We weren’t kidding about working on a flying alien!

The new alien, tentatively titled the shrike, vulture, or talon, will be our first original alien form. Unlike past Tremulous mods, some of which featured their own rather small flying aliens, the main body of our flying alien will be somewhere around the marauder in size, while the large, draconic wings will widen out into an impressive wing span. Rather than hovering, the alien will soar around, and its attacks will tentatively involve swooping down at opponents, roughly like pouncing from the air. In addition, it will be able to attack up close automatically like a dretch, as it would be far too irritating for it to require timed attacks when moving around at high speeds. We may possibly allow it to stick to walls, depending on how things go. It will not be totally helpless on the ground, but it will be best to stay in flight when possible.

As for much of our new concept art, the flying alien design has been created by Alex B. O’Dowd. We are in the process of modeling it, and it is being done by Sergio “Cupside” Anes, who has done the new basilisk model that you may have seen in screenshots posted on Twitter. In the meantime, `Ishq has been coding the flight mechanics. We may use something less extreme for the human jetpack, which we also do not want to simply hover in place.

Stay tuned for more!