⟦9001154f1⟧

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.TH WAR 6 "3 April 1985"
.UC
.SH NAME
war \- two person seek and destroy game played in mazes
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B war
[
.B \-f
setupfile ] [
.B \-s
setupname ] [
.B \-o
objectfile ] username [ ttyname ]
.br
.B war -e
[
.B \-f
setupfile ] [
.B \-s
setupname ] [
.B \-o
objectfile ]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I War
is a war game played between two people on display terminals.
It is played on a board which has 24 rows and 48 columns.
The top and bottom ten rows of the board are the
.I home
areas for the two players.
The middle four rows are the
.IR "no man's land" .
At the beginning of the game each player creates a maze in his own home
area, and populates it with fighting men, blasting men, and a goal.
After this setup phase is complete, the two players fight each other.
The object of the game is to find and destroy the enemy goal.
Along the way, battles are fought between your men and the enemy's men,
the enemy's maze is explored and perhaps blasted through,
and your own maze and goal is defended.
.I War
is a game of imperfect information.
You know everything about your own men, but know very little about the enemy.
As the game progresses, you can determine the flow of the battle from a
set of statistics which are displayed for both players.
However, you do not know the details concerning any specific men.
To know where the enemy men are, you must place your own men close enough
to them to seen them.
.PP
The person to play with is specified by giving his login name.
If he is logged in on more than one terminal, you must then also give
the terminal name to play with.
Of course, for the game to actually play, the opponent must also run
.I war
and specify you as the person for him to play with.
If you don't want to play with anyone, but just want to edit different
mazes for future play, then use the
.B \-e
option.
.SH "THE DISPLAY"
The screen is split up into three parts.
The left half of the screen contains a picture of the playing board.
The board occupies all the space between the two vertical rows of characters.
Your home area is always in the upper ten rows of the board, and the
enemy's home area is always in the lower ten rows.
This means that if you compare your view of the board with the other player,
his view seems flipped over.
However, directions are transformed uniformly so that no problems appear.
You can always see all of your own walls and men.
However, you cannot see the enemy's walls or men unless you have men close
enough to them (even in your own maze).
However, once you have see any of the enemy's walls (or other immovable
objects), they will stay visible as long as they exist.
.PP
The lower right of the screen shows the status of the game.
You can compare the status of your men with the enemy's men.
Each pair of numbers separated with a slash gives the number of men
left of that type, and the total life of those men.
.PP
The upper right of the screen shows the current status of all of your men.
The parameters of the men are configurable, and are normally read from
the file
.IR /usr/games/lib/objects.war .
You can play with different men by creating a new configuration file and
specifying it using the
.B \-o
option.
The enemy has men similar to yours, but you don't know their life values or
which ones are still alive.
This display only shows men which are still alive, so when a man of yours
dies, it is removed from the display.
The two characters under the OBJ heading are a description of your men.
The leftmost character is how your object (man or wall) appears to you.
The rightmost character is how your object appears to the enemy.
Notice that several men appear identically to the enemy (as numbers), so
that he can't distinguish between them.
Different kinds of men have different characters, however.
.PP
The life of the object is how many hits it can take before it is destroyed.
For walls, the life is instead an indication of how tough each wall is
to blast away.
The view of the object is the range at which the object can see enemy objects.
The range specifies a square of the specified radius (not a circle).
Thus a man with a view of 3 could see an enemy man which was 3 rows down
and 3 columns to the right.
Viewing is normally blocked by walls and men, so the full viewing range is
not always usable (especially when inside a cramped maze).
.PP
The flags column gives the capabilities of the object.
These capabilities are as follows:
.TP 6
.B b
Object can blast walls.
.TP
.B f
Object can fight men.
.TP
.B g
Object is a goal.
.TP
.B i
Object is immobile.
.TP
.B t
Object is transparent.
.TP
.B v
Object is always visible.
.TP
.B w
Object is a wall.
.TP
.B x
Object has x-ray vision.
This means it can see through walls and men.
.SH "SETUP PHASE"
The first phase of the game is the setup, or editing phase.
