ALE Clone Version 1.16

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                               Version 1.16
			      THE WAR BEGINS

(C) Copyright 1998,1999 by Lutz Sammer. Distributed under the "Artistic License"

Copyright

DISCLAIMER

Use it at your own risk.

Introduction

Install

Upgrade

Read this how to upgrade ALE clone: install.html

Changes

Todo and known bugs

Problems

Features

• Health and mana could be shown on the map.
• Better path finder routines.
• Loading of compressed (gzip) puds.
• Configuration language.
• Easy replace of unit graphics and sounds.
• 64 times greater maps.
• Training queues.
• Waypoints.
• Correct fog of war (terrain changes are not shown).
• Nice looking fog of war (grayscale)

Open projects

• Write a map editor. (with support of greater maps)
• Write a AI editor.
• Write front end to ALE clone. (Scenarios, puds, videos...)
• Or extend the guile-gtk support.
• Write a video player. (fli or own format)
• Create own tilesets and unit graphics.
• Create own sounds, voices, videos and campains.
• Create an icon for window-manager.
• Create a jingle for startup and home-page.
• Write better documentation. (correct my english :-)
• Improved network support.
• Write better sound routines. (with mp3 and midi or xmi support)
• Write "build.sh" for demo-version.
• Port to X11 8bpp or 32bpp, fullscreen and DGA support.
• Port to ggi.
• Port to msdos/djgpp.
• Port to beos.
• Write clone of the new game from the same company. (Graphic and sound formats are mostly the same.)
• Multilanguage support
• And any other help is welcome.

Documentation

Command line options

• OPTIONS
  You can currently give following command line options. Use "clone -h" to get an uptodate information.
  • -c "file.ccl"
    Load clone config file "file.ccl" insteed of the default "libarypath/ccl/clone.ccl".
  • -f factor
    Adjust the build costs of units for the computer players by factor.
  • -h
    Show command line help.
  • -p players
    Number of network players to connect.
  • -s frames
    The AI sleeps 'frames' before it starts working.
  • -t factor
    Adjust the build time of units for the computer players by factor.
• map.pud
  Load the map "map.pud" insteed of the default "libarypath/default.pud".
• map.pud.gz
  Load the compressed map "map.pud.gz" insteed of the default "libarypath/default.pud".
• map.cm
  Load the clone map "map.cm" insteed of the default.

  If you have compile ALE Clone with guile-gtk support you can use this to get a file requester. "clone contrib/req.cm"

• map.cm.gz
  Load the compressed clone map "map.cm.gz" insteed of the default.
• 
  If no file is given the default map "libarypath/default.pud" will be loaded.

Keyboard commands

• cursor-left
  Scroll map left. With control scroll faster.
• cursor-right
  Scroll map right. With control scroll faster.
• cursor-up
  Scroll map up. With control scroll faster.
• cursor-down
  Scroll map down. With control scroll faster.
• RETURN
  Enter command line.
• TAB
  Toggle minimap mode, with/without terrain.
• +
  Increase game speed.
• -
  Decrease game speed.
• c
  Center on selected unit.
• q
  Quit program.
• ^
  Unselect all units.
• 1-9,0
  Select unit group first time, if group already selected center on group.
• CTRL + 1-9,0
  Define unit group.
• P or pause
  Toggle pause mode.
• S
  Save complete state.

CCL: Clone Configuration Language

You can also enter ccl commands at the message prompt.

Files

• libarypath/ccl/clone.ccl is loaded before any initialisation.
• libarypath/ccl/missile.ccl is loaded from clone.ccl
• libarypath/ccl/sound.ccl is loaded from clone.ccl
• libarypath/ccl/tilesets.ccl is loaded from clone.ccl
• libarypath/ccl/units.ccl is loaded from clone.ccl

Functions

Map CCL functions/variables

reveal-map

Reveal the complete map.

fog-of-war

Enable the fog of war.

no-fog-of-war

Disable the fog of war.

minimap-terrain

Enable display of terrain in the minimap window.

no-minimap-terrain

Disable display of terrain in the minimap window.

original-fog-of-war

Enable original like fog of war style.

gray-fog-of-war

Enable gray fog of war style.

fog-of-war-contrast contrast

Set the gray style fog of war contrast. Contrast could be from 0 to OO. A contrast of 100 didn't change anything.

fog-of-war-brightness brightness

Set the gray style fog of war brightness. Brightness could be from -100 to 100. A brightness of 0 didn't change anything.

