Unvanquished and You

[Ishq]

I want to hear what each one of you individually want and/or expect our of Unvanquished. Things like your goals for Unvanquished, how you want Unvanquished gameplay to look like, what style you want Unvanquished artwork to follow. Remember, this should be your own personal opinion. Don't be afraid to contradict other devs if you have a different view in mind.

It is important for everyone to get a feel for everyone else's goals.

For me:

I would like Unvanquished to become the best looking free and open-source game. One that is competitive with proprietary games. Our gameplay should have the following aspects: two teams fighting to destroy each other and the enemy's spawns. Humans should be less mobile than their alien counterparts, but have longer range. Aliens should generally be close quarters, with melee combat attacks with certain classes having ranged attacks. Aliens should individually be stronger than individual humans, but a group of humans should be generally stronger than a group of aliens. Realistically, I expect maintain much of the existing Tremulous gameplay, since I don't believe in changing stuff just to differentiate from Tremulous as long as the end result is a good game, but I will not hesitate to change Tremulous stuff that no longer fits into our vision, or Tremulous stuff that we can do better, or Tremulous stuff that doesn't fit. Adding new things that are useful, fun, and balanced is also expected.

[Viech]

I would like Unvanquished to become a viral, well known, highly competitive free game. I believe one of the main reasons why multiplayer shooters like Quake and Counterstrike were successful were the huge competitive scenes which elevated gameplay mechanics on a higher level than what is possible in any casual-player directed game. For the game to become viral I want it to be very easy to set up and personal configurations to be as portable as possible (it shoud ultimately be a game that just works when you want to play it on a LAN party). Sending someone else a link to Unvanquished should enable that person to get ingame in a few minutes. Blizzards main mantra "Easy to learn, hard to master" should apply to our game.

With regards to graphics, I don't mind if our artwork looks outdated as long as it looks coherent and atmospheric. You should be able to tell that it's Unvaqnquished if you look at a small area of a random screenshot. There is no place for style-breaking nostalgia if we want to appeal to new players.

I expect the overall gameplay composition to be close to trem, too, but I want to attempt a restructuring of each individual component (e.g. keep base building but revise the way you construct or pay for a buildable). Some elements may become more complex in order to increase the depth of gameplay (buildable limit → resource system) while others may become more simple, if decreased complexity doesn't make them less fun or less profound (e.g. remove some limitations for alien form morphing).

[Gireen]

I would like to see Unvanquished being representative for a new generation of Open Source games, easy to understand, with actual graphic and a smooth gameplay comparable to actual tactic shooters or better.
A Unvanquished where:
it's not possible to abuse weapons or tactics and frustrate other players.
players can support each other with more than shooting.
the only thing reminding on tremulous is building of bases and aliens vs humans
no alien or gun is just a device to get a better weapon.
also small teams and 1on1 are possible.
weapons are more different than just damage.
both teams fight for every small part of the map.
covers are more important.
everyone direct knows what he has to do.
even losing is fun.

[kharnov]

I want Unvanquished to be more than an upgrade to Tremulous. We have within our reach the capacity to expand beyond our initial aspirations, and we have already made great progress on this front. While we are descended from Tremulous and see ourselves as a continuation of the fundamental paradigm that originated in Gloom and has been transmitted through more than a decade, we must realize that by no means must we adhere to commonality with our mother project. To those that decry change for the sake of change, I counter with the reverse: why conserve for the sake of conservation? If we have been working on a successor project to Tremulous, we are by definition implementing our own changes where we see fit. Change is the founding principle of our project, and the main reason why so many of us have gotten into it after the stagnation, decline, and now death of Tremulous. The design principles of our forebears should be referred to for guidance, but they should not dictate our actions, whether future or present. We are not shaped by our lineage, but rather, we are shaping the next step in the evolution of the fundamental paradigm. This is our time, our moment. We are soaring beyond the boundaries of our predecessors, and I desire no less than to shoot for the stars.

[kangz]

I want Unvanquished to keep the core concepts of Tremulous: buildings, fast and melee aliens against slower and ranged humans. Also the game should be balanced for both public games and competition. But what's more important: I want a community and players I can actually play the game with. Today most people don't know what an arcade FPS game is and are more used to Modern Warfare 3 (even if some arcade FPS are quite successful on Steam). I think we should try to attract the broader public by hiding the arcade side of our game. Do do that we could for example add a more important squad system, more uses for the minimap, a fade to red/b&w when low on health. Lots of small details that are present in most of the modern games: if Unvanquished lacks these it will feel too "raw" for the new players.

I don't really care where the gameplay is going, as long as it is fun and somewhat fast-paced however I really believe that QA, coherency and a good user experienc are what matter (+ a social thing, if possible)

[gillux]

I want Unvanquished to be shiny, polished, as a well finished piece of art.

I’m often viewed as a geek encouraging open-source games no matter what, and I (was) having a hard time promoting them. Remember when the original Tremulous 1.1.0 were released with a bug that prevented servers to be sorted by ping? When I was introducing Tremulous to a friend of mine, that’s the first thing he pointed out to me. And he was right. I want the exact opposite. I want my friends to point me out things they find great. I want newbies to feel comfortable and amazed when they discover the game. I think the first impression is especially important because many players are gonna take a shot, like let's give this weird-named game a try, and then just do a game or two before throwing it away if it’s not appealing enough. Therefore, the ultimate release everyone is gonna try out must be perfect.

I think that well finished pieces of art are more likely to write history. And I want Unvanquished to write history. Take for instance Quake 3 Arena. It has been released more than ten years ago, but I still find it beautiful and entertaining because it has its own coherent and consitent style. Models, maps, weapons, sounds, pace, atmosphere, this all make it great as a whole. Just like Viech said I’d like Unvanquished to be recognized just from a small area of a random screenshot.