HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: bwoodall@qualcomm.com (Bill Woodall)
Subject: Re: Reply to: Re: Reply to: Re: 3-d stuff
Reply-To: bwoodall@qualcomm.com
Organization: Qualcomm Mechanical Dept - CAD
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 15:21:06 GMT

Darren Senn writes:
[..]
>I like the _concept_ of 3D views, but a rather extreme problem has to be
>solved first: field of view.  Most flight simulators around nowadays are
>3D, but they have a horrible field of view.  Usually this is imposed by
>the shape of the viewable screen (width/height = 3/2).  They try to solve
>the problem by letting you turn your head with cryptic keystrokes, but
>there are almost always still blind spots.  A program could use a narrow
>horizontal band to get the wide angle view, but then your view resolution
>suffers.  I wouldn't want to play race with less than a 120 degree view
>angle.

	The early ideas for the 3D viewports were like this; the current
birds_eye_view window (ANIM_WIN) will be split up horizontal into two seperate
windows (not really, but that is what it will look like) with the same depth of
view as the overhead view currently.  The bottom section will be for the driver
view and the top section will be for the gunner/turret #1 (I realize that there
are two bodies that have no turrets; lcycle & trike, so top is forward and bottom is
rear facing views and maybe use "cryptic keystrokes" to turn one of the viewports).

	There will always be some sort of "blind spots" in 3D, but that is the
challenge of it 8)  !

	I`ll have to look back at the early code and see what the field of view
is set for, and maybe even get a screendump of an example out.


	Well, back to real fun . . .   Work


............Bill,

============================================================
	Man's capacity to learn is not fixed in any ordinary
sense.  It is not fixed in terms of the responses it will
produce;  it is not fixed in terms of absolute level of
knowledge it will achive. - 
============================================================
From: stripes@pix.com (Josh Osborne)
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
Subject: Bad free bug, possable fix
Date: 3 Oct 92 15:38:44 GMT
Article-I.D.: pix.BvJy4M.31E
Organization: Pix Technologies -- The company with no adult supervision

At least under SunOS using Sun's strdup and Sun's malloc-debug lib at
the same time is not possable.  Either edit sysdep.c and let it define
strdup, or edit the Imakefile and make sure it doesn't use the debugging
malloc.
-- 
           stripes@pix.com              "Security for Unix is like
      Josh_Osborne@Real_World,The          Multitasking for MS-DOS"
      "The dyslexic porgramer"                  - Kevin Lockwood
We all agree on the necessity of compromise.  We just can't agree on
when it's necessary to compromise.       - Larry Wall
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
From: stripes@eng.umd.edu (Josh Osborne)
Subject: Re: Reply to: Re: Reply to: Re: 3-d stuff
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 92 16:35:51 GMT
Organization: Project GLUE, Merriversity of Uniland, College Purgatory

In article <FULLMER.92Sep29003626@brazos.rice.edu> fullmer@rice.edu (Robert Fullmer) writes:
[...]
>I've noticed a lot of combat bias on this newsgroup. I think this is
>fostered, in part, by the admitted bias in that direction of the present
>group of xtank developers.

We don't have enough people to play non-combat games, try writing an easyer
ultimiate robot to get us hooked :-)

>Combat's a cool game, but I prefer ultimate. More to the point, I
>thought racing in 3D was actually a lot of fun (3D worked a little back
>at MIT when in was still in Terry's hands).

The limited view will make a the games diffrent, both more and less fun.
It *would* be nice to be able to sneek up on someone in combat...

>It's a bit myopic to think of xtank only as combat.