Unsorted CCL functions/variables

• title-screen
  Change the default title screen ("title.png").

  (title-screen title)

  • title
    The title graphic file.

  Example:

  (title-screen "ale-title.png")

  Change the title to "ale-title.png".

• show-health-bar
  Show the health as bar on the map.

• show-health-dot
  Show the health as dot on the map.

• show-mana-bar
  Show the mana as bar on the map.

• show-mana-dot
  Show the mana as dot on the map.

• show-full
  Show full health or mana on the map.

• show-no-full
  Show no full health or mana on the map.

• show-sight-range
  Show the sight range of the selected unit on map.

• show-react-range
  Show the react range of the selected unit on map.

• show-attack-range
  Show the attack range of the selected unit on map.

• speed-mine
  Decrease the mining time by this factor.
• speed-gold
  Decrease the time in a gold deposit by this factor.
• speed-chop
  Decrease the time for chopping a tree by this factor.
• speed-wood
  Decrease the time in a wood deposit by this factor.
• speed-haul
  Decrease the time for haul oil by this factor.
• speed-oil
  Decrease the time in an oil deposit by this factor.
• speed-build
  Decrease the time to build a unit by this factor.
• speed-train
  Decrease the time to train a unit by this factor.
• speed-upgrade
  Decrease the time to upgrade a unit by this factor.
• speed-research
  Decrease the time to research by this factor.
• speeds
  Decrease the time off all by this factor.
• tileset
  Defines a tileset.

  (tileset slot name file table)

  • slot
    The tileset slot number.
  • name
    The tileset name.
  • file
    The tileset graphic file.
  • table
    The conversion table from pud tile number (0 - 0x9DF) into internal tile number.

  Example:

  (tileset TilesetSummer "summer" "summer.png" #( ... ) )

  Define the tileset slot 0 as summer with the graphics in summer.png. #( ... ) is the conversion table of 2528 entries.

• missile-type
  Defines the missile types.

  (missile-type slot name file width height)

  • slot
    The missile slot number.
  • name
    The missile name.
  • file
    The graphic sprites file.
  • width
    The width of a sprite.
  • height
    The height of a sprite.

  Example:

  (missile-type MissileLightning "Lightning" "lightning.png" 32 32)

  Define the missile slot 0 as "Lightning".

• unit-type
  Defines the unit types.

  (unit-type slot name graphics ...)

  • slot
    The unit slot number.
  • name
    The unit name.
  • graphics
    
  More to come.

  Example:

  (unit-type UnitFootman "Footman" #( "footman.png" )) Define the unit slot 0 as footman.

• define-map
  Define the size of a new map.

  (define-map width height)

  • width
    The width of the new map.
  • height
    The height of the new map.

  Example:

  (define-map 256 256) Define a new map of the size 256 x 256.

• load-pud
  Load a map in pud format.

  (load-pud name)

  • name
    The file name.

  Example:

  (load-pud "data/default.pud.gz") Load "default.pud.gz".

• clone-map
  Define a map in clone own format.

  (clone-map ...)

  FIXME: Must write docu

• Sound part
  • sound-thread
    Tells clone engine to use a threaded sound server. MUST be used in the sound.ccl file, BEFORE the game fully starts. As no effect during the game.
  • sound-volume
    Set global volume.

    (set-sound-volume volume)

    • volume
      The volume from 0 (min=quiet) to 255 (max).

    Example:

    (set-sound-volume 128)

    Set volume to 1/2.

