It’s been seven years since Tribes: Vengeance. What makes now the right time to revisit Tribes, and what does it offer to set it apart in a genre that’s now dominated by Call of Duty and Battlefield?
Tribes couldn’t be more different from other modern shooter franchises. Those games are slow-moving while Tribes is incredibly fast. Those games are cover-based while Tribes is based on player movement and momentum. Those shooters are hide & seek type combat, but in Tribes you see plenty of enemies, the challenge is learning to predict their movement and actually nailing them with a projectile weapon like the Disc Launcher while you are both zipping around in an aerial dogfight.
Call of Duty and Battlefield have made first-person shooters popular across all the leading platforms. But now there are millions of shooter players looking for something different and refreshing, and so we think the timing couldn’t be better.
How did your work on Global Agenda influence your approach to Tribes – any lessons learned there?
We’ve learned a lot around how to best optimise graphics and performance using the Unreal 3 engine since both games use that technology. Compared to Global Agenda we want Tribes: Ascend to have higher graphical fidelity on maxed out settings, but also to run more smoothly on lower-end PCs.
Can we expect to see any familiar factions return in Ascend? What impact will they have on gameplay?
Yes. Ascend is focused on a conflict between two familiar Tribes factions – the Blood Eagle and the Diamond Sword. So, the initial set of maps and environment assets and character assets all revolve around that faction conflict. In the future we’ll draw from other Tribes factions in terms of customisable character skins and locations.
Did Tribes Universe evolve into Ascend, or is that a project you want to revisit in the future?
Our studio is a huge fan of the previous Tribes games. So after we acquired the rights to Tribes our first goal was to get the movement and physics and combat feeling right. When we made enough progress toward that goal we decided to release a pure match-based shooter ahead of any MMO and that shooter became Ascend. We do still intend to further explore the Tribes and Starsiege IP with future projects, but right now our Tribes dev team is working only on Ascend.
Tribes once had a pretty passionate community. Are you finding that to still be the case? What kind of feedback are you getting from fans in the Beta?
Passionate would be an understatement! The Tribes veterans want Ascend to succeed and are extremely vocal. Our Beta includes many veterans but also many people new to the franchise and on certain details the feedback differs between the various groups.
Forum feedback is very useful for raising particular issues for debate and consideration. But we get our most valuable feedback from surveys across the broad player base and by collecting and reviewing data on actual player behavior in every match.
In general we couldn’t be more pleased with Beta. Our daily play activity is consistently rising, survey responses are very positive, and we’ve been able to deliver weekly patches that address feedback items as well as bugs. We are never able to communicate as frequently to the community as we would like, but we think that progress through frequent patches is what most players appreciate most.
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As a beta player i can say tribes feels like it hasn’t evolved enough, back in the day there was a mod called ultra renegades to me that is what the tribes experience should have evolved towards, more of a unlimited power and weapons unlimited jet pack so more of a 3d experience and floating bases high up in the sky gave you that feeling of being larger then life and the weapons are only limited to 2 per class active at any one time, they also feel weak and underpowered, plus there should be some advanced weapons like tracking and one or two hit kill. There is a lot of unlocks so maybe some of this is addressed already.
At first, I was a little put off by the limited weapons but the more I play, it doesn’t seem as much of a burden as I had initially thought i.e. you get use to it. And I definitely don’t feel the weapons are underpowered, I would actually say the opposite, some of them are overpowered IMO.
I’m with you on how it hasn’t quite evolved enough yet, HiRez had said initially that they were trying to capture the T2 feel, and while I’d say they are about 80% there, it’s still lacking and doesn’t quite capture the grandiose feeling I got while playing T2, much akin to your “larger than life” analogy…
I’m also very disappointed they left out the transport, bomber and mobile point base as I felt all of those vehicles added a lot of depth to the game. The transport was shown in the initial Ascend trailer, but HiRez has since stated that no additional vehicles are planned before release *sigh*, maybe they will change that, it is still in beta after all.
Despite all of that, I’m having a lot of fun with the game and play it every chance I get.
whaaaaat? they left out the transport and the bomber? WHY?
