LoVer
08-01-2004, 09:31 PM
I figure that if you have the beta you might as well take the time to review something T:V. So here is my contribution: I played t1 and then dropped off the face of the starsiege universe until T2 b++ and classic. I played alot of competition t2 games in the shrike so I thought I would review one of the new vehicles, the fighter or pod. The following is all opinion, and opinions are like assholes right? So keep that in mind and be sure to post up your thoughts if they differ from mine. I'm going to limit myself to the pod for now and throw another review later if I have time.
The Fighter, what it is: The fighter or pod is basically a mobile missle platform. Its movement is more akin to a helicopter than to a plane, so the name fighter is a bit misleading. It can move at a moderate speed forward, backward, left, and right. It gains altitude at the push of the right mouse key at about the same rate as it moves left and right. Pushing the space bar causes wings to deploy on its sides and top and a rapid descent, much faster than it can move in any other direction. It descends at a bit less than at a 45 degree angle if the space bar is pressed with the reticle at the horizon. A much more rapid descent can be achieved by facing the reticle downward and hitting the spacebar. The reticle can be swung in any direction in 3d space by using the mouse. The fighter can be rammed into the ground at high speeds or scrape along the ground without taking much damage, but from what I can tell it does not do much ramming damage and so slamming it into the path of players will serve less to kill them than it does to throw them off course.
The fighter fires about 1.5 to 2 missles a second. The missles look like rocket pod shells and seem to travel about the same speed. I have not checked to see the exact damage of the missle, but it takes about 4 (possibly 3) direct hits to kill a medium armor. The rockets do splash damage and move in a straight line. They also have a maxium range and explode when they reach it. In terms of previous tribes title's distances, I would say that a fighter flying over the middle of the center henge on stonehenge could hit a stonehenge flagstand. It is about as difficult to ma with the rockets as it is with the disk, although you get many more tries since the rate of fire is higher. Ultimately though, the best way to damage a player is to hit the ground with rockets at the point where he makes contanct.
What you can do with the fighter: defensively the pod seems very effective. It is a great tool for harrassing enemy Ho and Mo. Anyone without a chaingun tends to be vulnerable. Players that do not have time to stop and shoot back at you are also vulnerable. Spamming the flagstand is not as effective as I would have thought, as a fast moving capper can usually get out with the flag with minimum damage. The pod is effective for chasing, but it helps to be ahead of the capper and make a good line to cut him off. If you find yourself behind a capper on a fast route, you probably won't be able to catch him before he gets home. Sometimes however you can make a return if you chase a capper back to his base and kill him with the help of other chasers or offense before the defense can set up to cover him. Obviously, the pod is good for destroying other pods. It will also make short work of an unmanned rover or a bomber or tank that is currently seating only a driver. The overall strength of the fighter is in spamming down slow to medium speed players of any armor type that are hard at work doing anything other than paying attention to your pod.
Despite what some people have said, I can get a decently fast cap route going by bailing out of a quickly diving fighter. The angle of approach is much steeper and the altitude much higher than a shrike bail cap though. This is particularly effective with a shield pack, as a shielded disk jump off the stand can help to put you up to the speed of a decent route with only minimal damage.
What you cannot do with the fighter: Here are a few things that you might want to avoid with the fighter.
First, as the game is now, you cannot use the fighter to spam down enemy assets. The shields that are present on all base items such as the sensor, base turrets, and generator (yes, you can get it indoors on some maps, although not without trouble) recharge too quickly to do any damage. Yes, I mean no damage at all. You can sit there all day and will never touch them. Personally I like this feature since it leaves those targets for enemy Ho and Mo. It might be too easy to deplete enemy assets if you could simply spam them down with pods. This is especially true of base turrets that are located a good distance away from the base.
Second, it is extremely difficult to attack any player that has a chaingun and the time to shoot it at you. Anyone with a chaingun at close to medium range will make you wish you had left your pod in the garage. A good chainer can take you down in about 3 seconds, sometimes less. A chainer with speedpack is a one way ticket back to your base in spawn gear. Even a chainer at long range will destroy you if you do not take care to get out of site. The first time you get chained out of the thing your instinct will be to declare it as a useless weapon, but keep in mind that not everyone carries a chaingun, and depending on where you are on the map, not everyone who carries one will have the time to shoot it at you. More on this at the end of the review.
You cannot attack anyone that can snipe you from a distance. You will be dead by the time you get to them if they are worth their salt with the rifle.
Because of the above two weaknesses, the pod has only limited offensive usefulness. If you go O with it carelessly you will find yourself chained or sniped down from every direction. Limited offensive pressure can be used when the enemy defense is distracted by mass HO, the bomber, or a well timed capper, but you will still usually take some damage and end up hightailing it behind the closest bulletproof structure. The AA turret and the chaingun turret will make scrapmetal out of you. That also goes for any AA turret mounted on a rover or bomber as well as the chaingun on the jumptank.
