1This file contains the most recent changes to the COW client, with example 2.xtrkrc options to deal with them, and the clips from the documentation that 3explain them. If you're upgrading from an old version of COW, this file should 4make it a painless experience. 5 6***************************************************************** 71) Change Log 8***************************************************************** 91.02 pl2 Feb. 20, 1995 10- One year expire time [siegl] 11- put back sortPlayers option for unsorted playerlist [Soutter] 12- send full update request when joining [siegl] 13- Fixed some bugs with galactic map updates [Soutter] 14- Fixed some bugs with color map allocations [siegl] 15- Added sample xtrekrc file to the docs [siegl] 16- audio.c: replaced SIGCLD with SIGCHLD [ahabig] 17- config.h.in: include stdio.h for suns [gosselin] 18 191.02 pl1 Feb. 9, 1995 20- phaserShrink option to remove the bottom of your phaser [Soutter] 21- change TTS Y-location [Joseph] 22- Ignore Caps_Lock on key events [sheldon (taken from SWINE)] 23- Race Colors [Kellen] 24- removed message handler for Dashboard [Siegl] 25- fixed multi-line macro bug [Soutter] 26- metserver window rewritten [Soutter,Kellen] 27- playerlist window rewritten [Soutter] 28- The player list is now always sorted and so the "sortPlist" 29 option has been removed [Soutter] 30- The key "/" now changes the playerlist style rather than selecting 31 between sorted and unsorted player lists [Soutter] 32- Reimplemented the option "showPlanetOwner". [Soutter] 33- New layout for the option menus [Soutter]. 34- Removed the options "mapmode" and "showShields". Effectively, 35 these options are now treated as always being true [Soutter] 36- Added range checking on the options "showlocal", "showgalactic", and 37 "showLock" [Soutter] 38- Redraw the galactic map when you change teams [Soutter]. 39- All handlers (both for X events and for packets) now return a void 40 rather than an integers. This fixes some compiler errors [Soutter]. 41 42***************************************************************** 432) Cut and past changes to make COW work like it used to. 44***************************************************************** 45 46sortPlayers: on 47# 48# The default for "sortPlayers" is a bit strange and so we recommend 49# that you set the "sortPlayers" option in your .xtrekrc. The following 50# will impose the old default. 51# 52 53 54ignoreCaps: off 55# 56# By default, the caps lock key is now ignored. If you would like 57# the old behaviour then set "ignoreCaps" to "off". 58# 59 60***************************************************************** 613) Cut and past changes to turn on *all* new features. 62***************************************************************** 63 64phaserShrink: 10 65# 66# possible values: 0-16 67# 68# Don't draw the first <phaserShrink>/16 th of your phaser. This makes 69# it easier to see incoming torps. 70# 71# Most people who tested this feature really like it (even thought it 72# sounds weird). 73# 74 75 76playerListStyle: 3 77# 78# possible values: 0-4 79# 80# This is a new way of choosing which playerlist you want, although 81# newPlist still works. Options are: 82# 83# (0) Custom player list as defined by the 84# playerlist variable above, 85# (1) Old player list, 86# (2) Traditional COW player list, 87# (3) Kill watch player list, 88# (4) BRMH Player list. 89# 90# If "playerListStyle" is set, newPlist is ignored. 91# Use the options menu (shift-O) to try the different styles. 92# 93# The "Kill watch player list" is a new built in style. It makes scanning 94# kills easier and it shows the kind of thing klew players were already 95# doing with the "playerlist" option. 96# 97 98 99partitionPlist: on 100# 101# Add blank lines to a sorted player list to separate the 102# different teams. 103# 104 105 106metaCache: .metaCache 107# 108# Enable caching of meta-server information into the file 109# "$HOME/.metaCache". 110# 111# Use "cow -k" to use the cached information rather than waiting 112# to contact the metaServer. 113# 114# For more details, see the "MetaServer Options" manual in 115# section (4). 116# 117 118 119metaStatusLevel: 4 120# 121# Select the level of detail to be displayed on the meta-server window. 122# 123# The status levels are coded as follows. 124# 125# 0 Servers which have players but not a wait queue. 