Official forums for BZFlag.org

Have a question for you all.

What would your perfect multiplayer tank game be like? How would it play? Would it run on old hardware? Would it look very realistic? Would it allow hills and valleys?

Just want to see what you all thing is perfect. Not even thinking about how BZ currently plays.

Wow we are going in the future, next generation battle game.
Next time when Im going to shot you you are able to feel the boooom ...dont let me think about SW or L...brrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Think about it Patlabor at the old release with the wall flat and
now we have a nice texture(grass/wall/mountain)
Yes will be great if I can drive the tank( I played with a tank simulator) around the hill or river,mine field ...trees and houses ....I'll love to drive through a roman colosseum or city, more creative maps coming too.
yes absolutely......btw no electric shock in the chair

All of those were english words...
But I have no clue WHAT you are saying man

Here's two tank games that look nice.

Seasons of War (Screenshots)
Details:

• Moving treads
• Treads leave trails
• Hills and valleys
• Weapons leave their mark on the ground
• Some weapons change the height of the area they hit
• Weather by season (Rain, snow, falling leaves)
• Tank skins
• Multiple camera views
• Note: Network support not on Windows, only Linux. Source code never released.

HoverTank
Details:

• Source code available
• Multiple tank models
• Intro movie
• Nice menu system (mouse support)
• Music
• Note: Might only work on Windows 9x (network code issues?)

Patlabor221 wrote:
All of those were english words...
But I have no clue WHAT you are saying man

I'm learning English ..is time you start to learn some SGIEnglish........
BTW the answer is yes will be great to have a game like you described.
But the problem will be the aim...with the hills change the shot course/altitude.

what about gameplay blast? all those are tehcianl issues, would you keep the same modes, TeamDeathMatch, and CTF and rabbit?

Interesting bit of code there, tho it uses glut. Engine needs some help, just a heightfield, but looks nice for a school probject.

I prefer the style of the game as it currently stands. One hit kills make it more fun and fast paced. I would keep the modes, and possible add to them. Maybe like a "hoard the flags" mode. I also see a lot of future uses for world weapons, for example, with AI to defend a team's base.

I wouldn't mind seeing some of that stuff for cosmetics, but it needs to "age." If, for instance, trails and weapons damage stay, after a couple of weeks of play there wouldn't be terrain or buildings. Imagine if you could shoot the support columns out from under a building when a tank is resting on it.

I'd like to see gun elevation, and partial damage. If your track gets shot off, you could still pivit and shoot until you take a second or third hit. Similar to Sid6.7's flag suggestion this week. Hit on turret = death.

It would also be nice to have inclines. Tank goes at 75% velocity up 20% slope, 25% velocity up 40% slope and can't climb slope higher than 50%, and slides down higher slopes. (as an example, not necessarily saying this is the best formula)

An ideal game might allow for two people to run the tank, driver and gunner. rotating turret, etc. hard to play though if you're not colocated.

I know this may seem "cheap" to some people, but auto elevation aiming would help newbies play and keep it from being too complex. What I mean by that is you line up with the tank and your barrel tilts up/down so you are aimin at the right elevation. Maybe this could be an option, and you would use "lock".

Also, it would be cool to have climate. Imagine snow coming down on the ground, and you follow a cl tank by their tracks. Mud would be cool too. HS tank flies by, spraying mud in the air. All cosmetic stuff.

Everything should still look good with a computer with only 12 or 16mb of VRAM, this puts a limiter on things, but I think we would cut out a lot of people by changing the comp requirements.

I think we could include some ideas from an old MS-DOS tank game called Tank Wars, by Kenny Morse. It's pretty much got the same idea as Scorched Earth, but way better with wacky nukes and lasers and really hilarious AI. It's pretty hard to find anymore, so if anyone wants a copy, PM, email me, or find me on #bzflag. It's a must-play for anyone who likes cheesy multiplayer DOS games as much as I do

P.S. The way Tank Wars was written, it doesn't play well on any computer faster than a 100 MHz 486DX (that's even a stretch) To get the full impact of the game, you need to run it on a 33 MHz 486 or 386. I also have had lots of fun running it under DosBox on my Mac.

I have a joystick with z axis controls, hat for aiming, etc. I have a Linux system that I use as an internal network server at home. I also have three Windoze computers that cannot be switched over to Linux for various reasons. So, I game with my WinXP Pro machine. It would be nice to have joystick support on that platform. Then, z-axis options for gun elevation and other things like that would be available. It would also be a step toward playing on my large-screen tv, because then I can sit back in a chair with the joystick in my lap or on the arm of the chair. Can't do that well with a keyboard very well, so i have to game in front of a small monitor.

Lots of others have been searching for joystick support in Win client. It would benefit them, too.

$0.02

toaster: 1.11 has joystick support on (almost) all platforms, including windows.

that's good news. will it recognize all the joystick functions, or just x,y, and button 1/2 ?

X/Y and buttons 1-10 as it stands, but it would be fairly easy to add additional functions if they were of value, and if one of the developers had hardware with them on it.

I think it would be fun if the teleporters (not all on a map, but a few) would take you to another map/server.

Sorry to revive a slightly old thread, but the best tank-related fun I've had recently has been driving the Goliath in Unreal Tournament 2004 in Onslaught mode. You have a rotating turret with restricted vertical aim, can drive on all sort of terrain, and fire absolutely deadly shells (with mucho splash damage). A second player can hop aboard and fire the mounted machine gun to shoot down aircraft. While the tank turns and moves slowly, the long-range lethality of the gun means you can sit back behind the brow of a hill and blow away enemies, just like in real-life tanks

Of course, UT2004 is a commercial game, but you can try the demo at http://www.unrealtournament.com/ut2004/downloads.php. Note the existence of Linux and Mac versions, yay.

On a gameplay aspect, the more popular multiplayer games these days are the ones with more of a 'point'. Deathmatching, and even capture the flag, after a while gives the feeling of 'so why am I doing this?'. Having a series of objectives, capturing ground or completing a mission seems to be the current trend for encouraging repeat play. Oh, and having lots of vehicles to play with. Maybe its time to integrate BZFlag and SGI Flight Simulator

well maybe a tank game that im actually good at

If you want to play more realistic tank games, you should try Battlefield Vie****m.
The texture is good, the sound is good. You can send team commands and go up hills and down to rivers if you get a waterproof one.
But, the tanks are weak to planes.
Sorry it is only for windows only.

In fact, BZFlag is good at its simple tank, jumping feature, and BIG shots, unrealistic enough to get fun with it. But if there are sand textures instead of the "grass", it would become the best hit to me.

bzflag is perfect in my opinion. Really!