Liquid War: Difference between revisions

Liquid War
Original author(s)	Christian Mauduit, Thomas Colcombet
Initial release	1995
Stable release	5.6.4 / October 17, 2007; 17 years ago
Preview release	Liquid War 6 0.6.3902 / May 6, 2015; 9 years ago
Repository	git.sv.gnu.org/liquidwar6.git ;
Platform	Cross-platform
Type	Game
License	GPL-3.0-or-later
Website	www.gnu.org/software/liquidwar6/

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Liquid War is a free software multi-player action game based on particle flow mechanic. Thomas Colcombet developed the core concept and the original shortest path algorithm, the software was programmed by Christian Mauduit [fr]. Liquid War 6 is a GNU package distributed as free software and part of the GNU project.

Gameplay

Gameplay takes place on a 2D battlefield, usually with some obstacles. Each player (2 to 6, computer or human) has an army of particles and a cursor. The objective of the game is to assimilate all enemy particles. The players can only move their cursors and cannot directly control the particles. Each particle follows the shortest path around the obstacles to its team's cursor. A player may have several thousands particles at a time, giving the collection of particles a look of a liquid blob. When a particle moves into a particle from a different team, it will fight and if the opponent particle fails to fight back (it is not moving in the opposite direction) it will eventually be assimilated by its attacker. As particles cannot die but only change teams, the total number of particles on the map remains constant. Since a particle can only fight in one direction at a time (towards its team's cursor), a player that surrounds its opponents will have a distinct advantage. The game ends when one player controls all of the particles or when the time runs out. When the time runs out, the player with the most particles wins.

There are multiple maps which affect the obstacles in the battlefield. These obstacles may affect the strategies of the game.

Liquid War is a multiplayer game and can be played by up to 6 people on one computer, or over the Internet or a LAN. A single player mode is available in which the opponents are controlled by the computer. The computer AI's "strategy" is to constantly choose a random point in the enemy and move its cursor to it.

History

The Liquid War shortest path algorithm was invented by Thomas Colcombet before the game itself in Spring 1995.^[1] The game came as a result of the algorithm, when he realized its applicability to gaming. Colcombet's friend, Christian Mauduit, enhanced the algorithm and coded the game.

Liquid War 3.0 was released on 1 July 1995. It was a "barely usable"^[4] MS-DOS game with no network support. Version 5.0 was released on 26 September 1998. It was a complete rewrite and used the Allegro library. Network support was introduced in version 5.4.0, released on 7 July 2001. As of July 2008^[update], the current stable version is 5.6.4 and is available under MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and FreeBSD. Its author, Christian Mauduit, has announced that a complete rewrite is in progress to produce version 6.0, which will abandon the Allegro used for 5.x releases for a full OpenGL implementation. Version 6.0 is a part of the GNU project and was expected to be released in 2008. Version 0.0.7 beta, a testing version, was released in October 2009. Version 0.0.8 beta was released in 2010. Most parts of the game and engine are finished, and playing hotseat and/or against bots works fine, just like version 5.x. Network mode is in prototype stage.

Reception

In 2000 a CNN article on Linux games highlighted the fun with Liquid War.^[5] In 2002, Liquid War received the "Most Original Linux Game" award by The Linux Game Tome,^[6] and in 2003 it was nominated for the Les Trophées du Libre, an International Free Software Competition.^[7] Liquid War was also distributed by various download portals, for instance computerbild.de counted 20,000 downloads.^[8]

Literature

Mauduit, Christian. "Liquid war 5 documentation". Retrieved 2007-04-10.
Mauduit, Christian. "Liquid war 6 documentation". Retrieved 2007-04-10.

References

^ ^a ^b liquidwar on ufoot.org
^ Download Liquid War 6, 0.6.3902
^ "Features". www.gnu.org. Retrieved 2023-09-09.
^ release information in "Changes.txt"
^ Barr, Joe (July 21, 2000). "Procrastinate with these Linux games". CNN.com. Archived from the original on 2012-10-22. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
^ "And the winners are..." Happypenguin.org. 28 January 2003. Archived from the original on 28 October 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-21.
^ "Remise des premiers Trophées du Libre" (in French). linuxfr.org. March 23, 2003. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
^ Liquid War on computerbild.de

External links

[history-1] quidwar on ufoot.org

[2] Download Liquid War 6, 0.6.3902

[3] "Features". www.gnu.org. Retrieved 2023-09-09.

