Liquid War (v5.4.0) - Game options and menus




Introduction
============


  This section describes how the GUI and menus work. Since programming advanced
  GUIs with Allegro is not so easy - standard C programming definitely lacks
  flexibility -, and also since it's somewhat hard for me to figure out what is
  user-friendly and what's not, Liquid War's menus are not always
  self-explanatory. I'll just try and do something better next time!



Map menu
========


  The map menu allows you to choose the map you are going to play on.
 A map is
  defined by 3 things:

  * A frame.
 The frame can be chosen with the slider which is below the
    preview.
 The frames are automatically re-ordered so that the fatest ones
    should be on the left,
 and the slowest ones, which are also the most
    complex ones, on the right.

  * A texture for walls.

  * A texture for the zone where fighters are allowed to move.

  In the middle of the screen, there is a preview of the level.
 In this menu,
  the values of the parameters can be independently changed by:

  * Moving a slider.

  * Clicking on a
    +
  * or a
    -
  * button.

  * Typing a number.

  On each side of the preview, sliders allow you to choose the two textures.
  There is also a preview of each texture.
 Below this preview there are 128
  little buttons which allow you to choose single colored textures.



Teams menu
==========


  This menu allows you to choose the teams which are going to play.
 There are
  6 square zones in this menu.
 Each of them is associated to a team.

  To activate a team, that is to say to add this team to the list
 of the teams
  which are playing, you have to click on one of
 the 12 colored buttons of
  this team.
 Then the zone representing the team should be colored whith
 the
  color you just clicked on.

  To disable a team, just click on the dark button
 which is on the left of the
  12 colored buttons.

  You can toggle the "Human/Cpu" mode
 by clicking one the button which
  displays this info.
 If you read "Human", it means that the team will be
  controled by a player,
 but if you read "Cpu", it means that the computer
  will handle this team.
 And he will do it poorly, so remember that Liquid War
  is basically
 a multiplayer game, and that this cpu control is dedicated to
  beginners
  only.

  Below the 12 colored buttons, there are four buttons which allow you
 to
  choose your keys.
 Click on one of these buttons and then press the key you
  want to define.
 Joystick movements and buttons are considered as keys.
 You
  can disable the joystick with the button which is at the bottom left of the
  menu.
 Mouse input is also possible, and mouse movements are considered as
  keys too.
 To define mouse control, click on the button associated to the
  direction
 you want to control, and then move the mouse. 
 Then the button
  should display something like "M->".
 Mouse sensibility can be set with the
  little slider at the bottom right of the menu.



Graphics menu
=============


  Here you can choose the graphic options of the game.

  The "Brightness" slider allows you to set the brightness of the game.

  The "Menu res" slider allows you to set the resolution used by the menus.
  There are currently 5 possible values:

  * 320x240

  * 400x300

  * 640x480

  * 800x600

  * 1024x768

  I personnaly think the menus look best with the 640x480 resolution, 
 but
  some may prefer higher resolutions.
 Lower resolutions should only be used if
  you have problems using SVGA video modes.

  The "Game res" slider allows you to set the resolution used during the game.
  The allowed values are the same than those for the menus.
 I recommend that
  you don't use resolution higher than 400x300,
 unless you have a 80786
  running a 1GHz.

  The "Fps limit" slider allows you to limit the number of frames per second.
  If this slider is set on the left, there won't be any limit, so Liquid War
  will repaint your screen each time the fighters move.
 But this can be a
  weird behaviour if your machine is really fast,
 for no one cares about 100
  fps per second, one can not even see them...
 So this paramters limits the
  refreshment rate, so that there can be
 several logical moves of the fichters
  for only one screen refreshing.
 If it is set on its right, the display is
  limite to 10 fps,
 so you'll have to find your setting. 
 I personnally set
  it right in the middle, and get 40 fps.
 If you press "F5", you'll get the
  number of frames per second,
 and if you press "F6", you'll get the number of
  logical moves per second.
 You can also press "F7" or "F8",
 and you will get
  the percentage of time your computer
 spends on calculating or displaying the
  level.

  Page flipping can be toggled.
 It is up to you to decide wether you keep this
  option or not.
 The main disavantage of turning page flipping off is that
  the info bar and the battlefield can look rahter ugly if they overlap.
 But
  if you turn page flipping on you will not easily reach
 the 166 frames per
  second I sometimes get on small levels with my K6-225.
 I personnaly always
  turn page flipping off.

