HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
Subject: Re: Any luck with linux?
To: Xtank Mailing List <xtank@eng.umd.edu>
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 92 17:42:30 PST
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.3 PL11]
From: Darren Senn <sinster@scintilla.capitola.ca.us>

** Matt Ranney said:
> There is a distribution of xtank on tsx-11.mit.edu that I've used with
> fairly good results.  The game crashes alot on me with alot with more
> than a few robots, but its works fine for just one or two other
> combatants.  My machine is a 386/40 w/387, and the speed wasn't
> blinding, but it was playable.

I'm the one who made that distribution.  BTW: You need Linux
XFree86 2.1 and libc 4.1 to run it, but that should be in my
README.

If you can reproduce the crash reliably, please tell me how so
I can chase it down.  Bugs don't get fixed if people don't make
reports. :)

Unless I do some pretty odd things, xtank doesn't crash on my
machine.  I regularly play with 6-7 robots plus one human.

-- 
Darren Senn                                    Telephone:       (408) 454-9074
Internet: sinster@scintilla.capitola.ca.us         Snail:      129 Goss Avenue
I'm a .sig virus -- copy me and join the fun!             Santa Cruz, Ca 95065
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.play
From: cyliao@iastate.edu (Jessy Liao)
Subject: xtank binary on afs?
Originator: cyliao@pv210b.vincent.iastate.edu
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, IA
Distribution: na
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1992 21:36:43 GMT

Hi, i couldn't locate the most recent FAQ on the newsgroup, and my own
copy seems to be out dated.

I was trying to access the copy at wam.umd.edu under smaug's home dir,
but it no longer exist. I don't have disk space to compile it myself,
so I'd like to know if there's other place that I can access thru
AFS. BTW, we have DECstaations here...

Thanks

-- 
Chun-Yao Liao              |\   |  __ \  /-----                 -------------
cyliao@iastate.edu         | \  | /  \ \/   | A Milano      ------------
Department of EE and CprE  |  \ ||---- /\   |  Dreamer  ---------
Iowa State University      |   \| \__ /  \  |Mail OK, I have MailService.
From: spot@CS.CMU.EDU (Scott Draves)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: Elements of teamwork (long)
Date: 3 Jan 93 21:10:11 GMT
Article-I.D.: cs.C0Aqsz.ACG.1
	<C0930y.7rE.1@cs.cmu.edu>
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University
Originator: spot@COBOL.FOX.CS.CMU.EDU


bert> Tell your team that you'll be playing a certain role, such as
bert> scout-bomber, ogger, or escort, and then stick to it for a long time.

tom> I've never found it to be as effective as having everyone do
tom> everything.  This worked for the Golden Bears this fall because
tom> we had 8 dynamic players who could do it all ... , but I think the
tom> quintessential INL team wouldn't have assigned roles.

bert> Interesting, I didn't realize GB worked without roles.  I tend to agree
bert> that everybody-do-everything is probably superior, especially for a
bert> team that can talk in the room.  Side Salad did it that way too.

hmm, well sort of.  we never told people what role to fill mostly
because each of us mostly just played our favorite role.  i'm not sure
about other people, but i don't take my role too literally, if there's
an army and i have a kill i pick it up unless a planet scum is nearby.

but i think the best netrek team will always have specialists for
these reasons:

1) you have less information to handle, so you handle it better.

2) you practice a smaller set of actions, you become better at them.

3) less communication is required with your team; even when you are in
the same room this is important.

4) you can fly a specialized ship.

5) "closest able ship" is optimal in some sense, but since most ship
targets aren't that far appart (compared to the distance to your home
planet) then it doesn't help as much as one might think.

i think that there are times when you should leave your role, if a
planet pops next to an ogger and the carrier is dead, bomb it of
course.  don't be *stupid*.  cutting corners like this gives you most
of the benefit that closest ship has to offer, but since you might
spend say only 5% of your time outside your role, you still receive
most of the benefit of roles.

ps did someone implemented 8x DI promotions on bronco?  my "main"
character Mergatroid was just promoted to Rear Admiral there after
being Commodore for years.
-- 
				orgasm
Scott Draves			nitrous
spot@cs.cmu.edu			death
From: fadden@uts.amdahl.com (Andy McFadden)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: atd stuck again?
Date: 26 Dec 92 09:28:30 GMT
Reply-To: fadden@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (Andy McFadden)
Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale CA

Date in Santa Clara, CA is Sat Dec 26 01:25:51 1992 (data spans 2 days)
E-mail administrative requests to fadden@uts.amdahl.com.