Those vehicles did indeed add much depth and if my memory serves me correctly were unique to the game at the time.
I still remember the first time i had a go piloting that transport. Needless to say I crashed – resulting in much abuse thrown my way. Though the sight of a full load of passengers turning to stare at me vindictively as I ploughed the transport into a hillside was priceless.
Tracking weapons? seriously? Tribes was about skill dude. Tracking weapons is why BF3 is boring compared to BC2.
Renegades was garbage, Yes i know it was a popular crappy mod, but it was still a rediculus no skill joke of a mod. Unlimited power and weapons? what the hell would be the point? Light armored 12 year olds shooting mortar rounds lighting up an entire hillside green unrealistic crap fest. there was no challange no finess no skill just spam and be spammed…. NO renegades
I was/am a huge fan of the MODDED versions of Tribes 1. I believe if Dynamix somehow prevented the option for modding the game, not many people would have played it for as long as they did. Because of mods, even after the Tribes 1 master servers went down, the game kept on being played by people who paid to host their own servers (talk about devotion! Not because Tribes 1 was an amazing game off the shelf, but because of the modifications which truly unlocked its potential). Personally, if it weren’t for the customizations of people so dedicated to the game that they took it upon themselves to dive into the code and make the game far better than the stock release, I would have played it for about a month and then called it quits (instead I played it for ~5 years).
After playing the Tribes: Ascend beta for 10 Ranks, I do like the feel of the game far far far far far more than I did Tribes Vengence (don’t get me started on that game…), and the game is fun, but I’m convinced that without Mods this game will definitely not fulfill the legacy of Tribes 1.
I dislike the fact that Hi-Rez has seemingly tried to morph the success and style of Call of Duty into Tribes. I’d like to be able to pick my armor, then my guns, then my pack, and then my accessories, rather than be forced to choose a single armor with unlockable perks (Call of Duty style). However, this is where I see huge success for a modded version to come along and release the potential of Tribes: Ascend… I’ll even suggest a title: Tribes 1 Mod.
I understand there should be money made for hard work, but I believe Tribes: Ascend will not “ascend” to Tribes 1 standards because of how the game is cleverly designed to make money. In my opinion, their “Call of Duty” style unlock and upgrade as you play (which takes quite a long time (which clearly implies they want you to use real money and buy the upgrades)) would suffer the company a loss in profits if they allowed people to mod their game. Why should I purchase armors if someone makes a mod that lets me use a variety of armors with a variety of weapons, packs, deployables, and accessories?
All in all, I would have definitely paid the going rate of $60 for a game which was Tribes 1 (even Tribes 2) with upgraded graphics, 3 armors, 10 guns, 4 packs, grenades, health packs, and mines.. then I would have waited a few weeks for the mods to appear.. and then I’d be playing the most rad FPS computer game since Tribes 1. Instead, I have Tribes: Ascend, a FPS with jet packs.
Since its only beta, perhaps the full release will surprise me.
The game feels very much like a Tribes game. It captures the feel of the first two games even though the load-out system has changed. Its smooth, polished and quite fun. I’d love to see the game expanded a bit more to the level of Tribes 2′s tactical options but its still early so hopefully that’ll be something for the future.
Either way, I don’t think Hi-Rez could have a done a better job in bringing back a game that has so many passionate fans while attempting to bring in new players and making the whole enterprise work as a F2P title. If its a choice between TA or no tribes at all, I’ll absolutely take TA.
Don’t forget the boost and brake option in Ultra Renegades. It made aerial combat and speed capping a non-stop rush.
I agree we need bigger and higher levels with floating bases in Ascend (like no-rail-no-fog map in T1 Ultra Renegades).
Let’s hope modding will be as easy as in T1 so we can get some great Ultra mods and voice packs (with movie quotes
i think its a good game despite the fact that i havnt played it or read the article , its just me i cant be bothered buh i do want to win this just for the fun of it and experience it for my self , and probs get it if i enjoy it
Toodles
Thanks for the key! Have been playing it nonstop for the last few days and I’m loving every second of it. And as much as i like the beagle/sandraker dynamic, I can’t wait until hirez adds the derms.