Hi-Rez buys Tribes IP; plans MMO

[taolurker]

I didn't even know I had the email until about a half hour ago.

[Mrbloodworth]

Is your machine just underpowered? Or is it just this game that's the issue?

Last patch cleared up my shuttering.

[taolurker]

It might be that my machine is sub-par, but honestly it plays Skyrim ok with medium settings, so I really don't know.

I didn't play the most recent patch, but it wasn't stuttering, it was the game just closing on it's own with a crash dump/send crash notice after I got past the Hi-Command patcher. Was actually patching it as we speak to possibly try again, but that looks like it could take a while.

EDIT: Actually was trying to patch it, but now it's saying I have a connection issue
EDIT2: Dunno, can't get it to do anything, and unable to even load their website. Anyone know if Hi-rez was down, or is this just me?

[MahrinSkel]

They're having "network problems".  Either a DOS attack or just too many people jumping into the open beta (which people thought was going to open on Friday, although it actually happened Wednesday).

--Dave

EDIT: Back up, little flaky but it always comes around eventually.  Think they're a little overwhelmed with the response to the open beta

[MahrinSkel]

Heheh....  Stupid Noob Trick of the day: I'm playing CTF on Bella Omega, and I decide what we need is some heavy offense.  So I jump in Juggernaut, and hit my ski route to the enemy base.  When I arrive, the generators are down and the flag is gone, so i decide to hold the flag platform for a while.  I'm doing pretty good, ducking and dodging around the supports to avoid the enemy and laying big green eggs at their feet, and I see that the enemy generator is back up.  I turn to slide over to the shaft that runs down to the lower level and get bounced by a grenade, right over the top of the flag platform.  No problem, I just drop into it from the other side.

So now I'm storming the generator, spamming the mortar rounds into the hallways, and playing bounce tag with the guys who are coming down the hallway, the whole time there's another guy in their in Soldier armor voice command spamming "give me the flag, give me the flag!" over and over.  But he's doing pretty good at helping me stand off the enemy, who are just absolutely lemming-charging into the meatgrinder of that hallway.  We must have scored 20-25 kills before they finally whittle me down and I die...

...and the flag flies off of me directly into the Soldier who has been holding the gen room with me, and he jets down the hallway, out the door, across the field and caps the flag.  Apparently the flag got returned *just* as I took my little detour over the flag stand and I hadn't even noticed that I had grabbed it.

--Dave

[Nightblade]

Been playing the game over the weekend, having never played tribes mind you. In a sea of modern warfare aim down the sights shit fests this is really, really great. I havent had this much fun with an FPS since the Team Fortress 2 Beta.


Nailing some guy in mid air with the starter grenade launcher simultaneusly ending his killing streak feels much better than running around tiny CoD maps taking turns punching one another in the dick.

[Ratman_tf]

I downloaded the open beta client, and it installed Global Agenda. The installer says I have Ascend, but I can't find any executables. 

[MahrinSkel]

Been playing the game over the weekend, having never played tribes mind you. In a sea of modern warfare aim down the sights shit fests this is really, really great. I havent had this much fun with an FPS since the Team Fortress 2 Beta.


Nailing some guy in mid air with the starter grenade launcher simultaneusly ending his killing streak feels much better than running around tiny CoD maps taking turns punching one another in the dick.

You wouldn't believe how much bitching there is about that, too.  The "100% inheritance thread" is somewhere around 140 pages.  tldr; It's over how much of your vector is inherited by the projectiles.  With 100%, if you're moving forward at 200 kph and you launch a projectiles that moves 400 kph straight ahead, it's moving at 600 kph relative to the ground.  Aim it directly backwards and it will be going 200 kph.  Tribes has traditionally had 50% inheritance, so in the above scenario it would be going 500 and 300 kph respectively.

This means that "where to aim" is a different calculation depending on what weapon you're using, how fast you're moving, and what bearing you're trying to shoot relative to your actual vector.  This drives people used to "realistic" CoD/TF2/BF1942 type shooters absolutely freaking nuts, all their reflexes are wrong.  Old Tribes hands are used to it, and what they bitch about is the number of automatic bullet weapons in the game that are so fast that these constantly changing offsets aren't really needed (especially if you're ground-pounding rather than flying/skiing).

BTW, until you reach level 6, you're in the "kiddie pool", fighting only other newbies and maybe some smurfs.  You'll know when you make level 6 because you will get your ass handed to you, over and over.  Don't get frustrated, and be glad you're part of a big glut of newbies.

