Special said:
T2 was flawed from the beginning; muddy play, bad physics, bad everything, IMO. Perspective was off, things were too dark, it was hard to see other players. Scripters/modders came along trying to tweak the engine so that it was more exciting to play, but it only helped a little bit. If you guild a piece of cow dung with gold, it's still a piece of cow dung.
For the sake of agreement, let's both agree to keep physics out of the conversation. Let's also not talk about anything in reference to Tribes 2
BASE, as Tribes 2 Classic is the dominant mod in competition right now.
Let's look at what Tribes 2 Classic did accomplish:
Vehicles were not the focus.
Even with the improved speeds and mobility, vehicles were viable tools to accomplish a goal. Teams in the highest tiers of T2 classic competition effectively use bombers, shrikes, MPBs, and tanks.
Every pack can be used and is used effectively.
Because of the improved speeds and mobilities, every pack (sensor jammer, shield pack, cloak pack, ammo pack, etc) can be employed while going offense.
Sensor jammer, in passive mode, masks the player from deployed turrets and sensors. This is countered by the deployed camera. All forms of offense use the sensor jammer, from LO, HO, MO, to cappers.
Cloak packs are used for a variety of tasks, including taking out deployed turrets from range and raping gens. The cloakpack is countered by the motion sensor.
Medium armor is now used for other tasks aside from farming.
Because of the improved mobility, in combination with the packs being useful, medium armor is used for a number of roles, including: capping, clearing, and base attack.
Grenades:
Whiteouts, concussion, and regular grenades are all used in competition. They (concs) can be used to knock the shield pack off of the heavy on flag, as well as causing a flag carrier to drop the flag during standoff. 4 choices, but all are used in competition.
Tons of different roles:
Given that the majority of the equipment and armor types were viable tools in competition, the combinations of different equipment allowed for a ton of different roles to be assumed during a match. This was a definite change from the "should I go heavy or light with an e-pack on offense" days of T1. But in that variety, there was no overkill. The number of options were just enough to allow for good versatility, even on traditional cluster maps like Stonehenge or Dangerous Crossing. I think I am correct when I say it is fairly common for a number of players on the upper teams to use almost all three armor types, including 3 different packs in one match.
Inventories:
A total rip-off of "poopfavs," but it was a nice to not have to use a script to pre-select my one of 20 some loadouts. My loadout can be changed on the fly, changing out energy pack for repair pack, flares for whiteouts, etc, etc.
These are a few of the things that I think Tribes 2 classic did "right."
There are MANY things that Tribes 2 did wrong from the get go, and those lists are old and tired, but still VERY valid. My hope is that the DEV team recognizes what was RIGHT with Tribes 2 classic and tries to incorporate that into the next title.
Tribes is my favorite game of all time. I started playing when the "migration" from JEdi Knight happened. This was back when folks like jihadmaster, terminator (you know him as Impact), Goon, ReaListiK, Noodles etc, came over to play T1. There are many things that I miss about Tribes, like the lack of the speed cap, physics, and terrain. Like you said earlier, Tribes 2 classic attempts this, but it doesn't feel like T1. I hope they look at both titles and are able to determine what went right with both and incorporate that into the next sequel. I don't want T1 with prettier graphics. I don't want T2 classic with prettier graphics. I want a combination of both.