BZFlagWiki - User contributions [en]

Flag ideas

2013-02-16T03:51:55Z

Khonkhortisan: /* Unrated Flag Ideas */ No Ricochet (NR)

==Overview==
This article describes various flag suggestions for the game.

==Rejections==
Most flag ideas are rejected, mostly because they are not well thought out, or they take the game in a direction that the project management does not wish it to go. Rejected flags are moved to the [[Flag ideas/Rejected]] page.

===Idea Submission Guidelines ===
Users should read and understand the following guidelines before submitting a flag idea.

* Check that the idea isn't already listed on this page or the [[Flag ideas/Rejected|flag ideas already rejected]] page. If the idea has been considered and dismissed, it will not be accepted if submitted again.
* Think carefully about the flag idea. Ideas must be described in a short and succinct sentence or paragraph. Ideas that are difficult to describe do not make for fun features, and will most likely be rejected.
* Flag ideas should not be overpowering, or do something that you think simply looks '''Cool'''. Flags must not be 'mean' to players, both those who have it and those who get shot by it. Flags must maintain gameplay balance and have a disadvantage for every advantage. Flags that combine features of other flags will be rejected. Flags that simply let you "win" will be rejected. These are often called 'munchkin' flags.
* Add the flag idea to the Unrated Flag Ideas section, following the format of the other items.

If a flag idea is approved, it does not mean that it will automatically happen or be put into the game.
It simply means that it is not a bad idea. The idea will not be implemented until a developer takes
the time to implement the code for the feature into a version. Most new flag ideas require a change
in protocol and must wait for the next major release, and can take some time to complete.

This list is intended for information and discussions only. Information listed on this page does not imply any form of official acceptance of an idea into the game.

===Things to remember===
* All powerful flags aren't fun.
* Flags that ensure your immediate destruction aren't fun.
* Flags that aren't useful aren't fun.
* Flags boost/modulate tactical trait of tanks

===Flag Rules===
The project management uses these rules for good flag ideas:

====Flag power must be limited====
For example, BZFlag has stealth and cloaking flags, but no stealth-and-cloak flag. Such a tank would be virtually impossible to destroy. Nobody likes to play against someone who can't lose.
The guided missile and laser flags are both exceptionally powerful flags, but neither make the owner invincible. Laser takes twice as long to reload and a guided missile can be dodged while still firing on the owner.

====Flag powers can counteract/balance each other====
Some flags are handily defeated with another kind of flag. The oscillation overthruster can be destroyed by a super bullet or a shock wave (or a genocide). Cloaking is effective against laser and stealth is good against guided missile. Ricochet is useful against ricochet.

Counterbalancing flags should be added/suggested together, or counterbalanced by an existing flag; super bullet is often a good choice.

====Flags never instantly kill the owner====
Flags should not kill people in what seems to be a random manner, this includes flags that kill on pickup, or "mines". Players should be able to use skills to avoid death. No flag should be debilitating to anyone.

====Shots should kill====
Except in rare cases (Thief) any time you hit someone with a shot, it should kill them. While other affects on shots may seem funny to describe, they are not fun. Shooting someone and making them "pause" for 5 seconds, has the exact same gameplay as getting killed and respawning.

====Flags should require new skills====
Flags that require new skills keep the game interesting. The more there is to learn about the game, the longer people will play. Bad flags should simply provide a challenge that must be overcome.

====Flags should not require other server settings====
With few exceptions, flags should not require other server settings to be enabled, such as more then one shot, radar, or some other options. Many mode specific flag ideas can be implemented as custom flags in a plug-in.

==Suggesting Flags==
This page is locked to normal users due to abuse by some silly users, flag ideas should go into the features request tracker on sourceforge. https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=3248&atid=353248

== Implemented Flag Ideas==
===Good Flags===
====Cloaked Shot (CS)====
'''Description:''' Shots are invisible out-the-window. Still visible on radar. Glow is still visible out HUD. Watch out for ricochet!

''Implemented in:'' 2.99.x

====Low Gravity(LG)====
'''Description:''' Gravity is reduced to a large degree allowing the tank to jump very high in the air.

