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Archive-name: games/bolo-faq/part1
Last-modified: 1995/5/26 Version: 1.9.6 See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge rec.games.bolo Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) - Part 1 Version 1.9.6 - May 26, 1995 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Compiled and maintained by Cory L. Scott (aka Kimboho) (cls6@midway.uchicago.edu) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This file is meant to be displayed in good ol' Monaco 9 point. You are strongly encouraged to read this FAQ before posting to r.g.b. If you have any questions or comments about this FAQ, please email cls6@midway.uchicago.edu. The FAQ is divided into two sections for space reasons. The first part is dedicated to the basics of Bolo and the USENET group devoted to it, and the second part deals with maps, brains, and strategy. The FAQ will be posted twice a month. Table of Contents ----------------- PART I: BOLO BASICS I. First off, what is Bolo? II. How do you play Bolo? III. What's the current version of Bolo? IV. What's going to be in the new version of Bolo and when will it be out? V. What kind of stuff do I need to play Bolo? VI. Okay, now that you know about Bolo, where can you get it? INTERNET BOLO I. Internet Bolo sounds neat! How can I play, find a game, etc.? II. What if I'm in Europe or Australia? How do I find a game? III. I connect to the Internet via modem, and use telnet and FTP with good speed, but when I play Internet Bolo, it's just TOO slow. What's up? IV. Is there a Bolo player registry? V. Issues of etiquette APPLETALK BOLO I. How can I find out about games on an Appletalk net? II. Can I play AppleTalk Bolo with ARA? REC.GAMES.BOLO AND OTHER MISC. STUFF I. I've got a new idea for Bolo! Shouldn't I post it to r.g.b right away? II. What is alt.netgames.bolo? What the difference between the two groups? III. Shareware Fees IV. Hacks PART II BOLO NET RESOURCES I. Where are good FTP sites? II. How about Web Sites? BOLO FACTS I. Vital statistics II. Interesting Things III. Lag fun IV. Maps A. Where can I find other maps or create my own? B. What are some of the guidelines I should follow for making maps? C. How do I post and download maps from r.g.b from or to my machine? V. Brains A. Now what's this about Brains? B. Where can I get Brains? C. How do you write Brains? BOLO STRATEGY I. Where are good strategy guides? II. How about some hints? ----------- BOLO BASICS ----------- First off, what is Bolo? ------------------------ Let's let the author do the talking: "Bolo is a 16 player graphical networked real-time multi-player tank battle game. It has elements of arcade-style shoot-em-up action, but for the serious players who play 12 hour games with 16 players working in teams in different networked computer clusters around an office or university campus, it becomes more of a strategy game. You have to play it to understand." --- Stuart Cheshire How do you play Bolo? --------------------- Bolo has a large amount of options and elements to its play. Once you get a copy of the program, you should read and print out the documentation, which is much more detailed than this explanation. Basically, you are a tank that travels around a map, which has trees, rubble, water, trees, deep water, walls, grass, swamps, and roads to deal with. Your tank has ammo (commonly called bullets or shells), mines, armor (also called shields), and the capacity to carry trees. The map is created by a player before hand. The two most important elements on the map are pillboxes and bases. Pillboxes are originally neutral, meaning that they shoot at every tank that happens to get in its range. They shoot fast and with deadly accuracy. You can shoot the pillbox with your tank, and you can see how damaged it is by looking at it. Once the pillbox is subdued, you may run over it, which will pick it up. You may place the pillbox where you want to put it (where it is clear), if you've enough trees to build it back up. Trees are harvested by sending your man outside your tank to forest the trees. Your man (also called a builder) can also lay mines, build roads, and build walls. Once you have placed a pillbox, it will not shoot at you, but only your enemies. Therefore, pillboxes are often used to protect your bases. Bases are used for refueling your tank. Like pillboxes, they start out neutral, meaning that anyone can run over them, and they will belong to that player. Bases cannot be moved. You can take over a base by shooting it. Therefore, Bolo becomes exciting when you have 3 or more people fighting for control of pillboxes and bases, traveling around the map, and shooting each other. You can also form alliances with other players for team play. Again, this FAQ doesn't exist to teach you the basics of how to play the game. That's what the documentation is for. What's the current version of Bolo? ----------------------------------- The current version of Bolo is 0.99.6. What's going to be in the new version of Bolo and when will it be out? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- We have been blessed with a new version, but there have been many bugs found in the new release. (It's a beta, anyway.) So, a new version should be out shortly with new bug fixes and a way to play back your Bolo victories and defeats. What kind of stuff do I need to play Bolo? ------------------------------------------ Bolo is only available for the Macintosh. Stuart Cheshire, the author, has made it very clear that he will not port Bolo to DOS or Windows machines. Therefore, dont ask whether or not there will be a port of Bolo for any other machine - it just isn't going to happen. However, some people are trying to make their own versions for the PC and Windows. For more information, check out: http://vespucci.iquest.com/~mecca/pcbolo.html http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~heathh/bolo.html Mac emulators for other platforms have had limited success, but none have been able to play network games. Bolo can be played on any Mac. Its preferred memory size is 1,100 K, but you can cut that down by turning off the sound effects. A color monitor is not necessary, but often useful. Unless you want to play by yourself, you need to be connected to some kind of network. You can play Bolo over an Appletalk network or over the Internet, if your machine is directly connected to the net and is running MacTCP, which is the standard way of how Macs talk over the Internet. If you're using a high-speed modem, you can play with your friend via Appletalk Remote Access (using an older version, 0.98). SLIP connections to the Internet are not recommended, since a direct Internet connection is so much faster, and Bolo works by forming a ring of networked Macs where one player sends the game packets to a neighbor, who sends packets to the next neighbor on the ring, and so on. Therefore, the rest of the players of the game will be waiting on your slow modem connection, which is commonly called lag. Also, note that Bolo is not a client-server system, which is a common misconception. Instead, Bolo creates a ring out of the Macs, using either DDP on AppleTalk or UDP over the Internet. When a new player joins, Bolo sends a packet to each machine in the game to figure out the delay between it and all Macs, then it adds itself into the ring in such a way as to minimize the total time around the ring. (Thanks to Peter Lewis for that final explanation.) However, if you're totally isolated and/or have no friends, there is a small bit of hope. See the section on "Brains." Okay, now that you know about Bolo, where can you get it? --------------------------------------------------------- You can find the bolo package at the usual suspect FTP sites for Mac software, such as sumex-aim.stanford.edu. Don't ask if someone can mail it to you. It's easily available. You can gopher or anon FTP it at bolo.stanford.edu, depending on Stuart's whims and the availability of his machine. As well, you can get it at bolo archive sites such as saloon.intercon.com, noproblem.uchicago.edu, or aurora.alaska.edu. Some of these sites also carry older versions of Bolo. Also, Aaron Bratcher has put together a nice "starter kit." The path is FTP://noproblem.uchicago.edu/pub/Bolo/MegaWatts_Bolo_Start_Kit.hqx. ------------- INTERNET BOLO ------------- Internet Bolo sounds neat! How can I play, find a game, etc.? ------------------------------------------------------------- As mentioned before, you need to have a Macintosh running Bolo 0.99.2, with a direct connection to the Internet with MacTCP installed. Therefore, if you can telnet, gopher, or check your mail directly with your Mac, you can play Internet Bolo. Just check UDP/IP in the first dialog box, type in the IP address of another Mac playing Bolo, and go! Don't use UDP/IP Multicast yet, since MacTCP doesn't support it. Here's a summary of the various known ways of accessing the Internet directly: 1. A Mac with MacTCP installed connected via an ethernet card to a network that has a direct connection to the Internet. 2. A Mac with MacTCP installed connected via a LocalTalk connection to a network that has a direct connection to the Internet. The router must be able to assign IP numbers. 3. A Mac with MacTCP installed connected via a SLIP/PPP connection to a machine on the Internet. This, due to modem speed, is very slow, and is not recommended, except if you're playing with one or two other SLIP players. TIA does not seem to work. 4. A Mac with MacTCP installed connected via Appletalk Remote Access to another Mac connected to the Internet. You have to set your configuration to either Ethertalk or LocalTalk in MacTCP, and have a router on the other end be able to assign IP numbers. This, also, is very slow and not recommended, unless you're playing with one or two other ARA/Internet players. Remember, the proper port to use is 50000. To find an Internet game, there are various ways to do it. There is a BoloTracker, set up by Matt Slot, out there that gets and gives information about Internet games in progress. For example, if you start a new game, there's an option to select whether or not the BoloTracker will be notified. If it is, your IP address and other vital information, such as the map's name, number of pills and neutral pills, number of players, etc., will be sent to the Tracker. This information will be updated throughout the game and made available to folks who wish to examine it. If you want to see what games the BoloTracker has registered, just telnet to noproblem.uchicago.edu 50000... There is another tracker at gwis.circ.gwu.edu, but it doesn't