WHAT IS CROSSFIRE?

  This is a multiplayer graphical arcade and adventure game made for
  the X-Windows environment.
  It has certain flavours from other games, especially Gauntlet (TM)
  and Nethack/Moria.
  Any number of players can move around in their own window, finding
  and using items and battle monsters.  They can choose to cooperate
  or compete in the same "world".

REQUIREMENTS

  You will need UNIX, X-windows and an ANSI C compiler to compile this game.

COMPILING

  Crossfire has been known to compile on the following systems
  (latest known version number of Crossfire that compiled on these
  systems is included in parantheses):
  o Sun3, SunOs 4.1.1, gcc (0.90.3)
  o DEC300AXP-500 (Alpha with OSF1 1.3) (0.90.3)
  o Sun4 with SunOS 4.1.3 (0.90.2)
  o Ultrix 4.2a (0.90.1)
  o IBM RS/6000 with AIX 1.2, X11R4 (0.90.2)
  o PC Compatiable, with Linux (0.89.3)
  o HP735, HPUX, X11R5 (0.90.2)
  o DEC 3100 and DEC 5000 with ULTRIX BSD 4.2
  o DEC with OSF1
  o VAX3100 with BSD 4.3
  o IBM RT with BSD4.3
  o HP9000-series (HP-UX) (very old versions of HP-UX might barf on stdarg.h)
  o MIPS with RISC/os
  o (UMIPS) 4.52 (?)

  It has been compiled with X11R3, X11R4 and X11R5 (the editor requires X11R5).

  To get directions on compilation, read the INSTALL file.

USAGE

  There are several ways of playing this game, and they depend on
  wheter or not you defined SERVER in inlucde/config.h.

  If you commented it out, you can only play by running crossfire.
  Type "crossfire <any options> <display 2> <display3> <etc>" to play.
  The first display defaults to your DISPLAY environment variable
  unless you specify the -l option.

  If you left it defined, you can alternatively play by starting
  crossfire as a server in the background; type: "crossfire -server".
  Then you can use "crossclient" to connect to the game.  If you
  are running the server on a different computer than the one you're
  sitting on, then run crossclient on your local computer, and specify
  the server with the "-server <host>" option.  Also try
  "crossclient -c sc".
  You can also use the "crossloop" shell script which restart the
  server in case it crashes, and which logs output to /tmp/crosservlog.

  If crossfire can't find the font "crossfire", and failed to set the
  fontpath to FONTDIR, it will try to use pixmaps instead.  This means
  that it will read all the files in the LIBDIR/bitmaps/ directory,
  which will usually take quite a while.

  Type "crossfire -h" / "crossclient -h" or read the man-page for
  information about the other options.

  New players can also be added by typing 'add <display> once inside the game.
  (Though it's recommended that they use crossclient to add themselves)

MAILING LIST

  There are two mailing-lists dedicated to the developement and
  bug-testing of crossfire.  The first is for discussing bugs and
  features, the second is for announcing new versions.

  If you want to join or leave any of the lists, send mail to
  crossfire-request@ifi.uio.no with the subject "subscribe",
  "unsubscribe","subscribe announce" or "unsubscribe announce".
  If you use the subject "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" you will
  (un)subscribe to *both* lists.
  To send messages directly to the list, mail crossfire@ifi.uio.no.
  An archive of old messages can be found at ftp.ifi.uio.no in the
  directory /pub/crossfire/archive

FTP SITES

  FTP-sites where you can look for the latest versions are:

    ftp.ifi.uio.no:/pub/crossfire (129.240.82.2)
    ftp.world.net:/pub/crossfire (192.243.32.18)
    yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au:/pub/crossfire (130.194.9.1)
    ftp.cs.city.ac.uk:/pub/games/crossfire/

  Please use the one nearest to you.  ".no" and ".uk" in Europe, ".au" in
  Australia, ".net" in USA.

  If you are setting up another site, please notify me.


REPORTING BUGS

  First, check the INSTALL file for common problems, and see if yours
  is mentioned.