[4] release information in "Changes.txt"

[cnn-5] Barr, Joe (July 21, 2000). "Procrastinate with these Linux games". CNN.com. Archived from the original on 2012-10-22. Retrieved 2015-01-21.

[6] "And the winners are..." Happypenguin.org. 28 January 2003. Archived from the original on 28 October 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-21.

[7] "Remise des premiers Trophées du Libre" (in French). linuxfr.org. March 23, 2003. Retrieved April 28, 2020.

[8] Liquid War on computerbild.de

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@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+{{Short description|Open-source action game}}
 {{Italic title}}
 {{Infobox Software
 | name = Liquid War
-| logo =
+| logo =Liquid war 3.jpeg
-| screenshot = [[Image:Liquid War 5.6.3 screenshot.PNG|250px]]
+| screenshot =
+| caption =
-| caption = ''Liquid War'' in play with six teams. On the right is an information bar showing the relative size of the armies and a clock showing the time until the game expires.
-| author = Christian Mauduit
+| author = Christian Mauduit, Thomas Colcombet
 | developer =
+| released = 1995<ref name="history">[http://www.ufoot.org/liquidwar/ liquidwar] on ufoot.org</ref>
-| released =
 | latest release version = 5.6.4
 | latest release date = {{Start date and age|2007|10|17}}
@@ Line 15: / Line 16: @@
 | platform = [[Cross-platform]]
 | language =
-| status =
 | genre = [[Video game|Game]]
-| license = [[GNU General Public License]]
+| license = [[GNU General Public License|GPL-3.0-or-later]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=Features|url=https://www.gnu.org/software/liquidwar6/|access-date=2023-09-09|website=www.gnu.org}}</ref>
-| website = [https://www.gnu.org/software/liquidwar6/ www.gnu.org/s/liquidwar6/]
+| website = {{URL|www.gnu.org/software/liquidwar6/}}
 }}
+'''''Liquid War''''' is a [[Open-source video game|free software]] multi-player [[action game]] based on [[Smoothed-particle hydrodynamics|particle flow]] mechanic. [[Thomas Colcombet]] developed the core concept and the original [[Pathfinding|shortest path]] algorithm, the software was programmed by {{ill|Christian Mauduit|fr}}. Liquid War 6 is a [[GNU]] package distributed as [[free software]] and part of the [[GNU project]].
-{{Portal|Free software|Video games}}
-'''''Liquid War''''' is a unique multi-player [[action game]]. It is based on an original [[Pathfinding|shortest path]] algorithm and core concept by Thomas Colcombet and programmed by Christian Mauduit. Liquid War 6 is a [[GNU]] package distributed as [[free software]] and part of the [[GNU project]].
-==Description==
+==Gameplay==
+[[File:Liquid War 5.6.3 screenshot.PNG|thumb|{{em|Liquid War}} in play with six teams. On the right is an information bar showing the relative size of the armies and a clock showing the time until the game expires.]]
 Gameplay takes place on a 2D battlefield, usually with some obstacles. Each player (2 to 6, computer or human) has an army of particles and a cursor. The objective of the game is to assimilate all enemy particles. The players can only move their cursors and cannot directly control the particles. Each particle follows the [[Pathfinding|shortest path]] around the obstacles to its team's cursor. A player may have several thousands particles at a time, giving the collection of particles a look of a liquid blob. When a particle moves into a particle from a different team, it will fight and if the opponent particle fails to fight back (it is not moving in the opposite direction) it will eventually be [[Assimilation (biology)|assimilated]] by its attacker. As particles cannot die but only change teams, the total number of particles on the map remains constant. Since a particle can only fight in one direction at a time (towards its team's cursor), a player that surrounds its opponents will have a distinct advantage. The game ends when one player controls all of the particles or when the time runs out. When the time runs out, the player with the most particles wins.
 There are multiple maps which affect the obstacles in the battlefield. These obstacles may affect the strategies of the game.