''Implemented in:'' 2.99.x

== Approved Good Flag Ideas==
None

== Possible Flag Ideas==
===Good Flags===

====Long Shot(LS)====
'''Description:''' Shots have increased range.
====BackFire (BF)====
'''Description:''' Shots fire to rear of tank instead of front.
====Extra Shot (ES)====
'''Description:''' Player gets an extra shot.

===Bad Flags===
====Long Reload (LR)====
'''Description:''' Shots take longer to reload.
====Don't Stop (DS))====
'''Description:''' Tank always moves forward or backwards, it cannot stop.
====Sensor Echo (SE)====
'''Description:''' All tanks show up twice (or more) on radar. Echoes behave like the tank they mirror, down to the flag.
====Delayed Shot (DS)====
'''Description:''' Shots wait some prescribed amount of time (2 seconds?) between clicking and actually firing.
====SlowMotion (SM)====
'''Description:''' Tank moves and turns with half speed.
====High Gravity(HG)====
'''Description:''' Gravity is higher for the tank (faster fall, lower jumps).
====Daze (DZ)====
'''Description:''' Tank see all other tank as enemy

== Unrated Flag Ideas==

===Good Flags===

====Spread (SP)====
'''Description:'''This flag will split your bullets into three. Two bullets will go at 45 degree angles away from you and the last will travel the normal trajectory. Careful about teamkills!

====Radar (RD)====
'''Description:''' Like how in some maps that have jumping flags or ricochet flags when those things are normally disabled, in maps with radar disabled, this would give you radar ability. It would counteract the Jamming flag in normal maps.

====Boomerang (BR)====
'''Description''' Your normal shot is changed to take a boomerang pattern once fired, killing anything caught in the firing line. You cant kill yourself with your own shots with this flag. Really long reload time, and relatively short range.

====Mysteriously Mysterious (MY)====
'''Description''' A random flag effect will be obtained, its up to the player to find out what flag it is that this flag has given them. *WARNING* You might get a bad flag from this!

===Bad Flags===

====SlowShot (SS)====
'''Description''' Your shots travel at half speed for the same time meaning also 1/2 distance.

====Negativity (NG)====
'''Description''' Once picked up, one random bad flag effect will be obtained such as colorblindness, then a few seconds later, it will change to another bad flag effect such as reversecontrols, and so on.

====Healing (HL)====
'''Description''' Uses the thief-type ray. Shooting a target (friend or foe!) removes a bad flag if the target has one, or grants target a random good flag (or perhaps just shield) if they have none (while generally shots should kill, this inspires teamwork, and introduces an interesting new role for a team member to take). Optionally: must wait a configurable time before affecting any given target again.

====No Ricochet (NR)====
'''Description''' The counterpart to the Jumping, No Jumping, and Ricochet flags. Not to be confused with [[Jargon|not responding]] [nr].

[[Category:Gameplay]]

DevelopmentPlans/ShotIDCleanup

2013-02-16T02:41:40Z

Khonkhortisan: /* Decouple Reload List From Shot List */ it[']s

==Overview==
The current method of having a fixed list of shots per player is not very good. It does not allow the server to do much with the shots and often runs into problems with the reload code

==Decouple Reload List From Shot List==
The first thing to do to clean up the shot ID system is to give each client and the server a single dynamically allocated shot list, with unique IDs per shot.

When a player fires a shot, they allocate an item in the existing per player shot array that is limited to the value of MaxShots from the server. This list represents the shots the tank has fired normally and is used for reload computations. These shots are given a temporary ID based on the slot number and sent to the server. The server will then add the shot to the master shot list and give the shot a global ID. The shot will then be sent back to all players including the shooter. The shot data will include the temporary shot ID the client assigned it in addition to the GUID. Players other then the shooter will add the shot to their global list and draw it as normal. The shooter will add the shot to the global list and replace the shot in his local per player list with a reference to the new global shot.

