XPILOT(Requires UDXPILOT(RequiressUDP/IPSandeThe X Window System)
NAME
xpilot - XPilot/UX Multiplayer gravity war game client
SYNOPSIS
xpilot [-help] [-version] [-name nickname] [-team team-
number] [-join] [-list] [-shutdown [message]] [-display
string] [-port port-number] [configuration-options]
[server-host ...]
OVERVIEW
XPilot is a multiplayer game which looks a bit like Thrust
for the Commodore 64. Thrust has some similarities with
Atari's coin-up games Gravitar and Asteriods (not a
misspelling) - they were the originals. Several clones have
appeared for various computers, among others Gravity Force
for the Commodore Amiga.
The main objective of the game varies as you can choose
different game modes, although the only modes supported as
of today are combat (optionally with teams and/or limited
lives) and race. The former mode focuses more strongly on
shooting each other down, while the latter is more a
piloting test than anything else.
To start playing, you need to connect to a server by using a
client program called xpilot. If there are no servers
running, you will have to start one of your own (see man-
page xpilots()).
Options
-help Prints some help, including commandline
options.
-version Prints the current version.
-name player-name
Lets you use an alternative name during the
play (may be handy :). If this option isn't
specified, and you haven't set the X resource
name, you will be known by your login name.
-team team-number
Joins team number team-number. See below for
notes about team play. When the server is
not configured for team mode, this option has
no effect.
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-help Prints a small usage message.
-version Prints version information.
-join Automatically joins the first server you get
response from.
-list Queries status information from all servers
found.
-shutdown [message]
Sends a shutdown to the server, the message
part is optional.
-name nick Specifies your nick name.
-team number Specifies your wanted team number.
-display display-string
Specifies which X server to contact.
-port number Specifies the port number to use when
contacting a server.
configuration-options
All the X resource values can be configured
seperately from the command line. For
example to change the ecm key to just `z'
use; -keyEcm z
server-host Tries to connect to server at host server-
host. The default is to send a broadcast
query on your attached network.
PROMPT COMMANDS
When you startup xpilot without the -join option, you will
get a prompt asking you for directions. You may type h or ?
to list the available commands. These are quite obvious and
deal with communication to the current server only. You may
enter the game by pressing CR (Return/Enter).
If you are the owner of the server you will have a few extra
options. See xpilots().
THE GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE
When you enter a game you will hopefully be presented a
window. This window is divided into three major areas:
Radar (Top left) This area shows the map the
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server you are playing on is using as well
as the position of your fellow players (if
they aren't cloaked). In race mode the
radar also outputs the position of the
control posts. Players are shown as small
rectangles The player you are currently
locked onto is shown as a flashing
rectangle.
The server can optionally display missiles,
mines and/or bombs (moving mines) on this
radar, and will display them using
different symbols; missiles are quick
flashing small dots, mines and bombs slow
flashing small dots. If nuclear mines or
missiles are launched the radar can detect
the high energy radation emiited and will
show these types of weapons on the radar as
alternating small and large rectangles.
The radar always has a limited range for
these objects, due to their small size.
The maximum range depends on how much fuel
you are carrying.
Rating list (Bottom left) This area shows the list of
players (sorted with respect to their
rating, or `score') currently logged on the
server. The player with the highest
<rating>/<num of times died> ratio - that
is, the most `deadly' player - is
underlined with a stipled line.
First on each line, you might find a letter
which gives you some information about the
status of the player: R means the player
is a robot, T means the player is not a
player but a detached tank, D means player
is dead (only possible in limited lives
mode), P means the player is paused and W
means the player is waiting to join the
game after login (in limited lives mode).
Depending on the current game mode, you
will also find information about which
teams each player belong to and how many
lives each player has left.
Game area (Right) This is where the action is. Most
notably you will see your fighter in the
middle of the screen, hopefully you won't
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see any shots or explosions yet!
You may also see some strange blue drawings
surrounding your fighter - this is the HUD
(Head Up Display) which greatly simplifies
and compresses the information you need to
know. Currently, the HUD displays the
following information:
Bonus items You may notice some symbols and
numbers on the left side of the HUD,
these indicate which, and what
quantity, of extra equipment you have.
This list can be turned off using the
`o' key, then only items which you
gain or loose will be briefly shown on
the HUD. Pressing `o' again will
constantly show owned items.
Fuel A fuel meter will appear on the right
side of the HUD when you are getting
low on fuel, it will start flashing
when your fuel level gets dangerously
low. The fuel is numerically
displayed on the bottom right corner
of the HUD.
Lock The name of the player you have
currently locked on is shown on the
top of the HUD. The distance and
bearing to that same player is
visualized by a dot where placement of
the dot gives the direction, and the
size of the dot gives the distance.
The dot will be filled if the player
is not on the same team as you. The
distance to the player also
numerically displayed on the top right
corner of the HUD, it is measured in
`blocks'.
Velocity (Optional) The position of the HUD
changes with the current velocity.
The distance from the center of your
screen is proportional to your
velocity. Moving to the top moves the
HUD to the bottom.
In addition to the moving HUD, you can
display a line from the center of the
HUD to the center of your ship.
