Archived from groups: alt.games.starsiege.tribes (More info?)
Ok, despite my initial negative comments, I've been playing the Beta for
alot of last night and much of today....
Firstly, the differences that I have seen so far, in no particular order. I
might be wrong on this, but I have asked questions in game if I can't suss
something out.
- no medpack. This is starting to really cheese me off. A good offensive
player could "live off" the dropped medpacks of victims. Also, take one bad
fall and your health is low enough for 2 discs to finish you.
- sniper rifle seems far more powerful. Takes around 1/3 health from a
heavy, no matter where hit.
- vehicles are awful. A little like those in UT2004, but without the fun.
Seem too light and bouncy. Nothing like the shrike as far as I have seen
and nothing akin to the hoverscooter either. This is an important let down
for me.
- 3 weapon slots for all classes. Maybe not such a bad thing - even as a
heavy I think I would only use mortar, disc and gren launcher. Unless I
wanted to plasma gun and chaingun for bringing down nme installations I
suppose. Oh.
- You have to wait for "deployables" to be served up by vending machines in
your base. A right PITA if you want to put multiple turrets away from the
base. Deployables are: Mines, Turrets (one type now), "Repair
stations"(great idea - a station that repairs all around it), deployable
inventory.
I think I see why they did this too - makes the game more simple and fast
flowing. Takes a big tactical element away and means you are less likely to
see "class specialists" - a central part of tribes IMHO
- repair pack no longer uses your energy pack. It has its own energy and,
as far as I can tell, cannot be stopped once started. You then have to wait
for it to recharge and can then set it off again. Multiple things can be
repaired at once and you do not have to be facing them - you may also use
weapons whilst repairing.
I think this could work out to be an improvement.
- did I mention there is no medpack or health pickups?
- skiing is easier and there is a special key for this distinct from
jumping. I think I like this as it still leaves you open to make mistakes
and end up skiing into a cliff face, losing health!
- some packs have "active" uses in addition to the passive. The energy pack
works as normal, increasing the rate your energy returns. Press the
activate pack button, however, and it gives you a temporary speed boost.
Takes about 30 seconds to recharge and I'm not sure if the passive effect is
diminished during this time. I think this is a great idea.
- is there a stealth pack? shocklance? Not sure. Don't think so. Big
shame if there is no stealth pack.
- no heat signature. That I can see. There is certainly no indication of
one anywhere.
- haven't seen a missile launcher - either turret or gun. Is this because
there is no heat signature?
- no deployable sensors. Again, I might be wrong but can't see them
anywhere.
- no preselection of inventory. It does remember your last selection for a
particular "slot" - i.e. Heavy Offence. Hasn't been a problem to be fair as
the invents don't get clogged.
- no beacons that I can see, although I might just be missing out on this.
Mortaring is easier to judge anyway, but they did of course have many other
uses!
- scoring system. Points for offence, defence and style. Offence is
killing an nme, defence for killing one near your base (I think it is more
subtle than that), style for mid air discs - might be for other stuff too.
No points for repairing etc. but presumably offence points for a flag cap
and defence points for killing their flag carrier etc.
- no active base turrets, other than those deployed. I might be wrong on
this but didn't ever see one working. This makes the game more fast moving
as it is easier to storm the nme base etc
- some new weapons - don't know what they all are yet but I suppose we will
get used to them anyway. Interesting idea is the grappling hook, which you
can shoot at anything ( I think including nme players) and it pulls you
towards whatever you have shot. You can then hang there until letting go -
enabling you to use your weapon even.
There are also obvious graphical and sound differences. I do not like the
graphics as stated before, although they have grown on me a little. For me,
Tribes 1 had the best (not flashiest or most colourful) and the other 2 have
been slowly getting worse!
As it stands, I still do not intend to buy this game. After playing the
demo of Tribes 1 (and I was totally hopeless) I was hooked and around 4
months later good enough to buy the complete game. Tribes2 I had on
preorder when it was announced and still play occasionally.
This seems like a dumbed down version of Tribes. A lot of the subtlety just
isn't there. Simply removing the ability to deploy turrets from a remote
inv, or use sensors and beacons has gotten rid of a whole part of the game.
I may have missed some things here, but I am sure I am right on the basics.
I'll post a reply to this if more things strike me.