--Dave

[Nightblade]

Been playing the game over the weekend, having never played tribes mind you. In a sea of modern warfare aim down the sights shit fests this is really, really great. I havent had this much fun with an FPS since the Team Fortress 2 Beta.


Nailing some guy in mid air with the starter grenade launcher simultaneusly ending his killing streak feels much better than running around tiny CoD maps taking turns punching one another in the dick.

You wouldn't believe how much bitching there is about that, too.  The "100% inheritance thread" is somewhere around 140 pages.  tldr; It's over how much of your vector is inherited by the projectiles.  With 100%, if you're moving forward at 200 kph and you launch a projectiles that moves 400 kph straight ahead, it's moving at 600 kph relative to the ground.  Aim it directly backwards and it will be going 200 kph.  Tribes has traditionally had 50% inheritance, so in the above scenario it would be going 500 and 300 kph respectively.

This means that "where to aim" is a different calculation depending on what weapon you're using, how fast you're moving, and what bearing you're trying to shoot relative to your actual vector.  This drives people used to "realistic" CoD/TF2/BF1942 type shooters absolutely freaking nuts, all their reflexes are wrong.  Old Tribes hands are used to it, and what they bitch about is the number of automatic bullet weapons in the game that are so fast that these constantly changing offsets aren't really needed (especially if you're ground-pounding rather than flying/skiing).

BTW, until you reach level 6, you're in the "kiddie pool", fighting only other newbies and maybe some smurfs.  You'll know when you make level 6 because you will get your ass handed to you, over and over.  Don't get frustrated, and be glad you're part of a big glut of newbies.

--Dave

yeah, I know the guys Im playing are generally bad; but I'm still having fun / learning.

Also, on an unrelated note:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNIwna-D0XU&feature=related

[Thrawn]

Free gold from liking some Facebook stuff from the Tribes Twitter -

FREE Tribes Gold. For you. Just because. << Click the left-hand tab "Get 250 Free Gold!"... http://fb.me/1P6udnb8P

[Kageru]

It's an impressively newbie-hostile FPS. With the speed and movement, and the slow weapons, getting a hit on anything moving at decent speed is extremely difficult. And the veterans / hardcore barely do not stop moving. On one map (with the flag in a ship) some veteran basically got 5 captures in a row by shooting through the flag corridor (and thus through the ship) at a speed which would be the speed of a projectile in TF2. I find it interesting, but in terms of "fun" the return is pretty slim and likely to be so for quite a while.

Of course I assume this is why people have such fond memories. The thrill of mastery. But I can't see it being other than a niche game.

[Malakili]

It's an impressively newbie-hostile FPS. With the speed and movement, and the slow weapons, getting a hit on anything moving at decent speed is extremely difficult. And the veterans / hardcore barely do not stop moving. On one map (with the flag in a ship) some veteran basically got 5 captures in a row by shooting through the flag corridor (and thus through the ship) at a speed which would be the speed of a projectile in TF2. I find it interesting, but in terms of "fun" the return is pretty slim and likely to be so for quite a while.

Of course I assume this is why people have such fond memories. The thrill of mastery. But I can't see it being other than a niche game.

That map is Crossfire, and the through the ship route can be shut down with a doombringer forcefield as long as you can keep the generator up.   The more advanced routes which grab the flag while going across the front of the ship are a bit more effective in my experience.  But I digress and your point stands - Tribes is not a newbie friendly game, and it won't be no matter what they do (it is something they are actively concerned about from what I have heard).  But if someone doesn't understand the game very wel and just joins a game, it will be totally overwhelming.  Of course they SHOULD do the skiing tutorial first, but there are going to be a hell of a lot of people who load this game up, join a match, get destroyed, and uninstall.

[Thrawn]

Unless they just don't like FPS in general I feel pity for someone that can't find the fun in Tribes.  A lot of popular FPS are newbie-hostile, if you were new to the genre and started randomly joining Counter Strike servers you might rage quit after your first game of taking an AWP in the face every round before you get a shot off.

I don't think it will be the next huge FPS, but I definitely disagree it will just be a niche game.

[Kitsune]

It's an impressively newbie-hostile FPS. With the speed and movement, and the slow weapons, getting a hit on anything moving at decent speed is extremely difficult. And the veterans / hardcore barely do not stop moving. On one map (with the flag in a ship) some veteran basically got 5 captures in a row by shooting through the flag corridor (and thus through the ship) at a speed which would be the speed of a projectile in TF2. I find it interesting, but in terms of "fun" the return is pretty slim and likely to be so for quite a while.

Of course I assume this is why people have such fond memories. The thrill of mastery. But I can't see it being other than a niche game.

