Pointblank(6D)
pointblank - armored vehicle warfare game
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NAME pointblank - armored vehicle warfare game SYNOPSIS pointblank [ -a ] [ scenario_file ] pointblank -l DESCRIPTION Pointblank is the successor to BZ(6D). It is a combat game allowing users to play against several players in a networked environment. Much of the game play characteristics of BZ(6D) have been preserved while adding new elements of game play such as three-dimensional terrain, buildings, and flying vehicles. OPTIONS The following command line options are recognized: -a Disable the game's audio. -l List the different scenario files available. The player's name can be specified with the PB_NAME environmental variable. Otherwise, the user id will be used. ABOUT THE SCENARIOS The game can be played in three modes: a free-for-all, destroy-as-many- opponents-while-staying-alive mode; a team-oriented, destroy-the- opponent's-goal mode; and a practice solotaire mode. The scenario_file command line option specifies what game will be played and the game mode. The free mode allows players to test their individual skills while incorporating some team play. Team scores are the sum of all of the individual scores of the team members. Players are penalized for destroying members of their own team. In goal mode, the game is played in rounds. The object is to destroy the opposing teams' goals while protecting your own. When all but one goal is destroyed, the round is over, the scores are summarized, and a new round is started. When a team loses its goal, its team members temporarily join the attacking team until the end of the round. After the round is over, all team members are returned to their original team. Teams scores are based on the number of goals won or lost. Losing a goal results in a 100 point penalty. Destroying a goal gains 100 points for the offensive team. All "captured" teams on the offensive team will also gain 100 points per goal as an incentive to help the new temporary team. In solo or practice mode, the player is pitted against non-mobile automatons. The automatons may be of varying skill levels. The object is to destroy all the goals present. Doing so ends the level and either starts a new level or ends the game if no other level is available. Objects and goals' radar visibility may be tied to the status of the automatons. For example, a goal may be surrounded by obstacles that only disappear after a key automaton is destroyed. Some (but not all) obstacles in solo mode may also be destroyed by weapon fire. GAME PLAY In the free-play mode, players will be prompted to choose a team after the introduction screen. The current number of members on each team is displayed in the number in the middle of each team color panel. In goal mode, a screen providing a brief description of the game's objective along with a display of the goal will be shown. By clicking on any mouse button, the player will advance to the team selection screen. After selecting a team, the player will be given a choice of vehicles. There are up to four vehicles available: Tank, Scout, Mauler, and Flyer. The vehicles are described later. Clicking on the left and right arrows will page through the different vehicles. A concise listing of the vehicle's capabilities and features will be displayed with each vehicle. Click on the middle panel when the desired vehicle is displayed. Once the vehicle is choosen, the vehicle will be inserted into the game. Control of the vehicles is essentially the same for each vehicle except as noted in the section covering the individual vehicles. For the ground vehicles, position the cursor at the top of the overlay circle to go full speed ahead, at the bottom of the circle for full reverse, and to the left or right to turn in the corresponding direction. Positioning the cursor outside of the circle does not result in an increase in speed or turning rate. For the flying vehicle, the cursor controls the pitch and roll of the aircraft. Placing the cursor at the top of the circle causes the vehicle to dive while positioning the cursor at the bottom of the circle causes the aircraft to climb. Moving the cursor to the left or right causes the vehicle to roll in the appropriate direction. The speed of the aircraft is controlled with the a and s keys to decrease and increase the vehicle's speed, respectively. It is impossible to stall the aircraft due to the advanced nature of the vehicle's avionics. It is, however, quite possible to crash into the ground or other obstacles. Individual scoring is based on the point value of the attacking vehicle and of the defeated vehicle. Point values of vehicles are displayed during the vehicle selection screen. THE WEAPONS There is a wide range of weaponry available in pointblank. Not all vehicles will have access to each weapon type. Standard Missile The standard missile is the basic weapon type and delivers a significant amount of damage (8 armor points). However, since no vehicle has a moveable turret, the standard missile can only be used in a limited number of situations. When fired, the standard missile will fly straight ahead until impact. The icon for the standard missile is a plain missile without any fins. Cruise Missile The cruise missile is much more useful in ground compact but delivers less damage (6 armor points) than the standard missile. The cruise missile follows the terrain at a (nearly) constant height, making it much more effective in hilly terrain. It does have a limited pitch rate, however, and so will not be able to negotiate abrupt changes in terrain. The icon for the cruise missile has green fins. Guided Missile The guided missile is useful in attacking hard to reach ground vehicles and is bringing down enemy aircraft, but delivers the least amount of damage of any of the missiles (4 amor points). When launched, the main view of the vehicle will be replaced by the missile's view as it flies. The guided missile will follow the cursor, so a player guides it by positioning the cursor over the target. The manueverability of the missile decreases with time. Note that pitch control is opposite the pitch control of the flying vehicle. The guided missile icon has red fins. Bomb The bomb is available only on the flying vehicle and can not be guided or controlled once released. The bomb does not require a direct hit to inflict damage. A direct hit results in 10 armor points worth of damage. Explosions in the vicinity of a target will inflict decreasing amounts of damage based on the distance to the target. Bomb damage is stopped by obstacles between the target and the bomb's site of impact. The bomb icon has blue fins. Mortar The mortar is basically a bomb that the Mauler vehicle can lob at targets. A direct hit inflicts 10 armor points worth of damage. Decreasing amounts of damage will be inflicted based on the distance to the target from the impact site. The mortar icon has no fins and is pinched near one end. Cannon Both the Flyer and the Tank have cannons. The cannons are useful only against Flyers which have little armor. The