_____ ____ ___ ________ __________ _____ __
/__ / ____ ____ ___ / __ \/ | / _/ __ \/ ____/ __ \/ ___// /
/ / / __ \/ __ \/ _ \ / /_/ / /| | / // / / / __/ / /_/ /\__ \/ /
/ /__/ /_/ / / / / __/ / _, _/ ___ |_/ // /_/ / /___/ _, _/___/ /_/
/____/\____/_/ /_/\___/ /_/ |_/_/ |_/___/_____/_____/_/ |_|/____(_)
version 3.1
Copyright (c) 2024 Elwynor Technologies
Zone RAIDERS! is a multi-player combat game originally based on the "survivalist" camps popular in the early 80's. Players here are given the opportunity to be really hostile to each other with no real-life side effects.
Zone RAIDERS! takes place in REAL TIME, on a 50 by 50 square grid. Each grid position is a place you can stand, so there are 2500 different locations in the game. Everyone has HEALTH and ENERGY POINTS. As you are attacked, your health decreases. You never heal (without assistance) in Zone RAIDERS!, because the time span of the game is too short to allow it to happen in real life. If your health goes below zero, you die, and are out of the game.
A player may carry up to 10 items, including one gun-type weapon. Everyone has a knife, even though it does not appear on the inventory.
EP is short for ENERGY POINTS. When you fire your weapon, it uses up energy. Energy points regenerate, 1 every 2 seconds. The number of EP used when you fire depends on your weapon, and ranges from 3 to 16 per shot. It is best to be judicious with your weapon, or you will run out of EP very quickly.
In Zone RAIDERS, you can move and fire in 8 different directions. These are: N, NW, W, SW, S, SE, E and NE.
When you move, you make noise. That noise can and will be heard by any player close enough to hear it. You can move by RUNNING (very loud), WALKING (fairly quiet) or CRAWLING (nearly silent). You can also make yourself heard bu speaking. You have a choice of three speaking volumes. You can YELL, TALK or WHISPER.
Everyone has a two-channel radio. You can use the "General" channel which everyone can hear, or the "Loyal" channel, which only people on your side can hear. Remember: Speaking into your radio can ALSO be heard.
Everyone starts the game with the Basic weapon (pulse pistol). Every shot you score on someone, you earn 3 "bux". If you kill someone, you earn 15 "bux". You can go to the supply depots (located at 00 W10 and 00 E10) to purchase various items with your bux, like better weapons, medikits and the like. Better weapons can fire with more power (using more EP per shot) and do more damage. Better weapons also are quieter (weapon fire can be heard), but have a shorter range.
There are two sides: ALPHA and BRAVO. You choose which side you want to play when you enter the game. It makes no difference in the game who you shoot, indeed, if you are playing teams, you MUST use your loyal radio and whispering to make sure you don't shoot an ally!
You can play the game any number of ways: As a two-sided war. As a everyman- for-himself free-for-all. You can even challenge someone to a duel. However, the game knows nothing of HOW you play it, it just keeps track of two sides, with a loyal radio channel exclusive to that. It's up to YOU to create the scenario you want to play --- Zone RAIDERS enables you to be very creative in your game play.
The reason all this is based on "sound" as it were, is that the game is played at night, in a lightly wooded forest. Ergo, running is very loud as the player trips over bushes, runs into branches, etc.
Also, while "sound levels" were mentioned, and "ranges" for weapons, you were NOT told what these were. You have to discover all these factors for yourself. That is what separates the beginner from the expert Zone RAIDERS! player.
When you exit the game, no matter how, you are assigned a score. Depending on how you exit the game, you're assigned a "status". If you left the game before all the players on the other team were dead, you are "AWOL", and your score is divided by three. If you die, you are "Killed in Service" and receive your full score. If you exit the game, but there are no players on the other team, you receive an "Honorable Discharge," and your full score.
TIPS FOR PLAYING
1) Nothing is printed to your screen for "fun." Every message you see
has some meaning. Don't ignore any part of the text display.
2) Weapons can jam.
3) If you're LOOKING, and get shot, you won't see anything.
4) Usage of landmines: Just se them. They rest on the current
square. It won't go off until someone moves onto the square.
5) Usage of grenades: se it, then hrow it. If you don't throw
it, it will blow up in the square you're in.
6) You receive no bux or score for using landmines or grenades.
7) Alpha players start out near 15N 0E, Bravo near 15S 0E.
8) Landmines go dud in 10 minutes.
The algorithm for deriving a user's score is annoying at best. There's a lot of factors that are used with varying wieghts to create the score. Take a peek in the c-source for the formula itself.
Loreli, the original BBS, liked to hold Zone RAIDERS! competitions. These are a lot of fun! They set them up in a round-robin competition. Two players at a time enter Zone Raiders, while a Sysop moderator remains at 0,0 to direct the game. The person who survives 2 out of 3 games moves to the next round.
Zone RAIDERS! has two hidden commands. The first, usable only by the SYSOP flagged user, is CONTEST. Use it like this:
CONTEST
This will give that user 24 health points, 100 energy points, and 100 bux. We use this option at the beginning of our competitions.
The second command, known informally as the CHEAT button, is typed like this:
!depot!
This command takes give you 5000 bux and drops you into the ZR Depot. DON'T GIVE THIS COMMAND OUT TO JUST ANYONE! It's there for testing/debugging of the game. You can use it to purchase a lot of firepower for managing the ZR competitions.
Simply unzip the archive to your BBS server directory, add it to your menu, configure the MSG file to your liking, and start the BBS! It's that easy!
Zone RAIDERS! has one MSG file. Within it, you can define the key required to play the game, and decide whether to show a message advertising the game when users log-on. You can also set credit consumption rate, but normally on modern systems you leave it set to 1. You can also set the key required to use the SysOp commands described above.
There are text blocks to configure to your liking, though! For speed, much of the game short text is embedded within the game.
Zone RAIDERS! was one of the very earliest multi-user combat games written for The Major BBS. It was designed and developed by Sean M. Puckett of Codesmiths in 1989.
In 1992, Skip Potter of Crystal Vision Inc. (CVI) upgraded the game to work on The Major BBS v6.
There was mention of a Zone Raiders II, which included computer-controlled players. We do not have the source to that, and don't know if it was ever completed for full release.
Zone RAIDERS! was upgraded to Worldgroup 3.2 in 2023, and The Major BBS v10 at the same time in April 2023. In August 2024, it was released on a single code base to Elwynor's github!
This project is licensed under the AGPL v3. Additional terms apply to contributions and derivative projects. Please see the LICENSE file for more details.
We welcome contributions from the community. By contributing, you agree to the terms outlined in the CONTRIBUTING file.
If you create an entirely new project based on this work, it must be licensed under the AGPL v3, assign all right, title, and interest, including all copyrights, in and to your fork to Rick Hadsall and Elwynor Technologies, and you must include the additional terms from the LICENSE file in your project's LICENSE file.
This is a Worldgroup 3.2 / Major BBS v10 module. It's compiled using Borland C/C++ 5.0 for Worldgroup 3.2. If you have a working Worldgroup 3.2 development kit, a simple "make -f ELWZR" should do it! For Major BBS v10, import this project folder in the isv/ subtree of Visual Studio 2022, right click the project name and choose build! When ready to build for "release", ensure you are building for release.
The DIST folder includes all of the items that should be packaged up in a ELWZR.ZIP. When unzipped in a Worldgroup 3.2 or Major BBS V10 installation folder, it "installs" the module.