Orv

Tribes: Ascend

Recommended Posts

I've been playing this more for about a week, and it was fun for a while, but just today I realized I had seen all the game had to offer me. These games never get more fun once you aren't feeling it anymore, no matter how many items you collect.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I've started playing this again since last week. It's still great. I see they just released a new content patch with 3 new maps too.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I have been playing this pretty hardcore since it came out on Steam. Its fun but it has two big weaknesses, not enough maps, and horrible team balance.

Even when it does a good job at getting equal level people together, that dosent do much. Pts disparity can be as much as 15k just in the top 3 on the scoreboard, and the ones who do best somehow manage to end up on the same team match after match at a rate that defies statistics.

This new patch added some new maps, but not enough to make a real difference. Maybe if another new patch comes out in a month with 2-3 more maps it will keep my interest. Otherwise I will probably get kinda bored.

Infiltrator has got to be the worst class in the game. I havent unlocked any of the extra weapons for it but I dont really see the point. He is way too weak for effective base attacking, he cant kill heavies or 2-3 tech defenders like a soldier, brute, or raider could. And his mines arent even that strong, and once he runs out of 4 (at max) he is screwed. Very effective for choosing it straight out and doing a quick bombing, but as soon as defenses are up, its useless.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm playing quite a lot but I'm getting a bit bored of never being killed in public games. There's usually about 4 half capable people in a match and everybody else is utterly hopeless. Needs real matchmaking badly. I'm not good at video games.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I've played about four hours and I can see what you mean. Some matches have one team with enough competent players to build defences and protect the base while the other just plays like it's team death match. Is it okay to pick a role in a match and stick with it? Skiing with the flag is more fun than killing people so I've mostly been doing that, however when my team isn't defending our flag or attacking their generator my role is pretty much useless.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

They came out with an update yesterday that added some new Tech stuff. It costs an arm and a leg of XP. Unlike Raff, who is not good at video games, but also a god at video games, I manage to die a lot in public matches. I kinda drained all the fun I can out of this game by now, getting too high of a ranking just makes it not as fun for me because I am not a fan of competitive games. I regularly get into matches now where I am constantly thwarted by sentinels, or really good doombringers, or something else.

I jump in every once in a while for a match or two, but it dosent hold my attention anymore, especially since weapon unlocks are getting so expensive if you dont buy gold.

Colourful, I think its fine to stick with a role. Teams always need Paths/Soldiers to cap. The only time I would advise switching is if for some reason a majority of the team moves to that class, like when you get a game of idiots and there are like 5 or 6 INFs.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Yeah, sometimes you just get an absolutely retarded team and end up with like the whole team trying to do the same role. I usually take these situations as an opportunity to learn a new role, and eventually I got pretty good at all roles — and enjoyed them.

I have personally burnt out with this game too, though. Quite a while ago, actually. Looking forward to PlanetSide 2 once its beta woes are over though, which is a kind of weird bit of deja vu because it was PlanetSide 1 that I transitioned to after I started tiring of Tribes 2 almost 10 years ago (holy fuck).

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The cost of unlocks is pretty egregious. I was considering getting a starter pack as I'm likely to get at least £10 of value out of it, but gold just wouldn't stretch very far. Unlocking with XP seems like a joke. After three hours I could only afford to unlock the sniper class which I realised isn't any fun to play.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Yeah the pricing is ludicrous, you'd have to spend hundreds to unlock even the stuff you want. I figured that if you play a lot it's probably best to buy gold and then spend it all on XP boosters, which in addition to the free boosters (if you still get them) means you'll unlock XP fast enough to give yourself a near-constant stream of new stuff. But even then it's still a lot to be spending on a relatively lightweight game, although I guess more maps have been added since I stopped playing (just after Tartarus was released).

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

It feels similar in scope to games like Section 8 and Battlefield 1943, both of which were good value as one off purchases. The free to play model just doesn't make much sense here.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Yea the free to play aspect is putting me off as well as time goes on. I saved up for ages to buy doombringer mines with 75000xp, the whole time fighting the temptation to buy gold. It's not a feeling I want while playing games.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

What confuses me is that there are still so many major bugs and problems in the game that havent been worked out, or are introduced with each patch. Just a couple that I can think of off the top of my head is a new bug where mortar shots can clip right through the geometry and just fly off the map, the really finicky way you lock on tactical/orbital strikes, the way chat messages are displayed if they are longer then a tweet, performance drops on more then adequate machines, and a handful of balance and major matchmaking problems.

