[Help-liquidwar6] Custom controller

[Andy Armstrong]

Hi!

I want to make use of the "Custom"
player control method.

Basically I want to have something i
can call for a third player, so :

player 1 = mouse

player 2 = custom

player 3 = bot

Player 2 I want the cursor to  be
controlled by me passing a function 2 values, one for x and one for y which
i get from an external source.

Is this possible - and any tips on how
to do this!

Cheers,

Andy

Andy Armstrong CICS Explorer Test IBM United Kingdom Ltd Hursley Park Winchester SO21 2JN Mailpoint 208 Desk location A3/2/04
address@hidden | Internal 245898 | +44 (0)1962 815898 | 07771330510

From:	"Christian Mauduit" <address@hidden>
To:	"Main discussion list for Liquid War 6,        a unique multiplayer wargame" <address@hidden>
Date:	22/11/2009 20:17
Subject:	Re: [Help-liquidwar6] New level xml's
Sent by:	address@hidden

---

On Fri, November 20, 2009 1:03 pm, Kasper Hviid wrote:
> I have given my levels a bit of XML update. Download here:
>
> http://www.kasperhviid.dk/stuff/levels.zip
Cool, I committed it this afternoon, will be in tonight's snapshot.

> I wanted to use some of the new png files, but I ended up only using
a bit
> of glue.png at the fishy level. I think the levels have to be designed
> especially for those cool new pngs, or at least have their graphic
> updated.
Probably. There's indeed a need for some sort of feedback for players,
one
can't put one-way stuff amywhere ;)

> Comments and criticism are welcome! I'm still learning to handle those
xml
> properties.
My remarks below, under each of your map description.

> ATLANTIS
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> I drew a labyrinth on paper, scanned it and traced its outline in
> Illustrator. I did the painting in Photoshop CS3. It ended up looking
> quite
> cool. It took a while to draw all the ornaments, though.
> GAMEPLAY: I have aimed at somewhat large armies, to fill out a large
part
> of
> the labyrinth. Most of the settings are the default. fighter-attack
is
> 1200
> (normally 500) and fighter-defence is 200 (normally 50) This is to
speed
> thing up a bit. The level still suffer from the problem that it is
quite
> hard to finish an enemy off.
> TEAM COLORS: The colors of the armies are has a lower saturation,
and
> tinted
> a bit towards the color of the background. The idea was to give them
an
> underwater feel. It is a bit hard to change the colors, since you
also
> wants
> it to be possible to distingust each of the ten individual teams from
each
> others. If you want to change the colors, do it in your drawing program.
> Don't try to guess the right hex values.
> MENU COLORS: The dark color is "sailor blue", the bright
color is cyan.
> (When you need a bright color, alway pick one of those hues which
are
> naturally bright, such as cyan or yellow. Semilar, if you need a dark
> colors, select one of the hues which a naturally dark)
I see you RTFM'ed a lot to do this! For instance having spreads-per-round
set to a bigger value (5) than the default (3) is a bright idea here.
Still, I tend to think redefining values such as nb-attack-tries
nb-defense-tries and nb-move-tries to their defaults is not appropriate.
If the level is happy with the defaults, let the game use defaults.

On the other hand I realize that there's no easy way to say
"nb-defense-tries must be bigger than usual" since the XML files
only
offer absolute attributes. This makes me think of the everlasting problem
of font sizes in web pages. Graphists want absolute font size because they
have picky-picky issues with text matching background images and other
decorations, while web purists and semantic fanatics want relative font
size such as "+1"or "-1". I think we should work on
something like this.
Allowing, possibly for any "rules.xml" parameter, to be able
to specify
both an absolute and "relative" value. Ideally, in your XML files,
you
would only say "nb-defense-tries must be higher than usual".
Then the
player could still raise it, the same way saying "font is large"
in a web
page causes it to be bigger than the default font, the size of which is
chosen by the end-user.

What do you think of it?

