Review: BZFlag 3D Tank Game 165
GonzoJohn writes "LinuxOrbit.com reviews the 3D Tank game BZFlag. 'Have you ever been walking down the street, minding your own business, and suddenly look down to find something you hadn't expected? It might be money, it might be a decoder ring, it could be anything. But the almost universal reaction is pleasurable. 'That's a nice surprise,' you think as you stoop and pocket whatever good fortune has dropped in your path. The same thing can happen in the strangest places. For example, a recent post on our message boards inquired, 'What's your favorite flag in bzflag?'. Not being familiar with the game, I had to ask "What's bzflag?' Little did I know that such an innocent inquiry would result in an almost indecent obsession with a very cool game.'"
Living large (Score:5, Funny)
what sort of a name is bzflag? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:what sort of a name is bzflag? (Score:3, Informative)
"At this point the game resembled bz by Chris Fouts. This is no surprise because both games are based on the old Atari arcade game BattleZone. In fact, BZFlag was called bz back then because no one in the PCG knew of the existence of Chris Fouts' bz. Yes, that's right, BZFlag was written with no knowledge of bz. The two games share no code and were designed and written independently. They owe their similarities to their BattleZone heritage"
Now, I'm not saying that it's a great name, but at least there's a reason for it being what it is...
All Programs need better names. (Score:2)
and something that was in the news PAN the newsreader is going to change its name, would you know its a newsreader from the name ? i wouldnt, would 'Newsgroup Reader PAN' be a better name ? you can always replace the PAN with any other fantasy name, but please lets make program names logical, so users will understand what it is..
Just MY opinion =P
Re:All Programs need better names. (Score:5, Funny)
Liberating Music Player Sonique
Archaic Compiler f77
Multi-Purpose Text Mangler sed
Tireless Text Locator grep -r
Don't forget... (Score:2)
Programming Language D [digitalmars.com]
File Princess Ren [freshmeat.net]
Re:All Programs need better names. (Score:2)
Re:Other offenders (sorry, had to do it!): (Score:3, Informative)
It's actually called "The X Window System".
Re:All Programs need better names. (Score:1)
My program renaming utility (Score:1)
% BetterNamer -R
% ls
sex001* sex023* sex045* sex067* sex089*
sex002* sex024* sex046* sex068* sex089*
sex003* sex025* sex047* sex069* sex090*
[...]
Me: Grrrrrrrr...
Re:what sort of a name is bzflag? (Score:1)
Website with more info (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Website with more info (Score:1, Redundant)
http://www.bzflag.org [bzflag.org]
Re:Website with more info (Score:2, Interesting)
BZFlag now officially runs on the Vectrex! This amazing console uses vector graphics instead of the more common pixel-based graphics, making for amazing gameplay! In fact, the Vectrex has the same type of screen used in the original Battlezone.
Whoa! Is this an April 1st thing or something...
It would be very very cool - the vectrex is one of my all time desert island systems - but I can't find any more information on site or anywhere else, and I'm pretty certain that Veccie hardware would struggle.
Can anyone confirm whether this is just a particularly inspired April oneth thang?
(Gods, I hate this time of year - can't believe anything you bloody well read)
Cheers
Chris
Re:Website with more info (Score:1, Informative)
As a developer for BZFlag, I can vouch for the fact that it is, in fact, an AFJ.
-- Colin Bayer
I’m addicted to BZFlag (Score:2, Funny)
The best flag is the laser by they way.
Laser being best depends on the arena... (Score:3, Informative)
Guided missiles are my preferred one.
Wide Angle bad flag? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Wide Angle bad flag? (Score:1)
dude - that's what the RADAR is for...
and i suppose colour blindness is an advantage so you don't feel guilty for killing your teammates?? 8^)
Best. Arcade. Game. Ever. (Score:4, Interesting)
Based on Atari's BattleZone [bzflag.org], it remains my favorite Video Arcade game.
