Nordy's E3 T:V Review

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ON THE SPINFUSOR:

Apart from the lack of diskjumping, the spinfusor disk does travel slower than in T2 (shot velocity seems lower). This made it a little trickier to setup long-range shots and MA's, but overall I didn't mind the change that much. After a few minutes of practice, the Spinfusor still turned out to be a pretty effective bread-and-butter weapon (managed to get a few easy MA's too).

ON THE OTHER WEAPONS:

Most of the other 'standard' Tribes weapons felt good. Mortar and Grenade Launcher seemed pretty easy to pickup. Inventory stations did take 2-3 mortars to destroy, but I think they made the inventory stations tougher in general. Chaingun was easy to use, and, since people were in the air so much, I used it a lot. It felt like we were on LAN-level pings, so Chainwhoring was pretty effective in the multitude of mid-air duels that broke out on the smaller map.

Buckler was fun to throw and have it 'boomerang' back to you, but I didn't get a chance to test the balance on it's uses that thouroughly. No idea how much or how the Buckler 'protects' the user when it's used as a shield.

Energy Blade is the Shocklance (don't know if they count backshots though). However, since the current T:V physics have people flying through the air pretty quickly, I don't anticipate this weapon to be that useful unless they slow the game down drastically. The shocklance isn't that great in T2 Classic and I don't think the Energy Blade will be that powerful in T:V (unless it gets slower).

Didn't get to use Hand Grenades enough to give them a fair shake. Did not seem like armors could carry a large number of Hand Grenades (3-4 maybe?).

The Burner is the Plasma Rifle. It fires like the Plasma Rifle, not like a flamethrower. Instead of just dissipating when it hits an object however, it burns for a few seconds (even in mid-air if it reaches it's maximum range). It also sets people on fire, so they burn for a few seconds after being hit.

The new Blaster is a shotgun (or Flak Cannon). No idea if it pierces Shield Packs or richochets. Overall, at close range, it seemed to do a decent amount of damage, so it sounds more useful than the T1/T2 Blaster.

The default loadout appeared to be Disk/Chain/Blaster, with the Disk being selected first (huzzah!).

The Rocket Pod is a tough weapon to call. The missiles are pretty spread out, but they track where you look, so you can usually hit someone with a few of the Rockets if they're on the ground. Should be more-fun anti-vehicle weapon than the crappy T2 Missile Launcher in any case.

I hope the irrational guys read this I'm sure they will and look into fixing some of the stuff, and hopefully during the open beta they listen to us :D

great review nord though, seemed you had an open mind about the game going in unlike some people jerking and moaning it's not like t1 etc etc :)

the thing I'm wondering about disk jumping is this, everyone says that the game feels pretty fast already, now dj's are mostly used to pick up a great deal of speed really quickly or fling yourself a different way etc, but if the game is already fast and you can gain speed pretty quickly as some people have said would DJ really be that useful,

also in that regards is that booster pack, I don't really know how it works, but if it boosts your speed quickly then it could be a replacement to the dj maybe...

Is the splash on the disc bigger now that it is slower?

nord
can you disc the flag? don't think I've seen anyone comment on that yet...

nord
can you disc the flag? don't think I've seen anyone comment on that yet...

I did not see the flag move at all when it was loose in the field. If the capper died in mid-air, the flag fell STRAIGHT DOWN to the ground and stuck there. I saw no instances of sliding, bouncing, or other flag movement. I also did not get to test or see and flag passing.

Diskjumping actually does do a bit it seems to me. However it's missing any effect (such as screen turning red etc.) So it seems to do way less than it does.

So there's no inheritence of velocity from a dead player dropping a flag? (Aristotlellian physics, vice Newtonian physics).

Probably visually not the best thing. I'd be all for having a "dropped" flag have a high horizontal air resistance, so it's arc is fairly drastic compared to the corpse, as that would make some sort of "visual sense", opposed to having it drop straight down.

Yeah, but in smaller maps, you don't want them to be able to get the flag home by grabbing and throwing it.

Perrin']Yeah, but in smaller maps, you don't want them to be able to get the flag home by grabbing and throwing it.

Thing is, IIRC, KP mentioned improved passing physics for the flag. It's not as drastic as TR2, but it's improved over T1 and T2. But passing is neither here nor there. It's strictly dead drops that I'm concerned with ATM.

Having a low (1/2 or less base speed) velocity applied to the flag when dropped by a dead player wouldn't affect play that much, merely position on the field.

The t2 dj is huge (larger than it should be imo, anyway), perhaps it's just that some people have gotten too used to that.

It does indeed look like there will be a good bit more air time, especially on the small maps like that arena looking one that have lots of vertical platforms and such. I'm not really sure if that's a good thing or not, traditionally in tribes there have only really been 2 weapons worth a salt against an airborne target at any decent range: chaingun and laser... and the laser is fairly limiting so it sounds like the chaingun might just become that new bread and butter weapon.

The disc also looks quite slow. It seems like it could also use a bit more clarification on where the projectile actually is (seems like just a big blue streak). Perhaps it's making up for this with a faster reload?

Sounds to me like we might be seeing a lot more chain and a lot less disc (like there isn't enough chain already :P). Unless of course there's something else that's effective against airborne targets in a variety of situations? The burner and perhaps the grapple sound like they could be decent sometimes, but they don't sound like they'll have near the versatility of the chain.