Or even as only the currently implmented games...
-- 
           stripes@eng.umd.edu          "Security for Unix is like
      Josh_Osborne@Real_World,The          Multitasking for MS-DOS"
      "The dyslexic porgramer"                  - Kevin Lockwood
            "NFS only behaves properly..."                  - jik@athena
                "...when the computer is not drawing power." - rbj@uunet
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
Subject: Very bad logic in radar.c
To: Xtank Mailing List <xtank@eng.umd.edu>
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 92 21:19:34 PDT
From: Darren Senn <sinster@scintilla.capitola.ca.us>
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.3 PL11]

This appears on lines 685 and 686 of radar.c:
	else if (v->special[(SpecialType) NEW_RADAR].status != SP_nonexistent
	       || v->special[(SpecialType) NEW_RADAR].status != SP_broken) {
Unless something truly strange is going on, this should always be true.

Reading through the code, I think this should be:
	else if (v->special[(SpecialType) NEW_RADAR].status != SP_nonexistent
	       && v->special[(SpecialType) NEW_RADAR].status != SP_broken) {
Since it's checking to make sure that the new radar is working (read: not
nonexistant and not broken).

-- 
Darren Senn                                    Telephone:       (408) 479-1521
Internet: sinster@scintilla.capitola.ca.us         Snail:    1785 Halterman #1
"... but why did it have to be made of sandstone?"        Santa Cruz, Ca 95062
From: scottd@cs.hw.ac.uk (Scott Dunn)
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
Subject: FAQ?
Date: 29 Sep 92 14:34:16 GMT
Organization: Dept of Computing & Electrical Engineering, Heriot-Watt University, Scotland

Hi,

Is there a FAQ and where can I get it?
Failing that, where can I get xtank?

Cheers,

Scott.
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
From: stripes@eng.umd.edu (Josh Osborne)
Subject: Re: Xtank release 1.3f bug
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 92 16:46:46 GMT
Organization: Project GLUE, Merriversity of Uniland, College Purgatory

In article <mjr.717398818@ursa> mjr@ursa.calvin.edu (Matt Ranney) writes:
[...]
>I noticed this too.  Whats with the negative points off value?

The negitave points off value (combined w/ the low price/point and low
weight/point) lets you put tons of it on and basicly reverses the "amount
of danger" diffrent weapons present you.  The -15 points off basicly
religates the amount of damage each bullet does to noise (most of the damage
will be done by the -15) so the number of bullets effects you alot.  Heavy
Rockets now no longer scare you, but someone with a light machine gun is
death incaranate...

(patches to the armor bugs have been posted here, but I don't have
access to them at the moment...)
-- 
           stripes@eng.umd.edu          "Security for Unix is like
      Josh_Osborne@Real_World,The          Multitasking for MS-DOS"
      "The dyslexic porgramer"                  - Kevin Lockwood
            "NFS only behaves properly..."                  - jik@athena
                "...when the computer is not drawing power." - rbj@uunet
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
From: stripes@pix.com (Josh Osborne)
Subject: Re: Problem with right boxes.
Organization: Pix Technologies -- The company with no adult supervision
Date: Sun, 27 Sep 1992 08:20:21 GMT

In article <Bv38p5.3ID@encore.com> epeterso@encore.com (Eric Peterson) writes:
[...]
>Also, I've noticed that the armor bars are not scaled properly on the
>console.  They seem to be displaying the absolute armor value rather
>than the percentage.  Is this a known problem or have I not configured
>something correctly?

Um, I forgot to put that in when I did the newconsole stuff.  How many
people would be upset if I just removed the item from the flags menu and
left it as is?
-- 
           stripes@pix.com              "Security for Unix is like
      Josh_Osborne@Real_World,The          Multitasking for MS-DOS"
      "The dyslexic porgramer"                  - Kevin Lockwood
We all agree on the necessity of compromise.  We just can't agree on
when it's necessary to compromise.       - Larry Wall
From: djkordsm@menudo.engr.ucdavis.edu (David Joseph Kordsmeier)
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.play
Subject: Re: help
Date: 2 Oct 92 18:54:24 GMT
Organization: College of Engineering - University of California - Davis

In article <1992Sep29.212421.5408@odin.corp.sgi.com> cam@raider.csd.sgi.com (Carlos Medeiros) writes:
>Keywords: xtank
>
>
>
>hey how do i get in on this game any one know the path to it
>
>
>help help help help


