Tribes Ascend now live

F2P fps are always full of hackers from my experience, is that the case here?

There are only a few weapons that are even viable with hackers. Most are projectile not hit-scan, making hacks a lot harder to write. Depends on how much information you have, you could potentially write an aimbot for the projectile weapons. The base turrets are AI controlled and are pretty good at predicting where you'll land if you move in a predictable path.

But no for the most part I haven't seen anyone hacking since beta. And that was a speed-hacker who was just skiing around with the flag trolling people.
 
Interesting experience the most hackers i have ever seen in any game was BF3, I admit I have not played COD, CS ranks up close to second. TF2 is F2P and has less hacking problem than CS from anything I have ever seen. So I guess my experience tells me that at the very least F2P has nothing to do with hacking. Is QL full of hackers? I cant remember there being many.

Tribes is a very different kind of game and hacking seems to be very rare. For one you are mostly in very outdoor environements, So you don't need wall hacks to find people, Second the vast majority of the weapons are projectiles even if a person has a hack you can still dodge them.
 
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I am going to disagree with virtus, do not buy the thumper with gold, it is a very good weapon but it is way to expensive, save up xp and use your gold for weapons that cost 42000xp or 75000xp. Those are the ones with the best xp to gold ratio. You can buy close to three weapons with the gold of one thumper.
Rudy has a good point - but if you really want to play the tech, you have to get the thumper somehow. It takes a long time to get 100k xp, so gold is a quick shortcut. Also, your description of the thumper "Pure ownage, destroy anyone at close range, especially indoors one of the best guns in the game" is spot on. I dreaded going 1-on-1 with anyone when I was the default tech. The stock gun is too wimpy and the clips are too small.

So if you spend any time at all as a tech, you have to get the thumper one way or another. If you are more interested in other classes, spend your dough on them first.

I think the last patch unlocked all the classes/weapons in practice mode, so you can try them before you buy them.
 
Idk. I downloaded the game, when I got to the skiing part, I found I had zero control over my direction. I couldn't tell if it was a glitch or intended.
 
Idk. I downloaded the game, when I got to the skiing part, I found I had zero control over my direction. I couldn't tell if it was a glitch or intended.

You have a little influence on your direction, but not like you were walking. Use the landscape.
 
You have a little influence on your direction, but not like you were walking. Use the landscape.

Right, it seems like some levels you have more control than others (I don't know if that's just my imagination) but Crossfire which is shallow water/grass I find I can ski around the main area with a lot of control, other maps I have none.

You do have to use the terrain and jetpack to change direction though. It takes a bit of work but it pays off.
 
Right, it seems like some levels you have more control than others (I don't know if that's just my imagination) but Crossfire which is shallow water/grass I find I can ski around the main area with a lot of control, other maps I have none.

You do have to use the terrain and jetpack to change direction though. It takes a bit of work but it pays off.

Think of it like being a ball with gravity constantly trying to pull you to the lowest point.

So if you always go down the downslope you pick up speed, then you use the jetpack to push yourself up the upslope or completely over objects to reduce momentum loss.

But some maps are indeed harder to do this on.. some are so hilly that unless you are going 150+, it's hard to bypass the slowdowns. So you have to start off a big hill and fly as high as you can then downslope ski to pick up speed.

Oh and you can use your grenades and explosives to push you up big slopes if you think your energy will be too low to stop you from losing momentum. Shoot at your feet as you thrust up, or shoot behind you right at the peaks of a hill to gain the blast momentum. Of course don't do this a lot or you'll die on the second or third push.

And if you don't think you can make hill hurdles, just skirt the lower edge of them so you don't lose speed and make a little round to come back. You can control yourself slightly by the A and D keys if you hold them down...slightly.
 
Holding the skii button in midair gives you a lot less control but helps maintain speed. Took me a while to realize that when i first started.

- (PTH) Bolt Launcher (Turns pathfinder into a powerful killer), Explosive Nitron ( also an upgrade to make him kill),

- (SLD) Spinfusor, Why use when you have the thumper? I guess it is nice at longer range but you sacrifice the machine gun to use this.
Also i disagree with rudy's suggestions i just recommend sticking with weapons you find the most useful and it's not always about getting kills.

I actually find the light spinfusion more useful as a path because of its range/ballistics. The faster fire rate lets me knock heavies around without giving them a chance to react and the range lets me take down turrets, other defenses before going in and taking the flag. Also find it better when chasing other paths down because its consistinsy and its lower damange can provide a emergency speed boost if im out of nitron.

