History VideoGame / Tribes

[[http://tribes.wikia.com/ Has it's own wiki]]

[[http://www.garagegames.com/ GarageGames]] ([[TheTropeFormerlyKnownAsX formerly]] Dynamix) developed ''[[http://www.legionsoverdrive.com/ Legions: Overdrive]],'' a SpiritualSuccessor to ''Tribes 1''. Some former members of Dynamix are also helping create ''[[http://www.firefallthegame.com/ Fire Fall]]'', an beta [=MMOFPS=] which bears many similarities to the ''Tribes'' series, such as the extensive use of jetpacks.

* ''Tribes 2'', was released in March 2001 and on Linux in April. It was bigger, badder and came with its fair share [[ObviousBeta of bugs]], [[SoCoolItsAwesome but it was loved all the same.]] It received a UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 port in the form of ''Tribes: Aerial Assault'' in 2002. The [[ArtificialHumans Bioderms]] present in the game [[ContinuityNod debuted]] in ''{{VideoGame/CyberStorm}}.''

Many of the games have since had their offical master servers shut down: ''Starsiege: Tribes'' in July 2007, ''Aerial Assault'' in November 2008 and ''Tribes 2'' in November 2009. However, ''Tribes 1 & 2'' now have multiple community-run master servers, and continue to have strong player bases to this day. ''Aerial Assault'', being a PS2 game, was not so lucky.

* HeyItsThatVoice
** Is the commander of ''Ascend's'' Blood Eagles [[Manga/FullmetalAlchemist Alex Louis]] [[Creator/ChristopherSabat Armstrong?]]
** More like [[DragonBall Vegeta.]]
** SteveBlum voices General Jericho in ''Vengeance''.

* ShoutOut: [[MorkAndMindy Shazbot!]]

* ''Tribes 2'', was released in March 2001 and on Linux in April. It was bigger, badder and came with its fair share [[ObviousBeta of bugs]], [[SoCoolItsAwesome but it was loved all the same.]] It received a PlayStation2 port in the form of ''Tribes: Aerial Assault'' in 2002. The [[ArtificialHumans Bioderms]] present in the game [[ContinuityNod debuted]] in ''{{VideoGame/CyberStorm}}.''

* AbnormalAmmo: Perhaps the most notable is the Spinfusor, also known as the Stormhammer, a weapon that fires [[PowerGlows glowing blue]] [[StuffBlowingUp explosive]] [[DeadlyDisc discs.]] There's a ''ton'' of them in ''Ascend'': Light, Dueling, (Pathfinder), standard, Spare(Soldier), MKD, MK-X,(Juggernaut), Heavy, Devastator, (Brute), and Stealth (Infiltrator). The stealth Spinfusor shoots red disks, while the MKD shoots green discs and has [[AreaOFEffect an increased splash radius]] relative to the Soldier's version. The Juggernaut can also unlock a Spinfusor as a type of grenade used by manually ''throwing'' the disk at people's faces.

* ArchEnemy: The Starwolf and Blood Eagles hate each other's guts, and as of ''Tribes 1'' have been fighting it out for a good three centuries. The Children of the Phoenix have long attempted to mediate between the two with varying degrees of success. The Diamond Sword tend to stay neutral.

* BribingYourWayToVictory: The biggest problem with ''Ascend'' in the eyes of many is the large amounts of expensive guns that take an extremely long amount of time to purchase via XP. Not helping this is that several are almost necessary to do well at a class, such as the Infiltrator's default primary being pretty much terrible.
** To put this in perspective, most of the unlockable items that are considered to be worthwhile are upwards of 70K exp. Generally speaking, it's a rare occurrence for a player to earn 3K exp an hour. It generally takes upwards of ''25 hours'' of play to unlock a single gun, pack item, or grenade.

