They're Killing Starsiege: Tribes!

TychoCelchuuuTychoCelchuuu Anememone Join Date: 2002-03-23 Member: 345Members
<div class="IPBDescription">AAH WHAT THE HECK</div>Side note: As I clicked "new topic" some music from Tribes came up in Winamp. Spooky.

Anyone who's seen <a href="http://www.sierra.com/en/home/news/product_news/071607_-_sierra_heritage.html" target="_blank">this list</a> is beholden to a sad, dastardly truth: that Sierra's giving the axe to the server or magic machine or whatever that somehow powers some sort of Starsiege mojo.

I don't really know what they're shutting down, or what that thing does, but I bet it's really bad. I think it kills the game or something.

That's no good! Starsiege: Tribes is the best game ever made, and although not everyone agrees with me, enough people do, and they plus me form a block that cannot go neglected! Without our Tribes we're going to have to do something really awful, like play Tribes 2. That's not a substitute! It's like UT2k4's Onslaught mode or something! God forbid we ever get pushed over to Tribes: Vengeance. Don't even get me started on that laser rifle.

Anyone else have fond memories of Tribes? Mine aren't so much memories as feelings since I still play the game every once in a while (a practice which I think is now coming to an end <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" /> ), but boy oh boy is that a great game. The jetpacks? Revolutionary. The huge maps and gigantic number of players? Set the stage for Battlefield 1942 and multiplayer games today. The ability to do the funky chicken dance or yell "SHAZBOT" at the top of your lungs in six different voices? Priceless. The way the terrain would sort of warp when you approached it at high speeds from the air? Sort of weird, but you got used to it. The seamless integration of user-made mods that fit right in to the server and didn't require any downloading, which allowed gameplay changes? NS2's copying it, it's so awesome. The 3 base vehicle types? A little limiting, but whatever. The laser rifle? So awesome.

We <3 you, Tribes. Sierra can take you from the Intertubes, but it can't take you from our hearts. At least, not as easily. They'd need knives.

And they're also killing the SWAT 3 demo. Those horrible, horrible people.

Comments

  • ThansalThansal The New Scum Join Date: 2002-08-22 Member: 1215Members, Constellation
    So what?

    If as many people still play it as you claim it will take some one at most a week to create a new matchmaking server.
  • PulsePulse To create, to create and escape. Join Date: 2002-08-29 Member: 1248Members, Constellation
    Oh, Professional Bull Rider 2, what will I do without you!?
  • TychoCelchuuuTychoCelchuuu Anememone Join Date: 2002-03-23 Member: 345Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1639659:date=Jul 19 2007, 10:32 AM:name=Thansal)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Thansal @ Jul 19 2007, 10:32 AM) [snapback]1639659[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
    So what?

    If as many people still play it as you claim it will take some one at most a week to create a new matchmaking server.
    <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    Hey, I don't profess to know how any of this stuff works. Plenty of people still play the thing, I'm sure someone would pony up for a server if that's what it took.
  • PogoPPogoP Environment Artist Join Date: 2004-01-31 Member: 25827Members, NS2 Developer, Constellation
    Doesn't look like anything incredibly appealing to me, so I'm not too fussed.
  • TestamentTestament Join Date: 2002-11-02 Member: 4037Members
    edited July 2007
    <!--quoteo(post=1639677:date=Jul 19 2007, 12:08 PM:name=PogoP)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(PogoP @ Jul 19 2007, 12:08 PM) [snapback]1639677[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
    Doesn't look like anything incredibly appealing to me, so I'm not too fussed.
    <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    That's because you're an idiot and a new######. Gtfo.

    Tribes made me a multiplayer gamer.
  • CabooseCaboose title = name(self, handle) Join Date: 2003-02-15 Member: 13597Members, Constellation
    I just pulled out my old Tribes CD before reading this thread... I used to love Tribes. It can't die, it just can't. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" />

    Sierra needs to GPL the server code <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
  • GreyFlcnGreyFlcn Join Date: 2006-12-19 Member: 59134Members, Constellation
    All this means is that the master server list is going to go down.
    And while it works for a short time, it makes one wonder what will happen to Tribes over the long period.

    Ah well, here's my little contribution to the Tribes world.

