TremZ: development and discussion

[kharnov]

Hi folks!

As you're probably well aware by now, our development team has been working on a project, which we've given the working name of TremZ (subject to change upon release). In this thread, I'll be posting development updates every week, possibly even bi-weekly due to the enormous amount of progress we've been making. You can also ask questions, which I'll answer as soon as possible. The projected release date for TremZ is this December.

TremZ will always remain free and open source.

And now for some expected questions:

TremZ FAQ

Just what exactly is TremZ?

To put it simply, it is the evolution of Tremulous. Having grown frustrated with the stagnant state of the game, we have taken it upon ourselves to provide the update that everyone has been waiting for, to save the community from extinction at the hands of those that care little for it. With our can-do attitude, we've been making enormous strides, doing everything from overhauling the engine to providing you with shiny, cool new models and even providing new gameplay features and other exciting things. What has been taking the original developers many uneventful years, we are accomplishing in three months.

What are some of the development goals?

• Actual VoIP support, team based.
• Achievements and awards.
• New maps with a commercial feel.
• Updated, modern interface.
• SQL-based admin system to interface with web applications.
• Updated sounds.
• Awesome gameplay features.
• Brand new web features.
• Updated engine, client and server.
• Development toolkits.
• Updated install files.
• Cleaning up game code.
• New weapons and classes!
• Female models!

Will TremZ be compatible with 1.1 and GPP?

No. TremZ has an updated engine, along with new binaries and a new master server. It will not be compatible with previous versions of Tremulous, but we will still include a "classic" mode so that you can play a properly balanced GPP using the same gameplay mechanics that you are used to.

Are you affiliated with Darklegion Development?

No. We are a completely distinct development team. Having pooled our efforts together, we make enormous leaps of progress that will be documented in this thread.

Can I join your development team?

Yes! We are very welcome to suggestions from the community, and if you have a useful skill, you can join us. We currently have 2-6 people in each task, but if you can contribute at our rapid pace, feel free to send me an email at kharnov@gmail.com.  I am the project's head of public relations, and I can discuss your admission with Volt. The tasks, by the way, are: engine coding, game coding, bot coding, mapping, modeling, 2D texturing, sounds, and story. There is no hard limit on how many people can contribute.

Will you have a new site up?

Yes, and a new forum as well. The site and forums have already been designed, but they won't be made public until after we've made our public release this December. Moderator applications will likely be set up a couple of weeks before we're finished.

Will TremZ be on Steam?

Yes, we have contacted Steam representatives. Once we work our way through some checkpoints, the game will be very likely downloadable from Steam.

Do you have an IRC channel?

Yes, we have one private one for development, and a public one that has just been set up. Feel free to lurk on #tremz on Freenode.

Progress update, 09/21/11

The engine overhauls, finished by this coming Sunday:

• Modern OpenGL 3.2 renderer, based on XreaL
• MySQL relational database management system
• Ruby support for system administrators
• Newton game physics
• Built-in IRC lobby
• Dynamic OpenSSL libraries
• OGG Vorbis audio decoding
• OpenAL sound API support
• OGV Theora compression format
• In-engine VoIP support
• Mumble positional audio support
• Localization for other languages
• Dropping of the QVM format, support for a .dll and .so architecture

Screenshot of the week:

[CreatureofHell]

Who is "we"?

[GeneralScott]

Whoah! I just saw the word "Steam." Wow. I really didn't see that coming. That's really really ambitious. You guys should also have a website for TremZ so you won't have to send everyone to a million links and etc.

[kharnov]

Who is "we"?

We haven't come up with a name for our development team, but at the moment, our developers would like to stay a little secret because of the enormous amount of emails they'd be getting.

However, I can give you this hint: if someone is a long-time modeler or mapper in this community, or has been involved with earlier projects for Tremulous, they're likely already on our team. I believe at last count, we have about 20 developers, all of them working in teams on each component of the game.

[GeneralScott]

So you guys completely overhauled the q3 engine in what... a week? People have spent more than a week arguing in forum posts about how impossible doing that was....

[kharnov]

Whoah! I just saw the word "Steam." Wow. I really didn't see that coming. That's really really ambitious. You guys should also have a website for TremZ so you won't have to send everyone to a million links and etc.

All in the works.

So you guys completely overhauled the q3 engine in what... a week? People have spent more than a week arguing in forum posts about how impossible doing that was....

