Rock, Paper, Spinfusor -- Tribes: Ascend

[DarthPingu]

I've been on the recieveing end of the devastator a few times and to be honest it seems a bit too powerful, although I haven't had enough experience of it yet to judge properly.

Brute as a class still doesn't interest me though, it doesn't really have an interesting/defined enough role to make it seem worthwhile in CTF.

I persist in using brute as HoF. It's absolutely durable because it the fusor makes it easier to defend against harassers. You do however have to be more active. One can't just stand on the flag and wait for people to ram into you (super heavy perk).
I'm also using brute to attack the enemy base. It's more of a tank than the other attackers. He can take more damage, and has the disconade which I usually throw when I've attracted enough enemies).

If you think the Devastator is OP (/too powerful), take in consideration that it has a very long reload time compared to other fusors. And a miss is more costly than usual too. One can't argue that if a person is skilled enough to always have the upper hand (being able to direct hit most of the time) with the Devastator, it's too powerful. Because then it's the skill of the player that makes it so good. Oh - and it deals 1204 on direct hit, FYI.

On a side note (well, this is just T:A general thread anyway):

[deadly.by.design]

I persist in using brute as HoF. It's absolutely durable because it the fusor makes it easier to defend against harassers. You do however have to be more active. One can't just stand on the flag and wait for people to ram into you (super heavy perk).

Probably better at staying alive on the position, but I'm guessing less effective since BRT lacks mines. I can't believe I hoffed before having mines, but I think it made me appreciate how effective they are. Seriously, Arx is a pleasure to HoF on with mines.

I'm also using brute to attack the enemy base. It's more of a tank than the other attackers. He can take more damage, and has the disconade which I usually throw when I've attracted enough enemies).

That's where I like to see Brutes being used, but I think I'd feel dirty crapping out fractals as often as other Brutes do. The original Team Fortress was a mess with all of its special effect / splashy grenades, and that's how fractals seem to me. Effective for area denial, though, I can't deny that...

Nice Korean vid. If Hi-Rez needs competitive numbers to maintain the game's development growth, getting popular in South Korea is a good start.

[AuralViolations]

Brute is a blast in every game mode, although I haven't tried HoFing with it. A pair of brutes(or pth+brute) on a bike, both with Pilot, is a good cure to a turtle, when arranged well. Even a brute alone on a bike with pilot is great to drive into an area, fire a few Gladiators, drop some fractals, and generally ruin peoples days.


I feel worthless in CTF lately after playing a lot of C&H and some arena. I can't seem to remember how to play any position effectively.

On the RPS arena nights, do you do 5v5 or different numbers?

[deadly.by.design]

For the sake of this not dropping off the first forum page, what are everyone's thoughts about the pub/pug scene? Are you annoyed at the apparent team-stacking? Or do you subscribe to the competitive players' thoughts, that "casual" pubs simply aren't "playing the game"? I think it's a bit of both. You have people who don't know CTF class roles, so they just try to have fun killing with jetpacks. They get in the way of the pubs, like some of us, who know what you should be doing instead. And then most of the losing team switches to the other side on the new map, which often results in an inverse stack. So, people whine more. I used to mention something when I thought the teams were stacked, but it happens so often now that I don't bother... it's just the nature of pubs right now.

The matchmaking needs work, because it's clear that putting all players in a pool of lvls 6-50 isn't working. The trouble is that there may not be enough players in this F2P game to divide that pool. So, despite T:A getting good reviews and positive buzz in late beta and launch, the community remains anemic. As much as the competitive people like to not care about pubs, evidenced in those Behind the Blue Plate talks, I feel that comp will remain niche unless the game's population grows. In other words, without a thriving community of public games, people won't improve. If people don't improve, they won't want to pug or join comp teams.

Thoughts? Maybe T:A's heightened skill bar is a double-edged sword?

Honestly, I'm interested in pugging for a more organized game, but I don't know if I can invest more weekly time for T:A. There are a lot of pugs through reddit, apparently, but I haven't seriously checked it out. Either way, I really enjoy the game and wish pubs had more CTF teamwork.

[evilbobthebob]

I strongly suggest you try out the Reddit PUGs, though if you're in the EU they have been migrated to the spinfusor.org mumble to prevent the community fracturing. You don't have to invest very much time- just idle in the appropriate channel and play pubs until there's enough players for a pickup game, which doesn't take too long in the early evening.

[Bankrotas]

I got myself a thumper for engi. so much fun.

[deadly.by.design]

I got myself a thumper for engi. so much fun.

I know, right? Finally unlocked that with XP last night.

It's been great for thumping flag stands, base harassers, etc. I'm still working on having accuracy when I'm not firing from above, though, since it flies differently than the 'fusor.

[Scumbag]

Since tonight was rather thin on the ground to say the least (3 people does not really count as a match IMO) and Wednesday seemed to be the most popular arena night thus far (despite the spreadsheet saying otherwise) from now on Arenas will be mainly on Wednesday nights.

I know, right? Finally unlocked that with XP last night.

With fate as it is, tomorrow you would have had that item off at a 90% special if you did not buy it. Instead you will get 25% off the Sentinel grenades or something.