126# 1 + Servers with a wait queue. 127# 2 + Servers with nobody playing. (see NOTE1). 128# 3 + Servers which have Timed Out for the MetaServer (see NOTE2). 129# 4 + Servers which the MetaServer has not been able to connect to. 130# 131 132 133ignoreCaps: on 134# 135# By default, the caps lock key is now ignored and so this is not 136# strictly necessary. 137# 138 139 140showPlanetOwner: on 141# 142# showPlanetOwner is an old feature that has been reimplemented. 143# When on, the appropriate race letter is drawn next to each 144# planet on the galactic. 145# 146 147tts_time: 25 148#tts_max_len: 149#tts_font: 150#tts_color: ivory 151tts_pos: 20 152# 153# Some of these are new TTS options. This set of parameters moves any TTS 154# messages to near the top of the screen. tts_pos is # of pixels down from the 155# top to print the message, the other parameters allow control of how the text 156# looks. 157 158color.Rom: tomato 159color.Kli: green2 160color.Ori: light steel blue 161color.Fed: goldenrod 162color.Ind: aliceblue 163# 164# You can use these resources to change the colors of the race's bitmaps, 165# without messing up the border colors and things from the old style 166# "color.red" resources. 167 168**************************************************************** 1694) New manual sections 170**************************************************************** 171 172 173MetaServer Options 174================== 175 176The MetaServer and the MetaServerCache are provided to help you find a 177netrek game to join. Both services provide a list of the popular 178netrek servers. The MetaServer is neat because provides information 179on the number of players at each site. The MetaServerCache is neat 180because it is much faster if you can guess where a game will be. 181 182To access the MetaServer, use the command line switch "-m". For 183example "cow -m". To access the MetaServerCache, use the "-k" switch 184instead. 185 186 187 1881) Where to find the MetaServer: 189 190You can use the options "metaport" and "metaserver" to point COW 191to a new MetaServer. The defaults for these options are: 192 193 metaport: 3521 194 metaserver: metaserver.ecst.csuchico.edu 195 196 1972) How to create a list of known servers for the MetaServerCache: 198 199Before you can use the MetaServerCache, you must give COW a file in 200which to cache the information from the MetaServer. Use the .xtrekrc 201option "metaCache" to specify this file. The files path will be 202relative to your home directory unless you start the file name with a 203slash (/). 204 205For example, to set the cache file to "~/.metaCache" use: 206 207 metaCache: .metaCache 208 209Unlike the MetaServer, the MetaServerCache will not show the number of 210people playing at a server. If a server is contactable, it will be 211shown as "Active". 212 213 2143) How much information will be shown: 215 216You can now control the amount of information that the MetaServer 217displays for you by setting the "metaStatusLevel" flag. The default 218is: 219 220 metaStatusLevel: 3 221 222 223The status levels are coded as follows. 224 2250 Servers which have players but not a wait queue. 2261 + Servers with a wait queue. 2272 + Servers with nobody playing. (see NOTE1). 2283 + Servers which have Timed Out for the MetaServer (see NOTE2). 2294 + Servers which the MetaServer has not been able to connect to. 230 231NOTE1: When using the MetaServerCache, "metaStatusLevel" values of 232less than 3 are treated as the value 3. This minimum is enforced 233because the cache does not attempt to show the number of people 234playing at a site. 235 236NOTE2: If you are a long way from the MetaServer, you are advised to 237ignore TimeOut errors. For example, the MetaServer in America may 238have difficulty contacting to a server in Holland while the link from 239England to Holland is very good. 240 241 2424) The Fallback 243 244If you attempt to contact the MetaServer, and the connection times 245out, COW will try to show the MetaServerCache instead. 246 247Similarly, if you attempt to use the MetaServerCache, and your 248"metaCache" file does not exist, COW will attempt to call 249theMetaServer. 