xscorch(6)                                                          xscorch(6)



NAME
       xscorch - Annihilate enemy tanks using overpowered guns.

       This manpage agrees with version 0.1.13 of xscorch.

SYNOPSIS
       xscorch

       xscorch [options]

       xscorch --help

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

GAMEPLAY
       First, fiddle with the options in the main menu.  There are a number of
       options which are described below, which may make the  game  easier  or
       harder.   The  default options make for a reasonable level of gameplay.
       Most of the game configuration is controlled from the  user  interface,
       although  there  are  a  few  command-line  options which are mentioned
       below.  Once you are ready to begin a new game, you might want to  Save
       Options  to  save your configuration, then select Begin Game to start a
       new game.

       Gameplay is divided up into several rounds.  Each round consists of two
       parts:   the  Inventory  phase  and the Battle phase.  In the Inventory
       phase, you can buy weapons to shoot at your opponents, and  accessories
       to help defend your tank.  See the Inventory section below for informa-
       tion on the weapons and accessories you may buy.  In the Battle  phase,
       you  setup  defenses,  choose a weapon, aim and fire at your opponents.
       See the section on Battle below, for more information.

INVENTORY
       The player has the option to buy weapons and accessories  to  make  the
       game  more  interesting.   Weapons are just that: an assortment of mis-
       siles, including ICBM-like warheads, napalm, lasers, and  a  number  of
       custom  weapons to bring down specific defenses.  Accessories are meth-
       ods to make gameplay easier for the player and increase their chance of
       survival,  with  guidance  systems, shields, fuel, batteries, and other
       odds-and-ends.

       At the beginning of a round, each player is given an opportunity to buy
       or  sell weapons and accessories.  Each player may have up to 99 of any
       item in their inventory.  A few weapons have an  infinite  supply  (for
       example, Baby Missiles) - these weapons cannot be purchased.

       Weapons  and  accessories are sold in bundles; the price for the bundle
       is displayed in the inventory, and you must buy  items  as  a  complete
       bundle.  The exception to this is when a player attempts to buy more of
       an item than their inventory can hold; in this case, the bundle will be
       broken  and  the  weapons are sold on an individual basis, with a small
       markup applied.

       Weapons and accessories may also be sold  from  a  player's  inventory.
       Again, items are generally sold as a bundle.  The player will receive a
       reduced amount of money for the sale - hey, the middleman has  to  make
       money somewhere :)

       In  the Inventory screen, two panels are displayed, listing the weapons
       and accessories that are available.  The Tab key  will  switch  between
       the  various  panes.   Up Arrow and Down Arrow will allow the player to
       scroll through the list of items, Right Arrow will buy  a  bundle,  and
       Left Arrow will sell a bundle of the currently highlighted item.

       For each item, the name, bundle size/total price, and current inventory
       are displayed.

       Items which can neither be bought or sold will appear darkened.  If the
       player  has  maxed their inventory for that item, or they cannot afford
       to purchase the item, or the item has a  higher  arms  level  than  the
       player  is allowed, then the item cannot be purchased.  Items which can
       be bought will appear with an arrow pointing to the  right,  and  items
       which can be sold will appear with an arrow pointing to the left.

       The items that are available are listed in the next two sections.

WEAPONS LIST
       This list will be added once the weapons list is reasonably stable.

ACCESSORIES LIST
       This list will be added once the accessories list is reasonably stable.

BATTLE
       This overview is sadly, incomplete.

TANK CONTROLS
       Left, Right
              Change the turret angle.  This will adjust the turret  angle  in
              increments  of  5  degrees.   For  finer  control, hold Shift to
              adjust the angle in increments of 1 degree.

       Up, Down
              Change the firing power, in the range of 0 to 1000.   This  will
              adjust the firing power in increments of 20.  For finer control,
              hold Shift to adjust the firing power in increments of 1.

       Tab    Select the next weapon available in your inventory.

       Shift+Tab
              Select the previous weapon available in your inventory.

       _B, _b   Activate a battery.  A single battery can restore 5%  of  damage
              done  to  your  tank,  and  therefore restore the maximum firing
              power by 5% when you are damaged.  You must have  a  battery  to
              discharge in your inventory to excercise this option.

       _E, _e   Activate or energize the currently selected shields.

       _F, _f   Activate  your fuel tanks.  A window will be displayed, indicat-
              ing the amount of fuel you have available.  As long as you  have
              fuel,  you may use the Left and Right arrows to move one unit to
              the left or right, respectively.  In general,  you  cannot  move
              your  tank  up a steep hill.  Immobile tanks will not be able to
              excercise this option.

       _R, _r   Force a redraw of the screen.

