Official forums for BZFlag.org

I know its a tank simulation and not a billiard simulation, but how about the possibility to add spin to bullets.

• The spin is controlled by the turning rate of the tank while shooting.
• The spin effects how bullets ricochet off of walls

The spin effect does not have an impact on shot segments, meaning that every bullet flies straight. It only determines the angle of how the bullet bounces off the wall. The spin effect should not be a flag feature, but a map/server feature that can be turned on and off and is configurable. Configuration values:

• on and off
• friction factor
  how much does the spin effects the angle of the bounced bullet at each ricochet
• spin factor
  how strong the tank-turning effects the spin velocity
• spin preserve
  controls how much spin velocity does a bullet loose after each ricochet.
  A value 0 would mean that after the first ricochet the bullet would loose all it's spin.
  A value of 1 would mean that a bullet would fully preserve the spin velocity.
  A value of -1 would mean that a bullet would keep the full spin velocity, but the spin would be reversed (maybe a bit far fetched).

edit: changed configuration parameters

that would be cool or maybe a keyboard press to turn it on or off

It's actually quite an interesting idea - as sniper15 says, it might be better with a keyboard toggle.

The only trouble is - players that play with the keyboard will only have two turning speeds for spinning their bullets; full or half.

Wouldn't really require a toggle. You drive straight for shooting with no spin. Also a toggle would make it impossible to read spin, at least you can guess the spin from the shooters tank movement (if your good).
A toggle would make that a lot more random.

I think that would be very interesting, although it might make things a bit complicated.

It may be very confusing at start, but after you master the techniques, it could really add another dimension in which masters of the game can stand out from the crowd.

That is a pretty cool idea, it could be complicated like quantum tank said, but I would say a lot of server owners would do that on there's.
So yah thats a pretty cool idea.

In my humble opinion, way too complicated. Masters already stick out in this game and if we do spinning bullets with all these variables and stuff... people will want movable turrets and the like later on. No thanks, but a neat thought.

That would start a new era for the gu and the duc league...

Quantum Tank wrote:bit complicated.

ducatiwannabe wrote:way too complicated [..] with all these variables and stuf

Maybe I didn't do a good job in explaining.
The variables is only server settings, it's where the server owner specifies these values once. It is like the setting for maximum speed, max reload etc etc.
So the player who is shooting doesn't need to configure or enter shot variable values for each shot (I admit, that would be complicated).

Take the example with maximum tank speed: Just because there is a value that specifies the maximum tank speed on a server, doesn't mean that this makes it complicated to drive a tank.

So just because the configuration has three values for spin, does not mean that it makes the game complicated to play. Actually the playing itself would be really very natural and intuitive. There are no additional buttons you need to press or configure. It is all done by the way you move about.

ducatiwannabe wrote:people will want movable turrets and the like later on.

I am afraid I am missing the movable turret reference. Movable turret would require redesign of the game in regards to tank control and game play types.

It honestly sounds overly complicated, even with the server controlling the variables. I don't see how it would be useful or fun.

I actually think this would be very fun. It would really add a whole new dimension of realism to BZFlag!

I'm not sure how "realism" and "bullet spin" go together, but you guys are more then welcome to make a fork of the project with this type of gameplay. It is not something for bzflag.

Maybe not "tank battle realism", but that is something bzflag hardly is, and that's why it's a great game:)

It is very much of an arcade game, where with only a simple way of game control you can allow the tank to do a lot, the game control feels very natural and intuitive, I think that is what was ment with realism.

The bullet spin would add a dimension in natural game control.

I was thinking of implement it and see how it feels like. Should be fairly trivial, though would require extending/breaking the protocol (haven't checked yet). But if there is no interest for having it as an optional switch in the standard version, I'd probably wouldn't bother.

Im just wondering here,other games where people host there own servers let them configure options,so now,if foo knows how to code this stuff up so shots can have spin,then eventually gets someone to agree to it,put it on their map/server,and try it out,couldn't he well..just do that?

Because it would need a client modification to work. Shots are done with the game client the players run, not the server.

But you are correct, he can get both the client and server changed and do it. That is the joy of open source. He has everything he needs, all we ask is that the net protocol version number be changed so that his modified game doesn't get mixed up with normal games and confuse anyone. Then you can even use the same list server and global auth, etc..

This is called a fork of the project. It's not bzflag, but Foo's BZFlag variant.