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more recent news | previous news
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Nov 24
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sluggo is the Peacemaker! For the first time in Bolo history, a
picture of the elusive sluggo is available.
It's pretty low quality for now - I xeroxed it from the 10/97 issue of
Automatica
(an engineering journal) in which slugmo published a paper, and nature cleaned it up as best as
he could. In another month or so I'll be able to check out the journal
from our engineering library and scan the original source. For now, at
least we know what he looks like, heh. Oh the caption by the way reads
as follows:
Charles H. Dillon received a B.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University in University Park, PA in 1986. He received a M.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1992 and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. degree in Aerospace Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles. His industrial experience includes three years with the USAF Phillips Laboratory at Edwards AFB, CA and two years with the Raytheon company in Tewksbury, MA. His research interests include robust and adaptive control, estimation, differential game theory, and optimization. Cup Kax est mort. Well it's official, Kax called off the tournament due to inadequate participation in the current, second round. The structure of the tournament really depends on people playing their games, and this didn't happen. Kax did single out some Bolo diehards: "Athena & Smeagol played every one of their 1x1 games in both round one and round two, and C++ played all but one, and I think that's great." It's still a remarkable achievement if you consider that well over 100 Cup Kax tournament games were played over the past few months! Kax's devotion and hard work set an excellent example for future tournament organizers.
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Nov 23
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New aIndy 3.1 released! The only active Bolo developer is at it
again. After dozens of long emails and interesting discussions, Paul
Joswig made some 50 changes from
version 3.0. These include: improved pill placement (the beginning of a
new trend away from fortress building), refueling on base corners to
avoid weak spikes, placing the first pill to refuel on maps where all
bases are spiked, saving of bullets during refueling, and finally,
ignoring dead pills in deep sea (the "feature" that made it
trivially easy to defeat any number of aIndy's in the past). There are
numerous other improvements to everything from pill/base/man killing,
route finding, farming and building, use of lgm, etc. Download aIndy 3.1
by WWW (faster) or FTP.
Cup Kax in trouble. Only some 40% of games have been played in rond 2 of Cup Kax. Unfortunately Kax's hard work still doesn't seem enough to keep people's attention, and he seems to be leaning towards cancelling the whole tournament.
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Nov 19
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Chicago Bolofest! Coinciding with Max and Jolo's annual
conference trip to ChiTown, there will be the usual gathering over
Thanksgiving weekend. Unfortunately I won't be there this time until a
few days later, so Max is definitely seeking an alternative, um,
companion. So far Squelcher and Pooh are going to meet up with Max on
Saturday Nov 29 for beers and/or Bolo. MegaWatt was thinking about
joining them too. If you're in the Chicago area, email Squelcher
<conormc@lucid.cba.uiuc.edu> for more info.
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Nov 11
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Various shades of BL. We're proud to present yet another tactics and strategy guide, a
4-part series of posts on rec.games.bolo by Matt Slot aka Black
Lightning, with follow-up comments from other experienced players such
as Samhain, Hillbilly Bob, and Will aka Attack Salad. Together these
posts represent one of the best recent guides for Bolo players of all
skill levels. Bolo 98? No Bolo 0.99.8 is still not out yet - only The Stu knows when it will be finished. He Who Makes Bolo has been working on the tracker aspects. He's also been presented with various lists of bugs and other minor fixes, no word yet on his progress there. As I stated before, the goal of this new version (see Oct 26 below for more information) is not to achieve the perfect Bolo. Instead, various features were added in response to the community's demands, and now the goal is to fix up the important, immediate bugs and get 0.99.8 out. Then in the future, Stu willing, there will be more minor fixes to attain 0.99.9 and 1.0. Only then will the Creator tackle bigger issues such as modem-friendly networking, cross-platform play, etc. Rolodex upgrades. Thanks for everybody who responded to my request to upgrade the Bolo Rolodex - at last check I received 72 emails! I haven't had a chance to process any of them yet, but my priorities will be to first clean out dead entries, then add URLs of home pages to the existing Rolodex format, and finally to figure out some way of handling the free text descriptions so many of you submitted. You should see the first changes by year's end, assuming the new Bolo doesn't take up any more of my time.