Spectre (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Spectre (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Spectre (Score:1)
Re:Spectre (Score:2)
Re:Spectre (Score:1)
At one time, spectre was the Big Hype game of the year, available on both PC and Mac. Something about it's graphics.. dunno.
No, it's because it wasn't just called "Spectre". It was called "Spectre VR". VR? VR means Virtual Reality! I've got to buy that game!
You can probably snag a copy at Classic Trash [classic-trash.com] if you've got an old PC that has DOS on it. Though WHY it doesn't have Linux and HAS something as old and crummy as DOS would be a good question to ask yourself...;)
Re:Spectre (Score:2)
I was a huge fan of SpectreVR, though
Too bad their management screwed the pooch on some of their other projects - weren't they also doing some sort of defense work with their VR technology?
Excellent game. (Score:1)
It's a lot like Point Blank, a game I played on SGI O2 machines back in 1998, but nowhere near as complex. (Point Blank had three tanks and one aircraft, gradients in the terrain, and buildings more complex than the solid blocks in BZFlag)
Still, I enjoy playing it, and there's a windows version, making it great for lan parties.
Re:Excellent game. (Score:3, Interesting)
the best flag (Score:4, Interesting)
but the best flag, imho, is stealth. guided missles are pretty good, but invariably, everyone teams up on the dude with missles. stealth allows you to act as an assasin - picking your targets on your own terms.
some would say this tactic is 'cheap' - i think cheap is getting missles and jumping onto the highest building and firing constantly. stealth isn't 'cheap', it's 'tactical'. 8^)
The Best CS distraction (Score:4, Interesting)
The CS Department at my school has a 24 hour access rule, meaning that when a good game of bzflag starts, nobody has to leave. These games start very randomly. If a bunch of people are sitting around the lab working on stuff, all there needs for a game is for one person to *cough* and say "bz." The next thing you know, there are 5 to 10 people signed in, with the first person starting the server. It is an amazing phenomenon.
As far as flags go, here are the best flags:
- Guided Missle - This flag is the best flag for longevity. Right click and then fire, you just killed someone.
- Laser flag - instant death from across the board.
- Stealth - When you are not on someone's radar, they get really pissed.
- Cloaking - It is hard for them to shoot at what they can't see.
- Narrow - You become two dimensional in a 3D world.
- Shock Wave - Everyone within a certain radius of you becomes no more!
There may be more flags, but those are the best on the version that we play with.Re:The Best CS distraction (Score:2, Insightful)
*sigh*, I miss college. Enjoy it while you can, buddy. Once you get a "real job", you'll never again work with a bunch of people who all share your interests.
Re:The Best CS distraction (Score:3, Interesting)
Depends on where 'ya work, man.
My first year at [insert non-dead linux-centric software company... yes, you get to figure out which one -- can't be hard, we've been in
Yes, really cool workplaces still exist. Thing is, they're rare -- I was damn lucky to find this one. To address your claim directly: I'm still studying computer science (that's why I'm telecommuting some of the time) -- and I'd say my coworkers share my interests far more than my classmates, and my coworkers are most certainly better coders and teachers than my professors (I learn far more from talking to and working with them than sitting in class). So don't be so doom-and-gloom... just because you don't have a really cool job doesn't mean they don't exist. (or, to put it differently... "Neener neener neener!")
Re:The Best CS distraction (Score:2)
Re:The Best CS distraction (Score:1)
Heh. Ohh... now I get it. So some of us get real jobs (poor slobs!) and some of us get paid vacations.
Hmm... I think I prefer the latter.
Re:The Best CS distraction (Score:2)
Re:The Best CS distraction (Score:2)
Re:The Best CS distraction (Score:2)
Ah, the good 'ole days.
CMU used to be the place for C&C or Starcraft (Score:1)
Its a computer cluster not a library. People are just mad to see people having worlds of fun, while they're stuck writing a paper. Little do these paper writing people know thats the only fun CS people have
And a community too, I really miss that little time I had playing computer games around the cluster.
