The XEvil 2.X Instruction Manual

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Introduction

You have sinned in life.  Now, you die and go to Hell.  XEvil is the contest that determines your fate in Hell for all eternity.  At the end of a game, you receive one of many possible rankings.  A poor player, for example, may spend the rest of time as "Satan's Earwax Remover", while a good one might achieve a prestigious title such as "VP of Hell Marketing" or even "Lead Software Engineer of Hell".

Contents

1. User Interface
2. Game Play
3. Appendix

Part I: User Interface

UNIX and Windows Differences

UNIX:
Menu Bar

Windows:
Options Dialog

 

Graphics Options

UNIX:

1. [Large Viewport] chooses between large- and small-viewport modes.  Large-viewport mode is the default, playing XEvil in full resolution.  Small-viewport plays XEvil at half-resolution (similar to XEvil 1.x), shrinking all graphics to half normal size.  Two uses: With small-viewport, you can fit two XEvil windows on one display to play two players on the same machine.  And, small-viewport mode is much faster on machines with slow graphics.
2. [Smooth Scroll] chooses between smooth-scroll and discrete-scroll modes.  In smooth-scroll, your character is always at the center of the screen, with the world scrolling to follow you.  However, smooth-scroll requires a machine with very fast graphics, so discrete-scroll is the default.  In the latter, the viewport shifts in discrete chunks, only scrolling when your character gets to the edge of the screen.
3. Turn off [Draw Background] to speed up smooth-scroll mode.  Instead of the appropriate world-background, the background will be solid black.  This switch does nothing in discrete-scroll mode.

1. [Full Screen] chooses between full-screen and windowed modes.  Full-screen is generally faster, running in 800x600, 256-color mode.  But, windowed mode allows you to easily switch between XEvil and other applications.
2. Turn off [Draw Background] to speed up drawing.  Instead of the appropriate world-background, the background will be solid black.

Controls

Movement:
For Walking characters, press right-left to walk.  Up and up-diagonals to jump, down and down-diagonals to duck and crawl.  Middle key to stop moving.
For Sticky (wall-crawling) characters, press the appropriate diagonal towards the wall to climb, away-diagonal to jump off the wall.
Press up-down to climb ladders.  If you are jumping through the air, you can grab a ladder by pressing up or down while passing over the ladder.
For Flying characters, press the direction you would like to fly.  Middle key to stop in place.

Weapons/Items:
To fire a weapon, or attack hand-to-hand, hold down the weapon-use key and tap the direction you would like to attack.  Movement will not be affected as long as the weapon-use key is held down.  Thus, you can move in one direction while firing in another.
Tap weapon-change to cycle through available weapons, and weapon-drop to drop your current weapon.
Item use, change, and drop keys allow you to use items, cycle through available items, and drop items, respectively.

Network chat is described in the Network XEvil section.
 

Windows:

The [Settings | Keyboard Controls...] menu activates the Keyboard Controls Dialog:

Click on a button to set the key for that command.  On Windows, keyboard controls are saved persistently between sessions.
 

UNIX:

Keyboard controls set via user interface are not saved between sessions.  However, they can be set permanently via X Resources.

To pause, hit F1, then any key to resume.

UNIX: Viewing current keyboard controls

Another tricky things is that UNIX XEvil allows you to map one-or-two different keys to each function.  Here's why.  The default left keyboard mapping use nine-keys centered on the 'L' key.  Put your right hand on the keyboard with middle finger on 'L' and you'll notice that up-right and down-left both have two nearby possible keys.  So, XEvil allows you to hit either 'P' or '[' for up-right and either 'M' or '<' for down-left.  In these cases, two different keys are mapped to the same function.

And, yet another tricky thing (YATT) is the X Window System key naming convention.  Most of the key names, e.g. "period" or "comma", are obvious.  But, some are more obscure.  "Prior" and "Next" generally mean "Page Up" and "Page Down".  Anything starting with "KP_" means a key on the numeric keypad.  If you are really stuck, read "/usr/include/X11/keysymdef.h" or the "X" man pages.