We don't argue. We do.

[Haraldx]

Hah, checked those pictures in Volt's post. What's with these slightly... well... somehow looking screenshots?



Doggy style in the last picture?

And what is this? Somekind of turret that comes from the ground when aliens appear on site?

[kharnov]

Haraldx, those first two screenshots are the priestess that one of our developers made for the old Unvanquished project. Just some silly playing around with models.

The turrets are a concept we've been playing around with. We'll have more to report on them in a few days.

[ziplocpeople]

So you guys completely overhauled the q3 engine in what... a week? People have spent more than a week arguing in forum posts about how impossible doing that was....

We don't argue. We do.

From my understanding it's not the fact that it would be impossible to overhaul ioq3, but rather that if the Tremulous dev team were to do so they'd also need/want new/better assets to accompany them; something that takes a lot of skill and time to do. The TremZ team is apparently doing all of that, and are able to do so because they picked up a lot of skilled people in a rather short amount of time. Meanwhile Darklegion is standing by the proven to be solid/stable ioq3 engine, with very few modifications.

[SPK]

TremZ making it into Steam... awesome, that's the best thing I could hear

[cron]

Sorry bro, but there's no open source games on Steam for now.

[kharnov]

Sorry bro, but there's no open source games on Steam for now.

For now.

If we can't do it by then, we'll have something else figured out.

[RAKninja-Decepticon]

What are some of the development goals?

• Achievements and awards.
• New maps with a commercial feel.
• Awesome gameplay features.
• Brand new web features.
• Female models!

• you'll want to be careful about that.  those can easily lead to bad gameplay, depending on what the goals are set as. at best expect a couple of players to be playing "loltastically" for the objective of an achievement, rather than "properly, focused on the objective of the team.  at worst expect servers full of idlers.  i've never played tf2, but i have heard "horror stories" all stemming from achievement type mechanics.
• "commercial"?  what do you mean?  as in more "professional" or less "hobbyist"?   why havent these people been flooding the trem we have with more "commercial" maps?  do you mean the maps will be more balanced?  more complex?  what?
• like what?
• like what?
• force models option for those of us that do not want, please.

Will TremZ be on Steam?

Yes, we have contacted Steam representatives. Once we work our way through some checkpoints, the game will be very likely downloadable from Steam.

expect a flood of players for 4~6 months, then a trickle comparable to what trem gets now with being included in repositories and such.  i, personally, would not want to be in such "proximity" to the kinds of users steam will bring.  steam accepts mods made in q3 based engines rather than their own q3 mod - source?  it's been about two years, granted, but the last time i browsed the selection of "free games" on steam, they were all source mods.  pvkii and eternal silence come to mind.

aside from the questions and concerns above, and the (in my personal opinion) mostly bad alien concepts, i'll likely be giving this a try upon release.  it is also good to see how much some dedicated individuals can do when they put their mind to it.  it is a damn shame that the productivity of your team has not really been allowed to help speed up our current trem's development.

[CreatureofHell]

Sorry bro, but there's no open source games on Steam for now.

CRON!!!!!!!

[kharnov]

Commercial as in more professional looking maps with interesting gameplay. Yes, more balanced and complex. We're not going to have garbage joke maps like Megaprocyon. The gameplay features we can't reveal just yet, but we'll be teasing you with them over the coming months. Same with web features.

it is a damn shame that the productivity of your team has not really been allowed to help speed up our current trem's development.

Our development team has an open, meritocratic model. If you can contribute something, have the time, are not burned out, and can work in a team, we'll take you. We are not separate from the community. We will listen to all concerns, and base gameplay decisions not off some spreadsheet, but rather off of what you folks are interested in, as long as it can be balanced.

Also, here. Have a work-in-progress granger. We'll likely be making the tusks blunt and the legs shorter and fatter. What a granger.




And here's a special bonus, a turret concept we just made today!

[CreatureofHell]

Commercial as in more professional looking maps with interesting gameplay. Yes, more balanced and complex. We're not going to have garbage joke maps like Megaprocyon. The gameplay features we can't reveal just yet, but we'll be teasing you with them over the coming months. Same with web features.

You're going to enforce strict rules on maps unlike the open-minded Darklegion Development?

[kharnov]

You're going to enforce strict rules on maps unlike the open-minded Darklegion Development?