This is when you design your maze and place your men into it.
To make this phase go quicker, you can read in a setup that you had
previous created.
This can be done on the command line by using the
.B \-s
option.
You can also read in the setup after starting the program.
These setups are stored in the file ".warsetups" in your HOME directory.
This can be changed to be any file you wish by using the
.B \-f
option.
A setup file contains a number of setups in sequence.
Each setup begins with a line containing a name surrounded by double quotes.
Following the name is simply a picture of the setup.
.PP
An example of a setup file entry named 'nice' is:
.sp
.nf
	"nice"
	*    *                      *   *
	*  *   ****************** *   * * * ***********
	****** *             *  * ******* *          *
	 ** **** ********* *    * *#      * ******** * *
	      **    *   *   ***** ********* * *   *  *
	 ******  ** * *   *                 *   *    **
	 ******* ** ************************************
						  E X
	**********BDC*****H*****G***F*************Y Z***
	***********A******************************* ****
.fi
.PP
If you read in a setup, you can still perform last minute changes to it
before playing.
Once you create a setup that you like, you can save it in your setup file
for use in later games.
.PP
There is a restriction on the creation of a setup.
Walls cannot block off any location on the board (even other walls).
That is, there must be a path from below the setup to every location
in the home area, without having to travel through a wall.
The path must exist orthogonally (left-right or up-down).
This restriction prevents the creation of mazes which are just made up of
solid walls.
It also guarantees that the goal is accessible without having to remove
any walls.
The program enforces this restriction rigidly, even if a saved setup is
read in.
.PP
Commands in the setup phase are single letter commands, possibly preceeded
by a numeric argument, which is used as a repeat count.
These commands do not echo, and need no terminating carriage return.
Before completion, the normal editing characters can be used, and
the escape character will clear the command.
Unknown or illegal commands will ring the terminal bell.
Most commands are executed immediately when they are completely typed.
But those commands with dangerous consequences or that require input strings
will prompt you for a response.
All such responses require a terminating carriage return.
If a blank response or an escape is typed, the command is aborted.
.PP
The commands used for editing a setup are the following:
.TP 6
.B r
Clears the current setup and reads in a setup from your ".warsetups" file.
The name of the setup is prompted for.
The first setup in the file which matches the name is used.
The setup will be checked for legality, and unknown or illegal locations
will be left blank.
.TP
.B w
Writes the current setup to your ".warsetups" file.
The name of the setup will be prompted for.
The setup is appended to the end of the file, and so duplications of
a setup name are undetected.
.TP
.B f
Flips the setup from left to right.
This allows you to create the mirror image of a setup.
.TP
.B c
Clears the current setup.
You are asked to confirm this command.
.TP
.B p
Places an object at the current position.
The object to be placed is typed immediately after the 'p'.
This object is also remembered later for certain other commands.
If the object is unknown or cannot be placed, nothing is done.
.TP
.B "."
Places the remembered object at the current position.
This is mostly useful for walls, so that you can easily place many of them.
.TP
.B x
Removes the object at the current position, and moves to the next column.
If a count is specified, many objects in a row can be removed.
.TP
.B <cr>
Moves to the beginning of the next row.
.TP
.B \-
Moves to the beginning of the previous row.
.TP
.B <tab>
Moves to the next column which is at a multiple of 8.
.TP
.B ^
Moves to the beginning of the current row.
.TP
.B $
Moves to the end of the current row.
.TP
.B h
Moves to the left.
.TP
.B j
Moves down.
.TP
.B k
Moves up.
.TP
.B l
Moves right.
.TP
.B <space>
Moves right.
.TP
.B y
Moves to the upper left.
.TP
.B u
Moves to the upper right.
.TP
.B b
Moves to the lower left.
.TP
.B n
Moves to the lower right.
.TP
.B H
Moves to the left placing as many objects as it can.
The object that is placed is the remembered object from the 'p' command.
This and similar commands stop when an illegal placement is attempted,
or when the specified count is reached.
If no count is specifed, a large one is assumed.
This command is used to place many walls in a row.