UNIX: Setting Keyboard Controls via User Interface

Changes take effect immediately, so you don't always have to cycle through all controls.  In particular, if you are playing one-player, dismiss the dialog after setting controls for the right side.  To dismiss the dialog, click the close-window button (usually) in the upper-right corner, or unselect [Set Controls] from the XEvil menu.  If you type an incorrect key, dismiss the dialog and start again.
 

UNIX: Setting Keyboard Controls via X Resources

Remember, there are separate sets of controls for the right and left sides of the keyboard.  If you are playing one-player mode, or running as a client connecting to a server, you only need think about the right hand set.  Also remember, up to two keys can be mapped to each function.

The easiest way to show this is with a few examples. The possible values for each function are the keys in "/usr/include/X11/keysymdef.h" with the "XK_" prefix stripped, e.g. "XK_asterisk" becomes "asterisk".

"XEvil.right_weapon_use:    Insert"
The keysym for weapon-use on the right side controls is the insert key.

"XEvil.right_left:    KP_Left"
The keysym for move-left on the right side controls is the left-arrow key on the numerical keypad ("KP_" means numerical keypad).

"XEvil.left_up_right_2:    bracketleft"
The second keysym for move-up-right on the left side controls is the left-square-bracket.
 

A sample resource file.  Further examples are in the "x11/app-defaults" directory in the XEvil source distribution.

! XEvil resources for a sun4 SPARC station 1
!
! Right side of keyboard
XEvil.right_center:                     F31
XEvil.right_right:                      Right
XEvil.right_down_right:                 F35
XEvil.right_down:                       Down
XEvil.right_down_left:                  F33
XEvil.right_left:                       Left
XEvil.right_up_left:                    F27
XEvil.right_up:                         Up
XEvil.right_up_right:                   F29
XEvil.right_weapon_use:                 F21
XEvil.right_weapon_change:              F22
XEvil.right_weapon_drop:                F23
XEvil.right_item_use:                   F24
XEvil.right_item_change:                F25
XEvil.right_item_drop:                  F26
! Left side of keyboard
XEvil.left_center:                      l
XEvil.left_right:                       semicolon
XEvil.left_down_right:                  slash
XEvil.left_down:                        period
XEvil.left_down_left:                   m
XEvil.left_down_left_2:                 comma
XEvil.left_left:                        k
XEvil.left_up_left:                     i
XEvil.left_up:                          o
XEvil.left_up_right:                    p
XEvil.left_up_right_2:                  bracketleft
XEvil.left_weapon_use:                  a
XEvil.left_weapon_change:               s
XEvil.left_weapon_drop:                 d
XEvil.left_item_use:                    z
XEvil.left_item_change:                 x
XEvil.left_item_drop:                   c

Game Style

Levels

The default style for single-player games.  Kill all enemies on each level to advance to the next more difficult level.  Every five levels, you must complete a scenario.  A scenario is a mission with a specific goal, e.g. "Capture the Flag", "Hive"-find the exit before the hoards of Aliens kill you, "Kill the Baby Seals", or "The Pound"-survive an onslaught of rabid dogs.

Scenarios Only

No normal levels, you only play scenarios.

Kill, Kill, Kill

Everything attacks everything, machine players even attack each other. Game is over when there is one (or fewer) survivors.  Also makes a good screen-saver, set zero human players and watch the machines fight it out.

Duel

Good for multi-player tournaments.  Each player has three lives.

Extended Duel

The default "Death Match" style for multi-player network games.  Humans have infinite lives and the game keeps track of the number of kills per player.

Training

No enemies, good for learning the controls (and debugging).

[Human Players]

Set the number of players on this machine.  On Windows, this is zero or one.  You can set zero players then sit back and watch the machines kill each other.  On UNIX, this can be zero to six.  Two players can share the same machine, each using half of the keyboard.  Or, you can open windows on multiple X Displays with the -display<N> command line option, to play up to six players.  Note: multiplayer by opening multiple X Displays is different than true client/server network play, described in the "Network XEvil" section.  This control is unused for true network play, because the value is set implicitly by the number of machines connected to the server.

