Path: news.duke.edu!newsgate.duke.edu!agate!super7.hip.berkeley.edu!user From: ultra7@uclink4.berkeley.edu (Mawo Tominaga) Newsgroups: rec.games.bolo Subject: Re: Fwd: bolo rationalization update Date: Sun, 21 Sep 1997 03:49:47 -0800 Organization: University of California, Berkeley Lines: 138 Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: super7.hip.berkeley.edu Xref: news.duke.edu rec.games.bolo:30223 > Of course, all that I have written here, past the first paragraph, is heresy. > The doctrinaire truth is to be found in Jolly old St. Nix's monograph. > Find the > true path or perish, ye fools. Your expiration date has passed over a week ago. > > -steamboatcaptainman > Best if used by 1-16-89 Here's the original article, which I found buried in my computer... From thompson@demise.cass.usu.edu Mon Sep 27 17:26:23 EDT 1993 Article: 4590 of alt.netgames.bolo Path: zip.eecs.umich.edu!umn.edu!spool.mu.edu!agate!dog.ee.lbl.gov!hellgate.utah.edu!cc.usu.edu!thompson Newsgroups: alt.netgames.bolo Subject: The essence of Bolo Message-ID: From: thompson@demise.cass.usu.edu (Don Thompson) Date: 27 Sep 93 12:20:25 MDT Sender: thompson@demise.cass.usu.edu. Organization: Utah State University, Center for Atmospheric and Space Science Nntp-Posting-Host: nemesis.cass.usu.edu X-Posted-From: InterNews 1.0@cc.usu.edu. Lines: 86 I think that SBCM has, in his own magniloquent way, hit upon the true essence of Bolo. That is, in Bolo there are two basic phases; bang-bang and anti-bang-bang. Bang-bang is evident in our two-dimensional window on the Bolo universe as bullets and mines. Anti-bang-bang is seen in our limited view as trees, buildings, various terrains, and armor. From this hypothesis we can arrive at a unified theory of Bolo, with several results: 1) Bang-bang cannot be changed into anti-bang-bang. Neither can anti-bang-bang be converted into bang- bang. (This is known as steamboatcaptainman's third law.) 2) Anti-bang-bang absorbs bang-bang, but is altered by doing so. That is, a wall will absorb 5 bullets, but is changed to rubble. Other examples abound. 3) Anti-bang-bang can neither be created nor destroyed. Only its properties may be modfied. There is a progression of anti-bang-bang from organized to chaotic. For example, grass near water may be changed into swamp by four bullets, and then into water with four more bullets. Grass near water can be converted directly to water by the application of the more concentrated form of bang-bang, a mine. We conclude that water is the most fundamental form of anti-bang-bang since no amount of bang-bang will change water into anything else. Mines are actually repelled by water, and cannot be applied. Armor, when subjected to sufficient bang-bang, is converted into a boat (the one your tank is on after it is exposed to a lot of bang-bang). The armor in pillboxes and bases is also converted into boats when shot. This is where all those little boats that accumulate on the edges of the maps come from. There are far too many to be explained by the "they were just left there by other players" heresy. Boats are easily converted to water. Trees are a special form of anti-bang-bang. They are not acutally in the realm of our two-dimensional understanding of the Bolo universe. Rather, they are the shawdow of the phase of anti-bang-bang as it is in hyper-bolospace. When one shoots a tree, it is excluded from the 2-d bolospace, and the properties of the underlying terrain are revealed. The tree then moves, at some velocity, to another place on the map. This may take some time, as the velocity is proportional to the number of trees available on the map at that time (hence, there's never a tree around when you need one). The energy contained in the extra- dimensional nature of trees allows them to be used to reverse the normal degradation of a map into chaos (as required by the second law of thermodynamics). That is, you can build with trees. 4) Bang-bang can neither be created nor destroyed. When bang-bang is absorbed by anti-bang-bang it simply moves into another dimension (much as trees do) and reappear at another place on the map (usually at an angry pill that is shooting at my tank). Bullets have a finite lifetime in the physical bolo universe. After this time (less than a second) they decay and move into hyper-bolospace. Mines, on the other hand, are stable and remain in the physical bolospace until triggered to decay by the passage of a tank or the application of bullet. 5) Bases are portals into hyperspace, where bang-bang and anti-bang-bang can be extracted from the reservior. 6) Pillboxes are portals into hyperspace, but can only extract bang-bang from the reservior. This allows a pillbox to be moved. That is, if pillboxes were able to extrace anti-bang-bang from the hyperspace, they would be impossible to move. (Imagine trying to kill a pb that could self-regenerate its armor.) 7) Tanks are neither bang-bang, nor anti-bang-bang. They are merely mathematical constructs to allow us to understand the more fundamental phases of Bolo. Tanks do not extract bang-bang nor anti-bang-bang from the hyperspace, but must use bases and trees to obtain these elements. Tanks allow us to monitor the movement of limited quantities of bang-bang and anti-bang-bang trough hyperspace, till they reappear on the map. 8) Little green men are also mathematical constructs. The mathematics involved in the solution of the little-green-man equation are quite involved. It can take a long time to reaquire solution to the transendental equations (particularly on large maps) when the little man is exposed to bang-bang. 9) Anti-bang-bang can be converted to any of its various forms. That is, using a tree, rubble can be formed into road, or wall, or whatever. The conversion from tree to armor is performed easily in a pillbox, but bolo quantum mechanics shows us that this is a forbidden transition in a tank. (It is left for an exercise for the reader to show that attempting to build a wall under a tank will not increase its armor.) 10) The technology for converting bullets to mines, and vice versa, is not presently available. There are rumors, however, that the Chinese are working on a bullet-to-mine concentrator, but reputable bolo experts are dubious. A mine-to-bullet deconcentrator would be more useful in a heated battle. nix@nemesis Professor of Bolology Addendum: 11) The little green man can make no anti-bang-bang that cannot be destroyed with bang-bang. If the man can make it, the tank can shoot it apart. -- "guten morgen minasan!" Mawo Tominaga ultra7@uclink4.berkeley.edu