Re:CMU used to be the place for C&C or Starcra (Score:2)
What's even nicer is that the G3s and G4s that they buy have very gamer-friendly specs. One organization [cmu.edu] on campus has reserved computer clusters during off-peak times to play games like UT in there. Runs great.
Re:CMU used to be the place for C&C or Starcra (Score:2)
I don't remember the switch to NT stopping us from playing Starcraft. I believe a few guys in Morewood (or was it shlag) set up a windows share with a hacked version of starcraft. Drag and drop to the desktop, then run.
Or did I miss something in your post?
Re:the best flag (Score:3, Interesting)
some would say this tactic is 'cheap' - i think cheap is getting missles and jumping onto the highest building and firing constantly.
Yes, that is definetely cheap. Which is the reason that when I ran a bzflag server, jumping wasn't allowed, unless you got the Jump flag. We wanted to keep the guided missiles in the game, but without the munchkin factor that they, combined with free jumping, give.
Yep, basically just getting the missiles and hopping on top of the highest building allowed you to snipe every single player that came in your field of vision. I tried it once and it's dead boring.
Now I'm feeling the urge to reinstall a bzflag server and get in touch with the game again. As if it wasn't difficult enought to let go the last time :)
Re:the best flag (Score:1)
Re:the best flag (Score:2)
There are still some people playing netrek [netrek.org]. If you use Linux, check out my client Paradise-2000 [speakeasy.org]. If you download IBM's viavoice package for linux, you can have it speak messages and macros outloud to you.
BZflag's Cool (Score:2)
A Great little game... Could do with more config (Score:3, Interesting)
I LOVE this game, I came across it a month or two ago while looking for 3d games that me and my house mates could play, even on low spec / linux machines. I wasn't convinced when I first loaded it up and had a tank which could jump and very simple graphics, but then we started playing.... I have to say this thing rocks, multi platform, network play, LOTs of players on line a once, serious good fun.
I do have one gripe though, some of the flags are REALLY anoying if playing with only a few people, homming missle being one of them. All the person needs to do is get on top of a high platform, and thats it, everyone is dead and stay that way until he decides to drop the flag.
Having said that a lot of the flags are great fun, narrow and wide still make me laugh :). I would like to see the ability to choose which flags are included in the game.. a nice options menu where you can change what's allowed - like the one worms had to allow you to customise the numbers of each type of weapon.
I was refreshed to find this came.. it has one major thing going for it - good gameplay, it just goes to show that you can still have fun without needed in GeForce 4 graphics card :)
Re:A Great little game... Could do with more confi (Score:3, Informative)
It's not an options menu, but you can configure the available flags when starting the server. Check the man page.
On casual inspection, the following appears to remove phantom zone and guided missiles:
bzfs -f PZ -f GM
Re:A Great little game... Could do with more confi (Score:1)
-- Colin Bayer <vogon_jeltz@users.sourceforge.net>, Part-time (BZFlag) Developer
Slashdotted (Score:1)
Can anyone say Tanx 'n' Stuff? (Score:1)
Used to be that Galaxians, Pacman and Worm were getting a reworking on the Amiga in the form of Deluxe Galaga [monroeworld.com], Deluxe Pacman and Megaworm... now it's the Amiga shareware [aminet.org]'s turn for the remix. Hooray!
We've even seen Populous get a rebirth with Lionhead's Black & White, and Quake [planetquake.com] with Half-Life [planethalflife.com]'s Deathmatch Classic. I wouldn't be surprised in five years time to see a reworking of GTA or Baldur's Gate 2. (Takers, anyone?) :D
What I'd love.... (Score:1)
i.e. put on my VR helmet and gloves...
Looking around with my head moves the turret, hands do sterring/jumping/shooting...
I can only dream
If you ever see "Resistance Is Futile" in a game of bzflag, that'll be me
Re:What I'd love.... (Score:1)
Naturally that had something to do with the general procedure being you turn your head, and 2 seconds later the "world" was going in that direction. (IOW horrible lag.) But it was rather neat.