[Enemy Players]

Only used for certain Game Styles, set the number of enemy players in the game.  E.g. for a human vs. human duel, you may or may not want to have computer players running around in the game.

[Regenerate Enemies]

Only used for certain Game Styles, choose whether enemy players are automatically regenerated.  E.g. if [Enemy Players] is set to ten, and all but four have been killed, six new ones will soon appear to take the place of their fallen comrades.

[Cooperative]

You can choose a [Cooperative] game, where all humans work together.  Your dogs and doppelgangers will not attack other humans, human-fired missiles will not track other humans, humans will not bump into each other, and you all share the same set of lives.

Network XEvil

Quick Network Setup

Example:  Two Windows users playing against each other.

1. Person 1:  Select the "Network | Run as Server..." menu.  Click "OK".
2. Person 2:  Select "Network | Connect to Server..." menu.  Enter the hostname or IP address of the other machine and click "OK".

Recruiting Blurb

Introduction to Network XEvil

XETP, the XEvil Transport Protocol, is platform independent. You can connect Windows clients to UNIX servers and vice versa.  Even though UNIX XEvil has no sound (yet), Windows clients connected to UNIX servers will get correct sound effects.  XETP works over standard TCP/IP connections (using UDP and TCP packets), so XEvil can be played over the internet, a LAN, or a dialup connection.

Network XEvil provides a simple chat mode, facilitating taunts and other important modes of inter-player communication.  On either Client or Server, press the chat key (default is spacebar), enter your message, then "Enter" to send the message or "Esc" to abort the message and return to normal controls.
 

Client

UNIX:
Use the command line options described below.

Windows and UNIX:
You can run an XEvil client from the command line.  Type "xevil -connect <server_name> {server_port}" to connect to a specific server, optionally specifying the server port number, e.g. "xevil -connect xevil.notgod.com".

While connected, you can hit [New Game] to restart.  The server will end your old game and start you with a new character.
 

Server

Windows:
You can run an XEvil server from the user interface at run time.  Select the "Network | Run as Server..." menu.  You may change the port number to run on a port other than the default, 6066.  Choose either "Player" or "Observer" mode and hit "OK".  Clients can  now to connect to your machine.

UNIX:
Use the command line options described below to run a UNIX XEvil server.

Windows and UNIX:
You can run an XEvil server from the command line.  Type "xevil -server {port_number}" to run an XEvil server in "Player" mode, optionally specifying a server port number.  Add the "-observer" flag to run in "Observer" mode.

Windows:
Windows XEvil provides a dedicated server mode, with a small window to control game options and view server logs.  Dedicated-Server mode performs no drawing, so inflicts little slowdown on other applications.
Run "xevil -server -dedicated" from the command line.  Dedicated servers are always in "Observer" mode.

UNIX:
UNIX XEvil provides a non-graphical command-line-only server interface.  This allows XEvil servers to be run in startup scripts or remotely via telnet when no graphical interface is available.
Run "xevil -server -no_ui" from the command line.  Command-line servers are always in "Observer" mode.

You can record a server log by redirecting the output to a file, say "log.txt".
"xevil -server -no_ui > log.txt"
or
"xevil -server -no_ui | tee log.txt"
The second form will copy the log to "log.txt" while still displaying it on the command line.

Remote Server Monitoring

Currently the only way to obtain serverping is to download the XEvil source code and compile it on a UNIX machine.  serverping will be generated in the same directory as the XEvil executable.  I haven't tried building serverping.cpp on a Windows machine, but it is all cross-platform code and shouldn't be too hard to make it work.

---

Difficulty

UNIX:
You will be prompted for the level of difficulty at the start of the first game.  Press the key for the desired level of difficulty.  Or, hit space or click a mouse button as a shortcut for "Normal".