* ContinuityNod: Most of the spinfusor variants are based on [[http://i.imgur.com/qRjal.jpg previous game's spinfusors]]; the Light is from ''Tribes 2'', standard from ''Starsiege: Tribes'', and heavy from ''Tribes Ascend''

* ''Tribes: Ascend'' is free to play FPS released in April 2012, created by Hi-Rez Studios (creators of ''{{VideoGame/Global Agenda}}'') with [[BribingYourWayToVictory microtransaction]] [[ClassAndLevelSystem character classes]] (Each class has some customization - like swapping out a SMG for a shotgun or a shield pack for a sensor jammer, but each class has a clearly defined role). Access is simple, all one needs to do is register an account and download the client; either through {{Steam}} or a separate program. There are several game types, all of which revolve around conflicts between the Blood Eagle and Diamond Sword tribes.

* ''VideoGame/TribesVengeance'' was released in October 2004, developed by {{Creator/Irrational Games}} (the creators of ''[[VideoGame/SystemShock System Shock 2]]'' and the ''{{Franchise/BioShock}}'' series) and based on the [[{{VideoGame/Unreal}} Unreal Engine]]. A {{prequel}} to the earlier games, it features a story-driven campaign centered around the Tribal Wars, a conflict between "tribal" fringe planets and [[VideoGame/{{Starsiege}} Earth's]] [[TheEmpire Galactic Empire]]. ExecutiveMeddling and cessation of official support barely a year hence gave this installment a short lifespan. It was critically well-received, [[FirstInstallmentWins but never enjoyed the same fan support as the earlier titles.]]

* PainfullySlowProjectile: Nova Colt projectiles in ''Ascend''. Imagine the pea-shooter discoball firing Blaster from ''Tribes 2'', but in revolver form.

%%* MightyGlacier: Heavy armor. In the old games, it was the only armor that could equip the deadly fusion mortar cannon, which can destroy a base from far away, kill anyone trying to get out and bulldoze the base all without the Heavy breaking a sweat.

* MightyGlacier: Heavy armor. In the old games, it was the only armor that could equip the deadly fusion mortar cannon. ''Ascend's'' "Juggernaut", "Doombringer" and "Brute" classes use it, with the Juggernaut retaining the mortar and exemplifying the trope.
** This underplays the sheer POWER of the Heavy armor. The aforementioned Mortar cannon can destroy a base from far away, kill anyone trying to get out and bulldoze the base all without the Heavy breaking a sweat. [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome And if 5 heavies ram into your base and completely rape your defenses and slam your generator against a wall,]] have fun using anything less than 50 grenades to get them out.
*** Or [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome Ram 6 of your own Heavies in after nuking your own generator room to kingdom come with mortars and fractal grenades]]

* ''[[VideoGame/TribesVengeance Tribes: Vengeance]]'' was released in October 2004, developed by {{Creator/Irrational Games}} (the creators of ''[[VideoGame/SystemShock System Shock 2]]'' and the ''{{Franchise/BioShock}}'' series) and based on the [[{{VideoGame/Unreal}} Unreal Engine]]. A {{prequel}} to the earlier games, it features a story-driven campaign centered around the Tribal Wars, a conflict between "tribal" fringe planets and [[VideoGame/{{Starsiege}} Earth's]] [[TheEmpire Galactic Empire]]. ExecutiveMeddling and cessation of official support barely a year hence gave this installment a short lifespan. It was critically well-received, [[FirstInstallmentWins but never enjoyed the same fan support as the earlier titles.]]

* SniperRifle: The Laser Rifle, featured in every game until ''Tribes Ascend''. It's capable of killing enemies from across the map with a few well placed shots, but leaves a bright red trail that easily reveals the shooter's location. In addition, it drains the user's energy entirely per shot, with more damage at full energy. ''TribesVengeance'' adds an additional limitation in requiring limited ammo in addition to energy for extra damage.

* FragileSpeedster: Light armor. In the older games, it was the only armor that could equip the [[SniperRifle Laser Rifle.]]

* FragileSpeedster: Pathfinder, Infiltrator and Sentinel classes wear light armor. The Pathfinder is the strongest example, it can have a recharge pack for quick energy recovery, or use [[NitroBoost a boost pack for quick bursts of acceleration.]]

* CompetitiveBalance: In Ascend, there are 3 light, medium, and heavy classes each, with one offensively oriented one (The stealthy Infiltrator, base-razing specialist Raider, and walking artillery piece Juggernaut) that destroy the opponent's generator and make the opponent's defense's life a living hell, balanced, genericish classes (The high-speed chase/capper Pathfinder, JackOfAllStats grunt Soldier, and CQC beast Brute) that can either defend their own flags and generators, or attack the enemy's, as well as defensive specialists (The Sniper-esque Sentinel, Base maintance guy Technician and Flag defender Doombringer) who shut down enemy offenses.

** This underplays the sheer POWER of the Heavy armor. The aforementioned Mortar cannon can destroy a base from far away, kill anyone trying to get out and rape the base all without the Heavy breaking a sweat. [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome And if 5 heavies ram into your base and completely rape your defenses and slam your generator against a wall,]] have fun using anything less than 50 grenades to get them out.

* AwesomeButImpractical: The Juggernaut in ''Ascend'' has a Spinfusor as a secondary. In lower level play it is somewhat successful. Upon leaving level restricted servers the Spinfusor is rather pointless as automatics can pick players off from great distances unchallenged.

* TheFaceless: All the base skins. One of the Infiltrator skins, the "Assassin", has a visible face, though he wears a Vader-style rebreather. The faces of the Pathfinder's "Freerunner", Brute's "Crusher" and Raider's "Griever" skins are visible, while the Sentinel's "Specter" has most of his face visible save a pair of goggles.

* InNameOnly: Ascend has been referred to as "COD with jetpacks" as it has an extensive library of automatic and semiautomatic weapons were previous titles have had only the Chain Gun. This abundance of high rate of fire/low penalty weapons has basically turned the projectile based combat into sea of antiair guns firing into the sky.

* CrewOfOne: Utterly and thoroughly [[AvertedTrope averted]] for vehicles like the hovertank (which needs a separate gunner) and bomber (which needs a bombardier who controls the underbelly turret and actually drops the bombs)...until ''Ascend'' made the hovertank's cannon driver-controlled, though it leaves the chaingun for the gunner to control.

* DifficultButAwesome: What Tribes does differently from the majority of shooters is having projectile speed instead of hitscan. This leads to concepts like positioning, leading, and object tracking to be fundamentals in combat which weight just as heavily as aiming. Combined with the the ability to fly over opponents or ski to attain speed and distance, being able to successfully predict where your opponent will be in the next second or two can be the deciding factor in pushing back the offence, disrupting defence, or most importantly retrieving flags to secure a score lead for the team. With the addition of Ascend, these projectiles have been largely forgotten in favor of the lower risk automatics that most classes have access to, or worse histcan such as the sinper rifle which abuse the floaty physics or configuration glitches such as flash.ini which illuminate jetpacks for easy targeting.

** Likewise, the airstrikes are not particularly useful for their cost. Unlike in the CallOfDuty series, the player calling in a strike must aim at the target uninterrupted for a few seconds with an INCREDIBLY obvious laser pointer. The area of effect is not particularly large, and unless the prohibitively expensive Orbital Strike is used, the timing has to be absolutely perfect in order to take out enemy units or buildings (the Orbital Strike lasts a few seconds longer). The airstrikes have one saving grace, in that a successful hit is an instant kill (and as such can be used as an effective, if not incredibly expensive, way to disable a Base Turret), but considering that there are ways to take them out that do not cost several thousands of credits a pop (such as the Juggernaut's Mortars and the Infiltrator's Sticky Grenades), it's simply not practical.

* GameMod: ''Tribes 1'' and ''2'' were built from the ground up with the [[GameEngine Torque engine]] and designed to be extremely moddable. Sure enough, a ''staggering'' array of mods have sprung up over the years, some of which change the games so completely that they cease to be recognizable.

* AustralianAccent: The "Disker Dundee" voice pack gives your character the "Screen and Television" variety.

* TrapMaster: Finally took out that Doombringer on the flag? Your capper screaming in for the final cap to victory? Oh he touched on of the forcefields and is now a corpse that just threw the flag into someone, who then put it back on the floor. Got rid of those? Landmines. Lots of them.

* SamusIsAGirl: There are two available female voice packs, "FemmeFatale" and "Ms. Wilderzone", though they don't change the player models.

** The video for the Brute update is called "[[TheBeeGees Staying Alive]]", in reference to the Fractal Grenade's FanNickname "disco grenade".