Hi-Rez buys Tribes IP; plans MMO

[Mrbloodworth]

I have tried adding everyone, can't add: Arashikaze


My one suggestion to Highrez at this point is to mark friends differently than the rest of the team. Really hard to pick your friend out of the crowded.

[Malakili]

I have tried adding everyone, can't add: Arashikaze


My one suggestion to Highrez at this point is to mark friends differently than the rest of the team. Really hard to pick your friend out of the crowded.

Yeah, the friends system seems really tacked on right now to begin with, just seems like you can join their server and see if they are online and that is about it.

The more I play the more I am not sure how I feel about the fact that you spawn with your loadout.  It feels like if I play pretty much anything other than "defend the flag" or "attack the flag" I'm really useless to my team.  I used to really like taking out base defense and generators, etc, but that seeems a lot less viable way to play because even if you kill eveyrone and their generator, they are going to come back with their full loadout 10 seconds later.  It makes playing offensive heavy armor feel questionable.

Yeah, definitely cresting that hill where the shiny has worn off and things are getting a little iffy as I start to see where the imbalances are.   Hopefully they can sort this stuff out during beta.  As near as I can tell doing anything but flag running is wasting time.

[Mrbloodworth]

Tribes Beta - Week One Highlights

[Malakili]

Tribes Beta - Week One Highlights

Neat video.

[Malakili]

New patch out.  Bella Nova is a really neat map, it feels the "tribesiest" of the maps so far to me.    Also, I got the Sentinel loadout (sniper), and its actually a lot of fun to play and insanely good on defense.

The key to enjoying this game is trying to play Tribes: Ascend instead of Tribes 2.  When I try to play like I played T2, I've been getting annoyed, but when I put away my expectation and take advantage of what is there for me, its quite good.  I think I made that observation before, but it has become more apparent to me after sort of getting real annoyed at the ranger loadout for a while for its rifle.   It just means you have to play differently, and now that I'm leaning to account for those weapons, I'm having more fun.   Its REALLY easy to get caught in the mindset of "fucking stupid skillless hit scan bullshit" etc, but its in the game and just accepting the fact that its a thing you need to learn to beat is the only sane thing to do.

[Mrbloodworth]

I like the new changes. Feels good. Only issue I am having is now I have some stuttering during matches, likely caused by an over abundance of mipping, gridding and lod swapping. I personally don't think the old tribes players are providing any useful feedback. 

[Malakili]

I like the new changes. Feels good. Only issue I am having is now I have some stuttering during matches, likely caused by an over abundance of mipping, gridding and lod swapping. I personally don't think the old tribes players are providing any useful feedback.  

I do think there are some real problems with chasing being way too easy.  It seems like they traded the ability to set up good defense for the ability to chase cappers much easier, and I think the game loses a lot of depth because of it.   If I could make two changes it would be 1) reduce effective range on hit scan weapons (maybe minus the sniper rifle), and make it so you need to go to an inventory station to get your loadout.  I think these 2 changes would solve pretty much every problem I have with the game.   The meta game is still really young, so maybe we will see more solid defenses as things go, but as the game stands the game feels much more shallow than previous versions.  It plays well, it feels good, as you say, but I don't know if this is a game I will play for years on end like I did with previous versions.   Like I said in my previous post, its good if you take it as it is, but I can't shake the feeling that it could be REALLY GREAT with just a few tweaks.

[Mrbloodworth]

I agree mostly. But there is so much missing right now. It feels more like an alpha. Many vehicles, game modes, overview map, base systems, and weapon balance is not there. Seems they are focusing on maps and movement. So I'm really taking it for what it is.

[Malakili]

I agree mostly. But there is so much missing right now. It feels more like an alpha. Many vehicles, game modes, overview map, base systems, and weapon balance is not there. Seems they are focusing on maps and movement. So I'm really taking it for what it is.

If that is true, I'm fine with it.  I'm unable to login to their forums for whatever reason (support seems unable to help me, but I digress), so if they are saying "this is really early, there are more modes, vehicles, etc coming" then I'll back off on some of my criticisms, but I've been getting the vibe that it wasn't *that* early a build.

