Maps by Insectoid: Fishtank Series


This is "tzx-rambunctious" by xpilot@toyzworkz.com.

Since 2000, I have made 15 original maps; 7 of them are part of the Plasma Blast series, 7 of them derived from Fishfight, and a team map.  I also made one unoriginal map (Crazy Fishfight).  This page covers Crazy Fishfight and the Fishtank series.

The images of the maps were made with the free utilities xp2gif for Linux and MapXpress for Windows.  The XPilot-NG map images were captured from Baron's XPilot-NG Map Editor.  Colors: Bases, Cannons, Decoration, Friction, Fuel, Gravity, Walls, and Wormholes.   The map images are to scale (unless otherwise noted), where 1 pixel = 1 block; a block in the game, at the default scale, is approximately 35 pixels on a side (slightly larger than the width of your ship).


Crazy Fishfight    Fishtank    Fishtank II    Fishtank III    Poly Fishtank III    Micro Fishtank    Cells of Eclipse    { Hextank }


Crazy Fishfight

by Jon Moore (mods by Insectoid) (65x56)

Crazy Fishfight

For quite a while, Dick Balaska (Bucko) had a map by Jon Moore called Fishfight running on his sean.buckosoft.com server.  It had ranking capability, but sometime in 2005 it was shut down due to problems with that ranking function.  To fill the void left by the Fishfight server, I made this "crazy" map, based on the original.  I neatened the map up a bit so that it is symmetrical (aside from the wormholes).  It has a small amount of asteroids to make the map more interesting, and the increased number of bases (32; twice as many as the original) made it so I could put in a dozen or more bots and make play really Crazy!    Download!

Fishtank

by Insectoid (127x87)

Fishtank

In early 2006 I decided to take the Crazy Fishfight concept further and make a slightly larger map to accommodate the number of robots, players, and asteroids.  The only other difference is that I built it from scratch.  With 40 bases, I often put 20-24 robots in to keep the gameplay Crazy.  Later, I added an extra wall on the left and right sides, because I was tired of having shots bounce off the bare edge.  (Which they will, even if shotsWallBounce is set to false.)    Download!

Fishtank II

by Insectoid (130x102)

Fishtank II

On July 4, 2006, during a game on Fishtank with NestEgg and Bmw, the latter suggested I turn nuclear weapons on for fun.  (Might as well have some fireworks…)  I decided to go along with it—I actually already had some settings in mind, such as the player-wall collision speed limit (having played on Zemyla's Tanks a Lot! map)—so I tried them out on the spot.  It turned out to be just as much fun as I thought it would.

Nuclear weapons, in this case, are what I call "penny nukes," since it only takes one mine or missile to make one nuke.  Plus, I made the walls less bouncy, so be wary of the mighty Full Nuclear Bomb; those are VERY effective here, since I made the shoveKillScoreMult option the same as an ordinary shot kill.  As with the first Fishtank, I wanted to enlarge the map a bit.  I designed it from scratch once again, initially with 8 fewer bases than the original Fishtank.  You'll notice there are now bases on the sides of the map, and the words "FISH", "II", and "TANK" replacing some of the fuel diamonds.  Also, the negative gravity elements that used to pull players out of their bases have been replaced by positive gravity, which pushes rather than pulls the players out. (I was getting very annoyed with robots getting stuck.)

Over a few day's testing, I shrank the map a bit, which took away some more bases (to 28), added more positive gravities, stylized the letters, and tweaked some of the map options.    Download!

Note added 20 Oct 2007: Another player and map maker, Vincent, and I were in correspondence since he asked me to host MetaBall, one of his new maps.  He showed some interest in the Fishtanks, so I gave him permission to "mess" with them; his newest map, IchthyoCube (think of a "Quad-Tank"), is the result.  More information on IchthyoCube and his other home-made maps can be found on his site.

Fishtank III

by Insectoid (140x110)

Fishtank III

After over a year of running Fishtank II, I decided to make another one.  I already had some ideas, like how to set it up as a "Dodgers" or a "Tag" game.  (I never did get around to those; however, I may be able to do it with PFT3.)  Soloport (an XPilot veteran who is probably the most frequent patron of the Fishtanks), suggested I enable self-immunity; I did so, and also turned on auto-fire (to 3; I didn't want to take too much away from the original concept).  I made the Tank larger again, and also the letters, changing "II" to "III".  (Since I made it larger, I had to crank down the maxItemDensity.)  I also rearranged the fuel diamonds, and changed the shape of the home bases; they look like "fish" now.  (But guess what? The bots get stuck again! Grrr.)  This is the non-polygon version; it is running on piper.dyndns-free.com port 15349.    Download!

Poly Fishtank III

by Insectoid (140x110)

Poly Fishtank III

The next-generation Fishtank map, and my greatest map-making achievement to date.  I converted the original FT3 to a polygon (.xp2) map, using the Python conversion script that comes with XPilot-NG, and then edited it with Baron's XPilotNG map editor.

One thing I discovered immediately is that decor blocks and gravity objects are not handled by the conversion script—I had to redo the "III" in the middle as a polygon and mark it as decoration, and had to put gravity objects back in section by section.  However, upon testing it, I discovered that some gravity objects do not work as advertised if you put them in using the editor alone; "positive" gravities act like "negative" gravities, "down" and "left" gravities like "up" and "right" gravities.  Turns out that the editor does not account for negative values of gravitic force; you have to set that explicitly.  (For example, setting the force value on a positive gravity (type="pos") to a negative number—say, -10—it then acts correctly, pushing outwards.)  In addition, the conversion script adds a 1 block gap on all sides.  This was tedious to correct; you have to a) subtract 70 pixels (where 35 is the width of one block) from mapWidth and mapHeight, and b) move the map polygons so they fit in the map boundary.

