Tips for new players

[DeVadder]

I think the best use of our new subforum is a thread that gives tips to newer players in one place without 54 pages of thread wrapped around them.
I suggest everybody who wants to give the youngbloods some tips just posts them in this thread.
I begin:

What do people mean with some of the more important VGS commands?
[VAF] - Get the enemy flag
Very often people will say this shortly before the enemy team makes a cap. It suggests that whoever is currently near the enemey base should do an emergency grab asap. This encourages grabing the flag, even if you are at low speed and very unlikely to make it out with the flag, just to give your team more time to return your own flag.
[VFF] - I have the flag
Cappers say this when they are on their route and about to grab the flag at high speed. It means 'DO NOT TOUCH THE ENEMY FLAG'. If someone says this and then you grab the flag at low speed (lower than maybe 220) they will be rightfully pissed at you. Do not do it.
If you are near the enemy flag stand, shoot it to clear it from whatever might be there to make it easier for your capper to grab.
If you as well were planning to grab the flag, you can indicate that by [VCA] - Acknowledged. Often the other capper will then tell if his attempt failed. Not allways, but sometimes, so keep an eye. ^^
[VFT] - Take the flag from me
Pretty self-explanatory but very important. Too often do people ignore this and let the enemy team return their flag. If you hear this, drop what you are doing and help your carrier if you are anywhere near. And by near i mean same third of the map basically.
[VFS] - Our flag is secure
People say this when the enemy flag carrier has been killed and the flag has dropped in some comparably safe spot. And given how accesible the flagstand is in most maps, many spots are comparably safe. When someone says this, DO NOT RETURN THE FLAG. Most likely they are also going to guard the flag in the field, beeing ready to return once some enemy comes close.
If your own flag carrier returns home with the enemy flag, people will usually spam [VFR] - Return our flag to make whoever guards the flag in the field return asap for the cap. But this should not be needed. The person guarding the flag SHOULD keep an eye on his flag carrier so he can return in time on his own.

I think these are the most important commands and what to do when you hear them.

[bonkers]

XP Boosters

Here are my numbers taken from a 30 day booster:

Overall in those 30 days I had almost exactly 40 hours of playtime. So a little bit more then one hour playtime per day, which seems to be the "sweet spot" for using a booster, a little bit more on this later.

In those 40 hours I was able to make 483.437 XP. This is primarily only "pure" gameplay xp, only a few badges in the bronze level as I already have all high level badges except those I will most likely never get. A new player should be able to get more xp via badges, but more experienced players rank up a little more gameplay xp which should even the two out more or less.
Also a booster gives you 1200 XP each day, no matter if you log in or not. So for a 30 day booster that's already 36.000 XP for "free". I did not substract those as everybody gets this daily bonus and it's less then 10% overall. For players who play more it's even less. So it's just a small bonus, nothing that changes the big picture.

So to make this easier lets just round this down to 480.000 XP which would be 12.000 xp per hour boosted playtime. So even if we substract badges and the daily bonus we should still be over 10.000 XP per hour for sure, so my number is nothing a "normal" player cannot reach. You will be around that number. So let's just continue with my 12.000 XP data as there are even more and many potential factors that can influence that number (First win of the day, Win to Loss ratio, etc) and we want to stick to the number we have..

In terms of the most expensive weapons (the 88.000 XP ones which cost 500 gold) my 480.000 XP would be 4,5 of those, making 2250 gold in comparison.
A 30 day boost is 1200 gold, so only if you get all the weapons for 50 percent off in a daily deal (which also includes the luck to get them in a deal in a reasonable amount of time) you will save money but only if you cannot get more then 1 hour playtime per day. Below that buying weapons (etc) for gold in a daily deal can be more attractive. Of course you get the stuff faster if you pay for it directly, but if that's not an issue for you a booster is a better deal if you can play more then one hour per day.

Keep in mind that the smaller boosters are more expensive in comparison to the bigger ones. The bigger the booster the more boosted time per gold you get. I would not recommend getting something below 30 days, unless you are able to put a lot of hours into the game. But even then it's more likely that you will be better off with a bigger booster as it is likely that you will reach the break even point pretty fast because you have more free time to invest into the game.