Compared to the shrike: As someone that spent alot of time shriking in T2, I see many differences between the two, but still some comparisons. Most people that I have spoken with say that there is nothing in common. I will get to why I disagree with that. First the differences.
Obviously the fighters movement style is completely different and because of this you find its missles being more effective than rams. The shrike tended to be the other way around although there were some players that were so outstanding with shrike blasters that they could make both tools equal. Unless the ram damage changes drastically though, the missles will always be more powerful than ramming with the fighter. However, don't overlook the potential of the fighter for key bodyblocks on cappers or fast moving route Ho.
No matter how different the shrike and pod are from one another, one basic element remains the same: picking targets. Both the shrike and the pod are easily destroyed by sustained chainfire. This means that picking the right targets is essential. Go out and and shrike/pod dual a single light with chaingun while moving slowly and you'll be making an emergecy landing on the raindance flagstand, but attack players that are caught up with other important tasks that take concentration like, getting through a small door in heavy at high speed, chasing a capper, or even trying to hit their getaway route perfectly after a grab, and it doesn't much matter what they are packing. Even if they have a chaingun they won't be shooting at you, which can make for an easy shrike ram or an easy missle spam target for the pod.
The shrikes sheilds were good for keeping it in the air since you could take cover before any damage was done to the actual vehicle. the pod does not have shields, but never underestimate my patented "mid air rep kit bail while chaining the shit out of whoever is nearby," also known as the "LoVer" or "Leap Out of Vehicle Emitting Repairs."(remember you no longer have to aim a repair gun at the vehicle, so you can whore someone down and rep at the same time). Sometimes I don't even pod duel other pods, I just bail out and chain them down and then land back in the pod. This works suprisingly well with the speedpack.
Reactions of other players on the servers: I have seen two reactions so far, both of them extreme. Some people type out that they think the fighter is overpowered. Others complain about it being useless. I have seen both of these comments mutiple times.
Changes I would like to see made: Right now: Nothing. The reason for this being that I'm not sure most players know how weak the pod is to the chaingun. Once people start to discover this I'd like to see if the pod even remains an effective defensive weapon. If it doesn't then it should be beefed up by giving it more hit points or more speed. But If it is still highly effective once people get the knack of chaining it, dev might want to nerf it a bit. I racked up 55 kills on cavern on a sigle map. Right now I see the fighter being a very powerful defensive asset in pubs, but not quite as solid a defensive tool in organized play, especially on the upper end of organized play. But in a game as offensively oriented as T:V looks to be, maybe its not a bad idea to have a vehicle that is a decent defensive tool, without being an all around mangler like the T2 base shrike.
I'll review the other vehicles when I have the time.
The Fighter, what it is: The fighter or pod is basically a mobile missle platform. Its movement is more akin to a helicopter than to a plane, so the name fighter is a bit misleading. It can move at a moderate speed forward, backward, left, and right. It gains altitude at the push of the right mouse key at about the same rate as it moves left and right. Pushing the space bar causes wings to deploy on its sides and top and a rapid descent, much faster than it can move in any other direction. It descends at a bit less than at a 45 degree angle if the space bar is pressed with the reticle at the horizon. A much more rapid descent can be achieved by facing the reticle downward and hitting the spacebar. The reticle can be swung in any direction in 3d space by using the mouse. The fighter can be rammed into the ground at high speeds or scrape along the ground without taking much damage, but from what I can tell it does not do much ramming damage and so slamming it into the path of players will serve less to kill them than it does to throw them off course.
The fighter fires about 1.5 to 2 missles a second. The missles look like rocket pod shells and seem to travel about the same speed. I have not checked to see the exact damage of the missle, but it takes about 4 (possibly 3) direct hits to kill a medium armor. The rockets do splash damage and move in a straight line. They also have a maxium range and explode when they reach it. In terms of previous tribes title's distances, I would say that a fighter flying over the middle of the center henge on stonehenge could hit a stonehenge flagstand. It is about as difficult to ma with the rockets as it is with the disk, although you get many more tries since the rate of fire is higher. Ultimately though, the best way to damage a player is to hit the ground with rockets at the point where he makes contanct.
What you can do with the fighter: defensively the pod seems very effective. It is a great tool for harrassing enemy Ho and Mo. Anyone without a chaingun tends to be vulnerable. Players that do not have time to stop and shoot back at you are also vulnerable. Spamming the flagstand is not as effective as I would have thought, as a fast moving capper can usually get out with the flag with minimum damage. The pod is effective for chasing, but it helps to be ahead of the capper and make a good line to cut him off. If you find yourself behind a capper on a fast route, you probably won't be able to catch him before he gets home. Sometimes however you can make a return if you chase a capper back to his base and kill him with the help of other chasers or offense before the defense can set up to cover him. Obviously, the pod is good for destroying other pods. It will also make short work of an unmanned rover or a bomber or tank that is currently seating only a driver. The overall strength of the fighter is in spamming down slow to medium speed players of any armor type that are hard at work doing anything other than paying attention to your pod.