track .99.6 games. There is also a program called Bolo Finder, by Peter Lewis, which will telnet to the BoloTracker itself and display the pertinent information. You can get it at mac.archive.umich.edu, in the directory /mac/game/war/bolo/tracker. Once you launch the program, make sure that the preferences (In the File Menu) dialog box contains the proper IP address and port number. You can also organize games and discuss strategy with folks on the IRC channel #bolo. For more information on IRC, look for the IRC FAQ on alt.irc. Now, before you go off "Bolo-Tracking" and start randomly joining games, THINK. If you're in France, and the game is Australia, and you join, you'll cause massive lag, destroying the game for everyone. Some suggested joining guidelines follow: * If there are more than 6 players in a game... stay out * If there are more than 4 players and no bases free... stay out. * If there are 2 or more people from outside the country... stay out. * If you get the "Network Delay too long" error... stay out. Don't repeatedly try to join. * Most importantly... if someone asks you to leave (esp. if there are no free bases), then it is common courtesy to leave. Also, while you're joining, check the Network Info box. If you see a massive amount of "Recovering" or "Active/Passive Restart" or "Failed" and a total ring delay over 325, then quit, before you destroy the entire game. (Yes, we know it will hang your Mac for an indefinite matter of time. That will be hopefully fixed in the next release.) Thus, if a lagger joins a game, often times a horrible event called "netsplit" occurs, where some or all of the players will be removed from the game, making it look like everyone left. Remember, if someone asks you to leave - LEAVE. There are plenty of games out there. What if I'm in Europe or Australia? How do I find a game? --------------------------------------------------------- European Bolo tracker host site address: ray.abo.fi (130.232.80.3) Quoted from kwhitty@finabo.abo.fi: Ultimately, all EuroBolo-ers will set the machine name in the "Bolotracker..." box in Bolo to ray.abo.fi. They would also set the preferences in Peter Lewis' Bolo Finder program (or Matt Slot's next version of Bolo Tracker) to ray. Games in Europe would be registered on ray, while US games would still be registered on gwis.circ.gwu.edu. Australian Bolo tracker host site address: tracker.uts.edu.au 50000 Quoted from will@cs.su.oz.au: For Australian players, as well as tracker.uts.edu.au, there is a mailing list which is used more than the tracker. It is bolo@list.peter.com.au. Subscribe by sending mail with the line: subscribe bolo <Your real name here> in the body to: listserv@list.peter.com.au I connect to the Internet via modem, and use telnet and FTP with good speed, but when I play Internet Bolo, it's just TOO slow. What's up? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Stuart Cheshire speaks: I don't know much about modems (as you probably know, I don't have a modem, I have Ethernet...) but I believe some of these modems try to be 'helpful' by compressing your data for you. To do this, they have to hold your data until they have enough to compress. Bolo doesn't really send enough data to be worth compressing, so the modem holds what it has for half a second while waiting to see how much more is coming. After half a second it realizes that no more is coming, and then sends it. This does not help net lag. Turn off all your modem's compression and error correction features, and Bolo will work much better. Is there a Bolo player registry? -------------------------------- A registry of bolo players, handles and email addresses is available. It is posted monthly to r.g.b, and is available via FTP at noproblem.uchicago.edu. It will be updated weekly. Email aaron_bratcher@fpm.uchicago.edu with the above information to be added to the registry. Also, there is a multimedia HTML (World Wide Web) registry. Check it out using Mosaic. If you have any questions about WWW, check comp.infosystems.www. http://bolo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/registry/ Issues of etiquette -------------------- Besides the Internet etiquette mentioned above, there's some other things you should be aware of. * If someone asks you to leave, leave. There's no excuse for destroying another group's game, due to lag or other reasons. * If it's rather obvious you're losing and want to leave, at least concede the game to the other side. Don't just quit. * Profanity via messaging is frowned upon. Don't harass other players for no good reason. The object of the game is to play to have FUN, not to prove you're master of the universe. If you want to assert your manliness, go kick sand in people's faces at the beach: Don't play Bolo. * Don't cheat or hack Bolo to give yourself advantages over other players. If you suspect someone is cheating, a recommended procedure follows: (From Dan Rudman, rudman@engin.umich.edu) 1. Identify the party suspect of cheating. Identify the behavior which is hacked. 2. Message to selected players (with the hacked party UNselected) that you suspect said player of hack, and define the hacked behavior. 3. All other parties should acknowledge in the positive or negative whether or not they agree and can verify. 