Over the course of a month or so, I made the polygons much more complex; for example, I made the fuel diamonds near-round, and added some decoration in the corners ("Fishtank 3" and "Insectoid 2007" in J.R.R. Tolkien's Elvish script; I'm a real Lord of the Rings nut).  I also further stylized the FISH TANK III letters. These things are not easy to do, even with the editor; it takes some practice.  (One thing to remember is that one block is 35 pixels; if you want to move a polygon or vertex by one block, turn on the grid and set it to 35.  To create the more complex shapes, I used additional grid sizes of 1, 3, 5, and 18; that last is approximately half a block.)  In addition, you can copy polygons, make them hollow, and use them as "stencils" for other polygons.  (This was extraordinarily useful when drawing the Elvish letters, and making the fuel centers on the outer edge the same roundness as the ones in the middle.)  I also modified the clouds.ppm texture (I chopped off the darker part of it) to make clouds2.ppm, which is the main texture for the map (both it and seagreentile.ppm are contained in the polyfishtank3.xpd data file, available on the Downloads page; wormhole.ppm is also used).  Finally, I changed the filename from fishtank3.xp2 to polyfishtank3.xp2, to avoid confusion.

During October and November 2007, Karsten Siegmund (Throat/Tired) and I were in correspondence, originally because he wanted my permission to add a GPL license to PFT3, as a possibly for adding PFT3 to the next XPilot-NG release (which has since been done, at least to the CVS build).  He helped me resolve some of the problems with the map, such as the fact that the standard NG server always "remembers" scores, whether or not rankFileName is specified (he sent me a patch to the server to try; PFT3 correctly "forgets" scores now).  He also suggested changing the color of the "III" in the middle of the map (it was originally bright yellow); this eventually led me to re-work it so that it's an "outline" rather than just empty, so I could apply a texture to it. (That bluish-green color you see in the picture is the seagreentile.ppm texture (included in the data file), on top of a normal green color, so that it still shows up on the radar.)

Click on the picture above to see a larger image, along with an enlarged view of the Elvish script and home bases. I'm currently running the map on piper.dyndns-free.com port 15350. This is the final version of the map, for now.    Download!

Micro Fishtank

by Insectoid (100x100)

Micro Fishtank

My newest entry in the Fishtank series is sort of a throwback to Fishfight (except of course for the nukes...).  The fact that it's smaller means that it should generate more close-quarter dogfights.  I had it running on our server for a while, but it wasn't drawing much attention; this may have more to do with the decrease in interest in XPilot that's occured over the last few years than with the quality of the map.    Download!

Cells of Eclipse

by Insectoid (126x140)

Cells of Eclipse

In the beginning, this map was called simply "Eclipse", and was similar in play to Fishtank III, but with a few differences, such as the edge-wrap.  The bases scattered about are meant to resemble honeycombs (supporting the whole Insectoid theme), and, unlike FT3, were designed so that the robots never, ever get stuck.  (Ahhh.).  Initially designed in early 2009.

When I was first working on the map, I started getting the feeling that it was "just another Fishtank map", and that I really needed to make this one different—so I added walls.  And made it bigger, so it would wrap around correctly (version 1 did not).  The walls, again, form honeycombs, and give the map a sort of New Dark Hell feel to it.  (Except, of course, that there are 23 robots bearing down on you.)  Since the edge (and everything else) wraps around, this eliminates the prevailing strategy for FT2 et al (laying a big nuke in the center and sometimes getting a dozen kills); however, there are certain areas that inexplicably get more crowded than others; I'll let you figure them out.  There is also fuel now (version 1 didn't have any; I forgot), since lasers are now standard equipment, and there are fewer shots!  You'll now have to try to avoid the bots roasting you alive in addition to all the other things! Should be challenging.  (Unless you play "chicken" and fly around avoiding the bots altogether and collect items till you're almost impossible to kill.  Gumba is an expert at this strategy, and I have yet to find a way to kill him efficiently when he's loaded up; e.g., without dying 3 or 4 dozen times trying.)

This was, for a long time, called "Eclipse v2", meaning version 2.  (Why exactly I left the "v2" in the title I don't know; perhaps from laziness, or because I felt it was unfinished.)  Recently while playing Eclipse, someone asked me about the name; where is the eclipse?  (I think Gumba suggested that it's what happens to your score when he's playing. XD)  So I thought about it a while, and finally changed the name slightly, to Cells of (the) Eclipse.  If you look at the full-size picture, you'll notice the half-honeycomb outlines in the center are clockwise and counter-clockwise gravity elements; this was just to make the center of the map a little more interesting.  (Also to be annoying with invisible gravity, because I can.  Gumba doesn't like it, but it doesn't slow him down any that I can tell…)

The map is currently running on piper.dyndns-free.com port 15348.    Download!

{ Hextank }

by Insectoid (165x165)

{ Hextank }

My latest map, designed in 2010.  It incorporates features from both Fishtank III and Cells of Eclipse, and features cannons for the first time in the Fishtank series.    Download!


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