[Ice Cream Emperor]

Damnit, I stop following this thread somehow and all the beta keys go poof!

Anyways, wtf is a 'light spinfusor'? In general these loadouts seem way too specialized/walled-off. Like 'we need this guy for the shield, then this other guy for the mine, then this other guy because he has the good gun...' I dunno, I feel the pernicious influence of pay-to-win at work.

[Ice Cream Emperor]

Holy shit, playing this game is like freebasing nostalgia. I swear my eyes teared up when I hit my first flag carrier with a mid-air disc.

The only problem is that I used to play with my mouse inverted, but no longer do; so all my modern instincts in terms of basic movement require that I use an uninverted mouse to avoid total disorientation, but then whenever I try to perform a Tribes-specific, muscle-memory-hard-coded action (most notably, a disc jump), I do so expecting an inverted mouse.

So my disc jump actually mostly looks like me shooting a disc straight up for no reason.

[Malakili]

Some fun stuff:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fc-qosmKJqk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aHHp1oDXUM

[Malakili]

Annnnd cheats are already happening.  Was just in a game where some guy was speedhacking, managed to get the flag through the out of bounds grid with it :-/  Hope they have a plan for this kind of shit.

[Mrbloodworth]

They just added another great patch. Seems like they are doing small weekly patches.

[Malakili]

They just added another great patch. Seems like they are doing small weekly patches.

Seems like a good patch all around, I especially like the ui changes.

[Malakili]

I have three more beta keys to hand out if anyone wants them, just reply here if you want one.

[HaemishM]

I have three more beta keys to hand out if anyone wants them, just reply here if you want one.

I'll gladly take one.

[Mrbloodworth]

Add me when you get settled. 

[Ice Cream Emperor]

Honestly I just don't understand why there are classes without a spinfusor. This whole 'only two weapons per loadout' thing just makes no sense if it means that you could be playing Tribes... and not shooting people with exploding discs. Obviously somebody in there understands what makes the game great because they reduced the cost on the two most iconic classes -- which, uncoincidentally, both have spinfusors -- but they need to take it a few steps further if they want new players to actually understand how fun the game can be.

Every time I look at Ranger or whatever and I'm like 'maybe I should try out these other classes' this is immediately followed by 'oh wait, no spinfusor' and I don't bother. I am sure some of these new weapons are cool and useful, but I will never, ever find out. It's like asking me to play without a jetpack.

[Malakili]

Honestly I just don't understand why there are classes without a spinfusor. This whole 'only two weapons per loadout' thing just makes no sense if it means that you could be playing Tribes... and not shooting people with exploding discs. Obviously somebody in there understands what makes the game great because they reduced the cost on the two most iconic classes -- which, uncoincidentally, both have spinfusors -- but they need to take it a few steps further if they want new players to actually understand how fun the game can be.

Every time I look at Ranger or whatever and I'm like 'maybe I should try out these other classes' this is immediately followed by 'oh wait, no spinfusor' and I don't bother. I am sure some of these new weapons are cool and useful, but I will never, ever find out. It's like asking me to play without a jetpack.

No particular disagreement.  You do get used to the other loadouts if you play them and they aren't too bad, but I agree in principle with what you are saying.  They are trying to make it accessible to a wider audience from what I understand, and I think the spin fuser isn't "mainstream" or something stupid.   


In other news, I really think they need to do something about where the meta game is headed.  They've got the skiing/flag running part of the game down, but that was always the main objective but not ONLY objective in Tribes.  I don't know if they need to change some mechanics (like spawning with a stripped down loadout), or if they need map redesign, but I think they need to do something to encourage the strategic side of Tribes.   

[Ice Cream Emperor]

Yes, right now the game feels more like the LT maps that eventually came out for T1, where there were no inventory stations or turrets and everyone spawned with the basic loadout plus an energy pack. Except I guess some people can spawn with heavy armour and a mortar, which boggles.

That said, in competitive T1 there were several maps were basically: start, everyone get a loadout, generators go down 15 seconds later, nobody ever repairs them. But it definitely would be nice to see more of that heavy armour bombardment and turret stuff come into it.