I also find SLD's spinfusor pretty much the best weapon in the game and i have won enough arena matches to prove it. The thumper only comes to use when i need a speed boost because it doesn't do that much damage.
 
Just for clarification, I was speaking mostly in the light of CTF. Lots of things would not be worth touching in arena.

Second I am looking purely at value / use. How does the weapon round out a player. There is nothing wrong with the soldiers spinfusor it is a good weapon and overall better for damage than the thumper, its just it overlaps so much in function with the thumper and it forces you to get rid of the machine gun which is where you get range killing from in that class. By taking the spinfusor you get an easier to aim projectile but lose your ability chase longer range or finish off players/ keep them from regen. I think once you get the aim down there is almost no reason to give up that versatility. As for the pathfinder I did not go into postitioning but its is pretty vetted at this point that pathfinders who want to effectively cap should probably take the spinfusor for disc jumping / long range clearing, and cappers that want to chase take the bolt launcher for its heavily increased killing capability. Doesnt mean the spinfusor is bad but the bolt launcher is just that deadly, its one of the best projectiles in the game, a huge upgrade for killing over the spinfusor.

So the spinfusor ends up costing you about 80,000 xp and you dont really have any different of a player, just a twist on the soldier. But most of the upgrades I listed are making the player fit a very different role or heavily strengthening a role.

Also all those comments assume that you can't get free stuff. Obviously with the free spinfusor from mmorpg.com everyone should be getting the spinfusor unlocked as long as they have keys.
 
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Also all those comments assume that you can't get free stuff. Obviously with the free spinfusor from mmorpg.com everyone should be getting the spinfusor unlocked as long as they have keys.

Thanks for mentioning that I had been looking for tribes keys for free items. Missed a soldier pack one back in march.
 
You have a little influence on your direction, but not like you were walking. Use the landscape.

I played T2, I was speaking relatively. Even though you had momentum and used terrain, you could manipulate your path a little without burning out your pack. I guess that was more base++. Classic partially took that away. This was like going in the direction of Classic times 10. I was christened on vanilla T2 & base++ and didn't like the change. This brought back bad memories.
 
Idk. I downloaded the game, when I got to the skiing part, I found I had zero control over my direction. I couldn't tell if it was a glitch or intended.

When you want to change direction, either boost so you're just off the ground then feather your boosts in the direction you want, or literally turn to look in the direction you want while skiing (although this will slow you down quite a bit).
 
You have a little influence on your direction, but not like you were walking. Use the landscape.

Tap the jets rapidly in mid-air while holding the strafe button for the direction you want to go. You turn faster.
 
Saw this on another forum and it just cracked me up for some reason.

lm5Wc.gif
 
Really interested in this game and going to try it out. I for one live the F2P model because there is always an incentive for the developer to keep the game moving forward...not just shit canning it and releasing a new version hoping it sells.

Really liking the competitive aspect even though I know I will suck when I start.

Any [H] Tribes vets want to show a noob the ropes?
 
There are lots of good tips in this thread already. Distractobot.com has a great collection of how-to videos and information (like this http://distractobot.com/tribes-ascend-tips-for-beginners/).

Capture the flag is a bit slower pace than Arena and Deathmatch, so if you are frustrated with dying constantly jump into a CTF game. Most of us feel that CTF is the essence of tribes anyway. Remember that everything in CTF revolves around getting the enemy flag to your stand and keeping your flag on its stand. It's ok to get last place on the scoreboard if you kept the other team's sensors and turrets down for the entire match. It's not ok to have the highest score on your team if you spend the whole game picking off newbies while your team is losing 0-5. Go play deathmatch if that's your thing.

If you play CTF don't try to grab the flag (unless it's been dropped mid-field for some reason). Let an experienced capper do it. If you grab it while going slow (150 or less I think), you will get llama badges. Those are the "hey, I'm a newbie" badges.

Spend your time supporting the experienced cappers or chasing the other team's cappers. You can support your cappers by softening the other team's defenses (take out turrets / shields / generators) and distracting the defenders.

Don't be put off by "vets" (experienced players). Some are helpful, others are prideful. If you stay out of their way and build your skills you'll be fine. Learn to ski fast and learn to hit things while skiing, then move on to capping.
 
Any [H] Tribes vets want to show a noob the ropes?

Feel free to add me in-game, name is Cutsman.

Also, glance over this for a starter. /r/Tribes is immensely helpful as well.

Outside of that, just keep practicing your movement and your aim will come to you naturally with time.
 
Don't be put off by "vets" (experienced players). Some are helpful, others are prideful. If you stay out of their way and build your skills you'll be fine. Learn to ski fast and learn to hit things while skiing, then move on to capping.