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Both indicators can be combined or
used exclusivly (see discussion about
Xresources below).
Score messages
Relevant score information is shown
below the HUD, as well as on the game
field.
Time left The amount of time the game will last
if the the server was started with a
time limit. This is displayed in the
upper left corner of your HUD.
Between the radar and the Rating list there are three
push buttons:
Quit Exits the game and the program.
About Pressing the About button will popup a
three page help window. It explains
in short the functionality of all the
items you may encounter together with
a graphical depiction of them.
Menu The Menu button pops up a pull down
menu with the following buttons:
Keys Will popup the Keys window, which
contains a list of all the X
keysyms that have one or more
xpilot actions bound to them.
Config Changes the Rating list into a
window with a list of most of the
options. The options can be
changed interactively. Pushing
the Save configuration button
will save the options and the key
bindings to the .xpilotrc file in
your home directory.
Score Displays the players and their
scores in the Rating list window.
Player Lists the players with their
login name and their host address
in the Rating list window.
MOTD Displays the Message Of The Day
if the server has one available.
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GAME CONCEPTS
The game objective varies as the server (xpilots()) is very
configurable. However, below you will find short
descriptions of some of the main concepts of the game.
Gravity
All objects in the game are affected by gravity - that is,
they will accelerate in the direction the gravity is
strongest. The strength and direction of the gravity is
user configurable (see xpilots()), and can even be set to 0.
Some objects affect the gravity in a limited area, these are
called gravs and they exist in miscellaneous types
(attractive, repulsive, clockwise, anti-clockwise). Gravs
are shown as red circles with some symbol inside which is
different for each type of grav. (For more information on
how the affect the gravity, see xpilots().)
Wormholes
Wormholes are shown as red rotating circles. They will
`teleport' you to another place in the world. Generally,
when you go through a wormhole, you'll come out at the
nearest wormhole in the direction you were travelling. Some
wormholes are enter-only and some are exit-only. The exit-
only ones are invisible. Passing through a wormhole will
make you visible for a while if you were cloaked.
Fuel
You will also have to worry about your fuel level as most
equipment use fuel/energy and some even work better the more
fuel you have.
You may gain fuel by picking up special `fuel cans' (see
bonus items section) or refueling at a refuel station.
Refuel stations may be found in blocks in the world, they
differ from standard background blocks in that they have a
red/black F in them, and they are partly or completely
filled with red. The amount of red determines how much fuel
the station has at available for you. To refuel, you must
hit the keyRefuel key (see controls section).
Fuel takes up mass and will also determine how big the
explosion will be when (sorry, `if' :) you meet your
destiny.
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Combat
There are two different and mutually exclusive modes which
have greatly different objectives: combat mode and race
mode. The most extensive is the combat mode, which also
happens to be the default.
Here your main objective is to get as high a rating as
possible by `blasting away' on enemy fighters (human or
robot controlled) and cannons. All will naturally fire back
at you, so you will also need some nifty piloting skills
and/or some heavy equipment to really enjoy living. Extra
weapons are explained in the bonus items section.
Race
In race mode, your objective is to fly as fast as you can
through a specified route. This is done by passing
checkpoints in a specified order. The finish is reached
after three laps.
The next checkpoint is always visible on the radar.
Team play
Team play is useful in combination with combat mode. It is
different from straight combat mode in that players on your
own team are not considered enemies. There are some
additional objectives too.
You can gain points if the map you are using have targets or
treasures. The main difference is that you get points by
blowing up an enemy's target using shots or mines. A shot
will only damage a target and if the target is completely
damaged then the next shot will blow it up. A mine will
immediately destroy a target. Two missile hits will also
destroy a target.
Enemy treasures have to be stolen from the enemies and
dropped on your own treasure. You pick up a treasure by
using keyConnector when flying nearby the enemies treasure.
This will attach the treasure to your ship with a strong
rubber band. Now you have to move your ship away from the
treasure while holding the keyConnector down. When you reach
a certain distance the rubber band will be drawn in a
sollied line. This means that the treasure is attached to
your ship. It is possible (in emergency situations :) to
detach the enemy treasure by pressing keyDropBall, but this
will of course not gain you or your team any points.
Certain maps may configure targets as passable by team
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members, in which case they can act as wall shields for team
bases.
Shields
You may or may not have shields at your disposal, depending
on the server options specified. If you have, they are
activacted with the keyShield key (see controls section).
Generally collisions with other objects (except for debris
and sparks) are lethal, but when you are hit by something
with your shields up then it will only cost you some
fuel/energy. If you didn't have enough fuel then the
collision will be lethal again. Having your shields up
costs fuel.
Bonus items
During the game you might encounter blue triangles with red
symbols on - these are special bonus items which will make
your life easier. As of today, these items include:
Fuel can More fuel/energy.
Cloaking device
Makes you invisible for other players, both
on radar and on the screen. However, when
you are hit by a shot or missile or bounce
with another player then you will be
temporarily visible again.
Sensors Enables you to see cloakers to a limited
extent. Having more sensors improves this.
Rear cannon Extra rear cannon.
Front cannons
2 extra front cannons.
