What do you think of Tribes: Ascend? (Any tips for gameplay?)

[Beat14]

As the title hints at, how are you finding Tribes if you've downloaded it? Seeing as it's free and all.

For me it has been the first time playing an older style shooter online, and I really love it. Tribes has a pace compared to no other shooter I have played, meaning I went and picked what I now see a bit of a noob class to allow me to fit into the flow of the gameplay, yep I was one of those generating camping infiltrators, feels dirty to say. In my defence I saw this video before I had even played the game.

Spoiler

After seeing that guy knife people in mid-air I had to try it out, didn't stop me from camping the generator most the time though :/

However things have changed, I have got used to the projectile weapon system a little more and found out how rewarding tribes can be. (I still remember my first blue plate special, a random shot fired backwards at a guy who zoomed over a hill as I went passed, turned back to face the front, a second or two passes and the medal pops up xD, skills...)

Although I don't have much experience here are a few tips I have if you're playing it and very new to it:
-Keep moving
-learn a route on each map (path to take whilst using jetpack+skiing) more so for ctf
-spend credits you earn, tactical strikes are pretty handy if the enemy are keen on defending the flagstand
-pick the right class for the job
-You should be picking the enemy flag up at as high speed as possible, unless it's an emergency to stop the nme from capping your flag
-keep moving
-learn more routes

Please add more tips if you have any.

So...how are you finding it?

 

[endtherapture]

Shoot on ground where enemy will be.

THat is my tactic.

 

[Dandark]

I was really enjoying Tribes: Ascend. I really liked how fast it was most of the time although I haven't played it in a while now. I got bored when everybody seemed to only want to play infiltator and juggernaught so they can camp the generator.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Top tip: read the wiki and watch tutorials, with the unlock system slow as it is you need to be absolutely sure what you are unlocking because the game will not give you proper information.

Also it is balls hard so listen to the tactics other people have come up with, the gap between newbies and top guns can be miles apart.

And as always mastery comes from repetition.

 

[Berenzen]

As a rank 34 maining HO juggernaut, I can give you tips for it.

First, get the hell out of the gen room, you suck there, your explosives are just as likely to kill you as they are your enemies. Techs are better for Gen D, Infiltrators are better for Gen Assault.

Second, learn serveral landmarks for your ladder reticule. Once you can figure out where to fire from afar and hit the flag, go start artillery ramming the flagstand and surroundings- you can get some serious killstreaks/multikills until they figure out where you are. Then once they kill you, move to another location and continue.

Third, take potential energy and Safety Third with the spinfusor discs, you regen fast enough that discjumping is extremely efficient.

Fourth, get the hell away from Doombringers and Raiders, they're bad news.

Fifth, by the end, use orbital strikes and tactical strikes to help you clear flag stands.

Sixth, for every man in their (or your) gen room, playing capture the generator, that is one less attacking your flagstand, or defending theirs. Let them have their orgy in the gen room, and throw them a player every now and then to sate them, go cap flags, you get 2000 credits for a flag cap, which is 4 kills worth. If you can cap all 5 flags, you'll probably place first, giving yourself the greatest amount of exp.

Bonus EXP is determined by your ranking, base EXP is determined by the amount of time spent in the match. Kills don't give you exp, they help your ranking, but I can get 10000+ credits with only 5 kills in non-offensive roles.

 

[porpoise hork]

I found it to be a re-skinned version of Global Agenda. Didn't care for it.

 

[orangeban]

I've been playing it a little bit, and I'm really enjoying it.

I'm terrible at aiming and twitchy reaction-based shooting, which is a problem for me with this game because everyone moves so fast, however, I'm decent enough at ski-ing and, as a soldier, can do pretty damn well with the little grenade launcher thingy.

My primary thought about the game is that the thrill when you've got the flag and you're racing back to your flag-stand is amazing. I love the sense of racing across the landscape, pursued by several baddies, with victory resting on your shoulders.

 

[Zacharine]

Well, reached rank 20 a few days ago and here's what I've learned of this addictive game,

As defensive Technician:
1. Learn where enemy is likely to come, and place turrets. Combine this with mines, force-fields or other such equipment set by others, which reveals invisible enemies as well as damage them. Turrets are excellent against light classes you'll run into (pathfinder/infiltrator), but have insufficient DPS to take down a raider or heavier in any reasonable amount of time. A pair of turrets plus a motion sensor will take down an invisible infiltrator in less time than it takes for them to throw 2 stickies however (even with Quick Draw mastered). Which incidentally is the damage threshold for un-upgraded generators and turrets to be taken down.