Windows:
The [Settings | Keyboard Controls...] menu will activate the Difficulty dialog.  Changing level of difficulty will not effect a game currently in progress.  Start a new game to play with the new level of difficulty.

Game Speed

Windows:
Move the [Game Speed] slider in the Options Dialog to the right to go faster, left to go slower.

UNIX and Windows:
Run "xevil -speed <speed_in_ms>" to set the exact speed in milliseconds, similar to the UNIX [Speed] control.

If playing a network game, it's best to leave the speed at default.  If a client and server are running at different speeds, the client-side dead-reckoning algorithm will be off, resulting in objects jumping around the screen more than necessary.

Sound (Windows only)

1. Set the volume of the background music with the "Soundtrack" slider.
2. Set the volume of the sound effects (gunshots, screams, and the like) with the "Effects" slider.
3. Turn sound on/off altogether with the "Sound" toggle button.
4. Set background music to play from the built-in MIDI files (default).
5. Set background music to play random tracks from an audio CD.

Sometimes, even with the "Soundtrack" slider all the way up, the MIDI sound is still too quiet.  Two ways to deal with this:

1. Open the Windows Volume Controls by right-clicking on the speaker icon in the lower-right corner of your screen.  Then crank the "Synth Volume" all the way up.
2. Turn down the "Effect" volume in the XEvil Options Dialog.  Then increase the master volume on your speakers.

UNIX XEvil has no sound.  But, with the source freely available, I'm sure some industrious soul could write it (hint, hint).

Part II: Game Play

World

Characters

You can build up characters with more powerful weapon and items, with shields, or by earning bonuses like double health, double speed, hellfire powers (light enemies on fire by touching them), or healing powers.  But, life is cheap, and often very short.  A much less pumped character, controlled by a clever and fast opponent, might just find the right weapon/item combination to nail you where you least expect it.
 

Weapons and Items

We implemented a system where it is fairly easy to find weapons, but not too easy, and where it is impossible to hoard weapons from other players.  If you pick up a weapon you already have, your character will take the ammunition from the new weapon.  After killing an opponent, you may loot all the weapons and items from the corpse (assuming you didn't blow up the entire area with a Bomb or Grenade).

Don't get too attached to your body, you never know when it might get snatched from under you.  The XEvil Soul-Swapper lets you swap souls between your body and someone else's.  The Soul-Swapper is good for taking over powerful enemies, or getting rid of your current near-death body.  The frog-gun temporarily turns an enemy into a harmless, hopping, little amphibian.  Be sure to catch and nail the critter before he turns back.  The Transmogifier (based on "transmogrify"), randomly turns its user into a different Creature.  It's good if your current body is weak or wounded, or if you just feel like a change.

Doppelgangers and Dog-Whistles give you followers.  Your followers help you out, protecting you and attacking your enemies.  And, you even get the credit for all your followers' kills.  Using a Doppelganger generates a copy of your current body.  It is largely independent, wandering around the world attacking your enemies.  Blowing a Dog-Whistle summons two loyal and obedient Dogs.  Unless ordered otherwise, Dogs follow nearby protecting their master, attacking nearby targets and fetching weapons and items.  You can use the Dog-Whistle to order your Dogs to seek in a certain direction or to return to your side.

XEvil has more drugs than a elementary school playground.  Caffine is the legal drug, keeps you awake and makes you go faster.  No really bad side-effects, although the shaking may make you fall off ladders and such.  Crack and PCP make you faster and stronger.  But, they come with a chance of overdose.  If you do drugs and die, well, you should've listened to Nancy Reagan.  As long as you keep constantly high, feeding your habit with more drugs, you won't suffer the negative effects of the come-down.  If you see your opponents shaking, twitching, and jumping all over the place, be careful, they may be strung out on Crack.

The "Cloak" gives limited invisibility.  The background shimmers in the shape of your character, so only very observant players can see you.  Cloaking effects last for quite a while (not infinite, don't want cowards to hide in the corners forever), but end as soon as you fire a weapon.  Cloak is perfect for ambush attacks.