Afterburner Your main engine becomes more powerful and
uses your fuel more efficiently.
Rockets Pack of rockets. These may be used as
smart missiles, heat seeking missiles, or
just plain dumb torpedos. Usually these
explode on impact with a small debris
explosion. However, if enabled, nuclear
and/or cluster variants of each may be
possible. See the description of
keyToggleNuclear, keyToggleCluster and
keyToggleModifier.
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Mine Pack of mines. Can be dropped as either
moving mine (bombing) or stationary mine
(mining). Usually these will explode when
someone else comes within a few blocks,
causing a large debris explosion. However,
if enabled, nuclear and/or cluster variants
of each may be possible. Mines have a
little intelligence and will not explode
for the player (or team members) who
dropped them. However, the targetting of
mines can be effected by ECMs (unless the
server option ecmsReprogramMines is false).
If you get close enough to a mine, you will
be able to sense who the mine is currently
programmed by. Mines dropped by different
players have a different external
appearance -- mines dropped by you or your
team show up hollow. Reprogramming does
not change the appearance of a mine, so be
careful because a hollow mine may not be
safe. See the description of
keyToggleNuclear, keyToggleCluster, and
keyToggleModifier.
Tank Additional fuel tank (perhaps with some
spare fuel). As you pick up more tanks,
your weight increases and you'll have to
compensate by picking up afterburners. You
can change which tank is the `active tank',
that is the one that fuel is drained from
(if this tank is empty, fuel is drained
from all tanks). Refueling is quicker with
more tanks.
To ease filling several tanks in parallel,
all the tanks drain into their left
neighbours (0<-1<-...<-8); except your
active tank, which is watertight (it seems
a bit complicated at first, but trust me,
you'll get it eventually :-). Tanks don't
drain if they reach a certain minimum level
(unless of course, you use it as the active
tank).
When you detach a tank it is the active one
that is detached, unless the active tank
happens to be your main tank, in which the
tank with the highest number is used. The
detached tank will have the shape of a ship
and will carry your name, it will
immediately start thrusting (as long as
fuel permits) and will fool all heat-
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seekers to follow it.
ECM Electronic Counter Measures. ECM allows
you to confuse and re-target smart missiles
within a certain range of your ship. When
missiles are zapped by ECM, they will
become confused for a while and then have a
high probability of going after the player
who you were locked onto when you used the
ECM. The ECM will also cause within a
certain range to either explode or be more
likely be temporarily be blinded such that
they do not explode if you go near them.
The closest mine within ECM range may be
reprogrammed to be safe for you and your
team members. If another ship is within
range of the ECM, all it's sensors will
freeze for a while and if the ship was
cloaked, it will become visible for a
while. The ECM is activated by pressing
the keyECM key.
Transporter Enables you to steal equipment and
energy/fuel from the closest fighter,
provided it is within the transporters
range. You activate the transporter by
pressing the keyTransporter key.
Laser Gives you a laser weapon with limited
range. Having more of these increases the
range and the repeat rate of the laser
subsystem.
Emergency Thrust
Gives you a limited amount of super
thrusters, equivalent to a full complement
of afterburners. With a light ship this is
equivalent to hitting hyperspace or warp
factor 9.99. Useful for stopping quickly
or running away fast from a deadly
encounter. The extra thrust capability is
toggled on and off by a seperate key and
can thus be saved, the amount of time
remaining is shown by a status bar below
the HUD.
Autopilot Gives you a hover capability. When engaged
an `Autopilot' light will flash above the
HUD. When engaged the autopilot computer
will bring the ship to a hover by the
quickest (perhaps not safest) method
possible. It will then leave you in a
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hover, unless in a strong gravity field
where your engines cannot cope. Useful for
hovering next to a refuel depot.
Tractor Beam
Not to be confused with a transporter, this
enables you to push or pull the ship you
are currently locked onto. The force is
mutual, and thus if your ship is lighter
than your target you will move more towards
him than him towards you. Best used with
heavy ships to pull then push annoying
players into walls.
Emergency Shield
Gives you a limited amount of extra shield
power, which prevents any fuel loss from
shots, debri, player and wall collisions,
missiles, mines, etc. While in use, the
ship can smash into walls at any speed and
angle without fear of being killed. The
extra shield capability is toggled on and
off by a separate key and can thus be
saved, with the remaining amount of extra
shield power being saved for later use.
Once toggled on, the extra shield power
will take effect and be used only while the
normal shields are up. Best used when
confronted with cluster mines and missles
or deadly cannons.
CONTROLS
The game understands quite some keys, but not all of them
are equally important. The following keys are more or less
sorted by importance. The name of the keys are also the
Xresources you use to redefine them, and the words inside
the curly braces {} are their default bindings. See
Xresources section below.
Primary keys
The primary keys are:
keyTurnLeft {a}
Turn left (anti-clockwise).
keyTurnRight {s}
Turn right (clockwise).
keyThrust {right Shift or left Shift}
Thrust me.
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keyFireShot {return or linefeed}
Fire normal shot.
keyShield {space or Caps Lock}
Raise shield. Must be held down for
continuous use.
keyRefuel {f or left Ctrl or
Try to connect to nearest fuel station.