They also act as great finishers for enemy pathfinders and raiders already damaged by some other measure - such as running into a force-field or a mine while entering the base/gen-room/flag-stand. 65 dmg per shot from 100% accuracy turret takes down 300-400 health easily.

2. When repairing something, never stay still. If your generator went down just recently, most likely there is a infiltrator still nearby. They see you coming, they stalk you. Then you stop to repair something, you're a stationary target for a sticky. You can survive that barely, if you have full armor upgrades but a single hit will finish you. I can't tell you the number of techies I've killed with Sticky + Stealth Spinfusor (before sticky explodes) combo like this. And how many poor infiltrators I've killed for staying on the lookout for the exact same tactic. Remember, keep moving even while repairing and that ticking sounds means you jump away immediately - with luck it was only a sticky on the ground and you have a fighting chance. Or even cause the infiltrator to suicide by his own blast, if it was on you.

3. There is always something to fix. Unless you're playing against an entirely incompetent team. Always a turret down, always your sensors down, always gen room under harrassement. If you're stationary and not cycling between locations and flag-defending deployables, you're being useless. Always be on the move for the next spot, if your current one is fully repaired and there is no immediate enemy around threatening it.

4. Do not bunch up. Your primary enemies are raiders and infiltrators, with occasional brute. Guess what they all have in common? Powerful AoE weapons. Do not make double- and triple-kills too easy for the enemy. If there is already a technician, much less two, repairing your target, you're not needed for that task. Instead, defend them from the infiltrator or raider possibly looking to take them out from behind, or go to another location.

As Doombringer:
1. You are defensive. Full stop. If you go further than 1/3 of the map away from your base, your doing stuff wrong, because Brutes and Juggernauts will do whatever it was that you were planning to do better and faster and with less ammo consumed. Your primary purpose is to defend the generator or far more preferably, the flag. Get the Super Heavy perk, deploy force-fields and if you have them, mines. Then shoot incoming hostiles. Do note that pathfinders with Reach can and will steal the flag without hitting you, or force you to move slightly with grenades or spinfusor shots, so standing in one spot will not ultimately be enough. It can however make things considerably harder for the enemy as a team.

2. Learn to love the chaingun. The heavy bolt launcher is great indoors and with practice, outdoors as well. But the chaingun can just tear people apart in matter of seconds once you learn to account for movement and manage to lead your targets. If you're on the flag, that rapid fire and accuracy at distance tend to matter far more than Area of Effect radius.

3. The rocket launcher is not your primary weapon, but it is there for a reason. That reason is high-flying pathfinders and enemy vehicles. Even if you do not manage to kill them, that 'missile incoming' warning will distract them from their own plans. At times, that is the difference between an enemy taking your flag at 250kph, and instead hitting the wall beside the flag.

 

[Busard]

I don't think.

I [VGS]

 

[guidance]

I'm finding it a lot of fun, I mainly play pathfinder with the bolt launcher, and infiltrator for capture the flag. I suck so I can't really give you tips, but I will take other people's.

 

[hazabaza1]

I found it to be a re-skinned version of Global Agenda. Didn't care for it.

OT: Just practice, man. Learn your weapons, do your slopes, and always remember...

 

[NightHawk21]

I play infiltrator and Raider. Tips. For infiltrator the perk that increases backstab damage is vital if you plan on doing anything in the enemies base. Honestly if you're using the SMG you gotta do as much damage as possible upfront cause in a duel there's probably a 90% chance you'll die to anyone who knows what their doing. For heavies, if you got the perk its 1 backstab and then an insta mine then back off, they'll die in a couple seconds. Another very good strategy is if the enemy is camping their stand hard (especially on that map with the barn), go in suicide style. Melee the light or medium camping it than just throw mines everywhere. It should cause enough confusion to let your pathfinders grab the flag.

For Raider, go blow up those base structures, and help assault the flagstand.

Also if you're not an infiltrator stay out of the gen room. I hate when non infiltrator classes come into the gen room. For one that's not your role, leave it the the people who are supposed to be clearing it. Secondly every non infiltrator class turns the gen room into a cluster fuck of explosives everywhere and your infiltrator is almost guaranteed to get hit and die.

 

[CAPTCHA]

It's a lot of fun, but I'm starting to see the cracks.