       _S, _s   Toggle the currently selected shields.  The  currently  selected
              shields  are  the  shields which will be used when you Energize.
              Shields are classified by a power number with a type suffix:   _M
              for  magnetic  shielding,  _F for force shielding, and _S for your
              standard, run-of-the-mill shields.  If no shields are available,
              0S is displayed.

       _T, _t   Toggle  contact triggers on/off.  This is only meaningful if you
              actually have some contact triggers of course, and when  tunnel-
              ing  is  enabled.   Weapons that are fired after this point will
              have contact triggers equipped (until you run out).

       _0 - _9  Display information about a particular player.  _1 gives informa-
              tion about Player 1, and _0 gives information about Player 10.

       Enter  Accept your orders.

       Ctrl+Y Bring  up  the  System  Menu (this can also be accessed from the
              menus).  You can control certain graphics options from the  sys-
              tem menu, clear the screen of smoke trails, and end a round pre-
              maturely.

       Ctrl+Z Pauses the game.

       Ctrl+R Resign from the game.  This will end the game for everyone.  You
              will be asked to confirm the resignation.

SYSTEM MENU
       The  system  menu  gives  you some control over the game while it is in
       progress.  In this menu, you will have options to change how  the  game
       is  displayed  (e.g.   the  Graphics Fast option described below).  You
       also have access to a few useful commands, described below.

       Mass Kill
              Kills everyone still alive in the round.  No player gets  credit
              for  the  kills, and none are considered a suicide.  This option
              is useful if all human players have already been eliminated from
              the  game,  but the AI players are making no progress whatsoever
              in annihilating each other.  This option ends the current  round
              only.

       Erase Smoke
              If you have used smoke tracers or have Trace Paths enabled, then
              this option will clear all smoke trails from the sky.

       Retreat
              N/A

       Resign Game
              Resigns from the current round and all remaining  rounds.   This
              option ends the entire game, and will take you back to the intro
              screen.

       Sound Setup
              Takes you to the Sound Options window.

AI PLAYERS
       Human  The humans believe they are the superior mind.  The AI's  rather
              disagree  with  that  sentiment.  Keep this in mind when you are
              wondering why 9 AI's would want to  simultaneously  target  your
              tank...

       Moron  This  AI  fires at random.  Of all the AI's, this one has by far
              the highest suicide rate.  An alternate name  is  ``Cannon  Fod-
              der''.

       Shooter
              This  AI goes for targets it has a line-of-sight to.  It's not a
              great player otherwise.  This AI buys weapons that have the best
              economical  yield,  but  during  the game it will select weapons
              which have the highest yield.

       Spreader
              This AI is similar  to  the  Shooter,  except  a  Spreader  buys
              weapons with the highest yield, without regard for the price.

       Chooser
              This  AI  chooses a victim.  Once chosen, the victim is attacked
              until they are dead, or the Chooser loses the ability  to  reach
              the victim. This AI does not need line-of-sight, but fortunately
              it cannot compensate for wind.

       Calculater
              This AI is like Chooser, except a Calculater can compensate  for
              the  wind.   These  guys are fairly deadly in a fight; they also
              tend to allocate large budgets to defense and offense.

       Annihilater
              This AI goes for weapons that will cause as much damage as  pos-
              sible,  without  much  regard  for  individual victims.  This AI
              prefers spread weapons to the more focused,  precision  weapons.
              A  few  Annihilaters  can  clear the terrain easily.  These AI's
              don't worry about defenses too  much.   With  their  destructive
              tendency, they won't survive long anyway - but neither will any-
              one else.

       Insanity
              No one knows what this AI thinks...

       Unknown
              This selects one of the above AI's at random, but you  will  not
              be informed which AI was selected.

CONFIGURATION OPTIONS
       Players/Rounds:

       Number of Players (integer, 2-10)
              Set the number of players participating in the game.

       Number of Rounds (integer, >= 1)
              Set the number of rounds to play for this game.

       AI Type (list)
              Select  the AI type.  Human players are ``Human''; the remaining
              AI's are documented above.

       Player Name (string)
              Give a unique name for each player.

       Tank Style (list)
              Select the type/shape of the tank, for each player.

       Economics:

       Interest Rate (float, 0-0.30)
              Interest rate for savings, compounded once per round.

       Dynamic Interest (toggle)
              If enabled, interest rates will change during the game.

       Initial Cash (integer, 0-1000000)
              Amount of money each player should start with.

       AIs Can Buy (toggle)
              If enabled, computers are permitted to buy items.  The AI's  are
              very uninteresting if this option is turned off.

       AIs Buy Aggressively (toggle)
              If  the previous option is enabled, the AI's will buy items con-
              servatively.  With this option, the AI's  will  allocate  larger
              budgets and buy bigger items early in the game.