Must be held down during refueling.
keyRepair {f}
Repair a target.
Secondary keys
The following commands are not always available, some
require bonus items to have any functionality at all.
keySelfDestruct {q}
Self destruct. At last we managed to
include a timer, got rid of all those
nasty I'd-rather-die-by-my-own-hands-
than-let-you-kill-me-and-get-all- the-
points pilots.
keyIdMode {u}
Toggle the ID mode. Instead of the score
list it will display the list of players
with their real names and computer
addresses.
keyCloak {BackSpace or Delete}
Enable/disable cloaking device if
available. You will be invisible on both
radar and on screen, but beware - the
device is not foolproof, it is not cheap
on your fuel and the only thing becoming
invisible is your ship, i.e. the
exhaust-flames will still be visible.
keySwapSettings {Escape}
Toggle between two different settings.
You'll probably want more power and a
larger turn rate in combat than when
you're doing some critical maneuvering.
keyDropMine {Tab}
Drop a proximity mine. The mine will
detonate after a certain amount of time
(quite large actually) or when a foe
comes too near.
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keyDetachMine {bracketright}
Drop a moving mine - that is, a bomb.
keyDetonateMines {equal}
Detonate the mine you have dropped or
thrown, which is closest to you.
keyEcm {bracketleft}
Fire an ECM pulse.
keyChangeHome {Home or h}
Change home base. You will need to be
landed on the base of your choice. (The
Home key is located just right of the
Return key on most HP-keyboards.) These
keys are convenient for HP keyboards,
also somewhat adapted to SUN keyboards.
keyTankNext {e}
If you have additional tanks, the current
tank will be the next tank.
keyTankPrev {w}
If you have additional tanks, the current
tank will be the previous tank.
keyTankDetach {r}
Detach the current tank (or the last
additional tank). Heat-seeking missiles
will hopefully follow this tank.
keyPause {p or Pause}
Park or paused hover mode - you can only
park while you're landed on your own home
base, and when you park, you cannot
rejoin the game until the P has stopped
blinking (to prevent users from using
this option to run away from a battle).
If you are not near your base and you are
travelling very slowly the ship will be
brought to a standstill on autopilot and
cannot be unpaused until the `Autopilot'
light stops blinking.
keyFireMissile {backslash}
Fire smart missile if available. The
missile will home onto the player that
you have currently locked on. You must
have a clear lock on a player for this to
work. Requires lock.
keyFireHeat {semicolon}
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Fire a thrust controlled missile. Works
like a smart missle, but is faster and
ECM isn't able to confuse it. Needs the
thrust for navigating.
keyFireTorpedo {quoteright}
Fire a missile without flight control. It
runs very fast in shot direction.
keyFireLaser {slash}
Fires a laser weapon in the direction you
are pointing. Lasers have limited range
and use a lot of fuel, but they are
instantaneous and therefore much more
deadly than normal shots. The precise
electronics of lasers can be
irretrivially damaged by the high energy
interference generated by enemy ECMs.
keyToggleNuclear {n}
Pressing this key will toggle through the
following indicators on your HUD (bottom
left), only if nuclear weapons are
allowed;
N All missiles or mines launched from
now are limited nuclear weapons.
FN All missiles or mines launched from
now are full (or fusion) nuclear
weapons.
Pressing the key again clears the
nuclear weapons mode.
You must have eight or more missiles, or four
or more mines to launch a nuclear missile or
mine, and perhaps enough fuel as well. If you
do not a message will be displayed at the
bottom of the game area explaining why and the
weapon will not be fired.
Firing a full (or fusion) nuclear weapon
completely depletes your stock of that weapon,
limited nuclear weapons will deplete your stock
by eight missiles or four mines.
A nuclear missile or mine fired will have a
mass and explosive power equal and usually
greater than the total number that were used.
Nuclear torpedos are very fast, and all nuclear
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weapons explode violently (this may freeze the
server momentarily). After firing a one off
nuclear weapon, the `n' indicator is cleared.
keyToggleCluster {c}
Pressing this key will toggle the
following indicator on your HUD (bottom
left), only if cluster weapons are
allowed;
C All missiles or mines launched are
cluster weapons.
Cluster weapons explode differently from
normal weapons. The explode with a slower
moving shower of killing shots and not debris,
which may kill or deplete shields just like a
normal shot fired by your self. Thus, since
cluster debris is deadly to yourself, you
should be careful when firing such a weapon.
After firing a one off cluster weapon, the `c'
indicator is cleared.
A cluster weapon will also use an almost
equivalent amount of fuel as if you had fired
the shots using your cannon, and thus large
cluster explosions will use large amounts of
fuel. If you do not have enough fuel a
message saying so will be displayed at the
bottom of the game area and the weapon will
not be launched.
keyToggleImplosion {i}
Pressing this key will toggle the
following indicator on your HUD (bottom
left), only if modifiers are allowed;
I All mine and missile explosions will
be implosions instead.
keyToggleVelocity {v}
Pressing this key will toggle through V1
through V3 and to no modifier in turn.
