CocoT announces Transloquake

[CocoT]

It felt a little sad that most people would miss "modders" in the "I miss" thread as these forums really should be the last place on earth they should be missing
Anyway, since I don't know when exactly I'll be done with revamping my site, I thought I'd share with you news about one of the mods I've been working on (mainly before Christmas, but I do intend to catch up), called TRANSLOQUAKE.

To make a long story short, TRANSLOQUAKE is a single-player gamemode in which your translocator is the only "weapon" you'll use. The aim of the game is to translocate upon platforms that are scattered high above and below you, and catch different kinds of bonuses. Each level has a particular amount of keys which you have to grab in order to finish the level and get access to the next. Translocators have various strength modes, so that you'll need to master them in order to get exactly where you want.
Besides the difficulty of aiming right and translocating at the right moment, levels also offers various hazards which make your task harder and harder. Obviously, one of the main issues is that, if you miss a platform, you might end up falling a long way and have to restart your climb from down below again (if you're lucky enough not to fall, say, in lava ).
All maps are custom-made. At this point, three are done. Other ones are being worked on. My goal was to have 8 maps ready for the mod's first release. A bit of a long shot, I know. Among the ones that are done, one is a tutorial map teaching you, via centerprint text messages, the rules of the game, as well as how to properly use the various forms of translocators and the bonuses.
A couple of variations to the original rules are also being coded. They will probably be accessible to players as they progress from level to level.

Anticipating any Cheapalertesque comment, yes, the mod makes big use of good-looking skyboxes because I'm a crappy mapper and it looks good on screenshots. I like bells and whistles. They make funny sounds.

It's a lot of fun. At least I have fun playing it
On the down side, however, I'm going to be very busy with work in the next couple of months, so I'm not sure how much time I'll be able to spend on it. Things might get a little quieter in May/June, so I'll try to have some more maps ready by then and hopefuly release a first version of the mod. Until then, enjoy the screenshots

[CocoT]

'couple more for the road, showing you what you see as you get higher and higher (with a translocator, that is)

[Sajt]

Cool

For extra insanity you could add a rising wall and turn it into Hurried Ascent

But yeah, I love a good 'puzzle' mod (even if it's basically jumping puzzles). This should be a great addition to the Quake mods arsenal.

Oh, and the very first screenshot reminds me somehow of that town in Diablo2 Act 3... Lower/Upper Kurast / Travincal?

[Quake Matt]

Cool looking mod! Are you going to be making a rising lava level?

[neg!ke]

nice.
although i'm usually not particularly fond of puzzle/jump mods, it's still an interesting idea. think portal. definitely good to see some modding going on again.
plus this looks easy to map for.

[Spirit]

But yeah, I love a good 'puzzle' mod (even if it's basically jumping puzzles).

Me too, we need more puzzle/trick/exploration mods!
And this one looks fun!

[CocoT]

Thanks for your feeback, guys

I have never played Diablo that much, I must admit, so I don't know which level you're referring to, Sajt, but I'm honoured it should look like it

Hurried descent was an obvious influence, it's true. I still cannot believe that mod never got a multi-map sequel (I mean, there was talk of Hurried Descent 2, maybe it came out without me realizing it). In its current state, Transloquake makes it possible to play in a Hurried-Descent kind of way, as one of the hidden game modes (which, by the way, will be unlocked pretty easily) allows player to replay maps from the top instead of the bottom (which is usually where the game starts, even though it really does not need to).

As far as moving walls and rising lava is concerned, well, at this point there is none of that in the mod. I think my idea was to try not to make Transloquake turn into a Hurried-Descent clone but simultaneously make it possible for players and modders to turn it into that themselves if they want to (the mod is going to be fully open source, including maps (which hopefuly will make some people want to quickly build "remix" maps)). Transloquake is rather simple to map for, it's true. All the maps I've shown you so far need to polished up, but the only difficulty here is that it is sometimes tricky to add a lot of detail to these maps as the area is totally open and the frame rate can get hit pretty badly. There's still a lot of leeway, though. On the whole, a semi-experienced mapper wouldn't take more than a day or two to build a very nice-looking map for the mod. ... Anyway, yes, the idea is that, while I try not too be too optimistic about it, I hope maybe some people out there will be interested in making one or two custom-made maps for it and if they want to implement Hurried-Descent-style gameplay, Transloquake will be flexible enough to allow that

The mod was in fact first codenamed "Elevation", but then I thought it was not such a good name, it was too restrictive. Obviously, there are many things you can play with in terms of a mod that uses a translocator to get out of tricky situations. Up-and-down levels are a possibility, but then one could also imagine moving in other directions, or a combination of all. The maps will determine that.

Right now, one of the hidden game modes does force player into a very similar race-against-time form of challenge, though. In that mode, players start at the very bottom of a totally dark map (looks great using a night-inspired skybox) and see, rising from below them (usually from water, lava or slime) shiny balls (no, not the disco kind) that illuminates an smallish area around them. These balls sloooowly move up and up and, as you can guess, the aim here is to be able to catch up with them without falling because if you do, it becomes extremely hard to finish the level. It's visually really cool and on the gameplay side, well, it's different and new. Here are a couple screenshots.

[FrikaC]

This is the kind of thing I was thinking about in my "Non Killy Weapons" thread, although on a slightly smaller scale

[CocoT]

That thread was in the fact what triggered my reflection about a mod using translocators only

[FrikaC]

Well the thread was inspired by your INFRA-RED and Valve's Portal, so there's been some trading of inpsirations going on.

[CocoT]

This is great!

[Entar]

I really want to see CocoT's mods released! I was really excited about the screenshots and description of that Infra-red mod, but then it never got released... I hope you're still working on that

[CocoT]

Glad to see you're excited about this! ... and it encourages me to go further, which is good, uh?
Infra-Red is certainly not abandonned, but I admit I haven't done much work on it for a while. But still, rest assured: at this point, anyway, I do not intend to stop it

[RenegadeC]

Holy shiznits, that's cool. Great idea, finish this sir!

[xaGe]

Holy shiznits, that's cool. Great idea, finish this sir!

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..Ummm... I say the same to you sirC! ..Finish Taov already! lol...