Soldat

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Soldat
Soldat logo
Developer(s) Michał Marcinkowski
Publisher(s) Michał Marcinkowski
Release date(s) 0.9.4b / May 9, 2002
1.3.1 / December 9, 2005
Genre(s) 2D Run and gun
Mode(s) Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Rating(s) N/A
Platform(s) Windows
Media Download
System requirements 333MHz CPU, 32 MB RAM, DirectX 8.1 and above
Input Keyboard, mouse

Soldat (meaning "soldier" in several languages) is a 2D multiplayer game for Windows. It is a side-scroller inspired by Liero and Worms, combined with elements from Counter-Strike and Quake. The game is freeware, although a $9 (which will rise to $12 when v1.3.2 comes out) registration fee is required to unlock extra aesthetic options, such as colored jet flames and custom interfaces.

Contents

[edit] Gameplay

In Soldat, the player controls a small soldier with customizable hairstyle, skin color, and clothing who bears jet boots which allow the soldier to fly for a relatively short time before needing to automatically regenerate its fuel. The game is normally played over the Internet or a LAN, but it is possible to play offline against bots. There are a variety of game modes to choose from, ranging from the popular free-for-all (DeathMatch, RamboMatch, and PointMatch) to the team-based (Capture the Flag, Infiltration, TeamMatch, and Hold the Flag). In some modes holding or defending a flag is the primary goal, where in others it is simply to obtain the most frags, with minor objectives (for example, PointMatch sports a yellow flag which doubles its bearer's points). Capture the Flag and DeathMatch are the most popular game modes.

For all game modes, the basic objective is to kill enemy players. Upon spawning, the player is presented with a large arsenal of weapons to choose from. A few frag grenades are also supplied by default and more can picked up from boxes found on the ground ("GrenadeKits," respectively). Jet boots are used to move around the map, which typically consists of 2-3 levels/floors, or disorganized, floating boulders. Some servers enable temporary-lasting power-ups that can grant multiplied damage (Berserker), invisibility (Predator), a flamethrower along with temporary invincibility (FlameGod), or Cluster Grenades (which temporarily replace regular grenades with three of more powerful, modified versions) or even a Bulletproof Vest. Health crates (known in the game as "Medikits") are available in many locations for healing injury back to 100% no matter how much a player is injured. Upon death and after waiting for a server-specified amount of time (averagely 5 seconds), players respawn and may choose another weapon—this cycle repeats for the duration of the map, unless Survival Mode is enabled (in which case a spawning system similar to Counter-Strike is used). After a certain allotted time (averagely 15 or 20 minutes), the map changes and scores are reset as players continue in another round. Players can chat with each other throughout matches (and to their own teams, for cooperative team-based game modes).

Most games are fast-paced and chaotic. Bodies often explode in a spectacle of blood and body parts, sometimes being hurled clear across the map. Besides its ragdoll physics, the game's engine, written in the Borland Delphi programming language, employs realistic concepts such as momentum and gravity. Fall damage and recoil are also taken into account when Realistic Mode is enabled, and supply crates, dropped weapons, and grenades realistically tumble down steep hills. One of the most amazing effects is the flag's realistic waving as a player runs with one.

[edit] Weapons

There are ten primary weapons and four secondary weapons to choose from. Two may be held at any given time (discarding a secondary weapon can be useful in claiming a primary weapon, for example). Also, players have the ability in creating their own "modded" weapons (only when creating their own server.) This gives players the ability to change the type of attack a gun has. Weapons must be reloaded although their ammunition is unlimited. Included with the weapons you may choose from, there are others that may be used from bonuses on a map, totaling 18 weapons.

