
447 AI Controller:
449 Human Target Practice (toggle)
451 AI's will always prefer human targets to AI targets (except for
452 AI's that fire at random). When playing against 9 Calculators,
453 this can make your day pretty lousy.
454 Allow Offset Targetting (toggle)
456 Generally, when a weapon hits a shield it does less damage than
457 an explosion detonating right outside the shield (weapons hit‐
458 ting the shield do not have a chance to detonate). This changes
459 the AI targetting behaviour so they will deliberately aim out‐
460 side the shield, if their intended victim has raised shields.
461 Always Offset (toggle)
463 If the above option is set, this option will force the AI to
464 always offset its targetting as if the player had raised
465 shields. This allows the AI to compensate for cases where the
466 player may simply not have had their turn yet to raise shields.
467 The downside is the AI will never attempt to score a direct hit
468 with this option enabled.
469 Enable Scan Refinement (toggle)
471 If set, harder AIs are allowed to refine their trajectories by
472 computing trajectories that take into account player shielding
473 effect and various other factors they do not normally consider.
474 This option could slow down gameplay a bit but makes the AIs
475 much more difficult.
476 No Budget Constraints (toggle)
478 AI's will spend as much money as they can, disregarding their
479 budget preferences.
480 Sound Setup:
482 Enable Sound (toggle)
484 When set, music and sound effects will be played.
485 Use HQ Mixer (toggle)
487 When set, mikmod's high-quality mixer will be used.
488
490 --help Display a brief synopsis of the command-line options available.
491 --insanity
493 This is insanity, Max! Or what if it's genius?
494 --yields
496 Display weapon yields, and economical yields.
497 --geometry=wxh
499 Specify an initial window geometry for xscorch, where w is the
500 width and h is the height of the playing field. Useful for dis‐
501 plays less than around 800x600 resolution. Note this option
502 overrides the settings in the config file, but you can save the
503 new options to your config file so you don't have to specify
504 this every time. You may also use -g.
505 --config=file
507 Load an alternate user config file, in file.
508 --sound
510 Enable music and sound effects. You may also use -S.
511 --nosound
513 Disable music and sound effects. You may also use -s.
514 --hqmixer
516 Enable use of the high-quality mixer, if sound is enabled. This
517 may use a lot of CPU power on older machines.
518 --nohqmixer
520 Disable use of the high-quality mixer, if sound is enabled.
521 --name Set the name of your player, if you are initiating a network
523 game. By default, your user name is used.
524 --port Set the port number to use in a network game. This option is
526 only relevant if you also specify --client or --server. The
527 default is dependent on the protocol number, but is some large
528 port number.
529 --client=server
531 Start xscorch in client mode, and connect to server (which
532 should already be running). If --name and --port are not speci‐
533 fied, reasonable defaults are used.
534 --server
536 Start xscorch in server mode, and wait for connections from the
537 clients. --name may be used in conjunction to specify the name
538 of this player.
539
541 This is very unstable right now, and therefore is not documented.
542
544 ~/.xscorch/config
545 User's default configuration for xscorch.
546 xscorch.txt
548 Copy of this manual page. This file is installed to your local
549 share directory, and is used by the on-line help system.
550 copying.txt
552 Copy of the GPL. This file is installed to your local share
553 directory, and is used by the on-line help system.
554 tankprofiles
556 Profile bitmaps for the tanks, usually stored in the local share
557 directory.
558
560 The xscorch home page at <http://www.xscorch.org/>. There is also
561 additional documentation in the source distribution.
562
564 xscorch was written by Justin David Smith <justins(at)chaos2.org> and
565 Jacob Luna Lundberg <jacob(at)chaos2.org>. (Please do not list these
566 e-mail addresses on webpages, or list them in other packages, without
567 contacting us first.)
568 This manual page written by Justin David Smith <justins(at)chaos2.org>.
570 Copyright(c) 2001,2000 Justin David Smith.
571Justin David Smith May 2001 xscorch(6)