Nordy's E3 T:V Review

ON THE JETTING:

The biggest problem with the jetting, in relation to the map size, seemed that you simply had too much horizontal thrust. Over the X,Y, and Z axis's, you seemed to have an excess of juice to move across the X and Y axis.

The Z axis was a bit different. The smaller arena map had a LOT of Z axis fighting and you had to jet upwards to reach all of the major assets. If you didn't Grapple constantly, jetting up consumed a fair bit of energy.

I think, in this, lies a fault and is the area where it is actually most newbie UN-friendly. Watching some of the new players, they got totally trashed on the arena map where jetting and mid-air manuvering were dominant. On the flatter, larger map, they did much better where a skilled player couldn't lord over them from the skies, jumping from platform to platform and blasting them as they stuck mostly to the ground.

From the looks of the game, it seemed like the physics set was designed around the smaller, more vertically oriented map. You need that energy to jet up to the various platforms (as you can see from the vids, the flag is raised off the ground quite a bit as well). Either that, or the physics was designed around a significantly larger map where you need all that juice to get anywhere.

It may be that they gave the player so much juice to manuever around in these Z-axis heavy environments that they overcompensated on the X and Y axis's. Hence, you get a lot of jet energy, but only in 1 dimension does the energy feel balanced.

So, decrease the energy:horizontal deltaV ratio and all is good?

Haven't played it so I can't really comment, so I think it's probably a decently easy fix... one variable change.

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.

After all my jerking and whining and the joy I felt at having a melee weapon in there again, they better not take it out of multi. They can nerf the EB to hell all they want and I won't care, so long as they keep it in for me to get good with and show off with.

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

Quality of a post > Quantity

:)

after watching the videos im worried about the buckler...a bit...i dont feel like writing why... tired....

Both maps in the E3 build are small, one of them extremely small.

Bodies and flags falling straight down on death is a bug.

You're supposed to be able to discjump effectively. Maybe there was a bug in the E3 build. Here's the general philosophy:

There is discjumping in the game. Discjumping gives you speed at the expense of health. There are 4 packs in the game. The energy pack boost gives you some speed (somewhat similar to a discjump) but nothing else. The repair pack lets you slowly regenerate your health, so you can perform a discjump and gradually recover from it. The shield pack lets you take less damage for performing a discjump. The speed pack lets you get a nice running start (also somewhat comparable to a discjump but not as effective).

The idea is that you always have the option of discjumping to acquire speed in an emergency. But if you have a pack--any pack--you have more options at your disposal for acquiring speed in an emergency.

I'll finish by saying that, in my eyes, we're trying to build a musical instrument. So far we've been focussed on making sure this instrument has everything we'll need in order to tune it and ultimately play it as best we can. Now, with the instrument mostly built and all the pieces in place, the real time for tuning and playing has arrived,
KP

fantastic
thx nord
and KP

I'll finish by saying that, in my eyes, we're trying to build a musical instrument. So far we've been focussed on making sure this instrument has everything we'll need in order to tune it and ultimately play it as best we can. Now, with the instrument mostly built and all the pieces in place, the real time for tuning and playing has arrived,
KP

I think you've got a pretty good place to begin from KP. As long as you guys can tweak the various movement/environment variables fairly easily, you're in good shape. If you can convince the team to increase the gravity, I'd push for that before you make any other tweaks.

I'm pretty much out of stuff to talk about, so the rest is up to Irrational to fix.

gj man :>

Why would they show two very small maps and none with a larger 'Tribes'-like feel? I'm concerned if they're more worried about showing small arena-type maps over any kind of sprawling environment like we're used to.

: \

In terms of physics, our alpha build has been looking solid so I spent most of the weekend tuning. We're playing with a set of configs that has higher gravity now, and it feels decent. Lots more tuning to go though.

For the E3 build we wanted to make sure that people could stop at a machine, play for 5 minutes, and be guaranteed to encounter combat. We were limited to around 10 machines I think, so about 5 people per team, hence the smaller maps.

For the public demo I'm not 100% sure what maps we'll ship yet,
KP

just make sure you re-make Thin Ice ;)

KP any idea on the number of maps that are gonna ship with the beta?

For the public demo I'm not 100% sure what maps we'll ship yet,
KP

Thanx as always for any info. Thank you Nord for the objective Review and thx for filling in with extra info Yogi , Perrin , and of Course KP. Can't wait to take a shot at the open Beta. Also can't wait for more reviews as more changes take place.

There is discjumping in the game. Discjumping gives you speed at the expense of health. There are 4 packs in the game. The energy pack boost gives you some speed (somewhat similar to a discjump) but nothing else. The repair pack lets you slowly regenerate your health, so you can perform a discjump and gradually recover from it. The shield pack lets you take less damage for performing a discjump. The speed pack lets you get a nice running start (also somewhat comparable to a discjump but not as effective).
wow :dapimp:
I have a terrible hangover right now but this sounds like poetry to me. KP make sure you and you alone have complete control over this game, mmkay? ;)

wow :dapimp:
I have a terrible hangover right now but this sounds like poetry to me. KP make sure you and you alone have complete control over this game, mmkay? ;)

I'd definitely be much more comfortable if he was. :(

It's very interesting to read some of the thoughts people have had about the game so far having seen the E3 build, knowing that some of the problems raised have already been dealt with, even in the few days since we sent the E3 build over. Of course, we had no control over when E3 was to be held, and we absolutely had to present something, and even though it's not, so far, to everyone's taste I think it's a pretty good example fo just what we're capable of putting into the game. Remember, the E3 build was a PRE ALPHA, not even a full alpha build! There's lots more to do. And because we're releasing in Q4, that means we've got a minimum of three and a half months - possibly more - to work on balance and tuning. And we're working very hard to do that!

(My hat goes off to my brother Ed and Michael J who work ludicrous hours, often pulling 12, 13 or 14 hour days, plus weekends)

We currently have no plans to recreate or remake any maps from the previous Tribes titles. We'll have to leave that to you guys :) We've said from the start that this isn't going to be Tribes 1 or 2 with better graphics, and remaking a past map would go against that philosophy. Besides, I'm far more interested in creating something original :)

(I have the best job in the world, a fantastic combination of creativity and technique.)

Great review guys. Granted some of these things are critical I am still very excited to get my hands on this game.

In terms of physics, our alpha build has been looking solid so I spent most of the weekend tuning. We're playing with a set of configs that has higher gravity now, and it feels decent. Lots more tuning to go though.

Cool. This tidbit of info has really restored my faith in the dev team...for a moment there I was wondering if you weren't being given enough power on this project. I have faith in you, but IG is still a big wild card for me.

writer_reassurance++;