I think it would be better if you had aiming with your head and controlled the tank's heading with a joystick.
IRIX Version (Score:3, Interesting)
It ran Quake pretty well, too...
Re:IRIX Version (Score:3, Funny)
/Pedro
Re:IRIX Version (Score:2)
Re:IRIX Version (Score:2)
I was surprised to see this article too. I have played this on SGIs going back for years - it was one of the demo games that they shipped with the systems.
We were playing on Indys and Indigo2s, but it was still a lot of fun.
Re:IRIX Version (Score:1)
You're making me miss working at SGI! And I was there at the same time you were. Now I'm getting all nostalgic for the bzflag server we had running in support. You've got to like having a boss who required his people to play bzflag at least once a day. :)
BZFlag rocks (Score:5, Interesting)
The gameplay is simply excellent! It is amazing how such a single game can produce such varied gameplay. For example, several friends and I have been playing BZFlag with max 1 shot delay and good flags only. Of course, each of us developed our own strategy and all was fine until we decided to increase the max shots to 5. Interestingly, all the strategies we used went to waste since they actively took advantage of the 1 shot reload delay. With 5 max shots delay, different flags became more important (ie SuperBullet is vastly more useful in 5 max shot delay).
All in all, this game is very addictive. Highly recommended
Re:BZFlag rocks (Score:4, Informative)
Unfortunately, netrek has suffered a serious decline due to old graphics, and the expiration of the paradise client for windows. Newbies tend to like the paradise version of the game because it's a little more fun, a little less complex, and the clue on bronco servers can be quite abusive.
Anyone else here remember playing Netrek? I know I spent a year of college tuition back in '93-'94 playing the game...
If you're lucky, there are nights when you can play the hockey version of the game. Long Live the SC!
To this day, when I hear the word "Ogg", I don't think about the music encoding format. Ogg is a verb, not a noun.
Re:BZFlag rocks (Score:1)
That game convinced me that I needed more than Windows and Mac. Nothing on the PC convinced me to stay up playing for 20 hours straight.
Old graphics for sure -- but in '93 and '94 it really was way ahead of the game as far as multiplayer online games were concerned...
Re:BZFlag rocks (Score:2, Informative)
It doesn't run on linux and you have to pay for it (hence I'm gonna get flamed) but it IS very, very good. It has a huge community [combatmission.com] (or here [derkessel.de]) following even though it is only available online and does not exactly have mainstream content.
Also a rare case of a developer working closely with their customers and allowing them to contribute to a product; the engine isn't open source but the graphics certainly are (to the extent where people are producing whole new enviroments that are totally outside the game's original scope).
slashdotted (Score:3, Informative)
BZFlag: 3D Tank Shoot 'Em Up That Deserves Attention Part 1
Published by LinuxOrbit.com: April 4, 2002
by John Gowin, LinuxOrbit Editor-in-chief
Have you ever been walking down the street, minding your own business, and suddenly look down to find something you hadn't expected? It might be money, it might be a decoder ring, it could be anything. But the almost universal reaction is pleasurable.
"That's a nice surprise" you think as you stoop and pocket whatever good fortune has dropped in your path.
The same thing can happen in the strangest places. For example, a recent post on our message boards inquired
"What's your favorite flag in bzflag?".
Not being familiar with the game, I had to ask "What's bzflag?"
Little did I know that such an innocent inquiry would result in an almost indecent obsession with a very cool game.
What is BZFlag?
BZFlag is a 3D multi-player tank battle game. You can fight other tanks by yourself as a Rogue (some game servers don't support Rogues) or join a team based on your tank color (Red, Green, Blue, Purple). The object of course is to kill other tank opponents by shooting them, a fairly straightforward scenario for a first-person shoot 'em up type of game.