.TP
.B J
Moves down placing many objects.
.TP
.B K
Moves up placing many objects.
.TP
.B L
Moves right placing many objects.
.TP
.B Y
Moves to the upper left placing many objects.
.TP
.B U
Moves to the upper right placing many objects.
.TP
.B B
Moves to the lower left placing many objects.
.TP
.B N
Moves to the lower right placing many objects.
.TP
.B s
Start to play the game.
If you have not specified a player you wish to play with,
or if your setup is not complete because of missing men,
then the terminal bell will ring and the command will be ignored.
If playing is allowed, you are asked to confirm this command.
Once you have confirmed that you want to play, no further setup commands
can be used.
Therefore you must save your setup previous to this command if you want
to use it again in a new game.
.I War
will then wait until both players have said that they are ready to play.
When this is so, the terminal bell will beep and the second phase of
the game begins.
Your input then controls the running of your men.
.TP
.B q
Quit the program.
You are asked to confirm this command.
If you wish to save your setup, you must do so before quiting.
.TP
.B ^L
Redraws the screen.
.SH "PLAYING PHASE"
The game is played in turns lasting about 2 seconds each.
Play alternates between the two players in real-time.
Therefore, the game does not wait for your input.
Instead, you type your commands while the game plays,
and they are acted upon on the next time is is your turn.
If you type fast, then you can specify many commands each turn.
.PP
You program each of your men with a sequence of simple commands which
tells each man how to act.
These simple commands direct the man to move, fight, or blast.
When your turn arrives, each man tries to execute each command of his program
in sequence until one of them succeeds.
At that point, the man has finished moving for the current turn.
When none of your men can successfully execute anything, then the turn is over.
Each man will continue to try to execute its command sequence each turn,
until you supercede it or the man dies.
.PP
Each of your commands cancels the existing command sequence for a man,
and completely replaces it with the new sequence.
Your skill in the game depends on recognizing when commands need changing
for your men, and to specify the new commands quickly and accurately.
You specify a new set of commands for a man by typing the character of
the man, the set of commands to be executed, and then a space or carriage
return character.
Until you type the terminating space or return, the command is incomplete
and can be edited with the normal editing characters.
It can also be cancelled by typing an escape character.
When a command is completed, it is checked for legality before it is used.
If an illegal command was specified, the terminal bell will be rung,
and the man's previous commands are still in effect.
If the command sequence was legal, it then immediately becomes the new
command sequence for the specified man.
.PP
If you require careful timing for the specifying of a sequence of commands,
then you can type it all except for the final space, wait until conditions
are right, and then terminate the command.
You must do this immediately after the screen updates, otherwise the
next turn could already be started.
.SH "MOVEMENT"
Movement of all men is orthogonal (left-right or up-down).
When a man is able to move, it moves by exactly one location.
This means that it takes many turns for a man to cross the board.
No man can move through another man, or through a wall.
If commands are specified which attempt to do this, the command fails.
However, if conditions later change (such as other men moving out of the way),
then the command could then be executed successfully.
.PP
It is very often useful to specify several directions for a man to move.
This allows a man to automatically travel around many obstacles.
For example, you can specify to move right and then down.
When rightward movement is possible, the man moves right.
Whenever that way is blocked, the man moves down instead.
Sometimes it is even convenient to specify three directions for movement.
.PP
If a count is given for a movement command, then after that many moves have
been made, that movement command will be ignored.
This allows you to position a man exactly, since it will stop when the
specified count runs out.
.SH "FIGHTING"
Whenever one of your men and one of the enemy's men are next to each other
in an orthogonal direction (left-right or up-down), then fighting can occur.
If you allow your man to fight, then he can take one shot each turn.
Each shot has a 50% chance of success.
If successful, then the life of the enemy man is reduced by one.
When the life is reduced to zero, the man dies and is removed from the board.
If there is someone to fight, the turn is used even if the shot misses.
.PP
You normally do not need to actively specify that fighting should occur.
An implicit fight command is added to the end of every command you set
for a man, so that if the man fails to execute your commands, fighting will
then occur when possible.
