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Archive-name: games/bolo-faq
Last-modified: 1993/11/29
Version: 1.7

alt.netgames.bolo Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Version 1.7 - November 29, 1993
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Compiled and maintained by Cory L. Scott (aka Kimboho)
([e-mail])
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This file is meant to be displayed in good ol' Monaco 9 point.
You are strongly encouraged to read this FAQ before posting to a.n.b.
If you have any questions or comments about this FAQ, please email
[e-mail].

There are two versions of the FAQ: one is in plain text, and the other
is a standalone document for the Macintosh. The text FAQ will be posted
twice a month, and the standalone FAQ will be posted once a month to
alt.netgames.bolo ONLY. The text version is also available via anon FTP
at rtfm.mit.edu.


Table of Contents
-----------------
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? 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. Yes, it had to come eventually. So, tell me about the rankings.
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?

ALT.NETGAMES.BOLO AND OTHER MISC. STUFF

I. I've got a new idea for Bolo! Shouldn't I post it to a.n.b right
away?
II. Shareware Fees

BOLO FACTS AND STRATEGY

I. Common questions/misconceptions/facts about Bolo
II. Where can I find other maps or create my own?
III. What are some of the guidelines I should follow for making maps?
IV. Now what's this about Brains?
V. Where can I get Brains?
VI. How do you write Brains?
VII. Finally, how about some strategy tips?

-----------
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 indifferent 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 0.99.2.

What's going to be in the new version of Bolo and when will it be out?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The new version should be released before Christmas, according to Mr.
Cheshire, and will have bug fixes for the lag effects of the enchanted
canoe and "base grab without ammo" attack. Mines may change. The
gunsight will have an option that will allow it to be left on all the
time. Farming mined trees should still be okay. He is also going to
write code to alert you when Bolo detects a player moving too fast for
the terrain, taking too much damage without dying, or firing too many
shots without refuelling.

The short term plan is to get the next version out as soon as I can.
That will automatically invalidate all the hacks, and while the hackers
are working on new hacks I'll get the security features done.(Note: Some
of these things are still in development and are subject to change.)

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. There's rumors of a port to X-Windows, but don't count on it
anytime soon. 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. 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 or aurora.alaska.edu. Some of these sites also carry
older versions of Bolo.
For example, you can get bolo-0992.hqx by anonymous FTP at sumex-
aim.stanford.edu in the directory /info-mac/game/bolo.

-------------
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.
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 Mike Ellis, 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 gwis.circ.gwu.edu 1234.

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.

You can also organize games and discuss strategy with folks on the IRC
channel #bolo.

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.)

Remember, if someone asks you to leave - LEAVE. There are plenty of
games out there.

What if I'm in Europe? How do I find a game?
--------------------------------------------
European Bolo tracker host site address: ray.abo.fi (130.232.80.3)

Quoted from [e-mail]:
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.

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.

Yes, it had to come eventually. So, tell me about the rankings.
---------------------------------------------------------------
You can rank your Internet opponents now, with the results being posted
every week or so to a.n.b. What you do is send email to
[e-mail], with the names of your opponents and what
ranking you would give them. Here are the ranks:
Bolo-God 7
Bolo-Emperor 6
Bolo-King 5
Bolo-Prince 4
Bolo-Warlord 3
Bolo-Knight 2
Bolo-Serf 1

You can get a copy of the current rankings by fingering
[e-mail].

(Maintainer's note: Realize that the ranking system is very subjective.
Don't let it define your manhood.)

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, [e-mail])
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. 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.

---------------------------------------
ALT.NETGAMES.BOLO AND OTHER MISC. STUFF
---------------------------------------

I've got a new idea for Bolo! Shouldn't I post it to a.n.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.

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.