[...]
                                                 Mins
Server Host                             Port     Ago  Status            Flags
--------------------------------------- -------- ---- ----------------- -------
-h netrek.atd.ucar.edu                  -p 2592    9  Wait queue: 8     T
-h calvin.usc.edu                       -p 2592    3  OPEN: 5 players   T
-h hockey.ksu.edu                       -p 2592    7  OPEN: 1 player
-h bigdog.cs.berkeley.edu               -p 2592    9  Nobody playing
[...]

The only player on hockey.ksu.edu is "puck".  Four of the five guys on calvin
are from ksu.  But there's a wait queue on atd.

Either it's the only show in town, or it got glued again.  Too bad they
don't have port-1 working.

-- 
fadden@uts.amdahl.com (Andy McFadden)
[ Above opinions are mine, Amdahl has nothing to do with them, etc, etc. ]
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
From: isae@iastate.edu (Gadjah Mada)
Subject: Re: Bronco user dB
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames IA
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1992 08:28:38 GMT

In <1992Dec28.102103.1043@doug.cae.wisc.edu> chris@castlab.uucp (Christian) writes:

>Howdy ho to the netrek world.

>I guess this question goes the Bronco God, but I thought I'd post here
>anyway....

I am not the Bronco God, but I just wanna say..

>Can I get the bronco user dB? 

How about calvin database? 

>-Chris

-Rony
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
From: bdhall@lucky.ecn.purdue.edu (Brian D Hall)
Subject: Re: It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Organization: Purdue University Engineering Computer Network
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 23:01:44 GMT

In article <85R=03Bpc5Z300@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com> fadden@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (Andy McFadden) writes:
>From Monday Dec 14 to Monday Dec 21
>
>Day     Mon     Tue     Wed     Thu     Fri     Sat     Sun     Mon
>Time    11:59   13:28   12:00   12:15   13:30   14:11   12:00   12:05
>
>Svc 0   -       672     437     539     432     337     164     394
>Svc 1   -       1453    993     1225    1207    949     554     573
>Svc 2   -       227     159     200     218     155     108     204
>Svc 3   -       13      24      18      10      10      5       3
>Svc 4   -       13      17      13      4       12      4       4
>Total   -       2378    1630    1995    1871    1463    835     1178
>
>Sites   -       552     431     435     427     343     191     265
>
>
>Total #of different sites to date: 4284
>
>
>The period between Sunday and Monday is usually slow, but it hasn't been
>THAT slow for a while.
>
>Gee.  With all the students gone, it'll be Netrek for people with Real Lives.
>:-)
>
>-- 
>fadden@uts.amdahl.com (Andy McFadden)
>[ Above opinions are mine, Amdahl has nothing to do with them, etc, etc. ]



	Or those who are stuck at school until the 30th doing work.  :)

   Brian
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
From: chris@castlab.uucp (Christian)
Subject: inconel trek server
Organization: U of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering
Date: 25 Dec 92 15:08:35 CST
Keywords: server open inconel

Welllll, nobody has bitched about any malfunctions on inconel, and the cpu
seems to be able to handle the load its gotten so far (which hasn't been
much, alas... but oh well.)

So, I'll officially dedicate inconel.engr.wisc.edu to the netreking public.
Enjoy!

inconel.engr.wisc.edu  (144.92.60.141)
Server source:	Bronco
UDP:			1.0
RSA:			2.0 (RSA clients required, see MOTD)
Hours:			5pm-8am week days, 24 hours week ends and holidays
T-mode:			3 on 3 
Cyborgs:		Never. RSA clients required.
Maintainer:		chris@castlab.engr.wisc.edu
Comments:		No mods, yet- plain bronco. 3 on 3 liable to change if usage
				increases a lot. Mail chris for mod suggestions!

-Chris
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 04:04:09 -0500 
From: Jeff Rosenfeld <jdr+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Reply-To: jdr@andrew.cmu.edu
Subject: Re: The Neverending Thread, Part II Was: Dogfight Size wars
	<102909@netnews.upenn.edu>

Excerpts from netnews.rec.games.netrek: 22-Dec-92 The Neverending
Thread, Par.. Justin Botelle@eniac.sea (4713)

> To even categorize bombing and planet taking effectiveness, you need to make
> certain assumptions, esp with AS.  ASs are only good bombers with lots of 
> armies or when you need to drop a planet below 5 (and are usually carrying).
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
From: osyjm@cs.montana.edu (Jaye Mathisen)
Subject: Re: Client for Dec 3000 ALPHA
Organization: CS
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 19:08:59 GMT

In article <1992Dec22.163325.20848@ast.saic.com> vic@fajita (V. Martinez 6463) writes:
>Hey is there a client for the Dec Flamingo with a 150mhz ALPHA cpu. 
>I dont mean to brag, but I have a 100+ mips machine with
>a 20" color monitor that is begging me to play netrek on.

