I started this topic based on some private messages from a new player.
Maybe we can flesh out this topic & link to others as an online alternative to the offline manual & help file (located at bottom of the main game menu).



Although Scorched3D can be downloaded from other mirror sites, the link to download from this site is to select the 'files' icon at the top of this page which takes you to the Scorched3D Download page.

Select your OS type, download the file(s), possibly unzip &/or compile the file(s), & lastly install the game.



When you start up the game, you have a few buttons on the left to choose from :

• Start a single ... game
• Join a game over the Internet
• ...

If you haven't played the game at all, play around in the single-player mode for just a few minutes to at least learn the controls.

krafTWerK started a great topic that visually demonstrates the most-used keyboard controls. To see the keyboard controls, click the link below
--Keyboard Commands--.

When you're ready to play online, choose 'Join a game over the internet...' from the main game menu. When the online game dialog box appears, press 'Refresh Internet Games' button in lower-right. This will show all the active servers online. The circles to the left of the server names show whether you can play or not :

• Red -- cannot join this server
• Yellow -- server active but game not yet started
• Green -- server active & game in progress

The official server is the 'Scorched3D (Player Stats, No Bots)' server. If you join that one & announce that you are a new player, many of the guys there will offer advice & help you out. Press 't' to talk inside the game to chat or ask for help or whatever. You'll likely get killed a lot, but you can start learning how to play.



Most of the servers, including the official 'Scorched3D (Player Stats, No Bots)' server do NOT require passwords. Try logging onto the official server. If you can't login to the official server; reply to this topic with :

• Your step-by-step actions
• Any text or error messages
• Your system specs :
  
  • OS
  • CPU
  • RAM
  • Graphics card
  • Sound card
  • etc.

No, you don't have to close other programs (or the website) to start the game. However, some systems do NOT run Scorched3D well if other programs are running. If you have a slower or older system, do NOT run other programs while playing Scorched3D.

Good luck.

Starting Tips:

The point of this game (if not TOO ovious) is to launch projectiles from point A to point B, point B being your enemy target which your intending to destroy. So be the last one (only one) standing!

Your shots and how far they land depend on 3 variables:

1) Power - How much force you put behind that shot.
2) Angle - At what degree of up and down (0->90) do you shoot?
3) Wind - Wind actually is in reference to your horizontal (left-right) rotation, but it is exactly what decides how much you should rotate.

Simple advice, find a constant - and practice. The only constant you can use shot after shot is your angle. Most players seem to stick around 60-70. After time you'll learn to fight on the move, changing your angle and such one after the next - but right now lets keep it simple.

First and most important - If you wish to try the following I ask you to stick to Baby Missiles / Missiles. We'll get into Weapons of Mass Destruction later.

Before also get into much, try this training session first:
Start a target bot game and get your favorite angle ready, baby missiles, and shoot in the direction of land. Shoot at 500 power, then 450, then 400, then 350, then 300. Notice two things!! First notice if your shooting above you at a mountain or below you from a mountain. Ask yourself how this is effecting your shots (by how much) if you were shooting on level ground (maybe you are) or the opposite on or below a hill. Second notice from one crater to the next, how far one is from the next. The largest part of Scorched is that SECOND shot, turning a bad shot from who knows where, into a deadly accurate recovery.

But I digress, Learn that angle, start playing on bot (target) server with 0 winds - and learn disances. When picking your target hold down A and move the mouse right over your target, you'll see a small "tower" apear... that defines your horizontal (wind) rotation - since its 0 you need not to adjust, just aim STRAIT AT IT. Learn how far on a flat map you need to shoot, how your shots vary if your above the target.. below the target.. right next to it.. extremely far away. Get a nice grasp on the power variable and how to predict distances. Yes sometimes you need to change your angle, you may not be able to drop the projectile sharp enough - thats an important lesson too.

Next step is to learn winds, or horizontal angles.. start up a server allowing for a set wind, if you really got time I would suggest starting from F1->F5. But otherwise jump to F2 or F3 and step by step up. Each step first judge your power, then focus on your horizontal. If your wind goes in direction of the target, take power away, facing at you - add power. Get a general idea how far you need to swing the shot off to make the kill. Don't worry if you need to make insanely wild turns its expectable.