All are modeled after real-world weapons, but can be fully modified:

Primary
  • Desert Eagles—The first weapon on the list, the dual Desert Eagles are fairly slow-firing but capable of killing in a few well-placed shots. The double-shot has a unique ballistic curve which can have the advantage on hilly terrain. The weapon reloads quickly, but has a somewhat small magazine with only 7 shots. It regularly kills with 3 shots but can kill in 1 or 2 shots in Realistic Mode. It also has no bink.
  • HK MP5—The HK MP5 is a close-quarters weapon and inflicts good damage per shot and has a very high cyclic rate, but also has the shortest range of all the automatics, as the pistol-caliber bullets lose their momentum rather quickly. The 30-round magazine doesn't last long given its fast firing rate, but it reloads very quickly and is very powerful in narrow tunnels.
  • AK-74—A long-range automatic rifle, highly accurate and damaging, but the slowest firing of the automatic weapons, the Kalashnikov AK-74 takes a while to use up its magazine and has a relatively slow reload time.
  • Steyr AUG—This automatic fires fast, medium- to long-ranged bullets, but it has a high self-bink (users who fire it for long intervals will start seeing their shots become less obedient to the location of the targeting reticule), and the 30-round magazine combined with its high cyclic rate can force users to reload in the middle of fighting, although its reload rate is fairly decent as well.
  • SPAS-12—This shotgun can kill in 1 or 2 hits up close, but its range is naturally quite almost the lowest of all weapons. Accuracy and damage are poor at long ranges because the buckshot spreads out and loses momentum quickly. Unique to all other weapons, the SPAS-12 reloads shell by shell individually, and provides a unique advantage during battle. This capability allows the user to counter attack quickly and effectively, while their opponents are re-loading.
  • Ruger 77—Highly damaging at all ranges, this normally deer-hunting rifle fires as well as reloads its four bullets per magazine slowly. Accuracy is heavily compromised when taking fire or moving. The Ruger 77 is a great weapon for realistic games, due to the settings imposed in the realistic setting, the ruger's damage is substantially increased, allowing for a quicker kill.
  • M79—The famed weapon used in the Vietnam War, the M79 grenade launcher shoots explosive 40-mm grenades that kill in one hit. Although it can only hold one at a time and takes three seconds to reload, many have complained this slow reload is not enough to offset its damage advantage and the advantage offered by unlimited ammunition. In the latest version, an increased self-damage ratio has been implemented, although there are still complaints that this is not enough, especially in consideration of the weakening of the MP5, Steyr, and Barret. One of the most used weapon by newcomers.
  • Barret M82A1—With a scope, extensive range upon crouching or proning, one-hit kills with every shot, and almost no gravity due to its super-fast projectiles, this sniper rifle is one of the most unique weapons out of all those in Soldat, and has a very slow firing rate and reload rate for its magazine of 10 shots. It has major bink, becomes highly inaccurate if fired while moving, and was as of since the current version (1.3.1) given a startup delay.
  • FN Minimi—This automatic weapon has a magazine of 50 high-caliber bullets which inflict high damage and ricochet very well. However, this is offset by a massive self-bink and slow reload time. With almost twice as much of it as the next weapon, bursts of more than six will disperse in all directions. Also has a long reload time.
  • XM214 Minigun—A minigun normally mounted on vehicles. While it sports the fastest rate of fire in the game and a 100-round belt, it is often neglected due to its propensity to cause server lag and its low per-bullet damage. More useful for suppression fire than targeted shooting, a good support gunner can give his team the necessary edge in tight battles. However, it takes a little less than a second to queue up before firing, allowing fast-acting players to kill before the gun fires. It is occasionally removed on public servers.
 Secondary
  • USSOCOM—A small pistol, favorite sidearm of many snipers and grenadiers. In Realistic Mode it can become a main assault weapon. It bears a medium-sized magazine and fast reload.
  • Combat Knife—A knife, when thrown (by holding the 'discard weapon' key) or by stabbing in close proximity, can instantly kill anyone it hits. In version 1.3.1 a startup time was implemented to keep game play balanced.
  • Chainsaw instantly kills all it touches, on the downside, occasionally a glitch means contact isn't registered. Some players prefer to use only chainsaw and grenades, as they can prove to be a powerful combination in tight maps.
  • M72 LAW— A light anti-tank weapon, in order the rocket launcher users must crouch or prone. Kills in one hit but has a 9-second reload and minor startup delay. As the projectile flies for several seconds, it is quite possible to destroy off-screen enemies or to fire the weapon in a ballistic, mortar-like arc for strategic tactics.
 Other
  • Fists— A weapon without any equipment. When you drop a weapon, this is what is available to fight with, unless you gain possession of a weapon again.
  • Rambo bow— This weapon is the primary goal of a Rambomatch. On a Rambomatch, you are unable to gain points unless you have this weapon, which you would gain one point per kill as you would on another mode. There is only one Rambo bow available on the start of a map, so it is usually a rush to be the first in control of this. When possessing this weapon, you have regeneration abilities, so if your health is below full, you will be healed over time.
  • Flame bow— When acquiring the Rambo bow, your secondary weapon is also replaced with this. Compared to the Rambo bow, this weapon reloads slower, but has an advantage by having the arrows exploding on contact.
  • Flame Thrower— The flame thrower is picked up as temporary weapon. When you touch the Flame God box, you gain this weapon, and lose the ability to switch to secondary weapon. The weapon is nearly self explanatory, sense it is a device that "throws fire." After gaining this ability, you only may keep it for 10 seconds, then you return with your previous weapons and abilities.
  • Fragmentation grenade— This weapon, also known as a hand grenade, is a miniature bomb that is thrown and blows up after some time. This weapon is a key part to realistic-survival modes sense it is sometimes hard to spot these grenades on the ground.
  • Cluster Grenade— Similar to the grenade, this explodes. Although, this explodes on contact with a smaller explosion with a "gift" inside. With the explosion, there are bomblets coming out and exploding on contact.

Unlike other games, Soldat aims to balance every weapon so no one is better than the rest while each maintains individuality. Much tweaking has been done to try to achieve this but there is often disagreement within the community. In the past, the Barrett M82A1 sniper rifle has been a notorious source of complaint from players for its ability to kill in a single bullet, along with its 10-shot magazine and scope ability (even though these portray real-life characteristics of the actual weapon). Recent versions have included measures to curb overuse of the Barrett, including "bink" (a Counter-Strike coined term which lowers accuracy when hit by gunfire), an increased power of other weapons, and recently in 1.3.1, a startup time similar to the one present on the M72 LAW. The XM214 Minigun has also been criticized for supposedly lowering FPS on slower computers and its ability to let mini gunners unfairly "surf" across the map, given its tremendous recoil. With more recent releases, other weapons are being challenged as well. Contention over balance is so great that an entire section of the official community message board is devoted to discussion about the weapons' game balance. However, despite the recent update, the Barrett is still responsible for the majority of all kills in the game, although in Soldat's current version of 1.3.1 the M79 is dominating over the Barrett due to its minor bink. There are also growing complaints about the AK-74; because of its slow rate of fire, players can rapidly click to fire bullets which do not decrease the weapons accuracy.

[edit] 'Hit'

As Soldat has progressed through its versions, naturally its complexity has increased—eventually, a bug known as 'Hit' arose. This bug occurs when either bullets register late or don't register at all on online matches. There have been numerous complaints and message board topics made to try and determine the cause—some believe Soldat's networking code, which organizes all the data for all the players on the server, is the cause, although the more logical explanation would be that Soldat uses unreliable UDP packets instead of TCP, which guarantees information which is sent will be received. The 'Hit' bug is still in version 1.3.1.

[edit] Maps

Maps in Soldat are 2D arenas, most being tailored to fast-paced gameplay. DeathMatch maps are shared by the DeathMatch (DM), PointMatch (PM), RamboMatch (RM), and TeamMatch (TM or TDM, for Team DeathMatch) gamemodes, whereas Capture-the-flag (CTF), Infiltration (Inf.), and Hold-the-Flag (HTF) have their own sets of specialized maps.