-----------------------
BOLO FACTS AND STRATEGY
-----------------------

Common questions/misconceptions/facts about Bolo
------------------------------------------------
* When a builder is killed, the man comes back to where his tank was
when he died, not to where the man died.
* It takes 9 shots to kill a tank with full shields.
* It takes 15 shots to kill a pillbox with full armor.
* It takes 5 shots to destroy one section of wall.
* It takes 1 bundle of trees to build a pillbox.
* It takes 1/2 of a bundle of trees to build a road or wall.
* A tank can hold 40 mines.
* It takes 20 seconds to completely refuel a tank with no armor, shells
or mines.
* It takes 4 mines to kill a tank.
* It takes 5 bundles of trees to build a boat.
* A tank can hold 40 shells.
* A mine exploding next to a tank will damage the tank.
* Shooting from a boat, you can only hit land one square from the shore.
* Shooting from a boat: 1 hit sets off a mine, 1 hit destroys a piece of
bridge, 4 hits turns grass into swamp, 4 hits turns swamp into shallow
water, 4 hits turns gravel (dead bldg.) into shallow water.

* Here's how alliances work: (From Stuart's FAQ)
1. Select a person whose alliance you would like to join on the
"Players" menu and select "Request Alliance" on the "Bolo" menu.
2. If agreeable, that person should then select your name on their
"Players" menu and then select "Request Alliance" or "Invite New
Allies". If you are in an alliance, the menu choices are "Invite New
Allies" and "Leave Alliance". If you are not, then the menu choices are
"Request Alliance" and "Cancel Request". Take care that you have the
correct players selected on the "Players" menu when requesting/inviting.
If you are already in an alliance, you must select "Leave Alliance"
first before you can join a new one.
* If you leave an alliance while sitting on a base, that base will
become "neutral" with no shields left, and it will be (at least
temporarily) yours. Any pillboxes you're carrying will be yours.
* When you shoot an enemy base and run over it, it will not completely
be in your possession until it gathers enough strength to defend itself.
* Pillboxes shoot at the nearest enemy.
* Pillboxes shoot from their center to your center, but you can hit them
on the corners.
* Also a base holds (apparently) 90 shots, 90 mines, and 18 armor units
(enough to rearmor two tanks with no spare armor units, plus 2 left to
defend itself). Hence, it takes 18 shots to destroy a fully-armored
base. Although, you can often run over a base when you only pluck 17
shots into it, before it shows an "X" in the status window.
* Maximum speed across (shallow) water without a boat is same as across
swamp or rubble (call it, "base speed"); across trees is twice faster,
across grass is a bit over four times faster, and across road is over
five times faster (~5.4) than base speed.
* You lose 5 mines and 5 shells, but no trees, per cell of water
traversed without a boat (at base speed), except for the first cell so
traversed if entered at road speed (no such reprieve if entered at base
speed; at grass speed you can make it across a single cell, but for more
you lose 2 more mines/shells than entering at road speed). A fully
loaded tank entering water from a road can traverse eight water cells
and still have 5 shells and 5 mines at the end (40 - 7*5 = 5).
* Trees grow first next to existing trees, then in decreasing order, on
grass, rubble, crater, swamp, road.
* Roughly the number of continuous squares of water you can cross
without sinking, if you have a full load of trees and a cyborg (like
Nexus) building roads under you automatically: 22
* From Stuart's FAQ: Bolo is the Hindi word for communication. Bolo is
about computers communicating on the network, and more importantly about
humans communicating with each other, as they argue, negotiate, form
alliances, agree [on] strategies, etc.
* Different versions of Bolo cannot communicate with each other.
* The more weapons you have, the bigger the explosion when you die.

Lag can screw things up. For example:
* You can run over boats without getting on them and sink in deep sea.
* Walls (and land) don't register being shot, so you must shoot more
slowly or use a lot of extra ammo during heavy lag.
* There are two messages that are displayed when someone quits a game:
So-and-so is quitting. So-and-so left game. When they get dropped by
netsplit, you only see one: So-and-so left game.
* If you're on a boat, and enter a twilight zone of nasty lag, you can
fly through walls, pillboxes, bases, everything else. Of course,
sometimes the lag abruptly ends, leaving you somewhere really strange.
This is often referred to as the "enchanted canoe" effect, from a Ren &
Stimpy cartoon.