Me too.  I need one.  Both OpenVMS AXP and OSF/1 would be nice, I switch
around a lot.
-- 
 Jaye Mathisen, COE Systems Manager                (406) 994-4780
 410 Roberts Hall,Dept. of Computer Science
 Montana State University,Bozeman MT 59717	osyjm@cs.montana.edu
From: paulsen@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Brian Paulsen)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: This has gone too far.....
Date: 22 Dec 92 15:17:48 GMT
Organization: University of Pennsylvania

In article <BzMww8.K5y.1@cs.cmu.edu> hde+@cs.cmu.edu (Herbert Enderton) writes:
>In article <YfBYIBW00Vp6I7G0wV@andrew.cmu.edu> "Joseph E. Beck" <jb8n+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:

>Also it can phaser a cloaker to death in situations
>where a scout would run out of fuel.

Ask the tons of people who have tried to slip by me when I'm in a scout
whether or not I ran out of fuel.  If you get phaser lock in a scout,
you are still probably doing somewhere around 30-40 points of damage per
shot.  Unless you started off low in fuel, you aren't going to run out
of fuel.  And if you do run out, the guy is doing warp 1, and you just
have to wait for enough fuel regen to fire a torp.

>The DD is a damn fine ogging ship, but this year the best oggers use
>a CA instead (except for Akira).

It's about #3 on the ogger's choice of ships.  I'd still rather use a
scout before using a DD.  The main reason is that the scout can easily
close with any runner-scum.  With more DD's being used for carrying, the
CA's have troubles chasing them down.

> The DD is undeniably the fastest
>ship that can carry 5 armies, and I've seen it used for that purpose
>more and more in tournament games (one used to see more AS and CA
>carriers).  The balance among all the ship-types is very even, so I'd
>say use whatever strikes your fancy.

Let's really analyze what has happenned.  About 4-5 months ago, nobody even
remotely clueful (except for Bav and Hell Peacock) flew DD's for anything
near a majority of their time.  The problem was that it etemped before you
could get anywhere at maxwarp.  Then, after a long debate on r.g.n on how
to fix the DD, the cooling rate got increased.  To my knowledge, this has
been the only change to the DD on bronco and the INL server.

Now we do see people using DD's for army carrying purposes, and we do
see this happen by very clued players.  The fact is that you can get a
kill with *any* ship.  The BB's and CA's can get their own kills without
help.  The DD and SC have to either scum somebody else's kill or they have
to find someone who enjoys being runner-scummed.

So, now the ship types *are* basically even.  But this has happenned
because the engine cooling rate has been increased.  The only effect this
has is to make the DD able to run for a longer period of time.  It's basic
dogfighting skills haven't changed.  Given that nobody used to use them
before, I would still guess that their dogfighting skills suck.  Seeing
how people really only use them for planet taking, it does seem to support
my claim that their dogfighting skills suck.

Brian
From: danhua@garnet.berkeley.edu (Dan Hua)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: What does Mucus Pig look like?
Date: 22 Dec 92 16:33:28 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
NNTP-Posting-Host: garnet.berkeley.edu

Hey dudes:  This is an old thread.  But since Ged (Mr Michael
Moore?)  had seen several CMU regulars, including the famed
piggy.  I was wondering if Mike could tell us what the
heck Mucus looks like.  Oh yea and the other netrekers you  
met too, what do they look like.  In cqse there are elections
to the INL council later on (Is the election still on?), I
would like to know what the candidates look like too!

  
  Well Merry christmas and happy holidays, folks!  :-)


  whoever
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
From: tedebear@leland.Stanford.EDU (Theodore Chen)
Subject: Re: base practice server
Organization: DSG, Stanford University, CA 94305, USA
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 92 10:53:57 GMT

In article <1h58seINNhji@agate.berkeley.edu> mehlhaff@soda.berkeley.edu (ERic MeHlHaFf) writes:
I wrote:
>>but anyway, i notice that sometimes the robo-oggers just
>>sit by their home planet instead of coming after me like they're
>>supposed to.  is this a bug or a feature?
>Feature, probably.

