MAN page from RedHat Other crossfire-gnome-0.95.1-1.i386.rpm

cfclient

Section: Misc. Reference Manual Pages (November 29, 1998)
Index

NAME

cfclient - X11 client program for crossfire servers.
gcfclient - gtk client program for crossfire servers.

SYNOPSIS

client [-server server] [-port number] [-display display] [-split|-nosplit][-echo] [-pix|-xpm] [-showicon] [-scrollines number] [-sync] [-help][-cache|-nocache]

DESCRIPTION

Cfclient/gcflientis an X11 program for connecting to crossfire servers. Crossfire is amultiplayer graphical adventure game that mixes aspects of Gauntlet (TM),nethack, moria, and Ultima (TM).

This man page describes options for the X11 client of crossfire(cfclient). Many of these options should also be valid for the gtkversion (gcfclient). The configure/make process will build thegtk version if it finds the necessary libraries, otherwise it willbuild the X11 version.

OPTIONS

-server <server>

Sets the server to play on. If no option is given, it will default tolocalhost.

-port <number>

The port number of the server to connect to. By default, it will useport 13327 (standard port). However, certain servers may use otherports.

-display <display>

The display to open the windows on. If this option is not given, itwill use the DISPLAY environmental variable to determine the display.

-split|-nosplit

-split starts the windows up in split windows mode. In split windowsmode, 6 seperate windows are created - these individual windows can thenbe moved around and resized as desired. -nosplit starts the game up witha single window - this is the default. The option is useful if yoursaved defaults are set for -split (see Saved Defaults further down).

-echo

Echo commands as they are entered. Normally, commands bound to keysare just sent to the server without any echoing on the client of whatthat command actually was. This option causes the commands to also beprinted in the information window as they are sent to the server.

-pix|-xpm

This determines the graphic image types to use. -pix uses pixmap images -these are two color images with no masking (one image per space.). -xpmuses XPM format images - these are multi colored images with masking,so multiple images per space can be displayed. XPM images requiremore local processing power (unless you are on a very old machine, thisshould not be an issue), the installation of the XPM library, and alsorequire more bandwidth to download (however, see the -cache optionfurther down.)

-showicon

This shows a little icon next to items in your inventory that containsa brief description of some of the item properties (magic, cursed,equipped, etc.) This can make spotting some items easier, but someplayers may not like the extra space these icons take up or the

-scollines <lines>

This is the number of lines to use in the information window. By default,the size of the window is used (no scrollback ability). With thisoption, a scrollbar will be created and it is then possible to scroll backthrough old messages. It is strongly recommended you set this to somevalue, since some areas output more data than will fit in the outputwindow at one time.

-sync

Runs the server in synchronous display mode. This option tends only tobe useful in debugging purposes - using this will slow down the displayand not gain anything for the typical player.

-help

Prints out a brief description of the options to standard output.

-cache|-nocache

Determines if the client will cache images for future runs. With -nocache,when the server is about to referance an image that the client hasyet to receive, it sends that image along to the client. These downloadedimages are discarded once the client exists. With -cache, the serversends information about the image it is about to referance. The clientcan then check its local cache (stored in ~/.crossfire/images) - if ithas the image, it creates it off the disk. If it does not have it,it requests it from the server and then stores it in its cache. In thebrief time between the request of the image and it actually receives it,that image will be represented by a ? in the map.

-cache option is strongly recommended anytime when your link to the serveris slower than home directory access - this is likely to be the caseexcept in case of nfs mounted home directories on the server on the locallan.

SAVED DEFAULTS

Once you have logged into the server, you can enter extended commandsby typing ' (apostrophe) followed by the extended commands. One of theseextended commands is savedefaults. This will save the server, port,image type, split windows mode, scrolllines, showicon, and cache options into~/.crossfire/defaults.

If you are using split windows mode, you can enter savewinposas an extended command. This will save the current window positionsand sizes into ~/.crossfire/winpos. Next time you run the serverin split mode, it will load these values and resize and move the windowsas specified.

PLAYING WITH THE CLIENT

This is by far a complete tutorial of gameplay. This section is toprovide a basic introduction to logging in and doing a few verybasic actions.

The first thing that will happen after the client successfully connectsto the server is you will be prompted for a name. There are somerestrictions to the name you can choose, but alphanumeric charactersare all safe.

After entering the name, you will then be prompted for a password. Whencreating a new character, enter whatever you want your password to be.If you get a 'login incorrect' someone else already has that charactername with a different password - try another name. If no one has usedthat name, you will be prompted for the password again to confirm it.

You now start the character creation process. It is beyond the scopeof the document to fully describe the pros and cons of differentstats and classes. The creation process has different options forswapping stats and choosing a class.

Once you have chosen your class, you will be in the middle of a town.The arrow keys will move you in the various directions. There will bea red building almost directly above you - this is the inn where yousave your character. There are some signs to your right. To readthem, move on top of them and press the 'a' key. This applies theobject below you - in the case of signs, it reads it. In the case ofbuildings, it will cause you to enter the building.

To the left of the signs is a small building - this is the beginnerdungeon. Enter it, and follow the directions on the signs. It providesa pretty good tutorial on some of the basic actions and features ofthe game.

To enter extended commands, type the ' (apostrophe) followed by thecommand. An example would be 'help (apostrophe followed by thehelp command). Enter command to execute the command.

USEFUL EXTENDED COMMANDS

savewinpos savedefaults: These commands were described in the SAVED DEFAULTS options above.
scroll: This toggles whether or the information windows scrolls when it gets to the bottom of the window or wraps to the top. Wrapping is slighly lesscpu intensive, but is generally harder to read.
bind unbind: bind is used to add new keybindings. Do you want to be able to pressone key to cast a fireball? This is what the bind command does.is bound, it is stored in ~/.crossfire/keys and will be used in futureplays.

FILES

~/.crossfire: This is a directory that is created that is used to store variousfiles.
~/.crossfire/defaults: This contains default setttings. This file can in theory be editedby hand - just be careful to keep the same case and whitespace.
~/.crossfire/images: This directory is used for the image cache if -cache is being used.
~/.crossfire/keys: This contains keybindings you have edited. This file can also betheoretically edited - changing existing entries is much safer thantrying to figure out the syntax for new entries.
~/.crossfire/winpos: Window positions and sizes to use in split window mode. This filecan also be edited by hand.

Please let me know about any bugs you find in the client.

AUTHOR

There are a great many other contributors to both the client and serverthat are not mentioned here.

This document was created byman2html,using the manual pages.