Hi!

This is another release of xtank-for-linux.  I know I promised never to
do another one, but I just couldn't resist.

There aren't really any new features with this version of xtank... it's
just recompiled for these new systems.  BTW: you'll need linux 0.99.11
and XFree86 1.3 or better to use this.

INSTALLATION:
	0) Find a place to unpack this archive.  It'll go easier on you
	   if you use /usr/games/Src, but you can get away with just about
	   anything (even /dev, if it really suits you... :).  Everything
	   in this archive is owned by user games and group games, but
	   it doesn't have to be.  Once again, it'll just go easier on you
	   if you do.
	1) In the Src directory is a file called Xtank.man.  That's the
	   manual page for xtank.  I keep it in /usr/games/man/man6/xtank.6
	   on my machine, but you can put it in any man6 directory that
	   your man installation will find.  Be sure to rename it to
	   xtank.6.
	2) In the Bin directory is a shell script called xtank.  If you've
	   extracted xtank in /usr/games/Src, then just copy that shell
	   script to any handy place and let your users play.  Otherwise
	   you'll need to edit it to add some environment variables pointing
	   to the right place.  The variables and their defaults are:
		XTANK_DIR		/usr/games/Src/Xtank
		XTANK_VEHICLES		/usr/games/Src/Xtank/Vehicles
		XTANK_MAZES		/usr/games/Src/Xtank/Mazes
		XTANK_PROGRAMS		/usr/games/Src/Xtank/Programs
		XTANK_HEADERS		/usr/games/Src/Xtank/Src/Include

CAVEAT:

Xtank is a very large, complex system with lots of subtle bugs.  While it
won't trash your files, it will crash at times.  These crashes that you'll
undoubtedly see are the same in all installations of Xtank.  Development
is ongoing, however, and bugs are regularly found and removed.  If you don't
like the crashes, then either stop playing xtank or try to fix them yourself:
we'd love to have your help.  Look at the "ROLL YOUR OWN" section if you want
to play with the source code.

QUICK START

Start up your X server, and run the xtank shell script.  After a little
while a window will appear which covers most if not all of your screen.
Don't worry about a message in your xterm saying "someone has no X resources":
that's just another xtank bug.  I'll mention colors in this quickstart,
in the assumption you're using a color display.  If you've got a b/w
display then just pretend.  :)

Hit return to both the first questions: "Enter player name:" and "Enter
vehicle name:".  Don't bother reading the credits yet, just hit return.
After the animation is finished, you'll see the main menu.  Click on "Play"
and "Standard" with your left mouse button.  This will put you into the
default game.

The large window is an overhead view of your tank and the surrounding
scenery.  The big red thing in the center is your tank (looks more like
a nightmare car from Mad Max).  It'll be labelled "R0" and your account
name.  Don't worry if something's shooting at your right now: you'll
just die and come back into the game in a different place.

Anyway, the right side of the window is a column of status displays.  The
topmost is your radar.  It shows your car at one end of a rotating line
(your radar sweep).  There are some white lines visible (walls) and some
blue squares, which flash when the sweep crosses them.  Those squares are
other tanks (all computer controlled).

The next status display shows your tank's status.  In the top left corner
are some green bars with the word "Armor" above them.  Those bars list the
status of the armor on the various sides (plus top and bottom) of your
tank.  The top bar is the front, the left and right bars are those respective
sides, and the bottom bar is your back.  In the middle are two bars for your
top and bottom armor (the upper one is for your top armor).  As you get
damaged, these bars will get progressively shorter.  When they get too short,
they'll turn red, and you should seriously consider running away.  Your
tank doesn't have any bottom armor at all, so that bar is just a hollow white
box.

To the right of the armor display is your player name, vehicle name, and some
horizontal bars.  The topmost is your velocity.  That'll be red and empty
when you aren't moving (like now), and it'll progressively fill to the right
as your tank reaches it's top speed.  The next bar is your fuel gauge.  It
should be full right now, and will decrease as you drive around.  Just below
that is your heat gauge.  As you fire weapons, this will increase until you're
too hot to fire anymore.  Just sit for a little while and it'll gradually go
down.

The bottom half of this display is devoted to weapons status.  A tank can have
up to 6 weapons, but your tank has just two heavy autocannon.  For each weapon,
this display shows the weapon's name, its mount point ("T1" and "T2" are
turrets one and two, respectively), how much ammo it has (a number and a
bar graph), and lastly whether it's turned on or not.  There are various
reasons to turn weapons off, but we won't get into them yet.

The next display is a message window.  There's a white horizontal line in
that window, and new messages will always appear just above it.  There should
be some messages in there by now.  They all have the form:
	SENDER->RECIPIENT message
Most of the messages you'll see are from the commentator ("COM") and are
delivered to everyone ("ALL").  If you get a private message, the recipient
will be "R0" if you're the first tank on the red team (which you are, right
now).

The last display is for sending messages.  You can figure that out later.

Below the main window is a help window.  It lists all the commands that 
xtank understands, whether or not they're applicable for this game.

For now let's just learn to drive a tank.

Put your mouse in the main window, and click the right mouse button.  Your
tank will turn to face it (the narrow end is the front of your tank).  Hit
one of the number keys across the top of your keyboard.  '5' is a good
choice.  Your tank will accelerate forward, and your speed gauge will increase.
Hit '0' to stop.  Your tank has 9 speeds forward ('1'-'9') and 1 speed in
reverse ('-').  You should probably stay out of the higher speeds until you
get the hang of driving around.  Hit '5' and try to steer around the arena.
You should find it pretty easy.  Now try it at speed '9'.

Let's try some combat.  Stop your tank ('0'), and click the left mouse
button.  Your turrets will turn towards the mouse cursor and all your
armed weapons will fire.  If you click the middle button, your turrents
will aim but your weapons won't fire.  Another (and more useful) way to
fire your weapons is with the spacebar.  That'll fire them without aiming.
The big advantage with the spacebar is that your weapons will continue
to fire as long as it's held down.  That's the best way to fight.  Now
that you're a combat expert, drive up to a drone and start fighting.  You'll
probably get killed.  The two great combat skills for xtank are keeping
your wounded side away from the enemy, and firing while moving.

Now that you're hurt, go into the center of the arena.  You'll notice
four icons separated by walls.  Two of those icons are shields, and appear
as 'A' in the radar.  Drive onto one of them and stop.  You're armor is
getting repaired, and your money drained.  Another looks like a missile,
and shows up as 'W' on the radar.  That's ammo.  Drive onto it, stop, and
toggle all your weapons off ('=').  They'll start getting reloaded.  Don't
forget to toggle them back on again before going back into combat ('=').

That's it for my intro.  You can figure the rest out yourself.

ROLL YOUR OWN:

If you want to compile xtank on your own, I've included my patches in this
archive.  Just get the original 1.3f sources from ftp.eng.umd.edu:/pub/xtank,
patch them, and then follow the normal installation directions.  You'll need
to edit Bin/xtank, because it isn't able to detect Linux machines (_I_ don't
know how to detect Linux machines!)  :)

SOUND FOR XTANK:

There are patches for xtank which allow it to use Mark Boyns' rplay daemon
to play arcade-style sounds.  I've recently ported rplay to Linux, and Mark
has released a new version with my changes.  You can pick up the patch, the
daemon, and some sound files from sounds.sdsu.edu.  You'll need Linux 0.99.12
or better, the Linux sound driver from Hannu Savolainen, and a soundcard of
somesort.

					Darren Senn
					sinster@scintilla.santa-clara.ca.us
					5 September 1993