The team that allowed those captures failed.  Forcefields, mines, or just a heavy standing in front of the flag would've ruined that guy's day.

[Nightblade]

Unless they just don't like FPS in general I feel pity for someone that can't find the fun in Tribes.  A lot of popular FPS are newbie-hostile, if you were new to the genre and started randomly joining Counter Strike servers you might rage quit after your first game of taking an AWP in the face every round before you get a shot off.

I don't think it will be the next huge FPS, but I definitely disagree it will just be a niche game.

I dont know if we've reached the point where Modern Warfare games have become so normal that a more traditional fast paced fps like this is really HOSTILE. The game does a fairly good job of starting you off with other newbies.

[MahrinSkel]

So this Pathfinder was bitching about how I wasn't doing a good enough job of clearing the enemy flagstand on Katabatic (I was in Juggernaut playing heavy offense, skating around the enemy base dropping MIRV rounds).  It wasn't my stand-clearing that was the problem, but the 6 Techs on the enemy team that would replenish the turret farm as fast as I cleared them out and his 300+ capture route that had him at half health when he reached the stand.

So I decide "Fuck it, I'll show him how it's done."  I switch out the MIRV for the mortar, work up a good head of steam (about 180) on a back to front route (so moving towards the friendly flag, through the enemy flagstand).  I fly through the flag, snagging it, and I'm headed right for the mountain that's in between.  I lay a Mortar round right at the base of it, ski over it just as it goes off, and *whoomp*, I'm flying over the mountain, right to our flag...which I miss by about 20 feet, dying on impact.  Jackass Pathfinder swoops in, picks up the flag, and goes to cap it...but flies into a Raider sticky grenade spread and dies.  Enemy Raider takes our flag and recovers theirs.  I ragequit in shame.

The key to being good at Tribes is getting the ski mechanic hardwired into your muscle memory.  You always want to land on downslopes and jet up upslopes, while coasting and building up your energy on flats.  After a while this is so automatic you can do it without thinking, while sliding sideways and shooting a disc at where someone going the other way will be when the disc gets there.  But learning to ski is fundamental, you're just fodder until then.

Try using the free-roam mode to learn the maps, and the moving drones on the target practice map to learn how to lead with the discs.  Bella Omega, Katabatic, and Temple Ruins are probably the best "practice slopes", where Arx Novena and Drydock are more advanced.

--Dave

[Cadaverine]

I finally caved, and quit faffing about in the tutorials, and played a few matches last night.  I've got a loooong way to go before I'm zipping around like Mahrin, but I don't think I'd call it newbie-hostile.

I generally suck at FPS games, and I'm about as big a newb at Tribes as one can be, but I did well enough, and had some fun.

[MahrinSkel]

The skiing tutorial really isn't a very good place to learn to ski.  If you already know how, it's not hard, but trying to hit the little hills in the middle from a cold start is just annoying.  If you want to learn to ski, skip it and go straight to free roaming on Temple Ruins (probably the easiest map on which to build up Ludicrous Speed).

--Dave

[Kageru]

The skiing is fun, I spent quite a lot of time on the practice map just playing around. Though the main results of that are very widespread maps which can lead to lack of focus in the combat. What is not so satisfying is attempting to land serious hits with the assault rifle, let alone the juggernaut weapon, on targets that are frequently in the distance and jinking around in mid-air. This is a lot different from most shooters where the physics is more controlled, ground bound and the pace slower, and where landing hits is far more reliable (possibly accentuated by the assault rifle which needs accurate tracking, and explains why people dump it for the big hit / AoE weapons).

There is quite a difference from the practice map where targets stand still or move around at a slow jog in a predictable path. A much more useful practice would have significantly faster moving targets on more erratic paths you could practice on.

[MahrinSkel]

The mortar is...sad, compared to the terror the Smoking Green Football induced in T1 (although it still dominates generator room fights).  The MIRV, on the other hand, is much more effective at clearing the deployables or spamming into a furball and hoping it melts somebody random.

The practice targets aren't great, although some of them are trickier than others, none really acts like a player.  For me, changing direction when I hear someone firing a spinfusor, thumper, or bolt launcher has become a reflex pretty quickly (in T1/T2, you couldn't hear them fire unless you were close).

Today's stupid newbie trick: I'm jetting over the midfield on Arx Novena when I hear the *pow* rifle report of a sniper.  I take a second to look and see an enemy shooting at our HoF (Heavy On Flag, protecting against cappers by literally body-blocking them).  So I decide he needs a triple-sticky surprise.  I set up just behind and above him, and chunk-chunk-chunk...I don't know if he was on voice comms and someone warned him, or he just happened to pick that moment to vacate his hide, but he jumps up and towards me just as I'm firing.  I still get the triple-stick, but they go off just as he is right next to me.  "AbuseMagnet commits suicide."