Regards
Chris "Schrodinger" Foster
Ok, despite my initial negative comments, I've been playing the Beta for
alot of last night and much of today....
Firstly, the differences that I have seen so far, in no particular order. I
might be wrong on this, but I have asked questions in game if I can't suss
something out.
- no medpack. This is starting to really cheese me off. A good offensive
player could "live off" the dropped medpacks of victims. Also, take one bad
fall and your health is low enough for 2 discs to finish you.
- sniper rifle seems far more powerful. Takes around 1/3 health from a
heavy, no matter where hit.
- vehicles are awful. A little like those in UT2004, but without the fun.
Seem too light and bouncy. Nothing like the shrike as far as I have seen
and nothing akin to the hoverscooter either. This is an important let down
for me.
- 3 weapon slots for all classes. Maybe not such a bad thing - even as a
heavy I think I would only use mortar, disc and gren launcher. Unless I
wanted to plasma gun and chaingun for bringing down nme installations I
suppose. Oh.
- You have to wait for "deployables" to be served up by vending machines in
your base. A right PITA if you want to put multiple turrets away from the
base. Deployables are: Mines, Turrets (one type now), "Repair
stations"(great idea - a station that repairs all around it), deployable
inventory.
I think I see why they did this too - makes the game more simple and fast
flowing. Takes a big tactical element away and means you are less likely to
see "class specialists" - a central part of tribes IMHO
- repair pack no longer uses your energy pack. It has its own energy and,
as far as I can tell, cannot be stopped once started. You then have to wait
for it to recharge and can then set it off again. Multiple things can be
repaired at once and you do not have to be facing them - you may also use
weapons whilst repairing.
I think this could work out to be an improvement.
- did I mention there is no medpack or health pickups?
- skiing is easier and there is a special key for this distinct from
jumping. I think I like this as it still leaves you open to make mistakes
and end up skiing into a cliff face, losing health!
- some packs have "active" uses in addition to the passive. The energy pack
works as normal, increasing the rate your energy returns. Press the
activate pack button, however, and it gives you a temporary speed boost.
Takes about 30 seconds to recharge and I'm not sure if the passive effect is
diminished during this time. I think this is a great idea.
- is there a stealth pack? shocklance? Not sure. Don't think so. Big
shame if there is no stealth pack.
- no heat signature. That I can see. There is certainly no indication of
one anywhere.
- haven't seen a missile launcher - either turret or gun. Is this because
there is no heat signature?
- no deployable sensors. Again, I might be wrong but can't see them
anywhere.
- no preselection of inventory. It does remember your last selection for a
particular "slot" - i.e. Heavy Offence. Hasn't been a problem to be fair as
the invents don't get clogged.
- no beacons that I can see, although I might just be missing out on this.
Mortaring is easier to judge anyway, but they did of course have many other
uses!
- scoring system. Points for offence, defence and style. Offence is
killing an nme, defence for killing one near your base (I think it is more
subtle than that), style for mid air discs - might be for other stuff too.
No points for repairing etc. but presumably offence points for a flag cap
and defence points for killing their flag carrier etc.
- no active base turrets, other than those deployed. I might be wrong on
this but didn't ever see one working. This makes the game more fast moving
as it is easier to storm the nme base etc
- some new weapons - don't know what they all are yet but I suppose we will
get used to them anyway. Interesting idea is the grappling hook, which you
can shoot at anything ( I think including nme players) and it pulls you
towards whatever you have shot. You can then hang there until letting go -
enabling you to use your weapon even.
There are also obvious graphical and sound differences. I do not like the
graphics as stated before, although they have grown on me a little. For me,
Tribes 1 had the best (not flashiest or most colourful) and the other 2 have
been slowly getting worse!
As it stands, I still do not intend to buy this game. After playing the
demo of Tribes 1 (and I was totally hopeless) I was hooked and around 4
months later good enough to buy the complete game. Tribes2 I had on
preorder when it was announced and still play occasionally.
This seems like a dumbed down version of Tribes. A lot of the subtlety just
isn't there. Simply removing the ability to deploy turrets from a remote
inv, or use sensors and beacons has gotten rid of a whole part of the game.
I may have missed some things here, but I am sure I am right on the basics.
I'll post a reply to this if more things strike me.
Regards
Chris "Schrodinger" Foster
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram