Hi-Rez buys Tribes IP; plans MMO

[Amaron]

The Global Agenda guys who couldn't get jetpack physics to not be balls in their own game are going to shit on some really quality IP? Awesome. 

Yea I'm skeptical.   Tribes IP is all about getting the jetpacks and massive maps just right.   Not to mention all the engines designed for consoles with shitty memory probably need massive rewriting to work for a proper Tribes game.   At least the video didn't show any health bars.

[Fordel]

What's wrong with health bars? The previous ones had them.

[Amaron]

What's wrong with health bars? The previous ones had them.

Ahh I meant the ones over the enemy head.   I was really just referring to global agenda's crappy combat.

[Malakili]

The Global Agenda guys who couldn't get jetpack physics to not be balls in their own game are going to shit on some really quality IP? Awesome. 

Yea I'm skeptical.   Tribes IP is all about getting the jetpacks and massive maps just right.   Not to mention all the engines designed for consoles with shitty memory probably need massive rewriting to work for a proper Tribes game.   At least the video didn't show any health bars.

UE3 is a fine engine for this game in my opinion.  I understand the skepticism, especially given what they have to try and live up to, but I think Hi-Rez can actually pull off something that works as a Tribes game.

[Mrbloodworth]

Did you guys watch the video? Combat system is nothing like Global agenda. Just pack use is also nothing like Global agenda, not that there was anything wrong with the jet-packs in global agenda, especially when you get to combat packs. They are two completely different titles with different goals.

[Amaron]

Did you guys watch the video? Combat system is nothing like Global agenda.

Yea the combat looked fine.   Problem is you can't really get a feel for the maps in that sort of video.   The jetpack physics looked fine but the flight time looked a bit short.   Tribes really let you go crazy on flight time since the maps were so huge.

[Fordel]

What's wrong with health bars? The previous ones had them.

Ahh I meant the ones over the enemy head.   I was really just referring to global agenda's crappy combat.

They had those too in Tribes. They were just little 

[Malakili]

What's wrong with health bars? The previous ones had them.

Ahh I meant the ones over the enemy head.   I was really just referring to global agenda's crappy combat.

They had those too in Tribes. They were just little 

Just the first image I could find in google images that shows it.

[Amaron]

They had those too in Tribes. They were just little 

What I meant to say all along is that Global Agenda ruined health bars for all FPS ever from here on out  .

[Mrbloodworth]

Tribes:Ascend from Quakecon 2011 20 min, screen grab.

[Malakili]

Tribes:Ascend from Quakecon 2011 20 min, screen grab.

 

I like pretty much everything... I love everything about that.

Edit: Its also probably worth putting this in the normal games section, Ascend isn't an MMO.

[Mrbloodworth]

Yes, there are two games.

Why a second Tribes title? "We've had tremendous fun play-testing and realized the potential of a multiplayer-focused title ahead of Tribes Universe. The community has been waiting for a multiplayer shooter that is the modern successor to T2. Tribes: Ascend is that game," Harris said.

[Malakili]

I saw some people who apparently never heard of tribes saying this looked like Halo and all I could think of was this:

[Fordel]

Either the people playing it were horrible, or there is something very wrong about that footage.

[Malakili]

Either the people playing it were horrible, or there is something very wrong about that footage.

Little of both. I suspect.  This feels like a realistic/reliable assessment.

http://kotaku.com/5829694/a-hardcore-triber-tells-you-why-tribes-ascend-is-so-so-close-to-being-transcendent

[Fordel]

From the Article:

With the lack of good disc jumping, the slightly too weak jetpacks become even more apparent. Playing as the lightest class, which even includes an pack that recharges his energy faster than the normal rate, I often found myself unable to ski-then-jet into relatively low areas like the fronts of bases. I was having to use floating step platforms to gain entry. Do you know how embarrassing that is for an old man?

I saw that in the video and went        



-edit- It has three parts 

For comparison.
Tribes 1 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3IlLAK0B6g&hd=1
Tribes 1 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOAaixGw27o&hd=1
Tribes 1 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFWeGnONPu0&hd=1

[Mrbloodworth]

Either the people playing it were horrible, or there is something very wrong about that footage.

Little of both. I suspect.  This feels like a realistic/reliable assessment.

http://kotaku.com/5829694/a-hardcore-triber-tells-you-why-tribes-ascend-is-so-so-close-to-being-transcendent

I find it funny that most of the things he complains about, were bugs or happy accidents in the originals. If high-rez has been able to properly recreate the bugs as stable features, I think thats an achievement in itself. Clearly, the guys and gals at HR know their tribes games. I do think he may have had some fog in his memories about the original games though, and at best, his comments are nitpicks as he stated.

Truly if thats ALL he has to complain about, they are on the right track. Hell, not even Garage games got it right.

[Nija]

When the only reason your game was fun was because of the "bugs" then you need to recreate the fucking bugs in future versions. And stop calling them bugs.

[Malakili]

When the only reason your game was fun was because of the "bugs" then you need to recreate the fucking bugs in future versions. And stop calling them bugs.

Well, they weren't the only reason the game was fun, but they were certainly the reason the game became iconic.

That being said, its not uncommon at all.  Quake 3  implemented most of the high skill level mobility "bugs" from Quake 2 as features, for example.

They definitely need to get the speed and feel right above all else, and it looks to me like they are close based on that video, and that guy's article.  Keep in mind, for all his criticisms he says it is VERY VERY close to striking gold.  I'm hoping they can make it happen.

[Mrbloodworth]

When the only reason your game was fun was because of the "bugs" then you need to recreate the fucking bugs in future versions. And stop calling them bugs.

I do believe thats what they have done. Other tribes titles tried to recreate them in a stable way and didn't come close. Like I said, if HR even comes close, its better then most attempts. I'm personally fine with his criticisms, most of it is likely design decisions. A tribes 2 pro was untouchable, if they remove this for the sake of balance, I'm all for it. There is a difference between fun because I am untouchable, and fun because its balanced.


Same event, different Map.

[Malakili]

There is a difference between fun because I am untouchable, and fun because its balanced.


Same event, different Map.

Has less to do with fun because untouchable and more to do with fun because high skill ceiling means I can always be learning something new.   Also, I'm not exactly sure what you mean here by balanced, you seem to be implying that lower skill ceiling = more balanced? 

[Mrbloodworth]

I simply mean the less of a divide the more accessible it will be.  

It's too slow. This was one of the first things I mentioned to Hi-Rez's COO Todd Harris after my first twenty-minute-or-so match. (Out of six.) He laughed and said, "Everyone else has been complaining it's too fast!" He was talking about random show attendees, not tribers.

[Malakili]

I guess that is true, but I guess Tribes was never *good* because it was accessible.  It was good because of its ridiculous depth.

Also, just reinstalled Tribes: Next, good times.

[Typhon]

A F2P game comes fully loaded with a business model that requires the game to be more accessible for the game to break even.  HiRez will be doing no one any favors if they don't skew their design decisions based upon accessibility.

[Malakili]

Well, maybe we need to split this thread or start a new one, or move it, but the non MMO version, Tribes: Ascend is offering pre-orders now.   Its a free to play with a $30 pre-order, figure that out, but in any event here is the offer.  Not sure how I feel yet.  http://www.tribesascend.com/buypage.html

Includes:
VIP status (no idea what this is, sounds like a one time 20 dollar fee)
800 Tribes Gold (Currency for micro trans store)
30 Day Booster (no idea what this is, bonus experience points?)
Beta Access when it begins in ~23 days.

[climbjtree]

I love Tribes so much that I may buy this just to get into that beta.

[Dren]

30 Day Booster (no idea what this is, bonus experience points?)

If it is like GA, it is bonus ingame cash/credits + experience points + increased drops per event/match.  It basically increases your odds at getting good items faster.  Even if you don't, you can sell the extra items for ingame cash or trade for something if they have a player auction house thingy.  GA sells it for $15/30 days.

[Malakili]

30 Day Booster (no idea what this is, bonus experience points?)

If it is like GA, it is bonus ingame cash/credits + experience points + increased drops per event/match.  It basically increases your odds at getting good items faster.  Even if you don't, you can sell the extra items for ingame cash or trade for something if they have a player auction house thingy.  GA sells it for $15/30 days.

I didn't think items were going to have stats in this game if I understood properly.  I thought it was more an unlocking kits sort of thing.  In any event, its safe to say it'll probably be double X where X = whatever the thing to have is in this game.

[Ice Cream Emperor]

"Unlocking... good items"?!  WTF have they done to my Tribes.

[Malakili]

"Unlocking... good items"?!  WTF have they done to my Tribes.

Free to Played it. 

[Ice Cream Emperor]

Bah. If you played the first one for 3000+ hours it was practically free to play, in an amortized sort of way.

[Malakili]

Bah. If you played the first one for 3000+ hours it was practically free to play, in an amortized sort of way.

Yeah, I'd pay 50 bucks for a new tribes no problem, but if you are going to make it a game where I need to worry about levels and experience points and tokens and a cash shop, I'm feeling pretty iffy about it now.   I was ok with just the cash shop because it sounded like they just wanted to charge for load outs (which I think they are still doing).  But other than that it sounded basically like Tribes.  Now its starting to sound like a totally different game.  I read everyone going to carry a melee weapon - that pretty much indicates the game is going to be way too slow paced to be a Tribes game.

[Ice Cream Emperor]

Yeah well, I couldn't even stand playing Tribes 2, so I don't hold out much hope. Bug-implemented skiing > coder-implemented skiing, as far as I can tell, and that's pretty sad. Then again, hitting somebody with a melee weapon as they disc-jump through the flag at 500 kph would be pretty sweet.

[Tale]

The original Tribes is the ultimate demonstration of why owning an IP is meaningless.

From what I understand, they were working on a Starsiege mech game (which eventually came out later and tanked). The developers had a "wouldn't it be cool if..." moment which led to Tribes, and as a result it was called Starsiege: Tribes. Nobody remembers it was part of the Starsiege IP!

I was working for Australia's biggest PC magazine at the time. After a hard day's writing about CPUs or internets or something, I decided to take home a game to review, so I just took an unclaimed one off the pile. It happened to be Starsiege: Tribes and I remember the last six words of my review: Buy this! Buy this! Buy this!

People did. Its reputation spread by word of mouth. We played it so much and kept coming back to it. Because it was great in its own right.

[caladein]

Includes:
VIP status (no idea what this is, sounds like a one time 20 dollar fee)
800 Tribes Gold (Currency for micro trans store)
30 Day Booster (no idea what this is, bonus experience points?)
Beta Access when it begins in ~23 days.

VIP seems like the same thing as Elite in GA.  From the T:A FAQ:

“VIP” is a special account status that will be available to those that purchase it in Tribes: Ascend. Those with VIP status will have priority login, access to exclusive servers, and will earn Tokens and Experience faster inside the game, allowing them to unlock items faster.

And yes, Boosters (in GA at least) are just double (-ish) X, Y, and Z.