--Dave

[MahrinSkel]

So today, I was getting my ass kicked by a team that was obviously on Mumble or some other voice comms, no matter what I did, they were always waiting for me with a Blue Plate Special facial (a spinfusor that hits you in midair).  So, it was either ragequit and try to find another server that wasn't so lopsided (these guys were spotting us three caps and then *still* capping out well before the end of the match) or...do something mean.

So I picked out one guy, named Krasgasm, and decided to make him my *bitch*.  No particular reason except that he had killed me twice in row when I got pissed off.  So I hunted the poor bastard, game after game.  Mid airs. triple stickies, blowing him up into the air with grenades and then ripping him apart with bullets before he could come down.  I think he got kind of flustered because he started making really stupid mistakes, like trying to defend the Crossfire generator with a Juggernaut (the gen room in that map is the size of a closet, and the juggernaut has only explosive weapons, he was reduced to trying to hit me with melee while I danced around filling him with bullets).

Finally, on Temple Ruins (the newest and biggest map), he got really pissed after I mortared him to death at the flagstand for the third time and switched to Doombringer, got up on top of the base and kept trying to hit me with missiles.  I kept using his missiles to get the velocity to escape from the rest of his team, then I intercepted one with my spinfusor (this is like trying to hit a frisbee with another frisbee), and just for good measure I mortared him to death on the platform over the flagstand (all this while skating sideways or backwards and evading the rest of his team, like some kind of demented sumo figure skater with a siege cannon).

Now he's *pissed*.  He jumps in a grav bike, with the intent of chasing me down and either making me road kill or just shooting me with the bike's cannon.  Around and around we go, unfortunately for him I'm maintaining 130kph and he can't just run me over, and I can use the terrain to make hard turns he just can't match.  For the coup de grace, I kill his grav cycle with a spinfusor hit...and I'm so busy being smug and laughing about it that I fail to notice I just skied backwards into a crash stop against a pillar of the flag stand.  I have just enough time to go "oh shit", and I am completely *engulfed* in spinfusor discs, mortar rounds, grenades, and heavy turret fire.  I didn't just die, I vaporized.

--Dave

[Thrawn]

Still very glad I spent my gold on an XP boost.

Just got about 7300 XP from one game. 

[Malakili]

I really like the new map.  They've REALLY improved on each new map they've made, every new one better than the last.

[Thrawn]

I really like the new map.  They've REALLY improved on each new map they've made, every new one better than the last.

I like the landscape of the new map, I don't care for the bases themselves though.

[Malakili]

NASL showmatch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y5RfGUdXAg

Pretty good stuff.

[Thrawn]

I'm very much a minority on this from what I've read, but I really wish the "esports" matches were larger teams.

[Malakili]

I'm very much a minority on this from what I've read, but I really wish the "esports" matches were larger teams.

The casters were having a hard enough time keeping track with just 7v7, bigger teams might be more fun to play, but it would be a mess to watch I think.  And eSports need to be spectator friendly at least to some degree.

[Thrawn]

I'm very much a minority on this from what I've read, but I really wish the "esports" matches were larger teams.

The casters were having a hard enough time keeping track with just 7v7, bigger teams might be more fun to play, but it would be a mess to watch I think.  And eSports need to be spectator friendly at least to some degree.

I guess that makes sense, too bad though, I feel like it might really limit any creative strategies you could see.

[Ginaz]

Downloaded and installed this tonight.  I've had a beta invite sitting in my inbox for awhile now but the new info and videos I've been seeing look good. 

[Malakili]

I just need to get this out of my system:

I was just in a come back game, we were down 4-3 but we forced over time by having the flag when time ran out.  This went on for a while with both flags in a stand off.  We FINALLY managed to return our flag, and at the same time our we dropped their flag, but after a tense couple of seconds one of ours managed to pick it back up.  So we are SCREAMING at him to cap the flag, but it quickly became obvious he had no idae he had the flag.  He was literally 10 feet from the flag, then flew off to go do something else.

PAYYYY ATTENTION TO THE GAME IF YOU ARE GOING TO PLAY PELASE. ARGGG WE WERE THAT TO TIEING THE GAME AND THIS GUY TOTALLY FLAKED OUT.


Ah ok, I;m better now, I just needed to let that out.

