[Help-liquidwar6] Web page, team profiles, weapons & voxels

[Christian Mauduit]

Hi,

> I have tried going in various directions. There is still a lot of time
> left before deadline, but I'd like to hear what you think so far.
>
> DOWNLOAD:
> http://www.megaupload.com/?d=1WE6Q5AV
>
> The .zip file contains three layouts:
>
> "lw6-homepage - BW1"
>  - Pure black and white. (early version, so old links)
>
> "lw6-homepage - BW7 - links"
>  - I tried using a greyscale theme.
>
> "lw6-homepage - BW11 - adjust2"
>  - I got the idea of using all the colors in the palette, so that no
> color is dominating.
Using all the colors in the palette is indeed a way to go, the rainbow option
does not favor anyone indeed. Ideally, we should match the "special" palette
(the 10 team colors) used by the game. Anyway, the two others proved more
readable (maybe just because of the brightness/contrast and the fact this one
has a background texture).

I like the "shade" in the big "Liquid War 6" of the "- links" version, however
the plain "BW1" is still more readable, maybe something in between. Note that
"Liquid War 6" contains 10 letters (just like "10 colors"). Dunno if this is
usefull. IMHO BW1 could just be put online this way, would already look much
better than current page, obviously.

Oh, and I do think the source download deserves a button two, might sound
crazy for some people but there's a bunch of geeks arround that will never
download anything but a source (I have to admit I sort of belong to that
category). So it's good to have it stick out like any other download. My
opinion is that it's fine to put it on the same line than the .deb and .rpm.
That way we have a first line with 3 buttons, then another line with 2 (mac &
win) then the final extra maps package. Makes a triangle. What do you think?

Now I've been bug-fixing and tuning lately, FYI the famous "wave effect" of
version 5 is back, which is IMHO pretty cool. Additionnally, zooming in/out on
wrapping levels with polarity enabled does work properly, it's fun to use. If
you can manage to build the current snapshots, give it a try.

Now, about the "dog" level:

> "DOG" is an empty level where I have played around with the team profile
values:
> red      This is the normal one
> green   (discrete adjustment:) slow and weak attack, but strong defence
> blue     (discrete adjustment:) a bit slow, but strong attack
> yellow  (discrete adjustment:) slightly faster, but weak defence
> cyan    slow, but strong attack and defence (I like this one)
> magenta strong attack ... weak defence
> orange   Fast ... but weak defence
> light blue  Handicapped
> purple   weak attack and slow, but strong defence
> pink    Victim
OK, I did give it a try, and for sure some of your teams have a strong bias
(cyan is slooooow!!!!). At the same time, it's cool to have these teams very
different. I suspect you should make yellow even weaker (vulnerable) for being
fast is truly an advantage, means you attack & heal & move faster.

But globally, I like it, might be the default for next release. But wait...

...to keep this "specialize my teams" spree, here's the new (updated!) list of
"weapons" I plan to implement. First note there are 20 of them, my bet is we
can go the "fire + alternate fire" option, it's not implemented yet, but I'll
just make it so that, for instance, left button is weapon 1 and right button
is weapon 2. Then maybe map CTRL and ALT keys on keyboard, shouldn't be that
long. To some extent it's a big change for it significantly increases the
number of buttons/keys to control the game, but I think it's worth it. I
recently had a look on a WIImote and it still has enough buttons to be
elegantly "mapped" for the game. That's a sign we're on the right track ;)

