First public release of T.A.N.K.S to try

Hello everybody, we are proud to give you the possibility to try our first game written in BlitzPlus : T.A.N.K.S.
It took about 10 month of spare time polishing every graphics (all made from scratch except maps inspired by Alien Breed on Amiga) and programming (A.I, netcode).

This is a fully free and functionnal game without any time limit, all packed in a 1.47Mb setup, featuring :
- 10 maps.
- Up to 6 players in the same local or network game, each of them controlled by a bot or an human.
- Players can be layout in teams : either each player in his own team (classic deatmatch) or in groups (team deathmatch).
- Differents option will drastically change the gameplay : friendly-fire, partage damage among teammates, politic (auto team switch).
- Realistic physic : biased and backward movements when tank is hit.
- Possibility to *watch* games in progress.
- Possibility to automatically *discover* created game on your local network.
- Chat during network games.
- On server side : can kick/ban players and remove/add bots as easily as a keypress.
- On client side : automatic download of missing maps.
- Realtime switch between windowed and fullscreen display mode.
- Realtime *predator* effect on tanks sprite (when ghost bonus used).
- Switch on/off sounds and background music.
- Embedded quick help (key assignment, bonus meaning).
- All modifiable parameters saved in a config file (the next time the game is launched, all parameters are remembered).

Screenshots (a bit outdated, sorry) :










And, the most, the link to the setup : http://site.voila.fr/tanks/tanks_0.9.1.exe

We would appreciate a lot (in order of preference):
- Corrections on the html documentation.
- Testing of net games (only local game available in this version).
- Bug reports.
- Comments/Suggestions ?

[Edit] How is it possible for this post to appear on the blitzbasic.com frontpage ?

looks very nice. cute tanks.

This is very cool, I love the interface and general presentation. What I'm not into is the controls ... specifically is it just be or can you not back up? Also, the tanks are too small I can't hit anything. I guess a lot of the play is in the powerups but still trying to shoot one of these tanks is ridiculously hard.

Another thing ... why didn't you integrate GNet into this so we could all find each other? Entering your IP address is a pain in behind. Another thing you should fix too is the documentaion using the blue background with the black writing in certain spots ... I can't read it!

Great job on the slick presentation of a simple game. Unfortunately, because of a few things I find it rather unplayable. If at least it had GNet so I could find other people I might stick to learning to play it better.

Agree with the no reverse thing.

Had problems seeing which way I was facing at times, due to the size of tanks.

Tanks move too fast IMHO. Makes it too frantic.

Seemed to get bad slowdown when multi explosions going off. Now I am only running it on a AMD 700 Mhz, but then its not the most graphically demanding game going is it???

I do love the interface/gui, and I have fond memories of top down tank games. This is just in need of some tweeking.

Dude the interface rocks. I'll whine too about reverse, no big. Yeah get Gnet er somn going. Im so point and click these days, I hate to have to enter my IP addy. Those super small things aside, pretty sweet overall!! You do interface design on the side?? ;)

We are preparing a 0.9.2 which will feature gnet.

During the development arised the question about reverse moves but I was too lazy to implement it in the A.I so you'll have to do without :)

Concerning small size it was foreseen to give the feeling of a vaste playground without using a big graphic resolution.

I don't find very difficult to shoot other tanks. Try to play against 5 bots and you'll see what is accuracy :)

Thanks for your comments.

Also when you are respawned after dying, you are facing the same direction as when you died. Very confusing, especially due to the small size.

Surely the bots dont have to be able to reverse, but it would be nice for human control.

Ok, as reverse moves seems to be the top request (with gnet which is partly implemented in 0.9.2 to come), we'll try to add it as well.

If it has reverse which is crucial to the combat and GNet it'll be a good game that I'll play a lot. Also, reset the rotation of the tanks when you respawn as was pointed out above. I've been looking forward to this one and I hope it becomes all it deserves to be ;) I'm sure with a good little online thing going you could sell this and do really well.

Thanks a lot for your positives comments.

We are currently working on 0.9.2:
- Reverse move (done).
- Gnet (done but a bit buggy).
- Reset of tank rotation when dead (done).

I will surely spread this release on monday for the ones who would like to make gnet stuff fully working.

Did you see my FPSNet example in the archives? Shows how to use GNet ... it's pretty easy to implement really.

http://www.blitzmax.com/codearcs/codearcs.php?code=1149

The one thing you'd need to add (as JFK mentions at the bottom of the post) is that when one host quits and a new host takes over ... you need to have the quitting host take their GNet game off and then have the new host add their game to GNet.

Hi, version 0.9.2 is unleashed, featuring:
- Use a bigger font for chat messages.
- Reset player angle to its default value after death.
- During a server scan, only fetch those running the same version.
- Added gnet support so that it's possible to scan servers in the whole internet.
- Corrected a bug when the game was paused and back to standby screen without previous unpause.
- Added backward moves.
- Added a panic key (the '-' on keypad) : it will :
Minimize the window.
Pause the game (only for LOCAL or SERVER).
Mute music and sfx.
- Tanks are a bit slower.
- Main window can now be minimized.

Refer to the updated doc for further informations.

Still any candidate to help correct our doc ?

The link : http://site.voila.fr/tanks/tanks_0.9.2.exe

[edit] : I just found a severe bug (scan no more functioning at all) and corrected it.
I uploaded again the file.

Man, you need to not have the tank pause when shooting. Also you need to allow the tank to shoot faster. The problem is that because you need to be so accurate with your shots. You don't get to fire enough shots in a short enough period of time to make corrections. By the time you get to fire another shot you're screwed because everything is completely out of place.

You need to give players the ability to make a mistake and quickly recover. As it is right now missing a shot or firing a shot when you're trying to move at the same time completely screws you up and it's just not free flowing enough.

How could you spend so much time on the GUI and presentation and then have such choppy gameplay? The basic concept behind the gameplay is good ... but it needs to be more fluid and accessible.

Looks nice, but I dont't hit a thing with this windowmode enabled... everythig is so small....
Please allow fullscreen or higher resolutions!

Hi, I throught the GUI was quite self-explanatory :)
AND you don't like reading docs :)

Press F11 to switch windowed<->Fullscreen.

Agree with the slow fire rate comment above.

I would also say that having the shots rebounding off walls, would IMHO be better suited to a powerup rather than for all shots. It makes hiding virtually impossible when facing multiple opponents.

That said I did manage to win a game against 5 bots.

How about a return to your base to recharge energy system??