Nordy's E3 T:V Review

Got a chance to play T:V at E3 for 1 - 2 hours over a couple intervals.

GAMEPLAY:

Maps are small. Or, at least, they felt small. Even Dangerous Crossing and Stonehenge felt larger than either of the two maps that were available. Cap limits were either unlimited, or huge, because we had 10+ caps going per map in under 30 minutes. Flag standoffs were constant; it was a pain in the ass to keep the flag home. Unfortunately, one of the maps featured a medium-sized base, so turtling seemed very easy and a viable strategy if your team went up 1-2 caps.

Cluster seemed possible, BUT, since multiple invents were within 10 m of every spawn point on both maps, everybody just suited up.

Skiing is weird. You accelerate while skiing, but slowly. Basically, it had the acceleration of T2 Base skiing, but with no slowdowns while going uphill and no discernable speed cap. Due to the size of the maps (small), you didn't have much room/need to skii long enough to go fast. You can cross the whole map only touching the ground 2x for a few seconds in a Heavy with an E-Pack. T:V skiing right now is pretty much it's own thing; it's not a direct translation of skiing from T1 or any of the T2 physics set.

Diskjumping seemed to do nearly nothing. It felt like T2 Base diskjumping (which was garbage).

Energy/Jets are plentiful. Jet control felt tight, but you had a lot of juice. Some grappling combined with good pack use means you can cross the entire (small) maps in one swoop. 4-second cap routes, entirely in the air, weren't that hard to setup on the smaller of the 2 maps.

Inventory UI looks awesome, but lacks T2's pre-loading capabilites (so far). Everytime you used the invent, you needed to select your loadout like T1. Hopefully, they'll put in a pre-loading shortcut so it functions more like T2's inventory system.

Deployables exist (turret, invent, mines), and they take up their own slot now. I liked this change; it lets farmers carry a pack and a deployable. I was hurting for a minedisk though, especially given the fact that 1 disk isn't enough to stop a Light and, combined with the all-air fast cap routes, it made it a little hard for an LD to ever stop a good capper without sniping or body-blocking him.

Grappling Hook is fun but currently too useful and a little overpowered. The Grappling Hook exacerbated the whole 'stay in the air forever' problem. Changing the physics may bring the Grappling Hook into line automatically.

No flag skipping or bouncing that I could see. When a capper died, the flag fell straight downwards and stuck to the ground. Did not get a chance to test any flag passing.

BUGS:

IFF and flag indicators were buggy; they kept coming on/off at random intervals. Very disconcerting and hopefully a soon-to-be fixed item.

One fatal crash and one fatal non-crash bug during my playtime.

Models falling from the sky looked terrible. Enemy bodies fall straight downward when they die and skip like crazy as they fall.

OVERALL:

Physics need the most work. The scale of the maps, combined with the overall movement physics, felt poorly balanced. Larger maps will be needed to validate vehicle use (no way anybody needed vehicles on those small maps).

Weapons and equipment were great. These seemed to have gotten the most attention and I had a lot of fun with the new gear. The boomerang effect on the Buckler was very fun to setup MA shots with.

Did not see or test any vehicles.

Did not get a chance to test Turrets enough to comment on them, other than 1 mortar still destroys deployable turrets.

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

Makes sense. :)

How small is small?

Can grapple pull people from the air?

Does Medium have Light Speed but still Medium defense, or is it just the T1 Light, and the T:V Light is even lighter?

another delightful review :/

ON "SMALL" MAPS:

The smaller of the two maps was fairly tiny. There were hovering platforms scattered about the map, including two platforms at roughly midfield. You could jet from your base to the midfield marker in probably one jump, rest for a few seconds, then jump straight to the enemy base. If there wasn't a large tower in the middle of the map, you could see the enemy flag while standing on your flag.

The larger of the two maps was roughtly 30% bigger. You basically skii'd down one small valley, through a short middle section, then landed in the enemy's valley (mirror map) and skiid straight into their base. Travel time was under 20 seconds and may have been closer to 10 seconds. Getting out of your base took about as long as getting to their base.

ON THE ARMORS

The only time I ever felt like I didn't have 'a lot' of energy was when I was in a Heavy without an Energy Pack. Even then, I managed to whip up some simple HO + Shield Pack routes to the enemy bases after a few tries.

Mediums seemed better than in T1/T2. Probably due to the increased jet powers for all armors, but Mediums seemed pretty nice in duels.

How small is small?
Even Dangerous Crossing and Stonehenge felt larger than either of the two maps that were available.

This is the kind of review I appreciate because it's testing parts like these that are going to be relevant to the competitive community which is the core of tribes.

