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<?xml version="1.0"?>
<FILE TITLE="Game options and menus">
<CHAP TITLE="Introduction">
<TEXT>
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!
</TEXT>
</CHAP>
<CHAP TITLE="Map menu">
<TEXT>
The map menu allows you to choose the map you are going to play on.
A map is defined by 3 things:
</TEXT>
<LIST>
<ELEM>
A frame.
The frame can be chosen with the slider which is below the preview.
The frames are automatically sorted by alphabetical order.
</ELEM>
<ELEM>
A texture for walls.
</ELEM>
<ELEM>
A texture for the zone where fighters are allowed to move.
</ELEM>
</LIST>
<TEXT>
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:
</TEXT>
<LIST>
<ELEM>
Moving a slider.
</ELEM>
<ELEM>
Clicking on a <b>+</b> or a <b>-</b> button.
</ELEM>
<ELEM>
Typing a number.
</ELEM>
</LIST>
<TEXT>
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.
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
The name of the map and its resolution are displayed in the lower
part of the screen.
</TEXT>
</CHAP>
<CHAP TITLE="Teams menu">
<TEXT>
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.
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
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.
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
To disable a team, just click on the dark button
which is on the left of the 12 colored buttons.
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
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 <b>beginners</b> only.
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
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.
</TEXT>
</CHAP>
<CHAP TITLE="Graphics menu">
<TEXT>
Here you can choose the graphic options of the game.
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
The "Video mode" button allows you to switch between fullscreen and windowed mode. This button is not available under DOS.
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
The "Brightness" slider allows you to set the brightness of the game.
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
The "Menu res" slider allows you to set the resolution used by the menus.
There are currently 5 possible values, which depend on which platform
you're running the game on.
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
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.
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
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 640x480,
unless you have a Pentium VIII running a 10GHz.
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
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.
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
The viewport size defines how much of your screen will be used by the battlefield.
</TEXT>
<LIST>
<ELEM>
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.
</ELEM>
<ELEM>
If you set the slider ont its right position, the game will run in fullscreen mode.
</ELEM>
<ELEM>
With all the other positions of the slider, the battlefield will keep
its general proportions but it will be stretched.
</ELEM>
</LIST>
<TEXT>
The "Waves" button allows you to toggle the wave effect. You can also
do this while playing, by simply pressing F4.
</TEXT>
</CHAP>
<CHAP TITLE="Sound menu">
<TEXT>
This section allows you to set the sound volumes. There are 4 sliders, which are:
</TEXT>
<LIST>
<ELEM>
"Sfx": sets the volume of all the sfx sounds,
thats to say'the sounds you hear when the game starts, when you loose etc...
</ELEM>
<ELEM>
"Click": sets the volume of the click, this nasty noise you hear
each time your press on a button.
</ELEM>
<ELEM>
"Game water": sets the volume of the blop blop blop sounds
which are played continuously while you are playing.
</ELEM>
<ELEM>
"Menu water": the same thing than "Game water" except
that it concerns the sounds played while your are choosing options.
</ELEM>
<ELEM>
"Music": general music volume.
</ELEM>
</LIST>
</CHAP>
<CHAP TITLE="Rules menu">
<TEXT>
This menu is the one where you can change the rules of the game.
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
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.
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
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.
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
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.
</TEXT>
</CHAP>
<CHAP TITLE="Speeds menu">
<TEXT>
The "Cursor x" slider controls the speed of your cursor.
</TEXT>
<LIST>
<ELEM>
If it is set on the left, the cursor goes at the same speed than the fighters.
</ELEM>
<ELEM>
If it is centered, the cursor goes twice faster than the fighters.
</ELEM>
<ELEM>If it is set on the right, the speed of the cursor is multiplicated by 3.
</ELEM>
</LIST>
<TEXT>
The "frames/s" 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.
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
The "rounds/s" slider allows you to limit the number of rounds per second.
If this slider is set on the left, there won't be any limit, so Liquid War
will run as fast as possible.
This setting will be of no use if you use Liquid War on a slow
computer or if you play with hudge maps, but sometimes, with a high-end
Pentium class computer, it's simply impossible to play on small maps
because things simply go too fast. So this parameter is here to
help you and avoid the "10000 moves per sec" problem.
</TEXT>
</CHAP>
<CHAP TITLE="Waves menu">
<TEXT>
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...
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
There are 4 different types of waves, each of them being defined by:
</TEXT>
<LIST>
<ELEM>
An "Ampli" parameter, to define how big the waves have to be.
</ELEM>
<ELEM>
A "Number" parameter, to define how many waves should be
displayed at the same time.
</ELEM>
<ELEM>
A "Speed" parameter, to define how fast the waves should move.
</ELEM>
</LIST>
<TEXT>
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.
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
The wave effects can be toggled during the game by pressing the "F4" key.
</TEXT>
</CHAP>
<CHAP TITLE="Advanced menu">
<TEXT>
This menu allows the user to change the behaviour of the fighters.
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
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.
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
The "Defense" slider sets the capacity
that the fighters have to regenerate themselves.
The more it is on the right, the faster fighters regenerate.
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
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.
</TEXT>
<TEXT>
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:
</TEXT>
<LIST>
<ELEM>
If this slider is set on the right,
the more fighters you have in your team,
the more aggressive they will become.
</ELEM>
<ELEM>
If it is centered, all the fighters of every team will
always attack with the same strength.
</ELEM>
<ELEM>
If it is set on the left,
the less fighters you have, the stronger they will be.
In this mode, games usually never end.
</ELEM>
</LIST>
<TEXT>
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.
</TEXT>
</CHAP>
</FILE>
|
