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''Tremulous'' is a free and
open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...
asymmetric team-based
first-person shooter A first-person shooter (FPS) is a video game genre, video game centered on gun fighting and other weapon-based combat seen from a First person (video games), first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action directly through t ...
with
real-time strategy Real-time strategy (RTS) is a Video game genre, subgenre of strategy video games that does not progress incrementally in turn-based game, turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time." By contrast, in Turn-based strategy, tur ...
elements. Being a
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development project the game is available for
Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
,
Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...
, and
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. The game features two opposing teams: humans and aliens. Each team must attack the enemy's base and team members while defending their own base.


Gameplay

''Tremulous'' is an asymmetric team-based
first-person shooter A first-person shooter (FPS) is a video game genre, video game centered on gun fighting and other weapon-based combat seen from a First person (video games), first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action directly through t ...
with elements of real time strategy. Each team may construct and defend a base, consisting of structures which aid the players in some way. Players spawn from a
spawn Spawn or spawning may refer to: * Spawning, the eggs and sperm of aquatic animals Arts, entertainment and media * Spawn (character), a fictional character in the comic series of the same name and in the associated franchise ** ''Spawn: Armageddon' ...
structure. During a match, players may attack the enemy, or maintain the base and construct new structures. Humans utilize various weapons, armor and other upgrades, while aliens may evolve into more powerful classes, each of which possesses unique abilities. The teams do not have access to all possible upgrades and buildings at the beginning of the game. Each team must reach a threshold of frags in order to advance to the next developmental stage. The point at which a stage change occurs varies dynamically depending on the number of players on each team. Each new stage brings more upgrades for the humans and more classes for the aliens. In addition to requiring a certain stage, each human item or alien class must be purchased using currency earned in game. The aliens are awarded ''frags'' for killing their foes which may be used to evolve (these points are commonly called ''evolution points'' or ''evos'' by players). The Humans gain ''credits''. Players earn currency by killing enemy players or by destroying enemy spawn or power structures (''Reactor'' and ''Overmind''); the amount of received currency depends on what class the opponent was (or what structure was destroyed) and how much of the target's total damage was dealt by the killing player. As a mechanism to encourage builders, who naturally don't engage in combat, players are also rewarded currency every two minutes by simply staying alive. Builders are responsible for construction of new buildings and base maintenance. Each building takes up a certain number of build points available to each team. The number of build points can vary from map to map and server to server, limiting how large bases can become. To reduce the likelihood of the match ending in a tie, most games enter a ''sudden death'' mode ten to fifteen minutes before the draw/tie time limit. This is a period during which the building of most or all structures is prohibited, allowing attackers to more easily overwhelm the defenders.


Aliens

The alien base is centered on a structure called the "Overmind", which is needed for their other structures to function and new structures to be built. Unlike the Human team structures, aliens may build on walls and ceilings to tactically build. Eggs provide a ''creep'' which allows nearby alien structures to live and be built, allowing for aliens to easily build offensive forward bases. Without a creep, alien structures will self destruct. Aliens spawn from ''Eggs'' which work even when the Overmind is dead, but new eggs cannot be built without it. As they earn ''frags'', alien players can evolve into a new form in order to upgrade their health and gain new abilities. As the vast majority of alien attacks are melee attacks, most of these creatures depend on agility and special movement techniques such as wall-walk, wall-jump, charging and pouncing over long distances to close the distance between themselves and their enemy. Alien players and structures automatically regenerate over time.


Humans

Humans spawn from structures called "Telenodes", which function in much the same way as aliens' eggs. At the core of the human base is the "Reactor", responsible for powering nearly all other base equipment. If it is destroyed, the ''Reactor'' will explode unless ''deconstructed'' (removed by a builder), often critically damaging or eliminating nearby players and structures and leaving automated defenses and upgrade structures unpowered; if it is not immediately replaced the human team is usually defeated. Humans do not have different classes; instead they can buy and sell upgrades at a structure called the "Armory". These upgrades include armor,
jet pack A jet pack, rocket belt, rocket pack or flight pack is a device worn as a backpack which uses jets to propel the wearer through the air. The concept has been present in science fiction for almost a century and the first working experimental d ...
s, and
weapon A weapon, arm, or armament is any implement or device that is used to deter, threaten, inflict physical damage, harm, or kill. Weapons are used to increase the efficacy and efficiency of activities such as hunting, crime (e.g., murder), law ...
ry. Human players do not automatically regenerate health over time, however they are equipped with a one-time use medkit which heals the remaining health at the time of activation over a period of time, and can be replenished at a medical station.


Development

''Tremulous''s development by the Dark Legion group commenced in early 2000 as a
modification Modification may refer to: * Modifications of school work for students with special educational needs * Modifications (genetics), changes in appearance arising from changes in the environment * Posttranslational modifications, changes to prote ...
for the commercial computer game ''
Quake III Arena ''Quake III Arena'' is a 1999 first-person shooter game developed by id Software. The third installment of the ''Quake'' series, ''Arena'' differs from previous games by excluding a story-based single-player mode and focusing primarily on mult ...
''. The gameplay is generally inspired by the ''
Quake II ''Quake II'' is a 1997 first-person shooter, first-person shooter game developed by id Software and published by Activision. It is the second installment of the Quake (series), ''Quake'' series, following ''Quake (video game), Quake''. Develope ...
'' modification ''Gloom'', which also features alien vs human teams with distinct user classes. Although, Tremulous shares no content with Gloom or other similar themed games from around the same time. Another game with features similar to ''Tremulous'' was ''
Natural Selection Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the Heredity, heritable traits characteristic of a population over generation ...
'', but developers say it is neither based on it nor inspired by it. According to the developers, development on the game began long before '' NS'' became publicly available. Following the release of the ''Quake III Arena''
source code In computing, source code, or simply code or source, is a plain text computer program written in a programming language. A programmer writes the human readable source code to control the behavior of a computer. Since a computer, at base, only ...
under the
GPL The GNU General Public Licenses (GNU GPL or simply GPL) are a series of widely used free software licenses, or ''copyleft'' licenses, that guarantee end users the freedom to run, study, share, or modify the software. The GPL was the first c ...
on August 19, 2005, the developers decided to rework ''Tremulous'' into a standalone, free and open source game. ''Tremulous'' is licensed under the
GPL The GNU General Public Licenses (GNU GPL or simply GPL) are a series of widely used free software licenses, or ''copyleft'' licenses, that guarantee end users the freedom to run, study, share, or modify the software. The GPL was the first c ...
, although it includes code from other projects that was released under other GPL-compatible licenses. Most of the game media is licensed under the
CC BY-SA A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work". A CC license is used when an author wants to give other people the right to share, use, and bui ...
2.5
Creative Commons license A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work". A CC license is used when an author wants to give other people the right to share, use, and bu ...
. Its initial standalone version 1.0.0 was released on August 11, 2005. With the stable version 1.1.0 released on March 31, 2006, the game change its game engine to
ioquake3 id Tech 3, popularly known as the ''Quake III Arena'' engine, is a game engine developed by id Software for its 1999 game ''Quake III Arena''. It has subsequently been used in numerous games. Commercially, id Tech 3 competed with early version ...
, a modified
id Tech 3 id Tech 3, popularly known as the ''Quake III Arena'' engine, is a game engine developed by id Software for its 1999 game ''Quake III Arena''. It has subsequently been used in numerous games. Commercially, id Tech 3 competed with early version ...
engine. In 2008, Tony J. White of the ETPub mod for '' Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory'', contributed an administrative system and a
backport Backporting is the action of taking parts from a newer version of a software system or software component and porting them to an older version of the same software. It forms part of the maintenance step in a software development process, and it i ...
ed client that were soon incorporated into the official
Subversion Subversion () refers to a process by which the values and principles of a system in place are contradicted or reversed in an attempt to sabotage the established social order and its structures of Power (philosophy), power, authority, tradition, h ...
repository. The latest public build version on the icculus repository is 1.2 beta "Gameplay Preview" (aka GPP), released on December 4, 2009 with the latest updates released on November 8, 2011. A ''Tremulous''
continuation In computer science, a continuation is an abstract representation of the control state of a computer program. A continuation implements ( reifies) the program control state, i.e. the continuation is a data structure that represents the computat ...
from ''Dark Legion'' has its
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repository migrated to
GitHub GitHub () is a Proprietary software, proprietary developer platform that allows developers to create, store, manage, and share their code. It uses Git to provide distributed version control and GitHub itself provides access control, bug trackin ...
and is not under active development (last commit June 2016).