Xref: sparky rec.games.xtank.play:265 rec.games.xtank.programmer:498
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.play,rec.games.xtank.programmer
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 22:02:30 -0400 
From: "Timothy C. Worsley" <tw1r+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Limited Nuclear War

Excerpts from netnews.rec.games.xtank.play: 29-Sep-92 Limited Nuclear
War Bertil Jonell@dtek.chalm (2134)

>   One might think that a big ugly tank wearing factor 800+ crumple might clean
> the arena of the smaller tanks, and it will do so, but it will be worth so much
> that it gives the killer around 60000 to 100000 point in one fell swoop.


	This is a general problem with xtank scoring, and one which I've brough
up before.  Small tanks are simply superior to large tanks with the
current scoring system.  It's possbile that now is a good time for a
change.  This is partly brought on by the 6 weapons limit and the high
cost of armor, but mostly the scoring system is sick, and need help.
	A more sensible system would be to score points based directly on the
value of a tank you just killed and lose points based directly on the
cost of a tank you just lost.

ZZnew guy
Xref: sparky rec.games.xtank.play:271 rec.games.xtank.programmer:522
From: nabil@ogicse.cse.ogi.edu (Aaron Nabil)
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.play,rec.games.xtank.programmer
Subject: Mandatory bug-fix patch to 1.3f
Date: 2 Oct 92 08:40:41 GMT
Article-I.D.: ogicse.43538
Distribution: world
Organization: Explosive Space Modulators - R - Us


On line 807 of radar.c ...
806                          continue;
807                      for (i = 0; i < MAX_VEHICLES * 2; i++) {
808                          rdf->trace[vi][i].is_drawn = FALSE;

Remover the * 2, as it is scribbling past the bounds of the array.  I had
set the number of RDF slots higher for testing and forgot to reset
it later.  Sorry for the bother; a context diff follows...

*** /ogc/class/nabil/xtank.ref/Src/radar.c	Sun Sep 13 00:04:42 1992
--- radar.c	Fri Oct  2 01:37:48 1992
***************
*** 804,810 ****
  		for (vi = 0; vi < MAX_VEHICLES; vi++) {
  		    if (vi == v->number)
  			continue;
! 		    for (i = 0; i < MAX_VEHICLES * 2; i++) {
  			rdf->trace[vi][i].is_drawn = FALSE;
  			rdf->trace[vi][i].to_draw = FALSE;
  		    }
--- 804,810 ----
  		for (vi = 0; vi < MAX_VEHICLES; vi++) {
  		    if (vi == v->number)
  			continue;
! 		    for (i = 0; i < MAX_VEHICLES; i++) {
  			rdf->trace[vi][i].is_drawn = FALSE;
  			rdf->trace[vi][i].to_draw = FALSE;
  		    }

Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.play,rec.games.xtank.programmer
From: stripes@eng.umd.edu (Josh Osborne)
Subject: Re: Limited Nuclear War
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 92 17:03:30 GMT
Organization: Project GLUE, Merriversity of Uniland, College Purgatory

In article <0emEeq_00VpHIX3F1D@andrew.cmu.edu> "Timothy C. Worsley" <tw1r+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:
[...]
>cost of armor, but mostly the scoring system is sick, and need help.
>	A more sensible system would be to score points based directly on the
>value of a tank you just killed and lose points based directly on the
>cost of a tank you just lost.