The "flag" in the title of BZFlag refers to the white flags found scattered across the battlefield in the game. To pick up a flag, you merely have to run over it with your tank. Each flag grants the owner of the flag special abilities within the game. That's where some of the strategy of game comes in. Certain flags bestow powerful gifts to the bearer while other flags are designed to specifically combat the bearer of another flag. Not all flags grant a bonus either. Some of the flags hamper a player for a fixed amount of time before they automatically are released. Because the flags are indistinguishable to all players, it is chance that determines whether you pick up a flag that will make you powerful or shackle you with a burden.
In order to excel at the game, it pays to know your flags. Here's a quick rundown of the flags available in the game, with a description of what they do, what they're best used for and what they're helpful against.
First the "good" flags:
High Speed
Boosts your speed by 50%. Good for overall use. Can escape Guided Missiles if used to drive perpendicular to the missile path.
Quick Turn
Boosts turn rate by 50%. Good for close combat but no major advantage for combating other flags.
Oscillation Overthruster
Enables tank to go through buildings. You cannot back up in or into a building, nor can you shoot while sealed inside a building. You must be completely inside a building to be protected from normal shots. Vulnerable to Shockwave, Super Bullet and Steamroller in close quarters. Good for ambush attacks, but your tank always returns to ground level since you sink through any obstacle or building you jump on.
Rapid Fire
Increases shot speed and decreases range and reload delay. Good flag for overall combat, no major bonus against other flags.
Machine Gun
Increases shot speed and dramatically decreases range and reload delay. Good only for close combat. Real close.
Guided Missile
Arguably the most coveted flag in the game, Guided Missile enables shots to guide themselves when locked on an opponent by right-clicking your mouse on an opponent in your view window. The missile can be re-targeted at any time during its flight (with the right mouse button). This allows the player some control over the missile's steering. Vulnerable to the Stealth flag since missiles can't be locked on.
Laser
Gives your tank a laser cannon, with effectively infinite speed and range. Just point and shoot. Laser reload time is doubled from normal weapon. One downside is that you have a decent chance of killing yourself from extended reflections of the laser due to its infinite range. Great for long distance kills, but likely you will eventually become your own victim. Used carefully, very powerful. Good against Guided Missile thanks to its extended range.
Ricochet
Causes shots to reflect off walls. Many servers have ricochet enable for the entire battlefield, so this flag does nothing on these types of servers. On non-ricochet servers, you can practice your billiards skills by shooting around corners off border walls.
Super Bullet
Enables shots to go through buildings. Kills Oscillation Overthruster carriers inside of buildings as well as "zoned" Phantom Zone users. Great for unsuspecting opponents on the other side of a building or wall.
Stealth
Tank becomes invisible on radar but is still visible out-the-window. Prevents Guided Missile from locking on the carrier of the flag. Great overall use, especially against opponents not facing you.
Cloaking
Tank becomes invisible out-the-window but is still visible on radar. Good for hectic battle due to invisibility, but Guided Missile can still lock on you. Jumping while using this flag is more effective.
Invisible Bullet
Radar of opponents can't see your shots, so it's an excellent flag for all around battle and for those not facing you.
Tiny
Your tank becomes much smaller and harder to hit. Good for head to head battle due to reduced size.
Narrow
With this flag, your tank becomes paper thin. It's very hard (but not impossible) to hit a "Narrow" tank from the front or back. However, the tank is as long as usual so hitting it from the side has normal difficulty. Good for head to head battle, but try not to jump while turning.
Shield
Allows the bearer to absorb on hit from an opponent, but the hit ejects the flag immediately. Since the flag may not disappear when it ejects, you may want to wait around for it to fall to the ground so you can grab it again, but the shield flag flies for an extra long time (longer than the normal reload time).
Steamroller
Possibly the least desirable of flags (other than Ricochet and Jump when server settings make them useless) this flag enables your to kill other tanks by driving over them. The downside is you rarely get close enough in normal game play.