I'm referring to our default maps.

[vcxzet]

guys you are funny.
Dark Legion Development is no more.
It is disbanded years ago.
Tremulous is currently maintained(derp...) by Mercenaries Guild(aka we-rock-you-suck-procrastinate-all-day-ignore-everyone) Development and their minions.

[RAKninja-Decepticon]

default maps for current trem being: ACTS, Nivius, Nexus, Nano, and Tremor?

acts, the most popular, is basically a killbox slightly modified to take advantage of the strengths of both teams.  it is simple and fun, no one really has a glaring advantage because of this map.  i am not sure how it could be made more "commercial", or professional.

nivius and nexus are both good.  they are not as "balanced" as atcs, but they are good, and asymmetrical.  my only real issues are the extra fluff on the walls and ceilings that like to send you flying off in a random direction when wallwalking.  hard to see room for improvement there.

nano has the same issue to a greater degree, in addition to being another symmetrical killbox variation.  it seems to me to be slightly biased towards the humans by way of its large, unbroken by cover, space in the middle.  this is in contrast to the atcs bunker which provides quite a bit of cover.

tremor needs the most work because not only do both default bases really suck, the long hallways, shit on the walls and ceilings, slow doors, and large rooms are really biasing in the human's favor.

except in the case of tremor, or any other maps that are considered default that i did not list, i do not see how you can make more professional default maps.  this is barring overall improvements such as adding shaders and overall improvements to the engine.  all trem maps can be vastly improved with such.

[Lecavalier]

Commercial as in more professional looking maps with interesting gameplay. Yes, more balanced and complex. We're not going to have garbage joke maps like Megaprocyon.

Just promis not do do-away with the very simple maps and that's great

That looks like a pokemon

[vcxzet]

Lecavalier, that is a hermit crab

[ACKMAN]

you'll want to be careful about that.  those can easily lead to bad gameplay, depending on what the goals are set as. at best expect a couple of players to be playing "loltastically" for the objective of an achievement, rather than "properly, focused on the objective of the team.  at worst expect servers full of idlers.  i've never played tf2, but i have heard "horror stories" all stemming from achievement type mechanics.

Idling in TF2 and it's achievements aren't related in any way. People idle to get new items. Achievements only grow your e-pen. There are "achievement servers" which some people use to get them quickly, on these servers you can find bots to kill with ease or maps that have some elements that can be helpful.

expect a flood of players for 4~6 months, then a trickle comparable to what trem gets now with being included in repositories and such.  i, personally, would not want to be in such "proximity" to the kinds of users steam will bring.  steam accepts mods made in q3 based engines rather than their own q3 mod - source?  it's been about two years, granted, but the last time i browsed the selection of "free games" on steam, they were all source mods.  pvkii and eternal silence come to mind.

Steam started supporting free games since TF2 went free to play. Now you can find several free games besides Source mods(there are only a few, tho).

[Lecavalier]

Yes, its design was based on the hermit crab. Very good

[kharnov]

Here's a pulse rifle! You can see the hand attached too, it's part of the model. Now you can see the hand while you wield your gun.

[SPK]

Is it possible to avoid change the current granger model??  T_T
It wont be the same anymore without it. It was so cute...

[kharnov]

Is it possible to avoid change the current granger model??  T_T
It wont be the same anymore without it. It was so cute...

Well, since GT is involved in the project, I can assure you, the new granger will be absolutely adorable. You will want to meet that granger.

[CreatureofHell]

Is it possible to avoid change the current granger model??  T_T
It wont be the same anymore without it. It was so cute...

Well, since GT is involved in the project, I can assure you, the new granger will be absolutely adorable. You will want to meet that granger.

I am sorry but is TremZ about to indulge in fan service?

[kharnov]

I am sorry but is TremZ about to indulge in fan service?

Granger is NOT for what you're thinking of. 

[Tremulant]

So you guys completely overhauled the q3 engine in what... a week? People have spent more than a week arguing in forum posts about how impossible doing that was....

We don't argue. We do.

Well, that was enlightening...

[RAKninja-Decepticon]

I am sorry but is TremZ about to indulge in fan service?

Granger is NOT for what you're thinking of. 

granger is for platonic friendship.

i like that granger model btw.  i'd "de-cone" the abdomen, but overall, it's nice.