>2)  Declare war on the robo-oggers teams. They leave you alone if you're at
>    peace with them.
>3)  Tell the robo-oggers to ogg you. it's a simple as a message: R1->F6: ogg 1

did both.  had six of them ogging me.  and then after a while,
some of them just sat at rom.  i sent them messages telling them
to ogg me but they didn't come.  i suppose if i had come to them
they would have attacked, but i didn't feel like going all the way up
there at warp 2.  i ended up sending them "exit" commands and
starting new oggers.

oh yeah, the server doesn't seem to be working right now.
it tells me that it's starting some oggers but nobody shows up.
and hoser isn't much practice.

-teddy
estoppel
epiphany
From: josh@pogo.cqs.washington.edu (Josh Hayes)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: Traitors
Date: 4 Jan 93 00:22:56 GMT
Article-I.D.: pogo.josh.726106976
Organization: University of Washington
NNTP-Posting-Host: pogo.cqs.washington.edu

One of the things that makes this a difficult task - the task
being to avoid killing potential defenders when they're far
afield - is that it is difficult to ENGAGE without killing
someone, once one reaches a fairly rudimentary level of skill.

I don't know how many times I've taken on an ogger, reduced
him to barely moving slag, and had some twink come up and dump
one torp into him. Boom. Argh. And then he flies off thinking
"Wow, I must be getting better, I just killed Red Shirt with
one torp!".

I think Bert is right in suggesting that one good way to avoid
this problem of being unable to disengage: DON'T engage. Cloaking
is a good way to do that. So is attracting the attention of a
couple of defenders and then sidling away; this really only
works if you have a kill or they're stupid. (Preferably both!)

My two cents...

the doc

--
  Josh Hayes, Quantitative Sciences HR-20 U of Washington
  josh@mowgli.cqs.washington.edu             206 543-5004
  The harder they come, the harder they fall, one and all
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
From: ramage@ece.scarolina.edu (Dan Ramage)
Subject: socket.c help needed
Organization: USC  Department of Computer Science
Distribution: rec.games.netrek
Date: 22 Dec 92 22:42:47 GMT

I am trying to compile the files in the ntserv dir.  I get an error in socket.c,
"ccom: Error: socket.c, line 1437: static function declared and referenced, but not defined: time"
, and I can't figure out what the error is.  Does anyone have a good copy of socket.c
or know the fix to this problem.  Thanks for any and all help.


Dan
ramage@charlie.ece.scarolina.edu
From: tom@soda.berkeley.edu (Tom Holub)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: Coaches (again).
Date: 2 Jan 1993 01:19:39 GMT
Organization: U.C. Berkeley, CS Undergraduate Association
NNTP-Posting-Host: soda.berkeley.edu

In article <103117@netnews.upenn.edu> botelle@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Justin Botelle) writes:
)
)For those of you who missed the original posts, or the follow-up or
)follow-follow-up posts, I proposed that we add a ninth player to INL
)games, called the coach.  He would not have a ship, but would be able
)to see the galactic that his team sees, and the tactical of any of his
)team's ships.  He would preferably have a menu with each ship number next 
)to it in which he would type in messages and switch via the mouse, or
)some other straightforward manner in which to expedite team/individual
)messaging.

Yes, this is a live issue, that will be dealt with right after the
scheduling and the INL Council replacements are.  It will be done
by the Server Hack (ERic Mehlhaff).  

I've been out of town without net access since the 21st, but it's
time to start hammering some of this stuff out.  I like the idea of
coaches, really. 
 -Tom
From: paulsen@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Brian Paulsen)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: This has gone too far.....
Date: 23 Dec 92 16:13:31 GMT
Organization: University of Pennsylvania

In article <gfBy7V200VB4M5DF0g@andrew.cmu.edu> el0g+@andrew.cmu.edu (Erik Lauer) writes:

>>Ask the tons of people who have tried to slip by me when I'm in a scout
>>whether or not I ran out of fuel.  If you get phaser lock in a scout,
>>you are still probably doing somewhere around 30-40 points of damage per
>>shot.  Unless you started off low in fuel, you aren't going to run out
>>of fuel.  And if you do run out, the guy is doing warp 1, and you just
>>have to wait for enough fuel regen to fire a torp.