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Nov 9
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Stuart's Bolo's Dissertation. This is actually very old news
dating back to 1989. For those of you who didn't know, Bolo was actually
created as a result of Stuart Cheshire's computer science
"Tripos" (equivalent to master's degree in U.S.?) dissertation
at Sidney Sussex College, entitled "An Experiment in Real-Time
Networking". Although a Word version has been included with the
official Bolo release package all along, this is the first time Stuart's dissertation is available
on the web! I found these pages by accident when browsing around the
OBHP. Apparently bq Mackintosh aka Godot used rfttohtml to translate the
Word file, probably during the OBHP's brief stay at ThoughtPort. He
refined the HTML manually, and I further tweaked his HTML some more. The
result is the longest, most technical source of Bolo networking
information. This is definitely geek-talk, but then again anybody who's
reading this is probably a geek by definition. Clone on the move. The latest PC Bolo clone (described below) is in a state of flux as it tries to find a new home. I'm going to hold off on more publicity for that project until there is more substantive content anyway.
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Nov 4
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A clone of a clone? Yes believe it or not, it's another report of
a Bolo
clone for the PC named Armored DeFiAnCe, this time from meese.
Before you start scampering to try to download it, it's just an idea, it
doesn't exist yet. There's a lot of talk at that page about a free and
open clone but no substance yet, so judge for yourself. Cup Kax ][. Well the Cup Kax tournament is moving right along. Round 1 is now over, with all but 1 1x1 player and 2 2x2 teams advancing to the next round. This is by far the best retention rate in any tournament in recent years, congratulations Kax! In 1x1 action, Santa joins Chopin, Hoov, and BL in sweeping their divisions undefeated. In 2x2 games, the following teams were victorious: BL & Samhain, Max & Hoov, Viper & edax, and Chopin & Noriko. Unfortunately Samhain is dropping out of the 2x2 tournament, but Berserkir took his place to make Team Ambrosia. The new round 2 matchups may be found at the Cup Kax page. Basically the winners from round 1 were matched with other winners, and losers with losers (sorry guys, better luck next round). This made for 3 new divisions of 4 winners each and 3 divisions of 4 losers each. For 2x2 games, there are also 14 teams making up 7 pairings. That's about 38 or so people all together! No, it's not out yet. In fact there haven't been any major developments on 0.99.8 since the last report below.
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Oct 26
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0.99.8 update. Stuart got totally swamped with an avalanche of
emails. This is not the time to bug him about your pet feature requests.
The point of 0.99.8 is just to fix bugs and other essential changes. We
can worry about massaging, tree planting, "trane trax" etc.
with version 2.0 later. If you have a bug which has not been addressed
in the version changes,
send email to me and
I'll be sure to forward it to the committee of players who are in charge
of providing Stuart with feedback. This may smack of elitism, but let's
face it, it's the only way we can get this done without driving Stuart
insane. In the meantime, the release date for 0.99.8 has been pushed back. There are still quite a few annoying little bugs that need to be fixed. Stay tuned here for more news. Cup Kax forever! Kax has extended the first round of the Cup Kax until this Friday. He estimates about 70% of games have been played. All in all things are going quite well! In 1x1 action so far, Chopin, Hoov, and Black Lightning have swept their divisions undefeated.
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Oct 22
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More about 0.99.8. Keep in mind nothing is finalized yet, but
here is Stuart's original list of version changes for 0.99.8.
Also be sure to check out this #bolo
log recorded by Caine Schneider aka palp in which several players
discuss the impact of these changes. CF's Zen of Bolo. John Paul LeFlohic aka Chaos Field <jplefl@leland.stanford.edu> returns to Bolo action with his Advanced Bolo Strategy site. It's not really strategy in the sense of when/how to spike/pillwar/rape, but rather philosophical essays on Bolo and some of his maps. If you understand what he's saying, you're well on your way to becoming a Zen master of Bolo. :) Actually I take it back. What I said above was based on a sneak peek of his pages yesterday before they were finalized. Upon a closer look today, there is a lot of interesting advanced strategy and tactics. He does pull these curious percentages out of thin air, and you may need to be an advanced player already to fully appreciate what he's saying. Anyway, if you can wade through his, um, unique sense of aesthetics, there is a lot of great stuff here!
