Design for an unfinished Tremulous mod

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norfenstein
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Design for an unfinished Tremulous mod

Post by norfenstein »

EDIT: Note this post was made in 2012. Skip below for the github repository, which I finally got around to uploading.

About two and half years ago I started coding a mod of Tremulous. It began as more or less a clone of Gloom, but I soon realized there was just as much about Tremulous I wanted to keep, and also a number of things from other games that I wanted to shamelessy misappropriate. I got most of the high-level design worked out, and even coded what I think was a respectable amount of it before ultimately deciding it was too much to do by myself. The following summarizes all the notes I have concerning it. There might be parts of it that could be scavenged for use in Unvanquished.

The structure is largely Gloom-like:

  • Each side is class-based, with 8 classes each, costing 0-5 frags per. There's a rough symmetry between the classes of both teams (look further down for class descriptions)

  • You pick your class before spawning, and don't change it while alive (no evolving, no exchanging of equipment). There'd be some way of de-spawning without penalty if you're in your base (near a spawn) and not being attacked.

  • Building is still done by a dedicated class for each team, using build points from a shared pool. There are no power/creep restrictions; anything can be placed anywhere, with some structures even being stackable. The builders would not have any special movement powers (wallwalking, jetpack); they'd have to rely on teammates to get them to tricky locations, or else stack structures to form a ladder (or some other means of using building to gain height; I didn't finish designing structures and building).

  • The goal is still to destroy all the enemy spawns and then kill all their players. Spawns are worth 1 frag; enemy players are worth between 1 and 2 based on their cost relative to the cost of your class. Frags from a kill are distributed proportionally amongst all players that contributed damage.

  • No locational damage.

  • No stamina. Humans can bunnyhop all they want, but aliens are still generally more mobile.

  • Humans don't have dodge (except for one class, see below)

  • Aliens have no regeneration when alone but gain some when near a teammate, and faster regeneration when near more teammates (up to a limit).

  • Aliens all have a radar like in Tremulous (or some equivalent).

The classes also mostly follow Gloom's structure. The names are not finalized. What I never finished working out was what classes would have immunity or resistance to different damage types (e.g., is the Shock Trooper equivalent immune to gas? etc.), though I'll mention a few notes that I made related to this. Most classes have something unique (or mostly-unique) related to mobility, because those things are fun.

Alien classes:

  • Granger - As in Tremulous, but no wallwalking and no spit. Slash can't damage human spawns.

  • Hatchling - Like the dretch (small, weak, fast, touch damage), but with a medium-range grapple. Can damage human structures, except for spawns.

  • Stirge (1 frag) - Flying alien! I didn't finish designing this class (specifically: flight mechanics), but it would have some kind of "bomb" projectile (probably that would release a Hive-like swarm, or some kind of communicable poison), and its slash wouldn't be able to damage telenodes. Was thinking that it'd be able to pick up other players (such as a friendly builder to give a lift, or a human for a brief time to drop somewhere dangerous).

  • Drone (1 frag) - Can leap (like the Tremulous pounce but no damage, and can slash during it), and shoot short range spit that sticks humans in place like a trapper.

  • Kamikaze (2 frags) - Exactly like the hatchling (though visually distinct), but can suicide-explode at-will. Would probably have some kind of explosive resistance or something too (so a stray bit of splash damage wouldn't kill your otherwise weak but expensive class).

  • Marauder (3 frags) - I didn't totally work this one out either, but it'd be highly mobile like the Tremulous marauder, including wall-jumping, as well as double-jumping in the air (like the impulse in Blood Frontier/Red Eclipse). Would have two grenades of some type meant primarily intended for killing structures (so probably damage-over-time), and a medium-range secondary attack of some kind (zap, flamer, not sure).

  • Wraith (4 frags) - Big, defensive, can walk on walls, turns invisible when not moving, can grab humans (holding them in place but not restricting their aim), has 2 trap grenades (stick to walls and explode when a human comes close, disorienting/slowing them), can infest human corpses (making them toxic to be near), and deals crush damage when on top of a human (not instant kill). Basically the Gloom guardian with wall-walking.

  • Behemoth (5 frags) - A combination of Tremulous's tyrant and Gloom's stalker: a tyrant that can shoot spikes (straight-flying projectiles, but somewhat slow moving so best suited for sniping structures), and has 2 or 3 grenades of some sort. Instant-kills any human it falls on top of. Trample would last until you run into something, but would limit how much you could turn.

Human classes:

  • Technician - Builder; gets the Tremulous blaster as a backup weapon (can't damage alien spawns). Probably would regenerate ammo for nearby teammates.

  • Grunt - Rifle (as in Tremulous) and handgun (clip-based, hit-scan sidearm). Neither can damage alien spawns.

  • Ranger (1 frag) - The support class. Scattergun: primary fire is shotgun-like but with less damage, more knockback, and doesn't use clips; secondary fire is a short range zero-damage-high-knockback splash projectile (can be used defensively, to boost builders into high spots, or for no-damage rocket jumping). Can't damage eggs. Has a radar (like the helmet in Tremulous) and regenerates, both of which get shared with nearby teammates. Also has one shock grenade that does no damage but disorients aliens.