>Perhaps the cloaker is an AS.  If you start off around 4000 fuel, and
>phaser around 30 points I don't think you will get it down to warp 1. 
>Of course you probably can get some help, but without any I don't think
>your scout will succeed.  If you phaser lock a large ship with a SC, and
>you have no help available, don't they usually uncloak anyway?

But with an AS, I can still close in on you and start doing 60-70 point
phaser blasts.  And, if I feel inspired, I can fire torps directly on you,
where detting does you little good.

Do they uncloak?  Usually not.  Unless they have loads of fuel, it does
little good.  If they fire, I dodge and they waste fuel.  If they don't
fire, then I'm back a little farther from the enemy than I hoped, but
not far enough that I can't still close in on him.

Brian
From: tom@soda.berkeley.edu (Tom Holub)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: Coaches (again).
Date: 2 Jan 1993 01:35:53 GMT
Organization: U.C. Berkeley, CS Undergraduate Association
NNTP-Posting-Host: soda.berkeley.edu

In article <MUMMERT+.92Dec24015905@AUK.WARP.CS.CMU.EDU> mummert+@CS.CMU.EDU writes:
)
)
)While I was initially for this idea...I'm now against it.  I think it 
)is adding something to INL games that is not netrek.  Therefore, INL
)games will no longer be a yardstick of how good a netrek team can be..
)but rather a metric for some game that is fundamentally different in
)a very appreciable way.  No longer do individual players have to 
)think both strategically and tactically to the same degree, instead we
)introduce a meta-player that diminishes the complexity on the individual
)level.

I agree that having a coach changes the game; I disagree that this makes
it bad for the INL.  INL netrek is not the same game as pickup netrek,
even before we change anything else; the 2-hour timer and the revised
winning conditions make an INL game fundamentally different from a
pickup game.  INL netrek requires a level of coordination that is much
greater than any you'll find in pickup games, and I think that justifies
taking measures to improve a team's ability to coordinate.  INL netrek also
requires 120-150 minutes of constant concentration, and I think that
justifies having a halftime to give hands, brains, and bladders a break.
The situations encountered in the INL differ from the situations 
encountered in standard netrek, and the game needs to be changed in
some ways to accomidate the differences.
 -Tom
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
From: mdm@hadrosaur.cis.ohio-state.edu (Michael Moore)
Subject: Re: What does Mucus Pig look like?
Organization: The Ohio State University Dept. of Computer and Info. Science
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 21:00:21 GMT

In article <1h7g0oINNri5@agate.berkeley.edu>, danhua@garnet.berkeley.edu (Dan Hua) writes:
>Subject: What does Mucus Pig look like?
>
>Hey dudes:  This is an old thread.  But since Ged (Mr Michael
>Moore?)  had seen several CMU regulars, including the famed
>piggy.  I was wondering if Mike could tell us what the
>heck Mucus looks like.  
>

	I can't really describe them.  And trying to convey a picture with
words leads to misrepresentation.  I will say he had a deep voice and looked
like the kind of guy you might go bar-hopping with.  

	ZZnewguy has a way of talking that made me feel like he thought
about what he said before he said it.  He didn't strike me as one of those
who sprouts off nonsense (*wave*).  

	Psycho-feta and Yah both looked like normal college students, a
bit hipper than normal but that's forgiveable.  Psycho locks on the
galactic so he's got two strikes against him, but he drew me a map of the
campus so I guess that makes up for it a bit.

	Woof was a guy I hadn't met much.  The only time I met him in 
netrek was when he blew up my SB.  I also met Andrenochrome, but I only
vaguely remember him from a year or so ago... he seemed pretty normal too,
though he vowed to stay away from netrek, which I think at CMU is something 
of a running gag... :)

	That's about all the folks I met.  I had to head up to Philly
the next day so I didn't stay too long, and everyone was off on vacation.

	I may go into training with the DEC we have here so that when I
go to CMU next time I can avoid making a fool of myself.  Talk about 
homogeneous environments.... sheesh.

	At least Mucus has class and plays from a color sun4.  Real men
play netrek in color.  The rest of you are deprived. :-)

	-Michael )Ged(

PS - I got my color hp700 back, so bring on the scouts. :-)

-- 
|\  Michael  Delbert  Moore     _   /|     Home   : (614) 471-1937         /|
| \ OSU Student  Programmer     \`o_O'     Office : (614) 292-7161        / |
| / Undergraduate CIS major       ( )      Email  : mdm@cis.ohio-state.edu\ |
|/-------------------------        U       --------------------------------\|
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek