From: faq@xpilot.org (XPilot FAQ)
Newsgroups: rec.games.computer.xpilot,rec.answers,news.answers
Subject: XPilot multi-player Internet game FAQ
Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU
Distribution: world
Expires: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 23:59:59 GMT
Summary: Frequently Asked Questions about XPilot with Answers
Keywords: xpilot,games,Internet,faq

Archive-name: games/xpilot-faq
Last-modified: 2002/06/12
Version: 4.5.4
Submitted-By: faq@xpilot.org

This is the Frequently Asked Questions list With Answers for XPilot.
Copyright (C) 1993-2002 by the XPilot FAQ Group (faq@xpilot.org).
This FAQ is posted in rec.games.computer.xpilot on irregular intervals.
It is also part of the XPilot distribution.
It can also be obtained from <URL:telnet://meta.xpilot.org:4402/> or
<URL:http://www.xpilot.org/FAQ.html>
Or by mailing the following message to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu:

    send usenet/rec.games.computer.xpilot/XPilot_multi-player_Internet_game_FAQ

New questions in this release: 3, 4, 8, 21, 27, 28
Questions changed in this release: 1 - 28
Questions changed in the previous release: 2

Questions:

1) Does this FAQ answer all my questions about XPilot?
2) What is this wonderful game called XPilot everybody is talking about?
3) Does the Windows version work on ...?
4) Will it work on my Macintosh?
5) What is the latest version?
6) Where can I get it as soon as possible?
7) Where can I get precompiled XPilot executables?
8) Is the latest development version also available?
9) Sound?  Does it really have sound?
10) How can I uncompress the source XPilot distribution files?
11) Compilation fails, because the compiler generates lots of error messages?
12) How should I start the game?
13) The xpilots server complains that it is unable to read globe.map?
14) Why is the client so slow?  Why is my display so jerky?
15) Where can I get new maps?
16) How can I distribute my own carefully crafted maps?
17) How can I design my own maps easily?
18) How can I design my own ship?
19) I have a problem because this and that is not working.
20) What is the meta server?  Where can I find other players?
21) Why do I get "Could not establish connections with any metaserver"?
22) What information on XPilot is available online?
23) What is the unofficial XPilot Newbie Guide?
24) How can I contribute bugfixes and new features to the game?
25) Why do I never get any items (triangles) to appear in my maps?
26) What are the Well Known Problems for the latest version?
27) Why can't I shoot players flying at high speeds?
28) Are there other implementations of XPilot?

Answers:

1) Does this FAQ answer all my questions about XPilot?

No, this FAQ is only meant to get you up and running and covers some
issues not found elsewhere.  In the XPilot distribution there is
authoritative documentation any wanna-be XPiloteer should read.
Pay special attention to the two manual pages in the man6 directory
and to all README files.

Please see question 22 for more sources of information about XPilot.

2) What is this wonderful game called XPilot everybody is talking about?

XPilot is a multi-player tactical manoeuvring game for Windows, Linux
and Unix workstations.  The essential elements of play are that all
players have fighters which move through an artificial world with a
number of customizable features, shooting each other and at the same
time trying to attain some objective to score points.  Players need to
master a number of tactics in order to succeed.  Depending on the kind
of world, the game can be extremely fast paced, or taken at a more
leisurely pace.  But whatever the world or style of play, the main
objective is to have a lot of fun.

Well designed maps with various challenging objectives are what makes
XPilot a rich and compelling game.  Because of this, it has captured a
loyal following of players who have stuck with the game over a span of
several years, meeting yearly for tournaments.  The camaraderie
developed between players is strong.  For example, it brought about the
XPilot Summer Camp of 1999 in Denmark which you can read more about at
the XPilot web site, drawing players from all over Europe.

The principal kinds of XPilot maps are as follows.  In a team map with
"treasures" the objective is to steal the opponent's treasure (also
simply referred to as the "ball") and return it to your own base,
"caching" it to score before your opponent does.  In a race map, the
objective is to finish first.  And then there is the "items map" where
the objective is simply to collect items to help you slaughter your
opponent while attempting to avoid getting shot.  On these maps, your
ship can have various kinds of special weapons like mines, smart
missiles, heat seekers and so on.  Maps can also feature robots flying
around shooting players and other robots, or special bonuses to improve
the possibilities of their ship like more engine power, phasing,
deflectors, or cloaks.  The odd map out there has various combinations
of all of these elements of play: treasure-race maps, item-treasure
maps, and team-bot maps, to name a few possibilities.

People can create their own maps using either a standard text editor or
a nifty map editor with easy-to-use graphical user interface.  Nice maps
are a popular item to share with others.

The game is very configurable in that you can specify many parameters
in a defaults file, in the map file or on the command line.  Configurable
options include the speed of shots, the lifetime of shots, the force and
direction of the gravity, whether players can use shields or not, the chance
that some kind of special bonus appears in the world, the number of screen
updates per second and so on.

Since release 3.0 it is possible to play games across the Internet if
the roundtrip times are below 150 milliseconds or so, depending on the
frame rate of the XPilot server.  Some crazy players actually do play
routinely with latencies of 200 to 250 ms, or even higher, so it can be
done if necessary, but is not particularly recommended for a newbie.

XPilot is copyrighted by Bjoern Stabell, Ken Ronny Schouten, Bert Gijsbers
and Dick Balaska.  Many people around the world have contributed a plethora
of ideas and source code or helped in other ways to have XPilot run on a
diverse set of UNIX computers.  See the CREDITS file for more details.

The XPilot home page on World-Wide Web is:
    <URL:http://www.xpilot.org/>

There is a large, entertaining, but rather dated Newbie Manual on WWW
which encompasses more than 160 articles.  Its URL is:
    <URL:http://www.xpilot.org/NM/>

There is also the wildly popular unofficial XPilot Newbie Guide by Jarno
here:

    <URL:http://www.j-a-r-n-o.nl/newbie>

3) Does the Windows version run on ...?

The Windows version runs on all 32 bit Windows platforms, including
95/98/ME/NT/Win2K and WinXP.

4) Will it work on my Macintosh?

With some effort, probably, unless you have a really old Mac.

For the Mac, there are ports of Linux available for most models (except
for the very oldest m68k models with no MMU) and XPilot will run on
that.  Or if you run Mac OS/X, you can get XPilot working following
the instructions at <URL:http://www.swproductions.co.uk/xpilot.html>

To summarize, you need to install fink, use it to install an X server,
install a window manager (e.g. Afterstep), compile & install XPilot
(you need to have installed the Developer CD to do this) and drop to
Darwin at boot time to run startx instead of running it under the Aqua
interface which is very slow.  Then invoke xpilot by specifying the path
to the installed binary (or add the directory xpilot is in to your PATH
so you can just type "xpilot") in an xterm.

5) What is the latest version?

4.5.4.  Which is XPilot release 4.5, patchlevel 4.

Subscribe to xpilotgame-announce if you want to be notified each time
a new release is announced.  See:

<URL:http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xpilotgame-announce>

6) Where can I get it as soon as possible?

Anonymous ftp to ftp.xpilot.org.  Use as login name anonymous or ftp and
supply your email address as password.  Go to the directory /pub/xpilot
and look for the file named xpilot-4.5.4.tar.gz.
Some patches for older versions are also available.

Debian carries the latest version of the official XPilot source here:
<URL:http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/x/xpilot/xpilot_4.5.4.orig.tar.gz>
and at its mirror sites.

7) Where can I get precompiled XPilot executables?

Most Linux distributions carry precompiled XPilot executables.  See your
distribution's nearest archive mirror.  ftp.xpilot.org itself also
distributes binaries for Windows and Red Hat Linux, the latest of which
will be named XPilot4.5.4-NT##.exe and xpilot-4.5.4-##.i386.rpm respectively
where "##" is the package revision number for each.

8) Is the latest development version also available?

We encourage new users to stick with the latest stable version, but if
you would like to play with the latest development source, it is
available at <URL:http://xpilotgame.sf.net>.

Note: this is not the same as <URL:http://xpilot.sf.net> which was so named
simply because it was the first XPilot-based project hosted on
SourceForge.  See question 28.  Only later did the official XPilot
project move to sf.net, and thus it had to be named xpilotgame.

Instructions are given on the xpilotgame site for browsing or checking
out the source from CVS.  If the release number in ./xpilot/Local.config
has the suffix "alpha", features are still being added, and many things
may still be broken.  If the suffix "beta" is present, features are
frozen and the final bugs are being worked out to prepare for a release.

If you use either an alpha or beta release, please upgrade to the final
release once it comes out.  You should at the very least be on the
xpilotgame-announce list so that you'll receive final release
announcements.  See:

<URL:http://lists.sf.net/lists/listinfo/xpilotgame-announce>

Note: again, be aware that this is not the same as the xpilot-announce
list also hosted at sf.net.

At the same time, you should also consider joining the xpilot-hacks list
where you will be made aware of any problems others may have encountered
in the development versions:

<URL:http://nslug.ns.ca/mailman/listinfo/xpilot-hacks>

9) Sound?  Does it really have sound?

Yes, but the consensus is that sound support is barely usable.  The
principal objections are that latency is too great, and it is based on
rather dated sound server libraries: rplay, ncd, and DEC AudioFile that
hardly anyone uses anymore.  So if you read the docs, go through the
bother of setting it up, and then are underwhelmed by the results, don't
say we didn't warn you.

10) How can I uncompress the XPilot source distribution files?

The files are "tarballs", compressed tar archives in GNU zip (.gz)
format.  On most systems, this should work:

	gunzip xpilot-4.5.4.tar.gz

11) Compilation fails, because the compiler generates lots of error messages?

This is probably due to not using an ANSI C compliant compiler.
Consider using gcc.  Also, do not use the -ansi option together with GCC,
because some system include files are not fully ANSI compatible.

12) How should I start the game?

When you have managed to compile and install XPilot successfully or have
installed binary packages for both the client and server, you will have
two executables.  One program is named "xpilots", which is the
server program.  If you do: "xpilots -help" then you will see some
configuration options with explanations.  Start this program in one window
simply by typing: xpilots or ./xpilots.  Nothing much will happen yet.
The other program is named "xpilot", which is the client program.
Startup this program in a second window.  If you start this program
without arguments, you will see a login screen containing three buttons:
Local, Internet and Quit.  Local tries to find all XPilot servers on
your local network.  Internet contacts the XPilot meta server to locate
servers on the Internet.  Quit does the obvious.  You can also start
xpilot with the host where the XPilot server is running as its
command line argument.  When started this way, the xpilot client
will give you access to a command line which gives you the advantage
of several options before entering the game, e.g.

*** Server on xpilot.e.kth.se. Enter command>

Now type a question mark "?" to see some possible options.
Or simply type a return to enter the game.

To join a server when playing from Windows, the program XPWho is
available, and included in the standard installation.  This handy tool
automatically downloads a list of the currently running servers from
meta.xpilot.org.  The displayed list will tell a lot of information
about each server, including who is currently playing on it.  You can
join any server you like simply by double clicking on the name.  XPWho
provides the option of selecting a shipshape, and joining a specific
team on team-enabled games.

13) The xpilots server complains that it is unable to read globe.map?

First read the READMEs more carefully.  They tell you that you
need to adapt the Imakefile or Makefile and possibly the config.h
file to your XPilot installation configuration.
Specifically modify LIBDIR to the directory where you have your XPilot
lib directory and MAPDIR in case you have changed your map directory.
There are also two manual pages included which may offer you more help.

14) Why is the client so slow?  Why is my display so jerky?

A slowdown in frame rate is usually due to poor server performance.
Delayed "responsiveness" is most likely high network latency, and
jerkiness (frames are lost) could either be poor client performance or
packets being dropped by the network due to congestion.  Various meters
are available from the "Config" menu in the client to help diagnose the
kind and severity of lag you are experiencing.

I'll start by outlining a few common "lag factors" and then go on to
describe some detailed performance tuning tips.

a) Common lag factors

i. Hardware

XPilot is not so demanding as to demand the latest whizbang
multi-hundred-dollar graphics card.  Virtually anything on the PC market
today will do, and some of the better old stuff will manage quite
nicely.  [ When the current FAQ maintainer started playing XPilot in
1997, his then-one-year-old S3-based graphics card was perfectly
adequate. ]  However, if you have a really ancient card with no 2D
acceleration, you're not going to get decent peformance.  In a word:
upgrade.

ii. Demanding client options

Turning on any of the texture options will strain your graphics
performance.  Conversely, turning them off will alleviate the problem.
You'll need to experiment with these along with various client tuning
tips to find the right balance for your hardware.

iii. Demanding server options

Great strides have been made recently to make certain server options
that are demanding on both the CPU and network, such as cluster nukes,
put less strain on both.  However, if you have an underpowered server
system or low bandwidth connection, you should think twice about running
very "busy" maps with lots of bots, cannons, shots, etc. each of which
contributes to the total load put on your CPU and link.

iv. Network

The root of the problem could be poor network performance.  There are a
few suggestions below for dealing with this.

v. Client or server system load

Finally, if either the XPilot client or server system is under heavy
load, be that CPU or a high rate of I/O (usually disk or network),
clients will experience lag.  Common sense says that xpiloting while
burning mp3s or performing backups is generally a bad idea.  If you
have a "mysterious" source of system load, use "top" to try to
locate the problem processes.

The rest of this answer explains some performance tuning tips for the
XPilot client, server and your X server.

b) Network performance tuning tips

Play outside peak network usage hours.  Some bad performance is due to
saturated LANs (or high-speed Internet provider's network if you're
playing across the Internet).  A network with as little as possible
load, or at least an even load is important for getting good, smooth
response.

Decrease sparkprob.  This will result in fewer sparks being sent over
the network (sparks take up much of the network bandwidth).  This is
particularly important for servers with low bandwidth (e.g. 128K ISDN or
a 56K dialup connection).  In such cases not only should you decrease
sparkprob, but you should recommend to all other players to decrease
sparkprob.

In general, 128K ISDN and 56K servers are a poor choice for running an
Internet accessible server.  You should probably start the server
+reportMeta so that only people to whom you have disclosed the location
of your server will join.  Or if possible, relocate your server to a
higher bandwidth connection.

c) Client performance tuning tips

The first thing to try is to enable at compile time either
DoubleBufferExtension or MultiBufferExtension and then start the client
with -multiBuffer on.  To determine if your X server supports these
extensions, check xdpyinfo, e.g.

$ xdpyinfo | grep -i double

XFree86 version 4.x, the most popular X server currently in use,
supports the double buffering extension.  Therefore some pre-compiled
XPilot client binaries (e.g. the XPilot client in Debian) have this
option enabled at compile-time by default.

Decrease the number of colours.  This might help, but it depends on
which double buffering routine you use and probably on the
implementation of the X server.

Decrease the window size (it is resizable now).  This will result in
fewer packets sent over the network and a lot less work for the X
server. Clearing a 1024x1024 window is roughly four times more work than
clearing a 512x512 window, and clearing/copying for double buffering
often seems to be the limiting factor.

Try the erase-hack by starting xpilot like this:

$ xpilot -erase

This will have the client use a different drawing technique, which is
reported to speed up the client for older/cheaper workstations by about
50 percent.  Unfortunately, this comes at the expense of some drawing
artefacts that you may find distracting.  Improvements in this area of
the code are welcome.

Try another double buffering method - you can specify "-colorSwitch no"
to select pixmap copying.  Color switching is the default.  The effect
depends on your platform.

Try a different visual.  Try: "xpilot -visual list" to see a list
of supported visuals on your system, or use xdpyinfo.

d) Server performance tuning tips

Run the server on a different machine from the client.

If you have root on the server system, you can run the server at a lower
priority (scheduling the server for execution more frequently).  For
example, assuming you have created a user "xpilots" to run the server
under (running any server as root is generally considered a security
risk) and you want the server to run at the highest possible priority,
start it as follows:

# nice -20 su -c xpilots xpilots

Or start it in the usual way and renice it afterwards as root:

# renice -20 `pidof xpilots`

Decrease the frames per second generated by the server by setting the
-FPS option.  This won't make the server faster, but it might make the
game run more smoothly and evenly, and perhaps make the game more fair.
Users joining across the Internet really appreciate a slightly lower
frame rate (try values like: 14, 12 or 10).

15) Where can I get new maps?

There is a collection of older maps at ftp.xpilot.org available
via anonymous ftp:

    <URL:ftp://ftp.xpilot.org/pub/xpilot/maps>

In the FAQ editor's opinion, designing a really good XPilot map is a
rather difficult endeavour.  As a result, many of these old maps fall
short, as is evidenced by virtually none of them being actually in use
today (see question 20 regarding using the meta server to show maps
actively in use).

Newer maps can be found on the web.  One up-to-date repository of XPilot
maps that features thumbnails, brief descriptions of the maps, and a
means for submitting your own maps through a form is at:

    <URL:http://www.j-a-r-n-o.nl/xpilotmaps.shtml>

Paul Drees (Zemyla) actively develops new maps, especially demonstrating
new or experimental features of the server, several of which started as
"Zemyla hacks" and are now in the official XPilot distribution.  He also
typically has several of these maps running at once hosted at
auk.tamucc.edu so you can try them out right away.  Zemyla's site is at:

    <URL:http://www.sci.tamucc.edu/~pad53945/xpilot/>

Vincent has a map site which, although now a bit old, deserves mention
because it is so nicely done:

    <URL:http://www.flinthills.com/~edco/xpmaps/>

16) How can I distribute my own carefully crafted maps?

See the previous question.  Jarno's site makes it easy to add a new
map but it is perhaps also a good idea to post an announcement in
rec.games.computer.xpilot explaining the ideas behind your map.

17) How can I design my own maps easily?

On Unix, use the XMapEdit (xp-mapedit) program, which was made by Aaron
Averill and donated to the XPilot project.  It is now maintained by the
XPilot project and is distributed with XPilot source in the
./src/mapedit directory.

On Windows, the nice editor MapXpress has been created by Jarrod Miller,
and is included with the installation. This editor includes special
features such as a random map generator, and the ability to shift and
rotate maps. The latest version is always available from Jarrod's
homepage:

    <URL:http://www.ctitech.com/users/jlmiller/index.htm>

The map format is in ASCII so you can also make or change maps
with your standard text editor (vi, emacs).  And everybody did
it that way before XMapEdit, but that seems hopelessly complex
and tedious now.  Special thanks go to Aaron for making XMapEdit.

18) How can I design my own ship?

On Unix, use editss.  You can get it by anonymous ftp to ftp.xpilot.org
in the /pub/contrib directory.

For a cross-platform solution, look at Jarno's Java shipshape editor at
    <URL:http://www.j-a-r-n-o.nl/xpiloteditor.html>

XPShipEditor is a ship editor by Lewis Beard that comes with the Windows
distribution of XPilot.  It is written in Visual Basic, and is no longer
actively developed.  If you have questions about it, please email
xpilot@xpilot.org.

There is also Jonny Svrling's Java "Ship Shaper" available from
<URL:http://www.student.nada.kth.se/~d93-jsv/xpilot/sshaper>
This is reported to work on Windows but not Unix.  It also
seems to be no longer maintained.

19) I have a problem because this and that is not working.

Make sure you use the latest "officially released" version.
You will be most cooperative if you try to fix it yourself first.
If you tried everything and you still cannot solve it then post
a help request to rec.games.computer.xpilot or email
xpilot-hacks@nslug.ns.ca.

There are some things that are generally helpful to mention, when relevant:

   The XPilot version and where you obtained the distribution.
   Your hardware.
   Operating system.
   Windowing system (X11, ...)
   C Compiler used.
   Changes you made to configuration files.
   Any changes you have made to the source code or installation
   procedures.
   Any problems you had during installation.

20) What is the meta server?  Where can I find other players?

The meta server is a server program that allows people to find other
XPilot servers running on the Internet.  XPilot servers can report
their existence to the meta server on startup and every three minutes
of active play.  Then other players can query the meta server and
find status information on XPilot games in progress.

The meta server also maintains a nickname database containing all the
nicknames in use by Internet XPiloteers.  XPiloteers can add their
nickname interactively and protect it by a password.

The most obvious way to use the meta server is by pressing the
"Internet" button when you start the XPilot client.  This will show you
a screenful of active servers which you can ping to measure latency.
This will help you select a reasonably unlagged server.  Generally, 150ms
or less is considered playable.  Click on the server name to join the game.

You can also access other features of the meta server by connecting with
telnet.  Jarno reports, however, that this doesn't work with the default
Windows telnet client, nor with another one for Windows that he tried.
If you find a Windows telnet solution that works for you, please let us
know.  To access meta via telnet, do the following:

  telnet meta.xpilot.org 4400

Help is available online.  Example session:
<pre>
    telnet meta.xpilot.org 4400
    Trying...
    Connected to meta.xpilot.org..
    Escape character is '^]'.

    Welcome to the XPilot Meta server

    These are the available ports on the Meta server:
    4400:   This port.  The interactive user port.
    4401:   The program port.  It lists all info in one go and terminates.
    4402:   The FAQ port.  It will give you the FAQ in one go and terminate.
    4403:   The nickname port.  This will give you the current nick name list.

    Type "help" to list possible commands.

    E-mail problems to xpilot@xpilot.org.

    >list
    4.5.3          :xpilot.void.adminz.be         :15345 :0  :2d 21.56  :Xpilot-Tournament Map (Blood's
    4.5.3          :xp.abgenix.com                :15345 :0  :1d 21.56  :West Coast Blood's Music
    4.5.3          :host217-34-82-162.in-addr.btopenworld.com:15345 :1  :0.00      :The Globe
    4.5.3          :whipit.devo.com               :15345 :0  :8d 18.45  :Blood's Music II
    4.5.1          :xpilot.terrabox.com           :15345 :0  :1d 11.19  :tzx-rambunctious
    4.5.3          :xpilot.games.zoreil.com       :15345 :0  :9.15      :The Globe
    4.5.3          :atfilm1.informatik.tu-muenchen.de:15345 :0  :7d 3.15   :Large Tournament
    4.5.1          :stinkymonkey.cc.columbia.edu  :15345 :5  :7d 14.48  :New Dark Hell
    4.?.4          :angus.rap.ucar.edu            :15345 :0  :17.59     :Ultra Doom
    4.5.3          :fishy.fishy.fishy             :15345 :0  :46d 13.27 :Xpilot-Tournament Map (Blood's
    >server stinkymonkey.cc.columbia.edu
    >status
    SERVER VERSION...; 4.5.1
    STATUS...........; ok
    MAX SPEED........; 14 fps
    WORLD (200x200)..; New Dark Hell
          AUTHOR.....; PeaceMaker
    PLAYERS (10/16)..;

    NO;  TM; NAME;             LIFE;   SC;    PLAYER;
    -------------------------------------------------
     1... *  Bosmans Jos        014   193     verhaege@bennevis.esat.kuleuven.ac.be
     2...    Thomas             079   147     thomas@gemini
     3...    Kazak              009    44     abc0@pc-boschi.cineca.it
     4... R  R2D2               004    36     robot@xpilot.org
     5...    Schnucki           007    25     bohnenka@alkhwarizmi.cs.utwente.nl
     6... R  Terminator         002     3     robot@xpilot.org
     7...    Mary jane          014    -3     DaxxHutchinson@dax
     8... R  Mickey             001    -6     robot@xpilot.org
     9... R  Capone (Kazak)     007   -20     robot@xpilot.org
    10... R  Neuro (Kazak)      005   -26     robot@xpilot.org
    >quit
    Connection closed by foreign host.
</pre>
Try port 4401 instead of 4400 to get the server listing in a different format.