[Bankrotas]

With fate as it is, tomorrow you would have had that item off at a 90% special if you did not buy it. Instead you will get 25% off the Sentinel grenades or something.

There are 90% sales?!?!?! Most I got were 75%

[Scumbag]

There are 90% sales?!?!?! Most I got were 75%

Only for Deadly, for that one day, for a thumper.
It now will never happen.

[DeVadder]

For the sake of this not dropping off the first forum page, what are everyone's thoughts about the pub/pug scene? Are you annoyed at the apparent team-stacking? Or do you subscribe to the competitive players' thoughts, that "casual" pubs simply aren't "playing the game"? I think it's a bit of both. You have people who don't know CTF class roles, so they just try to have fun killing with jetpacks. They get in the way of the pubs, like some of us, who know what you should be doing instead. And then most of the losing team switches to the other side on the new map, which often results in an inverse stack. So, people whine more. I used to mention something when I thought the teams were stacked, but it happens so often now that I don't bother... it's just the nature of pubs right now.

The matchmaking needs work, because it's clear that putting all players in a pool of lvls 6-50 isn't working. The trouble is that there may not be enough players in this F2P game to divide that pool. So, despite T:A getting good reviews and positive buzz in late beta and launch, the community remains anemic. As much as the competitive people like to not care about pubs, evidenced in those Behind the Blue Plate talks, I feel that comp will remain niche unless the game's population grows. In other words, without a thriving community of public games, people won't improve. If people don't improve, they won't want to pug or join comp teams.

Thoughts? Maybe T:A's heightened skill bar is a double-edged sword?

Honestly, I'm interested in pugging for a more organized game, but I don't know if I can invest more weekly time for T:A. There are a lot of pugs through reddit, apparently, but I haven't seriously checked it out. Either way, I really enjoy the game and wish pubs had more CTF teamwork.

I do not really care for organised play. I do not have the time and even more important i do not want to take it so serious. Afterall i might fail and have my team loose because of me. Too much pressure. ^^ And i already have that in Smite.
I play Tribes because it feels fun and because i enjoy whenever i do something awesome. And on pubs i am mostly among the better third of players, so there is that.
However i agree that it does a potential pro scene no god if the pub play does not feel fun. But apparently neither 'competitive players' nor Hi-Rez themselves understand that. The 'pros' keep making jokes about pub play and urge Hi-Rez to change the way so that it is more balanced for comp play instead of pubs. And Hi-Rez apparently listens to them. See the recent nerf of smgs. When have smgs ever have felt too powerfull in pub play? With the new nerf they will just feel even more worthless to newer players, what is a problem as you need lots of xp to unlock the explosive alternative of the two smgs that can be replaced. So for a new player they now feel even more like a weapon that is just worse than the ones who pay real money can buy. And giving new players the impression of pay-to-win is never good.
And still they got nerfed because of the whining of the 'pro' scene.

Regarding the topic i just butchered, Extra Credits has an episode explaining it pretty well. As they have to lots of things actually.

[evilbobthebob]

Funny you should mention that stuff DeVadder. Since I'm a member of a Tribes team and therefore in "competitive" I have something of a vested interest. The thing is, most of the changes make nearly no difference to public play. In fact, automatic weapon nerfs were more at the request of the pub community on the forums who think that explosives are the only way to play the game. The only things competitive players want fixed are the offence/defence balance and the capper/sniper/chaser balance. Unfortunately HiRez have responded badly to some of these requests, such as the 10s sniper respawn which was unanimously panned by competitive players.

[deadly.by.design]

With fate as it is, tomorrow you would have had that item off at a 90% special if you did not buy it. Instead you will get 25% off the Sentinel grenades or something.

No. Tomorrow will be 25% off the Brute. Or maybe a skin. :\

I actually did get a Thumper sale last week, but it was only 25% off.

[Scumbag]

Hum... 300mb+ update downloading.

[Dominicus]

yup, a new TDM map and a new CTF map thats in beta testing available for custom servers.

Also, raindance seems to have gained a second entrance to the generator (thank god for that)

[DeVadder]

Decreased damage on Technician’s Rockwind SMG by roughly 8%
Decreased explosion radius on Pathfinder’s Compact Nitrons by 13%.

That makes me a sad little panda.
I got them both because i thought they were awesome.

[Scumbag]

Well good for the Raindance gen room. Getting in as an attacker with a couple of well placed turrets was hard, but then again as a Brute with a Gladiator and Fractals it was stupidly easy to turtle in there as the attacker.

[DeVadder]

I made the server Stonehenge only for the day.
I will readd the other maps before tonights shazbotting, but if you want to explore the new map, you can do so on our own server.

[Scumbag]

Interesting map but not sure what to think of it yet. Some really deep gullies behind the flag stands, plus the flags themselves are enclosed on an elevated platform with few obvious routes to them. Looks like a defender's paradise with a large demand for attackers to make good use of a lot of planning.
TDM is Tartarus in brown fog.

[Dominicus]

Now that I have seen the map I can conclude only one thing, sentinels paradise, Not a bad thing, but really, not a map I would like to be the capper.