Anyone preordering and jumping into the Beta?

[Slaughter]

Pre-order is $30 and you get instant access to beta... sounds awesome to me.

[[AK]The Beast]

The Age of Battlefield 3 is a poor era for preorders and betas.

Pass on the beta, might very well buy the finished product, if BF3 has run its course by then.

[[AK]Gunny Highway]

It's play 4 free but like battlefield play4free you can buy better weapons and gear I'll try it for free first before buying it as you get $30 worth of their battlefunds equivalent as part of your $30 pre-order don't really care if I have a VIP title or not.

[Slaughter]

Have a couple beta keys I can hand out if anyone is interested.

[[AK]Abaddon]

I'm thinking about pre-ordering it.

[Slaughter]

So far its like a perfect mix of Tribes 1 and 2. I'm absolutely loving it.

[[AK]Leonidas]

If you get into it, how much do these free-to-play games end up costing?

[Slaughter]

They have avenues for you to earn points to spend on loadouts via just playing. So it really amounts to how much you want to put into it, either time or money.

[[AK]Leonidas]

I just got into the Beta and looked around a little. I love what they've done with the classes. The skiing works well, and the level design is excellent. The vehicles seem unresponsive, though. And I haven't yet figured out how to exit a vehicle. It doesn't seem to be on the command list.

[[AK]Squidly]

Interesting. So many games, so little time. Skyrim calls...

[[AK]Leonidas]

They have avenues for you to earn points to spend on loadouts via just playing. So it really amounts to how much you want to put into it, either time or money.

And I just discovered that if you spend any amount of real money in the game, then you get a permanent +50% bonus on your earned points.

[[AK]Squidly]

I picked this up a couple days ago. After a few hours of playing, I am mostly pleased. The skiing is right, and the maps and graphics are good. The load out concept took a little getting used to, but I like the upgrade system.

A few points I'm not too keen on:
1. Turrets suck. Even upgraded, they are slow to lock on and can't be swapped out. Elph/Missile/Plasma options were cool.
2. Player placed turrets are a waste. They are limited to 2, you can only carry one at a time, and they are powered off of the generator. They also are weak and slow to
lock on to opponents.
3. Since anyone can repair, engineers are pretty much a waste. There's nothing worth deploying anymore. Deployables disappear when you die or change class.

They got skiing right, but it's still a very different game from T2. I think I enjoy Team Deathmatch better than capture the flag at this point.

Note that the game is still in the process of being changed based on player feedback, so some of this may be altered in the final release. Since it'll be Free to play, I'm confident in saying it's worth giving a go.

[[AK]Leonidas]

Deployables can work really well if you have people on dedicated defense. If you start with one person full-time defending the gen and one as HOF, then the third as technician becomes really useful. With the skill tree filled up his repair rate is amazing.

Turrets are similar to missiles in that they're easy to avoid and almost never kill by themselves. But they deprive the target (usually the capper) of degrees of freedom. If the capper is running away with the flag, then turrets plus missiles plus chasers become very potent. Add in some damage or body-blocking from the HOF and you'll almost certainly get your flag back.

It also depends on maps. The turrets on Katabatic are nearly useless. The turrets on Bella and Drydock are very effective if you can keep them up.

My only problem with T:A is all the bullet weapons: pistols, shotguns, and SMGs. I find them very difficult to use, but some people are awsome with them. When I started, people who were good with those weapons didn't need anything else, and it felt very un-Tribes-like. But it seems like the devs are listening, and the game is drifting towards the spinfusor-type weapons.

[[AK]StitchJones]

Interesting. So many games, so little time. Skyrim calls...

I used to play Skyrim.... then I took an arrow to the knee.

[Slaughter]

I used to play Skyrim.... then I took an arrow to the knee.

"If you got Skyrim problems, I feel bad for you son. I dodged ninety-nine arrows, but my knee took one."