  The viewport size defines how much of your screen will be used by the
  battlefield.

  * If you set the slider on its left position, the batllefield will not be
    stectched at all.
 Or if is strechted, it will be by a x2 or a x4 factor.
    So this is the mode wich allows the fastest display.

  * If you set the slider ont its right position, the game will run in
    fullscreen mode.

  * With all the other positions of the slider, the battlefield will keep
 its
    general proportions but it will be stretched.



Sound menu
==========


  This section allows you to set the sound volumes. There are 4 sliders, which
  are:

  * "Sfx": sets the volume of all the sfx sounds,
 thats to say'the sounds you
    hear when the game starts, when you loose etc...

  * "Click": sets the volume of the click, this nasty noise you hear
 each time
    your press on a button.

  * "Game water": sets the volume of the blop blop blop sounds
 which are
    played continuously while you are playing.

  * "Menu water": the same thing than "Game water" except
 that it concerns the
    sounds played while your are choosing options.



Rules menu
==========


  This menu is the one where you can change the rules of the game.

  The "Cursor speed" slider controls the speed of your cursor.

  * If it is set on the left, the cursor goes at the same speed than the
    fighters.

  * If it is centered, the cursor goes twice faster than the fighters.

  * If it is set on the right, the speed of the cursor is multiplicated by 3.

  The "Army size" slider controls the amount of fighters there will
 be on the
  battlefield. The position of the slider reflects the amount
 of fighters of
  all the teams together. If there are 4 teams,
 then each player will have
  half as many fighters
 than if there had only been 2 teams.

  The "Time" slider controls the time limit.
 The game will stop after this
  time is elapsed.
 You can pause the game by pressing the "F3" key.

  By the way, an info bar can display the time left while you are playing.
  This info bar can be toggled during the game by pressing
 the "F1" key, and
  you can change its location by pressing the "F2" key.
 It also displays how
  many fighters there are in each team.



Waves menu
==========


  This is where the wave parameters are set.
 The waves are just a graphic
  effect, which is not really usefull.
 I don't often use waves, but I still
  think they can sometimes look nice.
 Change these parameters if you really
  mean to do it,
 but if you don't understand what they mean, it is really
  OK...

  There are 4 different types of waves, each of them being defined by:

  * An "Ampli" parameter, to define how big the waves have to be.

  * A "Number" parameter, to define how many waves should be
 displayed at the
    same time.

  * A "Speed" parameter, to define how fast the waves should move.

  If you want to undestand what the
 "WX", "HY", "WY", and "HX"
 codes mean,
  try to pay with only one type of wave,
 the "Ampli" parameter of the 3 other
  types of wave being set to 0
 (that is to say the slider is on its left
  position),
 and sea how it looks like.

  The wave effects can be toggled during the game by pressing the "F4" key.



Advanced menu
=============


  This menu allows the user to change the behaviour of the fighters.

  The "Attack" slider sets the agressivity of the fighters.
 If it is set on
  the right, fighters eat each other very fast.
 If it is set on the left, it
  takes ages to fighters to change teams.

  The "Defense" slider sets the capacity
 that the fighters have to regenerate
  themselves.
 The more it is on the right, the faster fighters regenerate.

  The "New health" slider sets the health of the fighters
 which have just
  changed teams. The more it is on the left,
 the weaker these fighters will
  be.

  The "Winner help" slider controls a parameter which causes
 fighters to
  attack with various strength depending on
 how many fighters belong to their
  team.
 Not very clear... 
 Let's just say that:

  * If this slider is set on the right,
 the more fighters you have in your
    team,
 the more aggressive they will become.

  * If it is centered, all the fighters of every team will
 always attack with
    the same strength.

  * If it is set on the left,
 the less fighters you have, the stronger they
    will be.
 In this mode, games usually never end.

  The "Cpu strength" parameter never makes the computer
 more intelligent than
  a monkey.
 But if you set it on the right, it advantages the machine
  outrageously and fighters controlled by the cpu
 will be really strong. So to
  get rid of them you'll
 definitely need to be clever.
 Again and again, don't
  forget that Liquid War was conceived
 as a multiplayer game and that playing
  against the computer
 is not really an interesting thing to do.

