BZFlag is a Free Online Multiplayer Battle Tank Game
Original Release: 1992
Latest Version: 2.4.20 April 24, 2020
License: LGPL
Developer: BZFlag Team
BZFlag (an abbreviation for Battle Zone capture the Flag) is a free, open source, online multiplayer video game. A first-person tank battle game, similar in concept to Battlezone, it was originally written by Chris Schoeneman (creator of Synergy) for SGI graphics workstations running IRIX, but has now been ported to other operating systems including Microsoft Windows, OS X,GNU/Linux, BSD, and Solaris. The source code is available free from the project’s website under the GNU Lesser General Public License.
In a game of BZFlag, players drive around tanks, viewed from a first-person view, in a server-defined world (also known as a “map”), which can be modified. Tanks have the ability to drive through other tanks, but cannot travel through buildings or other world objects. The basic objective is to destroy opponents’ tanks, which are tanks of another team’s colour. Since all players can see the position of all the tanks on their radar, it is a game of outmanoeuvring rather than sneaking.
There are styles of gameplay that modify the objective. Styles are server-based, as the server operator chooses what style to host. If there is no special style indicated by the server owner, the only objective is the above (to simply kill opponent tanks); it is called a “free for all”, or “FFA” for short.
There are three other objectives and corresponding styles (four in total): a style called “capture-the-flag” (or “CTF” for short) in which tanks try to pick up an opponent’s flag and bring to their own home base, a style called “rabbit chase” in which the objective is to have every hunter (orange)tank try to destroy a particular white tank, called the “rabbit,” and a style called “King of the Hill,” in which a team attempts to stay in a certain area for 30–60 seconds without being killed. If they succeed, that team becomes “The King of the Hill.”
Servers can change the game mode and have custom maps made to fit the properties of the game. Certain thresholds are used to catch malicious players and kick them off the server, as well as message filters and an entire collection of other anti-cheating features. There are around 250 servers active at any given time (although only about 10-20% have active players most of the time).
Single Player Mode
Single Player Mode is a term (a misnomer) often used to describe the act of playing BZFlag on a local server using the computer-controlled player (bots) of a client. BZFlag itself is designed to be a multiplayer game.
Using bots on a local server is a way to play the game without an internet connection, or to gain experience in playing without the need for other human players. Bots are currently only run by the game client and can be run on any server. The term “Single Player Mode” is most commonly used to describe a single client that is logged in to a local server with a number of bots. It is mostly used to test maps, as the simple robots do not offer any real gameplay challenge.
Bots can be used on remote servers, but many of the owners of public servers do not allow bots to join with players. Use of bots on public servers is not recommended and can lead to being banned from the server.
Minimum System Requirements:
Processor: 128 MHz single core CPU
Memory: 16 MB of RAM
Graphics: Supported OpenGL
Hard Drive: 4 MB free space
NOTE: The Processor isn’t official system requirements !
BZFlag Screenshots
BZFlag Videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOckT6jO_ns