[Fordel]

The true test of any Tribes map, is if Medium Armor users have an actual use or not.

[Malakili]

The true test of any Tribes map, is if Medium Armor users have an actual use or not.

They all do right now because Raider is an OP loadout. 

[Ratman_tf]

Ok, forgive my derp, but what is going to make this game MM? All I've seen so far is some rather pretty, but rather standard, multiplayer tribes maps.

[Ice Cream Emperor]

The true test of any Tribes map, is if Medium Armor users have an actual use or not.

Well, except that some of the best competitive maps in T1 were basically played 85% naked. Generally speaking smaller, faster-paced maps made for greater emphasis on naked play -- and also tended to produce extremely exciting matches.

[Malakili]

Ok, forgive my derp, but what is going to make this game MM? All I've seen so far is some rather pretty, but rather standard, multiplayer tribes maps.

Its not MM, there is a separate Tribes MMO in development, but when this thread got made it wasn't clear there would be two separate games.  Tribes: Ascend is just a normal Tribes game.

[Ratman_tf]

Ok, forgive my derp, but what is going to make this game MM? All I've seen so far is some rather pretty, but rather standard, multiplayer tribes maps.

Its not MM, there is a separate Tribes MMO in development, but when this thread got made it wasn't clear there would be two separate games.  Tribes: Ascend is just a normal Tribes game.

Ah. Thankee.

[Fordel]

The true test of any Tribes map, is if Medium Armor users have an actual use or not.

Well, except that some of the best competitive maps in T1 were basically played 85% naked. Generally speaking smaller, faster-paced maps made for greater emphasis on naked play -- and also tended to produce extremely exciting matches.

Pfft, Katabatic from tribes 2, best map!

[Malakili]

The true test of any Tribes map, is if Medium Armor users have an actual use or not.

Well, except that some of the best competitive maps in T1 were basically played 85% naked. Generally speaking smaller, faster-paced maps made for greater emphasis on naked play -- and also tended to produce extremely exciting matches.

Pfft, Katabatic from tribes 2, best map!

Definitely a great map.  The new Katabatic is a shadow of its former self :(. 

[Fordel]

Katabatic was probably the best PUG map in Tribes 2. Whatever your playstyle or skill level was, you had a place on Katabatic.

[Ice Cream Emperor]

Pfft, Katabatic from tribes 2, best map!

What is this 'tribes 2' you speak of? Some heresy, no doubt, all I remember from the demo I played at Tribes Gala was no skiing, way too many vehicles, and super steep hills.

I think I was still playing Tribes 1 after Tribes 2 had already crashed and burned, now that I think about it.

[Malakili]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTOGQnI_edU

Context: Long ass hit-scan weapons thread on the beta forums.

[Jimbo]

Um wow!  Love the revival of Tribes, but the instant hit guns?  Tribes 1 had only the laser rifle for light I thought and wasn't that powerful...

Not sure I would like the instant hit stuff they were showing in video.

[Malakili]

Um wow!  Love the revival of Tribes, but the instant hit guns?  Tribes 1 had only the laser rifle for light I thought and wasn't that powerful...

Not sure I would like the instant hit stuff they were showing in video.

Its pretty universally decried, I have to imagine they are going to nerf at least the Raider.   

[MahrinSkel]

One of the problems in T1 was that a good capper was in and *gone* before you could even get a disc to the flag, and chasing him was pretty poor odds.  The only times I ever got taken down after a flag grab that got me out of the immediate vicinity was when there was a flag standoff (I have theirs, somebody from their team has ours) and I got surrounded without realizing it.  Flag defense was hopeless in vanilla and midfield defense was only about blocking enemy heavies.  That was a big part of why I switched to Renegades (and went from Cowboy Capper to Base Monkey).

That being said, that the recommended response to being turned into swiss cheese on a cap run is to whip out your own assault rifle and do unto the chasers before they do unto you shows that the weapon is unbalanced.  Shorter range or a miss radius closer to that of the T1 chaingun would seem to be called for.  They've already clamped down on the Ludicrous Speed hi-jinks of T1, with speeds no longer measured in Mach numbers, bullets streams can be dialed down a bit.

--Dave