Derivatives

'' Unvanquished'' is a ''Tremulous''-based FPS with another engine (Daemon), which was first released publicly in 2012 and is under active development. It includes many original maps and is able to run ''Tremulous'' maps with some distributed in a community pack. Some ''Unvanquished'' official maps were community maps for ''Tremulous''. ''Murnatan'', which is currently in development by the Czech development team, AAA Games, is the game based on a ''Tremulous'' server
modification Modification may refer to: * Modifications of school work for students with special educational needs * Modifications (genetics), changes in appearance arising from changes in the environment * Posttranslational modifications, changes to prote ...
which was worked on by the same lead developer of AAA Games, but due to licensing problems, has had some changes away from its previous title ''Tremulous 2'' and concept work, many of which was already completed. The title was approved for
Steam Greenlight Steam is a digital distribution service and storefront developed by Valve. It was launched as a software client in September 2003 to provide video game updates automatically for Valve's games and expanded to distributing third-party titles in l ...
within 7 days.


Reception

Joe Barr of
NewsForge Geeknet, Inc. is an American company that is a subsidiary of GameStop based in Fairfax County, Virginia. The company was formerly known as VA Research, VA Linux Systems, VA Software, and SourceForge, Inc. History VA Research VA Research was foun ...
called ''Tremulous'' his favorite
free software Free software, libre software, libreware sometimes known as freedom-respecting software is computer software distributed open-source license, under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, distribut ...
FPS game. ''Tremulous'' was voted ''Player's Choice Standalone Game of the Year'' in Mod Database's ''Mod of the Year'' 2006 competition. ''Tremulous'' later came in first in a "Best free game based on GPL Quake source?" poll on the Planet Quake website. At the beginning of 2007, ''Tremulous'' also took first place in the Mod Database "Mod of the Year" 2006 competition under the category of "Player's Choice Standalone Game of the Year" as well as honorable mentions in "Genre Award: Action" and "Editor's Choice Standalone Game of the Year". ''Tremulous'' was also mentioned in
Games for Windows Games for Windows is a former brand owned by Microsoft and introduced in 2006 to coincide with the release of the Windows Vista operating system. The brand itself represents a standardized technical certification program and online service for ...
(formerly
Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American Video game journalism, computer game magazine that was published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 199 ...
): 101 Free Games Issue for 2007. ''Tremulous'' was selected in March 2010 as "HotPick" by
Linux Format ''Linux Format'' was the UK's first Linux-specific magazine, and as of 2013 was the best-selling Linux title in the UK. It was also exported to many countries worldwide. It was published by Future plc (which produces a number of other computer ma ...
.Linux Format 129 march 2010
page 71


See also

*
List of free first-person shooters This is a list of some of the most popular freeware and free and open-source software first-person shooter games. Freeware clients Some free-to-play online first-person shooters use a client–server model, in which only the client is availa ...
*
id Tech 3 id Tech 3, popularly known as the ''Quake III Arena'' engine, is a game engine developed by id Software for its 1999 game ''Quake III Arena''. It has subsequently been used in numerous games. Commercially, id Tech 3 competed with early version ...
*
List of open source games This is a list of notable open-source video games. Open-source video games are assembled from and are themselves open-source software, including public domain games with public domain source code. This list also includes games in which the engine ...
*
List of video games derived from modifications A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...


References


External links


''Tremulous'' official website
{{Quake series 2006 video games First-person shooters AmigaOS 4 games Linux games Windows games Classic Mac OS games Strategy video games Multiplayer online games Quake III Arena mods First-person strategy video games Open-source video games Creative Commons-licensed video games Asymmetrical multiplayer video games