       Free Market (toggle)
              N/A

       Scoring (list)
              Specify  how  scoring  works,  selecting  from  Basic, Standard,
              Greedy, or possibly other methods defined in  the  configuration
              file:
                   Basic    Players only receive money for kills and survival.
                   Standard Players receive less money for kills and survival,
                            but  they  will also receive money for damaging an
                            opponent.
                   Greedy   Players are paid as in Standard scoring, but  with
                            bonuses  for  unused  inventory  at the end of the
                            round.

       The Lottery (toggle)
              If the lottery is enabled, there will be a random drawing at the
              start of each round.  A random player will receive a bundle of a
              random weapon for free as the lottery award.  This  is  a  great
              way  to inject a little extra life into AIs who are usually con-
              servative buyers.  Plus it's always great fun  when  you  get  a
              free Annihilator...

       Physics:

       Air Viscosity (float)
              N/A

       Gravity (float, 0-10)
              Specify  the  gravity, in pixels per cycle squared (one cycle is
              roughly 50 milliseconds).

       Ground Damping (float, 0-10)
              Specify the ground damping, used in tunnelling calculations.

       Maximum Wind Speed (float, 0-10)
              Specify the maximum wind speed, in  pixels  per  cycle  squared.
              The  actual wind velocity is initialised once per round, to some
              value in (-max, max).

       Wind is Dynamic (toggle)
              Normally the wind remains constant through a round.  If this  is
              enabled, the wind will change once per turn.

       Suspend Dirt (percentage)
              N/A

       Tanks Fall (percentage)
              N/A

       Borders Extend (integer, >= 0)
              This  specifies  how  far  off-screen weapons should be tracked,
              when you are playing with no walls.  When this  value  is  zero,
              weapons  will  disappear as soon as they leave the screen in the
              horizontal direction, even if wind would have brought them  back
              on-screen.

       Walls Are (list)
              Specify  how weapons behave when they hit a boundary.  Note, the
              ground is always ``concrete'' -- this specifies  how  the  sides
              and ceiling behave:
                   None       The sides and ceiling are open.
                   Concrete   All sides are solid.  Weapons hitting any bound-
                              ary will explode.
                   Padded     Weapons  hitting  the  sides  and  ceiling  will
                              bounce off, although at a reduced velocity.
                   Rubber     Weapons  hitting the boundary will bounce off at
                              exactly the same velocity.
                   Springy    Weapons hitting the  boundary  will  bounce  off
                              with an additional ``kick'' to the velocity.
                   Wraparound The ceiling is open.  Weapons going off one side
                              will reappear on the opposite side.   Explosions
                              will  also  wrap around the screen if they deto-
                              nate near an edge.
                   Random     One of the above types of walls are selected  at
                              random.

       Landscape:

       Sky (list)
              Specify the background sky.

       Hostile Environment (toggle)
              N/A

       Land Generator (list)
              Specify the generator to use to create the land.

       Bumpiness (percentage)
              Specify the noise on the generated landscape.

       Weapons:

       Arms Level (integer, 0-4)
              Specify  the maximum arms level for the game.  Only weapons with
              this arms level or lower may be purchased by any  player,  under
              normal circumstances.

       Bomb Icon Size (integer, 0-4)
              Specify  the  size  of the bomb icons, while they are traversing
              their path in the sky.  This does not affect the size of  explo-
              sions, or the size of the smoke paths (if trace paths is on).

       Tunneling (toggle)
              If  set,  weapons  are  allowed  to tunnel through land.  If you
              enable this, you will want to buy contact triggers if you want a
              particular  weapon to always detonate on impact (instead of tun-
              neling through land).

       Scaling (float)
              Scale the size of explosions by this value.   If  playing  on  a
              very large or very small playing field, you might want to adjust
              this value.

       Trace Paths (toggle)
              If enabled, all weapons leave a smoke trail to reveal their tra-
              jectory.  If this option is off, you can still use Smoke Tracers
              to determine the path a weapon will take.

       Useless Items (toggle)
              Some weapons are not  useful  given  the  current  configuration
              (e.g.   contact  triggers  are  irrelevant  if tunneling is dis-
              abled).  If this option is enabled, then weapons which will have
              no effect are not listed in the inventory screens.

       Graphics:

       Screen Width (integer)
              Set the width of the playing field, in pixels.

       Screen Height (integer)
              Set the height of the playing field, in pixels.

       Dithering (toggle)
              If  enabled,  the land and sky gradients will be dithered.  This
              option is particularly useful  on  16-bit  displays,  where  the
              gradient  is very noticable otherwise.  This does slow down land
              generation somewhat.

       Animation (toggle)
              If enabled, explosions and other effects will be animated.  This
              option can also be controlled from the System Menu.

       Graphics Are Fast (toggle)
              If  enabled,  all graphics are always as fast as possible.  This
              option can also be controlled from the System Menu.