It affects the speed of nuclear and/or
cluster explosions, higher modifier
numbers produce lower explosion
velocities, and thus for the most
effective nuclear cluster explosion a V2
or V3 modifier should be used.
keyToggleMini {x}
Pressing this key will toggle through X2
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through X4 and then no modifier in turn.
The number shows how many miniture mines
or missiles will be fired for every key
press. The sum total damage and cost of
using miniture weapon is equivalent to a
normal weapon of that type.
keyToggleSpread {z}
Pressing this key will toggle through Z1
through Z3 and then no modifier. The
higher the number the closer the spread
of fire for minature weapons, it also
affects the spread of wide and rear
shots, successively narrowing the stream
of bullets such that V3 is a single beam
of shots.
keyTogglePower {b}
Pressing this key will toggle through B1
through B3 and then no modifier. The
higher the number the less powerful a
tractor beam is used, mainly for
conserving energy or fine adjustment in
pulling somebody around. The power
setting also affects the engine to
warhead ratio in missiles, a higher
setting will cause each missile to have
more powerful engines, and thus be much
quicker and more maneaverable, but at the
cost of a drastically reduced damage
capability. However when coupled with
other modifiers this can cause severe
psychological advantages, consider the
effect of trying to outrun four minuture
full cluster powered up nuclear smart
missiles.
keyClearModifiers {k}
Clears all current modifiers in effect.
keyLoadModifiers1 {1}
Loads the modifiers stored in bank 1, as
set by the modifierBank1 resource.
keyLoadModifiers2 {2}
Loads the modifiers stored in bank 2, as
set by the modifierBank2 resource.
keyLoadModifiers3 {3}
Loads the modifiers stored in bank 3, as
set by the modifierBank3 resource.
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keyLoadModifiers4 {4}
Loads the modifiers stored in bank 4, as
set by the modifierBank4 resource.
keyToggleAutoPilot {h}
This toggles the autopilot feature. You
need atleast one Autopilot item before
this will work.
keyToggleEmergencyThrust {j}
This toggles the emergency thrust item.
You need at least one emergency thrust
item, on first turning this on the item
is used up and ten seconds or so of
emergency thrust is placed at your
disposal. The time is only used up as
you thrust, and hitting this key will
return you back to normal thrust while
conserving the remaining boosted thrust.
If you posses both Autopilot and
Emergency Thrust items, pressing the Meta
or Alt keys will give the equivalent of
emergency brakes.
keyToggleEmergencyShield {g}
This toggles the emergency shield item.
You need at least one emergency shield
item. When first turning on, this item
is used up and ten seconds or so of
emergency shield power is placed at your
disposal. The time is only used up as
you use your regular shields, and hitting
this key again will return you back to
normal shield power while conserving the
remaining emergency shield power.
keyTractorBeam {comma}
This will engage any tractor beam items
on the player who you hold a lock on, it
causes a mutual attractive force between
you and them, causing both players to
move towards each other.
keyPressorBeam {period}
This will engage any tractor beam items
on the player who you hold a lock on, it
causes a mutual repulsive force between
you and them, causing both players to
move away from each other.
keyTalk {m} Pressing this key will toggle between the
talk window being shown below the HUD.
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If your mouse pointer is outside the
window you will still have full control
of your ship and pressing the talk key
will disappear (the current message will
not be lost). If you position your mouse
pointer within the window you can type a
message using the keyboard, however you
ship will no longer respond to key
presses. The following special keys are
available;
Return Linefeed
This finishes and sends the message.
The talk window is also removed from
the screen and the message text
cleared.
Backspace Del
These keys delete the last character.
Ctrl-W
This deletes the last word.
Ctrl-U
This deletes the entire line of text.
Esc This removes the talk window without
clearing the text. This is useful if
you are typing a message and
something important in the game
happens that requires you to control
your ship.
Messages will usually be sent to every player
logged in, including yourself. Messages
received will always appear in the bottom of
the Game area, and will look like;
<<Viper shouts>> Hello world.
However you can send messages to individual
players or teams by starting the message with
the player's name (or enough character from
the beginning of their name to make it
unique) or team number followed by a colon,
and then the message. Just placing a colon
at the start of the message will send it to
everyone. For example;
vip: Hello
will send a message to only one player who's
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name begins the letters vip (the case does
not matter).
keyToggleCompass {y}
Turns of the HUD compass display.
keyLockClose {Select Up}
Will lock onto the closest player if
he/she is within range.
keyLockNextClose {Down}
Will lock onto the next closest player
after the currently locked player.
keyLockNext {Next Right}
Will, if possible, lock onto the next
player in the game.
keyLockPrev {Prior Left}
Will, if possible, lock onto the
previous player in the game.
keyConnector {Control_L}
Use connector (for the moment, all this
is used for is picking up
treasures/balls).
keyDropBall {d}
Drop the ball if you are carrying it.