    <u>Shifter_v1G mod</u>
    [youtube]j9Rd0GieNn8[/youtube]

    _

    Kinda scary that it's still being played, since I stopped modding it in 2002.
  • DiscoZombieDiscoZombie Join Date: 2003-08-05 Member: 18951Members
    Tribes was a great game but it existed in a time period where I was trapped on a 28.8 modem, IIRC <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" />
  • CabooseCaboose title = name(self, handle) Join Date: 2003-02-15 Member: 13597Members, Constellation
    <!--quoteo(post=1639694:date=Jul 19 2007, 02:35 PM:name=DiscoZombie)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DiscoZombie @ Jul 19 2007, 02:35 PM) [snapback]1639694[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
    Tribes was a great game but it existed in a time period where I was trapped on a 28.8 modem, IIRC <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" />
    <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    I used to play Tribes on 33.3k using free dialup from K-Mart with the advertisement bar at the bottom of the screen, on a monitor that could only pull off 640x480.
  • GreyFlcnGreyFlcn Join Date: 2006-12-19 Member: 59134Members, Constellation
    edited July 2007
    Here's some other good videos on Tribes
    It's all part of a really long Tribes video called "Legacy"

    [youtube]i2et3cKlSSk[/youtube]

    [youtube]8lqx2NKTmaw[/youtube]

    [youtube]qtnIKvnuKlI[/youtube]
  • TychoCelchuuuTychoCelchuuu Anememone Join Date: 2002-03-23 Member: 345Members
    Man, I'd sort of forgotten/not thought about how much revolutionary stuff Tribes did.

    Seamless indoor/outdoor transitions on huge maps: not a ton of games before had integrated huge, sprawling indoor environments with basically unrestricted outdoor environments, and Tribes did that, and it was real easy to enter/leave the buildings. No clunky doors or anything.

    Buildable/player controllable buildings and turrets: you could reshape the entire battlefield by building teleporters, inventory stations, health stations, force fields, mobile command posts, barricades, turrets, cameras, sensors, more kinds of turrets, sensor jammers, even more kinds of turrets... and you could deploy them anywhere you wanted. Not to mention mines.

    Commander mode: not a ton of people use it, but you can issue orders to anyone on your team, and it gives them the waypoint, the order, and a marker on their HUD and on their compass. Plus, at a command station you could look through any emplacement your team had, and if that emplacement was a turret, you could control it.

    User modifiable HUD: small thing, yeah, but Tribes was ahead of its time with this, like so much else.

    Funny taunts and a lot of different voice sayings and animations you could play: this caught on in a big way too.

    Huge view distances

    All that, plus other stuff. The "Capture the Objective" gameplay was pretty new, too. And how everything in the base would go offline when the generator was destroyed, and you had to go and repair it, and the enemy would mine your generator room then wait in ambush for you to show up with repair kits? Or the midair duals with disc launchers and jetpacks? Or skiing?

    Man Tribes is awesome. <3

    GreyFalcn, about half the shots in that first YouTube video should be called "luck" instead of "skill" IMHO <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
  • ScytheScythe Join Date: 2002-01-25 Member: 46NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, Constellation, Reinforced - Silver
    Considering it would cost about six bucks fifty a month to run the tribes master server I suspect it would've been in a very bad way for them to consider culling it. I bought tribes way back and played it to death. That was before server-side mods ruined everything. I couldn't find a base server with a low ping if I tried. My enthusiasm kinda tailed off after that. I still carry it around on my memory stick though.

    Tribes 2 was actually pretty good. Almost the same as 1 but with much better graphics.

    --Scythe--
  • TychoCelchuuuTychoCelchuuu Anememone Join Date: 2002-03-23 Member: 345Members
    It's not too tough to find a Base server nowadays, but I enjoy a good game of Renegades or Shifter just as much as I do Base. It's tough to screw up such an awesome game without seriously messing with the game mechanics.

