26 replies to this topic

[Alias]

For fans of oldschool style multiplayer shooters like Quake and UT (and of course, Tribes) this is great news.

I'm a bit iffy about the unlock system due to the fact it's free to play, but it's still in beta and the developers seem receptive to suggestions.

TotalBiscuit explains it a lot better than I do, if you like decent PC FPS it is a half hour well spent.


Looking forward to this, will try and get my hands on the beta (apparently they even have Australian servers, joy to the world).

[Alias]

Now that I've had a little over a fortnight with the beta (and loving every bit) I thought I'd add some more thoughts.

I love the class system. Each class has a traditional role, although if you are skilled enough you can make most classes do most things - although there are some things that some classes just can't do - the light classes are hopeless at tanking (obviously) and the heavy classes are hopeless at capping. Each class has so much depth - it's great that I have a new favourite one each week, just because there are so many ways to play.

The maps, while currently few, are great. They're all fairly large, although with skiing the scale gets diminished a bit, it still takes around a minute to cross a map even though the total area of some of the maps is on par with some Battlefield maps. The mostly-finished maps look great (and play great) and the newer map that was released just last week plays quite well but obviously needs some work on ski routes and cosmetics.

I would highly recommend you all at least check this out (it's still a closed beta, but you can grab a key from the Facebook page or their website). It gets patched roughly every week as it's a closed beta, so there's lots to look forward to.

Here's some screenshots:

[ΓΛPTΘΓ]

At the moments, maps are far, FAR too small. Defending is still not a viable way to play. Sure, I am having some fun with it but maps are simply too small to have any flow than random Pathfinder darting in and capping a flag in 10 secs flat.

[Alias]

ΓΛPTΘΓ, on 15 January 2012 - 11:09, said:

At the moments, maps are far, FAR too small. Defending is still not a viable way to play. Sure, I am having some fun with it but maps are simply too small to have any flow than random Pathfinder darting in and capping a flag in 10 secs flat.

I'm going to have to disagree with you there - Katabatic for instance is roughly the same size it was in Tribes 2. Defending isn't that hard to do, Tribes is a team game though so you need to actually be doing it with other people, you can't be expected to defend a whole base as a lone wolf.

There's not many issues with Pathfinders rushing in when you have a heavy blocking the flag.

What classes do you play?

[ΓΛPTΘΓ]

The flag's hit box is taller than heavies and with orbital strike, HoF is too fun. I have all heavy class, and do play them all. If you haven't noticed yet, heavy current have the weakest weapons, while medium is the strongest. Much to be done balance wise.

For example, if I get on a Beowulf the enemy team can expect their sensor to always be down if it is outside, Katabatic and the one with two towers as base. Where I can always hit them from spawn.

EDIT: BTW, it is the quickest to simply ask me for keys, I still have 4 spare keys left. Hi-Res keep giving me new keys every week.

Edited by ΓΛPTΘΓ, 15 January 2012 - 18:26.

[Alias]

ΓΛPTΘΓ, on 15 January 2012 - 18:16, said:

The flag's hit box is taller than heavies and with orbital strike, HoF is too fun. I have all heavy class, and do play them all. If you haven't noticed yet, heavy current have the weakest weapons, while medium is the strongest. Much to be done balance wise.

For example, if I get on a Beowulf the enemy team can expect their sensor to always be down if it is outside, Katabatic and the one with two towers as base. Where I can always hit them from spawn.

EDIT: BTW, it is the quickest to simply ask me for keys, I still have 4 spare keys left. Hi-Res keep giving me new keys every week.

I won't disagree with you there, there are quite a few outstanding balance issues - especially with heavies. This is mainly due to lack of weapon choice and the fact that a lot of the weapons have a couple of issues. It would be nice to go back to 3/4/5 weapons but we'll have to see, heavies do lack something for AA.

The heavy classes also have comparatively the worst perks, but that really doesn't matter as by the time you have the heavy classes you already have the better perks.

The balance could be a hell of a lot worse than it currently is, thankfully. Most issues can be overcome if you have a decent aim. Yes, there are things that make me rage but they do seem to patch balance every fortnight or so. Once private servers are up and running the balance will get a lot better.

[ΓΛPTΘΓ]

Massive Tribes: Ascend changes. You might want to play the game again once more when the game is patched. Massive overhaul indeed.

http://hi-rez.custhe...detail/a_id/297

[Alias]

Indeed, looking forward to it in particular the fact that you can actually shoot Shrikes down with something that isn't a rifle.

I've got a day off work tomorrow (today) anyway, so good timing, Hi-Rez.

[ΓΛPTΘΓ]

I must say, the new patch is awesome... Heavies now can get decent loadout.

I now have a Brute with energy shield, and Jugg with mortar, chaingun and a off hand spinfusor.