I also think they are in desperate need of an option to have friendly and enemy projectiles be different colors. If I am in a fight with 5-6 players, and I see a fractal grenade about to go off, how the hell do I know if its my teams or the enemies? Same goes with when a mortar is dropped close range, or a sticky.

----------------------

I used to enjoy playing INF but now its just so difficult to do so if you come up against 1-2 good base defenders. A Doom and Tech working together can make it almost impossible to get anything done. if they are equipped right they have two turrets to drop, mines, forcefields, and then TCNGs/Quickfuse, the Thumper, and the Titan Missile. How the fuck is a INF supposed to fight that with only 1k health, especially when you need ALL of your sticky mines to do just enough to take out a level 4 gen, so you cant even use those to fight the defenders or their equipment. Even if you were the fastest skier ever, you couldnt use your stickies to kill them, and then re-spawn and get back to the base in time to take out the gen before they can repair/set up again. I guess if you had the Jackal it could help alot but I dont have 75k XP to get it.

Even worse is that some bases are so horribly unbalanced. Sunstar (desert map with the tall temples) is INSANELY easy to attack as INF and only the best team of defenders can do anything to stop you. On the other side of the spectrum is Tartarus (the swamp with the big trees and plateaus), its so easy to lock down that you might as well not even try. Not to mention if some dick brings a tank inside the gen womb (which I cant believe hasent been patched out yet)

-----------------------

I bought the Steam Starter Pack and the Raider Pack which were both 50% off, so I only spent $17.50 and got 800 gold (which is $10 worth), EVERYTHING for the Raider class, and a bunch of basic unlocks from the starter pack. Those unlocks would have probably cost somewhere in the ballpark of 300k XP. The 800 gold helped me get probably another 200K XP, I used it only for items on discount and for a 3 day boost.

The boosts are really good to buy because it helps you net a lot of extra, plus every day you have boost you get 1200XP even if you dont play. When you factor in the 1200XP 1st win daily bonus you are raking in at least 2400XP just from winning one match a day. At a rate like that you can get stuff pretty fast, but without any of the XP bonuses it really slows down.

(The deal of the day is randomly picked from items you havent purchased, for up to an 80% discount. Of course the discount only applies to the Gold Price but it can be a major help towards unlocking.)

Whats frustrating is that some unlocks are pretty meh, like alternate rifle or thumper for soldier, or quickfuse/regular grenade for Tech or Soldier, or Vanilla/Holdout shotgun for Path. They are good and might fit your play style better, but if you cant afford them its no big deal. But other unlocks are KEY to playing a class efficiently. Doom mines, and any of the Raider and INF weapons are good examples of this, and most of those are 50-75k XP. I would say on average, you should be getting 1200-1500xp per match if you have the VIP bonus. So you are looking at around 50 matches to get just one item. Even if you are doing really good or have boost and are gaining XP at twice the rate that is still 25 matches, which at 20 minutes per match, takes an entire work day of playing to get.

----------------------------

Now that Ive gotten to the higher skill matches the games balance problems become apparent. There is just too much ability for 2-3 players to dominate a match, and while that sounds like something that wouldnt be so common, it happens at least half the time. When I check the scoreboard it usually looks something like this at the end of the round:

Blood Eagle: Diamond Sword:

1. 35,000 pts 1. 20,000 pts

2. 28,000pts 2. 15,000 pts

3. 18,000pts 3. 12,000 pts

4. 15,000pts 4. 10,000pts

5. 10,000pts 5. 8,000pts

From there the drop off is even more severe, with the entire bottom half of the team having maybe 10-15k as a whole.

The winning team usually has 1-3 players that absolutely decimate and have 10k or more then the next highest player. Even worse is that when you compare each team, the top player on the losing team usually has around the same score as the 3rd or 4th player on the winning team. Some people argue that pts dont mean anything, but thats bull because the winning team always has the highest total number of points.

I think the real morale here, is that in any multiplayer game, the people who are "hardcore/competitive" make it not fun for everyone else.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now