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Tribes Vengeance Visuals Impress
Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to a PlanetTribes post showing off a new set of screenshots (proudly proclaiming the game '29% complete') for Tribes: Vengeance, a forthcoming Unreal-engine PC FPS being developed by System Shock 2 and Freedom Force creators Irrational. The title is an eagerly-awaited sequel to a franchise once thought extremely unwell, and an earlier preview at GameSpot explains that this newly unveiled title should ship in late 2004, and will concentrate on both single and multi-player gameplay aspects this time round.
I just went and is the server already slashdoted?
What they have to show looks exactly like tribes 2 with a few better textures and individual leaves on trees. The problem with tribes 2 was not the graphics.
The problem with tribes 2 was the gameplay -- the areas to traverse were just too huge, targets too small, and timesteps too large to ever get anything but a lucky hit. Oh and there was no way to get in a net game with players of similar skill, so if you didn't buy the game from the get-go you were screwed.
... The engine that powered Tribes & Tribes 2, the Torque engine, is available for $100.00USD. I believe you can use it royalty-free, 'til you've made half a million (USD). Not too shabby!
"Yeah, well, Dracula called and he's coming over tonight for you and I said okay."
I play Tribes 2 to this day. There's no more than a few thousand of us on during the night, but the gameplay and maps is awesome.
.5mill with it).
I thought Tribes 2 team got completely shafted by the company/owner. I seem to recall their little gorup being bought out by a big group, and then discontinued. The developers somehow managed to take the source and sell it (Torque engine) for 100 bucks to anyone who wanted (so long as you make less than
This was one of the first games that allowed 60 people on a server in an open terrain evrionment with realtime mesh level of detail, and a properly coded engine that allowed structures to sit on the terrain and not let the LOD pull triangles that supported the strucutre when you were at a distance (causing things like bridges to float in other poorly written terrain LOD system).
Nothing sense came close the the "dogfights" you have against other players as you not only ran around, but used your jet back for 6DOF. After playing tribes, any other game I play I constantly am jamming the right mouse button in reflex to 'jet out' of a situation (i do this in ET and get annoyed when i switch to an alternate fire mode).
Tribes two was a killer game, and the engine was so easy to mod. You could inherit and override any of the base graphics through a simple script system. Do like your default hud? make your own in seconds. A little more time if you want graphics. Yet somehow it fell under the radars of most games. I don't really understand it.
I'm really kinda upset Tribes 3 isn't using a torque engine... I don't trust that unreal can handle the massive outdoor areas, and put 60 people on a map.
We'll see...
-malakai
-Malakai
A Dragon Lives in my Garage
Foreplay's a noun... :(
This looks a lot like Planetside. Better, really.
I've been playing Planetside since beta and let me tell you, it should never have been released. It has bugs out the wazoo. The stealth suits are visibile. Things that shouldn't be stealthed but are. Kludgy physics. The lag can be horrendous at peak times. When there are big problems the devs tell you bullsh*t like "disable your virus software" even though the patch two days later reveal they knew it was theirs all along.
Now I'm blathering...
My
Limekiller
It makes me cry to see all these unused copies of Freedom Force in bargain bins. Don't make the same mistake! And of course, System Shock 2 is a Top 10 PC game of the last few years.
Looking Glass may be gone, but thank (insert deity here) that a lot of LG talent went to Irrational (even before LG's demise).
I'm supposed to be impressed by this?
Sorry, but IMHO these look like something a couple years old now. Sure, the sky textures are pretty enough, but other than that I don't see anything useful here at all. The game models, both landscape & character, look horrendously low polygon.
I'm HONESTLY not trying to be a snob or flame or whatever, but after the images of Half-Life 2, this looks so.... 2000.
-Julius X
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Doesn't look like T2 to me. But you're right. If you get into Tribes 2 (or 1) now, you will get killed in those of us that have been playing it since the beginning. The developers for Tribes: Vengance are completely new to the series. They have only been playing Tribes 1 and 2 for a few months. I'm sure they will bring fresh ideas and bring new balance to the game.
Come on over for some rest when you are tired of fighting. www.theconstruct.tk
Download Opera 9 (in the BETA forum)
T:V has a few aces up it's sleeve that T2 didn't have. The Current Producer of the game is Chris Mahnken (aka Thrax Panda) someone who unlike DaveG of fucking up t2 fame actually has real honest to goodness competition experience with Tribes. Irrational also hired Michael Johnston, (aka KineticPoet) a well know community member and modder, who also has a ton of competition experience. Neither of those guys liked T2 base.
Both of them post with some regularity on TribalWar and in in the Tribes On Topic Forum. If you want to stay up to date with what's going on in Tribes land, that forum (tot, not general) is a very good source of information and discussion (and flames)
I would not say that if a person that bought this game now would have a hard time getting into the game. The game is basically broken into 3 groups, heavily modded MODS, Classic, and Base. Base is the original game, classic is T1 physics with T2 graphics, and the MODS are something a new person would NEVER want to go to.
I personally play base (original T2). The reason is because I LOVE the teamwork involved. People have to take a role, and stick to it in order to win. It being repairing base stuff, capping the flag, defense, offence, setting out turrets, etc. If you leave a hole in any of these, your team will have a very hard time winning the game.
Now if a new person jumped in now, they get subjected to classic, which is T1 physics, and which ALL the T1 guys are playing. They have been playing this game for EVER, and new people wont stand a chance. The best way for a new person to start is to play Base. Its slower and the experience wont be overwelming. There are are WIDE range of players skills on the servers, and most people will help you out. Hell, if you just say your new, the good players will take it easy on you. If person then wants to move to classic cause they think base is too slow, it will be an easier transition for them. The physics in classic are MUCH faster. Even heavy armors have a good chance at capping the flag (which i personally HATE). Then you can get into the other mods.....which are pretty insane. When you start playing them, it seems as if there are about 2000 different weapons you can choose from. And there is always one weapon that counters a weapon.....even to advanced players, some of these mods are very overwhelming
I dont play Classic because the teamplay is just not there. You can have one REALLY good player on your team and have NO offense and no one helping him out, and he will still get the enemy flag back to your base cause he can do it so quickly. And if you have a decent offense, you can even have a huge heavy carry the thing back.
The main problem I have with Classic (T1), is that the new patch makes that the default game when searching for servers. Base (which is the original T2 game) comes up as 'varient' servers which is kind of bullsh@t. Classic is pretty hard to get into as a new player.
eh? Yegods, a game that has a learning curve! A FPS that you actually have to aim to hit something!
Sure, being a game like tribes won't garner a super following like even UT2k3 or the such, but the actual gameplay and fanbase that is there tends to be alot better.
So it comes down to a fairly common question. Do the developers want to make tons of cash, or do they want to make a unique game?
Hrm, placeholder models are sub par... very astute of you to notice. [/sarcasm]
Heh, I learned Perl and Javascript and got paid for them in less time than it took me to suck in Tribes 2.
... :)
So: pay money to still suck after a month
Or: get paid to not suck after 3 weeks
Hm.... which to choose
IIRC there was a ranking system. Its a pity they couldn't use the rank to place you in a game with others of equalish skill, ala warcraft 3. That sure would have been a better feature to implment than their lame mail function.