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Oct 21
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I have Bolo 0.99.8 and I will release! Yes the #bolo rumors are
true, Stuart is indeed finishing up the new version 0.99.8! For the
first time, The Creator is actively working with several Bolo vets on
issues of both game design and debugging. Stuart is shooting for a
release by the end of this week, I'm guessing maybe the end of the month
would be more realistic. Again, these are not vague promises or rumors,
several of us have played the alpha versions of 0.99.8, it really
exists. Keep checking here for the latest developments and to download
the new version when it becomes available.
So what's new? The full list of changes runs on for a few pages,
plus things aren't quite finalized yet. Here are just some highlights to
get you salivating.
Game info or confusion? The new Bolo will be customizable to a mind boggling degree. Check out this typical "Game Info" window:
Map Name: Baringi
Current number of players: 3
Free shells with each tank: 2 per neutral base
Free mines with each tank: 3 per neutral base
Free trees with teach tank: 1 per neutral base
Mines in map file are: Visible
Mines dropped by tank are: Visible if Observed
Mines buried by man are: Always Invisible
'AI' brains: Allowed (and given extra assistance)
Map overview window: Shows entire map
Game time limit: No
New tracker. To handle the new information that 0.99.8 will provide, BL is rewriting the tracker. He invites you to check out the new web-based Bolo tracker which is under heavy construction. This will replace his own secondary Bolo tracker and perhaps become the new default U.S. tracker if nix is too busy to upgrade his bolo.usu.edu tracker. Cup Kax underway! Boy when things happen, they all happen at once. The Cup Kax tournament is officially underway, with many games already played over the weekend. Check the Cup Kax page for the latest game results and news. PC Bolo leak. What day would be complete without some mention of PC Bolo? Joel Duerksen, the author of PC Bolo and Armoured Alliance, spoke up on the PC Bolo leak described below on October 13. The leaked version is indeed a pirated, very early beta version. The author is calling on everybody who got it to delete it immediately, or else it may seriously jeopardize a "real release" in the future. If you have any info about a BBS named Wildfire in Washington, talk to Joel.
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Oct 15
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Send in the Geezers. The parade of old vets continues. Santa, one
of the top 2 or 3 players to ever play the game, has been posting to rgb
and hanging out on #bolo. Like the other top players, you can't really
pigeonhole his style or strengths, he can do everything and constantly
adapts his play to the opponent/map/his whim. We're in for a real treat
since he's playing in Cup Kax too. The U Washington kids (they weren't students, they just broke into UW computer labs to play in spite of being evicted by cops many times) Quatskul and essence also drop by #bolo every now and then. MegaWatt, the U Chicago guy who ran the tracker and FTP archive at noproblem, has become a #bolo regular again. He's also posted some interesting musings on client-server Bolo to rgb. Just 10 minutes after I posted the above, grinch showed up on #bolo too. Santa and grinch both used to play from Princeton (trespassers like the UW guys) and were lethal either individually or as a team. Grinch was well known for his hyper-accurate lgm shooting. If you ever try to spike anywhere near him, your lgm is probably dead for the rest of the game. Grinch is now at CMU computer science, same as Will aka Attack Salad. Cup Kax Maps. The maps for Cup Kax have been decided. You can download version 1.2 of all of them in 1 convenient package here from the OBHP, or from the slower FTP archive. Note I screwed up twice in a row with the unnumbered version and version 1.1 both, using an older beta copy of KaxKupKrank which was missing the deep sea starting blocks.
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Oct 14
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Cup Kax ready to roll. There are 26 confirmed players for the 1x1
Cup Kax. After considerable discussion, Kax is going to stick to his
original idea of using tournament brackets vs. some IBL-like math system or other schemes.