[Alias]

Yeah, the patch is great. Loving it.
There's some iffy balancing on some of the new stuff but it's hard to expect perfect balance when you add 16 new weapons.

I use the offhand Spinfusor too, so much fun - the LMG is just what the heavies needed, it also appears that there's a lot less bounce on the mortar - which is great. I've played about 6 hours of it so far, most of that being Juggernaught and Infiltrator - although I expect Infiltrator will get a bit of a nerf next patch though. The Stealth Spinfusor and the 200 extra health you get from armour upgrades pretty much makes the infiltrator a medium class in everything but name. It's pretty hard to play the medium classes when the Infiltrator does it all better.

Also Raptor, since you seem to main heavy - have you checked out the new superheavy? If you BB a light you do a pretty big sum of damage. HoF is actually reasonably useful again, you actually have to clear the stand now.

[ΓΛPTΘΓ]

I ran out of exp unlocking alternate weapons, at 170K+ each, there is no wonder why.

[deltaepsilon]

How is the teamwork aspect of this? The whole speed aspect makes me think that people would prefer to ski around the map getting kills rather than work with each to do objectives.

Also, are there any performance fixes I can apply (for now)? I'm currently getting better performance in BF3 than I do in this game on Low...

Edited by deltaepsilon, 06 February 2012 - 08:09.

[Alias]

deltaepsilon, on 06 February 2012 - 08:06, said:

How is the teamwork aspect of this? The whole speed aspect makes me think that people would prefer to ski around the map getting kills rather than work with each to do objectives.

Also, are there any performance fixes I can apply (for now)? I'm currently getting better performance in BF3 than I do in this game on Low...

Once you get to a high enough level you will mostly be on servers of level 15+ or so, you will tend not to have many issues with people not working as a team (not to mention the whole system rewards teamwork). On a related note get used to VGS and listen to the commands other people give (i.e. if someone gives you a VSAF don't go for the flag).\

Let's put it this way as well, considering this is a closed beta almost everyone playing wants to play. Ergo they want to play correctly, and should be playing as a team. There's definitely going to be a lot more teamwork happening in this than there will be in any Battlefield game.

Look around on the forums, there's definitely some custom .ini files there. I can run it at a flat 60 fps on high on a ~2 year old desktop so I'm not sure where your performance issues might be coming from, Unreal Engine 3 tends to be pretty well optimised.

Edited by Alias, 06 February 2012 - 08:32.

[SquigPie]

4chan's /v/ and Reddits Tribes Subreddit got in an official game the other day. Reddits team where the best of the best Reddit had, and had practiced for weeks before the match. 4chan's team was hastely scrapped together 30 minutes before the match and where led by a tripfurry and a brazillian with 120 ping. 4chan won 3-2. You can find the match somewhere on the net.

Edited by SquigPie, 06 February 2012 - 21:29.

[deltaepsilon]

So, I managed to improve performance and stability by turning the graphics to High and disabling v-sync.

I then played some CTF and spent most of the round derping around, slowly moving on foot and not knowing where to cap the flag :\

[Alias]

You do know how to ski, right?

[deltaepsilon]

Yeah, just not very well...

[Alias]

You'll get used to it after a while, just one of the skills you pick up. I suggest you do about 5-10 minutes of practice on the practice maps before you play, just as a warm up. If you have an explosive weapon (or certain types of grenades) aim about 45 degrees behind you to do a spinfusor jump to get some extra speed.

Once you get a feel for the maps the ski routes become pretty obvious, it's not really something you can tell someone, you just have to practice.

Tribes runs on a pretty different skillset than most FPS, about the only thing similar is certain weapons in UT/Quake carry over reasonably well.

[Wanderer]

Oh damn after a few hours of playing, this thing is FUN Love skiing around and shooting ppl.

[Alias]

Wanderer, on 12 February 2012 - 03:55, said:

Oh damn after a few hours of playing, this thing is FUN Love skiing around and shooting ppl.

It's also so much more satisfying when you get kills and caps because while it's very fast paced, it's not like Call of Duty et al where you get a kill every 5 seconds.

Glad to see you're enjoying it, it's about the only decent old style shooter since UT2k4. If it succeeds, hopefully we see more of the same in the future.

[Wanderer]

The only thing I find abit annoying is the freemium-model and lot of grinding to do to unlock he classes.

Best ever was a guy whining how spinfusor is OP and sniper rifles suck. He was basically trying to camp
I rewarded the whining by knifing him a few times

Edited by Wanderer, 12 February 2012 - 06:02.

[Alias]

New maps, new game mode and open beta happening in the coming hours.

http://hi-rez.custhe...detail/a_id/303

[Raven]

I downloaded the client about a week ago and had my beta key ready, then I got carried away with Witcher 2

[Soul]

Anyone playing this? It's out of beta and I saw it available on steam.

[Sgt. Rho]

I do play it every once in a while. But right now I almost exclusively play BF3 and BC2