VaporTrail
11-13-2003, 07:55 PM
A good gametype has a couple requirements, it must be fun to play, it must be noob friendly, and it must require some actual skill for high level competitive play.
Yes, I said noob friendly. Everyone has to play the game to beign with, and fall in love with it as a noob, in order to become good enough to progress to more advanced competition levels.
I'm willing to bet that very few people in here started playing Tribes in a competition format. Everyone probably bought the game, joined a pub, played around for a while and grew to like the game as a complete nub, THEN got involved in the competition side of things.
A game needs to be easily learned, simple rules for beginners, but those rules are enforced with an iron fist by the server (none of this "No O sniping, No rape till 10 v 10" MOTD stuff, because the nubs don't KNOW what O sniping is, or even what constitutes rape. The only reason that those rules are enforced is because the community has deemed them necessary for a fun game, and the Admins are from the community. Without the Admins, nubs become Osniping, baseraping whores... Point being that the basic rules must be that, basic, yet conducive to a fun game for Jon Q. Randomnub.). For COMPETITION style play, some stricter rules might be necessary, but to get someone hooked on the gametype it has to be simple.
Remember "Tag"? Run around and try to tag someone, who then becomes "It" and tries to do the same. That's as basic as the game got.
Eventually someone figured out that to be close enough get tagged, you were close enough to immediately tag them back... hence the more complicated "no tagbacks" rule. Hence the game is more complicated, yet more fun, for the advanced players.
Take TR2 for example.
TR2 had two major problems with the scoring system.
The "hyper-pass" where two teammates would snag the flag after a goal, jump up and hover in the air and build a 250 pt jackpot before the opposing players could even get across the map. This could be solved by a simple rule fix (game modification) that limited you to a single pass every 3 seconds or so.
Two, the easiest way to score was generally to build a moderate jackpot after a goal (usually by hyper-pass) and then rush the goal, and cowboy it in. This could be fixed by timer, the longer you hold the flag, the less % of the jackpot you would get from a goal. Someone who picks up the flag and chucks it almost immediately would get near 100% if it went in, someone who cowboyed it across the entire map would earn thier team about 10%. A slapshot goal or other pass to goal would earn a bonus, depending on the type. A ground to goal SS would earn a pittance, a long pass into a G4-slapshot goal would earn +100% bonus (or something major in that vein).
Those two rulefixes weren't necessary for pub play (well, perhaps some of the second one was). but advanced players would need them for anything like a competitive game.
T:V doesn't necessarily need a TR style gametype. I found TR and TR2 to be one of the most innovative gametypes to emerge in the last several years, as well as one of the most fun, and skill intensive. It's easy to learn, yet impossibly hard to master (in it's intended form at least, not the "ch34p" grabs that net you 50-60 points for doing almost nothing...) with the long range, high speed, high altitude passes being the province of those possesed with uber skills. In short it had the makings of a great game, and I hope to see it reemerge again.
Edit: for spelling and clarity.
Yes, I said noob friendly. Everyone has to play the game to beign with, and fall in love with it as a noob, in order to become good enough to progress to more advanced competition levels.
I'm willing to bet that very few people in here started playing Tribes in a competition format. Everyone probably bought the game, joined a pub, played around for a while and grew to like the game as a complete nub, THEN got involved in the competition side of things.
A game needs to be easily learned, simple rules for beginners, but those rules are enforced with an iron fist by the server (none of this "No O sniping, No rape till 10 v 10" MOTD stuff, because the nubs don't KNOW what O sniping is, or even what constitutes rape. The only reason that those rules are enforced is because the community has deemed them necessary for a fun game, and the Admins are from the community. Without the Admins, nubs become Osniping, baseraping whores... Point being that the basic rules must be that, basic, yet conducive to a fun game for Jon Q. Randomnub.). For COMPETITION style play, some stricter rules might be necessary, but to get someone hooked on the gametype it has to be simple.
Remember "Tag"? Run around and try to tag someone, who then becomes "It" and tries to do the same. That's as basic as the game got.
Eventually someone figured out that to be close enough get tagged, you were close enough to immediately tag them back... hence the more complicated "no tagbacks" rule. Hence the game is more complicated, yet more fun, for the advanced players.
Take TR2 for example.
TR2 had two major problems with the scoring system.
The "hyper-pass" where two teammates would snag the flag after a goal, jump up and hover in the air and build a 250 pt jackpot before the opposing players could even get across the map. This could be solved by a simple rule fix (game modification) that limited you to a single pass every 3 seconds or so.
Two, the easiest way to score was generally to build a moderate jackpot after a goal (usually by hyper-pass) and then rush the goal, and cowboy it in. This could be fixed by timer, the longer you hold the flag, the less % of the jackpot you would get from a goal. Someone who picks up the flag and chucks it almost immediately would get near 100% if it went in, someone who cowboyed it across the entire map would earn thier team about 10%. A slapshot goal or other pass to goal would earn a bonus, depending on the type. A ground to goal SS would earn a pittance, a long pass into a G4-slapshot goal would earn +100% bonus (or something major in that vein).
Those two rulefixes weren't necessary for pub play (well, perhaps some of the second one was). but advanced players would need them for anything like a competitive game.
T:V doesn't necessarily need a TR style gametype. I found TR and TR2 to be one of the most innovative gametypes to emerge in the last several years, as well as one of the most fun, and skill intensive. It's easy to learn, yet impossibly hard to master (in it's intended form at least, not the "ch34p" grabs that net you 50-60 points for doing almost nothing...) with the long range, high speed, high altitude passes being the province of those possesed with uber skills. In short it had the makings of a great game, and I hope to see it reemerge again.
Edit: for spelling and clarity.