Tribes 2 draft tournament

I know a lot of you guys are into other free/independent games so I thought I'd post something here.



Tribes 2 is a free FPS. It's unique in that the focus is less on killing people and more on controlling the flags and bases, so even a new player can do pretty well for a team if he learns how to play a role well. Every player in the game has a jetpack and the ability to ski, or slide down hills to maintain and accumulate speed. The base assets—turrets, which kill people; inventory stations, where you change your loadout and armor type; vehicle stations, where you spawn vehicles; sensors, which detect enemies on the map; and generators, which power everything else—are all destructible, leading to an interesting tradeoff between moving the flag and keeping the other team's base down. It's just a really fun game. You may have an idea of what it's like from Tribes: Ascend. Forget that; Tribes 2 is better.

The game was released in 2001, so nearly twelve years later the player numbers are a bit down. Still, we've had great success with these draft tournaments. Just sign up and you'll get picked by one of six captains (I'm one of them!), and that'll be your leader for the duration. Last time we had over 120 players signed up.

Teams play games of about twelve versus twelve, organizing and communicating through Ventrilo/TS3/Mumble. Matches are on Sundays at 10 PM EST and will last to around 11:30; teams also scrim at the same time on Tuesdays and Thursdays. In total you'll probably only need to play about five hours a week, and beyond that just stay in touch via IRC (irc.tribalwar.com).

Seriously, it's a ton of fun.

To install the game for free, download the game from http://tribesnext.com/ and patch it with the patch from that site. If you want to sign up for the tournament, the signups are at http://tribaloutpost.com/season8/. Post something here if you sign up so I know who you are.

Wow, I hate the account server. It's down *all the time*.

If you try back later it should be fine.

I liked the commentary. :3

It's hard but it's worth it and 1) you'll be on a team with other people who can help you and 2) you can start with an "easier" position like farming or HD that doesn't require as much movement or leading.

In any case, if you're new you'll get picked late, so there's not really a whole lot of pressure to perform if you don't like the game. I think most people would like it, though.

how does ascend compare? I loved starseige tribes and played a bit of tribes 2, never seen ascend