Gameplay

Butchery

We've already discussed the gameplay in Tribes, and some of the problems that it's defining feature - skiing - caused. The one problem that seemed to irk Dynamix the most is that skiing truly hurt teamplay on public servers. A good player could cause massive damage to an enemy base by donning heavy armor, finding a good ski route and skiing himself into position to attack enemy generators or base entrances. Or, alternately, on an open enough map, he could simply capture the flag at whim.

This is a wicked map

But I yearn for my green pastures

Dynamix has let gamers know that skiing will be limited in T2. While you can still reach high speeds with relative ease, you can no longer maintain those speeds. Instead of enforcing an artificial limit on player speed, Dynamix took a suggestion to introduce wind resistance. Wind resistance limits both top speed, and eventually slows the player down, while still feeling 'natural'. The effect is perhaps more exaggerated than it would be in real life, but is not as intrusive as it might have been.

The end result is that one lone player, no matter how good, cannot by himself alter the pace of the game too drastically. Light armor is no longer as swift as it used to be, so thirty-second flag captures are a thing of the past, while heavy armor takes too long to get to an enemy base to make back-to-back-to-back attack runs with impunity.

Sneaking up on the flag

Destroy the base first

So what happens now?

The developers have therefore drastically increased the value of teamplay. In fact, several players working together as a cohesive unit (people at a LAN, good friends with BattleCom-style communication, etc.) are devastatingly effective. Three or four of them can jump into Jugg suits, assault an enemy base and hold it long enough to allow their team a massive advantage. Taking a base has a devastating effect on the enemy. More often than not, their generators are knocked out, many players get spawn-killed the moment they go visible after a respawn, and the enemy team is forced to try and push out Juggernaut armors, without having that armor themselves. This is far more costly than simply defending the base in the first place, which they should do anyway since defensive players tend to score more points (points, not frags) than offensive players.

'til you get sniped

Skiing merrily along

Problem is, people on pubby servers never get organized enough. A few might lay down turrets and sensors, a few might be convinced to defend the base, but it's impossible to organize a dynamic, effective defense to combat attacks on a main base, a tower or even a concentrated assault on the flag center. It takes too long to organize anyone by text, and far too few players are using microphones, for audio communication.

More than once I've been on a team that gets spanked, because the opposing team has several members of a Tribe working together towards a common goal. In a way, it makes me wonder whether the cure is worse than the disease - an organized team in Tribes 2 is much more difficult to fend off than a single good player was in Tribes 1. If taking a long view, Dynamix made the right decision - perhaps enough players will learn to work together against an organized tribe. But at the moment, all you need is a few competent people with an identical symbol in front of their name to throw game balance out the window.