So taking this numbers and a 90 day booster and 1 hour playtime per day it would yield over one million xp. That should be enough to get amost everyhing you desire for 30 USD and would still leave you with 1600 gold to save and/or spent on other stuff like skins etc. Of course it would not give you everything that's in the game, but there is plenty of stuff in the game you simply don't need. And almost nobody plays all the classes anyway. Just make sure what you wanna play and use before you spent your XP and gold.
And also use this lovely forum to ask. People will happily share their thoughts on what to get and what to avoid.

[AuralViolations]

Try it before you buy it!
You can try out any perk, weapon, grenade, etc. in training mode. Click on Training: Target Practice. You can click on the grayed out classes and items and it will equip them in the game. Try out any item before you spend gold or xp so you make sure that you really want it.

[deadly.by.design]

The ground is lava.
Well, not quite ... but you are at your most vulnerable while on (or near) a surface. Whether it's while dueling in Arena or defending your base in CTF, you want to do everything you can to avoid being the first one to land. Why? Because landing first makes landing an explosive shot on you much easier (discs, thumpers, etc).

Along with this, if you find yourself fighting indoors, use every surface to your advantage! This includes shooting ceilings, walls, and on those tricky corners where your splash damage may still hit them. Grenades can be handy for this, too, as they can be banked around corners and are often difficult for enemies to see.

For tips on skiing and energy management, check out these two videos.

Thump the ground, shoot the air.
That's a generalization, but it's a good overall principle for learning the weapons in Tribes: Ascend.

Why thump the ground? Your spinfusor, thumper, and other explosive shots offer something that automatics do not -- splash damage. So, it's easier to fire close to your target on the ground than it is to hit them directly in the air. As your skill increases, you may want to try getting mid-air hits and landing Blue Plate Specials, but most players can't land those reliably. For new players, I would recommend waiting for the sure shot, rather than attempting the difficult shot. It can be glorious if you hit, but a miss may leave you in a vulnerable reload cycle.

Shoot the air? It's quite easy to dodge automatic fire while grounded, as it only requires strafing back and forth in quick motions. When targets are in the air, however, they tend to travel in slower arcs that can be easy to predict. More importantly, your targets have less dodging ability in the air, which means you generally have an easier time shooting them with your rifle, pistol or smg.

Juggle those guns.
This goes along with the last main point. Because of reload times, the up & down nature of combat, and the differences between hitting ground and aerial targets, you shouldn't be reluctant to switch weapons in a fight. Your inactive guns will automatically reload after 3 seconds, so you can use that to your advantage.

Juggernaut example: If you fire your mortar at an enemy and immediately switch to your secondary weapon, your mortar will will have reloaded itself by the time its smoke has dissipated.

[Mohorovicic]

Good advice all around, shame no noob is ever going to read it.

[Revisor]

I read it all, thank you. I'm still learning to ski and duel properly, let alone cooperate.

I try to jetpack over the upward slopes but seem very often to miss the downward slope and thus forego the possible speed boost.
I'm still afraid to hurt myself to go faster.
Yesterday I tried to duel with the assault rifle but was sorely missing the splash damage of the spinfusors. I'll try the "thump the ground, shoot the air" rule.
My juggernaut's mortar misses all the time, can't time it properly.

But still it's fun.

[Mohorovicic]

I try to jetpack over the upward slopes but seem very often to miss the downward slope and thus forego the possible speed boost.

When you ski up a hill, it is to gain altitude and ski down another hill in most cases. If there's only one hill to ski down from and you have extra Energy(yeah right) jet ahead of it and ski down on the other side, or don't ski down at all. Both are usually better than slowing down just to get the speed back skiing down again.

First picture on this badly outdated guide.

You shouldn't worry about hitting things too much. Even hitting a wall going 300km/h will hurt you for something like 500HP. Fall damage hovewer is usually a good indicator that your approach angle was wrong.

[harhis23]

Very informative. I don't know if it is already mentioned (as I didn't see it above), but I am just curious on how to obtain the loadouts. Thank you in advance.

[deadly.by.design]

Very informative. I don't know if it is already mentioned (as I didn't see it above), but I am just curious on how to obtain the loadouts. Thank you in advance.

How to get alternative loadouts? If you have at least 5,000 XP, you can unlock it when selecting your class. Simply click on the darkened-out options below the top one.

Or did I misunderstand? If you're looking to play a certain role, let us know and we can recommend what to unlock for it.