Now, what would Hell be without fire?  Flame-Throwers, Napalm-Grenades, and Fireballs allow you to have a barbecue with your unwanted guests.  The more you hit 'em, the hotter they get, the longer they burn, and the more damage they take.  Sometimes you can hit someone with enough fire so that after they kill you, they still burn to death.  Vengeance from the grave.  Of course, all Demons and Demonic objects are immune to heat attacks.  "Gee, that tickles."

XEvil has no personal hand-held or built-in teleporters.  I hate games where your quarry magically beams away right before you kill them.  Stationary teleporters are ok.  Doors and teleportation booths set into in the world background move you instantly from one fixed location to another.

Part III: Appendix

Title

Hints

1. While an enemy is shooting at you, hit him with the Soul-Swapper.  After switching bodies, his own bullets will kill him.
2. Drop a Transmogifier on an Alien or some other tough enemy.  It will probably turn him into something easier to kill.
3. Trigger a Bomb, but don't drop it.  Then soul-swap an enemy.  He will find himself holding the hot-potato when it goes off.
4. Activate Doppelgangers and Dogs as living shields when being pursued by a really nasty enemy, say a FireDemon.
5. Drop drugs on your enemies until they die from overdose.
6. Use a Transmogifier to change bodies when missiles are tracking you.  They will lose the lock-on and fly into a wall.

Command Line Arguments

Values in <> are required, values in {} are optional.  Arguments that say (UNIX) or (Windows), are only meaningful for that platform.

Windows:
UNIX users, of course, are intimately familiar with the command line.  Some Windows users may not be.  On Win 95/98/NT, there are several ways to run a program from the command line.

1. From the "Start" menu, click "Run...".  In the dialog, type the command line to run XEvil,

e.g. "c:\xevil2.0\xevil <some_list_of_command_line_arguments>"
2. "Start | Programs | MS-DOS Prompt".  Then type the command line in the MS-DOS window.
3. Create a shortcut to XEvil.  Right-click on the shortcut icon and bring up the Properties dialog.  Choose the "Shortcut" tab, then add any command line arguments to the "Target" field.  Click "OK", then double click the shortcut to execute.

UNIX and Windows:

• Arguments applicable to all modes of playing, StandAlone, Client, or Server.
• -debug_info

Extra debugging information.  On Windows this adds a menu for debugging the SurfaceManager.
• -name <player_name>

Set the name for the first player, i.e. player number 0.
• -name<N> <player_name>

Set the name for player number N, N starts at 0,
e.g. "xevil -name0 bob -name1 fred -name2 jane".
• -reduce_draw

Don't draw backgrounds.
• -speed <time_in_ms>

Set the time for each turn in milliseconds.
• -display <display_name>

(UNIX) Run all XEvil windows on the given X Display.  See the "X" man pages for info on display names.  Remember to include the ":<screen_number>" after the machine name, e.g. "somemachine:0".
• -display<N> <display_name>

(UNIX) Associate player number N with the given X Display.  N starts at zero.
E.g. "xevil -display0 chainsaw.domain.com:0 -display1 fthrower.anotherdomain.edu:0" will play a game where player number 0 is on the machine "chainsaw" while player 1 is on the machine "fthrower".
• -draw_rects

(UNIX) Debugging tool for discrete-scroll mode.  Show the exact rectangles being drawn.
• -help or -h

(UNIX) Print out a help message.
• -info

(UNIX) Print out license agreement text, including credits.
• -keys <keyset_name>

(UNIX) Use one of the built-in default keyboard settings.  Possible values are "alpha", "decmips", 'iris", "linux", "mac", "ncd", "rsaix", "sun3", "sun4", "sun4_sparc", "tektronix".  The default is set at compile-time with the -DXEVIL_KEYSET flag.
• -large_viewport

(UNIX) Start in large-viewport mode.
• -no_buffer

(UNIX) Don't use double-buffer for smooth-scroll mode.
• -no_smooth_scroll

(UNIX) Turn smooth scroll off.
• -old_draw

(UNIX) Use an older drawing algorithm.
• -small_viewport

(UNIX) Start in small-viewport mode.
• -smooth_scroll

(UNIX) Turn smooth scroll on.
• -stats

(UNIX) Periodically print out a few useful statistics about timing and events.
• -use_averaging

