VT100 Paintball Net

VT100 Paintball Net

by Pollyanna
Reformatted by David R. Michael

People frequently ask me, "Polly, how did you get so good so quick?". And the following is a little explaination of what I call "Polly's Secret", also known as, VT100. From what I understand, PBN was originally created to be played in VT100. But thanks to the creative talents of Dave/Dug, they came up with the Paintball Terminals. However, take into concideration that I have never PLAYED nor SEEN PBTerm in action. So, as they say on PBN, "Game Start".

I. How do I use VT100?
This is probably the most asked question on PBN when VT100 is being discussed. And the answer is fairly simple: Any TERMINAL program that you would use to dial your ISP shoult support VT100 Emulation. Personally, I use (and will probably always use) QModem for DOS. You can get the same copy I use at http://www.mustang.com. There are other terminals that support VT100 (almost all of them do) and Dug has a few listed on his homepage as well.

Once you have gotten yourself a terminal program, these are the steps that I take to connect to PBN:

Set the program up to dial your ISP

Once connected, drop to the UNIX prompt (or if you have a menu that supports Telnet use that)

At the UNIX prompt type: telnet shell.busprod.com 4444

Then login with your name and password

Now this looks like a fairly simple task, HOWEVER, some ISP's differ from others, and there may be additional steps you must take to ensure that the program will work correctly. It would be impossible for me to list all of these, but I maybe able to help anyone out individually if you mail me at: orange@inetnebr.com.

II. Why VT100?

Oh gee, where should I begin :P I use VT100 because I am unable to use WIN95 because of my software restrictions. I have always been an avid mudplayer on the net and VT100 was always second nature to me. I first logged in with VT100, and I've used it ever since.

Here are so advantages VT100 has over the Term:

(NOTE: This is in NO WAY trying to switch people from the PBTerm to VT100, however, I know there is an intrest in it. This is purely INFORMATIONAL material)

Speed - Unlike PBTerm where you must click to move, movement is done with either a). The Arrow Keys or b). Using "n s e w" (I use this method because I am familiar with muds). The advantage of this is the speed and accuracy in wish you can move. A fast typist can easily dodge incoming paintballs with quick evasive moves. I have never been victim to the dreaded "My guy went crazy" disease. With accurate movement, your failure percentage is VERY LOW. And it's very easy to buffer your movement for quick assaults. This will give you the "Fake Jetpack [Iceman (tm)]" effect.

Text - While most people concider this a disadvantage, I think this is one of the better things about VT100. I've never seen the graphics on PBTerm, but the text is very easy to distinguish. Your team and then enemy will always catch your eye when they are on the map. The Text vs. Graphics point will always be argued however, and it usually comes down to personal preference.

Refresh/Center - With a fast modem, you can quickly refresh and center your screen with no problems. I personally use the aliases 'sc : screen center' and 'sf : screen refresh'. When you think about it... when you tell PBN to center your screen, it has to send the information to your computer, then you computer has to translate that information into graphics. In VT100, PBN tells the term exactly what to draw, and it's completed much quicker.

III. What's bad about VT100?

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! :P Just kidding, trust me the VT100 users have their woes too. Here's a list of things that you will have trouble in when playing with the VT100.

Screen Garbage - This is one I dislike the most. Screen Garbage is when the map is garbled by ANSI/VT100 codes when it's being drawn. When this happens it can distort your view of the field, and sometimes in the most critical situations you can be "screwed". Even though the refresh is quick, if you type in commands while it's being performed, it can mess up your terminal even more. VT100 isn't flawless, and this is probably it's biggest downfall.

Targetting - Personally I find targetting to be quite easy if you can master the use of aliases. However, unlike the term, you can't just point and click where you want to fire. This makes it difficult in major situations. Say for example, there is a player to the left of me, and a player to the right of me. With the term you can simply click to fire, and then move the mouse and click the other side. In VT100 however, you target is moved by typing "tar <dir>". This only moves your target 1 space at a time, but with the following alias you can make this task easier:

alias t tar %1\&tar %1\&tar %1\&tar %1\&tar %1

When you type "t <dir>" it will send your target 5 spaces in the direction that you wish. Usually at the start of the war, I will send my target 10 spaces in the opposite direction of the closest wall. Meaning, if the boundry is to my WEST, I will target 10 east. The only other problem with this is shooting at an angle. This is a much harder task on the VT100, and quite frankly I've yet to completely master it.

AUTO READY! - Quite simple... VT100 doesn't have an Auto Ready (can we please have one DavidRM/Dug???)

Limited Space - The terminal can be set up to use 80x50 mode, however this is very hard to play in. With the 80x25 mode you are restricted to a small map and usually a small chat box. I use a 14x45 map, a 5 line chat box, and about a 6 line info box. My biggest problem is when I splat people sometimes the scroll will make me miss who I just splatted! (That's why I only make fun of you guys sometimes

)

IV. Conclusion?

I don't think there will ever be one. Remember this is just my opinion about the VT100 vs. PBTerm. Everyone will find their likes and dislikes about the thing. And because I'm such an avid VT100 lover (they don't call me the VT100 Queen for nothing), I will help anyone out who needs assistance with getting it up and running, aliases, anything... just email me at the following address: orange@inetnebr.com.

Polly-Girl Signing Out...<click>

, and Bill Nutt