This is very old, but still sort of relevant...


I.  xtank the single player arcade game
	This is what xtank currently is.  For the near future, I plan
	to be the main driving force behind it.  I am interested in
	porting it to the pc environment (amiga, atari, mac) once it
	is closer to being finished.  I might even be able to make
	a profit.  The UNIX version will eventually be distributed
	to whoever wants it, for free.

	Much of the work yet to be done here is optimization.
	The algorithms that I am using now are reasonably efficient,
	but could use improvements.  Certain annoying things, like
	accurate collision detection, are not finished yet.  Ever
	tried to write code to that determines where two arbitrarily
	shaped moving polygons collide?  Another thing that needs
	work is the art.  The explosions are circular because circles
	are easy to draw in the bitmap editor.  The new tanks being
	added in v0.10 were drawn by friends of mine.

II.  xtank the multi-player arcade game
	This is what everyone wants xtank to be (including me).  I
	won't be able to do it without some help from people
	knowledgable with networking.  This version probably wouldn't
	do so well in the pc environment, so it will be solely UNIX.

III.  xtank the computerized battle simulator
	This will allow programmers to design vehicles and write
	programs to control their actions.  In this way various
	strategies for movement, and attacking can be tested.  Something
	similar to this, but on a smaller scale, has been done in
	programs like Mazewar and Crobots.  In fact there was a
	"Battle of the Crobots" contest last year, which I helped
	organize.  Hopefully this spring there will be a "Battle of
	the xtanks" where interested participants can design their
	very own vehicles and programs, test them, and watch them
	compete in a tournament (complete with prizes, commentators,
	music, pizza, and an audience, like last year's Crobots contest).
	
	I want to design a user interface to design vehicles (along with a
	point allocation system to build the vehicle up from its respective
	pieces).  Also a programmer interface needs to be made.  This would
	specify the primitives that a vehicle control program could use to
	interact with the xtank world (turn_turret, accelerate, fire_weapon,
	activate_radar, etc.)

IV.  Mazelords the multi-player arcade/adventure/role-playing game
	This will be the ultimate futuristic ground combat game.  I will
	never finish it.  It will incorporate xtank combat into a
	Road Warrior world filled with barren wastelands, lone outposts,
	fortresses, towns, mazes, etc.  There will be computer simulated
	enemies, with personalities.  Large scale battles between human
	and computer controlled vehicles will take place to gain control
	of resources, political power, territory, etc.