Port 4402 will get you the latest version of this FAQ.

Port 4403 will list the current nicknames database.

Due to some software problems the meta server may not be running
at all times, but it mostly will.  In case it happens to be unreachable
there is an backup meta server at telnet meta2.xpilot.org 4400.  The
graphical meta interface in the XPilot client will attempt to contact
both servers.

The meta server is developed and maintained by Ken Ronny Schouten
and Bert Gijsbers with email address meta@xpilot.org.

21) Why do I get "Could not establish connections with any metaserver"?

The XPilot client will display this message when all attempts to contact
the meta server fail.  There may temporarily be a network split between
you and both the primary and backup meta servers, or (although this is
rather unlikely) both meta servers may be down.  Try again later, or
specify the address of a known xpilot server directly on the command
line, bypassing the meta interface (see question 12).  If meta or meta2
is simply slow and not completely down, you can try using the telnet
interface to obtain the name of the desired xpilot server (see the
previous question).

There is one other possible cause for this error.  In XPilot 4.5.2, the
IP number of meta.xpilot.org changed.  The XPilot client has the IP#
embedded in it to make connection to meta quick and reliable even if
the DNS server for xpilot.org is temporarily unreachable.  Thus, if you
are using an older client, the connection to meta.xpilot.org will fail,
and meta2.xpilot.org will be contacted.  If meta2 is slow or
unreachable, the connection attempt will time out before you get a list
of servers.  The solution here is to upgrade your client.

22) What information about XPilot is available online?

The XPilot home page can be found at:
    <URL:http://www.xpilot.org/>

Highly recommended is the unofficial XPilot Newbie Guide by
Jarno van der Kolk at:

    <URL:http://www.j-a-r-n-o.nl/newbie>

All things XPilot-related may be discussed on the Usenet newsgroup
rec.games.computer.xpilot, for which this FAQ was originally written.

XPilot mailing lists of interest to users are xpilotgame-users and
xpilotgame-announce, which are hosted here:
    <URL:http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=14558>

The XPilot development home page can be found at:
    <URL:http://xpilotgame.sf.net/>

The unofficial mailing list for XPilot development discussions between
the official developers and contributing developers from the XPilot
player community is at:

    <URL:http://nslug.ns.ca/mailman/listinfo/xpilot-hacks>

Other WWW pages related to XPilot come and go.  There are too many to
list here.  Your best bet finding recent pages is to simply try a search
with your favourite web search engine for the keyword "xpilot".  Try:

    <URL:http://www.google.ca/search?q=xpilot>

23) What is the unofficial XPilot Newbie Guide?

The Newbie Guide is an interactive web site that incorporates much of the
knowledge and wisdom of experienced players into a single document.  It
largely supercedes the expansive but now quite dated earlier work, the
Newbie Manual hosted at www.xpilot.org/NM.  One of the very nice features
of this guide is the ability to add your own comments on any page.  Using
this format, Jarno has succeeded in keeping the Newbie Guide up-to-date
with the latest releases, patches and pearls of wisdom.  It is available
here:

    <URL:http://www.j-a-r-n-o.nl/newbie>

Topics ranging from complete descriptions of all weapons to ship-making,
map-making, jargon and etiquette are all covered by this guide.

24) How can I contribute bugfixes and new features to the game?

Make your contributions as context diffs against the latest version and
mail them to xpilot-hacks@nslug.ns.ca which is an open forum where
patches and new ideas for the game are discussed.  A subscription form
and the archives of the list are here:

    <URL:http://nslug.ns.ca/mailman/listinfo/xpilot-hacks>

You can make context diffs with the diff command.  Use "diff -c oldfile
newfile" or "diff -cr olddir newdir".  The authors very much appreciate
fixes and improvements.  XPilot has a longstanding tradition of
incorporating code from hackers all over the world.

