Liero

From Liero Wiki

Jump to: navigation, search
Liero
Enlarge
Liero

Liero is a free computer game for DOS. It was created by the Finnish programmer Joosa Riekkinen in 1998. The game is often described as a real-time version of Worms, or a 2D version of Quake III. It has many weapons and sounds from its precursor MoleZ. Liero is Finnish for earthworm and is pronounced lee-eh-roh.

Its last release was version 1.33, released in 1999. However, Riekkinen lost the source code and due to the closed source nature of this software no new versions were made since. Despite this, and with the author's approval, the Liero community has been distributing several altered (or hacked) versions of the game through the Internet known as Total Conversions.

Contents

Game Play

In Liero two worms fight each other to the death for until one is out of lives. kills are also counted, but is not a variable for victory. A choice of five weapons from a total of 40 in a two-dimensional map gives the game a great diversity and depth. Most of the terrain, except for the indestructible rock, may be dug by the worms or destroyed by explosions. This terrain is commonly reffered to as dirt. In addition to the weaponry, each player has a ninja rope which can be used to move faster through the map. This grappling hook-like device substitutes for jetpacks and can even latch onto the enemy worm to drag him closer to his foe.

Bonuses

While playing, it is possible to replace one of your five weapons by picking up bonuses which contain a random weapon. In the game settings, there are options regarding which weapons are available from the start, by bonus drops, or even completely disallowed from the game. There are also health power-up bonuses to heal your worm from taken damage. The bonuses may also (randomly) explode when attempting to pick them up, hurting the worm instead of giving the bonus (like the Booby Trap does). They also explode if exposed to any kind of explotion.

Reload time

Unlike most side-scrolling deathmatch games, the weapons in Liero have infinite ammo. Key factors include the reload time of each weapon and the rate of fire, whereas most others include how much ammo a gun sports and how frequent more ammo for that gun can be found. Liero depends all on timing and swift maneuverability, as weapons simply take time to reload, at which time, the worm is defenceless. All weapons reload times are relative to the pregame setting Reload time.

Modes

The gameplay modes are DeathMatch, Game of Tag and Capture the Flag. They can be played by two human players simultaneously in split screen or in a single player mode against the game's artificial intelligence. In older versions of Liero, there were diffrent kinds of game modes, but over time and versions, they changed and landed on the before said modes for the final version of Liero.

Weapons

See Liero Weapon List for a full list of Liero weapons. Apart from the 40 standard weapons, fans have created more than 1000 new weapons.

Liero and Modern Operating Systems

With the introduction of Microsoft Windows 2000, and later Windows XP, the Liero gaming community was struck hard because Liero can not be run with sound on those- and later operating systems. With the introduction of Windows XP Service pack 2 in August 2004, even further difficulties were imposed on the game, as Windows now regards applications like Liero a security risk. A possible solution is to use a DOS emulator for Windows such as DOSBox, which unfortunately is very slow. Some have developed certain boot disks which will allow your computer to run a Liero adjusted enviroment. Liero runs in Linux through Wine or Dosemu.

Modability

Liero is a very versatile game in terms of modification. All of its 40 weapons can be completely replaced with new ones that can be given different properties from the original set with custom sound- and visual effects. The images of the worms themselves can be edited into completely different characters, as long as they keep their original material colours, which are essential for the team colour and damage registration. A wrongly repainted worm will take no damage. The maps can be given permanent terrain in a small range of colours. Destroyable terrain can also be other than brown. The text of the game can be transformed into different fonts. The AI can be upgraded or downgraded to be harder or easier. Nearly the whole game can be edited into something quite different, limited mostly by the modders imagination. This can be done with tools such as the popular LieroKit, LieroM8, the WormHole map editor, Liero CDC, and many others.

Liero Community

Image:Mainarticle.png Main article: Liero community

The Liero community has grown and shrunk dramaticly since the comedown of the original Liero, producing many Liero clones of the game for different platforms, incorporating innovative features not present in Riekkinen's game. The two most promising clones are Gusanos and Liero Xtreme. Liero still has a great deal of fans, of which most are people that have played Liero for several years, while the clones mostly attract new players. Many of the new fans from the clone followings "discover" the roots of their favourite clone, and often with a positive reaction. The community is commonly divided in three major factions. The so called Liero community has its roots in the Wormhole-culture from 2000 and onward. The Polish community also dates back to 2000 and original Liero, but has lived a quite separate live from the rest of the world and is centered on the clan Liga Liero. The third faction revolves around the Liero Xtreme clone and hostile breakouts between it and the Liero community has been seen. This faction is the most alienated out of the three.

ComSer

The Liero community gets most its news from the Liero Community Service, often shorted as ComSer. ComSer provides news to many sites.

Liero sites

From 2000 until 2003, there were a great deal of Liero sites scattered across the internet. Commonly featuring downloads of Liero levels and various game modifications. Some of these sites collected levels made by others, and some some game leading sites for Liero downloads. In particular LieroNet and Liero Hellhole. Liero clan sites and various extreme niche sites sprung up, as well as photo albums and other special community based sites. Many sites suffered from slow updates. This was most notorious in one of the first major sites of the community, Wormhole.

Hardcore fans

There are Liero fans who dedicate most of their spare time to the intrest of Liero and follows its community events on an hourly basis. These fans have roots in the early days of the community and are those that has contributed the most to the community. Some hardcore fans have left the world of Liero for good, or partly, due to changes in their real lives (outside the Liero community).

See also

External links

Official Site

Fansites

Clones

There are many more clones and sequels, most of them are not being developed any more. For a full list, see the Liero Sequels List.

Liero guides, F.A.Q.'s and reviews


Retrieved from "http://comser.liero.org.pl/wiki/index.php?title=Liero"
Personal tools