Where can I find other maps or create my own?
---------------------------------------------
There's absolutely TONS of maps you can play on. You can get them at
sumex-aim.stanford.edu, mac.archive.umich.edu, aurora.alaska.edu, or
saloon.intercon.com for starters. Try different ones out for the
different types of play you may use. Some are small and some are
gigantic. Sometimes maps are posted on a.n.b. So, you want to create
your own map, eh? Glad you asked. . .

Bolo Map Editors
section contributed by Pete Gontier
(complaints to: [e-mail])
===================================
A map editor is an application which supports the creation of Bolo maps.
There are two sorts: interactive and random. Interactive editors are
similar to the painting and drawing applications with which the reader
is undoubtedly familiar. There is most often a variety of tools with
which to manipulate the map, adding and changing the various terrain
types and objects. When running a random map generator, however, the
user might merely be prompted to enter several parameter ranges within
which the program generates a map in an automated fashion. Interactive
editors have the advantage of giving the user great control over the
map, but they also has the disadvantage of giving one possible player
(the map creator) too much familiarity with the map's geography. Random
mapgenerators, of course, solve this problem, but the maps they generate
lack the sophistication of a hand-built map. Some people prefer to start
with a map generated by a random program and then fine-tune the map with
an interactive program. There is actually a third sort of map editor,
but there is only one example of it: Bolotomy.

Interactive Bolo Map Editors
----------------------------
BoloStar (tm)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
version reviewed: 1.5 of April 26, 1993
author: Keith Fry ([e-mail]) & Dan Rudman
([e-mail])
distribution:  shareware, $10
system requirements: 900K/1024K, System 7
documentation: extensive (for shareware)

BMAPEdit
~~~~~~~~
version reviewed: 1.2 of June 21, 1993
*Note: There is now a version 1.3*
author:  Carl R. Osterwald ([e-mail])
distribution:  shareware, $10
system requirements: 800K/1024K, System 6.0.4
documentation: average (for shareware); includes Balloon Help

Both BoloStar and BMAPEdit are impressive applications. They each have a
feature list as long as you would expect from a 1.X-level release of any
commercial software. They each are designed and executed extremely well.
A few things, of course, set them apart. BoloStar has as much well-
written documentation as you might expect from a shareware product,
complete with a few recommendations on map editing techniques, in
addition to nuts-and-bolts operational details. BMAPEdit, on the other
hand, makes up for in Balloon Help whatever it might lack in
documentation. BoloStar supports plug-in external command files which
can perform operations on the current map selection. One external
included with BoloStar, for example, is a versatile random island
generator which can relatively gracefully generate additional island
space on top of existing islands. BoloStar also supports "scraps", like
Bolo map clip art, in a special menu. BMAPEdit, for its part, has a
generally more intuitive interface and has a few more useful built-in
features.

Random Map Generators
---------------------
MapGenerator
~~~~~~~~~~~~
version reviewed: 0.97 of April 27, 1993
author: Markus Julen ([e-mail]) & Ambros Marzetta
([e-mail])
distribution:  shareware, $10
system requirements: 450K
documentation: none found in archive
*The program's version data claims this is the release date, but the
modification date of the file is the 28th. This generator is truly
random. The user has no control over the randomness. It tends to
generate maps of roughly the same size each, but within each map there
are widely varying degrees of land, water, forest, etc. This generator
also is happy to generate the "man-made" aspects of a Bolo map,
including walls, bases, pillboxes, roads, rubble. It even generates some
rather complex man-made areas, like ports, mazes, and super-bases, near
which are several bases and several pillboxes. Unfortunately, this
program crashed fairly often in testing, which is not surprising since
its version number would seem to indicate it is a pre-release version.
However, crashing does not result in much lost work, because the program
works quickly and it is easy to reboot and run it again.