Ok, try adding a new game (it isn't that hard).  Copy all the combat
stuff (or better yet, just have the newcombar_foo functions call the
combat_foo functions), just change the score stuff (grep for STQ_GAME,
it also effects the score system).  Send back the patches, we will include
it in the next release.  If most everyone thinks it is better then the old
combat we will drop the old score stuff.  It just about nobody like it we
will drop the new stuff.  If nobody makes up their mind we will think of a 
better name and keep both.
-- 
           stripes@eng.umd.edu          "Security for Unix is like
      Josh_Osborne@Real_World,The          Multitasking for MS-DOS"
      "The dyslexic porgramer"                  - Kevin Lockwood
            "NFS only behaves properly..."                  - jik@athena
                "...when the computer is not drawing power." - rbj@uunet
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.play
From: cam@raider.csd.sgi.com (Carlos Medeiros)
Subject: help
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 21:24:21 GMT

Keywords: xtank



hey how do i get in on this game any one know the path to it


help help help help
From: jch+@cs.cmu.edu (Jonathan Hardwick)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: GhOsTbUsT ScUmMiNg
Date: 26 Sep 92 18:24:48 GMT
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon

I wrote
> John Trivelli <jt2n+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes
> > Just wondering... any reason T-mode remains after a major ghostbust?
> 
> The players are still counted as being in the game (ie occupying
> slots) for a few minutes (exact number, anyone?) after being
> ghostbusted, which is why the server doesn't drop out of tmode.  If
> the server was modified to kick players out immediately they were
> ghostbusted, the incidence of scumming would be much reduced, but
> ghostbusts would be fatal to the player in question, ie you'd have to
> get back on the wait queue. 
> 
> Personally, if I'm ghostbusted from a good game, I *want* to be booted
> as soon as possible, in order to give my team the slot back.  But then
> I don't get ghostbusted much -- players for whom "We've been
> ghostbusted!" is a way of life might object to a server change... 

Of course, I didn't answer the "major ghostbust" bit : this generally
indicates a severed network link somewhere, which means no-one on the
wrong side of the break is going to be playing anytime soon.  Ideally,
servers would be much more vigilant about ghostbusted players -- if
more than one player enters ghostbust status, immediately clear the
ghostbusted slots, and keep doing this for any future ghostbusts over
the next (say) 30 seconds.  This wouldn't affect victims of
single-ship ghostbusts, but should clear things up after a multi-ship
ghostbust a lot faster. 

Jonathan H., jch@cs.cmu.edu                        Spaceman Spiff, Flying Pig
I run a Netrek information archive.   Access: [1] WAIS (gourd.srv.cs.cmu.edu, 
port 6000, name netrek-ftp)  [2] AFS (try cd /afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/jch/netrek)  
[3] Anon FTP from gs69.sp.cs.cmu.edu   [4] e-mail from ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com
From: botelle@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Justin Botelle)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: Poll of half-time (list)
Keywords: half-time INL polls
Date: 26 Sep 92 13:31:25 GMT
Organization: University of Pennsylvania

In article <#-!p-cj.genie@netcom.com) genie@netcom.com (Gene Choi) writes:
)
)Ok.  Here are the results of the poll of those who want/don't want
)half time in the INL matches.  I assumed that half-time would mean
)getting destroyed at the 1 hour mark, with all armies being placed
)on the home planet.  My comments about this poll are after this list.
)Y=WANT HALF TIME: N=DO NOT WANT HALF TIME
)
)
)Alec Habig		Y	Entropy		ahabig@bigbang.astro.indiana.edu
)Berd Enderton		Y	Red Shirt	hde@cs.cmu.edu

Nice one.  Have you ever heard the name "Berd" before?

)Justin Botelle		Y	FreeKill	botelle@eniac.seas.upenn.edu

Where the hell did you get this one from.  I am NOT Brian.  Not even close.
Though, both of use have the same size egos (we shop at big and tall men's
stores for hats :), we both think that we're far better than each other
(and everyone else for that matter)

)Justin Diachun		Y	Helix		diachun@ncifcrf.gov
)Leonard Dickens		Y	Wreck		leonard@cs.umd.edu
)Mark Johnson		Y	harle		harle@jablab.gatech.edu
)Michael Juster		N	chi		mj1g@andrew.cmu.edu

God, I just love you Mike.  P.S.  Shoot for the head, I got a bp vest.

