What do I mean by "candy"? I mean ear and eye candy. Not just flashy explosions, cool looking weapons, and cool environments, I'm talking about stuff that makes your experience as a person in the Tribes universe more dynamic and immersive. Let me elaborate.
In T1 and T2 your player was limited to just a few animations. Yes, you could taunt, but aside from that your character was limited to a few animations that were, well, quite boring. OOH a nice walking animation! WOW that guy's legs move when he jets up! Yeah, boring. Imagine this: You're a defenseman on Raindance, guarding your sacred flag. All of a sudden your teammates yell "Incoming east!" You look to the east, and suddenly high in the sky there is a capper from the other team swan-diving high in the air. His character dodges left and right, barrel rolling to avoid enemy lasers. A few hundred meters from the flag he re-orients himself with his arms spread and legs ready for a landing. Successfully dodging all the enemy fire he grabs the flag, and bounds away like Superman. All these animations do not require any extra effort on the player's part. In Quake if you jump your character does a flip, but you as a player did not tell the character to flip. Same deal here. At the apex of a skijump if you let go of your jets your character will switch to a swan-dive position. If you juke left and right your character will 'barrel roll' to match your movements. These simple things will help enhance the experience.
T1's sound was lacking, and T2 improved upon that, but only slightly. Personally I felt T2's sound quality was inferior to T1's, and I felt it lacked the 'crispness' T1 had. Here is what I think would be great in T3. Imagine this: It is a clear spring day, with a slight breeze. The map begins with a meadow, which is traversed by a meandering river. Trees line the river. You begin skiing to explore this map, much like you used to do in T1 and T2. As you ski along the ground, the blades of grass in the meadow make a slight wisping sound as you glide over them. As you dodge trees you hear their leaves rustle in your left and right ear. Snaking through the trees the river gets louder and softer as you move to and from it. Crossing over the river you hear splashes as your armor touches the water. You follow the river north to see where it goes. You pick up speed, the wind noise building as you get faster and faster. The river seems to go on forever, things fly by you with no remorse as you ski... Suddenly you are airborne. The river becomes a waterfall, with surging power you can hear as it pounds into the rocks below. Looking down into the riverbed you hear nothing but the wind in your ears as your soar into the sky. Looking for a landing spot you see a bed of gravel that you think you can land in. You time your jets perfectly, landing in the gravel perfectly. You skid to the right to reorient yourself to the river, kicking up gravel, all which you can hear to your left.
Why am I explaining my point like a story? Simply because I want to illustrate a simple, but crucial point: T3 requires a fundamentally solid environmental engine. Who remembers loading up Snowblind for the first time and realizing how lonely that map was? The snow drifts, the blind horizon, the intimidating mountains... That sort of feeling was lost in T2, in my opinion. I believe adding little touches like what I described above will no doubt enhance the player's experience two-fold.
In T1 and T2 your player was limited to just a few animations. Yes, you could taunt, but aside from that your character was limited to a few animations that were, well, quite boring. OOH a nice walking animation! WOW that guy's legs move when he jets up! Yeah, boring. Imagine this: You're a defenseman on Raindance, guarding your sacred flag. All of a sudden your teammates yell "Incoming east!" You look to the east, and suddenly high in the sky there is a capper from the other team swan-diving high in the air. His character dodges left and right, barrel rolling to avoid enemy lasers. A few hundred meters from the flag he re-orients himself with his arms spread and legs ready for a landing. Successfully dodging all the enemy fire he grabs the flag, and bounds away like Superman. All these animations do not require any extra effort on the player's part. In Quake if you jump your character does a flip, but you as a player did not tell the character to flip. Same deal here. At the apex of a skijump if you let go of your jets your character will switch to a swan-dive position. If you juke left and right your character will 'barrel roll' to match your movements. These simple things will help enhance the experience.
T1's sound was lacking, and T2 improved upon that, but only slightly. Personally I felt T2's sound quality was inferior to T1's, and I felt it lacked the 'crispness' T1 had. Here is what I think would be great in T3. Imagine this: It is a clear spring day, with a slight breeze. The map begins with a meadow, which is traversed by a meandering river. Trees line the river. You begin skiing to explore this map, much like you used to do in T1 and T2. As you ski along the ground, the blades of grass in the meadow make a slight wisping sound as you glide over them. As you dodge trees you hear their leaves rustle in your left and right ear. Snaking through the trees the river gets louder and softer as you move to and from it. Crossing over the river you hear splashes as your armor touches the water. You follow the river north to see where it goes. You pick up speed, the wind noise building as you get faster and faster. The river seems to go on forever, things fly by you with no remorse as you ski... Suddenly you are airborne. The river becomes a waterfall, with surging power you can hear as it pounds into the rocks below. Looking down into the riverbed you hear nothing but the wind in your ears as your soar into the sky. Looking for a landing spot you see a bed of gravel that you think you can land in. You time your jets perfectly, landing in the gravel perfectly. You skid to the right to reorient yourself to the river, kicking up gravel, all which you can hear to your left.
Why am I explaining my point like a story? Simply because I want to illustrate a simple, but crucial point: T3 requires a fundamentally solid environmental engine. Who remembers loading up Snowblind for the first time and realizing how lonely that map was? The snow drifts, the blind horizon, the intimidating mountains... That sort of feeling was lost in T2, in my opinion. I believe adding little touches like what I described above will no doubt enhance the player's experience two-fold.