Tribes: Ascend is out and free-to-play

[Rwanda]

As we all know that the Tribes: Ascend is out now and that is free to play. I am just wondering that why they made is free to play. I was searching for the same on other sites but cannot find any solution for this. If someone over here can predict any idea about this then post it over here. Thank you so much.

[mbangali]

They are making it free to play because player would be aware of the product that they are going to by. Thye wil be having experience with the game and I think that this is really a very nice idea. If you get the game directly from the retail then that will cost you more and I don’t think that more people will buy the game. It would be nice if you had an "Elite" membership option that basically gave you everything for a retail price ($40), kind of a like a lifetime membership, while still offering other micro transactions for players that don't want to pay that full price. I guess the way it's done in global agenda is okay because Elite = Retail Purchase, Boosters = Monthly MMO fee. However I can't see how this would work for Tribes, given that it's not a MMO and shouldn't have a monthly cost. Most games don't have a problem paying retail price for a game that is good. The issue is when we pay for a hyped game (brink) and it turns out poorly. This is where free 2 play helps as it's sort of an 'unlimited' demo.

[LotusN]

I really don't like this. It's arbitrarily limiting players. How is reducing our options making things "more interesting?" Tribes is great because you can do whatever the hell you want with the tools at your disposal. In a single pub I could farm for the first 5 minutes to set up our team's defenses, HoF for 2, HO for another 5, Chase for the next 5 minutes, play Home D passing off the flag with a capper until we get a return, and then play capper for the next 5 minutes because we're still down 2 points. Why should I not be allowed to do this? Why should I be limited in my weapons choices so that I need a 2nd player to do what I could normally do myself? Especially because offenses are focused with each player having a specific goal, and defenses need to be organic to account for all offensive possibilities, weapon-limitation much more adversely affects defenses than offenses. Tribes 2 didn't offer template "roles." It offered basic loadouts with what the developers thought they would be useful for as the title of that inventory slot. And it came with 20 such default slots, all with different loadouts, and all freely available to be used at any time.

[AlisaDsa]

There are enough games on the market with defined class roles. Be different ffs. Brink is a prime example of a failed game because it's almost too hyper focused on defined roles. Tribes has been, and I hope to hell still will be, a very flexible and open game. You guys seem to want to reel it in way too much so it can be "more accessible". Give players more credit than that. They are not a bunch of knuckle dragging console players that can't handle variety and options.

[Mollyi7]

I am most worried about heavies and new players. By its nature the armor is more vulnerable, less maneuverable out in the open, now pair that with a new player who is going to be spending the majority of his time on the ground till he can learn the game someday. He's going to want the mortar since that's the whole point but he won't have the talent to mid air any skilled player who gets above him. That leaves him with being forced to choose something like the chaingun just to defend himself. I am all for roles, but the default of that should have the required means of survival. Something like increasing the number of weapons just because it is a larger frame would come to the rescue here.

[Orochimaru]

It does make the game more accessible to new players. Ok fine. Do what was done in Tribes 2 but just make the selection process more accessible. It can be confusing for a new player to select or configure a loadout from the inventory station. I understand that. Perhaps a more newb friendly HUD that makes the selection process of presets easy to access. If a new player wants a sniper loadout, they click a button on screen for sniper straight from the hud when they are at an inv station. All of these still does not explain why you need to limit the loadout to two weapons instead of three. This assumption that two weapons is all you need because the third is a waste is hogwash. I have various loadouts that I change off and on. Every single weapon is useful. I don't know who is telling you two weapons is all you need. You are changing a game attribute that has been with this game for 10+ years. Can you imagine telling people who play quake they can only select preset fixed classes that have two weapons only. Imagine Valve telling CSS players a new version will remove grenades because rifles are used 90% of the time. Why do these goofy kind of changes always happen to Tribes.

[Jung]

If I am not able to do the do the things like carrying a disc launcher and rifle the suck will be epic. I've seen tons of player that carry disc, chain and laser rifle even though all weapons completely effective in their role. They are trying to do the quake wars thing and force roles. We all know how well that worked for QW. Why change something if it is not broke? This has nothing to do with change. These types of things are beyond change. It’s like someone coming out with a new Quake game and telling them two weapons is all you need and you can’t carry the missile launcher and railgun because they are primary weapons. It wouldn't make those kinds of changes because that changes a core attribute of the game.

[SANDESH49]

There's a number of people who would pay a full $60 or whatever for a "full" game, without the need to grind for loadouts (something sort of kind of along the lines of what TF2 has now). The grinding doesn't bother me that much (I understand how useful stats and goals can be in terms of keeping players around), and I'm not at all worried about "pay 2 win", I'm stuck at the preset loadouts and the need to choose them before a battle like some sort of trading card game. Like I said earlier in the thread, it does nothing to engender creativity. Constraint here is just constraint. If lego came glued together in the shape shown on the box, that wouldn't really do much to encourage creativity either.

[Theking]

You talk of fighting against this 2 weapon system before you have even seen the new game balance in action? Well that's fine. I understand where you are coming from, but I am just telling you that your fight is futile. The weapons will not be changed because of a dozen noisy whiny ass Tribes vets that they don't really care about. The weapon system will stay like it is, because HiRez has a plan and the voices on these forums are very expendable, and in all reality, none of you have a freaking clue what you are talking about anyway.