Once you think your "ready", launch a randomized wind sever and give it a go, get used to expecting the un-expected.

Now its time for weapons, each with thier own strengths and weaknesses, some need direct line of sight, others are designed to land offsite of the target. Here is a small list of weapons:

Missiles (which you should already know)
Rollers (Babies / Regular / Heavies)
Napalms (Regular / Heavy)
Diggers (Babies / Regulars / Heavies)
Riot Bombs (Regulars / Heavies --I suggest just using heavies)
Sandhogs (Think diggers but hurting)
Mirv (Regular / Spread --Don't use spread)
Nuke (Baby / Regular -- High explosive version of missile)
Death Head (picture super sized spread mirv with nuke sized bombs)
Funky Bomb (offsite weapon seeking nearby units)

Practice with those weapons, combine those weapons (famous combo: diggers + rollers / Napalms) .. learn good way to take down sheilds.

Which brings me to the next part:

Parachutes
Batteries
Sheilds
Fuel

Better learn each of these very fast if you expect to live long enough.. Parachutes safe you from a falling death and batteries recharge you after getting hit. Yes thier important, your health and maximum power (distance) are directly tied togeather. 1 Health "represents" 10 power. So if you ever see a unit with 0 health - its because thier power level is somewhere around 3 or 4.. out of 1,000. Sheilds protect you from fatal blows, fuel helps you run away from fatal blows. (Fuel is great when getting out of a hole.. see that famous combo I mentioned).

Theres last but not least one final lesson to be learned:

Mannors - when you feel up to bringing your game online and playing against other people, theres a code of conduct that floats around, people with aditude problems or very negative mouths are not welcome. So please remember that just because your great (or horrible) does not allow you to act above the law. If your out of line someone will be telling you - likewise if you see someone you think is out of line - you should tell them.

I still have not updated this to version 38.x, but with version 39 on the horizon...

Ebonite's Guide to Scorched3D

INTRODUCTION
Welcome to Scorched3D, a three-dimensional remake of Scorched Earth. For those unfamiliar with artillery style games, the idea is to destroy all other tanks on the field without being destroyed yourself. This is accomplished through launching various warheads at your targets, taking into account gravity, wind, terrain, and your oppenents defences. You are tasked with aiming your tank by determining the Power (the momentum energy conferred on your shot, primarily determines distance), Elevation (how steep a slope your shot is launched at), and a new element required by the 3-D nature of Scorched3D, Angle (the adjustment left or right that your shot will initialy travel).

GAME CONCEPTS
You should already be aware of how to control your tank, manipulate the camera, and read the GUI. This guide will try to explain some of the finer points of the game so can understand how and why certain things happen in the game.

TIME
Scorched3D games are made up of a certain number of rounds, which themselves are made up of a number of turns. Each turn is equal to one shot and is comprised of two parts, Aiming and Shooting. Aiming is the segment where you set your Power, Elevation, and Angle, choose your weapon, activate any accessories you want, and fire. This segment lasts roughly 40 seconds, depending on the server settings and how soon you (and any others) complete all your adustments. Shooting is just watching the result of your choices play out on the map, and takes until all effects are rendered.

Rounds are generally a maximun of 10 - 15 turns, depending on the server settings, and include a "Shopping" period at the beginning where you can buy weapons and accessories for use in the current round or sell weapons and accessories for extra money. Rounds will end when either one or no tanks are left alive, or the turn limit has been reached, regardless of how many tanks are alive. If turns are equal to shots, then rounds could be considered equal to lives, since dying in a round will prevent you from playing until the next round starts.

Games are a series of rounds in which kills and money accumulate, and end when the set number of rounds have occurred. Once the round limit has been reached, a winner is determined, and a new game begins with all totals reset to zero.

WEAPONS
Limited first round
Many servers do not allow shopping on the first round of a game. The only weapon any player has available is the Baby Missile, which comes in unlimited supply. Beacuse of the small damage effect, you have to accurately hit your target to kill them.

Shopping
Weapons are bought in bundles, with anywhere from one to twenty individual weapons per bundle. You need to be able to afford the entire bundle in order to get any weapons of that type. Weapons can be sold individually for about 80% of the individual value (bundle price divided by bundle size).

