Tribes Council = win

I had a great time at the Tribes council. Here are a few of my thoughts:

Fast Attack:

I'm sure you know by now it's not going to be released. The only feature I was anticipating with Fast Attack was its potential to reduce cheating in competition due to hard coding, but with that also came a lot of negatives such as it being unskinnable, unmoddable, unscriptable... uncustomizable in any way and worst of all it would have further fragmented the community. Hearing it would not be released was actually a relief to me.

The patch:
No date. It will fix bugs, improve fps and eliminate the CD check and get rid of all in-game community features except team management. It will include Competition Mod and Team Rabbit 2.

Arial Assault:

Yes, it is Tribes on a console. This game designed for Play Station 2 has several levels of difficulty using what we online gamers consider cheats like auto aim as features to aid beginners and offers unassisted game play in the advanced setting.

The console controls were awkwardly laid out for Tribes play and difficult to work with but if I could have had a keyboard and mouse attatched to the console I would have loved it. I suppose if you've never played with a keyboard before, you won't know what you're missing.

There was the lack of ability to communicate with each other in-game which will prove challenging when playing online.

Overall, I was pleasantly suprised at how much the nature of Tribes shined through on this console cousin of the game we love. We played Katabatic even...

Comp Mod:

I didn't get to play much of this because Creole Ned was hogging the computer (jk.) so I can't give you a lot of details but I like the new maps I saw which featured OOB bases meaning: no turtling. There is a slight change in physics compared with Base++. Comp mod has less air resistance and more gravity (to eliminate that floaty feeling) so you're going to have to practice skiing while becoming addicted to this new creation of the twin Zs.

Team Rabbit 2:

OMG! I love this new game type developed by Kinetic Poet, Special, FSB-AO, daunt and Natural that's being released with the next patch. It's like flag hockey. Points awarded for goals are racked up by passing to teamates with style and difficulty. Features include Tribes 1 physics and some other fun stuff like human cannons and springy boundaries, slightly bouncy water, all to increase the speed of the game and give you that adrenaline rush. They brought back beacon stopping, where you can deploy a beacon in front of yourself during an extremely fast ski for an instant stop and change in direction. You don't kill opponents, you knock them out for three seconds using disc chaingun or grenades.
This game is going to rock.

I'm impressed with the meticulous attention to details that only top gamers themselves would be able to produce. This game type also represents the direction Sierra wants to take Tribes in the future with more emphasis on sport.

BTW, they are looking for a new name for this game type because team rabbit 2 is not quite right since this is nothing like team rabbit so if you have any good ideas, make them known.


What the heck is the future of Tribes? :

Well, I'm not certain but it sure sounds like Sierra has some awsome ideas. Marweas was using what's going on today with online games in South Korea as an example. In South Korea some online gamers are like our professional football and baseball players, getting product endorsements (yes, actually getting payed to play games..where have we seen that before? oh yeah...pro ball.), they broadcast shows, people meet up at internet cafes to play and it's a big social event for them. We had some great ideas for the future floating around. So, Marweas has this huge picture of how the game can be and he and Thrax also have some fantastic ideas about new games based on Tribes. (which I can't talk about because I signed an agreement, but I assure you they're very cool).

...also, it was awsome to meet everyone at the Tribes Council

 

Now we see what sleep deprivation and a hang-over does to someone who already has attention deficit disorder!


Future of Tribes.. hmm...This is a work in progress since it's my first day home with my kiddos so expect more details to come.

Tribes: Sport vs. War

Sierra envisions a bright future for Tribes, with hopes of aligning it as a professional sport much as pro football and baseball are now.

Keeping the community connected


-huge potential for growth of a support community and many see gaming based investments today as being lucrative tomorrow. Web sites, leagues, ladders, shoutcast networks, televised matches. It's a long way off but there will be profits some day.

-possibility of including a download of mirc in the box with Tribes releases.

-in-game links to tribes related web-sites was nixed due to the lack of control over content at big gaming sites such as Tribal War.


Nurture the newbies

We have to keep the new players flowing into the game and win as many over as possible to keep the game alive. We discussed many ways to acclimate newbies to tribes game play including:

-a system to rank players according to skills based on statistics and allowing them access to servers based on skill level. (no newbs on competition servers)

-highlighting recommended servers in-game where newbies can expect to play with other new people and get some help from vets who've volunteered their time while still allowing newbies access to expert level servers so they are not denied the opportunity to build their skills up against top players.

-better training missions possibly including an intriging 3 or 4 hour, unique, captivating story line specifically designed for training the online newbie (this is in addition to the massive single player campaign)

-in-game methods of making the most useful scripts available to new players.

-making excellent demos available to newbies.

Tribes game play in the future

Many great ideas were mentioned and tossed around and I personally believe there is potential for many game types based on Tribes varying from the classic Tribes games we play today; sport-like games that Team rabbit 2 has begun to capture; fantasy games including elements that people love about DAOC and EverQuest; even games appropriate for young kids with the same movement found in Tribes. I am a big fan of the jet pack. but back to the subject of the next release:

-expect this game in 2004 or later.

-expect to upgrade your computer. (duh)

-expect the fun to return with lots of opportunities for the fast action we've grown to love.

-There will be a massive single player campaign complete with battles against highly skilled bot teams and an immersive story line with developing characters. Marweas mentioned his goal is to surpass the success of the single player and multi player success of Half Life.

-the idea that most stood out for me was eliminating vehicles and allowing players to connect their personal armors together to create a unique and more powerful unit.