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starting the server. The number cannot be modified while the server is running. Super flags come in both bad and good form, and affect a tank accordingly. A bad flag may take away a certain sense of the tank: its sight, speed, or related things, while a good flag does the opposite and actually helps a tank. Good super flags are usually held until the tank is killed and explodes, or until the player driving the tank chooses to drop the flag. Bad flags are dropped after a short amount of time, after a certain number of "wins" (kills), or until the tank dies. The rules for dropping bad flags are set by the operator at the start of the server. All super flags have a one or two letter code that is displayed next to a player's name on the
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413:. Graphical map editors, BZEdit or iBZEdit have also been used. Note that BZEdit is not distributed with the game, and is no longer under active development (versions of it are available at the BZFlag SourceForge.net site). Using Blender in combination with a BZFlag map plug-in is currently the most popular mapping method, though it is getting some competition from WebBZEdit.
210:
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245:(tank could go through objects). There was only one of each flag, and each flag was marked with its type. Soon after, bad and good flags were added and remain part of gameplay today, only without markers, so that the flag type is unknown to the player until it is picked up (unless the player is carrying an Identify flag).
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There are styles of game play that modify the objective. Styles are server-based, as the server operator chooses what style to host. If there is no special style indicated by the server owner, the only objective is the above (to simply kill opponent tanks); it is called a "free for all", or "FFA" for
474:
that simulate the real world. A server's environment consists of three things: The map in play, the time of day that is being simulated, and weather conditions, introducing elements of which players have no control, like rain, snow, icy and/or slippery ground, modified friction and gravity, and fog.
379:
Teams are necessary in capture-the-flag games, in which they have to protect their team flag from capture. Rogues are occasionally allowed on servers; a rogue tank does not have any flag to defend, nor can it capture flags. Rogues tend to aid other teams of choice, or add a distraction to all teams.
240:
In 1993, BZFlag was released to the public for the first time. This release took a new turn compared to older versions after a cheater, who edited the source code of his client to give himself powers that do not come from official releases, inspired
Schoeneman and Pasetto to add "super-flags." Super
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In rabbit-hunt games there is a white tank, known as the "rabbit", against the orange-brown "hunters", or every other player. The hunters are considered a team, so rabbits with genocide, shockwave, Guided
Missile, or Laser flags are dangerous, and often teamkills occur due to a group assault on the
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Servers can change the game mode and have custom maps made to fit the properties of the game. Certain thresholds are used to catch malicious players and kick them off the server, as well as message filters and an entire collection of other anti-cheating features. There are around 250 servers active
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game, and represent the team it is colored to. Super flags are flags that can be in both free-for-all games and capture-the-flag games, but are strongly controlled by a server operator. The number, types of super flags, as well as where they are placed can all be controlled by the operator when
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Tanks can join as one of the four team colors, as a rogue, or as an observer. Observers cannot play, but can move anywhere in the world or watch what the tank they are linked to is doing. Observers do not have a tank and are therefore not visible to players, but are shown in the scoreboard. The
248:
In 1997, the release of version 1.7d came with a groundbreaking new feature: an in-game public server list. Previously, players had to either set up their own servers, know of servers, or read a list published and maintained by a third-party. Now the server list is hosted on the official BZFlag
359:; a style called "rabbit chase" in which the objective is to have every hunter (orange) tank try to destroy a particular white tank, called the "rabbit," and a different way of playing free-for-all called open free-for-all (OFFA), in which tanks shoot any other tanks regardless of the color.
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Tanks have the ability to drive through other tanks, but cannot travel through buildings or other world objects. The basic objective is to destroy opponents' tanks, which are tanks of another team's color. Since all players can see the position of all the tanks on their radar, it is a game of
428:, or simple definitions of two points for teleporters to link between. Teleporters are also capable of teleporting to themselves, reflecting bullets and tanks that enter. Team Bases are used for CTF style games. Full three dimensional meshes have been available in maps since the 2.0 release.
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The number of contributors to the project has steadily increased over time. The project invites all sufficiently experienced developers to contribute. Though there are currently 64 listed developers, a much smaller number of those are active contributors.