The classes aren't very well balenced (why take a Soldier when you can take a Raider? Sentinal is rather weak, etc,) but hopefully these will be addressed with updates.

It has the pay-to-win upgrade system (Motion sensors/thumper are must have for Tech, the Soldier default loadout is backwards, mines for Doombringer, Infiltrator's everything). Saying that, I've spent £20 and I've bought almost everything I want. It seems a fair price and it's not going to cost people much to get competitive.

It's crying out for extra maps though. I've got just over 100 matches in now and it's starting to grate on me playing the same 5 maps over and over (I only really like two of them as well). I suppose they'll release more soon. I just hope they make them part of the public servers and don't charge for them, making them custom server only.

 

[keybird]

The game itself is truly astounding. Ive noticed the best tip i can give is to not play it with a trackball mouse however. Your aiming will fail so quickly while using track ball its sad. Also, try not to ever stand still. Unless your defending your generator or doing something that involves defense, never, EVER, stand still. That will only get you killed. Also, the maps are very large if you take time to ski around the edges. Since I am not very good, Ive had much time to run around back there and Ive found out that you can easily skirt around all base defenses with a little flank

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

I've played it back when the Beta was closed. It doesn't look like Tribes gets the vibe of how a F2P MMO works. Buying one item (or class) can take hours of grinding in matches to achieve. Where in games such as (I know you'll hate this) TF2, you can start earning and finding items in the first ten or twenty minutes of the game.

I also didn't like the big selling point, the whole huge maps and skiing stuff. You can ski and run and shoot and resupply for five minutes and get one kill assist, before a Juggernaut detonates you in one shot with the Mortar. It's face-paced action with little results, and I don't really like it.

The best advice I found out, and this really blew my mind, is that you can use the explosives to propel yourself. The disc-thingie as a Pathfinder really needs that boost too.

 

[Berenzen]

I've played it back when the Beta was closed. It doesn't look like Tribes gets the vibe of how a F2P MMO works. Buying one item (or class) can take hours of grinding in matches to achieve. Where in games such as (I know you'll hate this) TF2, you can start earning and finding items in the first ten or twenty minutes of the game.

I also didn't like the big selling point, the whole huge maps and skiing stuff. You can ski and run and shoot and resupply for five minutes and get one kill assist, before a Juggernaut detonates you in one shot with the Mortar. It's face-paced action with little results, and I don't really like it.

The best advice I found out, and this really blew my mind, is that you can use the explosives to propel yourself. The disc-thingie as a Pathfinder really needs that boost too.

The thing is that it's not about killing people. It's a ctf/cah game where you kill people. As a Jugg playing HO, I might get 12 kills in a 30 minute match. The game focuses more on teamwork than a clusterfuck of bullets and explosives. I've also played as a pathfinder, never got a kill or assist, and still finished first- chasing and flag capping can get you even more points than killing people.

 

[The Madman]

It has the pay-to-win upgrade system (Motion sensors/thumper are must have for Tech, the Soldier default loadout is backwards, mines for Doombringer, Infiltrator's everything). Saying that, I've spent £20 and I've bought almost everything I want. It seems a fair price and it's not going to cost people much to get competitive.

I disagree with this actually. I primarily play Tech and just find the thumper to be unwieldy. My personal combination of choice and one I've found to work exceptionally well is the default smg combined with the Safety Third perk and fully upgraded grenades.

Motion sensors are more useful, but at the same time I prefer to play more actively and rarely stick around in one place long enough for them to be of any real use. Better I find to just keep a turret near the generator and keep an eye on its status. When it goes down without a fight I know to return to the gen room because some pesky inf is in there, one which 9 times out of 10 is knocked out of stealth with a grenade and killed quickly thereafter because they're about as durable as sponge cake even with all their annoying gadgets and tricks.

Too many Technician I think sit around with the thumper waiting for trouble to find them, then somehow are surprised when they get repeatedly cut down from behind. Better to move around, be multiple places and to use the turrets both as a weapon and a sensor of sorts. The SMG is surprisingly good for chasing down flag carriers and grenades are easy enough to resupply that there's no harm in chucking a pair into any melee you see breaking out around the base, it's always fun to see how many kills just lobbing a few in the right direction can get.

SMG and grenades just offers more versatility in the long run, whereas the thumper + sensor is so specialized you're pretty much negated to just guarding the generator for the entire match.