Nordy's E3 T:V Review

my only worry is skiing's conflict with singleplayer.

They may not be able to achieve physics satisfactory to tribes vets because those physics may not be compatiable with the level design of single player.

since you guys have alot of faith in KP.. and you should.... you ought to have faith in his ability to pick a good situation to work within... HE has faith in IG... no reason YOU shouldn't have faith in IG.... especially with the cuth and tact that they have responded to idiot blind haters in this forum.

since you guys have alot of faith in KP.. and you should.... you ought to have faith in his ability to pick a good situation to work within... HE has faith in IG... no reason YOU shouldn't have faith in IG.... especially with the cuth and tact that they have responded to idiot blind haters in this forum.
I suspect KP would agree to work on this project even if he didn't have faith in IG, if only to try and save it from them.

That said, I get a good vibe from what I've read of the other IG employees.

I'm not so sure Sierra has that same respect from me, though. :)

Let KP formulate the physics. That man, he knows what he is doing. He can remove the floatiness and create the quickness and the weight of movement that makes Tribes movement good, even as he includes some of the T:V stylizations on the old movement models.

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...


All wrong if you ask me. We should plan on seeing what it's like before committing to modding it. I mean, what if it is actually good. Chill out and wait to see how it turns out before suggesting mods which will divide the community. :(

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

good ideas :) Now I hope that they are achieved

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

Amen

I'm glad the dev team is so quick to reply to issues and are already playing with different configs and tweaking values, makes my hopes for the game high again. I won't be expecting anything less than a great game this time around. Can't wait for beta. ;)

maka's just pimpin his new vet4 tag :P

Oh shiznit! I'm vet 4 now. :O

Edit: Great thread too, lots of useful information here.

the lack of DJ power is absolutely frightening. I have no idea where that comes from. DJ works quite well if you do it properly. :shrug:

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
There was 14 I believe (8 at ATI, 2 downstairs at VUG, 3 upstairs at VUG and one at MS).

The build was very stable. I must have played a total of 5 hours with probably 3 crashes. Not bad at all for a game that is pre-alpha.

Spyridion was very small, but great to play around with the grapple. Fort had the pod and the rover, but that map was still so small you really didn't need them. However, you could get a good ski going there.

I think it's way too early to be too critical of the game myself. They seem to be doin a fantastic job so far. They hang out in here and are listening to everyone's input and constantly tweakin' the game. The main thing I was trying to say earlier was, " Expect TV to not be like T2, as you might hope it will be." This may save some of you frustration later on when it's not.

It won't be. There making a new version of Tribes. Alot will be different. Some seem to think that the game is gonna be like T1/T2 with better graphics, and it won't be exactly the same. If people want it like T2 Classic or T2 Base they will have to mod it. This game could be far better than both the first 2 games, without modification, we'll have to see. They definetely have the pieces in place to make it so.

I don't want to have anything to do with tryin to split the community. The community has always ended up modifying Tribes and we're still here. If I sounded way critical of the devs, thats not what I meant, they are trying to make a new game here, in their own way. Those that expect T2 with prettier graphics, will have to make it, thats all I meant.

Those that expect T1/2 with prettier graphics, will have to make it, thats all I meant.
Fixed.

Anyone who expects T1/2 is doomed to disappointment. I hope people have the sense to play T:V base extensively before jumping on a "competition mod" bandwagon. T:V base looks good so far...

I'm not expecting anything but a good balanced game.

I love the banter that the community and the Devs share. I'll always add my input and back up what I feel is relevant input as well. I have enormous respect for the dev team and what they have put in the game and focused down on are great "ideas". It's just how they are balanced and implemented now that will matter. I think the participation overall is great.

remembering the "pics or it didn't happen" motto, I give you Nordy at E3...

http://www.tribesaholic.com/images/nordy.jpg

and I will refrain from posting my pics of the crash screens cause I love the panda and want to ask a favor later :)

A mouse told me he was getting yelling at newbies to go after the flag.

lol

Get much sleep Nordy?

He must've smoked a few bowls before playing.

lol

Get much sleep Nordy?

Actually, no. On the first day of E3, I was operating on a few hours of sleep. I didn't realize how much it showed until I saw GNR's picture, ouch!

And man, my left eye looks incredibly messed up in that pic.