RandomMap
~~~~~~~~~
version reviewed: 1.1.0 of July 1, 1993
author:  Peter N. Lewis ([e-mail])
distribution:  freeware
system requirements: 293K, System 6
documentation: sufficient

This random map editor allows a fair amount of control over the
parameter ranges of generated maps. Parameters: rows, columns,
percentage of land, percentage of forest (on the land), number of bases,
number of pillboxes, and base maximum supplies. Unfortunately, while
allowing more control, RandomMap does not generate such things as roads
or mazes.

Miscellaneous Map Editing Tools
-------------------------------
Bolotomy (tm)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
version reviewed: April 29, 1993
author:  Alan Witmer (fostex!alan_witmer@dartvax*) & Jerry Halstead
(fostex!jerry_halstead@dartvax*)
distribution:  shareware, $8
system requirements: color, possibly System 7, possibly a Quadra
documentation: sufficient
*It's possible your mailer will know where dartvax is, but it's not
likely. The authors should mail the FAQ maintainer with better
addresses.

This is informal software, folks; the authors haven't had a chance to
test on much else. This is a tool to convert any PICT into a Bolo map.
It uses sophisticated image analysis algorithms to pick terrain types,
sizes, and placements. It doesn't have a huge feature list; it gets its
job done and gets out of the way; but there are some adjustments for the
user to make so that the transfer goes as desired.

What are some of the guidelines I should follow for making maps?--------
--------------------------------------------------------
(From Matt Slot, [e-mail])

Note: This is simply advice on how to make a good map, but different
people feel differently about map making, so try different styles if you
like.
------
Some maps are neat, others play well, and some just suck. Maps that have
a particular shortage of trees, a poor layout of the islands, or most
annoyingly start positions beyond the edge of the explored universe.
Maps should be well thought out so that:
* There is a well distributed selection of bases. No clumps of more than
3 within a 30 square diameter.
* Trees are in abundance, and more can grow back easily everywhere.
(Note: Some maps have "resource strategies", where trees are precious.
Maps like these can also be fun to play. - cls)
* Land should not have Deep Water embedded into it or without a suitable
shallow water buffer.
* Start positions should be within sight of land, but still in deep sea.
* If you need to make a big map, make it easy to traverse it. If you
make one with lots of islands, make them close enough to be visible to
each other.
* Remember realism is as important as playability -- but both can make a
map very enjoyable.
* Large Maps, Small Teams - When playing a 2 on 2 or a 3 on 3, the map
should definitely be no bigger than 100 by 100. For 4-6 players, maps
between 50 by 50 and 75 by 75 are optimal. For 6-8 players, maps from 70
by 70 to 90 by 90 are optimal. For more players, maps should still be
less than 120 by 120. A large map slows the game down to a crawl, where
a player must make a long foray into heavily mined territory to find a
single base/pillbox, kill it and return home without refueling. To
defend more than a small area involves a large network of roads which
are easily mined. In general, In either case the game is not one of
skill, but who has the most patience (and time!).

Now what's this about Brains?
-----------------------------
Brains are small bits of code that allow the computer to control your
tank for you. The first brain was Stuart's autopilot. You can use brains
for various uses. You can set a slew of brains to fight it out on a new
map to determine its playability. You can use them as allies. You can
fight against them for practice. Remember, though, for each brain, you
have to use a separate copy of Bolo. For example, I sometimes run 3
brains on my Centris 610, and run a 4th copy of Bolo to play myself.
That's how you can play by yourself. Just choose Appletalk (even if the
machine is isolated), and run three or more copies of the application,
with one Brains folder (which hold the different Brain codes), and join
in yourself. Ally them to make it more interesting. There are now brains
called cyborgs (or borgs, for short). They allow you to control certain
parts of the game, while it controls another. For example, a borg might
control your builder, so you don't have to mess with getting trees and
building roads. Others might be used for navigation. If you don't want
people to play with borgs in your game, make sure you turn off computer
tanks in the game setup dialog.