25) Why do I never get any items (triangles) to appear in my maps?

At startup the xpilot server looks for a configuration file to
retrieve default values for some of the options.
The default name for this file is LIBDIR/defaults, where LIBDIR
is defined during compilation in the Makefile or Imakefile.
If you forgot to change the value of LIBDIR before compilation
or if you have (re)moved the XPilot directories after installation
then the xpilot server cannot find this file anymore.  In which
case some of the values will have no or a useless value.
This is the case if you do not get any items to appear in your maps.
An example defaults file with reasonable default values can be
found in the XPilot distribution as ./lib/defaults.

26) What are the Well Known Problems for the latest version?

None.

27) Why can't I shoot players flying at high speeds?

Uoti Urpala provides this explanation:

If you fly fast, the server doesn't check for all possible collisions.
The analytic collision checking itself would be accurate to half warp[1]
speed but the server only does the check for bullets that are within a
certain distance from the ship.  So if you're shooting at someone trying
to reach warp speed, it is likely the hit won't be detected.  I think
the distance on [chuck-yeager.e.kth.se] is 4 blocks around the ship.  So
if the speed difference between ship and bullet is more than that per
frame hits can go undetected, depending on where the bullet appears at
the start of a frame.

[1] Editor's note: "warp" is achieved by flying in a straight path on a
world with edgeWrap = true until the ship appears to be stationary,
i.e. is flying so fast that each frame it moves the entire height
(or width) of the map.

28) Are there other implementations of XPilot?

Yes and no.  Nothing has been released by either of these projects yet,
but they are being actively developed, and the very daring and
adventuresome may download and try out what they have produced so far.

a) XPilot++

XPilot++ is an ambitious project led by XPilot developer Dick Balaska
(Bucko) that is still in alpha development to port all of XPilot to C++.
This will enable support for many new features more easily and unify
Unix and Windows versions into a single codebase, doing away with the
need for platform-specific versions of XPilot utilities such as XPWho
and xp-mapedit.  XPilot++ can be found here:

    <URL:http://www.buckosoft.com/xpilot/xpilot++/>

One new feature is more aggressive and smarter bots.

Jarrod Miller (Daedlaes) is working on a new integrated shipshape and
map editor as a part of this project. XpilotControl is actually much
more than that, as it will, when finished, also allow remote
administration of running XPilot++ servers and provides a single meta
interface for both Windows and Unix for listing and joining XPilot
servers.

b) xpilot.sf.net

As noted earlier, this is a distinct project from the official XPilot
project at xpilotgame.sf.net.

Uoti Urpala (U) leads this project.  Its most distinctive feature is a
polygon map format which is more flexible and extensible than the
current cell-block-based map format.  This as-yet-unamed version can be
found here:

    <URL:http://xpilot.sf.net>

Other enhancements include:
- Better collision detection between objects -- the server now notices a
  bullet hitting a ship even if it hits a wall later in the same frame.
- The official version lacked ship-wall collision detection for wall edges
  which did not touch any vertices of the ship.  Now, a player will no
  longer be able to get stuck on the corner of a wall due to this problem.
- Different textures and colors can be specified in the map format.
- The client can automatically download textures over HTTP.
- Server-side recording allows re-enactment of a whole game from the
  vantage point of an onlooker who can "snoop" through the eyes of
  any player instead of just the limited view of the player who
  recorded the game, as with client-side recordings.
- Scaling of framerate allows smoother play at higher framerates (assuming
  enough bandwidth is available) without distorting the speed of the game.
- When player passwords are enabled on a server, its users may register
  nicknames.  Once a password is set on a nickname, a player must
  authenticate to use the nickname.

Compatibility:
- The server doesn't work with original XPilot clients which only
  understand the cell-based map format.
- The server doesn't read original cell-based maps, but there is a
  utility provided to convert them to polygon format.
- Robots are not implemented.

EOFAQ