Every map consists of numerous textured polygons carefully positioned in relation to one another. Unlike Liero, a major inspiration of Soldat, landscape is non-deformable, though it can be interacted with in other ways. Scenery, such as bushes and sandbags, may conceal players and aid in camping. Polygons can be given special attributes, to simulate lethal death pits, icy terrain, or even a property which heals players who stand on them. Weather effects (snow, rain, and sandstorm) are used on some maps. Some servers enable the powerful stationary M2 turret specified by particular maps (usually CTF and Inf.) which players can man.

Because landscape is composed of polygons, players can slip between vertices and get stuck in terrain. The phenomenon, known as a polybug, is more prevalent on poorly constructed maps. Entering most polybugs is unintentional and irreproducible, but well-known polybugs can be abused to gain unfair advantages.

[edit] History

A screenshot of the Infiltration gamemode
Enlarge
A screenshot of the Infiltration gamemode

Soldat is written and maintained by Polish programmer Michał Marcinkowski, who started working on the game in November, 2001. It is coded in the Delphi programming language using the JEDI libraries. Though Marcinkowski is the primary developer, a small beta team aids in testing prior to new releases.

1.0.5b (released August 23, 2002) is considered the first major version of the game, though several betas and minor versions were available in the months preceding its release.

Since then, the game has gone through many changes and additions. Weapon balance is often a main focus of new releases. The current version is 1.3.1. The significant release changes were "startup" modifications in the M82A1 Barrett, M72 LAW, and Combat Knife, as well as minor bugs with flags and maps.

[edit] Community

There are about 250 servers and 500 players online at any given time. The whole number of players has not been counted but the official Soldat Forums bore over 10,000 registered members before it switched to the current Simple Machines-based messageboard. Map editors are also available. Many soldat players have developed and distributed their own programs for use with the game. These include, but are not limited to, map editors, weapon editors, statistics programs, mods[1], server-side statistical webpage-plugins (such as U13SSS and Zitro-stats), and auto-join applications. There are many fan webpages serving a multitude of purposes and tastes, mainly different clans for the official tournaments the game's community sponsors.

[edit] Realistic Mode

As the Soldat community has grown, so has the popularity of "R-mode," or the sub-gamemode "Realistic Mode." In v1.3.1's R-mode, the weapons are more powerful, and have a recoil, where the cross hair slowly moves upwards with each successive shot (not to be confused with bink, which scatters projectiles randomly upon sustaining immediate injury). There is a realistic field of view, players sustain damage when they hit the ground from high speeds, and friendly-fire damage is usually active to increase realism. This emphasizes the need for proper tactics more strongly than the standard game mode, sometimes regarded as requiring more skill.

[edit] Realistic-Survival Mode

In addition to Realistic mode, there is the option to enable Survival Mode, a sub-gamemode where all players spawn together at the beginning. When a player dies, they must wait until the round is decided. This game mode also provides a break from the normal non-stop action and more intensive battles. Battles usually consist of short length battles between two sides in Capture the Flag mode.

[edit] External links

[edit] Official websites

[edit] Game Archive and Review sites

[edit] International leagues

There are several leagues, for several gamemodes, where Soldat clans can participate:

[edit] Related websites

[edit] Fan Websites

  • Worldwide Soldat Clan - Freedom Is Slavery Soldat Clan .:FIS:. Join now, Servers, Online Chat, Forum Board, Clan captains in Canada, America, Europe and much more.
  • Selfkill - A German resource for Soldat tools, news, clans, etc.
  • Ultimate 13 Soldat - A huge American website which hosts many Soldat servers
  • EnEsCe Corp - American community. Forums, dedicated servers, news, soldat-related programs
  • Fractional Details - Turkish Soldat mods and extras
  • SoldatBR - Brazilian Soldat Forums; Brazilian servers' info and clans
  • Aussoldat.com - Forums, server info, clans, and 1GB+ worth of Soldat downloads
  • Soldat Frags - Forum, dedicated servers, resources, and more
  • Soldat-TR - Turkish Soldat Community
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