Cannon Fodder (Kanonmat)

[Walks on Clouds]

I'm part of a group at school developing a small multiplayer game called Kanonmat (Cannon Fodder). It's part of a project course we're taking and the results are available for public download on a near-weekly basis. We call it the public alpha releases and are up to versions alpha R1 through R8. They are all available at this URL: http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/groups/k...orum.php4?id=6 The pages are in Swedish, but I think you'll manage to find the right links if you actually try.

The main theme is: choose a vehicle and a map and go blow your friends up. Great fun! Our sources of inspiration are Battlefield:1942, Liero and the short but beautiful educational movie "Duck and Cover" from the U.S. Department of Defense (I believe) anno 1951.

Please note that lots of features are lacking and/or not entirely stable or completed. Also, there are two other vehicles available, but in its current state, the game crashes if you try to spawn as anything other than the buggy. This has been patched and will most likely be in the next release (AR9) due tuesday next week.


A short manual for the game is in order, I believe, if you are to be able to enjoy it at all:

Keymappings:
W forward
A turn left
S backwards
D turn right

L turns you right side up if you should happen to flip over (this is also a duck-and-cover function that will keep you from flying all over the place when you blow off a nuke)
ESC ingame menu (somewhat dysfunctional but pretty)
SPACE drop from the chopper at spawn
ENTER write something to the chat window
TAB brings up the scoreboard (very rudimentary)
F10 quits the game
§ bring up the command console
I invert mouse
M mouslook toggle
Y/H increase/decrease health
J music toggle
T hide chat window
C switch camera mode
K kamikaze
N next weapon (or (N)uke for those who are of that inclination)

Alt+Enter fullscreen toggle

RMB fire cannon

The Console:
The console is very comprehensive. It supports many in-game functions that are not bound to specific keys and, thus, not listed above. But as it uses auto tab-completion, exploring it should be no great problem for the aspiring hacker. I'm sure you'll figure it out by yourselves... Being the "tricksy, sssneaky hobbitses.." I know you to be.

Please take a peek if you feel the inclination. It's pretty nice actually although it's not much of a game just yet...

[Ghryphen]

Cool! I'll check it out when I get home

[Stang]

Same here

[Walks on Clouds]

WE have now released the beta version of Kanonmat. You can get it from the links above. The game is now actually playable, in multiplayer, you can kill people and they go "boom!". There are three weapons and three vehicles and tons of power-ups. Give it another try if you fell like it. The download is a meager 12 MB, and this includes the server as well.

We've been showing the game in its current release state for the other students at our department and they seemed to like it quite a lot, actually. There are some issues with memory leaks and subsequent crashes when more than two players connect to the same server, however...

If you want to host a multiplayer game, just run the KanonmatServer executable, then run Kanonmat.exe, choose "Host Game" in the startup menu, enter nickname, choose a level and go. Joining a game is now equally simple: select "Join Game" in the menu, enter nick and remote IP, press "Connect" and you're in. The rest of it, I think you'll figure out if you have the inclination to try it.

Controls:

Movement:
w forward
s backward
a turn left
d turn right

Actions:
LMB fire
RMB cycle weapons
C toggle camera view (1st p, 3rd p, 3rd p reversed)
CTRL flip vehicle right side over and press against ground (good for breaking!)
SPACE use power-up and drop vehicle from heli at spawn

Game control:
ESC In-game menu
§ (The key to the right of '1' on an SE keyboard) Command console
TAB Scoreboard
ENTER type to chat
T hide/unhide chat
I invert mouse
M mouse look
Alt+Enter switch to/from fullscreen mode
Alt+F4 exit game

[Ghryphen]

Oh yeah, forgot about this

[Ghryphen]

Wow that is really cool WoC! Great work. Is this publicly available? I want to move this into the general forum for all to see

[insaneferret]

wow, this is good, i wanna play multiplayer though, is there a server?

[Stang]

Have to remember to try it out this weekend.

Sounds like a hit, WTG WoC!

[Walks on Clouds]

Originally Posted by Gryphon

Wow that is really cool WoC! Great work. Is this publicly available? I want to move this into the general forum for all to see

Yeah, sure. It's public all right. Go ahead, if you please. Actually we were planning on letting the game go open-source from this point on and release the source code as well, but I'm not sure this is still the case.

Originally Posted by insaneferret

wow, this is good, i wanna play multiplayer though, is there a server?

Well, there is no publicly available server at this time. You might be in luck and find that tisten.mine.nu is running a KanonmatServer from time to time, but don't count on it. There is, however, a server included in the zip file. You'll have to host it yourself, and have a buddy or two join in, though.

To host a game, just run KanonmatServer.exe then run Kanonmat.exe and choose host game in the menu. The game will automatically connect to your local server. The first person to connect decides which map will be played, but any player can change maps at a later time by using the console command map(<mapname>) The maps available can be seen in the data/Maps folder.

Originally Posted by Stang

Have to remember to try it out this weekend.

Sounds like a hit, WTG WoC!

[Walks on Clouds]

There is an issue with performance on slower machines that we have noticed, as well as some huge memory leak when several players connect to the same server. I presume we will be working on this sometime in the future, but right now, there's a report to be written, which will have to take precedence for a while longer.

If you notice any bugs or problems, please tell me, and maybe someone will find the energy needed to fix it. The game balance is seriously out of line, that I know, and it is extremely easy to cheat in this game too. But anything else, things not working as they should for example, just report it to me please. I'll try to write a proper manual in English soon, too.

[Ghryphen]

It is dang hard to get out of the water when you fall in

[Walks on Clouds]

Actually, you can raise the water level on the Island map. Just open the file data/Maps/Island.sun in your text editor of choice. Change the line where it says: "WaterLevel=-24.8" to something else. Testing has proven that -22.8 is pretty nice. Just make sure that all clients connected to your server have the same waterlevel, or you'll be in DEEP misery.

[Ghryphen]

The maps are actually zipped, will they run ok unzipped?

[Walks on Clouds]

Absolutely! Just unzip them, but be sure to keep the directory structure. Actually, I'll run a server for a while, if anyone wants to play for a while. IP: 193.11.245.15.

Waterlevel -22.8 is the deal.

[Ghryphen]

Haha that was fun WoC, I will have to play more later, still at work. You guys should polish it up and sell it on www.garagegames.com