252:
Schoeneman eventually re-wrote BZFlag in C++ for SGI's third IndiZone competition, which won in the "Reality Engine" category. Tim Riker was later given the project prior to version 1.7e to maintain and evolve. BZFlag is written in
29:
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colored teams are Red, Green, Blue and Purple. Rogue players are teamless players: they are allowed to kill colored team players and other rogues. Rogue tanks are colored dark grey out the window, and yellow on the radar.
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Developers are able to edit any of the project's files to make changes at any time. When a developer makes an edit of which other developers do not approve, or is inappropriate for the game, they are requested to
329:
The copyright holder for the game is Tim Riker, but maintenance is guided by Scott
Wichser and Jeff Makey as project managers. The game's original author, Chris Schoeneman, is no longer involved in development.
241:
flags affect a tank's performance by adding abilities or weapons to its arsenal. The first four flags were High Speed (boosted tank speed), Quick Turn (tank turned faster), Rapid Fire (shots moved faster), and
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for play, or users can load their own map files. BZFlag uses a customized text based map format to define the placement of objects. While writing a map is fairly simple in this format, most map-makers use a
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In observer mode as a green tank and a rogue tank battle against each other. The rogue clearly will destroy the green tank, because the rogue has Guided
Missiles. Taken from low-resolution mode in version
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There are three other objectives and corresponding styles (four in total): a style called "capture-the-flag" (or "CTF" for short) in which tanks try to pick up an opponent's flag and bring to their own
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761:
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237:. BZFlag was initially called "BZ" and despite its similarity to the SGI game of the same title by Chris Fouts, the games are completely independent of each other.
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The player fires a Guided
Missile at a ground target while the opposing green team's flag is taken from their base, all while a tank has exploded slightly below.
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As to the simplicity of maps, there are a number of basic objects in a map: boxes, pyramids, teleporters, cones, arcs, cylinders, spheres, team bases and
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201:, players drive around tanks, viewed from a first-person view, in a server-defined world (also known as a "map"), which can be modified.
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in the background. Servers may synchronize the local server time or allow players to change the time to any time they may desire.
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for rendering. Its audio and several other sub-systems have been written using OS specific methods, although newer releases use
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BZFlag has three types of flags: team flags, bad flags and super flags. Team flags are only placed in a world during a
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There is a plugin to prevent this which is used on servers with two large teams and one or two rogue players.
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BZFlag takes the local time from the geographical location of the server and creates a night or day-time
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A daytime, but rather dark, shot from version 1.7d9 while a chat message is being typed. Note the opaque
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420:. Teleporters are rectangular, yellow-bordered objects that teleport a tank to another teleporter. A
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when that player has that flag. Once in a while, a new flag is suggested, though not always added.
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to the previous version of the file; most developers monitor source edits on IRC or GitHub.
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A screenshot of BZFlag 2.4.6 client visiting a Ducati map with snow and mirror effect.
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681:"bzflag/README at d85df040e26d831cfea875338ad599a29f9614a0 · BZFlag-Dev/bzflag"
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website and allows anybody to play games on servers that choose to be public.
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Networked
Graphics: Building Networked Games and Virtual Environments
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may choose to not have a teleporter teleport tanks by leaving out
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at any given time (although only about 1-3% have active players).
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Steed, Anthony; Fradinho
Oliveira, Manuel (October 30, 2009).
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A BZFlag server can be configured to create a basic, random
281:, which is written in C, is used to decompress data files.
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190:(an abbreviation for Battle Zone capture the Flag) is an
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and its full compatibility with the drivers of high-end
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by Chris
Schoeneman in 1992 as a part of his studies at
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A high-resolution screenshot of v2.0.14 running within
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2.4.26 "Tanksgiving" / November 20, 2022
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265:to perform low-level operations on all platforms.
656:"Chapter 8: Setting Up a Game Server with BZFlag"
545:was fun to play and suitable for younger gamers.