Where can I get Brains?
-----------------------
You can get brains at sumex-aim.stanford.edu, mac.archive.umich.edu,
saloon.intercon.com, or aurora.alaska.edu. Each site has different
versions and varieties. They are often posted to a.n.b directly.
The following list contains the known and publicly available brains.

Full Bots:
----------
Indy 1.4 (There's mention of a beta version out therefor 1.5)
Dumbot 0.5
Standard Autopilot (comes with the Bolo package)
Helper Autopilot .02
Tonto 1.0 (Formerly Milo's Autopilot)
Rover .01
Maxwell 1.4
RicklesBot (Just randomly insults players - nothing else)

Cyborgs:
--------
Nexus 1.2.1
Navbot

Note about Indy from its author:
Q: "I can't get Indy to work, when I select it from the menu nothing
happens."
A: You haven't increased the memory size. Indy takes memory form the
bolo application heap. If there is not enough memory then Bolo will not
load the brain. Bolo requires from 450-1200k depending on the map used,
if sound is installed, and if a memory hungry brain like Indy is on. I
haven't had any problems with Indy 1.4 running average size maps on a
1200k partition.

How do you write Brains?
------------------------
Stuart included some sample code and directions for writing brains in
the Bolo package. Also, there is a mailing list which discusses brain
programming. To subscribe, send mail to [e-mail],
with any subject, and body subscribe brain Your Name.
You can mail to the list by sending to [e-mail].

Finally, how about some strategy tips?
--------------------------------------
Well, okay. Here you go:
----------
From Steve Kives ([e-mail])

I think most anyone can take a lone pb within a half-minute if they are
not worried about: 1) running their armor down to zero, and 2) lurkers
in the woods nearby. My standard strategy is this: Shoot two spaces near
the pb for buildings. These spaces are usually spaces #2 and #3 in a
straight line away from the pb. But don't build yet. Rush in and pile on
the shots. Plan on receiving one hit, and circle away with no more
damage. The pb is 1/3 damaged and angry. Build your buildings and line
yourself up, not on the same straight axis with pb/buildings, but just
one lane over. This allows careful placement of the crosshairs on the
pb, while the pb must shoot through the buildings before any shots hit
you. If you have a pb, use a pb in space #3. Keep the cursor on the pb
after building. Saddle up the lane after a few seconds, when the pb is
only slightly mad, and pour in the glancing blows. If you just built
buildings, some shots still get through, and you must tirade after about
2 seconds. If you built a pb, then don't move! When enemy pb is dead,
charge forward, simultaneously clicking the mouse button. Man fixes your
pb, which is irate. If a vulture comes out of the woods, he is meat.
This is a good and realistic strategy in a game crowded with cunning
players and many tricks-up-the-sleeves. The whole move takes 30 seconds.
Shoot for mines, and shoot the pb in one quick movement. Build
obstructions and clear defending mines when waiting for pb to cool a
little. Then move in for coup-de-grace and fix your pb in a deft stroke
(when shots are not hitting you -- don't get your man killed). This
strategy generally deals with problems 1 and 2 mentioned previously.
Also, lay a minefield several spaces behind you, and right outside the
margins of nearby forests. This helps punish the vultures. As far as
base-defenses go, I think the most successful strategy is to lay
scattered mines (not chain-reactable) throughout the entire firing rage
of your pbs, and a little beyond. Especially lay mines right next to pbs
and your bases, though it can make refueling a little delicate. There is
nothing more satisfying than seeing an enemy spiker blow his man up.
Time to bum-rush his pillboxes! A very important element of pb-defenses
is adverse terrain. A swamp is great, otherwise use lots of craters.
This severely inhibits enemy builders doing bad things to you, and road-
building into your base shows up like a beacon on the pillbox-view
function. For the devious, a proven strategy is to sneak up directly
behind the enemy attacking your base/pbs. This means, of course, a very
wide circle flanking movement, because you cannot let him see you. When
sneaking up behind, just charge right in and shoot! Why does this work?
Because auto-scroll has a number of failings, and this is one of them.
His autoscroll will continue to view your pbs at 10 spaces away, while
you sneak up to within a couple of spaces on the other side. This tactic
is lethal every time. Of course, nothing beats the pb-gathering tactics