  • Psycho - Shotgun and painsaw, both as in Tremulous, but only painsaw can damage eggs. Can "dodge" in eight direction (this combos well with the painsaw).

  • Spartan - Basically Gloom's heavy trooper: like the grunt but more durable, and has a heavy missile launcher instead of a rifle. The missile launcher is incredibly devastating, but with very limited ammo and requires a long charge-up, during which you can't run or jump, and taking damage cancels it.

  • Ghost - I didn't finish designing this class, but it would have some kind of automatic, hit-scan primary weapon, a secondary weapon similar to Tremulous's mass driver, two explosive grenades, a c4 explosive like Gloom's commando (you have to prime it and set it, which is dangerous/difficult when being attacked, but it can clear an entire room), and something like the translocator from Unreal Tournament. Would have some stealth capabilities: wouldn't show up on alien radar, movement and shooting would be silent or muffled. Both of those would extend to nearby teammates (so your teammates would be less likely to screw up your sneaking).

  • Exterminator - Very similar to Gloom's exterminator: has four grenades, a jetpack, power armor, and a laser rifle, the latter three of which all use the same "ammo" that quickly regenerates when not in use (so you have to be careful about whether to shoot or fly or defend). The jetpack would be vaguely similar to the one in Tribes: could use it to coast along the ground to gain speed or get a vertical boost, but couldn't hover for very long like in Tremulous.

  • Titan - This class I fleshed out the least, but it was basically Gloom's mech: not very mobile, but a ton of armor and a powerful weapon (something more suited to destroying bases or choking off a hallway than dueling). Would require support from teammates to be fully successful.

I didn't finish designing what structures each team would have, but I did make a few decisions:

  • Both classes would have a single structure for restoring health and ammo. For humans healing would primarily come from medkits (which this structure would restore). Most alien secondary attacks would use ammo that automatically regenerates (usually quite quickly); their healer structure would speed this up, and also refill grenades. Ammo refills (for both teams) would be time-limited (e.g. you get no more than one grenade refill per minute, or something).

  • Eggs would only be buildable on floors (they should be functionally identical to human spawns)

  • The primary defensive structure for aliens would like Gloom's spiker instead of Tremulous's acid tube: when a human comes in range it fires a burst of spikes that deal high damage, with a moderate/slow reload.

  • Humans would probably still have a machinegun turret (probably just like Tremulous's) but would also have a projectile turret. Projectiles naturally get more effective at closer range, machinegun turrets are roughly the opposite, so I think they'd complement each other well.

  • Didn't decide how constructing structures would work for each/both teams: like Tremulous where you drop a structure and builds itself and you wait out its build timer, like Gloom's aliens where you drop a structure and it immediately forms but you also have a build timer, or like Gloom's humans where you have to stand at the structure "building" it until it becomes functional but have no build timer.

Last edited by norfenstein on Wed Sep 02, 2015 9:15 pm UTC, edited 1 time in total.
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Viech
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Re: Design for an unfinished Tremulous mod

Post by Viech »

Very good read, thank you for sharing this!

What you describe sounds like it could be a lot of fun to play and some of the concepts could very well fit in unvanquished. I'd like to see more (short) ranged attacks on alien side. We will also need more options for buildable destruction, so something like a kamikaze alien form or damage over time bombs sounds very interesting.

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Anomalous
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Re: Design for an unfinished Tremulous mod

Post by Anomalous »

We could give advanced aliens weak forms of attacks from the next adv. class up, e.g. basilisk gains weak zap, marauder gains a weak snipe attack.

Or, yes, basilisk :bomb: :bugeyes:

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kharnov
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Re: Design for an unfinished Tremulous mod

Post by kharnov »

I fully support the idea of exploding aliens. Please make this a reality.

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norfenstein
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Re: Design for an unfinished Tremulous mod

Post by norfenstein »

In case Unvanquished wants to poach anything I made in this, I uploaded what I have to github: https://github.com/norfenstein/umbra

I couldn't get Tremulous running to retest it, but it compiles, and I know I left it in a state where a lot of fun things were operable (to the point where I'd get distracted playing around with them instead coding more tedious things).

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Viech
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Re: Design for an unfinished Tremulous mod

Post by Viech »

kharnov wrote:

I fully support the idea of exploding aliens. Please make this a reality.

I'm a huge fan of corpse explosion, too. I envision it to be a common perk that makes you explode with damage based on your max health or mass shortly after you died.

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Ishq
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Re: Design for an unfinished Tremulous mod

Post by Ishq »

norfenstein wrote:

In case Unvanquished wants to poach anything I made in this, I uploaded what I have to github: https://github.com/norfenstein/umbra

I couldn't get Tremulous running to retest it, but it compiles, and I know I left it in a state where a lot of fun things were operable (to the point where I'd get distracted playing around with them instead coding more tedious things).

I couldn't get it to run either.

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