250 251 252 253Player List Options 254=================== 255 2561) Configurable Player List: 257 258 I've added a new .xtrekrc option called "playerlist" what it allows 259you to do is specify which columns of the player list you want to show 260and in what order. The following is a table of the available columns. 261 262Spc Let Name Header 263--- --- -------------------- ------------------- 264 3 'n' Ship Number " No" 265 3 'T' Ship Type " Ty" 266 11 'R' Rank " Rank " 267 17 'N' Name " Name " 268 6 'K' Kills " Kills" 269 17 'l' Login Name " Login " 270 6 'O' Offense " Offse" 271 6 'W' Wins " Wins" 272 6 'D' Defense " Defse" 273 6 'L' Losses " Loss" 274 6 'S' Total Rating (stats) " Stats" 275 6 'r' Ratio " Ratio" 276 8 'd' Damage Inflicted(DI) " DI" 277 1 ' ' White Space " " 278PLIST1 279 6 'B' Bombing " Bmbng" 280 6 'b' Armies Bombed " Bmbed" 281 6 'P' Planets " Plnts" 282 6 'p' Planets Taken " Plnts" 283 17 'M' Display/Host Machine " Host Machine " 284 7 'H' Hours Played " Hours " 285 6 'k' Max Kills " Max K" 286 6 'V' Kills per Hour " KPH" 287 6 'v' Deaths per Hour " DPH" 288PLIST2 289 9 'w' War staus " War Stat" 290 3 's' Speed " Sp" 291 292So for example if you just wanted to see names and rank you'd add this 293line to your .xtrekrc: 294 295playerlist: NR 296 297 In order for this mod to be in effect you must compile with PLIST 298defined, otherwise you will get either of the two currently available 299defaults. The things shown after PLIST1 are only available if you 300have PLIST1 defined, the same goes for the things after PLIST2, but 301you must have PLIST defined or neither of these will do anything. 302 303dave 304gosselin@ll.mit.edu 305 306 307NOTE FROM SOURCE KEEPER: 308PLIST2 is not active in BRM currently. Some players feel that placing 309speed on the playerlist gives a strategic advantage. 310 311NOTE ON SB STATS : 312On servers which support the SBHOURS .feature, you will see slightly 313different things when you info a SB, or show the SB player on the 314playerlist. The usual offense and defense lines are replaced with SB 315kills/hour and deaths/hour. The kills, deaths, hours and ratio entries 316are all the player's SB stats as long as he is in the SB, and his normal 317stats otherwise. 318 319 3202) Predefined "playerlist" styles: 321 322For your viewing pleasure we have predefined some playerlist layouts 323that you might like to try. These predefined styles can be selected 324using the "playerListStyle" option in your .xtrekrc or by using the 325options menu (shift-O). 326 327The "playerListStyle" options are: 328 329 0: Custom style = playerlist 330 1: Old style = "nTRNKWLr O D d " 331 2: COW style = "nTR N K lrSd" 332 3: Kill watch style = "nTK RNlr Sd" 333 4):BRMH style = "nTR N K l M" 334 335 336For backward compatability, the option "newPlist" will still select 337between the old style playerlist (off) and the COW style playerlist 338(on) if the "playerListStyle" option does not appear in your .xtrekrc. 339 340 3413) The "partitionPlist" option: 342 343Lets face it, the main role of the player list is so that you can keep 344track of who has kills. 345 346To make life easier, the player list is sorted so that enemy and 347friendly teams are always in the same place in the list. However, in 348mono it is not immediatly obvious where one team starts and another 349team ends. If the "partitionPlist" option is "on", white space will 350be added to the player list to separate your teams from the other 351teams and the players entering the game. In color, this option is not 352usually required because the teams are distinct anyway. 353 354Race Colors README 355------------------ 356You can now change the color in which a given race is drawn *without* 357having to also change other objects currently drawn in the same color. 358 359The race color defaults to the color in which the race is normally drawn 360(ie, Roms are drawn in color.red, which itself defaults to red). 361 362This option defaults transparently to off and uses up NO CPU time in 363normal play. (so there :-b) 364 365resource default resource default color 366---------- ------------------ ------------- 367color.Ind: color.light grey light grey 368color.Fed: color.yellow yellow 369color.Rom: color.red red 370color.Kli: color.green green 371color.Ori: color.cyan cyan 372 373############################################################### 374# Example .xtrekrc lines 375color.Rom: tomato 376color.Kli: green2 377color.Ori: light steel blue 378 379