World weapons or server created shots will simply be added to the global list and processed. Shots need to contain more info then they do now, including the flag fired, shot data, and player data. This allows a shot to be processed independent of its shooter.

When clients draw and process shots they must process the entire global list, and any local shots with temporary IDs.

==Server Side Shot Paths==
Once the server has a global shot list, it would then need to have shot paths for each shot that is updated with time. This can lead to the ability to detect hits and deaths server side if the simulation is actuate enough.

This can be done in stages.

# Add a message to let the server update the location of any shot
# Move the GM logic to the server, it is a simple shot path that doesn't need rico and already has lag.
# Add server side paths for the other shots and then compare death messages to predicted death locations and see how close they are.

DevelopmentPlans/ShotIDCleanup

2013-02-16T02:40:25Z

Khonkhortisan: /* Decouple Reload List From Shot List */ [re|ir]

==Overview==
The current method of having a fixed list of shots per player is not very good. It does not allow the server to do much with the shots and often runs into problems with the reload code

==Decouple Reload List From Shot List==
The first thing to do to clean up the shot ID system is to give each client and the server a single dynamically allocated shot list, with unique IDs per shot.

When a player fires a shot, they allocate an item in the existing per player shot array that is limited to the value of MaxShots from the server. This list represents the shots the tank has fired normally and is used for reload computations. These shots are given a temporary ID based on the slot number and sent to the server. The server will then add the shot to the master shot list and give the shot a global ID. The shot will then be sent back to all players including the shooter. The shot data will include the temporary shot ID the client assigned it in addition to the GUID. Players other then the shooter will add the shot to their global list and draw it as normal. The shooter will add the shot to the global list and replace the shot in his local per player list with a reference to the new global shot.

World weapons or server created shots will simply be added to the global list and processed. Shots need to contain more info then they do now, including the flag fired, shot data, and player data. This allows a shot to be processed independent of it's shooter.

When clients draw and process shots they must process the entire global list, and any local shots with temporary IDs.

==Server Side Shot Paths==
Once the server has a global shot list, it would then need to have shot paths for each shot that is updated with time. This can lead to the ability to detect hits and deaths server side if the simulation is actuate enough.

This can be done in stages.

# Add a message to let the server update the location of any shot
# Move the GM logic to the server, it is a simple shot path that doesn't need rico and already has lag.
# Add server side paths for the other shots and then compare death messages to predicted death locations and see how close they are.

Tank

2013-02-15T06:44:26Z

Khonkhortisan: /* 2.0.10 and earlier */ Change tank.obj link to point to now-existent svn copy

The tank is the primary avatar of the player in BZFlag.[[image:Blue_tank_small.png|right]]

==2.0.10 and earlier==
This Classic BZFlag tank model has been in the game since its inception, and is an integral part of game play. This tank model has received few graphical upgrades over the years, and looks today much the same as it has since the first version of the game.

The classic tank model is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardcoded hard coded] as a series of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenGL OpenGL] instructions in the [[BZFlag Source]] code. The model may not be changed externally without modifications to the game client itself.

The 2.0.10 tank model has been exported from the code, and can be found as a wavefront obj file at https://bzflag.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/bzflag/trunk/bzflag/misc/tank.obj This model is licensed under the LGPL as it is pulled from the bzflag sources.
This can be imported into most 3d modeling packages.

===Appearance===
The tank model has 7 different colors, or "skins", that it can appear in. The color of the tank results from the team in which the tank is playing, or some other game logic (such as Hunters and Rabbits in [[Rabbit Hunt]])
The 7 tank colors are as follows:
<gallery>
image:Red_tank.png‎|Red Team Tank
image:Blue_tank.png‎|Blue Team Tank
image:Green_tank.png‎|Green Team Tank
image:Purple_tank.png‎|Purple Team Tank
image:Black_tank.png‎|Rogue (black) Team Tank
image:Orange_tank.png‎|Hunter Team Tank
image:White_tank.png‎|Rabbit Team Tank
</gallery>

Depending on an individual client's graphical settings, the tank may have animated treads and spinning wheels. The tanks shown are the most basic version of the tank.

