PvP Lives Here

Love it. This sort of thing seems to happen at least once every evening I've played so far. But every time, you feel like a fucking superhero.

Shazbot!

He should have edited it with even slower motion at the end. Epic.

Updates!
http://hi-rez.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/297

This company is impressing the hell out of me. They recognized the silly overlap between classes like Jumper and Pathfinder and just unified them; they responded to the community's desire for some better weapon customization options; they saw the imbalance with the Shrike and didn't just nerf, they re-worked it to be better at something it used to be OK at, but more fragile if played recklessly. I'm also in love with updates like "The Pilot Perk gives +10% vehicle health" because it allows them to play with variables across the platform, rather than get bogged down with fixed integers all over the fucking place. And I've just gotta say, the attention-to-detail that led them to make a configurable setting for shadow clarity at higher range is just brilliant (yes it's not super "realistic", but shut up I wanna see the shadow of the guy running away with the flag at 200 kpm!)

The new update is both good and bad. The grind went a little crazy. 170,000 XP for a weapon is a ridiculous amount of grind. However, the new structure is superior to the old one.

Clearly the dipshits that were responsible for GA are not in control of Tribes: Ascend.

Agreed, the weapon grinding is intense (I just paid the $30, though, because I want to support the devs). But I really like that the classes are way easier for people to unlock now. The only issue is that it seems to have increased the number of people wanting to play defensive classes, so the games have slowed down significantly since the patch.

Probably. Maybe its just because of tdm, I noticed its less of a spamfest in the other modes.

And yes i meant the spinfusor.

I think a huge part of the problem is the lack of options. The individual weapons need to cost way less, but there is a ton of room for more. They have almost no pack options in the game, only one armor per class, not enough weapons, and limited grenade options. For example the brute has no replacement for his shotgun which is widely considered one of the worst in the game. Reduce the grind for each individual weapon, but add more things to grind for. At least that way with the new system you can play class X while you unlock class Y.

They also cut the progress you make in half by removing tokens and failing to increase XP gain. Previously, I felt the grind rate was just about right. It encouraged people to pay a small amount, but didn't try to blackmail them into paying $100 by being a pay to win game. While the mechanics and design has improved they are very clearly in Nexon/Korean pay to win territory.

Defense got a huge buff this patch with the new version of super-heavy, tech's having access to thumpers, doombringers getting mines, ect. On top of that, the defensive classes are easily affordable now. You can buy doombringer and tech easily without crippling your access to the 'cool' classes most people want to try. I think they just need to look a bit a heavy offense. The mortar's AoE is still too small (the graphic is slightly bigger than the actual range.) I find the solution to most heavy offense is to ignore them. If heavies were a bit more effective at shelling the stand we would see the defense spread out more and have more roaming defenders to deal with the heavy O. A big part of it is that pubs are too stupid to do offense too. Offense requires coordination, defense is just needs a few idiots on tech repairing things and dropping turrets.

Bella Omega is a map that does it right, it has a real generator game and requires the team to defend two points to maintain a defense. The new roman themed map is awful because your flag D also covers your gen room pretty well and keeping the gen down vs a competent team is impossible. In Bella there is room to fight and maneuver, plus they don't spawn inches away from the gen.

Agreed with everything Warskull wrote, and I do not trust HiRez enough to pay them anything during Beta.

They are making the game better a step at a time, with the occasional step back - but I remember them as the company that can go 180 and ruin everything in one patch.

I mentioned I hate the hit-scan sniper rifles. I want to stab whoever put them in the game.
I also want to stab the person who included the orbital strike.

Global Agenda - hey I have a brilliant idea, lets take a good game and make it more like WoW...
Tribes Ascend - hey I have a brilliant idea, lets take a good game and make it more like Call of Duty...
Problem - why would people play your game if they can just go play what you are trying to copy from?

The Spinfuser / Grenade-Launcher mechanic is beautiful, makes for excellent and spectacular gameplay.
Why the fuck are they messing with it - especially at the low skill tier where most players will reside.
If someone comes into a TDM or CTF to see half the other team run around with Chain-Gun Demolishers or SMG+Turret Techs, that will be a huge disincentive from trying to learn high-level ballistics.

Unbelievable flag passing:

Also, don't play TDM

@Warskull, agreed with most of your points, but the vast majority of them are solveable with numbers tweaking (not mechanics re-working), which to me is the hallmark of a good foundation for a PvP game. They're also looking to come out with a bunch more weapons for the folks that like more options (and a lil' grind), but planning to be very sparing with new classes (if any).

Balancing thoughts:

Sniper Rifle:
- remove from game (fuck you, go hack CoD)
- Applies a weight penalty that turns light into heavy while in kit. Can be thrown away to remove penalty.

Turrets:
- Cannot be used in TDM

SMG/RIFLE
- Reduce projectile speed

Chain Gun
- remove from game (kidding)
- Reduce projectile speed
- or Require being fully stationary for use.

MIRV
- remove stun effect from initial explosion (yes, and fuck off)

Movement changes:

Explosion-Boosting while SKYING should only consider the Current Vector + Direction of Explosion, regardless of directional key input.

Currently if you hold down W while trying to self-boost, it nullifies the boost which is completely unnecessary. You get hurt by the explosion but your speed is unaffected.

Instead the Skying-ON condition should override the W, and the self-boost should have maximum effect regardless.

The requirement to release W before 180-turn-boosting is just an extra thing for a newbie to remember, not really intuitive, and does not affect veterans. It makes self-boosting easier to learn.

Self-Boosting should also work equally regardless of whether you are Skying or Flying - you should not need to jump to get a maximum boost (if it isn't that way already, not sure).

There should be a self-boosting Tutorial / Training room explaining the exact mechanics of how it's done.

Disc-Jumping being so weak has long been an issue. A good disc jump is one of the best ways for a chaser to get up to speed against a flagger, but the Disc jumping in this game is crap.

The Doombringer chaingun is fine as-is. It takes a lot of practice to get good with. While it can be quite lethal, it only does 100 a hit, so it is 9 hits to drop most lights, 13 for mediums, and 22+ for heavies. The trick to fighting a chaingunner is moving perpendicular to them, much harder to track.

The new potential energy perk is starting to look crazy OP.

New patch!
http://hi-rez.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/300

Glad to see some tweaks to the SMGs and Chaingun, along with the obvious Tech Thumper nerf. Excited to test out the UI tweaks and other goodies tonight

@Warksull re: rocketjumping, I dunno man, I've seen people do some amazing things with it in this game. There's a tutorial video that CrystaLight made with some other dude, and his rocketjumping is ungodly.

New patch out today: http://hi-rez.custhelp.com/app/answers/ ... atch-notes

Mostly bug fixes, but they've removed Temple Ruins and Bella from the rotation pending revision (yay!)

Also, 2 new perks which seem like they'll be super difficult to measure without getting in and messing around with them a bunch, so we'll see. Sonic Punch could be an epic HoF tool, and Rage looks a little bit lackluster (a lot will depend on how close you have to be to the flag)

Games amazing, I encourage everyone to download and play the hell out of it.