  Liero-AI/MP 2.01 (28092002)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Liero-AI/MP is a highly improved clone of Liero, a now-classical wormgame. The
basic idea is simple: worms kill each other, and themselves. NOW they can do so
in more bizarre ways!!!

0. IMPORTANT

Don't even TRY to compress or strip the executable!!! NEVER!!! Although it may
seem to work correctly, it won't be fully functional as the dynamic linker will
be borken.

And now, a short discussion of why is it so slow. I've been accused of writing
the program in Turbo Pascal, which I find offensive. Here is to say that it is
written in Free Pascal and i386 assembly mix. I used floating-point arithmetic
because it's not slower than fixed-point on Pentium II - class machines and it
is convenient for script programming. Second, scripts are p-compiled, so they
can't run as fast as the native i386 code. Third, I'm still working to speed
it up!

0.1. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

All executable files are written by me, Stanislaw Skowronek. Some of the
standard library is made by Maciej Obarski (he has done a good job with TCP/IP
debugging). Levels are from the Liga Liero website (mostly) and from Piotr
Jaworski. Many graphics are from the Liero by MetsanElaimet. The game might
even feature music by Krzysztof Nowak.

Remember that the great SDL library is by Sam Lantinga. If you like it, you can
visit http://www.libsdl.org/. If you are a games developer, it's a must-see.

I'd like to thank Maciej Obarski, Piotr Jaworski and Krzysztof Nowak for their
great and unique ideas. I wouldn't be able to continue the development for
more than 12 months without their valuable feedback.

Without them, the game would lack the funniest weapons, like IRIDIUM or WINDOWS
BOX. There would be no weapon encyclopaedia, probably no multiplayer mode. All
bonuses were invented by Maciej Obarski. The fate of all strike-type and laser
based weapons would be very uncertain if I were on my own, and so would be the
terrain generator interface. Most important, all game balance was brought to
you by Maciej again (so if you don't like it, complain to him and not to me!)

And, oh, thanks for mental support to anyone in Liga Liero!

We are very good. If you don't believe, try writing it yourself. With all the
bells and whistles, of course...

1. FEATURES

 * vectored terrains with true Bezier curvature (yes! yes! yes!),
 * works under Linux and Windows,
 * MULTITUDE of great weapons (see WEAPONS.TXT),
 * hi-res graphics (and hi-color),
 * Capture the Flag mode (under development),
 * nice alpha blending,
 * online weapon encyclopaedia,
 * water and poison to spill and drink and blood to splash all over,
 * fascinating bonuses (see BONUSES.TXT),
 * almost-compatibility with Liero maps (PowerLevel palette support!),
 * programmable terrain generators,
 * levels with triggers (i.e. doors, elevators, traps and so on),
 * four-player support (hence MP) through TCP/IP (probably working),
 * panoramic screen in two-player on two machines, (or on single player)
 * sniper view,
 * weaponry with intelligence (hence AI),
 * programmable AI for CPU players (means: I'm tired, program it yourself),
 * openness: you can add your own weapons (see WCK\MKWPN.TXT),
 * dynamic library loader and linker: There Are No Limits,
 * really interesting scripting language and its own operating system,
 * potential for full localization.

1.1. BUGS

Hey you, report some bugs!

2. REQUIREMENTS

 * Pentium II (for usability some P2/450 is recommended, and for nice frame
   rate I'd personally use at least P3/800 if I had one, though the code has
   been and still is optimized a good deal),
 * graphics:
   L* a SDL-operable card, preferably under X-Windows,
   W* a DirectDraw capable card that can do 640*480*16bpp.
 * 96 megs of RAM (or more, if you have very many maps),
 * sound:
   L* a sound card that works with SDL
   W* a DirectSound capable card,
 * 15 MB of disk space
 * system:
   L* Linux with glibc 2.2 or combatable, SDL library installed,
   W* Windows 9x or NT or 2000 (aaah, my personal favourite) or XP (maybe) or
      even Millenium Edition,
 * for multiplayer (actually four-player):
   L* TCP/IP networking.
   W* TCP/IP stack compatible with WinSock 2.

3. YOU CAN READ THE STORY, IF YOU CAN READ AT ALL

  Once upon a time, there was a colorful, lovely colony of cute little worms,
which were nevertheless quite bored. One day some of them invented a great new
game: "All red worms of the world, unite in our struggle against the green
blasphemers". Soon, yellow worms thought, why would only greens and reds have
all the fun, why not go and beat the living crap out of those blue bastards!

  And so it started. Through hundreds of generations, that is, for decades,
the war raged upon the burnt colonies, exhausting their natural resources,
devastating their habitat, and producing great deal of worm meat. No one could
stop it; the only outcome that would satisfy any party would be the complete
annihilation of its opponent, for all times (or at least for some ten years).

  The war machines advanced, first the worms have learnt to use their innate
digging and building capabilities; they invented ways to build walls so high
that no worm could climb them, pits so deep that no worm could escape them,
graves so big that no amount of worms could fill them completely.

  Next they mastered chemistry: high explosives, acids and toxines had no
mysteries to the brave worm scientists. Of course, even the long-forgotten
fireworks have been used as valuable weapons. Napalm, flamethrowers and all
the equipment that was used to fry ants was used again - in new great ways.

  Time has come to empower their weaponry: the Blues invented nuclear bombs.
All would think that it's the end, but the worms turned out to be fairly
resistant to radiation - to the misfortune of the Blues. Shortly, they
invented satellites to guide their missiles, fusion energy to supply power
to their lasers, and unmanned aircraft to drop the napalm and bombs.

  In the 196th generation the AI has taken over: Artificial Intelligence, a
single consciousness that spawned an entire race of machines. Soon, the war
started to look like a metallic skirmish.

  Mar Sara, Generation 231:
In one of the darkest corners of the Red Empire, in the shades of ruined city
of Mar Sara, an infested Terran world (oops, sorry, this is from another game)
a new class of warriors was born. No one could see them, no one could hear
them, no one could touch them. Perhaps you could smell them or taste them, but
no one ever tried to. Try naming your machine COPPER. You will really enjoy the
nice improved vignette screen. Sincerely yours, Author. Integration of powerful
AI into clouds of nanobots was the key to invention of most powerful warriors
even known - warriors with no weapons, warriors, which by mere existence caused
death of worms, warriors, that did stop powerful machines by getting into
bearings. It would be a definite end of all wars, if the warriors were designed
by someone.

  They designed themselves. No one knows how, but they managed to be so deadly
efficient that they wiped all life from those planets they managed to get to.
No doubt, they'd as well travel through space, if not the weird fact: they took
all their electricity from worms' fusion plants. When the worms died, plants
exploded, power was cut off and all nanodust quickly disintegrated. They could
not work in high-radiation areas - they were not designed for it.

  Although the war is now, in Generation 502, a complete nonsense, scattered
remnants of the parties continue it upon scorched grounds of foreign worlds.
(oops, sorry, this is again from another game) They strive to achieve only one:
destruction of all that oppose.

  They drop the satellites used in ancient times to guide missiles; destroy
energy storages like petrol, because there are no petroleum power plants now;
use AI designed for deep freezers to make war. This way it started to be quite
ridiculous.

  They don't even remember why they still fight.

Stanislaw Skowronek, thesis@elementy.pl