Lots of "vets" are assholes...they are only non-assholes to other "vets". So my recommendation on these folks is use /mute <playername>

It's also useful for the guys who spend all round spamming voice commands till all you hear is them, ./mute em as they do it constantly. Use ~ key to open menu and type in /mute <playername> it gives no feedback but man it's great when those guys are shut up.

And avoid being "vet like" ask for help to do things and explain what you need... IE if too many people are spending time at generator, ask a few to come out to help chase or defend flag.....or get turrets up...something. Not just "generators don't matter noobs!"...because unless your team is just vastly outskilled (this is called team stacking, it happens often)...the generator and keep all the turrets and sensors up is a big deal...it helps keep people from base camping you.
 
Love it.

Brings back memories from when I was about 11 years old playing the original in my neighbors den for hours on end and all night during sleep overs.

I wish there more original maps, or any, but I can see how it'd be hard since the game focuses on skiing so much. The other maps were almost always in the air.

Either way, awesome game.

I'm loving it...and not McDonald's.
 
Don't forget to get the free spinfusor from mmorpg.com guys they are burning through around 2000 a day and down to 4000. Saves you a whole day of boosted play. Probably a half a week of non boosted play.
 
Ohhh, +1 for Tribes.

DOWNLOADING!!!! (I miss Tribes and Tribes 2.... I loved playing Shifter and Renegades...)
 
Most vets aren't assholes, it's just that people get sick of noobies doing really stupid stuff. Walking up and grabbing the flag instead of waiting for a pathfinder to come in at full speed is enough to make people scream at their screen. Returning the flag after I just shot it into a corner to prevent fast grabs off the stand, I'll write you off for the rest of the game.

On the thumper vs fusor along with general balance. When picking weapons with some classes you have to keep in mind it's not always about the individual weapon but about the combination of them. This is one of the massive problems with the soldier. The spinfusor and thumper are about equal. The thumper is harder to dodge, but lacks some of the range and killing power of the spinfusor. What that translates into is an inability to one shot lights off a direct hit and an inability to disc snipe the base turrets. Neither of these things are huge though as the turrets go down like chumps to most classes. Unfortunately the eagle pistol is absolute crap compared to AR in every situation. Given that picking a thumper and a spinfusor is redundant, the best equipment for a good soldier is AR + thumper. Also keep in mind that most of the automatic weapons actually have a higher DPS than the explosive weapons, are better against arials, and there are some vicious pack and perk combos you can use to largely negate issues with splash damage.

The jug is like this as well. The mark D fusor is an amazing weapon. The thing is the mortar is better at taking out base assets, stand clearing, and spamming in the base, so it's a bit redundant to have both, and the LMG is amazing in it's own right and when paired with disc grenades.

The pathfinder also should always have the bolt launcher. It's much better at killing things than the spinfusor, it's insanely. Even if you're capping you should be building speed early with impact nitrons which grant you a far bigger speed boost. By the time you hit the flag you should be gooing well over 200 (usually much higher) and redlined, once you hit that speed if you can ski well you'll never actually drop below it. You also are not shooting at the turrets if you are capping, let others handle that. If you see a pathfinder with a spinfusor, it's a pretty good clue they aren't that good at the game, impact nitron boost > spinfusor boost, period.

Also some classes just aren't as good as the others when it comes to CTF. In competitive matches it's normal to see one jug (he shell's the base assets and flag stand), one sentinel (snipes cappers and chasers tries to throw the jug off of his game), one capper (pathfinder) one chaser (pathfinder), and two doombringers (heavy on flag D). And then one of whatever for offensive harassment. That last position is the only one that might pick a raider, soldier, or infiltrator. This is highly map specific though, however in most cases a raider can cause far more havoc than the other classes. And on some maps (like the huge city one) another pathfinder with the bolt launcher is better than those classes again! The tech is only used as a fast (suicide, pick tech, repair gen, sucide, go back to your class) by the doombringers or the harasser off and on. The only things the gen powers that are actually worth a damn are mines and force walls and possibly the snipers drop jammer. Even then, they aren't critical. Things may change slightly at 8v8 levels, but you're usually just loading up another pathfinder or doombringer.

Now I'm not saying things won't change, there is a crap ton of stuff they haven't released yet for all the classes, currently only the infiltrator is fully kitted out, so who knows. Maybe the soldiers plasma rifle will change things up a bit, ditto for the brutes plasma cannon. You can get away with not picking one of the fab four classes on public servers, but in private matches it's the fastest way to get your ass tooled up. The bolt launcher enables the pathfinder to out duel and frag any of the other classes, he's also the fastest by far, short of the strictly positional roles played by the jug, sent, and doombringer, the pathfinder is just better. I can only give a slight hat tip to the raider at some things.
 
Noob here... just played first game...

Really enjoyed it... I need to work on my momentum and not losing it. Didn't try and get the flag... just focused on chasing our flag and defending our base. Didn't go over to the other side very much. Went 7-4 (luck) and placed somewhere around 8th.

I played the pathfinder class but wish I knew to do more repairing at the base. Need to read some of the guides peeps posted on here.
 
Noob here... just played first game...

Really enjoyed it... I need to work on my momentum and not losing it. Didn't try and get the flag... just focused on chasing our flag and defending our base. Didn't go over to the other side very much. Went 7-4 (luck) and placed somewhere around 8th.

I played the pathfinder class but wish I knew to do more repairing at the base. Need to read some of the guides peeps posted on here.

You don't need to repair the base, and here is why.

The radar is worthless, good players will call out and mark the enemy for you. Plus you should know the cappers routes.

The turrets are, meh... if you know how to move you're not going to get hit by them at all, plus any jug on your team is going to blast them to hell and back off the bat.

Tech turrets are fairly worthless.

The only thing that the generator powers that is worth a damn against good players is mines or forcefields.

Leave the gen room to techs, raiders, and heavies, it always turns into spam hell with people playing indoor deathmatch, and it rarely has an impact on the actual map. If the other team has devoted 6 people to the gen rooms and you devote nothing, you'll out cap them 5-0 in the first 7 mins or so, it's comical.
 
You don't need to repair the base, and here is why.

The radar is worthless, good players will call out and mark the enemy for you. Plus you should know the cappers routes.

The turrets are, meh... if you know how to move you're not going to get hit by them at all, plus any jug on your team is going to blast them to hell and back off the bat.

Tech turrets are fairly worthless.

The only thing that the generator powers that is worth a damn against good players is mines or forcefields.

Leave the gen room to techs, raiders, and heavies, it always turns into spam hell with people playing indoor deathmatch, and it rarely has an impact on the actual map. If the other team has devoted 6 people to the gen rooms and you devote nothing, you'll out cap them 5-0 in the first 7 mins or so, it's comical.

I remember this was kind of similar in Starsiege: Tribes. There were a few simple mod servers I played on that changed this - I hope Ascend gets the same treatment. It didn't change the pace of the combat (crazy fast) but it made base defenses a LOT more viable. Meaning it took coordination to both take and defend a base

Forget the name of the mod, but the most popular server with that mod was [IND] or something along those lines.
 
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I remember this was kind of similar in Starsiege: Tribes. There were a few simple mod servers I played on that changed this - I hope Ascend gets the same treatment. It didn't change the pace of the combat (crazy fast) but it made base defenses a LOT more viable. Meaning it took coordination to both take and defend a server.

Forget the name of the mod, but the most popular server with that mod was [IND] or something along those lines.

You're talking about shifter I think.

I wouldn't worry too much though, the game isn't finished, only one class is, infiltrator. So things can change for the better. The issue is that right now, most thing's aren't fleshed out.
 
In the low level rounds, base turrets make a huge difference to base defense. Especially when you have a flag you're trying to cap and you can use the base turrets to kill off some of the people chasing you. And radar helps to keep the team informed about how many are chasing you.

Most people won't even react if they don't see red blips showing up.

It has some impact on the higher games, as it makes the team spend time having to kill your assets to run at the flag. If you let them blow it all up early on and then repair it all after you've upgraded it a couple times, it makes it less tedious to keep things repaired. And it makes it very annoying for the opposing team to have to get past your turrets who fire faster and take forever to kill.

There are some maps this works better on than others. Like drydock is pretty shitty to keep things up with because your base is basically in a bowl and everyone can sit above the stuff and shoot it.

Katabatic (snow map I think) is one where only one turret really does the majority of the work for awhile. And then they start going the other way...so you upgrade the other and keep it working.

Raindance, mid field turret and mainbase turret....the furthest out turret does hardly anything because the huge ravine makes it too easy for them to dodge. It actually protects the midfield turret more than it actually prevents people from getting in.

Then the sand map which I can't remember the name of right now...the back turret is pointless pretty much all the time. However keeping that dome up around your flag keeps the jugs from midfield destroying everything you have on the flag.


And the wasteland map, all the turrets there are pretty useful....the one near the flag keeps people from sitting out in front of your base shelling it. The side one near base can shoot people on your roof or above your base if they are on that side...plus it protects one side of the gen room entrances. The far off turret is the main speed run of a lot of people...it will often kill them in mid run or hurt them enough that they die at the flag.