These keys let you adjust the control sensitivity:
keyIncreasePower {KP_Multiply}
Increase engine power.
keyDecreasePower {KP_Divide}
Decrease engine power.
keyIncreaseTurnspeed {KP_Add}
Increase turn speed.
keyDecreaseTurnspeed {KP_Subtract}
Decrease turn speed.
keyToggleOwnedItems {o}
Causes all owned bonus items to be shown
either constantly or for a brief period
after they change in amount on the HUD.
keyToggleMessages {0}
Causes messages to be shown or not
shown.
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keyReprogram {quoteleft}
Reprogram a modifier bank or lock bank.
keyLoadLock1 {5}
Load player lock from bank 1.
keyLoadLock2 {6}
Load player lock from bank 2.
keyLoadLock3 {7}
Load player lock from bank 3.
keyLoadLock4 {8}
Load player lock from bank 4.
keyToggleRecord {KP_5}.
Toggle recording of session to file (see
the recordFile option). This recording
can later be reviewed with the xp-
replay() program
keyPointerControl {KP_Enter}
Toggle mouse pointer control.
keySelectItem {KP_0 KP_Insert}
Press repeatedly to select an item to
drop. A small rectangle will be drawn
around the item you can drop. Use the
keyLoseItem key to actually drop the
item. Note that you cannot select tanks
to drop, tanks can only be released (see
the keyTankDetach option).
keyLoseItem {KP_Delete KP_Decimal}
Drop the item selected with the
keySelectItem key. The server can
either delete the item or drop it back
into the map depending upon the value of
the loseItemDestroys option.
Mouse control
There are up to five mouse buttons available to
define as keys:
pointerButton1 {keyFireShot}
Define which keys are pressed when mouse
button one is pressed.
pointerButton2 {keyThrust}
Define which keys are pressed when mouse
button two is pressed.
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pointerButton3 {keyShield}
Define which keys are pressed when mouse
button three is pressed.
pointerButton4 {}
Define which keys are pressed when mouse
button four is pressed.
pointerButton5 {}
Define which keys are pressed when mouse
button five is pressed.
X RESOURCES
At startup xpilot will look for X resources in several
places. First it looks in the LIBDIR (as defined during
compilation, mostly as something like
/usr/local/games/xpilot/lib/) for the file named XPilot.
After that it looks for more resources in
/usr/lib/X11/$LANG/app-defaults/XPilot,
$XUSERFILESEARCHPATH/XPilot, $XAPPLRESDIR/$LANG/XPilot,
$HOME/app-defaults/$LANG/XPilot, resources set using xrdb or
else $HOME/.Xdefaults, host specific resources in the file
pointed to by $XENVIRONMENT or else in $HOME/.Xdefaults-
hostname and finally in $HOME/.xpilotrc. If the LANG
environment variable is undefined or if that file doesn't
exist then it will look for the file as if LANG had been
undefined. Resources defined in files listed later will
override resources in files listed earlier. If the XPILOTRC
environment variable is defined then its value is used
instead of $HOME/.xpilotrc. All of these resources can be
overridden by their corresponding command line arguments.
name Nick name of your player.
team Preferred team number.
port Set the port number of the server. Almost
all servers use the default port, which is
the recommended policy. You can find out
about which port is used by a server by
querying the XPilot Meta server.
power Primary power setting of your engine.
Primary in this context means that it is
part of the default setting, secondary
means the other setting (two different
settings are available, pressing Esc will
switch between them). You may change
"sensitivity" of your ship by adjusting
these parameters. Often you would like one
setting to be more "rough" than the other -
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one setting for fine maneuvering and one
for racing. (Default 45.0)
turnSpeed Primary turnspeed setting of your ship.
(Default 30.0)
turnResistance
Primary turnresistance setting of your
ship. This value determines how fast your
ship will stop rotating, i.e. the rotating
speed of your ship is set equal to itself
multiplied by this value. Obviously the
value has to lie between 0.0 (exclusive)
and 1.0 (inclusive). (Default 0.12)
altPower Secondary power setting of your engine.
(Default 35.0)
altTurnSpeed
Secondary turnspeed setting of your ship.
(Default 25.0)
altTurnResistance
Secondary turnresistance setting of your
ship. (Default 0.12)
shipShape Define the ship shape to use. Because the
argument to this option is rather large (up
to 500 bytes) the recommended way to set
this option is in the .xpilotrc file in
your home directory. The exact format is
defined in the file README.ships in the
XPilot distribution. Note that there is a
nifty tool called editss for easy ship
creation. See the XPilot FAQ for details.
See also the shipShapeFile option.
shipShapeFile
An optional file where shipshapes can be
stored. If this resource is defined and it
refers to an existing file then shipshapes
can be referenced to by their name. For
instance if you define shipShapeFile to be
/home/myself/.shipshapes and this file
contains one or more shipshapes then you
can select the shipshape by starting xpilot
as:
xpilot-shipShape myshipshapename
Where "myshipshapename" should be the
"name:" or "NM:" of one of the shipshapes
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defined in /home/myself/.shipshapes. Each
shipshape definition should be defined on
only one line. All characters up to the
first left parenthesis are ignored.