-''Liquid War'' is a [[multiplayer]] game and can be played by up to 6 people on one computer, or over the [[Internet]] or a [[LAN]]. A single player mode is available in which the opponents are controlled by the computer. The computer [[Game artificial intelligence|AI]]'s "strategy" is to constantly choose a random point in the enemy and move its cursor to it.
+{{em|Liquid War}} is a [[Multiplayer video game|multiplayer]] game and can be played by up to 6 people on one computer, or over the [[Internet]] or a [[local area network|LAN]]. A single player mode is available in which the opponents are controlled by the computer. The computer [[Game artificial intelligence|AI]]'s "strategy" is to constantly choose a random point in the enemy and move its cursor to it.
 ==History==
-The ''Liquid War'' shortest path algorithm was invented by Thomas Colcombet before the game itself. The game came as a result of the algorithm, when he realized its applicability to gaming. Colcombet's friend, Christian Mauduit, enhanced the algorithm and coded the game.
+The {{em|Liquid War}} shortest path algorithm was invented by Thomas Colcombet before the game itself in Spring 1995.<ref name="history"/> The game came as a result of the algorithm, when he realized its applicability to gaming. Colcombet's friend, Christian Mauduit, enhanced the algorithm and coded the game.
-''Liquid War'' 3.0 was released on 1 July 1995. It was a "barely usable"<ref>release information in “Changes.txt”</ref> [[DOS]] game with no network support. Version 5.0 was released on 26 September 1998. It was a complete rewrite and used the [[Allegro library]]. Network support was introduced in version 5.4.0, released on 7 July 2001. {{As of|2008|alt=As of July 2008}}, the current version is 5.6.4 and is available under DOS, [[Microsoft Windows]], [[Mac OS X]], [[Linux]] and [[FreeBSD]]. Its author, Christian Mauduit, has announced that a complete rewrite is in progress to produce version 6.0, which will abandon the [[Allegro library]] used for 5.x releases for a full [[OpenGL]] implementation. Version 6.0 is a part of the [[GNU]] project and was expected to be released in 2008. Version 0.0.7 beta, a testing version, was released in October 2009. Version 0.0.8 beta has been released in 2010. Most parts of the game and engine are finished and playing [[Hotseat (multiplayer mode)|hotseat]] and/or against bots works fine, just like version 5.x. Network mode is in prototype stage.
+{{em|Liquid War}} 3.0 was released on 1 July 1995. It was a "barely usable"<ref>release information in "Changes.txt"</ref> [[MS-DOS]] game with no network support. Version 5.0 was released on 26 September 1998. It was a complete rewrite and used the [[Allegro (software library)|Allegro library]]. Network support was introduced in version 5.4.0, released on 7 July 2001. {{As of|2008|alt=As of July 2008}}, the current stable version is 5.6.4 and is available under MS-DOS, [[Microsoft Windows]], [[Mac OS X]], [[Linux]] and [[FreeBSD]]. Its author, Christian Mauduit, has announced that a complete rewrite is in progress to produce version 6.0, which will abandon the [[Allegro (software library)|Allegro]] used for 5.x releases for a full [[OpenGL]] implementation. Version 6.0 is a part of the [[GNU]] project and was expected to be released in 2008. Version 0.0.7 beta, a testing version, was released in October 2009. Version 0.0.8 beta was released in 2010. Most parts of the game and engine are finished, and playing [[Hotseat (multiplayer mode)|hotseat]] and/or against bots works fine, just like version 5.x. Network mode is in prototype stage.
 == Reception ==
-In 2000 a [[CNN]] article on Linux games highlighted the fun with ''Liquid War''.<ref name="cnn">{{Cite web|archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20121022005107/http://edition.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/07/21/linux.fun.games.idg/|archivedate=2012-10-22|url=http://www-cgi.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/07/21/linux.fun.games.idg/index.html |work=CNN.com |title=Procrastinate with these Linux games |author=Barr, Joe|date=July 21, 2000 |accessdate=2015-01-21}}</ref>