)Mike Polek		Y	Zen Ogger	mcp@cs.umd.edu
)Rob Hill		Y	Spaceace!	hill@spaceace.vi.ri.cmu.edu
)Ron Echverri		Y	5150		rone@ucs.usc.edu
)Stephen J. Smith	Y	Gamera		sjsmith@cs.umd.edu
)Steve Von Worley	N	Sandia		von@cory.berkeley.edu
)Timothy Worsley		N	Lumchan		wildman@athena.mit.edu

So when does twr1 go down?  Can you keep an account there with no affiliation?
Does Hugh need to find another account (how about Julian HO.. he lent his
account to ensign).

)Tom Holum		Y	Mojo Riser	tom@soda.berkeley.edu

I like the name.  Maybe we could change it go Gollum.  Come here, my
precioussssss.

)One interesting trend I noticed immediately was that all CMU players
)except for Spaceace! did NOT want half-time, while most other
)players from schools all over the country want it.  Interesting..

No, most CMU players are weenies.  Half time will not benefit them, but will
most likely benefit the underdog.  Only Rob is more interested in game 
quality than game outcome.

Justin
From: stimpy+@cmu.edu (Tomato Boy)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: SS-XG stats
Date: 27 Sep 92 20:18:50 GMT
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

name            kills   losses   armies planets   hours
-------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Wizard          114      90      71      10    1.95
Balton               57      64      32       3    1.00
Hiemdall            109      89     134       4    1.94
EEK!!                30      81     186       0    1.97
Crouton Crunch       66      75     199      11    1.97
Baconbits Boy       118     100     178       6    1.95
Balinor             127     111     139       4    1.91
Undead Lettuce      117     147     140       0    1.89
Warsong              95     104     216       7    1.95
psycho feta          65     125     191       1    1.96
Akira               121     148     156       3    1.91
Erect Cucumber      118      78     183       8    1.88
Tired Egg Boy!      133      96     162       8    1.93
I Really SUCK!        8      10      27       0    0.24
ZZnew guy            61      93     136       6    1.93
Rhudabaga Boy        23      49      61       0    0.80
Tomato Boy           82      81     101       5    1.69

Starbases:
name            kills   losses  hours
-------------------------------------------------------
Balton             52     2   1.03
Rhudabaga Boy      31     2   1.12


sb losses may include deaths before the game started.
Why don't we have the server reset everyone's stats when
the game starts?? I'm gonna change mine to do that...

--Rick
"Bronco Netrek Server. You will never find a more wretched hive of
scum and villainy." -- Admiral Kenobi (aka Terence Chang)
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 09:25:20 -0400 
From: Tomato Boy <stimpy+@cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Mucus
	<0emZ1Ne00VpE4A5I0D@andrew.cmu.edu>

Nanci writes:
#
# Ceri Alun Morgan <cm5m+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:
# > Just like to thank mucus, hell peacock, and gandhi for ruining a
# > perfectly good game of netrek on bronco, this morning. Thanks guys.
# > 
# > -Ceri
#
# I'm sure they figured you needed to have your ego knocked down a notch or
# two.  I can't say I disagree with them....
#
# Nanci

Actually, I think the game knocked our egos UP a notch or two. 
Ceri and I were the only clue against Balton, EEK, ZZnew guy,
gandhi, MUCUS PIG, ignatious,and a couple borgs. (and later, 
Passing Wind and Grand Admiral Hell Peacock)
Yet, you guys COULD NOT genocide. You couldn't even come close.
It was a total DOOSH fest for us. Gandhi couldn't drop an army
to save his life. DOOSH. MUCUS got nabbed with 10 armies on
Castor. DOOSH. The borg base covering MUCUS taking Rom space
got nabbed with 18 armies. DOOSH. Poor runnerscum ignatious
got blown up with 6 armies so many times I lost track. DOOSH.
Ceri ended up with over 600 armies "bombed."  DOOSH.
Balton was the only one dropping armies with any success.
(pesky scout)
First EEK gives up, then Balton quit a couple minutes later
after a merry chase of his scout all over Kli space ending in
a two army DOOSH. So, of course MUCUS has to go for Rom space
since he's too lame to go for Kli space. And gandhi decides
to ESCORT him doing it. (even worse) Then a borg base goes up
there to escort him. Poor hapless ignatious kept trying to
sneak around through Rom space to take Kli planets, and we'd
DOOSH him on the way to catch MUCUS. (who, by the way, was
runnerscumming like crazy)
Finally, Passing Wind managed to get us (klis) down to two
planets since we were chasing da pig all over rom and fed
space. So we DARED them to go for Kli space instead of 
taking 4th space. No way. Too lame. I guess that's what
Ceri was upset about. I just enjoyed insulting the hell out
of the Orions because they were too scared to go for our
planets.
Result: timer is never started. galaxy conquered by Grand
Admiral Hell Peacock and the Orions by scumming 4th space.
I don't think Hell Peacock ever even entered Kli space.

