Human building models

The state of our human base models.

More than half of our human buildings are in-game already, and the remaining three are being worked on, so the human team in general will probably be the first to have a complete new model set. We have already dropped the defense computer from Tremulous, and we are almost certainly dropping the tesla generator, which may or may not be replaced by another building in the future. In addition, we will be adding the rocket pod once the model is complete, a mid-range defense structure meant to quickly take out smaller aliens at the cost of a slower rate of fire than the standard turret.

Reactor

Our single largest human base model, which naturally provides an attractive, useful target for the alien team. The model is very complex and has multiple sets of texture maps, much like the tyrant. It took a long time to complete, but the wait was certainly worth it. The gameplay mechanics for it have not been changed, and it is unlikely that its function will be altered in any way. You are still meant to take out the reactor in order to massively cripple the human team.

Turret

We got this model in-game not too long after the acid tube, its counterpart on the alien team. Much like the acid tube, the turret provides automated defense to the human base and can shred even larger aliens when placed carefully in groups. We altered the mechanics of it to deal more damage at close range, and it remains to be seen how this affects things. The model itself is final, but we may need to fix a certain animation anomaly involving the ammo box.

Rocket pod

This model is a work in progress and will provide a mid-game defense for human bases. It fires unguided rockets that will instantly kill a dretch, and deal heavy damage to other aliens. The catch is that the rockets can be dodged if you can move fast enough, and the rate of fire is slower than the turret. It will use the same base as the turret model but with a different weapon attachment on top.

Telenode

Added in a recent release, the telenode is the human spawn structure. The model looks great and the gameplay can be considered stable, unless we decide to do something fancy involving moving between telenodes, but that is to be debated later on. If anything, we’d play around with the spawning animation. Creating a new particle effect would be desirable, and will probably happen as we move closer to beta.

Medistation

This model was actually finished during pre-alpha, but we didn’t add it until last year. It was originally placed in our archives as we weren’t sure of how we wanted to handle texture animations, but we ultimately decided to just let it glow. Much like the telenode, if there’s anything we do to the model, it will probably involve the healing effect. A nice particle system would be desirable.

Armory

Currently in development, the new armory model has passed the modeling stage and will be textured soon. It presents a cylindrical design in contrast to the old green box in Tremulous, with multiple consoles placed around the structure, meant to represent how you are able to reload and buy weapons from any position around it. The hitbox will very likely be changed too, and you might have a harder time getting on top of it to camp.

Repeater

We are repurposing an old, proposed tesla design into a repeater. It will vaguely resemble the reactor in the way it has a spinning component rotating around the central core, and there might be some particle effects involved as well. Work will likely begin after the rocket pod has been completed. 

Drill

One of our more recent structures, the drill provides the human team with resource extraction in a convenient, ergonomic design. The model itself is finished, but we are currently investigating a shading issue with the textures in our renderer. In the meantime, make sure to build as many of these as you can, as far apart as possible to maximize your resources.