    It's not too tough to find a Base server nowadays, but I enjoy a good game of Renegades or Shifter just as much as I do Base. It's tough to screw up such an awesome game without seriously messing with the game mechanics.
  • HydraHydra Join Date: 2003-06-14 Member: 17366Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    The master servers have actually been dead for quite a while, rather disappointing too. Not surprising after they released it for free though. With actually a few hundred servers up at any time it was still just as alive as HLDM, TFC, heck even NS last I looked. But third party master servers are spotty and not combined, so it means the death of tribes without a unified master server.
  • FREIGHT_TRAINFREIGHT_TRAIN Join Date: 2007-01-08 Member: 59525Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1639700:date=Jul 19 2007, 09:03 PM:name=TychoCelchuuu)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TychoCelchuuu @ Jul 19 2007, 09:03 PM) [snapback]1639700[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
    GreyFalcn, about half the shots in that first YouTube video should be called "luck" instead of "skill" IMHO <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
    <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    Either way, the skill cap in Tribes is much higher than NS, especially competition-wise.
  • TychoCelchuuuTychoCelchuuu Anememone Join Date: 2002-03-23 Member: 345Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1641667:date=Aug 1 2007, 12:54 PM:name=FREIGHT_TRAIN)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(FREIGHT_TRAIN @ Aug 1 2007, 12:54 PM) [snapback]1641667[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
    Either way, the skill cap in Tribes is much higher than NS, especially competition-wise.
    <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    I wouldn't argue that in a thousand years (I was once a very skilled Tribes player, but there's always someone way better than you), but when it comes to stuff like midair disks, a lot of the time it's luck, since a jetpack that lets someone change directions in midair makes stuff like that hard to do.
  • tigersmithtigersmith Join Date: 2004-11-11 Member: 32749Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Supporter
    <!--quoteo(post=1639689:date=Jul 19 2007, 04:15 PM:name=GreyFlcn)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(GreyFlcn @ Jul 19 2007, 04:15 PM) [snapback]1639689[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
    All this means is that the master server list is going to go down.
    And while it works for a short time, it makes one wonder what will happen to Tribes over the long period.

    Ah well, here's my little contribution to the Tribes world.

    <u>Shifter_v1G mod</u>
    [youtube]j9Rd0GieNn8[/youtube]

    _

    Kinda scary that it's still being played, since I stopped modding it in 2002.
    <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->


    I loved shifter..and Long live tribes!
  • FREIGHT_TRAINFREIGHT_TRAIN Join Date: 2007-01-08 Member: 59525Members
    edited August 2007
    <!--quoteo(post=1641669:date=Aug 1 2007, 08:11 PM:name=TychoCelchuuu)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TychoCelchuuu @ Aug 1 2007, 08:11 PM) [snapback]1641669[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
    I wouldn't argue that in a thousand years (I was once a very skilled Tribes player, but there's always someone way better than you), but when it comes to stuff like midair disks, a lot of the time it's luck, since a jetpack that lets someone change directions in midair makes stuff like that hard to do.
    <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    So, HARDER things require LESS skill?

    And if you think it's mostly luck, you obviously didn't play competitively. (I'm not talking about the super long-range mid-airs in 'Legacy').

    Also, map-specific strats were very diverse. In NS, you could run MCs on any map and succeed for aliens. The marine build path isn't very diverse either. (And no, I'm not talking about 8v8+ games. The game isn't balanced with any more players, which is another flaw of NS).

    I don't even want to talk about reg, as the 2 games are on the complete opposite ends of the spectrum.
  • TychoCelchuuuTychoCelchuuu Anememone Join Date: 2002-03-23 Member: 345Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1641684:date=Aug 1 2007, 02:41 PM:name=FREIGHT_TRAIN)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(FREIGHT_TRAIN @ Aug 1 2007, 02:41 PM) [snapback]1641684[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
    And if you think it's mostly luck, you obviously didn't play competitively. (I'm not talking about the super long-range mid-airs in 'Legacy').
    <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    Well, I <i>was</i>. So there's the disconnect.
  • FREIGHT_TRAINFREIGHT_TRAIN Join Date: 2007-01-08 Member: 59525Members
    edited August 2007
    More importantly, tell me why NS has a higher skill cap.
  • TestamentTestament Join Date: 2002-11-02 Member: 4037Members
    edited August 2007
    It's too bad I don't know my Tribes 2 account name. Is it still up? I think I'm going to try and remember my old T2 account and play it again. It deserves it.
  • TychoCelchuuuTychoCelchuuu Anememone Join Date: 2002-03-23 Member: 345Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1641695:date=Aug 1 2007, 03:49 PM:name=FREIGHT_TRAIN)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(FREIGHT_TRAIN @ Aug 1 2007, 03:49 PM) [snapback]1641695[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
    More importantly, tell me why NS has a higher skill cap.
    <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    You're the only one who's every said anything about skill caps. You brought NS in to the conversation. I still don't see what the relation is but you keep talking about it.
Sign In or Register to comment.