thouis / tankhunt

Tankhunt version 0.0.0
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This is tankhunt, a game conceived of by Ray Jones and written by Ray
Jones and Michael Moore.  ([e-mail], [e-mail])

The idea of the game is not to die.  Beyond that, it's up to you.  The
code has been kept simple on purpose, with the intent that people will
modify and add to the code.  The game now is primarily a "shoot-em-up"
game, with very little strategy, but it could be changed to be almost
anything (Steal the Flag, Ultimate Frisbee, Soccer, Football... Hide
and Seek or Kick the Can, even.)

It's based on several other games out there, but primarily it tried to
copy Bolo for the Apple II.  It also has elements of Xtank, Netrek,
and Hunt.  It is probably most like Xtank, but is not meant as a
replacement or competitor with it.

Tankhunt uses UDP sockets for communication.  This allows the server
to only open one port, and all the input from the clients is received
on this port, and sorted out by address and port of where the packet
originated.  

The code for the server is fast and simple (I hope).  From comparison
with Netrek, it should be able to run in excess of 100 players without
CPU slowdown.  I'm not sure how it compares Net-wise, though.  The
packets are small, so the network load should be a minimum.

To play a game:
Start the server on a machine.
Players can then connect at any time.

On server:
tank% tankhunt.server

On another machine:
other% tankhunt.client -server tank

See server/README and client/README for more information.

COPYRIGHT and OTHER INFO
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There is no copyright on this source.  If you can make money of off
it, do so.  If you make a lot of money off of it, please send us some.
Please don't try and keep other people from doing the same, though.

This game is not meant to be a game so much as something to make a
game out of.  You might have noticed three release numbers above.  The
first is a tree number, the second a release number, and the last a
patchlevel.  If you want to change or enhance the game in some way,
and plan to release your changes to the world, please mail me 
([e-mail]).  I will let you know what tree number you should
use.  The idea is to keep releases self-compatible and easily
distinguished from each other while still making it easy to change and
add to the game.

Of course, it's possible no one will want to add to the game.  That's
okay, it's still a pretty fun game as it is.  Best if played in a room
where you can yell at other players, since there is no support for a
message system (yet).  

If you like this game, let us know.  Especially if you make any cool
additions to it.

Ray Jones
[e-mail]
Michael Moore
[e-mail]