Cleanup

README

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-lobo: Logo Bolo
-(c) Ben Kurtovic, 2011
-
-Logo Bolo is a re-envisioning of the classic tank game by Stuart Cheshire in NetLogo.

README.md

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+__lobo__: _Logo Bolo_
+(c) Ben Kurtovic, 2011
+
+__Lobo__ is Logo Bolo: a re-envisioning of the classic tank game by Stuart
+Cheshire in NetLogo. Below you will find a short tutorial on how to play, some
+known bugs and limitations, and credits.
+
+TUTORIAL
+--------
+
+In Lobo, you control a tank and attempt to gain strategic control of the map by
+posessing all of the refueling bases, while simultaneously using your bullets
+and automated "pillboxes" as defensive or offensive weapons.
+
+You move your tank, which is black, by clicking anywhere on the playing field –
+you'll drive to that square and stop once you've reached it. If you change your
+mind and want to stop immediately, double-click anywhere on the map or
+press "C" (cancel order). The color of the tile represents the type of ground,
+which determines how fast you drive over it. You drive the fastest on road,
+which is black; light green grass gives you a medium speed; dark green forest
+makes you move slowest.
+
+When you start, you'll have a bit of ammunition and full armor. Fire your gun
+straight by pressing "F", lowering your ammo count by one. Getting shot by
+another tank or a pillbox will lower your armor count by one, and if that
+reaches zero, you'll die and respawn randomly. (Both of these counts are
+displayed on the top-left of the screen.)
+
+The map contains a few bases, which look like yellow squares. At the start of
+the game, they are gray (neutral) and any tank can claim one by driving over
+it. If you own a particular base, stopping over it will refuel your tank with
+ammo and armor. An base you don't own won't refuel you, but you can repeatedly
+shoot at it to weaken it, then drive over it to "capture" it.
+
+The map also contains a few pillboxes, or "pills", which look like gray circles
+with colored rectanges sticking out of them. Pills will automatically shoot at
+their nearest target within range, and they have infinite ammo, but not
+infinite armor. Destroy an enemy pill (red) and pick it up by driving over it,
+then place it below you, anywhere on the map, with "P". It'll be green, and
+will shoot at your enemies instead of you!
+
+You win the game by controlling all refueling bases on the map and then
+destroying your rival tanks – tanks that don't control any bases don't respawn!
+
+ADVANCED TIPS
+-------------
+
+* Refueling bases have limited reserves of armor and ammo, which regenerate
+slowly over time. In particular, shooting at a base lowers its armor reserves,
+and it is "destroyed" when its armor count reaches zero. Therefore, trying to
+refuel yourself on a recently captured base might not help that much!
+
+* At the start of the game, try your hardest to ignore the enemy tanks and
+pills and go straight for bases – controlling bases is the most important
+strategic element, after all.
+
+* To protect your bases from enemy attack, try placing pillboxes directly
+adjacent to them.
+
+* Pillboxes have "anger" – they'll shoot faster if you shoot at them, but
+they'll calm down over time. In other words, it might not be the best idea to
+take down an entire pillbox in one go, but hurt it and then come back later.
+
+* Consider shooting your own pillboxes if an enemy is nearby – you'll "anger"
+it, and it will shoot at your opponent faster! Also, don't hesitate to destroy
+your own pills completely and re-place them in a better location, or even in
+the same location with full health if they were damaged beforehand.
+
+BUGS / LIMITATIONS
+------------------
+
+In the original Bolo, the map takes up many screen widths and is scrollable
+with the tank at the center. "follow" by itself wouldn't work, because NetLogo
+does not allow objects off-screen. I spent a while trying to figure this out,
+at one point essentially rewriting the rendering engine and using a table of
+"actual" patch coordinates that was translated into "virtual" patch coordinates
+each frame – not only was this very slow, but it was very overcomplicated and I
+wasn't able to do everything I had wanted. Instead, the map was made one screen
+size.
+
+In the original Bolo, patches are not merely colors - they have patterns on
+them (grass has little green lines, forests are spotted, roads have white
+stripes). This was not possible in NetLogo because patches can only have a
+single color.
+
+Time was also a limiting factor: I had planned a lot of additional features
+found in the original Bolo, like a nicer GUI for showing armor and ammunition,
+water as a ground-type (which drowns your tank), allies and multiple enemies
+(grr!), a nicer game-over screen, and a much, much smarter AI. These were
+skipped so more work could be spent on general polishing and testing.
+
+CREDITS / MISC
+--------------
+
+* Stuart Cheshire for the original Bolo game. Some graphics used in this
+project (tanks, pillboxes, and bases) were heavily based on old sprites taken
+from Bolo.
+
+* My dad for introducing me to Bolo many years ago, and for helping me simplify
+the original Bolo game into something possible with NetLogo.
+
+* Josh Hofing for advice on implementing certain features and positive
+encouragement.
+
+* Chain Algorithm - I wrote the entire AI routine in less than an hour
+immediately before the project was due (ha!), and I don't think it would be
+possible if I hadn't been listening to your music on loop the entire time.
+Really gets your blood pumping, y'know? Yeah.
+
+This project is available on [GitHub](https://github.com/earwig/lobo). I used
+it for syncing code between my netbook and my desktop when working on the
+project away from home.