Rock, Paper, Spinfusor -- Tribes: Ascend

[frenz0rz]

Gen powers all the deployables and such though as well, right? So the damage-wall that's so good for stopping high speed caps and so on.

This was my main thought, having recently unlocked the Doombringer and been playing around with being HoF. The shields are awesome, particularly when deployed at the last second, and nothing is more frustrating than the gen being destroyed at a critical moment and having your flag swiped as a result.

Turrets are important too, because as Miker mentioned, many people (myself included) have a tendancy to either stumble into them accidentally or try capping at under 200ish, both of which tend to result in the victim being shredded near instantly.

Still, I find it hard to gauge how much the gen really makes a difference as if a team is repeatedly raping/camping my teams gen then they're generally a fairly stacked team anyway, and therefore win in minutes.

[Miker]

Tribes is getting less and less stable for me as of late. This morning, I couldn't play more than five minutes at a time before crashing consistently, meaning there's something actually wrong with the game or my system. I'm validating via the launcher right now, but it's looking grim.

[DeVadder]

I had plenty of disconnects with the current build as well. Hopefully they fix that soon. And bring back Bella Omega and Temple Ruins whie at it, only 4 maps get a little dull, and i liked both of them a lot. Allthough i did enjoy Bella more with the old big generator room.

[Miker]

I had plenty of disconnects with the current build as well. Hopefully they fix that soon. And bring back Bella Omega and Temple Ruins whie at it, only 4 maps get a little dull, and i liked both of them a lot. Allthough i did enjoy Bella more with the old big generator room.

I think part of the problem those maps were not too popular is because they were much harder to cap on than other maps. Temple Ruins has a circle of death right around the flag, but even on Bella Omega, you kind of need a good skiing route to teach the flag in the (really high) tower. On both maps, if you don't have great energy management, you're probably not going to get far at all. I understand that some maps will naturally have harder to cap flag, and that's fine, but in Tribes: Ascend, many players don't bother capping, and many of those who actually try are, well, kind of bad. As a result, I think those two maps didn't fit the more open/easy-to-grab bases from the other maps.And Temple Ruins is just waaaay too big, even for 32 players.

[DeVadder]

Temple Ruins is still small if compared to older Tribes games. Larger maps mean better chasing as chaser can regenerate their health a few times before the capper reaches his base. I don't know, i like that.

And i think that a little harder to cap is actually a nice thing. Especially Katabatic is extremely annoying to defend. Also i have the impression, that actually too many people try to grab. If half of them would instead attack the def, the remaining grabbers would have a way easier time. But true, it is probably really hard for a new player to get the Flag in Bella at decent speed. And it is not easy to train.

[DeVadder]

Double post ftw.

[Miker]

Cheeky trailer I find myself looking forward to Tribes patches more than actual game releases right now, especially with it nearing "release." I hope it's in a good enough shape come April 12 that new players will find it easy to get into. A Steam release would also be nice. EDIT: I also saw that the "Llama Island" trailer only has a little over 100K views. That's a bit sad, really. I'm not basing the game's fate off of trailer views or anything, and I know it's way too soon to begin crying doom when the game isn't even out of beta, but I am disappointed in the public's response thus far. The numbers from their press releases haven't been that comforting, either. Do you guys see Tribes: Ascend still going strong a few years from now?

[DeVadder]

I think 'years' is a lofty goal for every current game, even more so a FPS. But well, i do hope

What comforts me a little is the huge amount of community created stuff on youtube and the reddit vs /v/ matches and stuff like that.
Also, best video ever: (listen to the lyrics)

[frenz0rz]

Also, best video ever: (listen to the lyrics)

Thats brilliant!

[Miker]

I think 'years' is a lofty goal for every current game, even more so a FPS. But well, i do hope What comforts me a little is the huge amount of community created stuff on youtube and the reddit vs /v/ matches and stuff like that.Also, best video ever: (listen to the lyrics)

Nice. I'm not normally a fan of parody songs, but the meme footage was pretty chuckleworthy.