[Thrawn]

Maybe I'm just turning into a crabby old vet going "Back in my day..." but the more I play this the more some of the changes bother me.

Still think health regen is a terrible, terrible thing.
Am wondering why FF is never on, apparently even in the tournament matches?
Still hate people spawning with full loadouts, inventory stations serve almost no purpose.
Hate how little importantance the generators serve

[MahrinSkel]

I've been trying to branch out, I have all the classes unlocked and most of the weapons.  Haven't taken all the perks yet, but I have all the ones that seem useful.  Only weapons I haven't unlocked are the Stealth Spinfusor and the Juggernaut rifle.  I have about 830 gold, but I'm trying to save it for the cosmetic stuff that's supposed to come later, and just use XP.  Have 18 days left on my booster, at the current rate I'll have everything unlocked and leveled up by the time it runs out. (I seem to average about 2000-2500 per game, with spikes as high as 7000).

I'd get more XP if I deathmatched, but I generally take Raider and shred the enemy defensive net, only get kills when either the players get in the way of my deep hatred of deployables or they give up on keeping the turrets.  Raider is underpowered now for fights, but it can tear a turret farm right the hell up.  Getting better with the ARX, though, I get a lot of "Assists" because of laying patterns around an enemy who's dueling someone else, or laying them out in front of people that are chasing me to make them lose the line.  I can fly through the ship on Crossfire at 150 and take out a turret on the way (it's a tough shot, requires getting two out of three into a 10 foot circle as you're flying by at nearly 100 miles per hour.  Imagine throwing three rocks at a large roadsign while racing down the highway.

When I join a Generator room assault I usually get a lot of kills, the ARX is good at corridor fights and the grenade launcher is even better.

--Dave

EDIT: Generators run the deployables, and it is possible to make a fairly tight network and keep it up if you work at it  But that takes more experience than you will usually see on the current servers.  You can skip the deployables and run interception instead, but that takes some coordination or the flag will be gone before the capper can get back to it.  It's not uncommon in such matches for the flag to come back, and the lights that were all chasing the flag carrier converge on the flagstand, kill him, recover their own, and it's gone again and back to a standoff before their own carrier can get to it (even if he's holed up in the gen room).

[Thrawn]

I've settled into a pattern of playing the same roles on the same maps probably four games out of 5.  Not sure if I consider that a good thing or not but I do know I tend to do well and get a lot of XP usually.

Bella Omega - Juggernaut, ski into gen room and spam damage until I die, hold gen room if I get in.
Crossfire - Juggernaut, ski into gen/flag room and spam damage until I die, hold gen room if I get in. (Sometimes Doombringer flag D)
Arx Novena - Doombringer flag defense
Temple Ruins - Doombringer flag defense
Drydock - Pathfinder flag cap, or Infil and live in their gen area
Katabatic - Infil, live in their gen area (also ends up being a perfect example of how terrible health regen is, I can just stealth and run away long enough to regen and own the gen and defenders all game)

[Malakili]

Maybe I'm just turning into a crabby old vet going "Back in my day..." but the more I play this the more some of the changes bother me.

Still think health regen is a terrible, terrible thing.
Am wondering why FF is never on, apparently even in the tournament matches?
Still hate people spawning with full loadouts, inventory stations serve almost no purpose.
Hate how little importantance the generators serve

The good news is, they've said that once private servers go in a lot of this is going to be set by server variables.  So, communites of older school players will be able to tinker with some of this stuff I believe.

I think spawning with the full loadout is the biggest issue and I think it would solve number 4 on your list as well. 

[MahrinSkel]

The new armor setups have grown on me.  I like that Medium armors are a lot more viable than they ever were in T1/T2.  I actually get a fair number of caps in my Raider armor when the enemy flag comes back and none of the Pathfinders are in position to snag it.  They don't expect a Raider to have the kind of flight performance I can eke out of it, and I can shrug off hit or two on the way back (where a Pathfinder that nitro'd his way up to a 250kph route dies if he so much as stubs his toe on the return, and can't run low random patterns to evade the snipers).

Many is the Doombringer who has found that hitting a Raider with his Bolt Launcher as he flies buy is actually doing me a favor (giving me a 30kph boost and turning my 140-150 grab into a 170-180 departure).

--Dave

EDIT: Really, nobody *used* more than two of their weapons in T1 most of the time, anyway.  Disc-launcher for bounce duels, mortar or grenade launcher for bombardment or corridor fights, you only whipped out the chaingun when you were trying to take that last sliver of health off someone who was running away, and the Plasma gun for taking down shielded targets like the Turrets.