       Computers Are Fast (toggle)
              If enabled, graphics are fast when there only  computer  players
              are  alive.   This option can also be controlled from the System
              Menu.

       Gameplay Options:

       Mode (list)
              Determines if all players will fire at  once  (Synchronous),  or
              whether each player will fire independently (Sequential).

       Teams (list)
              N/A

       Order (list)
              Determines the player order.

       Talk Mode (list)
              Determines who is allowed to talk.

       Talk Probability (percentage)
              Determines the likelihood that a player will speak at the end of
              a turn.

       Extended Status (toggle)
              If set, the  status  bar  will  contain  an  additional  row  of
              extended information during the game (things such as trigger and
              battery inventories, life, wind).

       Tooltips (toggle)
              If set, tooltips will be displayed where available.

       AI Controller:

       Human Target Practice (toggle)
              AI's will always prefer human targets to AI targets (except  for
              AI's  that fire at random).  When playing against 9 Calculators,
              this can make your day pretty lousy.

       Allow Offset Targetting (toggle)
              Generally, when a weapon hits a shield it does less damage  than
              an  explosion  detonating right outside the shield (weapons hit-
              ting the shield do not have a chance to detonate).  This changes
              the  AI  targetting behaviour so they will deliberately aim out-
              side the shield, if their intended victim has raised shields.

       Always Offset (toggle)
              If the above option is set, this option will  force  the  AI  to
              always  offset  its  targetting  as  if  the  player  had raised
              shields.  This allows the AI to compensate for cases  where  the
              player  may simply not have had their turn yet to raise shields.
              The downside is the AI will never attempt to score a direct  hit
              with this option enabled.

       Enable Scan Refinement (toggle)
              If  set,  harder AIs are allowed to refine their trajectories by
              computing trajectories that take into account  player  shielding
              effect  and various other factors they do not normally consider.
              This option could slow down gameplay a bit  but  makes  the  AIs
              much more difficult.

       No Budget Constraints (toggle)
              AI's  will  spend  as much money as they can, disregarding their
              budget preferences.

       Sound Setup:

       Enable Sound (toggle)
              When set, music and sound effects will be played.

       Use HQ Mixer (toggle)
              When set, mikmod's high-quality mixer will be used.

COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS
       --help Display a brief synopsis of the command-line options  available.

       --insanity
              This is insanity, Max!  Or what if it's genius?

       --yields
              Display weapon yields, and economical yields.

       ----ggeeoommeettrryy==_wxx_h
              Specify  an  initial window geometry for xscorch, where _w is the
              width and _h is the height of the playing field.  Useful for dis-
              plays  less  than  around  800x600 resolution.  Note this option
              overrides the settings in the config file, but you can save  the
              new  options  to  your  config file so you don't have to specify
              this every time.  You may also use -g.

       --config=file
              Load an alternate user config file, in file.

       --sound
              Enable music and sound effects.  You may also use -S.

       --nosound
              Disable music and sound effects.  You may also use -s.

       --hqmixer
              Enable use of the high-quality mixer, if sound is enabled.  This
              may use a lot of CPU power on older machines.

       --nohqmixer
              Disable use of the high-quality mixer, if sound is enabled.

       --name Set  the  name  of  your player, if you are initiating a network
              game.  By default, your user name is used.

       --port Set the port number to use in a network game.   This  option  is
              only  relevant  if  you  also specify --client or --server.  The
              default is dependent on the protocol number, but is  some  large
              port number.

       --client=server
              Start  xscorch  in  client  mode,  and  connect to server (which
              should already be running).  If --name and --port are not speci-
              fied, reasonable defaults are used.

       --server
              Start  xscorch in server mode, and wait for connections from the
              clients.  --name may be used in conjunction to specify the  name
              of this player.

NETWORK MODE
       This is very unstable right now, and therefore is not documented.

FILES
       ~/.xscorch/config
              User's default configuration for xscorch.

       xscorch.txt
              Copy  of this manual page.  This file is installed to your local
              share directory, and is used by the on-line help system.

       copying.txt
              Copy of the GPL. This file is  installed  to  your  local  share
              directory, and is used by the on-line help system.

       tankprofiles
              Profile bitmaps for the tanks, usually stored in the local share
              directory.

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

AUTHORS
       xscorch  was  written by Justin David Smith <justins(at)chaos2.org> and
       Jacob Luna Lundberg <jacob(at)chaos2.org>.  (Please do not  list  these
       e-mail  addresses  on webpages, or list them in other packages, without
       contacting us first.)

       This manual page written by Justin David Smith <justins(at)chaos2.org>.
       Copyright(c) 2001,2000 Justin David Smith.



Justin David Smith                 May 2001                         xscorch(6)