This means there are 6 brackets, 2 of which have 5 instead of 4 players.
Let's hope it all works out and Kax stays sane. Official brackets will
be announced tomorrow at the Cup Kax
page. rec.games.bolo runneth over. Thanks to some returning vets and trolls alike, our rec.games.bolo newsgroup is going through a renaissance of sorts. In the last week alone, there were over 300 posts and 10 threads with over 10 articles. This is many times more than our usual load. In between the spams and flames, there are actually lots of interesting nuggets of Bolo wisdom from the likes of Bolo legends HB, Santa, BL, and many others. sluggo on Slugfest IV. There has been much talk lately on good maps, and Slugfest IV in particular has been chosen as 1 of the 3 official maps for both 1x1 and 2x2 Cup Kax. I thought this conversation between sluggo, Chopin, Athena, and myself last night on #bolo was most timely. Athena: can you base rape easily on slug IV _sluggo: you can if the other guy lets you _Chopin_: 1x1 or 2x2? Athena: either _Chopin_: 2x2 always becoms a base raping on slug4 Athena: i got to look at that map _sluggo: depends _Chopin_: as early as the days when "loser" was still sround. _sluggo: if you use the pills you can keep people from raping Jolo: it's not "always" a rape Athena: well what i wondered was for get the pills and just rape bases Athena: use the attack salad method of winning _sluggo: if the other side doesn't guard their bases, then you should go straight for the bases Jolo: you can turn any tarmac map into a rape if you want but imho slug4 is actually quite good for 1x1, even 2x2 if you're aware of the fact that there are limited bases Jolo: yeah what slugmo said _sluggo: but if someone is going straight for your bases pins: imho jolo is full of shit! pins: YEAH _sluggo: you can cut them off by heating up neutral pills Jolo: imho john denver is dead Athena: i got to look at that map brb _sluggo: since you have 4 neutrals by each base === Action: Athena fires up ye olde mappe editor Jolo: cuz the plane was in water _sluggo: you can hat up the ones facing the oncoming enemy _Chopin_: sluggo's backyeard? _sluggo: and take the ones behind you Athena: sluggo i gonna look hang on a sec _sluggo: then use them to protect and attack Jolo: better yet, play sluggo or chop on it :) Jolo: or Santa _sluggo: usually, in 1x1 on that map Athena: santa is my buddy Jolo: Santa on slug 4 is nearly a religious experience Athena: hehehee _Chopin_: jolo? _sluggo: if i can get a big edge in the base rush Jolo: i'm not kidding _sluggo: i go straight for bases Jolo: getting my ass kicked 16x in a row on slug4 by Santa will always be a highlight of my life _Chopin_: if I play slug4, u'll see two opposing pill fronts, Jolo: each time he did it a diff way too _Chopin_: and jolomo, ur man is dead 90% the time, _sluggo: that's what i like about that map _sluggo: it's so simple, yet so complicated Jolo: he raped me, spiked me, pillwarred me, killed my lgm, even did it once w/o using his man i think _sluggo: hehe _Chopin_: joshmo, haha _sluggo: there are any number of ways to play it _Chopin_: hahahaaha Jolo: that's why i like that map Jolo: it's simple, like bolo itself _Chopin_: how would u do it, slug? Jolo: u make of it what u will _Chopin_: i like slug3 more _sluggo: depends on who i was playing _Chopin_: me, slug, _sluggo: slug3 is made to be more of a pillwar map _Chopin_: how woulld u play me on slug4? _sluggo: the walls force you into quadrants _sluggo: depends on the base rush Jolo: yeah slug 3 is an old fave Jolo: sigh _sluggo: if i can cut you off on the base rush, i start going after bases right away _Chopin_: say even and mostly N-S _sluggo: otherwise, i be more conservative _Chopin_: I go right for the center _Chopin_: in most cases i do. Jolo: u like that center quad? _sluggo: if the game goes on for a while, controlling the middle is important Jolo: i guess yer right, most games are decided there _Chopin_: in most maps, center is key _sluggo: if it turns into a pill war, whoever controls the middle will probably win _Chopin_: since bolo is a driving game, _Chopin_: controlling center will cut down driving time _sluggo: otherwise you get