For those of you who never play mech sims/ big robot games, but have heard of tribes, here is a little background info.
Back in the late 80s Sierra made a fun little 3D mech Sim called EarthSiege for Dos. It was made to be a direct competator to the BattleTech computer games.
***Game Details and Spoilers!***
ES1 was a hit and they released ES2 for win95 (which btw got a "90" from PCGamer when it came out.) The story though was based around the year 2622 and involved a war that started when a race of machines created by man called "Cybrids" were designed to fight our wars for us. The central AI controlling the machines dismissed the human race as "Mere Animals" and attempted to bring about our extinction. We fought them off a first time and forced them into space where they regrouped for a second attack, the central AI was moved by them to a base on the far side of the moon, as the Cybrids controlled all means to space travel they didn't fear and attack from us any time soon. Towards the end of ES2 we send a small crew to the moon to kill the AI.
After ES2 Sierra announced they would make a third game, even though the story in ES2 was pretty conclusive. Or so we thought.
ES3 or StarSiege as it is now known, took place 200 years later, humanity has rebuilt itself and created a massive empire stretching out to Saturn. However, the Cybrids servived the first two wars and are now ready for a Third.
In StarSiege we beat them again and forced them out of the solar system.
From there the story ended. And Sierra moved on to create the Tribes series (based off of the EarthSiege/StarSiege universe but without the cybrids). ES3:SS didn't fair well against MechWarrior3 though and was pushed into obscurity.
Of course fans (such as myself) have been playing for as long as i've been playing TA. (Next to TA, the ES series is my favorite) Which is why i'm making this post, because after a long period of waiting, a group of hardcore old-school ES fans decided to create a modding team and started on a Mech-based mod for Tribes: Vengence.
Sierra caught wind of this and instead of killing the project, they are now funding it, and StarSiege:2845 has been in the works for a long time now, i've bee extremely excited about it ever since the mod was announced, of course now its a full blown stand alone game. And now, finally after three years of waiting (for me a least :D) The Alpha tech has been released for public consumption.
I gotta tell u guys this game is made of win and god! But i want ppl to play it with!
Let me know what u think, oh man i love this shit! w0000t.
i don't know if u can paint them anymore, but this new one should have a lot more to it than the original, it has several new vehicles to choose from, including a dune buggy, troop transport, and a few different planes, all fighting alongside the Mechs and Tanks of the original.
And the Cybrids have a hovertank of their own now too.
awesome!, btw did anyone ever play that other sierra mech game, mission force cyber storm? it was turn based, you could buy cool mechs, customize guns, sheild and anti grav stuff and add cloned versions of different nations best mech pilots. It was so cool.
I think I played it for a short period but never really have gotten into it.
Earthsiege 2 suffered from awful controls. The game itself was fun though, never played the predecessor. I don't really like Sierra nor Dynamix games in general...
There's one really similar game called Metalizer which I'm still looking for.
Silly me brought it back to the store cause the disc had scratches and they didn't have any other copies to exchange it for. Silly me didn't make a backup of it either...
If you'd like a mech game close to table top then get Titans of Steel. Especially the pilot developement is really neat. It's not easy to get into it but it can be a lot of fun.
BigSteve wrote:awesome!, btw did anyone ever play that other sierra mech game, mission force cyber storm? it was turn based, you could buy cool mechs, customize guns, sheild and anti grav stuff and add cloned versions of different nations best mech pilots. It was so cool.
THAT WAS THE GAMES NAME !! i had cyber storm 2 ??? i believe i did... hmm... that was a awesome turn based game :) balance was just bad :/
Well, i've been playing the game while the Spring site was down. Did 4 seperate 3 hour~ matches.
Fucking win.
Simple as that. The gameplay in this sucker if a vast improvement over the last StarSiege, even as an alpha. Now trust me, the ES series plays nothing like other mech games, so for some ppl it will take some gettng used to. But i have to say. After watching a few of my buddies fight it out in the air skimmers over my head as i'm trying to take out an MFAC equipped Emancipator, is one hell of an experience. The general sense of immersion you get from the Alpha Version alone is greater than most games that have come out these days.