886:Lua (programming language)-scripted video games
342:The official logo for BZFlag from version 2.4.8
8:
525:was selected in Summer 2015 as "HotPick" by
296:is enacted externally by the system's video
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901:Video games developed in the United States
533:Project of the Month for April 2004. Both
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27:
20:
300:. This exhibits the game's best-possible
63:Tim Riker, David Trowbidge, Sean Morrison
738:. Free Software Magazine. Archived from
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654:Negus, Christopher (November 7, 2006).
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347:outmaneuvering rather than sneaking.
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269:for in-game objects are loaded from
916:Software using the Mozilla license
14:
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217:contrasting with newer versions.
42:A screenshot from version 2.0.14
911:Software using the LGPL license
866:Free software programmed in C++
1:
764:. sourceforge. Archived from
529:. BZFlag was selected as the
921:Cross-platform free software
736:"Bzflags- Kill or be Killed"
937:
704:Diehl, Mike (2007-10-18).
197:tank game. In the game of
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35:
26:
896:Multiplayer online games
787:Linux Format Summer 2015
294:full-scene anti-aliasing
243:Oscillation Overthruster
871:Open-source video games
80:; 21 months ago
706:"Free Games for Linux"
535:Free Software Magazine
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861:First-person shooters
800:"April 2004 - BZFlag"
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229:was first written in
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804:Project of the Month
768:on December 25, 2012
762:"SVN revision 19236"
195:free and open-source
145:First-person shooter
273:files; audio, from
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760:Tim Riker (2006).
502:. You can help by
483:Critical reception
466:Server environment
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394:
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302:graphics rendering
235:Cornell University
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192:online multiplayer
49:Original author(s)
808:SourceForge, Inc.
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470:Servers can have
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856:1993 video games
832:Official website
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594:. June 30, 2020
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531:SourceForge.net
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500:needs expansion
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290:Slackware Linux
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163:(dual-licensed)
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626:. p. 24.
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742:on 2016-03-04
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812:. Retrieved
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770:. Retrieved
766:the original
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744:. Retrieved
740:the original
734:Berg, Alan.
713:. Retrieved
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685:. Retrieved
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663:. Retrieved
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637:. Retrieved
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596:. Retrieved
592:Linux Format
582:
570:. Retrieved
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527:Linux Format
522:
521:
511:October 2017
508:
504:adding to it
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472:environments
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221:Inspired by
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59:Developer(s)
18:
891:MacOS games
881:Linux games
541:noted that
403:3D modeling
306:video cards
205:Development
112:/BZFlag-Dev
876:IRIX games
850:Categories
814:2007-09-03
746:2010-01-27
715:2010-10-13
687:2016-10-11
549:References
477:atmosphere
452:scoreboard
376:"rabbit."
313:Developers
223:Battlezone
129:Written in
99:Repository
85:2022-11-20
16:Video game
772:April 10,
563:"COPYING"
357:home base
257:and uses
683:. GitHub
665:July 28,
639:July 28,
624:Elsevier
598:July 28,
588:"Bzflag"
422:mapmaker
407:Wings 3D
334:Gameplay
267:Textures
789:page 56
411:Blender
351:short.
175:.bzflag
168:Website
161:MPL-2.0
152:License
114:/bzflag
83: (
841:GitHub
837:BZFlag
630:
572:May 1,
567:GitHub
543:BZFlag
523:BZFlag
418:meshes
324:revert
298:driver
292:. x24
259:OpenGL
227:BZFlag
199:BZFlag
187:BZFlag
108:github
22:BZFlag
432:Flags
426:links
367:Teams
810:2004
774:2009
667:2020
641:2020
628:ISBN
600:2020
574:2018
537:and
384:Maps
279:Zlib
275:WAVs
177:.org
159:and
140:Type
110:.com
839:on
506:.
441:2.0
409:or
398:map
271:PNG
263:SDL
255:C++
215:HUD
173:www
133:C++
852::
806:.
802:.
724:^
708:.
696:^
658:.
622:.
608:^
590:.
565:.
277:.
225:,
817:.
776:.
749:.
718:.
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669:.
643:.
602:.
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513:)
509:(
308:.
231:C
87:)
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