I had the idea that jetting would be powerful even in cluster by all the overviews that have been made so far. I am getting the idea that this is a game that is being designed to empower the new player more than t1 or t2 base ever did. T2 base achieved this by making defense super easy and nerfing speed and over all ability and capping anything that really gave a stark contrast in skill. I really feel that T:V is getting to be the opposite of this spectrum by giving power to ability in movement and ease of manipulating speed and movement.

From the reviews I've read so far from core players here I have assumed for myself that T:V is unbalanced in the overpowered realm and the idea of what would make T:V more attractive and easier for newcomers could be what exactly makes T:V play and bit too gaudy and vulgar.

I trust Nordramor's report cause I know this guy and he was a big part of the competitive community, good player and reliable source. There's nothing presumptuous about his judgment. I'd like to hear more actually.

I hope irrational and those who matter are taking notes on these reviews and equating the relevant factors on them. I know everyone has their own idea on what Tribes is but there's more often than not, more singular truths in the entire scope of these opinions on what is the core of Tribes, what makes it stand apart and what makes it fun and keeps excitement and attention in this game. Don't go changing to much for the sake of change. In way, I feel for you guys making this game because it's tricky. Balance seems to be the issue now but at what end? These reviews tell a little, the beta will tell even more.

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

Makes sense. :)


Numbers on paper and in game compared too over all feel, 1.5 years on physics don't mean a thing if it don't feel or play right. Perfection can take a longtime. :p

I'll settle for close to perfection as much as possible.

This is the type of review I've been waiting for. Goes into alot of the detail that was missing from other reviews. (Musashis, IT FEELS SUCK, and Perrins, IT FEELS AWESOME). Although the detail in this one while its nice to know is pretty scary. The flag to flag fast routes without hitting the ground, and the lack of DJ power is absolutely frightening.

I just pray that the game is much different when it reaches OB, via whatever feedback is required.

Amen

if you can go flag to flag without touching the ground why would you need a dj?

Yeah, hearing about the diskjump is disheartening, and i'm an optimist about T:V. Also, its frightening to hear about airtime problems. I'd hate to see bread and butter weapons like the disk go out of style because people can stay in the air for too long and a lack of a need for diskjumps. :(

I mean if the disk isn't a primary weapon, then we really are seeing the game changed beyond what I had hoped for. Innovation can be good, but that sounds too far if it's the case.

Lets just hope it's not the case.

Thanks Nord :)

Great review.

Things may seem so fast and abundant because nobody at E3 played long enough to become effective at stopping people. Should be very interesting to see how things work out in a larger game.

THANK YOU!!! great review.

i hope other experienced players have had a chance to play the E3 T:V beta.

so far, a lot of my earlier aggravations towards T:V seem to be true and i'm really unhappy about the direction T:V is going.

/me slaps KP upside the head, HELP US NOW SO WE DON'T HAVE TO MOD IT LATER!

Thing is, with the changes, doing a diskjump effectively might be slightly different. You may be doing one exactly like T1 or 2, but not getting the "oomph" because the disc isnt exactly like T1 or 2. Even between T1 and T2classic there're differences, and learning one after using the other forever could take a while.

I'm not expecting "advanced" techniques to be exactly the same as T1/2, simply because they are quirks of the appropriate games, rather than something you can cut and paste between them. Besides, the E-pack can take the place of alot of the usage of a DJ, so if there was an extremely effective DJ, why bother with the Epack anymore? I have a feeling that if the DJ is "gimped" it may be partially intentional at this point.

DJ's are useless in the E3 build of the game? Seems strange since all the devs, Thrax, etc have said that the DJ will be quite effective. They also hinted that the DJ has been in the game for a while now.

I'm assuming it will be fixed before open beta.

we need to see the biggest map in t:Vwe need to see the biggest map in t:Vwe need to see the biggest map in t:Vwe need to see the biggest map in t:Vwe need to see the biggest map in t:Vwe need to see the biggest map in t:Vwe need to see the biggest map in t:Vwe need to see the biggest map in t:V

What gets me is all the ease of movement and the power geared toward some weapons and abundant armor mobility then you have the vehicles and such in comparison to the small maps, I'm a bit befuddled as to what the big idea of T:V anyway? You've got all this focused power stuff with small maps. That's not intimate. That's over kill. lol .. I'm just kinda shaking my head at this point.

It just seems to me the focus of pruning what was unecessary in previous in tribes and making it more "intuitive" and easier in T:V, this is a game the demands to be played on a larger scale. More like what T2 was geared toward but not quite as drastic

this is a game the demands to be played on an larger epic scale. More like what T2 was geared toward but not quite as drastic

Fixed. ;)

What really needs to happen, I need to be given a chance to play the game. Please send me an T:V Box and server connect info so I can help assess what needs to be done. Thanks in advance. :)