Here's a copy/paste from current ker-internal.h

-----8<-------------------------------------
/*
 * BEZERK: has super-strong attack for a limited time
 */
#define _LW6KER_WEAPON_BEZERK 0
/*
 * INVINCIBLE: no damage for a limited time
 */
#define _LW6KER_WEAPON_INVINCIBLE 1
/*
 * ESCAPE: fighters are put in the farest position,
 * that is as far as possible from the cursor. If one
 * is trapped, this will cause all fighters to magically
 * escape from any grip.
 */
#define _LW6KER_WEAPON_ESCAPE 2
/*
 * TURBO: goes faster for a limited time (stronger, faster)
 */
#define _LW6KER_WEAPON_TURBO 3
/*
 * TELEPORT: fighters are instantaneously placed as close
 * as possible to the cursor.
 */
#define _LW6KER_WEAPON_TELEPORT 4
/*
 * SCATTER: every fighters of every teams are just scattered
 * in random places all over the map. The proportion of fighters
 * in every team, their health and so on, is preserved, but
 * they are just put anywhere like stars in the sky.
 */
#define _LW6KER_WEAPON_SCATTER 5
/*
 * FIX: all the other teams are immobilized for some time,
 * only the team firing this weapon can move, but it can't
 * attack. Note that if you're trapped, this might not
 * be of great help.
 */
#define _LW6KER_WEAPON_FIX 6
/*
 * MIX: all the fighters of every teams are mixed, positions
 * are exchanged in a random manner, they globally stay at the
 * same place, but it's like they were stirred in a bowl.
 */
#define _LW6KER_WEAPON_MIX 7
/*
 * CONTROL: your cursor stays in place, and you take control
 * of all other cursors for a limited time, just drag the other
 * teams where you want.
 */
#define _LW6KER_WEAPON_CONTROL 8
/*
 * PERMUTATION: teams are exchanged, for instance red becomes
 * green, green becomes blue and blue becomes red. Works only
 * if there are at least 3 teams on the battlefield. How the
 * swap/exchange is done depends on moon phases, this is a
 * double-edged weapon.
 */
#define _LW6KER_WEAPON_PERMUTATION 9
/*
 * STEAL: steal some other fighters from other teams.
 */
#define _LW6KER_WEAPON_STEAL 10
/*
 * ATOMIC: nuclear explosion, all fighters in a circle
 * near the caller's cursor are set to minimal health,
 * ready to die.
 */
#define _LW6KER_WEAPON_ATOMIC 11
/*
 * REVERSE: moves continue to operate the right way but
 * attacks are done in reverse mode, that is if you were trapped
 * then you get maximal attack, fighting against those
 * pursuing you. Limited time of course.
 */
#define _LW6KER_WEAPON_REVERSE 12
/*
 * CRAZY: for some time, all other teams just go crazy and
 * move/attack in random directions.
 */
#define _LW6KER_WEAPON_CRAZY 13
/*
 * REWIND: make the battlefield be like it was X seconds ago.
 * X (the time shift) depends on settings and what is available
 * in memory.
 */
#define _LW6KER_WEAPON_REWIND 14
/*
 * ATTRACT: all the fighters from every team are packed near
 * the caller's cursor.
 */
#define _LW6KER_WEAPON_ATTRACT 15
/*
 * SHRINK: diminishes the amount of fighters on the map, in a
 * proportionnal manner.
 */
#define _LW6KER_WEAPON_SHRINK 16
/*
 * KAMIKAZE: requires at least 3 teams to be on the battlefield,
 * you die and with you dies the one who was the strongest
 * at this moment.
 */
#define _LW6KER_WEAPON_KAMIKAZE 17
/*
 * DISAPPEAR: you disappear for some time, not on the battlefield
 * anymore, just to reappear later, with the same number of
 * fighters, in the same state, but somewhere else.
 */
#define _LW6KER_WEAPON_DISAPPEAR 18
/*
 * PLAGUE: general disease for everyone including you, everyone
 * constantly looses health for some time.
 */
#define _LW6KER_WEAPON_PLAGUE 19
-----8<-------------------------------------

As of today, only BEZERK INVINCIBLE and TURBO are implemented. Others are not
that hard anyway.

This was to feed you with ideas to "personnalize" teams. I really hope to have
a significant number of these weapons implemented for next release. The idea
would be to have, per color, a primary weapon and an alternate weapon. We'd
keep the idea of having red/green/blue/yellow with fair equivalent settings.
Note the alternate fire/weapons would be a feature that would be available
only after "some time".

Finally, I lately came with a new idea for a renderer, I was just trying to
figure out how to make all this look nicer, was considering different options
and came to the conclusion that a "reasonnable yet innovative" way to go was
to use a voxel engine. No kidding. Voxels do have their drawbacks, problems,
but in the very special case of LW, I think it's possible to implement
something limited (not a real all-purpose voxel engine) that still runs fast
enough but does have this very special look voxel renderers have. The idea
would be to have 16x16x16 "pixel art" sprites to represent the fighters. We
could even consider having a different set of sprites for each color... AFAIK
software like http://www.qubicle-constructor.com/ can help designing such
stuff, it's proprietary but the XML output format is easily readable. This
voxel engine is probably not going to be ready any time soon, but I thought
you'd be interested to know what sort of technology I'm after. The general
idea is that to represent a LW6 map and go beyond the "big square" we have
now, we can either use 2D sprites, or use vertexes/triangles like any OpenGL
game does. Problem is that with numerous fighters we'll end up with triangles
that are very small on the screen, and this is where even modern hardware does
fail, we touch the limits of the vertex system. OTOH voxels are happy with
exhibiting little details, the problem is usually RAM to store the scene but
in LW6 we can use an "index" (like old-school 2D with tiled & aligned sprites
did).

OK, thanks for reading, and have a nice day,

Christian.

-- 
Christian Mauduit <address@hidden> - http://www.ufoot.org  ___ __/\__
Liquid War 6 - http://www.gnu.org/software/liquidwar6      / _")\~ \~/
"Les amis de la vérité sont ceux qui la cherchent et non _/ /   /_ o_\
ceux qui se vantent de l'avoir trouvée" - Condorcet     (__/      \/