Spitfire: The New Flying Alien For The Swirl Game Mode

Development
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We are now testing on the [color=#33CC33]Granger[/color][color=#00E6E6]Lab[/color] server a new flying class called the “Spitfire”!

(post last updated September 4, 2018)

The spitfire code is originally base on the Hummel code from the Tremulous gpp mod Edge, but our spitfire code has been heavily updated since. The model/animations/textures are based on the Tremulous spitfire assets from the 1.1 mod KoRx and has been modified by @cron .

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The Spitfire currently has the following abilities/stats:

  • Jump

  • Fly:

    • Can can move left, right, forward, back, ascend, and descend.
    • Has lift and drag, the current settings require aiming a bit up to ascend by moving forward.

  • Hover:

    • Can’t ascend while hovering
    • Can slowly move left, right, forwards, and descend

  • Free Fall

    • Holding +movedown activates free fall mode
    • Useful for catching up to falling targets below you, using jump pads, and for when fast descent is desired in general.

  • Air pounce

    • Provides a quick linear burst in the direction you aim
    • Can be used to ascend
    • Delivers damage to enemies upon impact

  • Zap

    • Zaps up to 6 targets simultaneously within range without requiring aim (range is greater than Tesla zap range, but less than machine gun turret range).
    • Damage is divided over the number of simultaneously zapped targets, where zapping only one target at a time delivers the most damage, zapping two targets at the same time deals half damage to each, zapping 3 targets at the same time does 1/3 damage to each, and so on…
    • Deals more damage to grounded targets and targets in water

  • Available starting in alien stage 1

  • Worth 3 evos

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The assets that we are currently using for the spitfire is from yalt’s (aka Matth’s) Tremulous gpp mod Edge (we are going to need new assets for the spitfire at some point). also the code for the spitfire is originally based in part on the hummel from that mod.

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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH Tremulous is not dead enough, keep adding cancer gameplay and it will be done

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Will try it out SOON™. What exactly is the Spitfire’s role in the Swirl gamemode atm?

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is there any other option?

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lmao enne I just read your list XD . Clusterfuck it more!

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Not to detract from any of your hard work, it is nice and refreshing to see new aliens introduced into the game but I can’t help but be unimpressed solely based on the fact that the thing doesn’t even have it’s own skin, it’s just a weird basilisk/marauder love child. :frowning:

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The spitfire serves as a supportive and complementary class to the other aliens, bringing new capabilities to the table, while still not overshadowing the importance of the other classes. It is my hope that with the introduction of the spitfire (and the corresponding changes to the evolution tree), we should see more variation in alien class usage, more variation in human response, new strategies emerge, the dynamic should be very different, and the aliens should be less overpowered against humans compared to before.

The basics of using the Spitfire should be straight forward, while advanced usage should require mastering new skills.

At the moment the Spitfire replaces the the stage 1 basic goon. It also counters jet campers and gets to hard to reach locations, but at the same time jets can be useful against it (as the jets can’t be zapped if they are not grounded, but they can still be air pounced).

The zap doesn’t seem to be over powered against buildables, the rets can only be zapped while the rets can shoot back at the spitfire, So generally speaking, you would not have to worry about the human base being annihilated by the spitfire because the humans stepped away from the base for moment, any more than you would have to worry about that from the basic mara, basilisks, and dretch. With skill, the zap does have a chance to deal some meaningful strategic damage against buildables, and can be used to support attacks. It will be interesting to see what changes to the human building strategies will have to be employed.

As I’ve mentioned, the assets for the Spitfire is at the moment from yalt’s (aka Matth’s) Tremulous GPP mod Edge. We’re using those assets at the moment as a placeholder so that we can test and develop the game play aspects of the Spitfire now (as its game play and coding is my top priority for the Spitfire at the moment), and later we are going to have to have new assets made for it that would best fit with its new developed role and functionality. (Not to mention the current assets are “non-free” and we will want to have assets that are licensed cc-by, cc-by-sa, public domain, or equivalent).

I would like to add that while basics of the initial implementation is based in part on the code from yalt’s mod for the hummel, the flight movementof the Spitfire is already very different, and there are a substantial amount of new/different features/enhancements. I was very well familiar with the strengths and weaknesses the hummel had in a game play perspective (from playing and mastering it for many years), and I did get a good amount of inspiration from it as a starting point for what to do and what to not do for a flying alien.