Bigger is not always better
Generally speaking, the more expensive a weapon is (bundle price divided by bundle size), the more powerful it is, and thus, the more damage it does, to both tanks and terrain. But, the more expensive a weapon is, the fewer of them you will be able to purchase. A common course of action new players take is to buy as many nukes as the can, generally about six. Sure, they want to be certain that they kill their target, but it is more likely that they will miss, particularly on their first shot, and then they've just wasted one warhead (of their six) and several $.

If you choose to pruchase only a few large scale weapons, do not be surprised to find yourself broke and out of ammo at the end of a round or two. At that point, you'll be forced to use the infinite Baby Missiles, which limits your scoring ability when others have more powerful weapons.

Multi-Stage/Multi-Part Weapons
Several weapons in the game split up into multiple warheads sometime during their deployment. This will happen either in midair or upon contact with the ground.

Seeker class weapons: Diggers, Sandhogs, and Funky Bombs
These weapons are multi-part weapons that split up on contact with the ground. These particular weapons also seek out tanks in their secondary form, and are thus more effective if you miss. Diggers and Sandhogs release mini-warheads into the ground where they seek tanks from underground and come up under them. Funky Bombs explode on contact with the ground and release several mini-bombs into the air that seek out tanks while in flight. None of these weapons guarantee a hit, they are only more likely to hit. And all of these weapons expend their secondary warheads immediately upon contact with bedrock (the bottom of the map).

Hole-y Weapons: Riot Bombs and Diggers
While most weapons create an explosion that damages both tanks and terrain, these weapons do no direct damage to tanks, they only destroy terrain. These weapons are useful if you need to put a crater somewhere convienient.

Gravity Weapons: Rollers and Napalm
These weapons are affected by gravity once they contact the ground. Rollers are multi-part weapons that release several rolling spheres when they touch the ground. Each of these spheres then rolls downhill, exploding when they make contact with a tank or when their fuse runs out (about 5 seconds). Napalm ignites when it hits the ground, and then "flows" downhill, buring everything in it's path. Napalm burns for a set period of time, and will not burn underwater.

Tracers: Smoke and Regular
Tracers have no effect on the environment other than to show you where your shot will land. Regular tracers only show you the impact point of your current aim settings. Smoke tracers show you the entire path of the weapon along its flight. While everyone will see the tracer the round it is fired, only you will see the marks in following turns. These are useful if you want to be sure a shot clears every obstacle on the way to a target.

ACCESSORIES
Using Accessories
All accessories need to be activated before they are used. Some can be activated with keyboard shortcuts, and all can be activated by both the menus and the GUI.

Shopping
Like weapons, most servers do not allow you to purchase accessories before the first round. Accessories are bought in bundles, with anywhere from two to twenty individual accessories per bundle. You need to be able to afford the entire bundle in order to get any accessories of that type. Accessories can be sold individually for about 80% of the individual value (bundle price divided by bundle size).

Parachutes
The single most important item in the game. Parachutes negate any and all damage you would recieve from falling. Most weapons have two parts, direct damage from the blast, and a resulting crater. If the blast does not kill a tank, the resulting fall into the crater usually will. Falling damage is the leading cause of tank deaths. Help stop this by buying parachutes! Most newer players do not want to spend the $10,000 on parachutes, preferring to get big weapons, and are easy victims for the veteran players who use a single $150 Baby Digger to kill them, earning $6000 in the process. Don't give the vets an easy kill. Buy parachutes!

Batteries
Probably the second most important item in the game, batteries are used to heal your tank, at 10 hit points per battery. In addition to strengthening your tank against further attack, batteries increase your available shot power, since your shot power is directly related to your tank's health. Shot Power = Tank health * 10

Reflective Shields: Mag, Heavy Mag, and Force
While all shields reduce the amount of damage taken from an explosion (shields DO NOT negate fall damage), the Mag, Heavy Mag, and Force shields will actually cause any shot that directly hits them to bounce off. This does use some of the shield's energy (10 - 20 points), but generally prevents a close hit that could do far more damage. Mag and Heavy Mag shields only protect the top of a tank, like umbrellas with the Heavy Mag being a larger umbrella, while the Force shield completely surrounds the tank.