A Quick Survival Guide:
1. The Emancipator:
This HERC has two configs at the moment, the defauilt config is a dual plasma blaster setup, its a fine balance between taking down shields and armor, landing hits with these guns is difficult, you really need to do your best to lead your targets.
The Second Config is a heavy weapon setup, the top gun being the MFAC (Magneto Infusion Cannon) which is a slow moving energy projectile, when it lands a hit, it packs a punch! The lower weapon is an EMP Cannon, which does no armor damage but is the best at sheild removal by far. (Special note: With this config you will notice how your enemies drop like flies or run away upon facing the might of the MFAC, however! The MFAC is a HUGE mount, and its really easy for a intermediately skilled player to shoot the thing right off your HERC leaving you with only the EMP cannon. From there you had better RUN UR BOY!) Note: The Emancipator has terrible peripheral vision, so when fighting a goad, don't try to beat it in a match of duck and weave. Do your best to get behind the sucker, and stay behind it!
2. The Athena:
For anyone familiar with StarSiege, the Athena is more or less an upgraded Talon. But unlike the Talon, the Athena is actually useful. The Athena is almost as fast as the goad and packs better armor and shields. It has only one config (two Plasma blasters) but is very good at attacking speedy opponents (like the Goad or Badger). Keep in mind that the MFAC or the Wraith(air skimmer) will rape you if you don't keep on the move. Note: The Athena has the best overall peripheral vision out of all the HERCs, you get a full 200 degrees of vision out of this thing, you will also be able to look nearly straight up with it and still be able to fire. This alone makes the Athena worth its few shortcomings.
3. The Goad:
The Goad is a miracle of light HERC design, unfortunately, it was made by the cybrids. But that doesn't mean you can't still have fun with it! This sucker is fucking FAST! You will shit ur pants with how fast and nimble this fucker is. It has two configs. The default config is by far the best, it is equipped with dual cybrid "Electro-Mag Chainguns" which fire bullets that are jacketed with an EM field, this allows them to do damage to both sheilds and armor. And trust me here, they are good at it! This config drains armor and shields almost faster than the MFAC/EMP combo. Plus it is the only config that can seriously attempt to kill an airskimmer from the ground. Aiming isn't very difficult either :D
The Second config is just a shitty Dual plasma blaster setup, like all the others, don't bother, if you really want to use dual blasters, use the Athena. Note: Sometimes the goad is a little too fast for its own good, if you leave the throttle completely opened up all the time, you may find yourself running IN FRONT OF your opponent, and trust me, thats not a good thing. So pay attention to your speed in this sucker.
4. The Badger:
This thing is just a little dune buggy, it has a gun, but it needs a passenger to use it, and trust me, good luck convincing someone else to use this death trap. At the moment the verdict on the Badger is that is completely useless. So don't bother with it. You are better off on foot.
5. The Wraith:
Dewm with wings. Nuff said.
This air skimmer is fast, vtol, it hovers. It does everything, bombs, strafes, and kills. Right now this plane poses the biggest balance issue at the moment, but all is not lost.
This plane is so easy to get kills with, i'm not going to bother telling you how to win with it. Its just that good. Instead, i'm going to offer advice on how to kill it. a) The Coil Rifle - This is an infantry weapon, its 100% accurate with a little bit of lead correction required. This weapon doesn't do actual physical damage, instead, if you shoot the Wraith with it, it will spin the plane upside down and force it to crash. (and yes, it will explode if it hits the ground hard enough.) Keep in mind, you won't always score a kill just by shooting it, you really need to make sure the other guy hits the ground a couple of times.
b) the Goad - The Default config on the goad has JUST enough of a high rate of fire to be able to take out the Wraith, just keep ur aim steady, lead ur target, and never let go of the trigger! XD
c) Get another Wraith - The airskimmer is essentially to this game what an elite sniper is to CS. Every team needs one weather you want one or not. And trust me, you will be glad you have one on your team if you do.
d) RUN UR BOY! - The Wraith's weapons aren't well guided, most of the time you can dodge the death that rains down upon you in the form of missiles and machine guns. Just don't stop moving!
Well thats it for my quick survival guide, hope to see you guys ingame!