  • sound-off
    Turn sound off. Can be later turned on by sound-on.
  • sound-on
    Turn sound on.
  • sound-for-name
    Return a guile sound id to be used in other functions.

    (sound-for-name name)

    • name
      The name of the sound (a string).

    Example:

    (sound-for-name "tree chopping")

    Returns the sound id of the tree chopping sound.

  • set-global-sound-range
    Set the cut off distance.

    (set-global-sound-range distance)

    • distance
      The maximum range of a sound in tiles.

    Example:

    (set-global-sound-range 64)

    Set the maximal sound range to 64 tiles. Sound events happening more than 64 tiles away from the viewpoint won't be eared.

  • set-sound-range
    Set the cut off distance for a given sound.

    (set-sound-range sound ratio)

    • sound
      The sound either described by its name (a string) or by its guile sound id.
    • ratio
      This value (between 0 and 255) allows to compute the range of the sound. 255 means an infinite range. Any number strictly below 255 is a coefficient that will be applied to the cut off distance: the cut off distance for this sound is ratio/254*cut off distance.

    Example:

    (set-sound-range "tree chopping" 50)

    Set the sound range for "tree chopping" to 50/254 times the cut off distance.

  • define-game-sounds
    Allows to define what sounds are going to be used for some game level events (such as the click sound).

    FIXME: Must write docu

  • display-sounds
    Test function. Dump on stdio all the client side mappings between sound names and sound ids.
  • map-sound
    Defines a new mapping between a sound name (a string) and a sound id.

    FIXME: Must write docu

  • make-sound
    Ask the sound server to register a new sound. Ask the sound client to store the mapping between the obtained sound id and the given sound name.

    FIXME: Must write docu

  • play-sound
    Ask the sound server to play a sound.

    FIXME: Must write docu

Internal Formats

Tileset

The format of the tileset graphic is:

32x32 pixels of a tile.

16 tiles are stored per row.

The pixels (7,6),(7,14),(7,22),(7,30), (15,6),(15,14),(15,22),(15,30), (23,6),(23,14),(23,22),(23,30) and (31,6),(31,14),(31,22),(31,30) are used for the minimap picture. For a 32x32 map all 16 Pixels are used. For a 128x128 map only the first one.

The colors of the palette reserved for the tileset:
HELPME: I don't know!

The conversion table from pud file to the internal format could be changed with ccl. More tileset informations

User Interface

Sprites

The format of an unit sprite is:

FIXME: more to come

Palette

Sounds

Utilities

extract

Read the knowledge bases which entry contains what.

Usage: extract data-file entry output

• data-file
  Compressed input data file. (normaly maindat.war)
• entry
  Entry number of the data-file.
• output
  Output file for the uncompressed entry.

gfx2png

Usage: gfx2png palette file.gfx

• palette
  Use palette in png file. "palette" is a raw file containing 768 bytes for 256 colors of r g b.
• file.gfx
  File.gfx contains the graphics of the sprites. The output file is file.png.

gfu2png

img2png

cur2png

fnt2png

tile2png

aledoc

Thanks

Ari
Edgar
Valery Shchedrin
Iftikhar Rathore
Charles K Hardin
Fabrice Rossi
DigiCat
Josh Cogliati
Patrick Mullen
Vladi Shabanski
Cris Daniluk
Patrice Fortier
FT Rathore
Trent Piepho
Josh Cogliati
Jon Gabrielson
Lukas Hejtmanek
Steinar Hamre
Ian Farmer
Sebastioan Drews
Jarek Sobieszek

And to all I have forgot to write up

Contents

• Copyright
• Disclaimer
• Introduction
• Install
• Upgrade
• Changes
• Todo
• FAQ
• Features
• Open projects
• Documentation
  • Command line options
  • CCL: Clone Configuration language
  • Internal Formats
    • Tileset
    • User interface
    • Sprites
    • Sounds
    • Palette
• Utilites
• Thanks
• Contents