BTW, this remarks apply to most of the levels, but I made it here cause
atlantis was first in the list ;)

And - and this is my last atlantis remark - I tend to dislike contrasted
colors (pure cyan, pure green, ...) in menus, since those colors are sort
of "reserved" for teams. I acknowledge this level has attenuated
colors
for teams (underwater, as you mention) but still, I think some bright,
but
less saturated (getting closer to white or grey) color would be less
aggressive.

> FISHY
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> This level began with the idea of using a twisted, horizontal wraparound
> in
> a level, where it looks like there are a non-twisted horizontal
> wraparound.
> Why does this sound like nonsense when I try to express it in words?
> Another
> idea in this level is the use of two separated areas, only connected
by
> wraparounds. It is created with Photoshop CS3. I tried to make it
look a
> bit
> like an old map.
> GAMEPLAY: The fighters have zero defense, but I let them regenerate
> instead.
> They have zero side attack, which means that they will attack in one
> direction only. Also, their priorities lies in moving towards the
cursor,
> they are only fighting when they absolutly has to. The result is some
> fighters which can really dig into the enemy. Their behavior have
a very
> natural look, almost like plants or fractals. As mentioned above,
the map
> contains two areas only connected by wraparounds. I have let the area
> below
> have a slower time, using glue.png
> TEAM COLORS: I have tinted the colors a bit to make them blend into
the
> yellow tone of the map.
Very good job, I love this one. The background is one of my preferred
anyway, but with the slow "below" area and the various options
tweaked,
it's just even cooler. I take it the way it is, nothing to change IMHO.
My
only concern with this one is that https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?27805
is
still not fixed so if you ever zoom on this map (using mouse wheel for
instance) everything goes wrong. I *must* fix this.

> INFESTIVAL
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> A map without any visible walls - only a few hatchet lines guides
the way.
> GAMEPLAY: Fighter-scale is only 2, which is possible because the armies
> are
> so small: single-army-size = 14 and total-armies-size = 40
> The rest of the values is kinda mainstream, except fighter-new-health
> which
> I have lowered from 5000 to 2500, which gives the battle fronts a
darker
> color.
> TEAM COLORS: I had considered giving the fighters a red tone, but
so far,
> all the colors are quite normal.
I just like the reddish "welcome to hell" effect, looks good.
For this one.

> INK-AND-OIL
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> I finally finished a tush a ink drawing I had started a long time
ago. In
> Photoshop, the drawing was inverted and combined with a monotype painting
> I
> had created with oil paint.
> GAMEPLAY: I have set single-army-size and total-armies-size pretty
low.
> fighter-new-health is only 50 while fighter-defense is as high as
250.
> Notice the sharp black lines where the armies fights. Pretty!
mmm, here the cyan (menu fonts) and white (gauges, cursors) stick out too
much for me, they don't match the rather smooth aspect of the map. Maybe
this is because you wanted the background to be more contrasted? In that
case maybe you could dissociated those. I can help if you want, telling
you what parameters to change exactly, but I may be over-interpreting what
you're trying to do.

> LIQUID-DREAM
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Drawn with pencil, inked with pen & ink, colorized with Photoshop
CS3
> GAMEPLAY: Tried some stuff ... bah, gotta try again - lowered the
speed a
> bit. I think it's OK now.
> TEAM COLORS: I have mixed the colors with the greyish color of the
water.
I like the way you work on team colors. But again, the white for team
gauges is a bit too much for me.

> PIZZA-FACE
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> This level began with the idea of several horizontal wraparound passages,
> which are pushed together at the edge of the screen.
> The texture is painted with pencil and pen, and colorized in Photoshop
> CS3.
> I tried to make this level brighter than usual, and I am quite sure
that I
> failed. I also tried to make the aspect ratio close to the 16:10
> widescreen
> format.
> GAMEPLAY: Really low defense, but extremely high regenerate instead.
Mmm, one thing you don't mention is that you lowered nb-move-tries to 3,
which changes things *a lot*. Having such a change in one map, just to
show the possibilities, is interesting, but in Pizza face it makes it
really hard to "finish" an enemy when it's stuck in one of those
side
passages.