of a couple of old- pros who can decoy-kill at light speed. One game, I
hooked up with "Stranger" and we did this without any verbal(typing)
communication of any kind. Wasn't necessary. Took a pb every 20 seconds
for a few minutes (refueling when we had to) and the game was a joke.
The other team evaporated to other games when they saw the pbs
disappearing that quickly from the status window. If the other team
doesn't have similar tacticians, they haven't a chance. A wonderful
example of this tactic occurs when you find an enemy(uninhabited) base
with two pbs flanking. Draw an imaginary line from one pb, through the
other pb, and extended on out several spaces. Shoot for mines first! Put
a building on this line (space #1 away from enemy pb). Put a pb on this
line next (space #2). Your friend gets behind friendly pb just as you
shoot (from furthest possible distance) the farthest pb from your
friendly pb. If you do this right, this pb will start blowing away the
other enemy pb, which consequently starts to blow away the building,
then the friendly pb. But both enemy pbs are dead before anyone is
scratched! And your friend should instantly repair friendly pb to help
ward off well-armed vultures. This tactic fails when the enemies return
too soon and start bickering. But this tactic works WAY too often when
the maps are huge. If you like to lurk, find a well-traveled road
through the woods. Check for mines in the ambush site, then lay 3-4
mines in a row right next to the road(in the trees). Wait precisely on
the opposite side, in the trees. When sucker comes through (even if
going slowly for mine-caution) you start shooting first, damaging him
and pushing him into opposite row of mines. A few more shots and it's
over. AS far as safe-guarding your man goes (dead man is several times
worse than dead tank) many players on the Internet need some serious
help! I see the same mistakes made time and time again, by players that
should have seen the light much sooner. Lesson #1: mines abound!
Especially around enemy bases. Doing something with the man? Shoot the
prospective location(s) first. It's worth the ammo. By far. Lesson #2:
people love to shoot little defenseless enemy builders. I know I do!
When sending the man out, and there are enemy tanks around, the man
should NEVER cross anything but pavement and grass (or trees, but only
if you're being sneaky). Some players are so anxious torpor a pb, that
they spuriously send the man over 6 craters and 4 swamp spaces. Gun
fodder.
----------
From Tobin C. Anthony, [e-mail]

My pb strategy is somewhat different on UDP than AppleTalk. On
AppleTalk, I just sidled up to a box, move my crosshairs to full range
and rest them on the opposite edge of the pb and blast away. The pb
depletes a lot of your armor but it pushes you away with each shot.
Finally, you are out of range but with little armor. You just wait a
minute and gather wood and wait for the pb to chill. Then you can blast
it straight on again providing you waited long enough. This method all
but depletes your armor but even with the chill-out time it is the
fastest way to get a pb. I found that there are no prizes for getting
pb's retaining most amount of armor. The thing you want to minimize is
the time spent grabbing the pb before your enemy does a pb check and
comes blasting away. If one of my bases is close enough, I will even
take that cool-down time to replenish my armor. I am not proud. On UDP,
I find that netlag usually works against you. You might end up killing
the pb but you will get blown to bits as well. It's frustrating to blast
a pb and wait there anxiously as the net grinds to a halt. You only see
a few shots changing hands but you end up materializing somewhere else
far away from the pb with a tantalizing but short- lived 'x' on the
statusboard. You can use a lot of the other methods mentioned previously
to attack a pb under UDP but there is no substitute for having an ally
to act as a decoy(Bolo raison d'Étre??). Two allies can start out near a
friendly base and end up mowing down a swath of enemy pbs in no time.---
---------------
From Eric Hiris ([e-mail])

Using Pillboxes (offensively): 1) spiking the enemy base(s) - that is,
placing a pillbox next to the enemies base (for you novices out there,
this works best if you place your pb right next to the enemy base -
watch out for mines though). 2) attacking enemy pbs. That is using your
pb as a superwall to shoot around when attacking a pb. Just be
forewarned: there are vultures out there waiting to capture both your pb
and the one you are attacking. 3)shooting your own pb when other are
near - kablooie! (or is this defense?)Bases: Despite what you might