+In 2000 a [[CNN]] article on Linux games highlighted the fun with {{em|Liquid War}}.<ref name="cnn">{{Cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121022005107/http://edition.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/07/21/linux.fun.games.idg/|archive-date=2012-10-22|url=http://www-cgi.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/07/21/linux.fun.games.idg/index.html |work=CNN.com |title=Procrastinate with these Linux games |author=Barr, Joe|date=July 21, 2000 |access-date=2015-01-21}}</ref>
-In 2002, ''Liquid War'' received the ''Most Original Linux Game'' award by [[The Linux Game Tome]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.happypenguin.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=549 |title=And the winners are... |accessdate=2007-10-21 |author= |date=28 January 2003 |publisher=Happypenguin.org}}</ref> and in 2003 it was nominated for the [[Les Trophées du Libre]], an International [[Free Software]] Competition.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tropheesdulibre.com/2003-First-competition.html |title=2003 - First competition |accessdate=2008-07-24 |work= |publisher=Les Trophées du Libre |language=French |date= }}</ref>
+In 2002, {{em|Liquid War}} received the "{{em|Most Original Linux Game}}" award by [[The Linux Game Tome]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.happypenguin.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=549 |title=And the winners are... |access-date=2007-10-21 |date=28 January 2003 |publisher=[[The Linux Game Tome|Happypenguin.org]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071028173415/http://happypenguin.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=549 |archive-date=28 October 2007 }}</ref> and in 2003 it was nominated for the [[Les Trophées du Libre]], an International [[Free Software]] Competition.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://linuxfr.org/news/remise-des-premiers-trophees-du-libre|title=Remise des premiers Trophées du Libre|publisher=linuxfr.org|language=French|date=March 23, 2003|access-date=April 28, 2020}}</ref> Liquid War was also distributed by various download portals, for instance [[computerbild.de]] counted 20,000 downloads.<ref>[http://www.computerbild.de/download/Liquid-War-2095224.html Liquid War] on [[computerbild.de]]</ref>
 ==Literature==
+*{{cite web|url=http://www.ufoot.org/liquidwar/v5/doc|title=Liquid war 5 documentation|access-date=2007-04-10|last=Mauduit|first=Christian|language=}}
-*{{cite web
+*{{cite web|url=https://www.gnu.org/software/liquidwar6/manual/|title=Liquid war 6 documentation|access-date=2007-04-10|last=Mauduit|first=Christian|language=}}
-| url = http://www.ufoot.org/liquidwar/v5/doc
-| title = Liquid war 5 documentation
-| accessdate = 2007-04-10
-| last = Mauduit
-| first = Christian
-| date =
-| year =
-| month =
-| format =
-| work =
-| publisher =
-| pages =
-| language =
-| archiveurl =
-| archivedate =
-| quote =
-}}
-*{{cite web
-| url = https://www.gnu.org/software/liquidwar6/manual/
-| title = Liquid war 6 documentation
-| accessdate = 2007-04-10
-| last = Mauduit
-| first = Christian
-| date =
-| year =
-| month =
-| format =
-| work =
-| publisher =
-| pages =
-| language =
-| archiveurl =
-| archivedate =
-| quote =
-}}
 ==See also==
-* [[List of open source games]]
+{{Portal|Free and open-source software|Video games}}
+* [[List of open-source video games]]
 == References ==
@@ Line 84: / Line 51: @@
 == External links ==
+{{Commons category|Liquid War}}
-* [http://www.ufoot.org/liquidwar/ ''Liquid War'' website]
-* [https://www.gnu.org/software/liquidwar6/ ''Liquid War 6'' website]
+* [http://www.ufoot.org/liquidwar/ {{em|Liquid War}} website]
+* [https://www.gnu.org/software/liquidwar6/ {{em|Liquid War 6}} website]
 {{GNU}}
-[[Category:Allegro games]]
+[[Category:1995 video games]]
 [[Category:Open-source video games]]
 [[Category:GNU Project software]]
@@ Line 95: / Line 63: @@
 [[Category:Linux games]]
 [[Category:Windows games]]
-[[Category:OS X games]]
+[[Category:MacOS games]]
 [[Category:GP2X games]]
 [[Category:Video games developed in France]]

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