Shock Wave
Makes your tank shoot a shock wave in all directions rather than shells. Any tank caught in the wave is destroyed (including tanks on or in buildings). This is a good tactical flag against Guided Missile an Oscillation Overthruster users. The downside is the shock wave has a short range, so even an opponent without a flag has an advantage. Try not to jump with this flag either.
Phantom Zone
Driving through a teleporter send the bearer of this flag to the Phantom Zone. A "zoned" tank cannot shoot, but can drive through buildings and cannot be destroyed except by a Super Bullet or a Shock Wave. Also fun to use to taunt or distract unseasoned opponents who might waste time firing at a "zoned" tank.
Genocide
This is a dreaded flag in team play. When the bearer of Genocide kills any tank on another team, all members of that team are destroyed as well. A good way to rack up the points or kill a Guided Missile user by killing off the weakest member of his team. No battle advantage in head to head or Rogue competition.
Jumping
This allows your tank to jump, but is useless on "jump" servers. Great for servers without jump enabled for all since high-ground can't be reached without jumping. Identify
Displays the identity of the closest flag in the vicinity. This flag is good for finding a flag you want, but don't get too distracted "flag shopping". This flag offers no battle advantage.
Then there are the "bad" flags:
Colorblindness
This makes all tanks appear black, both on radar and in your view screen. Be careful you don't shoot your teammates.
Obesity
This flag causes your tank to become very large and easy to hit. Makes teleporters unusable due to enlargement.
Left Turn Only
This prevents your tank from turning right. Only thing to do is drive in straight line or circle left until the flag times out.
Right Turn Only
Same as left turn except the opposite direction.
Momentum
This flag gives your tank a lot of inertia. Stopping and turning become exercises in physics. The overall effect is less response for all movements.
Blindness
This blanks the main view screen, but your radar still works. It is effectively impossible to detect any tank with Stealth, but shooting a Stealth with Blindness is the stuff legends are made of.
Jamming
Disables the radar but you can still see out your main view screen.
Wide Angle
Ever wonder how a goldfish perceives its owner? This flag gives you some idea. The bearer sees the battlefield through a distorted fish eye lens in the main window.
Go to Part 2, Strategy and more!
Re:slashdotted (Score:2, Interesting)
Cloaking is of limited use otherwise - skilled players use the radar at least as much as the viewscreen, if not more.
BTW, my favorite config: all good flags, all bad flags (15 seconds or 1 kill), 3 shots, jumping. (The fewer shots you have the more the strategery of the game shines through. BZ can't compare to Quake for adrenaline-pumping click-festiness, but the cat and mouse of stealth vs. gm can't be matched by Quake.)
Interesting Question! (Score:3, Funny)
Have you ever been walking down the street, minding your own business, and suddenly look down to find something you hadn't expected?
Yes, an open manhole cover. But I'm feeling much better now.
For you OS X folks... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:For you OS X folks... (Score:1)
Re:For you OS X folks... (Score:1)
Re:For you OS X folks... (Score:1, Informative)
Re:For you OS X folks... (Score:2, Informative)
I thought it was cool at first.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I thought it was cool at first.... (Score:2, Informative)
It reminds me of CS. But there is a major difference: bzflag developers are creating a fix, and this won't be a problem in 1.8.
Re:I thought it was cool at first.... (Score:1)
-- Colin Bayer , Part-time BZFlag Developer.
Bolo (Score:2, Informative)
wow that was fun.
Re:Bolo (Score:1)
Ohhhh!!!! A MaC OS X Version!!!! (Score:2, Informative)
Downloading! yay!
Clicky Linky! [hzsystems.com]
BattleZone! (Score:1)
There was another relatively obscure version of BZ. It ran under Apollo DomainOS. I believe that the program was written by a few geophysics graduate students at MIT back in the mid 80's.
Hey, my sig is somewhat pertinent to this post!
Aha! (Score:2)
I went to military college, and we had an Apollo lab... do the math
I don't suppose you have a copy of the C-X Windows source, do you?
