T3: The Glide pack, and why movement packs should be included in T3.

Tribes became popular because of it's speed, enviroments, customizations, skiing and the jet-pack.

Tribes has plenty of "killing" and can satisfy ANY gamer, because they can choose how they are involved in the conflicts. CTF is the most popular because a team has one objective, and MANY ways to get there...

Tribes is fun to the players who buy the game, play it for over the standard game-hoppers month, and go into years... look at Tribes 1, crazy.. it's stil alive after all these years.
 
Ixiterra said:
... The restriction with gliding is that to pick up speed, you need to dive, therefore reducing your altitude. You should have fairly good maneuverability, as long as you can move your "wings." The thing is, maneuverability in the air with an e-pack takes a significant amount of energy, whereas gliding would merely be changing directions.

Could you still use weapons while gliding? It's a tough decision that would probably need to be tested. I remember the explanation for being able to fire a weapon, throw a grenade, and use the jetpack at the same time was because the jetpack was linked neurally, so I'd imagine controlling your wings could work the same way.

One thing that needs to be implemented before gliding is 3-dimensional flying as was suggested in the movement thread (or was it this thread, whatever). Being able to fly on your stomach and such. That is definitely a worthwhile addition. It makes you a smaller target from far away, but a huge target underneath. That may also suck though because usually a capper will get a decent ways ahead of the chasers, and CG'ing would be much harder.

It would need a lot of coding and beta testing on an unproven idea, so it'll probably never happen. But who knows? I think gliding may just be an "oh-gee" type thing. It sure seems cool on paper, but would it really contribute to the Tribes experience?
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I think it would. T3 is a new game that builds on two moderately successful previous games. While people may scream for T1 with better graphics, I think the majority of T1 people (even seriously competitive T1 players) would tire of that quickly.

Adding things like glide packs, more responsive jetpacks, beacon stops, grapples etc. build on what makes the Tribes franchise unique. I think that can only be a good thing.

Re: Different conceptions of the glide pack

I also could imagine two "versions" of the glide pack - one that focuses on flying (one conception being kicked around on these pages) and one that offers only slightly improved "flying" ability, but very good "diving" speed capability with limited movement capability (Javelin's conception). In any case, I think that using the pack should cost energy.

Re: Killing in Tribes

I think people's response to this question is impacted by their position. My guess would be offensive players are more likely to see the game in terms of tactics/strategy, while defensive players are more likely to see the game in terms of tactics/killing.

My take on it is that while killing has never been the central objective of CTF, it has always been a hugely important part of the game. You have to clear the ld/hof to cap, you have to kill the HO/MO/incoming cappers to keep your flag at home. It is a means to an end, not an end in and of itself.

Question for Javelin:

I remember watching your demos from when PoE used to be competitive =) [avalanche demo comes to mind - the other team kept changing your team when you had the flag har - llama city]. What happened to you? Did you quit playing?
 
Flatscan said:
You could call one pack a "glide" pack and one a "dive" pack.
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I don't agree with having two versions of one pack. Why not make one pack extremely flexible in its abilities? You can very well 'dive' while you are gliding. It's probably a simple matter of tilting your viewpoint down...
 
Special said:
I don't agree with having two versions of one pack. Why not make one pack extremely flexible in its abilities? You can very well 'dive' while you are gliding. It's probably a simple matter of tilting your viewpoint down...
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My thought is that a pack that allows you great maneuverability generally, significant glide capability, and the ability to gain mad speed by diving (faster than just dropping) would be too powerful and thus, newbify the game.

I really like the idea of both a "glide" pack and a "dive" pack, however. I could see each being useful in a variety of contexts and could even imagine pack types influencing map design.
 
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