Floating airbases map, both of the turrets are important. Radar is extremely useful here because of the tiered base it makes it really hard to find the enemies with all the corners and stuff they can hide in.
Infiltrators will just in a corner once radar is down and it's tough dislodging their camping when they got places they can hide to rebuild their energy for cloak unmolested.


Generally if you have no generator, you're going to lose unless your team is just outclassing the other team...which is team stacking and happens a lot. But it's a even match, the guys with the generator up will usually win because it diverts the enemy team from running and defending to having to attack to keep their runners alive through all the turrets and what not.
 
I remember this was kind of similar in Starsiege: Tribes. There were a few simple mod servers I played on that changed this - I hope Ascend gets the same treatment. It didn't change the pace of the combat (crazy fast) but it made base defenses a LOT more viable. Meaning it took coordination to both take and defend a base

Forget the name of the mod, but the most popular server with that mod was [IND] or something along those lines.

It is actually somewhat similar in TA, if you play against a pub team that loads up on doom, tech and sentinels, they buys into beowolfs and shrikes, they can build a really good defense. The problem is the vast majority of pubs completely ignore flag defense. Just like sd11 said, they tend to commit way to many players to the generator. In alot of maps having a good outdoor defense will almost naturally protect the generator. Also a correction, mines are not powered by the generator.
 
I'd argue that in pubs turrets are very useful in the right hands (especially tech turrets). Since you don't regen when you have the flag, every 65pt hit from a tech turret makes the chaser's job easier. A decent tech will put the turrets where they are semi-protected and will actually do some damage. 5 feet away from the flag is rarely a good spot. Watch the capping routes and put the turrets in unexpected places along the route.
 
Yep, I've placed some troll turrets in other team's bases (next to their turrets and stuff) where they think they're safe. I've caught a lot of people off guard that way.
 
I'd also like to mention that if you haven't signed up for Tribes Ascend yet, there's a referral program in place...and it's really helpful to existing players if you use them. They get 5000 xp per referral that gets to level 6, plus at thresholds they get free gold and what not. If you know someone on forum who plays, get a referral code from them through PMs. I referred myself to see what they did, it's really unchanged from what I did when I signed up for beta really so not really anymore steps and you get someone some XP and a character name to friend when you finally get in and everything setup.

You need an account at both places to get the codes they are distributing...facebook and mmorpg.com. I think MMORPG may use facebook accounts if you don't mind doing that.

Here's some other links you can use once you sign up to get gold and a free weapon. The second link goes directly to the posting where you get the code.

https://www.facebook.com/tribesascend/posts/123296907796144
https://www.facebook.com/tribesascend?sk=app_143129555807414

Soldier Spinfusor unlock code giveaway

http://www.mmorpg.com/giveaways.cfm/offer/330/Tribes-Ascend-Spinfusor-Gift-Keys.html
 
base turrets are deadly as fuck against fast flag cappers, arguably unavoidable in certain instances above 200km.
 
seems like my xfire 5850's struggles in close combat. i have graphic detail on minimal. anything i can do?
 
seems like my xfire 5850's struggles in close combat. i have graphic detail on minimal. anything i can do?

Have you checked for new drivers? They might have one out that fixes it. I have an 8800 GTX nvidia card and it does fine with the details low on a decent sized resolution. Only time the game stutters is when the harddrive spins down due to not being accessed.
 
seems like my xfire 5850's struggles in close combat. i have graphic detail on minimal. anything i can do?

My single 5850 plays it at full with no issues. Isn't this built on the Quake 3 engine? It shouldn't take much to run it.
 
seems like my xfire 5850's struggles in close combat. i have graphic detail on minimal. anything i can do?

Go into /Users/ACCOUNT/My Documents/My Games/Tribes Ascend/TribesGame

open config.ini

ctrl + f ambient and change to false.

Ambient Occlusion is probably the biggest FPS gobbler.
 
Actually its Unreal Engine 3. There has to be something going on with ATI cards/drivers and this game though. It seems the only people who are complaining about bad framerate are ATI owners. My machine isn't the latest but this game runs 100% smooth rock solid 60fps (Q9300, 8gb ram, 560gtx) but I'm using a nvidia card.

So for those of you who have bought gold what did you end up spending it on? I went ahead and put down $10 so I could have the VIP bonus but I don't know what to spend the 800 gold on. I don't know if I'd get more bang for the buck out of one 100k weapon or 2 lower cost unlocks.
 
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