Please elaborate on and clarify your question.

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nvm, i was thinking about buildings only

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If I ever get around to it s00n™(10 years form now) i’ll make a model for the spitfire maybe. :slight_smile:

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We are going to want a new model earlier than that :wink:

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Btw, now is a good time for experienced players (ie. @bird, @Maejong or our very own ,tremulous analyzer" etc.) after giving it due time, to point out the flaws in this new alien so it could hopefully be a welcome addition to the game in the future.

[spoiler] inb4 FUCKING DELETE THIS™. [/spoiler]

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You realize the Spitfire is a copy of something that has existed for years? GH should spare themselves the trouble of testing “new” features and just fork (New) EDGE.

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I see.

Classic case of me not reading the entire thread before posting :wink:

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The Spitfire has some basis on something that already existed, but is not a copy, as indicated above there are already major differences in the Spitfire’s initial’s implementation. But it can be said that New Edge’s hummel is almost exactly the same as yalt’s Edge’s hummel in terms of game play, and used the same exact assets that yalt made. Also, I’ve heard that yalt’s hummel’s game play is based on a flying alien from another Trem mod (while yalt’s Hummel’s model is based on Trem’s basilisk model with wings added). But that doesn’t mean that there weren’t some aspects of yalt’s Edge’s hummel that were good ideas, and some things were done right, while other things can be done better (which we have been working on addressing).

As a side note: New Edge was a mod of yalt’s Edge, yalt’s Edge was a gpp mod that predominantly included modifications from RCZ Unlimited and KoRx, Tremulous GPP was a modifcation of 1.1, RCZ Unlimited was a modification of Tremulous GPP and Tremulous 1.1, KoRx was a modification of Tremulous 1.1, Tremulous 1.1 was a modification was a modification of ioquake3 and based on the Tremulous mod of Quake III Arena, the original Tremulous mod of Quake III Arena may have also had ties to Gloom which was a DOOM 2 mod, ioquake3 was a modification of Quake III Arena, Quake III Arena was based on Quake II, which was based on Quake, not to mention the relations to the Wolfenstein series and DOOM series.

Having such developed contributions available from all those projects, and from many more FOSS modifications/projects ,as a resource for Tremulous development is a huge advantage of the GPL license. While there are many things that all of those projects could have done better, or lacked, or went in the wrong direction, there are many things that they did right that we can make use of, as well as learn from what they did wrong. For Tremulous 1.3, we aren’t looking to make a new game from scratch, but to continue the development of Tremulous to make it a much better version of itself.

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FOSS development in a nutshell.

Unless enough people aren’t happy with that implementation and coded their own implementation of a similar idea. “Their” free time is not “yours” to save.

Honestly, I’m more interested to see if the Spitfire sucks and how it can be improved to suck less.

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Then show up at the development games tomorrow on the test7341 server and see for yourself :wink: .

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Still using Marauder? :confused:

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The Marauder is still available, but I am thinking of changing how the marauder zap works (maybe even replace the mara zap completely with something else, but I’m not sure yet).

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YUS FLYING ALEIN!

IDK if this will ever be a part of regular game play but I’ll share my thoughts on it because it seems like it could be fun to play. But these are just my humble initial thoughts from trying it out for a couple minutes so don’t get offended if it disagrees with yours :wink:

I like idea of the air pounce, could be a good way to dodge projectiles. However, the charge thing kinda gets to me. I would say at least make it recharge quicker.

I, frankly, do not like the zap as a primary attack. seems underpowered and just plain un-alien. IMO, it should have some sort of bite like everything else. maybe a long range and fast attack speed but low damage?

To go along with that, it should be able to dog fight better. but srsly, if you do nothing else, make the thing faster on the ground. i think i get what you were trying to do with making it so slow but its kind of ridiculous.

Also, i suggest tweaking hover mode so it will actually stay at the level you initiate it. and it would be nice to be able to go backwards and strafe faster as well to help with attacking. maybe have it slowly drain flying energy while hovering?

As a side note, I think you should give the advanced version an EMP ability that scrambles helmets and makes jetpacks studder.

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