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TBS Beta V0.051 Readme
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WHY TBS?

I couldn't think of a name, so the title of the game is the same as the genre: Turn-Based Strategy.

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WHAT IS TBS?

TBS is a 2-player online tactical turn-based strategy game.  You control a squad of four soldiers, and try to kill your opponent's squad.  You connect to opponents via direct IP.

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HOW TO START A GAME

First, you have to choose whether you need chat ingame.  If you want a chat window, run TBS_BetaWithChat.jar.
If you do not need chat for some reason, you can run TBS_Beta1.jar.

Second, if you are playing over the internet, you need to forward these ports on your router if you are the server:

FOR TBS WITH CHAT:
4242
4224

FOR TBS WITHOUT CHAT:
4242

The chat uses port 4224, while the game data uses port 4242.

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OBJECTS

There are several objects you will find on the playing field.  These are:

Soldier - This unit can be controlled if selected.
Ground - Units walk on this.
Wall - Blocks all shots and unit movement
Trench - At the moment, this behaves EXACTLY like a wall.  This may be changed in later versions.
Low wall - Shots pass over this, but units cannot pass through it.  Also, if a unit is standing directly behind a low wall and they take damage from a shot, the damage is reduced by 1 (as if they were taking cover).
Damage marker - Shows the amount of damage a shot would do if a unit were in this spot.  Also allows you to trace a shot back to its origins.

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HOW TO PLAY

When the game starts, you can choose the class of your four soldiers.  The choices are Sniper, Assault, and Shotgunner.
What do these classes mean?  Well, it determines how much damage you do at what distance.

The following table shows how much damage you do at each distance.
1 is right in front of your unit, and 6 is at the edge of their range.

CLASS		1	2	3	4	5	6
Sniper		0	1	1	2	3	5
Assault		1	2	4	4	2	1
Shotgunner	5	3	2	1	1	0

Is this realistic?  Of course not!  The damage is done this way for balancing reasons.

When the game starts, the server (green) goes first.  Green is always at the top left, while blue is always at the bottom right.

One of the most important things to notice is tooltips: the text that pops up when you hover over a square of the playing field.  These tell you unit health, class, and moves remaining.  There are also tooltips for the command buttons.

The goal of the game is to kill all enemy units.  Simple.

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CONTROLS

Click on a unit to select it.  Once selected, press one of the command buttons at the bottom of the window to issue a command.  Some commands cost "moves."  Each unit starts with 2 moves each turn.  Moving and shooting costs a move.  Turning does not cost anything.

The buttons are RELATIVE to the orientation of the unit.  If you click "Strafe Left," the unit will step to its left.  This can sometimes be confusing.

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CHANGELOG

V0.01 - First version: Map added, units added, all units can be turned by 1 player, units cannot move
V0.02 - FOW added, player 2 more distinct, player 1 can move and turn units indefinitely, player 2 cannot be controlled, more buttons added
V0.03 - Minor changes
V0.04 - Added connection handler
V0.045 - First functional version, playable on a LAN or the internet
V0.046 - Bug fixes: fixed turning issue and removed turn cost, fixed game getting out of sync and crashing when enemy shoots in FOW
V0.05 - Added chat functionality
V0.051 - First public release, fixed minor bug with chat

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LEGAL STUFF

This game is to be released for free.  If you wish to redistribute it, please contact me at support@balancingcube.com.

This was originally put up for download on <http://www.balancingcube.com>.

You are running this application at your own risk, I'm not responsible for anything bad that might happen, etc.

This game was written by Erick Bauman (not ebaum; my name is spelled differently from his, but I just wanted to make it clear, since people have confused the names before).
