Kreedz Climbing

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This mod for Source is currently in open beta. Download it now.

KZMOD screenshot - click to enlarge

Overview

Kreedz Climbing (KZMOD) is a unique, non-violent, puzzle-type modification for Half-Life 2 where the player attempts to climb or jump his or her way to the top of a given environment, in a race against time and against other players.

Derived from the 'kz' climbing levels found in CS 1.6, kzmod seeks to elevate climbing, strafing and bhop to the next level of graphics and gameplay with new maps, new features and new modes of play. There is no death in this mod: the player is equipped with only a climber's tool for use against breakable environmental obstructions.

Scenarios in KZMOD range from realistic maps with natural or city settings, to outer-space, surrealism or the just plain weird - designs are completely open to the level designers themselves. Beat the maps as quickly as you can - build your skill when you beat your previous best time (or finish the map!), or record a demo and set a World Record for others to download and admire.

All you have to do is practice, train and persevere - fortunately for new climbers, a comprehensive training map is also available!

KZMOD is compatible with standalone HL2- episodes 1 and 2 are not needed to play this mod.

History

A first public beta was released on 17 March 2006, and is available for download for both offline and online play.

On 7 August 2006 SoUlFaThEr, the author of the mod, suddenly suffered a mechanical hard drive failure that destroyed the mod and thoroughly stopped all development of it. Design progress was stalled as the devteam attempted to fix a crippling location mapping bug known as the "wall bug".

On 31 January 2007, development on the mod restarted. With a new programmer, a few mappers, and everyone who had worked on it before, plans were made to change the face of the game to offer more things similar to "climbing" rather than jumping only. Planned additions included a usable bungee rope, surfing, jumping,and a functional world record system.

Status

As of December 2008, KZMOD is now at Beta 4. The "wall bug" location correction error has been fixed, and many additional features have been added to the mod.

Features

Recent added features in KZMOD include:

Community: KZMOD has a small but active community without the swearing and infantile behavior that comes standard with most violent hl2 mods. Thanks to the relatively gradual mapping requirements and easily accessible devteam, novice and experienced mappers can and do make maps for KZMOD.

Checkpoint systems: Amateur climbers can use checkpoints to save their position and return to it in case they make a mistake. Server variables can be used to set a limit on, or remove, checkpoints from online play.

Bungee Cord: A mechanic that lets climbers use tension force to swing and sling from one area of a map to another. Mappers can create "bungee courses" by creating areas with specific bungee targets for climbers to swing from. Some maps reward climbers for completion with a bungee cord that attaches to everything.

Paint Tool: A "weapon" that lets climbers write in different colors on the map environment, used to make drawings or leave messages for other climbers.

Flares: Climbers can now fire objects that function similarly to the env flare entity, for illuminating dark areas. A map type involving firing flares at targets is now under development.

Legbreak: An entity that can be bound to various hazardous objects in maps, allowing for traps and obstacle course gameplay. Climbers who hit legbreak are rendered in a ragdoll state, then teleported backward to a set location in the map.

World Records: Using the standalone KCAC(Kreedz Climbing Anti-Cheat) program to monitor for program manipulation, climbers can record demos of their speedruns of different courses, then submit them online for entry into the world records list.

Media

KZMOD screenshot - click to enlarge
KZMOD screenshot - click to enlarge
KZMOD screenshot - click to enlarge

External links