4. If most of the players verify back with you, then you may announce it to all and see what happens. Smart hackers will admit it and just drop out of the game. If for some reason they do not, please make a note of their player name and IP address and post it to the newsgroup. Be sure to include all the players names who verified. -------------- APPLETALK BOLO -------------- Can I play AppleTalk Bolo with ARA? ----------------------------------- Not with the latest version. The author explains: ------ My understanding is this (but I don't have a modem, or ARA, to test it): ARA messes with network numbers when packets go through the 'gateway' machine, in some way that is not documented in the tech notes. When Bolo games pass network addresses to each other, as they have to, this automatic translation is not done (the ARA gateway has no way of knowing that four of the bytes in the middle of the data packet are actually a network address). Bolo 0.98 did not do any sweep of the ring to find the optimum place to insert, and consequently it was possible for it to 'get lucky' in some situations, and still work despite the ARA address translation (but I wouldn't guarantee it to stay up if the wrong person quit). Bolo 0.99 always does three sweeps of the ring ('pinging' each machine) to find the best place to join, and consequently it ALWAYS falls into ARA's trap. ----- How can I find out about games on an Appletalk net? --------------------------------------------------- Use Distant Early Warning or Bolo Tracker (not to be confused with the Internet Bolo Tracker), both available at mac.archive.umich.edu, in the directory/mac/game/war/bolo/tracker or at noproblem.uchicago.edu. Since version 0.99, Bolo does a sweep of the AppleTalk zones looking for players. Simply go to the AppleTalk dialog, and wait a few seconds. Zones with players will be marked with little filled blobs next to the names, and zones without players will be marked with little hollow blobs. --------------------------------------- REC.GAMES.BOLO AND OTHER MISC. STUFF --------------------------------------- I've got a new idea for Bolo! Shouldn't I post it to r.g.b right away? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NO. Hold it right there, cowboy. In the Bolo package of documentation, there's a file by Stuart which discusses Bolo's future plans. Read that FIRST, before repeating the already-often-repeated. For example, his priorities for the next release include: * 1000 players across the Internet using IP Multicast. * Security measures to stop people from cheating. * Sound to accompany incoming message. * Allow man to defuse mines that you can see. As well, remember: one thing that's nice about Bolo is its simplicity. As Stuart wrote: One of the main goals in writing Bolo was to try to give it one of the properties that Chess, Othello, and other good board games have -- the "a moment to learn and a lifetime to master" characteristic that gives them lasting interest. The aim is that there are a few simple 'actions' that you can perform in the game, but that they are flexible enough to let you carry out your complex strategies. That's why there is only one kind of tank, one kind of armor, and one kind of bullet. For me to add another major feature, it must add at least as much interest to the game as any of the features that are already there. What is alt.netgames.bolo? What the difference between the two groups? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- alt.netgames.bolo is the old group that was used before rec.games.bolo was formed. Please only post to rec.games.bolo. a.n.b is rather deserted now anyway. Shareware fees -------------- Listen up, folks. Bolo is shareware, which means if you use Bolo, you should pay the $25. Without your payments, Stuart can't put the amount of effort that he puts in now to support Bolo. To make sure your payment arrives, follow this procedure. Enclose a SASE with a note to yourself. And ask Stuart to sign the note and stuff it in the envelope and mail it back to you. If it arrives, you know he got the check. If it doesn't arrive, you don't know he didn't, but at least there's a chance you'll get some info out of it. Hacks ----- Hacks are basically modifications of the Bolo program that allow you to do things you normally wouldn't and shouldn't be able to do with your tank, such as being invisible, having each shot hit for multiple damage, and being invulnerable to fire. Hacks, in almost all Bolo players' opinions, are detrimental to the game. Do NOT ask for copies of hacks on the rec.games.bolo. ------------- End of rec.games.bolo FAQ - Part 1 ------------- Maintained by Cory L. Scott, cls6@midway.uchicago.edu This FAQ is published by Cory L. Scott, and may not be distributed for profit in any form other than a USENET feed. It may not be altered or changed without the author's permission. -- Cory L. Scott | "They're inhabitants of alt.tasteless. . .] where cls6@midway.uchicago.edu | they march to a decidedly different drummer, and, University of Chicago | when they're done marching, usually shoot him." -|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-| - Dave Ratcliffe -|-|-|-| User Contributions:Part1 - Part2 [ Usenet FAQs | Web FAQs | Documents | RFC Index ] Send corrections/additions to the FAQ Maintainer: cls6@midway.uchicago.edu
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