So, yeah, I'm wondering whether people at SPA are playing Tribes: Ascend?

Personally, I can't believe how much time I'm spending with it. Unlocked Thrust for Pathfinder yesterday (only a measly 42 000 XP) - next up: Bolt Launcher!

Would be fun to try out some teams, would it not? Pubs are really so-and-so and since I haven't actually played that much games with you guys, this would be a good chance to do that.

I've played the Beta for quite a while and really enjoyed it. But there are just so many games that I'm playing right now that I haven't even tried the final game.
I might start playing again if I find myself with massive amounts of spare time.

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'Belgium, a country with many homos also have a pedophile party as far as i know.' - Violetblood

It's great for procrastination.

Pretty decent game, though I'm kinder shit with anything other than tech though.

whenever i'm at home nowadays i find mysself playing tribes as much as i play tf2. i'd elaborate on how it alternates between being amazing and a in danger of giving me a rage-induced heamorrhage, but i don't have that much time right now

i had a post in another topic talking about tribes with a link to a free soldier spinfusor. that offer was going on on several website, it was a few weeks ago now but you might get lucky and find one that's still on the go.

in-game name's Scatterbrain if you guys want to add me

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ュ~ちゃんgamer.jp Pinky: true genius
ュ~ちゃんgamer.jp Pinky: doesn't make sense
ュ~ちゃんgamer.jp Pinky: till you're senseless

Indeed.

This is the only game I am currently playing but I have to agree with Scatter in that my blood pressure must be going through the roof from doing so! SO close to being a Tribes game and yet so far from it.

Between new guys who get utterly stumped by the learning curve and this new generation of morons who think that only fast caps matter I want to hurt myself but add on appalling physics, the worlds most unbalanced weapons and iditoic map desgin (capped of with Kidy-Mode-Skiing ) and I'm surprised my head hasn't burst.

Still...skiing - its good to be doing it again

Anyway - am in game as Brayanuus if anyone cares. Me and Junco see each other on there a fair bit and I keep nagging Ditch to come back but he is being a wuss

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"Fire rained from the sky on the day I was born: 10,000 lives I ended before drawing first breath. Do not speak to me of guilt or regret, Jonathan.” - Brayan, The Keepers of the Fire

Yep me and Howard make a mean team, I take care of the all important gen room and make sure our radar sensor is at it's top level, while he does some uninteresting shit with the enemy flag or something, kinder futile if you ask me, but someone's got to do it I guess

Yeah, I got a flag problem... think I may need to chat to someone about it...

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"Fire rained from the sky on the day I was born: 10,000 lives I ended before drawing first breath. Do not speak to me of guilt or regret, Jonathan.” - Brayan, The Keepers of the Fire

now my graphics card is working again I'll probably reinstall the thing soon

Also, this just seems to get tribes just right, especially when you get the flag.



Also, whoever thought up the infiltrator is an asshole.

I hate the class so much, but will probably end up playing it a lot...go fig.

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Maps too small, heavies as fast as scouts, vehicles missing, 1 generator only and some how I still enjoy it.

I think its ended up being somewhere in between Quake3 and Tribes2 not a bad compromise all in all.

oh yeah the infiltrator is evil.

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Its not the Infil that is the issue but rather the Jackal. Stupidly OP weapon. 2nd highest DPS in the whole game and its given to a guy who moves like a Pathfinder, tanks like a Soldier and can go invisible at will. Perfect example of why Ascend is nowhere near like Tribes.

As to the heavies skiing too fast: you must not have played Tribes1/2 very much. Heavies have always been able to ski fast its just that it used to take skill. Now, thanks to the consolised "ski button" it ludicrously easy. Also, I would have to disagree about map size. T1 had some huge maps and a few of them were fun but largely they were just a waste of time, needlessly adding to game length by making you trudge between points.

The main balance issue, beyond the Jackal, is the Plasma gun. That thing is just retarded and it is starting to build a level of genuine hatred amongst players. All our pay-to-win fears given form.

If they can nerf the silly weapons and fix skiing so that physics works or at least makes sense (and so its a FUCK load faster, like it should be!) then it will be fine. I would love to see them remove all hit-scan and bullet based weapons but we gotta keep the kiddies happy with the easy mode stuff so that wont happen.

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"Fire rained from the sky on the day I was born: 10,000 lives I ended before drawing first breath. Do not speak to me of guilt or regret, Jonathan.” - Brayan, The Keepers of the Fire

No I played tribes 1 and 2 more than I ever played well any other game, my problem with the heavies is I guess the same problem you have with the ski button. Its too easy, a skilled heavy used to be able to get to the enemies base in quick time and blast away; now its heavy-spam-tastic as every tool makes his way over along side the lighter classes and mortars rain in. It used to be rare enough that it was entertaining to watch. With no learning curve on the skiing and speed difference being negligible it makes the game about fire-power over skill, that at least was something tribes was never about. I was annoyed enough with tribes2 making skiing easier but this really is too far.

