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I thought this up a few days ago, but my internet adapter was broken. Now that I have better internet, I'd like to share it.

Anyways, the server setting version of this effect is a number either 0 or 1. 0 means bullets are normal, but 1 means a bullet sticks onto a wall until the normal time limit for the bullet is reached.

The flag would be not (SB), maybe (CB) (ClingingBullets). The shots stick to walls as the same way the ones in the server setting. However, they lastfor a set amount of time, not just until the duration expires.


This could be interesting in a holding attack, forcing enemies to certain area.

Any ideas, anyone?

I don't know. You would have to be pretty stupid to run into a wall that a bullet is clinging to (Although one time at "Badgerking's Aerial and Ground Attack FFA" I saw a bullet just sitting there in the open, not moving. I thought it could be a graphics glitch so I went to touch it. I died of course). If you can shoot the wall next to a player, then you might as well at least try to shoot the player themselves. But that might make this flag too powerful being able to do both. And we already have the abbreviation, CB, used for the colorblindness flag.

*Boinkage*! wrote:Anyways, the server setting version of this effect is a number either 0 or 1. 0 means bullets are normal, but 1 means a bullet sticks onto a wall until the normal time limit for the bullet is reached.

I was unaware there was a server variable to make bullets stick to walls. How could I have been out of the loop for so long? Which variable is this?

A Distraction: Don't be a pain, you know perfectly well that he is talking about the new and improved BZFlag available only for Microsoft Vista and is priced at gaming stores for $19.95.

This idea sounds completely useless. The developers have better things to work on.

A Distraction

I said that would be one if that was implanted, not in it now

The idea is you can keep enemies off a certain area. Either that, or to blow up tanks who think its a graphics glitch . ;p

*Boinkage*! wrote:A Distraction

I said that would be one if that was implanted, not in it now

The idea is you can keep enemies off a certain area. Either that, or to blow up tanks who think its a graphics glitch . ;p

Why the hell would you not rather just KILL THE ENEMY?!?!

Why the hell would you not rather just KILL THE ENEMY?!?!

ERROR!

The idea is that you can keep enemies at bay so you can maneuver around without a tank chasing you.

I.E.: There's a large box with a small exit. You can plaster it with bullets on a non-ricochet server, and trap them.[/quote]

Yeah, because we totally have enough time to sit somewhere and lay bullets. This idea is lame.

*Boinkage*! wrote:

Why the hell would you not rather just KILL THE ENEMY?!?!

ERROR!

The idea is that you can keep enemies at bay so you can maneuver around without a tank chasing you.

I.E.: There's a large box with a small exit. You can plaster it with bullets on a non-ricochet server, and trap them.

And why the hell is that better than killing them?!

In a nutshell:
*Finds out the hard way you can't shoot through walls with a laser flag*

Is it possible for a plugin to detect all instances of a shot hitting a wall? In that case boinkage could (in principle) create a plugin that fired a small slowly expanding world weapon SW whenever a bullet hit a wall. I think this would have the effect he is asking for. Of course the SW should be fired fairly close to the point where the bullet hit the wall, but that could be done by introducing a grid of world weapon SW's and firing the world weapon closest to the point where the bullet hits.

I guess that it would be fun to play with such a plugin once in a while, because you could use the world weapon SW's to kill an enemy behind a wall or force him out of a hiding place, so that you could get line of sight to kill him (on a non-ricochet server), but then again I understand if developers want to prioritize the release of bzflag 2.2 instead of adding unnecesary extra features.

EDIT, Further rambling (sorry): If I understand correctly each shot in bzflag 2.2 has a feature named speed. In principle you could make the walls somewhat inelastic, so that a bullet lost a certain percentage of it's speed upon ricocheting. I guess that would result in boinkages idea as a limit case. However I don't know if it would lead to the gameplay that he is asking for.

too much loving wrote:Is it possible for a plugin to detect all instances of a shot hitting a wall? In that case boinkage could (in principle) create a plugin that fired a small slowly expanding world weapon SW whenever a bullet hit a wall.

The server currently has no concept (even in the 2.1 code) of where bullets are located. This is one reason the spawning isn't so great.