> PLAYFIELD
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Inspired by 3D postcards. Created using Photoshop CS3 and scanned
artwork.
> GAMEPLAY: I used a low nb-defense-tries to give it that wild, fuzzy
look.
Cool! Maybe I would lower fighter-defense too, but well, it's a question
of taste, I let it up to you.

> SINUSOID
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Painted in Photoshop CS3. The practical purpose of this map was to
use the
> wrap-around feature of LW6. The map is just a vertical sinus curve,
with
> horizontal paths connecting it with itself. I'm a great fan of Art
> Nouveau,
> so I tried to make a lot of natural looking forms. Quite a bit of
work!
> GAMEPLAY: I used a really nifty trick here: I stole the rules.xml
from
> another map, namely "Fishy".  I lowered the number
of fighters to make
> this
> rather complex map a less confusing experience.
I like the colors & shape a lot. And warpping levels are cool ;) I
feel
the various rules tweaks are pretty nice here, the algorithm behaves
strangely but it's good to change sometimes. I would still not put
defense-tries to 7 (which slows things down!) with a fighter-defense of
0.
It's pointless, you should set defense-tries to 1 and maybe
fighter-defense to something like 1 to have a minimum healing in time.
Your settings in this map might also reveal some bugs in my code. I sould
investigate.

> STRANGE-NEW-WORLD
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> This is a bit of fanart, a remake of one of the classic Liquid War
levels.
> The 1:1 aspect ratio is kept for historical reasons. It is painted
in
> Photoshop CS3. The background is one of my monotype paintings. I hope
that
> step wasn't to bold.
> MUSIC: The music is the original thmoov.mid from Liquid War 5, Created
by
> Tim Chadburn
> His homepage:
> http://orbitalwintersong.org.uk/
> GAMEPLAY: I have tried to keep this one as LW5 as possible, using
normal
> colors for the fighters and pixilation. I didn't change the
> fighter-values.
> MENU COLORS: menu inspired by the original: Red text on black background.
Good idea to pick one of Tim's LW5 midis! As far of the menu colors are
concerned, hum, well, LW5 was know for its ugliness on that part, so I
don't think we need to insist on that line ;) The reddish stuff is really
cool in infestival, but here, well, it's too much for me. I dunno why,
just a feeling. It's cool too to have this one pixelized, but it raises
another problem : should we keep this as the default map? I mean, your
other maps are pretty neat, and if we lead users *by default* on a map
which has pixelized turned on, well... Same for ratio, BTW, we probably
don't want a squared map by default. A stretchable one might be better
(by
saying this I'm aware this contradicts my own position a few years ago).
So well, I'd keep this one with pixelized, maybe a little more fighters
(I
think LW5 did have more, but I'm not 100% sure), and pick up another one
as "default map". And here, I'd like to hear your opinion on
this, and
anybody and the list as well, for the "default" map is really
a matter of
importance ;) See for instance this review :
http://www.pixelprospector.com/indev/2009/10/liquid-war-6/
which ends up
by showing the *default* map. Not very surprising but this is just to
illustrate the importance of that point.

> SUBFLOWER
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> A level with flowers in it. I tried to give it a underwater feel.
> Painted with pen and ink. Colored in Photoshop.
> GAMEPLAY: I honestly can't remember why I did whatever I did. But
I think
> it's okay.
> TEAM COLORS: The whole level has a cyan multiply-layer on top. So
has the
> teams.
Good one, there's a need for those wide-opened levels where fighters can
move pretty much anywhere. Maybe this one would be a good candidate to
raise the single-army-size and total-armies-size, I feel it could stand
"many people hanging out".

So well, these were my comments.

Hope I wasn't too harsh on some issues, I just gave you my impressions.

I should also make the nightly scripts generate an "extra-maps"
snapshot
tarball as well. This way you could more easily access to the sample "show
off" maps I quick-draw when implementing new features such as glue,
one-way and the rest. Not that I doubt you can master this, I'm sure you
already do, but I also do think it's convenient to have as many working
examples as possible.

Thanks for your patience and time, 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_\
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