DG
I enjoy the game, but dial up == me quit (Score:1, Interesting)
There goes something else down the tubes for dial up, thanks to those certain server admins..
And the rest of the servers stink anyway... The games networking either way needs some serious work, but I don't have much faith since dial ups are just ignored today anway.
Which is a shame for millions like myself, where there isn't a reasonable alternative (sattelite != reasonable).
Haiku (Score:3, Funny)
Though it sounds like it is cool
'Member BattleZone?
Yet more proof (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Yet more proof (Score:4, Insightful)
Make it once, save the resulting HTML. If the story changes, remake the static HTML.
More people don't notice 1million downloads of a static page (server wise, bandwidth is another story) -- but you certainly notice a couple million queries with php instances behind them.
Re:Yet more proof (Score:2)
Re:Yet more proof (Score:2)
Congratulations, you've just reinvented Roxen [roxen.com]'s Cache Tag [roxen.com].
In Roxen, wrapping that pesky block of CPU/database intensive code in <cache minutes='15' > </cache> tags would have done pretty much what you describe, without any extra coding...
Re:Yet more proof (Score:2)
Tuornaments (Score:2)
UDP (Score:4, Interesting)
You love this game... (Score:3, Funny)
Sigh. (Score:1)
Spreading the pain -- Links (Score:3, Informative)
2 - Download 1.7e2 [sympatico.ca]
Bzflag Home Page [bzflag.org]
Game Den review [gamesden.net.au]
SourceForge Page [sourceforge.net]
Game Dudes Review [cablelan.net]
We held an "official" BZFlag tournament last year (Score:4, Interesting)
It was an "official" event in the Linux section of Xuventude Galicia.net [xuventudegalicia.net] (only spanish and galician, sorry!), a LAN party born about 3 years ago here in Galicia (Spain). And there was another "almost official" tournament in the Arroutada Party [arroutada.org] (the mother of the galician LAN parties). I even partaked in this one (I was only a spectator on the Xuventude's one), and though I was quite The Ultimate Killing Machine in the "training games" (being first almost all the time), I only was the 3rd on the oficcial game. Man, do I suck :-/ ;-)
Anyway, everyone had a fun time, as I've been told :-) The game is very network-friendly, and very addictive. Some game balance problems that people tell happen because they allowed too many "special options", IMHO. We just played with flags, and no other option (i.e.: no jumping, only 1 shot each time, and so on). That way, game is quite balanced, though if you get the Guided Missile flag, the Stealth flag or the Laser flag, you can be the ruler of the game for a long time :-)
The Laser flag is my favourite, and specially fun when you play with shots being all ricochet. Well, at least it's fun until you kill yourself for firing straight against a wall. Ouch :-)
Stealth flag is fun, yes, but Real Men (tm) play guided by their radars, and not their eyes (Or was Stealth the flag that didn't show you on the Radar? I don't remember now :-m) Use of The Force and any other special powers is also encouraged, or course :-)
Anyway, speedwise it sucks in my P2-366 Compaq Armada 3500 :-/ I think it's because of the graphic card, but haven't looked at it deeply. Well, it absolutely rocks in my Athlon 800 with GF2MX, at least ;-)
Use the right Server Options!!! (Score:5, Interesting)
The game is *much much* more fun without jumping, though it doesn't immediately seem so. You start to learn how to drive correctly and defensively and it is a much richer experience.
Games with and without these options can be described as follows:
With jumping and lots of bullets: You spend most of your time jumping up in the air dodging other people's sprays of bullts, spinning around and landing in directions you just don't want to land in.
Without jumping and lots of bullets: You actually can play cat and mouse. When your opponent's 2 shots are gone and you've dodged them, you can release at will. Much more interesting game. The other is just silly, but that's how people tend to start and they never learn better.