Well, I think that the bullets should stick, or blow up. I don't know how to program, but I could probably learn. I guess a grid would be nice, but it would need (in a 100x100 map), probably 100 X 100 X 10 amount of points, assuming you want it reasonably close. Thats 100,000 (jeez!) points of reference. (Because there is 100x100, thats 10,000 square bzw units, times 10 for 1/10th accuracy. Maybe just saying that when a bullet hits a wall, it creates a shock wave *set size* at the point.

EDIT: Im downloading C++, and see if I can make something basic, but I don't know how to use one.

You're "downloading C++"? How does one download a programming language?

CannonBallGuy wrote:You're "downloading C++"? How does one download a programming language?

Come on, you must know what he means. Trying to cause some grief or something? Sheesh.

Palomides wrote:

CannonBallGuy wrote:You're "downloading C++"? How does one download a programming language?

Come on, you must know what he means. Trying to cause some grief or something? Sheesh.

My post was entirely genuine. I have no clue what he is doing.
It's not possible to download a programming language.

CannonBallGuy wrote:My post was entirely genuine. I have no clue what he is doing.
It's not possible to download a programming language.

Perhaps he is downloading a compiler.

True, the server has no ideas where walls are. It is up to the client to make bullets ricoshet.

I can imagine, however, running a .bzw or .bwc file through a processor that maps the world to a list of sticky walls, and with each shot fired it determines what wall it hit and places a WW bullet moving at zero speed where it hit.
The whole idea is as hypothetical as time machines though.

And I have absolutely no clue what "downloading c++" means.

AAA

The server knows were map objects are, and thus where walls are. The issue is that it does not know bullet positions.

Constitution wrote:

CannonBallGuy wrote:My post was entirely genuine. I have no clue what he is doing.
It's not possible to download a programming language.

Perhaps he is downloading a compiler.

Or a tutorial...

I can see what *Boinkage*! is going on about, but from what(...)

blast wrote:The server knows were map objects are, and thus where walls are. The issue is that it does not know bullet positions.

(...) there isn't a way to do this.

Grace F

I'm not saying the server won't at some point know shot positions. That's something that is wanted in the server. It would help enable us to calculate deaths on the server.

CannonBallGuy wrote:

Palomides wrote:

CannonBallGuy wrote:You're "downloading C++"? How does one download a programming language?

Come on, you must know what he means. Trying to cause some grief or something? Sheesh.

My post was entirely genuine. I have no clue what he is doing.
It's not possible to download a programming language.

Sorry if I was seeming a bit confrontational. I thought it was pretty obvious, because a lot of beginners put it like that when they are downloading a compiler, IDE, etc..

Okay, actually on topic, I also think the idea is pretty useless. Most maps are far too open for this to be of any use.

<-----Programming noob ;p.

Anyways, I downloaded the compiler, and I need to find the template for a plug-in.

EDIT: I'm having trouble finding it. Search is getting useless for downloading it.

*Boinkage*! wrote:<-----Programming noob ;p.

Anyways, I downloaded the compiler, and I need to find the template for a plug-in.

EDIT: I'm having trouble finding it. Search is getting useless for downloading it.

Get the bzflag source...

*Boinkage*! wrote: Anyways, I downloaded the compiler, and I need to find the template for a plug-in.
EDIT: I'm having trouble finding it. Search is getting useless for downloading it.

Learning to program is a worthy goal, and a good hobby, but even if you work hard it will take at least one year before you have learned enough to start tinkering with the bzflag code. If you are serious about learning to program then you have to start with small goals. Here is a good step by step plan

1) Get a book about c programming for beginnners.
2) Download the compiler (I hear that www.bloodshed.net is good, but I never tried it myself)
3) Create a program that writes a sentence on the screen
4) Create a program that waits for you to press a button on you keyboard and then writes a sentence on the screen
5) Create a program that calculates the sum of two numbers supplied by the user.
...
999) Try to understand the API for making a plugin for bzflag

If you a really serious about programming, then you also need someone to help you out when you run into trouble. This forum is not the right place to ask newbie programming questions, so you need another forum where you can ask for help when your code does not work. Usenet is the best place that I can think of. http://groups.google.com/group/alt.comp ... c++/topics