  When reporting bugs, make sure you include the following:
  o What version of crossfire did you use?
  o What type of computer did you use?
  o What release of the operating system did it have?
  o What windowing system are you using (Ie, openwindows, X11R6, etc)
  o What compiler (and its version) did you use (ie, gcc, acc, etc)?
  o Which flags did you give it?
  o If the bug happens when compiling crossfire, send an EXACT copy of
    the compiler line, as well as the errors it puts out.  Sending bugs
    of the sort 'it failed with a line like ...' doesn't help any.
  o If the bug happened while running crossfire:
    - Include any output before to the bug.
    - Give a short description of what you did before the bug occured.
  o If you managed to compile Crossfire, include the output of
    "crossfire -o".

  Lack of any of this information in a bug report can make that bug
report useless.  Also, if you have a bug, make sure you are using
the latest version.  If you report a bug that has since been fixed, you
are not likely to get any help.

  Note:  If you can not reproduce the bug, and lack the skills/knowledge
necessary to run a debugger to find out where it crashed, chances are there
is little I can do to help.

  Note2:  I only have a sun 3 (with sunos 4.1.1 and gcc) for developement.
As such, if you have problems compiling on some other type of systems 
due to header files or similar system dependant things, I am not likely
to help out that much.

  Note3:  If you have core dumps, or trouble compiling on whatever system,
and are able to give me a guest account or something similar to log onto
your system to poke around with the code or core dump, I will likely take
you up on your offer.  If you make such an offer, I will assume that you
have oberyed whatever usage rules/policies are applicable for your site.

  Mail the bug report to master@rahul.net, or crossfire-bugs@ifi.uio.no

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SUBMITTING PATCHES:

    If you have added new features to the game, or fixed a bug, I am interested
    in the patches.  A few guidelines:

    1) Make a diff file of the changes.  Try to only make a diff file of
    the pertinent files (ie, I don't need to see all the changes you might
    have made to your config.h file, unless you add new options.)
    Make a context diff.  5 lines of context if preferable to the 3 default
    lines.  To do this, do:
 
   'diff -c5 (oldfile) (newfile)'

    You can also do diffs of entire directories.  Do do this, type:

    'diff -c5 -r (old_directory) (new_directory)'

    An example:

    'diff -c5 -r crossfire-0.90.1 crossfire-0.90.2'. 

    This will create a context diff of all the changes made between version
    90.1 and 90.2.  Note that this will not include new files, but will
    include a message saying that a file exists in one version and not the
    other.  Also note that if you do a diff at the top level, diffs will be
    created for the various font and archetype files in the lib directory,
    greatly increasing the size, and not containing any useful information.

    If send new files (archetypes, or source files), shar archives, or
    uuencode tar archives (compressed or gzip'd is fine), are the preferred
    method.

    NOTE TO DEVELOPERS:  If putting debug messages in your, #ifdef with
    a local define (ie, #ifdef INPUT_DEBUG or #ifdef TREASURE_DEBUG).  Don't
    use the generic DEBUG variable -- If everyone uses that, it just creates
    to much output, and becomes meaningless.  Using local defines makes it
    easy to turn on debugging information on that area of code, or likewise,
    turn it off, if it appears to work correctly.

   2) Try to keep patches for different things separate.  That is to say
   if you have made changes that fixes some monster code, and other changes
   that fix spell code, submit these as two separate patches if at
   all possible.  This makes it easier for me to look through them and
   understand what the patches are changing.  It also makes it easier to
   not use the code if I don't like it.

   3) If adding new fields/variables to structures, use the
   (u/s)int(8/16/32) typdefs (see top of structs.h).  All the old
   old structures should probably be converted to use these, but definately,
   any change to the structures should use this.

    Mail all patches to master@rahul.net

COPYRIGHT

    Don't get scared by the below, it's included just for "safety" reasons 8)
    (Don't want anyone to start selling the game)

    Copyright (C) 1994 Mark Wedel
    Copyright (C) 1992 Frank Tore Johansen

    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
    the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
    (at your option) any later version.

    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
    GNU General Public License for more details.

    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
    along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
    Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

    The author can be reached via e-mail to master@rahul.net