fuelNotify The limit when the HUD fuel bar will become
visible. (Default 500.0)
fuelWarning The limit when the HUD fuel bar will start
flashing. (Default 200.0)
fuelCritical
The limit when the HUD fuel bar will flash
faster. (Default 100.0)
showHUD Should the HUD be on or off. (Default true)
verticalHUDLine
Should the vertical lines in the HUD be
drawn. (Default false)
horizontalHUDLine
Should the horizontal lines in the HUD be
drawn. (Default true)
speedFactHUD
Should the HUD me moved, to indicate the
current velocity. Negativ values will
inverse the moving of the HUD. (Default
0.0)
speedFactPTR
Uses a red line to indicate the current
velocity. On edge of the line is the center
of the ship. The other end is moved in the
same way, as the HUD, if speedFactPTR is
set.
charsPerSecond
This determines the speed in which messages
are written, in characters per second.
markingLights
Should the fighters have marking lights,
just like airplanes?
sparkProb The chance that sparks are drawn or not.
This gives a sparkling effect. Valid
values are in the range [0.0-1.0]
sparkSize Size of sparks in pixels.
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XPILOT(Requires UDXPILOT(RequiressUDP/IPSandeThe X Window System)
shotSize Size of shots in pixels.
teamShotSize
Size of team shots in pixels. Note that
team shots are drawn in blue.
showShipName
Should all ships have the name of the
player drawn below them.
showMineName
Should the name of the owner of the mine be
drawn below the mine.
showMessages
Should messages appear on screen.
showItems Should owned items be displayed permanently
on the HUD, or only when their amount has
changed?
showItemsTime
The time in seconds to display item
information when it has changed and the
showItems option is turned on.
clock Display a small digital clock.
clockAMPM Displays clock in 24hr or 12hr format.
(Default: False)
noLocalMotd Do not display the local Message Of The
Day.
autoServerMotdPopup
Automatically popup the MOTD of the server
on startup.
toggleShield
Have the shield status be changed only by a
key press and ignore the key release.
autoShield When this option is on then shields are
lowered automatically when firing a weapon
or dropping a mine. After the firing the
shields are raised again too.
shieldDrawSolid
Are shields drawn in a solid line. Not
setting a value for this option will select
the best value automatically for your
particular display system.
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fuelMeter Determines if the fuel meter should be
visible. This meter visualizes your fuel
level in a different way than fuelGauge
does.
fuelGauge Determines if the fuel gauge should be
visible. See fuelMeter.
turnSpeedMeter
Should the turnspeed meter be visible at
all times. (Default false)
powerMeter Should the power meter be visible at all
times. (Default false)
backgroundPointDist
Specifies the block distance between points
drawn in the background, used in empty map
regions. 8 is default, 0 means no points.
backgroundPointSize
Specifies the size of the background
points. The default is 2, 0 means no
points.
titleFlip Should the title bar change or not. Some
window managers like twm may have problems
with flipping title bars. Hence this
option to turn it off.
slidingRadar
If the game is in edgewrap mode (see
xpilots()) then the radar will keep your
position on the radar in the center and
draw the rest of the radar around it. This
requires very good X performance and a
pretty fast workstation. Default is off.
outlineWorld
Draws only the outline of all the blue map
constructs.
filledWorld Draws the walls solid. Needs a fast
graphics system.
texturedWalls
Draws the walls filled with a texture
pattern. See also the wallTextureFile
option. Be warned that this needs a very
fast graphics system.
wallTextureFile
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XPILOT(Requires UDXPILOT(RequiressUDP/IPSandeThe X Window System)
Specify a XPM format pixmap file to load
the wall texture from.
texturePath Optional search path for XPM texture files.
This is a list of one or more directories
separated by colons.
packetSizeMeter
Turns on a meter displaying the maximum
packet size of the last few seconds.
packetLostMeter
Turns on a meter displaying the percentage
of packets lost in the last second due to
network failure (overload).
packetDropMeter
Turns on a meter displaying the percentage
of packets dropped due to your display not
being able to keep up with the rate at
which the server is generating frame
updates. If possible lower the frame
update rate of the server with the -fps
option.
receiveWindowSize
Specifies how big the receive window should
be. See NOTES below.
sounds Specifies the sound file. (Only if sound
is enabled.)
maxVolume Specifies the volume to play sounds with,
where 0 turns off sound. (Only if sound is
enabled.)
audioServer Specifies the audio server to use. (Only
if sound is enabled.)
geometry Specifies the geometry to use like:
-geometry 1280x1024+0+0.
keyboard Set the X keyboard input if you want
keyboard input from another display. The
default is to use the keyboard input from
the X display.
recordFile An optional file where a recording of a
game can be made. If this file is
undefined then recording isn't possible.
See the keyToggleRecord option for how to
make recordings.
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visual Specifies which visual to use. You can see
which visuals your display supports by
running: xpilot-visual list.
mono Turns on mono display type.
colorSwitch <true/false>
Tells xpilot to use a color switching
display technique or not. Default is true
if your display hardware has enough colors
available.
maxColors Tells xpilot how many colors you want it to
use. Default is 4, with a maximum of 16.