stuck trying to run back and forth between 2 fronts _Chopin_: yeah Jolo: i've seen many cases where the ctr stagnates and we go round in circles pushing each other's fronts too _Chopin_: center seems where pillwars will be fought pins: you can push my front anyday _sluggo: but a lot of times, people will devote too many pills to trying to take the middle Jolo: bullshit Jolo: you can push mine _sluggo: and you can go behind and take out their bases pins: heh Jolo makes a top gun reference _Chopin_: go behind in 1x1 aint too good, slug, agree? _sluggo: depends _sluggo: if you can kill their tank _sluggo: then take their pills _sluggo: and use their pills to spike their bases before they get back _sluggo: hehe _Chopin_: then spike the rear, _Chopin_: I'd do that any moment Athena: well look to me like whether or not base rape plan is good depends on the initial base run === Action: Athena wonders what she knows anyway _Chopin_: u have to assume an even base run at the begining Athena: but all but the center base are open bases so _Chopin_: u dont need that base, thena, _Chopin_: u just need to start working on center earlier Athena: the center? no why would you want it Athena: i mean it gonna be a fight over all those neuts anyway Jolo: if u commit too many pbs to ctr u open up ur rear _Chopin_: cuz in order for me to establish a pill line, i need to have the center Jolo: if u don't fight for ctr u lose strategic corridor and 4 neutral pbs Jolo: man i love that map :) _Chopin_: try come to the rear, _Chopin_: I'd smoke u each and every time, Jolo: on that note... Jolo: night :) IRC log ended Tue Oct 14 00:32
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Oct 13
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Geezerfest. Old vets continue to pop up out of nowhere. Black
Lightning, Hillbilly Bob, Steamboatcaptainman, and Butthead have been
posting daily to rec.games.bolo.
Putting in appearances on IRC #bolo were Kimboho (a Chicago vet and my
predecessor as the maintainer of the r.g.b. FAQ), Durandal (a West
Coaster and one of #bolo's original ops), and Viper (a Michigan vet now
in Texas getting his MSEE). Goob, Severian, Lancelot, and Slymouse of
Michigan fame are also playing and IRCing more. If these names don't
mean anything to you, let's just say I've been playing Bolo for 4.5
years now, and these people were already either "Bolo Gods"
(top players) or retired by the time I came on the scene. PC Bolo rides again. In the latest "I HAVE PC BOLO AND I WILL RELEASE!" (IHPCBAIWR) development, some AOL guy managed to find an ancient version of PC Bolo sitting around on a school BBS. Being an idiot, he immediately and incorrectly surmised that this means it is public property, and sent it by email to a half dozen or more people. The version of PC Bolo is some 1.5 years old, but nevertheless it has been confirmed to be a legitimate, fully functional copy. If you're not sure what all the fuss is about, check out the FAQ section on PC Bolo/AA. Even as the AA people scramble to contain this latest snafu, I can't help but wonder if it isn't a blessing in disguise. With any luck, AOL will shut down this lamer's account and the feds will haul him or his negligent parents off to jail for illegal distribution of computer software, but frankly who cares about them. If the cat is indeed out of the bag, Joel and Stuart are both going to have to deal with it, and who knows, maybe come to a decision/agreement finally. Stay tuned here for more news. Moving Target. The Bolo Links page has been updated with Athena's latest and hopefully final location for the History of Bolo page, which she continues to expand and enrich. Author of aIndy 3.0 speaks. I've been interacting with several of the new aIndy's testers as well as Paul Joswig, the author himself. I hope to share some of our discussions soon. In the meantime, I should point out that my review a few days ago totally didn't cover the most interesting question, namely whether aIndy 3.0 is a better ally/opponent with human players than before. That's apparently what all the recent work has focused on, so download it and try it out for yourself!
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