Liqwiid Wars Wii

Liqwiid Wars
File:Liqwiidwarswii.jpg
General
Author	Steaky1212 and silus
Type	Arcade Games
Version	0.2.6
License	Mixed
Last Updated	2009/08/25
Links
Download
Website
Source

Liquid War is a unique multiplayer wargame. Liquid War is a now somewhat popular free software in which you control an army off liquid and try and "eat" your opponent(s). It has an entry on Wikipedia which probably does describe the game better than this page, and is obviously much more "neutral" about it.

Features

• 2-4 Players
• Gradient calculated for each player
• Player can choose army colour
• Options for Attack and Defense Stats
• 2 Maps and a third unique random map generator.

Controls

In game

Wiimote	Action
Wiimote Aim	Move Cursor
Wiimote Home Button	Exit to HBC

Progress

I figured people might want to know how far along I am, but you have to bear in mind I have a full time job, and 2 young kids so it wont be the quickest development.

• 24June2009: Started design. Got core algorithm - not tested it yet. Tracking IR position of 2 wiimotes (would be 4 but I only own 2, the code supports 4 - If anyone wants to donate a wiimote then feel free).

• 26June2009: Got 2 dots painted on the screen where my 2 wiimotes point to. Added a basic timer so that I can track how many cycles my while(1) loop has done. Can now perform algorithm every X cycles. I am considering writing it all from scratch now, as modifying the algorithm would seem too much like a bodge - like the rest of my code.

• 29June2009: Been speaking with Christian Mauduit, the guy responsible for the latest version of LiquidWars. Helped clear a few things up. Currently, LiqwiidWars takes the 4 IR positions and -using 2 for loops- will create a "potential" for the armies. It basically comes down to (pseudo) grid[player,x,y] = abs(wiimote(player).ir.x - x) + abs(wiimote(player).ir.y - y). This ignores the "mesh" optimization that might go in at a later date. All the "fighters" need to to is move to an area of equal or lower potential if they can. This algorithm is not affected by number of players or size of army - just size of map.

• 02July2009: After discussion on forum.wiibrew, maybe the way I'm currently implementing liqwiidwars isn't the best way. Also, my potential gradient is not the same as the one in Liquid War. I think I will start working on the GUI stuff while trying to figure out how to actually implement this.

• 05July2009: Now up to a team of three, as I asked a friend to help with the core programming, and Guy has agreed to do the music. Fighters are now implemented as a separate class. Also decided to use GRRLIB for the GUI stuff, as probably make the graphics a lot easier to code. Current release has one fighter try and get to the cursor - haven't done any error capture yet, so if your cursor is on the left border when the fighter gets to the cursor it will catch...oops.

• 08July2009: Algorithm changed. Most urgent bugs fixed. Fighter collision outstanding.

• 12August2009: Bulked up the algorithm and movement stuff to make more resilient. Nearing first proper beta release - Will have a simple GUI, no music, 1 map but all that will build onto this release.

• 18August2009: Background stuff is all complete. Prerelease available for download. Only contains 1 "map" and basic menu. Tested with 2 wii-motes but should scale up to four without any issues.

• 19August2009: Apparently I have been spending too much time on it, as I am issuing another release. This one is fully playable, with 2 maps to choose from as well as Attack/Defense characteristics, and a nicer Menu.

• 25August2009: This will be the final release for a while now. I have not got my head around the graphics libraries and which one is best suited for my needs. Because of this the health colour, and map loading will be difficult. To offset this I have doen the following; players can choose the army colour, and Map3 is a random map generator. Bugs are fixed.

Changelog

• v0.2.6

New features include a random map generator and users are able to choose army colour. Fighters wont seed in a wall anymore - but might get trapped inside 4 walls. See Bugs for fix.

• v0.2.5

Same as before, except has more options and a win screen. Overall, looks more finished. Also, now has 2 maps.

• v0.2

Official public pre-release. This is the first milestone I wanted to reach. Algorithm works fine, fighters move closer to cursors, and will attack each other. Have coded in "holders" for various user options that are to be coded in at a later date. Only 1 map at the moment, but will add many more when proper GUI up and running.

• v0.1.3

Algorithm now based around a queue based flood fill. This means fighters can go round walls. Other than that it is the same as before.

• v0.1.2

Same as before but "fighter" will move towards cursor.

• v0.1.1

Supports 4 wiimotes. Paints red squares where the wiimotes pointing at. Gradient is calculated for each wiimote. The value for C1's gradient can be see by "looking" with C2.

Known Bugs

• Army can get trapped inside 4 walls in random. I tried a fix, but it didnt work, so currently Player1 can demolish walls. This could be the start of different game types but watch this space.

Subpages

Liqwiid Wars Algorithm

Thanks to

• Christian Mauduit - Liquid Wars 6 programmer.
• The people behind the Homebrew Channel Wii.
• The people behind DevkitPro.
• All the people who contribute to wiibrew, both the wiki and the forums.
• Team Twiizers and Waninkoko - I know you've got your differences, but both sides have made vital contributions.

External links

• Google source - http://code.google.com/p/liqwiidwars/downloads/list
• Wiibrew - https://wiibrew.org/wiki/Liqwiid_Wars
• An idea behind Liquid Wars - https://ufoot.org/liquidwar