at the moment, i'm thinking that introducing clueless people to the concept of how tribes teamplay works (or *should* work) is as much of a problem as a disregard for unlock imbalances is. a tutorial would be nice, but even a few more of those information screens that pop-up during your first few levels and better tips between maps would help. at the least, it should be made clear that there should be a HoF, people to to protect the HoF from nasty things, people to clear out the enemy HoF and that they're supposed to do it when there's a capper en-route to the flag. also, the difference between an e-grab and a llama grab, and why one should be punishable by death. that and why the generator doesn't need camping 24/7, but that might be wishful thinking
there'll always be people that won't take a word of it in and will continue to play CoD if you give them half a chance, but it might be a step toward getting a community that's a bit more teamplay conscientious (in the pre-f2p TF2 way rather than the LoL-asshat sort of way).
but of course, you don't need that to sell unlocks - indeed it would devalue many unlocks that just aren't very valuable to totally teamwork oriented, flag-capping gameplay - so why bother? although i hate how some classes are getting left behind (brute, soldier to some extent) whilst raider and sneak-bastard, already powerful enough, get given ludicrous toys. that both of these classes have automatics that stand up to, are probably better than, the soldier's rifle is a farce.
but, as has been mentioned, there's still a bigger part of me that's thinking "y'know, whatever. you lot can have your overpriced and overpowered unlockables and your teams full of retards, because i'm too busy carrying the team* and GOAN FAST". it could be much better, of course, and i'd rather see it that way, but for the time being i'm still enjoying it as being more challenging than outright frustrating.
*you know that feeling you get when everyone else but you and maybe a couple of other guys on your team are dribbling idiots? i get that alot in tribes. it makes it fun!
that's all in the context of Ascend, of course, i haven't played the earlier ones so i can't make comment on how the meta game compares. speaking of - i realise that it's slow Tribes, but for the most part i think it works. a part of me thinks it sucks that hitscans and automatics exist, but i see why they're necessary (realistically speaking) for chasing. not that i think chasing should always
be necessary; as long as there's not a super-lame place to hide like the gen room in Raindance (HiRez: FIX IT. NOW.) standoffs where both teams have the enemy flag at their base are some of the best moments in the game.
finally, a random thought to finish off this ramble of a post: i'm getting way too many caps as Soldier. seriously. the amount of times i've made e-grabs that turn into outright caps is getting silly. i mean, having a highish health pool, the ability to get up to a decent speed and (i like to think) because i'm smarter than your average sanic helps, but there's been way too many times where that flagstand has been a beautiful open goal, the chasers (if existent) are abysmal and the there's no counter-grab to speak of. even if they do pull one off, Soldier is one of the best classes to carry the flag in a siege situation, so things usually go our way in the end. part of the reason why i love soldier so much is that you're not tied into doing a single role for the rest of your life, meaning you can actually use your brain instead of being a cap-bot, HoF-bot, Jugger-bot, Gen-room-bot or whatever. that, and we'll always have this advantage over the raider -
we kill shit. the day that the raider can consistently out-do a soldier in a one-on-one is the day i lose hope, and honestly, i don't think that even the plasma gun has changed that.