===Dimensions===
[[image:Tank_sizes.png|frame|right|Tank dimensions in [[world units]]]]
The Tank's visible model is 8.04 [[world units]] long, 2.8 [[World units|units]] wide, and 2.05 [[World units|units]] tall as shown in the image. If one assumes that one [[World units|world unit]] is equivalent to one real world meter, then the tank would be 26 feet 4.5 inches long, 9 feet 2 inches wide, and 6 feet 10 inches tall.

The tank bounding box (used in collisions with world objects) is 6 [[world units]] long, 2.8 [[World units|units]] wide, and 2.05 [[World units|units]] tall, and does not include the barrel forward of the tip of the treads. The muzzle of the barrel is 1.57 (visually only 1.53) [[World units|world units]] from the ground, meaning that a tank can shoot over a box 1.5 [[World units|units]] high.

===History===
The tank model was originally created by [[Tamar Cohen]] for the first versions of BZFlag and has since been extended and modified by the BZFlag developers.

==Future Versions==
The tank model will most likely be redone for a future version. [[Image:3 0 tank test render.png]]

It will be an external loaded model and have the same basic dimensions as the older tank.

[[Category:Concepts]]
[[Category:Map Making]]

Tank

2013-02-13T21:17:32Z

Khonkhortisan: /* Dimensions */ _muzzleHeight/model difference

The tank is the primary avatar of the player in BZFlag.[[image:Blue_tank_small.png|right]]

==2.0.10 and earlier==
This Classic BZFlag tank model has been in the game since its inception, and is an integral part of game play. This tank model has received few graphical upgrades over the years, and looks today much the same as it has since the first version of the game.

The classic tank model is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardcoded hard coded] as a series of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenGL OpenGL] instructions in the [[BZFlag Source]] code. The model may not be changed externally without modifications to the game client itself.

The 2.0.10 tank model has been exported from the code, and can be found as a wavefront obj file at http://my.bzflag.org/resources/models/Tank.obj This model is licensed under the LGPL as it is pulled from the bzflag sources.
This can be imported into most 3d modeling packages.

===Appearance===
The tank model has 7 different colors, or "skins", that it can appear in. The color of the tank results from the team in which the tank is playing, or some other game logic (such as Hunters and Rabbits in [[Rabbit Hunt]])
The 7 tank colors are as follows:
<gallery>
image:Red_tank.png‎|Red Team Tank
image:Blue_tank.png‎|Blue Team Tank
image:Green_tank.png‎|Green Team Tank
image:Purple_tank.png‎|Purple Team Tank
image:Black_tank.png‎|Rogue (black) Team Tank
image:Orange_tank.png‎|Hunter Team Tank
image:White_tank.png‎|Rabbit Team Tank
</gallery>

Depending on an individual client's graphical settings, the tank may have animated treads and spinning wheels. The tanks shown are the most basic version of the tank.

===Dimensions===
[[image:Tank_sizes.png|frame|right|Tank dimensions in [[world units]]]]
The Tank's visible model is 8.04 [[world units]] long, 2.8 [[World units|units]] wide, and 2.05 [[World units|units]] tall as shown in the image. If one assumes that one [[World units|world unit]] is equivalent to one real world meter, then the tank would be 26 feet 4.5 inches long, 9 feet 2 inches wide, and 6 feet 10 inches tall.

The tank bounding box (used in collisions with world objects) is 6 [[world units]] long, 2.8 [[World units|units]] wide, and 2.05 [[World units|units]] tall, and does not include the barrel forward of the tip of the treads. The muzzle of the barrel is 1.57 (visually only 1.53) [[World units|world units]] from the ground, meaning that a tank can shoot over a box 1.5 [[World units|units]] high.

===History===
The tank model was originally created by [[Tamar Cohen]] for the first versions of BZFlag and has since been extended and modified by the BZFlag developers.

==Future Versions==
The tank model will most likely be redone for a future version. [[Image:3 0 tank test render.png]]

It will be an external loaded model and have the same basic dimensions as the older tank.