ground vehicles have too much armor for the cannon to be an effective weapon at 0.1 armor points worth of damage. However, the cannon can be fired much more quickly than the other weapons. With the execption of the Scout vehicle, each vehicle has two weapon pods. The right mouse button switches between the two pods. The left mouse button fires the currently active weapon and the middle mouse button controls the missile type to be loaded next. For the ground vehicles, the default pod provides access to the missiles. The missile pod has either 2 or 3 weapon bays depending on the vehicle. The bays are loaded sequentially and fired sequentially. A white triangle is displayed beside the next bay to be fired. When a bay is empty, the display will show it as blank. When a bay starts loading a missile, an icon of the missile type will be displayed against a yellow background for that bay. When the missile is loaded and ready to be fired, the background for that bay will switch to green. Once a bay starts loading a missile, the bay can not be changed. Using the middle mouse button will cycle through the missile choices and controls the missile type to be loaded into the next empty bay. The selected missile type is displayed at the bottom of the weapon bay display (on the lower right side of the dashboard display). Only one bay at a time can be loaded. This requires some degree of strategy to ensure that the proper missiles are loaded and ready to go before engaging an enemy. For the Flyer, the default pod provides access to the cannon. The lower right corner of the weapon bay display indicates when the status of the cannon (a yellow frame indicates loading, a green frame indicates ready). THE VEHICLES There are four vehicles available in pointblank. Three of them are ground-based vehicles, and the fourth is a flying vehicle. Not all vehicle types may be available in a given scenario. The basic vehicle is the Tank. It has moderate speed and armor and carries a wide choice of weapons. The alternate weapon pod, accessed by the right mouse button contains an anti-aircraft cannon. The drive train of the tank is disable while in the alternate weapon pod. The cursor controls the aim of the cannon (and cannon turret). The Scout is light on armor and weapons, but is the fastest ground vehicle. It does not have an alternate weapon pod and only has two weapon bays. The Mauler sacrifices speed for armor and weaponry. In the alternate weapon pod, access is granted to the mortar launcher. While in the alternate weapon pod, the vehicle will be stationary and the cursor is used to control the mortar aim. The horizontal position of the cursor controls the azimuth of the mortar and view. The vertical position of the cursor controls the inclination of the mortar when fired (the view is unchanged). Two numbers will appear above the targeting grid. The left number indicates the estimated range of the mortar. The right number is the value returned by the laser range finder. To find the distance to a target, position the cursor over the target and press the space key. Note that the estimated range of the mortar is based on level terrain. If the vehicle is on an incline or at a different elevation from its target, adjustments will need to be made while targeting. The Flyer is the only flying vehicle in the game. The mouse controls the pitch and roll of the aircraft while the a and s keys control the speed. The alternate weapon pod provides access to the bombs and switches the view to the underside of the aircraft. A red targeting diamond will be displayed to indicate where the bombs would hit assuming a level terrain (if the diamond is not visible, then the aircraft is either at too high an altitude or angle of attach for the impact site to be visible). It is impossible to land the flyer and therefore repair armor (see below). THE DASHBOARD The dashboard surrounding the main view provides information on the status of the vehicle and the game. Starting with the upper left corner of the display, the number of other players in the game is shown. The upper right corner reports the player's score. The vertical set of boxes on the far right of the lower portion of the dashboard indicates the percentage of damage sustained by the vehicle. To the left of the damage display is the weapon status display. The radar is displayed in the center of the lower portion of the dashboard. To the left of the radar is the speedometer, a message window, and the compass heading. THE RADAR The radar display is a three-dimensional display. The black reference lines represent the local horizon relative to the vehicle (ie, the player's vehicle is always at the center of the radar). Objects (either other players or goals) appear as dots. If the object is above the local horizon, a line is drawn below the object indicating the altitude and similarly for objects below the local horizon. Players and goals are colored according to their teams. Missiles always appear as white objects. Obstacles are not displayed on the radar. The range of the radar is controlled with the z and x keys to decrease and increase the range of the radar, respectively. A slider to the left of the radar display indicates the current range. The radar works via a satellite overhead. If the player's vehicle moves into a building and no longer has a direct line of sight with its satellite, it will lose its radar. It will also disappear from other player's radars since their satellites no longer have a direct line of sight to the vehicle. Goals may or may not be visible on radar, depending on the scenario. Goals are located by internal transmitters in the goals and are not subject to the line of sight restrictions listed above. RESTORING ARMOR It is possible to rebuild a vehicle's armor by parking on the debris of an exploding vehicle. As long as the parked vehicle does not move and as long as the debris lasts, nanomachines will scavenge the debris and repair the vehicle. The larger the destroyed vehicle, the more material available and the faster repairs will take place. Note that the flyer has no way of repairing armor. AUDIO CONFERENCING Pointblank implements a rather crude audio-conferencing capability. It works fine for a single player talking at a time, but rapidly breaks down if multiple players try to talk simultaneously. To transmit audio to everyone else playing in the scenario, hold down the left Alt key while speaking into the microphone (an input level of 10 is suggested). To talk to just members of the same team, hold down the left Ctrl key. OTHER KEYS There are just a few other keys used to control the game: r Used to kill the current vehicle. This is useful if the vehicle has ventured too far and has fallen off the end of the world. up/down arrows Controls the output audio volume. escape Exits the game. NOTES Pointblank uses Inventor 2.1 and requires an R4K CPU to run. XZ or better graphics are highly recommended. SEE ALSO bz(6D). Additional help is available in the showcase document /usr/demos/General_Demos/pointblank/data/PointBlankHelp.sc. AUTHOR Chris Fouts, Silicon Graphics.