Nordy's E3 T:V Review

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.


Haha! It's cool, I hear you. What are your plans for T:V?

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.

I apologize ahead of time if this goes without saying, or I'm repeating what has been said a thousand times. These are just my opinions.

I believe the feeling of "weight" is absolutely paramount to this game's success. I would strongly advise you against any sort of "floaty" gravity/physics.

This issue is important enough that it will make or break your game. You can tweak weapon balance, armor balance, vehicle balance, etc... all you want, but if there isn't a solid and fun physics platform to base it all off of, nobody will care. The amazing fluid motion of whipping through dips and hills at a high velocity, fighting against that heavy gravity, isn't really something you want to tamper with.

T2 physics were negatively described by many as "soupy" and "floaty". This played a huge factor in turning people off to the game. Nobody wants to float down to the ground like a paper airplane, they want to cut through the air and hit that dip going mach 5.

This is not to say more "toys" that can help you descend to the ground slowly if desired aren't welcome, but the evil gravity monster that devours you with fall damage if you ski poorly is one of the best things the makers of Tribes accidently created.

I think Thrax spoke earlier about what the core elements of tribes are. He said something like freedom of movement, disclauncher, and a jetpack. I believe you can add gravity as well as depth perception to this list.

I believe the Tribes 1 set variable of how much the gravity pulls you to the ground is a VERY fragile number with nearly zero room for improvement. This is possibly the most important variable/number you will have to decide on. I might even be as bold to say that if you had to change the gravity, you should make it heavier than Tribes 1, rather than floatier. One of the best parts of the ENTIRE game is when you are skiing well and you're way high in the air, looking down at what is a perfect ski dip that your about to fall into with great force.

I am posting this because last I read, the gravity in T:V was in between Tribes 1 and Tribes 2. I realize that the game will have entirely different skiing techniques and such that I have zero frame of reference to. I also realize that the game's physics will certainly be different than Tribes 1 to take this into account.

I am long winded so I'm stopping here, but I leave you with this:

Please don't make T:V "floaty".

Sorry, I didn't see the floaty thread. My bad.

I still have faith :>

These guys know what they're doing. The game will be fine.