[[Category:Concepts]]
[[Category:Map Making]]

Ricochet

2013-01-31T00:34:09Z

Khonkhortisan: spelling of pass, change laser to ray to include thief, one less rico requirement, one more rico requirement

The ricochet effect causes standard and ray shot types to rebound off of objects.

The effect can be acquired with the Ricochet (R) superflag or as a server option with the +r [[BZFS Command Line Options|BZFS Command Line Option]].

The ricochet flag is often under-estimated, in the right hands and on a map not expecting it ricochet can be a deadly weapon.

The ricochet effect is used extensively on HIX-style maps.

A ricocheting bullet or laser follows the rule 'arrival angle equals emergent angle', so you cannot bend ricochets by shooting in a turn or similar tactics. Maps with few pyramids to cause shots to go airborne can be deadly when it comes to ricochets.

'''Note''' that as of version 2.4.0, maps may specify ricochets per object and mesh face. This means that while the global ricochet option may be turned off, some objects may allow bullets to still ricochet.

==Unaffected Flags==
Ricochet on the server does not affect Super bullet, Phantom Zone, Guided Missile, and Shockwave superflags. See the [[Flag List|Flag List]] for a list of all flags available in BZFlag.

==Strategy==
Ricochet introduces some unique strategies to BZFlag. Here are some moves that involve ricochet. Variations are encouraged.

{|{{Prettytable}}
|{{Hl3}}|'''Brief'''
|{{Hl3}}|'''Details'''
|{{Hl3}}|'''Requirements'''
|-
|Simple Bounce
|When you cannot fire at your enemy directly turn towards the wall and fire a couple shots far apart. Use the radar to track the shots and when you have the best angle to ricochet off of shoot a spray of bullets. If you don't kill your enemy repeat, if they jump round the corner and fire under them.
|A wall almost parallel to the line between you and your enemy.
|-
|Pseudo-cide
|If you find yourself being pursued with no chance of turning around try driving straight for a wall, at the last minute fire a spray of bullets and jump. The bullets will ricochet off the wall and hopefully hit the enemy behind you. If the enemy dodges, you're screwed, otherwise if they jump you will likely land before them and be able to turn around or repeat the move.
|Enemy trailing you, jump-height wall perpendicular to the line of pursuit in front of you, jumping enabled by server.
|-
|}

Often, Players forget about bullets that pass their tank, only to be hit by them soon afterward. This is a common situation and learning how to avoid bullets ricocheting back toward you is a good skill to learn.

Bz eShotRicochetEvent

2013-01-31T00:31:58Z

Khonkhortisan: /* Data */ whos(e)

{{BZFS_API_Doc}}
{{BZFS_API_Events}}

==Overview==
The '''bz_eShotRicochetEvent''' is an API event that is called each time a shot ricochetes.
==Data==
'''bz_eShotRicochetEvent''' returns the '''bz_ShotRicochetEventData_V1''' data class.

{| border="1" cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0"
!name
!type
!value description
|-
|eventType
|[[Event(API)|bz_eEventType]]
|bz_eShotRicochetEvent
|-
|playerID
|int
|ID of the player whose shot ricocheted
|-
|shotID
|int
|ID of the shot that ricocheted
|-
|type
|[[bz_APIString]]
|What type the shot was
|-
|pos
|float[3]
|Where the shot ricocheted
|-
|obstacleGUID
|unsigned int
|ID of what obstacle the shot ricocheted off of
|}

==Usage==
Data returned can not be modified.

Bz removePlayerFlag

2013-01-28T03:02:03Z

Khonkhortisan: rewording to not call a player "it", but "who"

{{BZFS_API_Doc}}
{{BZFS_API_Funcs}}
==Prototype==
BZF_API bool bz_removePlayerFlag ( int playerID );
==Parameters==
{| border="1" cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0"
!name
!type
!value description
|-
|playerId
|int
|the player whose flag is to be removed
|}

==Description==
This API function forces the specified player to drop the flag that is currently carried. The flag will be reset following the standard flag spawn logic.

Bz eTeleportEvent

2013-01-27T23:31:13Z