[Torchcamp]

Forgot to quote but this is a reply to frenz0rz

I actually have to disagree with you. The only ones that would say "LOL NOOB U HAVE LOW K/D RATIO" is low-skilled players. Me myself I actually prefer to play with people that I see have a lot of assists instead of kills (even though I play Dota and not HoN, but it's the same concept), because it means that they usually are great teamplayers. Anyone can get high killratio by just killstealing, picking hardcore carries every game etc. but it still doesn't prove anything. And there is more factors to take into account (avarage denies, creepkills, gold and exp earned, most played heroes and so on).

But the same thing goes for tribes. If someone has 1-2 kills in a long game but still really high score that probably means that the person has capped flags / repaired etc. If someone has a few kills but still really low score it could just mean that they have last-hitted or just hunted for kills the entire game without any success and actually done nothing for their team.

Smart players look beyond the amount of kills, deaths and assists and instead look on the bigger picture.

[Miker]

I just took a look in the official Tribes: Ascend forums to see if there's any word on a new patch, and here are my thoughts:



Yeah, yeah, it's a forum for a F2P game, so I knew it was going to be awful, but it was also interesting. There are a ton of threads from old Tribes vets just screaming at Hi-Rez to make Ascend play more like older Tribes games. Bigger maps, more players, full inheritance, better physics, naked spawns, faster weapon switch times, removing strikes -- you name it, they want it changed or out.

Then there's the insults thrown towards Hi-Rez and threats/promises of leaving/prophecies of doom -- "I'm gonna stop playing if X isn't fixed," "They haven't fixed Y in four months, this game is gonna crash and burn," etc. It's actually depressing to see how quickly people degrade to bashing Hi-Rez as money-grubbing devs who will do anything to make a quick buck (of Tribes Gold). Here I was thinking that they did a great job in resurrecting the franchise, but apparently other people don't agree.

Y'know the scariest part? After poring through some of the mega-threads and reading some surprisingly well-formed arguments, I'm not sure if the complaints are just purists clinging to the old ways or if there really are fundamental flaws with the game.

[DeVadder]

I stopped reading that forum because every second thread about old more tribesy features inevitably derailed into people flaming each other for not having played Tribes 2 competitive enough or for beeing a 'pubfag' and playing T:A on the public servers instead of 'clan-matches' (the game was still in closed beta and these people were already elitist above the general nub beta tester).
As i did neither play Tribes 2 to make a living nor am planning to do that with T:A, i can't really relate to all that 'pro-gaming' stuff, i just want a fun to play game, preferably with skiing. And that it is.
So i stopped reading that forum. I think Hi-Rez are doing a nice job. Even though i would agree with 100% projectile inheritance, that just makes sense, is intuitive and makes chasing more valid. There is no reason why spinfusor disks should make it a lot quicker from the chased to the chaser than the other way round.

[Miker]

I thought there would be a patch out today, but nope. The same four maps are getting a bit tiresome, eh?

[Sarlix]

I thought there would be a patch out today, but nope. The same four maps are getting a bit tiresome, eh?

Yup, after 1 full map rotation I'm just about done.

[evilbobthebob]

Well the servers are down for maintenance, so expect a patch today.

[Miker]

Yup, patch here: http://hi-rez.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/305. Sunstar replaces Bella (it most likely won't be coming back), and Temple Ruin comes back in a new form. Lots of bugfixes all around, but not much in the way of needed UI/social features as I was hoping.

[frenz0rz]

Yup, patch here: http://hi-rez.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/305. Sunstar replaces Bella (it most likely won't be coming back), and Temple Ruin comes back in a new form. Lots of bugfixes all around, but not much in the way of needed UI/social features as I was hoping.

Thats a shame, I think Bella was flawed but not irreparably so. I actually rather liked it when you had the generator underground and the sideramp leading in from the front of the base.

[Miker]

Just had a go at the two new maps. Temple Ruins is rather nice now. It's much smaller than it used to be, but I think its size makes sense given the player cap of 32 in Ascend. The midfield is much more interesting, and there's plenty of opportunities to chase. Sunstar is a lot smaller, with lots of action in midfield. It's a bit flat for my tastes, though, and its flatness, combined with the towers, are going to make sniping a bit too easy, I think.

[DeVadder]

Sunstar recycles a lot of Bella elements, so i fear we will not see that again. I really liked it, actually already in the first version, never got what people were so mad about.
But then again i thought the old Temple Ruins was the best map ever, so i guess my taste is flawed.