Valid values are 4, 8 and 16.
targetRadarColor
Which color number to use for drawing
targets on the radar. Valid values all
powers of 2 smaller than maxColors.
hudColor Specifies which color index to use for
drawing the HUD. The value for this option
is a number ranging from 1 till the
maxColors value.
hudLockColor
Specifies which color index to use for
drawing the lock dot on the HUD. The value
for this option is a number ranging from 1
till the maxColors value.
wallColor Specifies which color index to use for
drawing the walls. The value for this
option is a number ranging from 1 till the
maxColors value.
sparkColors A list of color numbers to use for drawing
sparks and debris of varying temperature.
gameFont The font used on the HUD and for nearly all
text part of the game field.
messageFont The font used for messages displayed in the
bottom left corner of the game field.
scoreListFont
The font used on the score list. Must be
non-proportional.
buttonFont The font used on all buttons.
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textFont The font used in the help and about
windows.
talkFont The font used in the talk window.
motdFont The font used in the MOTD window and in the
key list window. This must be a non-
proportional font.
black Specifies the color to use for black.
Default is #000000 which is equivalent to
specifying Black.
white Specifies the color to use for white.
Default is #FFFFFF which is equivalent to
specifying White.
blue Specifies the color to use for blue.
red Specifies the color to use for red.
color0 Specifies the color to use for color 0.
One can specify colors up to color15 this
way. Black, white, blue and red are
equivalent to color0, color1, color2 and
color3 respectively.
INVOCATION EXAMPLES
The simplest invocation of the hand-shake program is to just
type:
xpilot
This will force the program to search after a server on all
the machines on your attached network.
Say you know where the server is, and you don't want to be
prompted (handy in scripts etc.), you may type for example:
xpilot-join lglab08
where lglab08 is the name of the host running the
server.
In the examples above your name would be your login name.
Let's say you want to be really cool and your login name is
gudmari, well - you're in loads of trouble if you don't know
about the -name option;
xpilot-name FireEater
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will fix the problem for you.
NOTES
For credit list, see the provided CREDITS file.
If the client crashes, you will be without autorepeat on
your keyboard. To re-enable autorepeat, issue this command:
xset r
Please also note that xpilot can be addictive, and strenous
for both you and your keyboard. We take no responsibility.
:)
There is a meta server running on meta.xpilot.org, port
4400, into which all servers registers. This way you can
easily check if there are any servers running nearby. To
use it, try:
telnet meta.xpilot.org 4400 help list
Or:
telnet meta.xpilot.org 4401
If you experience any problems with `jerkiness', you should
try to adjust the receiveWindowSize Xresource. The problem
may be that your X server can't display as fast as the
XPilot server is generating new frame updates. So another
option is setting the number of frames for the server to a
lower number or get a faster X display system :)
The receiveWindowSize resource allows you to tune the
buffering of frame updates a little. When set to one then
there is no buffering and xpilot will just read the next
frame and display it. When the display is slower than the
XPilot server this may give all sorts of problems like
lagging behind and lack of keyboard control.
When you set receiveWindowSize to two then xpilot will
always try to read a second frame from the network and if
this succeeds it will discard the oldest frame. A better
number for receiveWindowSize is three which will discard the
oldest frame out of three and therefore be less subject to
small changes in network delivery times. If your display is
fast enough and can keep up with rate at which the server is
generating frames then specifying a value bigger than one
will not result in dropping frames, but rather will it be a
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XPILOT(Requires UDXPILOT(RequiressUDP/IPSandeThe X Window System)
buffer for small changes in network performance and computer
load. The maximum value of receiveWindowSize is four.
ENVIRONMENT
If XPILOTRC is set then its value is used instead of
$HOME/.xpilotrc to find the file containing the XPilot
resources. XPILOTUSER and XPILOTHOST set the loginname and
hostname as reported to the xpilots server.
AUTHORS
XPilot was developed by Bjxrn Stabell <bjoern@xpilot.org>
and Ken Ronny Schouten <ken@xpilot.org> from the University
of Tromsx, and Bert Gijsbers <bert@xpilot.org> from the
University of Amsterdam.
BUG REPORTS
The product is seemingly stable, so bug reports are highly
appreciated. Send email to xpilot@xpilot.org and we will
see what we can do. We merely ask that you remember to
include the following information:
o The platforms the bug occurs on
o What kind of display you have (depth, color, type)
o Which Xresources you're using.
o The full version of XPilot, i.e., 4.0.0
o What the bug looks like (symptoms)
o When the bug usually occurs
We would also like to receive changes you do to make the
code compile on your machine (we would NOT like to receive
the whole program translated to K&R C, keep it ANSI :) If
you don't have an ANSI compiler, there are several utilities
which may help you de-ANSI-fy the code (unproto, unprotoize
etc), but a better solution will be to install the GNU C
compiler on your system.
COPYRIGHT & DISCLAIMER
XPilot is Copyright ) 1991-1998 by Bjxrn Stabell, Ken Ronny
Schouten, Bert Gijsbers & Dick Balaska. XPilot comes with
ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details see the provided LICENSE
file.
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FILES
/usr/lib/X11/motd Message of the day.
/usr/lib/X11/sounds File containing the
sound to sound-file
mapping.
SEE ALSO
xpilots(), xp-replay()
Page 31 (printed 1/7/99)