Fuel
Fuel is used to move your tank around the map. You can only shoot OR move your tank in a given turn. Fuel is used form the GUI or the menu, and shows you an area in which you can move with your current supply of fuel. The light area is where you can move, the shaded area is beyond your mobility limit, either out of range or too steep a slope. Double click in the lighted area to set your move order.

WIND
Wind will affect your shot as long as your shot is in the air. Wind can blow in any direction at one of six velocities ranging from zero (no wind) to five (very strong wind). Depending on the direction you're shooting, wind may increase or decrease the distance of your shot and almost certainly blow your shot left or right of your intended direction. Plan your shots accordingly. Wind will also affect rollers while they are on the ground (or underwater). Fire some rollers at a flat piece of ground in any wind, and they will roll off in the direction of the wind. You should also note that there is no air friction in Scorched3D, so any weapon fired at a particular aim setting will travel the same path as any other weapon fired at that same setting, whether it is a tracer, nuke, or Death Head.

WALLS
There are three types of walls around the map in Scorched3D. Each type of wall has a different effect on any shot that impacts with it. Each wall has a different colored bouy associated with it for easy identification.

Concrete
This type of wall stops all weapons that hit it. Any weapon that hits it immediately detonates. This wall has grey bouys.

Bounce
This type of wall will cause any shot to bounce off it like a mirror. A shot then continues in its new direction until it impacts the ground. This wall has blue bouys.

Warp or Pass-Through
This type of wall teleports shots to the opposite side wall of the map with no changes to its angle or power. Handy in high wind rounds when you cannot reach other tanks by a direct line. AUTO AIM DOES NOT WORK THROUGH THESE WALLS. Your tank will line up in a direct line to the spot you designate, NOT line up through the wall, even if it is closer that way. This wall has yellow bouys.

MONEY
There are three ways of earning money, wounding a tank, killing a tank, and interest. Wounding a tank gives you money based on how much damage you do in hit points. Killing a tank gives you money for damage in hit points plus a "kill bonus". Killing a tank with one source of damage is worth more than killing it with several sources (i.e. direct explosion OR a fall is worth more than explosion AND a fall). Tanks in perfect health are worth more than damaged ones, and you do get money for the hit points added when a player uses batteries. The weapon used is factored into the money awarded so that more powerful weapons give less money. No money is awarded for damage to shields.

Interest
Like at a bank, you will earn interest on any money you have "stored". Interest is computed and added at the end of every round, at the percentage set on the server. Any money not spent during the shopping period of a round, plus all money earned during the course of the round is tallied for interest at the end of that round. This total is then available during the shopping period of the next round. Interest is not earned on any weapons or acessories you currently possess.

DEATH AND DYING
Tank Deaths
When a tank is destroyed, a random event is initiated. Usually, a weapon is detonated at the location of the destroyed tank, but other events can take place, like a shimmery-blue beam-out effect. If a weapon is the effect randomly chosen by the sever (players have no input on the way their tank dies), the weapon will come from a short list that includes Nuke, Baby Nuke, Heavy Riot Bomb, Ton of Dirt, and Funky Bomb. This is the only way you can witness a Funky Bomb in the first round of a game when there is no shopping period. It is NOT someone cheating.

Generally, tanks are spread out enough on a map that the only dangerous effect is the Funky Bomb. As the secondaries of a Funky Bomb seek out nearby tanks, you might find yourself the target of your own kill. If you are killed by a Funky Bomb initiated by a tank you killed, you will be charged with a suicide. If you are lucky, though, the Funky Bomblets will seek out and kill other nearby tanks, and you will be credited with those kills and corresponding money awards.

Self Kills: Suicides
If you kill yourself, whether on purpose, by accident, or through means beyond your control (i.e. your target died and dropped a Funky Bomb, which killed you in turn), you will lose one kill from your total, even into the negatives. You will also lose an amount of money equal to the amount awarded for killing a tank with a health level identical to yours. Money will not go into the negatives, but $0 is not good. A suicide will be tallied on your overall stats, as well.

Team Kills
In a team game, there is a risk of killing teammates. Should the unfortunate happen and you kill a teammate, by whatever means, you will be charged with a Team Kill on your stats. Like with a suicide, you will have one kill docked from your total and lose a sum of money equal to killing a tank with identical health. Unlike a suicide, there is a chance you'll still be alive to atone for your error.