Despite what some people have said, I can get a decently fast cap route going by bailing out of a quickly diving fighter. The angle of approach is much steeper and the altitude much higher than a shrike bail cap though. This is particularly effective with a shield pack, as a shielded disk jump off the stand can help to put you up to the speed of a decent route with only minimal damage.
What you cannot do with the fighter: Here are a few things that you might want to avoid with the fighter.
First, as the game is now, you cannot use the fighter to spam down enemy assets. The shields that are present on all base items such as the sensor, base turrets, and generator (yes, you can get it indoors on some maps, although not without trouble) recharge too quickly to do any damage. Yes, I mean no damage at all. You can sit there all day and will never touch them. Personally I like this feature since it leaves those targets for enemy Ho and Mo. It might be too easy to deplete enemy assets if you could simply spam them down with pods. This is especially true of base turrets that are located a good distance away from the base.
Second, it is extremely difficult to attack any player that has a chaingun and the time to shoot it at you. Anyone with a chaingun at close to medium range will make you wish you had left your pod in the garage. A good chainer can take you down in about 3 seconds, sometimes less. A chainer with speedpack is a one way ticket back to your base in spawn gear. Even a chainer at long range will destroy you if you do not take care to get out of site. The first time you get chained out of the thing your instinct will be to declare it as a useless weapon, but keep in mind that not everyone carries a chaingun, and depending on where you are on the map, not everyone who carries one will have the time to shoot it at you. More on this at the end of the review.
You cannot attack anyone that can snipe you from a distance. You will be dead by the time you get to them if they are worth their salt with the rifle.
Because of the above two weaknesses, the pod has only limited offensive usefulness. If you go O with it carelessly you will find yourself chained or sniped down from every direction. Limited offensive pressure can be used when the enemy defense is distracted by mass HO, the bomber, or a well timed capper, but you will still usually take some damage and end up hightailing it behind the closest bulletproof structure. The AA turret and the chaingun turret will make scrapmetal out of you. That also goes for any AA turret mounted on a rover or bomber as well as the chaingun on the jumptank.
Compared to the shrike: As someone that spent alot of time shriking in T2, I see many differences between the two, but still some comparisons. Most people that I have spoken with say that there is nothing in common. I will get to why I disagree with that. First the differences.
Obviously the fighters movement style is completely different and because of this you find its missles being more effective than rams. The shrike tended to be the other way around although there were some players that were so outstanding with shrike blasters that they could make both tools equal. Unless the ram damage changes drastically though, the missles will always be more powerful than ramming with the fighter. However, don't overlook the potential of the fighter for key bodyblocks on cappers or fast moving route Ho.
No matter how different the shrike and pod are from one another, one basic element remains the same: picking targets. Both the shrike and the pod are easily destroyed by sustained chainfire. This means that picking the right targets is essential. Go out and and shrike/pod dual a single light with chaingun while moving slowly and you'll be making an emergecy landing on the raindance flagstand, but attack players that are caught up with other important tasks that take concentration like, getting through a small door in heavy at high speed, chasing a capper, or even trying to hit their getaway route perfectly after a grab, and it doesn't much matter what they are packing. Even if they have a chaingun they won't be shooting at you, which can make for an easy shrike ram or an easy missle spam target for the pod.
The shrikes sheilds were good for keeping it in the air since you could take cover before any damage was done to the actual vehicle. the pod does not have shields, but never underestimate my patented "mid air rep kit bail while chaining the shit out of whoever is nearby," also known as the "LoVer" or "Leap Out of Vehicle Emitting Repairs."(remember you no longer have to aim a repair gun at the vehicle, so you can whore someone down and rep at the same time). Sometimes I don't even pod duel other pods, I just bail out and chain them down and then land back in the pod. This works suprisingly well with the speedpack.
Reactions of other players on the servers: I have seen two reactions so far, both of them extreme. Some people type out that they think the fighter is overpowered. Others complain about it being useless. I have seen both of these comments mutiple times.
Changes I would like to see made: Right now: Nothing. The reason for this being that I'm not sure most players know how weak the pod is to the chaingun. Once people start to discover this I'd like to see if the pod even remains an effective defensive weapon. If it doesn't then it should be beefed up by giving it more hit points or more speed. But If it is still highly effective once people get the knack of chaining it, dev might want to nerf it a bit. I racked up 55 kills on cavern on a sigle map. Right now I see the fighter being a very powerful defensive asset in pubs, but not quite as solid a defensive tool in organized play, especially on the upper end of organized play. But in a game as offensively oriented as T:V looks to be, maybe its not a bad idea to have a vehicle that is a decent defensive tool, without being an all around mangler like the T2 base shrike.
I'll review the other vehicles when I have the time.