(UNIX) For small viewport mode, set the image reduction algorithm to take the average of the source pixels.  Default is sub-sampling.
• -use_buffer

(UNIX) Use a double-buffer for smooth-scroll mode.
• -cd

(Windows) Set soundtrack to play an audio CD.
• -full_screen

(Windows) Run XEvil in full-screen mode.
• -gen_xpm <directory_name>

(Windows) Auto-generate UNIX XPM images for XEvil into the given directory.  Used for development work.
• -midi

(Windows) Set soundtrack to play the built-in MIDI music
• -no_init_graphics

(Windows) Don't initialize all graphics at startup.  Initialize graphics lazily, load images when they are first needed.
• -no_soundtrack

(Windows) Turn off the soundtrack.
• -window_screen

(Windows) Run XEvil in windowed mode.
• Arguments for StandAlone or Server.
• -cooperative

Turn on "Cooperative" mode.
• -difficulty <difficulty_level>

Set difficulty level, possible values are "trivial", "normal", "hard", or "bend-over".
• -duel

Set game style to "Duel".
• -extended

Set game style to "Extended Duel".
• -enemies <enemies_num>

Set number of enemy players.
• -kill

Set game style to "Kill, Kill, Kill".
• -levels

Set game style to "Levels".
• -no_demo

Don't show a demo at game startup.  Mostly for debugging.
• -no_items

No weapons or items will be added to the XEvil world.  Mostly for debugging.
• -no_level_title

Don't pause at the beginning of each level, displaying the level title.
• -no_movers

No horizontal or vertical movers(elevators) in the game.
• -no_new_level

Never advance to the next level.  Only useful for debugging.
• -one_item <item_name>

Only put one item in the XEvil world, an instance of the named class.  For debugging.
• -regenerate_enemies

Turn on auto-regenerate enemies.
• -rooms <N>x<M>

Set the dimensions of the XEvil world to be N rooms across and M rooms down.  Only used for certain game styles and scenarios.
• -scenario <scenario_name>

For the "Scenarios" game style, always play the named scenario.
• -scenarios

Set game style to "Scenarios".
• -training

Set game style to "Training".
• Arguments for Client Only.
• -connect <server_name> {server_port}

Run XEvil as a client, connecting to the given server.  Server port number may optionally be specified, default is 6066.
• -client_port <port_number>

Manually specifiy the UDP port used on the client side.  Use this if you get an error like "Could not bind local UDP port".
• -no_dead_reckoning

Disable client-side dead reckoning.  Objects will jump around on the screen more.
• -skip <skip_turns>

Manually specify the rate of data flow from the connected XEvil server.  "-skip 1" means send data at full rate no matter what.  "-skip 2" means only send every other turn, "-skip 3" means only send every three turns, etc.  "-skip 0" means automatically adjust the rate (default).
• Arguments for Server Only.
• -server {server_port}

Run an XEvil server.  Optionally specify the server port number, default is 6066.
• -disconnect_time <time_in_ms>

Specify time in milliseconds before disconnecting clients that do not respond.
• -no_adjust_skip

Don't adjust the data flow rate to clients.
• -no_disconnect

Never disconnect clients, even if they don't respond.  Useful for debugging.
• -observer

Run the server in "Observer" mode.  Default is "Player" mode.
• -target_delay <num_turns>

Server will adjust rate of data flow to Clients to keep latency <= this number of turns.
• -no_ui

(UNIX) Run a command-line XEvil server.  Implies "-observer".
• -dedicated

(Windows) Run a dedicated XEvil server. Implies "-observer".
• Arguments for Client or Server.
• -buggy

Purposely drop packets, scramble packets, and send duplicate packets.  Simulate a crappy network connection to assist debugging.
• -net_stats

Print out stats on network packets.