Basic Wars

About

Grab your friend (or enemy) and start a game of Basic Wars! Soldier stomping, tank driving, plane flying action is at your finger tips for free! Or grab the source and hack away. Take a look below for some help on getting started. There is not a lot of information you need to know to begin playing (hence the word Basic). Some of the more advanced features include building your own custom maps!

Screenshots

Movement/Attacking

This table should help you understand which unit types can move on which cells.

	Earth (Brown)	Water (Blue)	Swamp (Green)	Health	Attack	Move Radius	Attack Radius
Soldier	Yes	Yes, soldiers swim	No, too dangerous	100	50	2 Cells	2 Cells
Tank	Yes	No, they sink	Yes, built for bad terrain	200	100	1 Cell	2 Cells
Plane	Yes	Can't land, no skis	Can't land, too dangerous	150	75	3 Cells	2 Cells

Todo List

Force Tank and Plane to only attack long range, not short range
Embed images/sounds in jar archive to make distribution easier (one file)
Resize cells/sprites on the fly when the window/frame changes sizes
Maybe make the map bigger than the screen and provide "panning" the view
Lastly, add a cool intro menu and awesome music
Maybe, redirect System.err to a log file for release code

Completed

Differentiate cells by the type of land/water it represents
Provide a way to load arbitrary maps
Add multiple menus to select players/map/etc.
Add a buy view so players can buy their units
Implement simple movement and attack
Implement game logic such as rotating turns, for move and attack
Remove the Lava cell type and changed Tree to Swamp
Limit movement on cells (tanks cant go in water, etc)
Added resume feature so players can continue game
Add a view with the instructions on how to play
Added sprite images (soldier, tank, plane)
Added popup after each successful attack (damage, isCritical, etc)
Attack damage is randomized...20% of attacks are critical (x2 damage)

Custom Maps

If you are innovative and decide to make a custom map, all you have to do is open your favorite text editor and start typing. The format looks like this (Oasis map):

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEEEEETEEEEEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEEESSWWWEEEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEEEWWWWWWSEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEESWWWWWWSEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEESWWWWWWSEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEEESWWWWWSEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEEEESSWSSEEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

The only valid cell types are as following

E - Earth
W - Water
S - Swamp

The constraints for custom maps are as follows

Must have exactly 20 rows
Must have exactly 25 columns
Must have at least 10 Earth cells on the left and 10 earth cells on the right
That means Earth cells in middle-most column don't count toward this

That should be enough to get you started.