One reason to explicitly specify a fight command is when you want to fight
first, and move only when there is no one to fight.
.PP
The other reason for specifing the fight command is when there are multiple
men you could fight with.
If you have a choice, and you have not specified otherwise, then your man
picks one of the men at random each turn, and fights him.
This means that you are spreading your attacks between more than one person.
If you specify an attack in a certain direction, then the other men will
be ignored.
This is important if you are surrounded and need to kill one of your
attackers in order to escape before you die.
.SH "BLASTING"
Certain men have the capability to blast walls.
This is done by moving your man next to the wall to be blasted, and
specifying that a wall is to be blasted.
Blasting of a wall is probabilistic, and depends on the "life" of the wall.
Each time that your man can attempt blasting, the chance of the blast
succeeding is the inverse of the walls' life.
Thus if a wall has a life of 10, there is a 10% chance of a blast succeeding.
When a wall is successfully blasted, it is simply removed from the board.
Men can then travel through the opening.
Even when an attempt to blast fails, it succeeds in using up a turn.
.PP
Unlike fighting, blasting is not an implicit activity.
Men only attempt to blast when you direct it.
This is because much harm can occur from misdirected blasting (especially
in your own maze).
.PP
When combined with movement commands, blasting can automatically punch a
hole through multiple walls.
To do this you specify that the man blasts in a direction, and then moves
in the direction.
When blasting is possible, the man blasts.
When blasting is not possible (because the wall is gone), the man moves.
.PP
You should be careful of losing all of your blasting men, because if you
do so then you cannot do anything about the opponent's maze defense.
.SH "PLAYING COMMANDS"
Following are the commands used in the playing phase of the game.
These commands can be preceeded by an optional number, which is a
repeat count.
They can be edited before they are complete by using the normal
editing characters.
A partial command can be cleared by typing an escape character.
.TP 6
.B h
Move to the left when possible.
A missing count means move left by one location.
.TP
.B j
Move downward when possible.
.TP
.B k
Move upward when possible.
.TP
.B l
Move right when possible.
.TP
.B H
Move to the left when possible.
A missing count implies an infinite movement.
.TP
.B J
Move downward when possible.
.TP
.B K
Move upward when possible.
.TP
.B L
Move to the right when possible.
.TP
.B F<dir>
Fight the man in the specified direction when possible.
The direction character can be one of the four characters 'h', 'j', 'k', or 'l'.
Also, 'a' picks randomly among all directions where men can be fought.
Finally, 'n' fights in no direction at all.
.TP
.B B<dir>
Blast a wall in the specified direction when possible.
The direction characters are the same as in the 'F' command.
.TP
.B <space>
If a null command is given, then this causes the man to stop and return
to the idle state.
In this state, fighting still occurs if possible because of the implicit
fight command.
.TP
.B ^L
Redraw the screen to fix glitches.
This command does not need any terminating space or carriage return.
.PP
The following gives some examples of commands to give to men.
In the following, "<sp>" represents the space character.
.sp
.TP 15
.B aL4j<sp>
Tell man 'a' to move as far as possible to the right, and to move a total
of four rows down.
The rightmost movement is to occur first when possible.
.TP
.B ybkK<sp>
Tell man 'y' to try to blast a wall directly above him, and when there is
no wall to blast, then try to move up.
.TP
.B cfjfh<sp>
Tell man 'c' to fight a man directly down from him, and if there is no
man there, then fight the man to his left.
.TP
.B b<sp>
Tell man 'b' to do nothing.
However, if any enemy is next to him, he will fight them.
.TP
.B efn<sp>
Tell man 'e' to really do nothing, not even fight.
.SH AUTHOR
David I. Bell
.SH BUGS
If the two players don't use the same object file, havoc will result.
Multiple setups in a setup file by the same name should be detected.
The other player should be notified that you are ready to play.
Players should be able to send messages to each other.
There is no way to temporarily stop the game (except for using ^Z).
There is no code for determining when the game is won, so the game
will keep playing until one player quits.
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