Terminal Overload

Terminal Overload (abbreviated TOL) is an experimental online multiplayer first-person shooter game. It is the free and open-source spiritual successor to Revenge Of The Cats: Ethernet and is currently in an early stage of development.

The source code is licensed under the MIT license and all media assets are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.

TOL's game logic is written in TorqueScript. The engine is a modified version of the MIT-licensed Torque3D game engine, which is written in C++.

Gameplay
Terminal overload is a fast team based multiplayer shooter with lots of air time in an open, low-gravity environment.

TOL has a unique feature that sets it apart from other arena shooters in the form of Ethernet mode. Ethernet mode is a combination of territory control with a creative spawning mechanic. The game also features Team Elimination mode, where players fight until only players from one team are still standing.

The game features multiple classes. Each class comes with its own set of weapons, drawbacks and advantages. Special weapons are target seeking "discs" that require a lock on enemy players, as well as the B.O.U.N.C.E. mechanism that pushes nearby but fast moving enemies far away. Players also need to keep an eye on their "anchoring" in order to not get blown away too far from incoming projectiles.

Ethernet mode
Ethernet mode is the unique mode of play that Terminal Overload is best known for.

In Ethernet mode the map is divided into several zones arranged in a linear manner, the first and last few of which are controlled by the two opposing teams. The goal of each round is to capture all zones on the map. Zones can only be captured in normal form ("CAT form"; a reference to the  utility in Unix).

Players don't die, but switch to etherform when out of health. In etherform, players can only recharge their health and damage damper and respawn as a class of their chocie. Switching back to CAT form is only possible inside a team zone.

Development
Terminal Overload is the result of a successful Indiegogo campaign to resurrect Revenge Of The Cats: Ethernet as an open-source project which raised $1697. ROTC:E was based on the now-defunct Torque Game Engine (TGE) so it shares almost no code with the Torque3D-based Terminal Overload. Because it was impossible for ROTC:E to be made free without TGE itself first being made free, the game had to be remade in a different engine.

The name was proposed by forum user and donor Evropi chosen after a donors' poll on April 3, 2014.

There can be multiple testing releases before a full release is made; for instance, there were four release candidates before version 0.3.0 was released. Testing releases are public and complemented with with regular playtesting sessions, arranged either on the forum or on the game's IRC channel.

TOL is primarily developed by its original author, Michael "fr1tz" Goldener, with some contributions from the open source community.

Funding
Development of Terminal Overload is funded through Patreon/Gratipay donations to fr1tz, as well as nick registrations for the player database.


 * fr1tz's Patreon page
 * fr1tz's Gratipay page
 * Player database registration ($5)

Version history
See Terminal Overload release history.