The only Orions I had any respect for were Passing Wind
and Balton. but Balton quit rather than suffer any more
  OOO  OOO
 O   OO   O
DO   OO   OSH!!
 O   OO   O
  OOO  OOO

All in all I rather enjoyed the game, even though it ended in
a scummy way. But you scummy Orions HAVE to admit, you could
NEVER have genocided us. Even with five of our teammates
handing out kills and not shooting at phaser locks.

--Rick
"Bronco Netrek Server. You will never find a more wretched hive of
scum and villainy." -- Admiral Kenobi (aka Terence Chang)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
From: wang@db.toronto.edu (Huaiqing Wang)
Subject: Re: RESPONCE TO PAUL BROOKS
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto
Date: 1 Oct 92 20:43:16 GMT

In article <1992Oct1.190537.2848@umbc3.umbc.edu> cs331333@umbc8.umbc.edu (cs331333) writes:
>In article <717898847.7775.0@unix5.andrew.cmu.edu> Tomato Boy <stimpy+@cmu.edu> writes:
>>new lady netrek player writes:
>>
>># 
>>#  But, alas, I try.  If you would have any good advice or important facts on 
>># tactic and strategy,etc, I'd be happy to read about them.
>># 
>># Madeleine...alias Headwound Harry @ fife
>>
>>Oh, Madeleine, I'd love to discuss tactics and strategy with you.
>>What are you doing Saturday night??
>>
>>
>>--Rick
>>I promise not to ogg you.  :)
>
>
>	Hmm...  Saturday night is Madeleine's ( a.k.a. Head Wound
>Harry ) 1 year "more than just friends" anniversery with me. (a.k.a.
>Commander Inq).
>	The anonymous friend she mentioned in her article was me, she
>didn't want to say it, and I told her she just wanted to be 'net hit
>on'. <grin>  So she'll probably be happy now. <double grin>
>	Which brings me to a question, how many netrek couples are
>there?  I think it's a good thing, mutuall support and such, also good
>team play.  On the way back to the dorm we are either singing of our 
>victories, or one is comforting the other on their crappy play.
>(Which I had a large amount of yesterday.)
>                                      Joseph (a.k.a. Inq @ fife)


Let me see, there is you and Madeleine, there is Felix and his gf.
That's about the only two I know so far. My gf played twice, does
that count? She managed a grand total of 3 wins and 26 losses on
discovery as a guest. :)

Similiar to Madeleine, she loves to be "net hit on", just to make
me jealous. :>

	-- Chen Wang

Ps: What? You *ALREADY* have a BoyFriend? No more Mr. Nice Guy! Ogg! Ogg!
    Ogg! ... Doosh! ... There, I feel better. ... Next! 
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 04:02:58 -0400 
From: Tomato Boy <stimpy+@cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: IAState team borgs way to victory! Film at 11...
	<1992Sep28.010938@IASTATE.EDU>

no more ridiculous than you quadruple spacing your posts, twink.
there is no need to do that, and it's quite annoying. get a clue

--Rick
"Bronco Netrek Server. You will never find a more wretched hive of
scum and villainy." -- Admiral Kenobi (aka Terence Chang)