Tribes: Ascend - FPS announced by Hi-Rez Studios. - Page 118

On March 13 2012 09:51 trias_e wrote:
I was never that great at fps's, but at least usually could manage a 1:1 k:d ratio in cs, quake, tf2, whatever. As someone who has never played tribes, this game is fucking impossible. I'm consistently rocking about a 1 kill to 8 death ratio in team death match. It is insane how good people are with the spinfusor, I just don't see how it's possible to hit anyone with it!

On March 13 2012 11:07 Southlight wrote:
By the way how do you use Orbital/Tactical strike? I can never get it to land lol.

On March 13 2012 11:11 LagT_T wrote:


Tribes is different to other fps games, the best way to describe it is "the art of prediction"

Seriously. Considering how fast you are moving it's pretty crazy. I'm having a hard enough time with skiing alone, not even speaking of moving and aiming at the same time. Always feels like my opponents are unpredictable and hard to catch on the ground, where as I keep falling down to the ground and then getting owned real easy.

Game is really fun though! I just feel bad for my teams lol ><

On March 13 2012 13:21 Thereisnosaurus wrote:


A good rule of thumb to at least getting damage in with your fusor is that perpendicular rules parallel. That is to say, ideally you want a surface to be perpendicular to your fire at a target rather than parallel to it. You can achieve this either by making them run up against a hill or a wall and shoot that, or by leaping up to gain a high angle and aim at the ground under them. When you are firing close to parallel to the surface the target is on or against, you're far more likely to misjudge the splash target by a metre or two due to inheritance and do nothing.

A second rule is match speeds, try to get to a point where you're travelling the same speed as your target in the same direction, reasonably close. This makes predicting your target a bit more intuitive

A third rule is never to go for midairs unless you don't give a single fuck. Shoot the ground. It hates you. It stole your chocolate when you were little. It never let you ride the rollercoaster. It deserves it. And if some little bastard of a light decides that he's going to cuddle that son of a bitch, well, I guess free money is no bad thing.

Basically, it comes down to trying to not move in predictable ways, while trying to force your opponent to do so and hit the ground where they're landing. I find something like a 70 degree high angle the best for shooting- low enough that you can see your target's height easily, high enough that you're very unlikely to over or under shoot.

On March 13 2012 12:50 Southlight wrote:
Do you use Thrust pack as Pathfinder?

The worst is that I run out of momentum, run into something, fuck up my jetpack, etc., when I'm trying to aim. Movement is hard in this game!

On March 13 2012 09:51 trias_e wrote:
I was never that great at fps's, but at least usually could manage a 1:1 k:d ratio in cs, quake, tf2, whatever. As someone who has never played tribes, this game is fucking impossible. I'm consistently rocking about a 1 kill to 8 death ratio in team death match. It is insane how good people are with the spinfusor, I just don't see how it's possible to hit anyone with it!

On March 13 2012 13:35 Coriolis wrote:
Eh tribes isn't about prediction. Its about chaingunning the shit out of everything.

On March 13 2012 15:20 Thereisnosaurus wrote:


yep, don't worry, that happens even to the pros. The game is not like starcraft, there is no 'safe build' to duelling. Sometimes you're going to get hit every time you touch down, sometimes you're not.

Look to throw the odds in your favour. Sometimes that means coming down before you have to if it's going to be in a favourable position- don't just burn all your energy staying up and then crater. Use dead turns (that is, land without skiing and bounce away at an angle) since this can bait people into good shots for you, even though a good player may punish you for it. Use terrain to get your energy back- drop behind a hill and then run back up to the top as they jet up to get a shot at you. They lose energy, you gain energy, and their high angle shot becomes a parallel whiffer. Imagine your opponent's perspective on you and try to force them into positions where they're shooting parallel to whatever surface you're using to ski on. For example If they're chasing you, jet up hills a bit earlier than normal so you stay away from the ground (see below for how to do this), and bounce just before you hit the bottom when skiing down them. Skiing down isn't risky since if they're cresting the hill behind you it's a parallel shot- but when you get to the bottom, it becomes more perpendicular and becomes absolutely perpendicular if you ski up the side of the next one (even if you're jetting) while they're on the flat behind you. I land 200m + spinfusor shots frequently on people jetting up hillsides. It's unavoidable of course, but knowing that it's the danger zone will let you counter: jink or use an offset disc or nitron jump as you start climbing to suddenly change course and so forth.

You should also learn to adjust with S (back). Using S+thrust converts forward momentum to upwards momentum, though somewhat inefficiently. Thus this should be used sparingly when skiing for distance, but it's vital to control your trajectory in duels. The best uses I have are a quick upwards adjustment to raise an angle for a better shot and using it just before you'd normally land to 'stall' a little and land in a different spot, throwing off their shot. You can also use it to avoid skiing up a hillside by wasting a little energy to get a nice high arc and go down the other side. It's tricky and you can't always do it, but it helps. Mastering adjusting your arcs like this will let you ski more smoothly and unpredictably. Just be aware that using this is incredibly draining on your energy, so try only to use it for little tweaks and adjustments, not massive course alterations.


Finally, learn to ski backwards. This is a pretty tricky advanced technique. You want to be able to take a snapshot of what terrain is coming up, spin around and duel while keeping landmarks in your peripheral vision to judge where you are, and hit your jets at the right time, inverted (so you'd hit S to ski 'forward' and W to adjust vertically as above). You can often get some pretty good shots on people while going away from them, not to mention bouncing a grenade into their face. It gives them something to think about and stops them lining up perfect shots. You'll screw it up a lot, I still do too, but at least practice it a bit when you can. It will indirectly help you in duels by teaching you to evaluate terrain very quickly and be able to use it without having to be watching it the whole time.