think from discussions in this newsgroup, bases are how the game is won
or lost. If one team has all the bases, then everyone else has lost.
Period. Therefore, take as many as you can early in the game and defend
them to the best of your ability. If you are satisfied with two early in
the game, well, uh, good luck. If you take 10 bases right away, you will
lose some of them, but so what? You got 8 more. :) Base placement during
map making: Personal Opinion: If you are making a map, please please,
please do not put bases adjacent to each other. Forests: The importance
obviously depends on the map. If there is forest everywhere, trees are
almost a non-issue. If there are few forests, by all means, go hide in
the enemies for a bit and when no one is around take the forest or
destroy it. In some sense, it is like killing all your enemies' men if
the remaining forests are guarded well. Another thing to be aware of is
that water, walls, roads, and swamp adjacent to forest will eliminate or
greatly reduce the regrowth of forest. Use this to your benefit or
against your enemies to the best you can. As stated recently in this
newsgroup, forest grows back most rapidly on grass when it is surrounded
by other trees. Harvesting trees in a checkerboard pattern will result
in the fastest regrowth of trees if you are concerned about ecology :)
Walls: Some people like them, some people don't. They are mostly used
offensively - to hide behind when attacking a pb. Others try to use them
defensively, but my experience suggests that except for special
situations, walls are generally not effective in defense. The best use
for the walltool is to make boats. Roads: Nice, but if you make them,
people have a tendency to mine them right away. Roads are best used to
cover up gravel and mine blasts in your 'home' area, a place where
people will get pb'd to death if they try a mining run. Also two roads
will block a waterway that the enemy has been using (or a road and a
wall)Mines: I don't know if I want to start this again, but: 1) the most
effective use of a mine (I think) is to one mine on squares that share a
border with your pb. Therefore, when people try decoy tricks, the man
will die trying to build wall if they are not careful. If they do manage
to kill the pb, your enemy will hit the mine(s) before and or after the
pb and be weakened and slowed down, allowing you time to return for easy
revenge. Another note is that placing a pb on or within an area of slow
terrain(swamp, mine blasts, rubble) makes it a real pain for a pb to be
retrieved after it has been killed - again allowing you time to return
for revenge. 2)making water ways. This keeps enemy men with devious
plans away from your bases. Also, in regards to the 'big mine
controversy' that raged in this group recently: make waterways with
mines. As of yet there are no sea mines, so you are perfectly safe going
through mined enemy territory on a boat. Let them spend all their time
mining! 3) Mine randomly. Yes, this counts as a strategy, I hate it,
others love it, but until further notice this is a strategy, like it or
not. This strategy allows you to slow the pace of the game down to
almost 0. Be warned that your enemy will do the same and the enemy may
just circumvent all your mines by making a waterway. Personal Opinion:
use in desperation only.

-----------------
From Robert Fullmer ([e-mail])

If you can't take a pillbox without dying, 9 times out of 10, or don't
know how to run a two man, or are generally not quite an expert at the
game yet, spike only after careful consideration and approval from
teammates. Clearly, there are cases where this rule doesn't apply (when
you're not an expert but your allies are even greener, for example), but
I've had problems in the past with allies that pick up two or three
pills from one of my heavily fortified bases and spike them deeper than
we're ready to take. We lose the pills, and if they repeat the exercise
for long enough, the game. Spiking is an art. It can make the difference
when used properly, but can lose the game when misapplied. So this is a
call to newbies: If you're thinking about spiking with a pillbox you
didn't just capture yourself, check it out with your allies first.
-------------
End of alt.netgames.bolo FAQ
-------------
Maintained by Cory L. Scott, [e-mail]
--
Cory L. Scott            | "They're inhabitants of alt.tasteless. . .] where
[e-mail] |  they march to a decidedly different drummer, and,
University of Chicago    |  when they're done marching, usually shoot him."
-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-| - Dave Ratcliffe -|-|-|-|