1.5 Years working on "just" the physics, and they need the most work.

Makes sense. :)

only fact im scared about. been thinking about that every time someone posts a "review". cool you would post that as a 1st :)

Thanks for the review Nordy, it's nice to see someone such as yourself had a chance to play the game and offer some unbiased and honest feedback. I'm sure the irrational crew will look at these threads closely, so it's good to see they can nail a few issues before limited (or widespread) testing occurs.

No need for a big diskjump if speeds are easier to attain and you can use grapple to pickup speed. Perhaps the dj of today is evolving into the grapple of tomorrow.

No need for a big diskjump if speeds are easier to attain and you can use grapple to pickup speed. Perhaps the dj of today is evolving into the grapple of tomorrow.

I'd like to grapple your face......... quittar :):):)

Seriously though, a good review followed by a good followup post.

Their aimin' this game for a bigger audience this time and that means it's doubtful it'll be exactly like T2 Classic or T1 physics. Wider audience means Noobie Friendly! Their not gonna make this game solely for 2,000-4,000 Tribes players who still play now, they're goin' after as many peeps as is possible. Would they like to retain all us old school tribers, of course! But when it comes number crunchin' time for the suits at Sierra, it's likely they could give a rats ass about us if they feel they could bring massive more people to the game by making the game fully noob friendly. And that means wimpier physics than most of us are used to. It also may mean less time to master the game which may quickly equal boring. Hopefully not, it sure is lookin sweet graphically, but good graphics have never meant good gameplay.

Hopefully our fav modders, the zod's, should just plan on making a mod for this game. That's what's gonna have to happen in the end. If they don't others are gonna have to step up. It will have to be done. Plan on it NOW!

Remember when T2 came out? The physics sucked compared to T1 along with the UE's. Most of the people I played with in T1 quit the game that first summer. Expect TV to not be like T2, as you might hope it will be. It will not be like T2 Classic in the physics department. It would be nice but it won't be. Plan on modifying the finished product, plan on making lots of maps....this way you won't be as disapointed when it's released. Tribes is, has been, and will continue to be, a work in progress...

I pretty much agree with this review, here's to hoping we can have some influence.

nord
can you disc the flag? don't think I've seen anyone comment on that yet...
In the E3 build it doesn't move. That's not to say it'll stay that way so I can't say for sure how it'll end up.

Good review.

Looks like they are going to need to change some things with the jetpack, but thats easy enough. The only thing that concerns me is the grappling hook's effect on airtime. It sounds to me like it needs to use energy (or at least negate energy generation), otherwise I could imagine ways to hardly touch the ground at all.

ON THE SPINFUSOR:

Apart from the lack of diskjumping, the spinfusor disk does travel slower than in T2 (shot velocity seems lower). This made it a little trickier to setup long-range shots and MA's, but overall I didn't mind the change that much. After a few minutes of practice, the Spinfusor still turned out to be a pretty effective bread-and-butter weapon (managed to get a few easy MA's too).


It's slower than T1 even



Buckler was fun to throw and have it 'boomerang' back to you, but I didn't get a chance to test the balance on it's uses that thouroughly. No idea how much or how the Buckler 'protects' the user when it's used as a shield.


A buckler will ALMOST kill a light in one shot, although it is very hard to aim. It only protects an area in front of the player. However, if you "bump" into another player (friendly or enemy) it'll apply an impulse to them.


Energy Blade is the Shocklance

Fear Thrax's wrath if he ever reads this sentence


(don't know if they count backshots though). However, since the current T:V physics have people flying through the air pretty quickly, I don't anticipate this weapon to be that useful unless they slow the game down drastically. The shocklance isn't that great in T2 Classic and I don't think the Energy Blade will be that powerful in T:V (unless it gets slower).

Back or front, it does the same damage. The blade is the last resort weapon of single player that you use if you run out of all of your ammo. It may or may not stay in multi.


Didn't get to use Hand Grenades enough to give them a fair shake. Did not seem like armors could carry a large number of Hand Grenades (3-4 maybe?).

Players carry 2 right now. You hold down the button and get a meter like from TR2 to show how far you will throw the grenade.



The Burner is the Plasma Rifle. It fires like the Plasma Rifle, not like a flamethrower. Instead of just dissipating when it hits an object however, it burns for a few seconds (even in mid-air if it reaches it's maximum range). It also sets people on fire, so they burn for a few seconds after being hit.

You can use the burner to set up a field of flame that someone has to pass through (friendlies will take damage too remember). Thrax did a nice job with this as a HoF from watching him play.


The new Blaster is a shotgun (or Flak Cannon). No idea if it pierces Shield Packs or richochets. Overall, at close range, it seemed to do a decent amount of damage, so it sounds more useful than the T1/T2 Blaster.


No ricochet in the E3 build. Not sure if that is planned.


The Rocket Pod is a tough weapon to call. The missiles are pretty spread out, but they track where you look, so you can usually hit someone with a few of the Rockets if they're on the ground. Should be more-fun anti-vehicle weapon than the crappy T2 Missile Launcher in any case.

RP is a little overpowered at this point and I'm sure will still be tweaked. It's very hard to MA someone with them. The spread is wide enough that all 6 rockets do not hit in the same spot.