Re:Use the right Server Options!!! (Score:1)
3 shots with jumping on makes for great play. The good players learn fast that jumping should only be used for positioning or as a last resort. The first two shots are really just feelers - will they jump or dodge? If they jump then you own them with a well-timed 3rd shot. If they dodge then the fun really begins - try and hit them with the 3rd or save it in case they come for you?
Plus there's the thrill of a well-executed turning jump that saves your bacon and puts you right in line for a shot (it's a sweet, sweet thing), not to mention the dramatic dog-fight when two tanks go head-to-head, each jumping and turning in the air like Neo and Elrond as they pass.
Without jumping the game's a pretty conventional tank game with mediocre graphics. With jumping, good and bad flags, and limited shots you can enjoy a 1-on-1 game as much as a free-for-all.
(IMO Quake is good for action, but comparing it to BZ is like comparing solid gold checkers to an old wooden chess set.)
A similar game (Score:2)
The graphics aren't GREAT, but they're still nice, and the game runs on most pcs, and the graphics are still signifigantly better than BZFlag. People with a voodoo2 or 3 can play using glide, which produces really nice graphics. Unfortunately a 3dfx driver update broke glide support for the game, and it can only be played wiht dated drivers (completely broken on voodoo4/5).
A last note is that the thing that sets this game apart from others is it's incredibly realistic physics and gravity, etc. I have never seen a game with more realistic physics, etc. The sequal being worked on by the underpaid independent developer (yes... one developer) will be even better with the addition of an advanced lighting engine. (by physics, i'm talking about how a pulse shell arcs, how tanks are dragged to the ground, etc.). These phyiscs also help combat lag, as the server uses a vector-based coordinate system, which greatly reduces bandwidth to help 56k users (such as myself).
Go out and pay it! http://www.wulfram.com
From bzflag to Virtual World? (Score:1)
This leads me to ask...has anyone out there written a B-Tech sim game that resembles the Virtual World gameplay? Back then it was simple low-poly graphics, so I imagine it wouldn't be that hard to reconstruct. I'm sure that would amass the same cult following that currently surrounds bzflag.
This game rocks the hizouse (Score:2, Interesting)
XPilot (Score:3, Interesting)
xp was introduced to me as "asteroids, but you get to kill other people" and i thought "now that sounds fun"
and addictive. dang. i spent more nights staring at little blips on the computer lab screens than i care to count. as i got more into it, i even started designing my own ship outlines - and even started to see other people copying them.
I was Delta Clipper (after the NASA project) and occasionally Happy Fun Ball (tm) due to my tendency to bounce around the screen, rather than actually try to navigate...
no flags, but there were little powerups (i forget the term we used for them) that would bestow invisibilty, speed, bouncing or multiple shots, mines, guided missiles, and loads of other stuff i never really learned how to control - the game used just about every key on a Sun keyboard, plus meta+key combos.
man, what a fun game. (http://www.xpilot.org/ [xpilot.org])
so, what's this about tanks? is there a Darwin/OS X port? can i play on my ibook? i'm about ready for a new addiction...
Current development & bzflag league (Score:3, Informative)
1.8 will look very little like 1.7. The user interface is fully customizable (through xml) and worlds will be completely custom. The network code is also being completely rewritten to reduce lag. 1.8 is in CVS HEAD for anybody who would like to try out the new features.
Also, a CTF (capture-the-flag) league is getting going. If you're interested in doing team battles and tournaments, take a look at http://bzflag.org.league/ [bzflag.org]
BZFlag is also on OPN - feel free to drop by and make a suggestion or three.
Re:7 comments and slashdotted already? (Score:1)
Re:People say... (Score:1)
Re:SHARON II - Fencing Arafat (Score:1, Offtopic)
They're more likely to just stop signing the cheques that pay for all that high-tech military equipment.
TWW
Re:Grudes (Score:1)
When you've logged on to a server and you watch time after time as your bullets pass right through the other tank(s) due to lag or hacked clients: -2000 Grudes. (assuming that angry ranks lower than sad)