I agree about the infiltrator class though, though I'd add sticky grenades to the overpowered list. I saw two of those take out three heavies, a tech and a pathfinder (me).

As for maps, I really loved the vehicle battles in tribes, the smaller maps make them a little pointless. A huge map where beowulf, jehrico's and thunderswords were necessary was always fun (as long as you had a reliable team) and shrike dogfights were often highlights of games. There's no need to buy them when you can cross the map in seconds in any class it seems a waste.

At least there's nothing like slamming a disc into a enemies face and watch them flail to the ground. There's still some skill left they haven't killed off.

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Yeah, I think we were making the same point but from opposite sides: its just too easy. Had a match the other day were all the capping was done by Brutes! I mean wtf?!

Also, I see what you mean about vehicle battles (though that was more T2 than 1). Also I had totally forgotten about the damned Jericho - man, my brain is fried.

yeah, some big maps would be nice but I guess the issue is still learning curve. Even with skiing made tragically easy, most people still struggle to work out what the hell is going no for a few days and in that time they have a lousy experience. Trying to get the average FPS player to embrace teamwork is tough, but trying to sell the concept in a FTP game is like trying to herd cats.

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"Fire rained from the sky on the day I was born: 10,000 lives I ended before drawing first breath. Do not speak to me of guilt or regret, Jonathan.” - Brayan, The Keepers of the Fire

Cardboard

I think it's a really shame what they did with the infs, I guess it was only a matter of time until they turned the stealth class into a tank, they really need to make the jackal into a powerful trap setting weapon with a delay on when the bombs arm. The there's the fractal nades... they should die when the brute who threw them dies. Would like to see a hint from the devs that they're not gonna kill this game.

I take it all back the Jackal in the hands of idiots led me to 33 kills 4 assists on katabatic. No-one wanted to defend the generator, so I did as a pathfinder seriously couldn't aim and kept doing the same routine, after a while 22 kills no assists the team caught on and I was joined. Never mind I'm off to eat.

Hey Junco I assume they'll nerf the inf at some point, it seems to me its a quick aspirational class for new players maybe when a community gets bedded in a little they'll sort it out.

Howard; back in the t2 days the Jericho was the primary way of getting your heavies into position park it up fly a few there in a Havoc a let them at it. Now all you need is a space bar. Brutes capping is exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about, to do that 10 years ago you'd need support, a havoc + pilot and a lot of team work it was also the kind of thing you did to rub salt in wounds.

The update is interesting though loadouts are back, not that there's all that much variation yet to need them and vehicle prices have been reduced so hopefuly we'll see them more and more, also the new map looks amazing not sure about how it plays yet but at least its pretty.

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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.

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ュ~ちゃんgamer.jp Pinky: true genius
ュ~ちゃんgamer.jp Pinky: doesn't make sense
ュ~ちゃんgamer.jp Pinky: till you're senseless

I think the jackal does have a learning curve it isn't just a 'noob' weapon. These sort of infs drop down onto the motion sensors and die to light turrets it's quite funny. Comparing the arx buster to the jackal though is also a laugh, I really think the raiders initial role is redundant doesn't quite have the edge over heavies indoors or even jackal infs, and while he would be good a disrupting defense the heavy turrets are usually mounted too high for him, and his scrambler pack is locked at first haha such a mess.

This is a good update though, they're showing a more promising attitude. I wanna give the new ctf map a go, though I was hoping to see more Sunstar type flag stands with the powered shield. We might even see vehicles added in future updates, it a free to play game so that sort of content is likely.

@Scatter I think the soldiers are sort of intended to do anything, even the odd cap.

Patch notes for those interested:

http://hi-rez.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/454

I must suck horrible because I dont reach 200 with a heavy, not even speaking of the 330 flag grabs some people pull off.

I've recently got around to playing this, after listening to howies suggestion and saving up for the engi I started doing a lot better ^^
Nothing beats offensive engi or 2 turrets going pew pew by the flag point ^^
My ingame name is QTwhiskers. I think

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[SpA]Saint K.: I need some help trying to reproduce a crash
[SpA]Saint K.: would u mind joining me ?

^This

Also, ingame name: morotsangst

if anyone still plays this (i don't) i've got a code that i think is good for 250G (i can't remember how i got it or how much it's worth ), send me a message if you want it

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ュ~ちゃんgamer.jp Pinky: true genius
ュ~ちゃんgamer.jp Pinky: doesn't make sense
ュ~ちゃんgamer.jp Pinky: till you're senseless