TribesOne.com

Tribes Installation

Tribes doesn't require installation.

Download it for free here.
This download is the final version of Tribes, 1.11. It also includes the most common map packs.

Once it's done downloading, unzip it to anywhere you want, and launch "Tribes.exe".

Optionally, you can right-click "Tribes.exe" and choose "Send To > Desktop as Shortcut" for easier access.

History

Starsiege:Tribes is a completely free multiplayer-only first-person shooter game, comparable to Quake and Unreal Tournament. These games all vary in gameplay style, and are uniquely innovative in their own right. What is most unique about Tribes is the ability of in-air combat. This is made possible by your jetpack (it is part of your suit) and is totally awesome.

Originally developed by Dynamix, which was later bought by Sierra, it has thrived for over a decade, thanks to its passionate community. It was released by Dynamix to be distributed online for free and is a great game to play on any PC system, even without a new video card. Its hardware requirements are insignificant by today’s standards but by no means is it lacking in visual quality. It is also simple to play modifications of the game, as they mostly do not require any downloads, they are provided from the servers that are modified (this doesn’t slow connection time noticeably).

A very strong point of Tribes is its visual and interface customizability. Over the years, innumerable enhancements were brought to the game, many by the community. You can make Starsiege:Tribes look like a modern, really cool FPS (first-person shooter) with minimal effort, thanks to the great coders and designers who continuously bring us these embellishments. The fact that you can personalize your game experience so significantly attracts many players to Tribes.

The sequels to the game haven’t been as successful, never really capturing gamers and falling short (more on that in the wikipedia article, in The Links). This is the game the set the bar and keeps it there.

Armors, Vehicles, Weapons, Items & Packs

Armors

Light armors are favorable to carry energy based weapons since their energy fills quicker. Medium armor’s energy refills slower but they have more weapon and item slots (can carry more). Heavy has the least energy of the bunch, but can carry the most. An assortment of the three are necessary to balance your team’s offensive and defensive ability.

Vehicles

There are three vehicles: Scout, APC and HPC. Scout goes fastest and can only carry one, light armor player. APC is remarkably slower and can carry two players of any armor plus a light armor pilot (required). HPC can carry five people, also one being a light armor pilot, it is the slowest.

Weapons & Items

Blaster

One of three standard guns you will always have when you respawn. The blaster draws energy from the jetpack. The blaster fires in somewhat quick pulses. This is pretty much a horrible weapon and should be discarded for anything else in the arsenal.

Plasma Gun

The plasma gun shoots similar projectiles to the blaster. They move much slower but are much larger and have a small range of splash damage to damage nearby targets. This weapon is most effective when used to detonate a mine atclose range, anything beyond this range and the projectiles dissipate too quickly. This gun draws off of normal ammunition rather than the jetpack energy supply. Recommended for a solid melee weapon when using heavy armor.

Chaingun

Depending on your Internet connection, this is either the most useful or useless gun in the game. The chain gun is highly destructive at close range. However, at long range only about two of the eight shots will come anywhere near the location of the crosshair. These are the first two shots so of course people have written scripts [not cheats] to auto fire the chain gun only two bullets at a time. This gun of course takes bullets and does not feed off of your jetpack energy supply.

Disk Launcher

This gun goes by many names, such as the stormhammer and spinfusor. This is without any doubt the best all around gun in the game. Discs are quite strong, able to kill light armor combatants in two shots. They travel fast and have a large splash radius. For best results, try to aim for the enemies feet as the blast radius will do extra as they are pushed upward and into it again. The stormhammer is also good for stopping people dead in their tracks. Hit someone with a mid air disc whom is charging at you and most of their momentum will be lost. This weapon, along with the chain gun, are the most common weapons used for dueling.

Grenade Launcher

Talk about carnage. The grenade launcher fires grenades long distances and they generally explode on contact. If fired into the ground they will bounce some before exploding. This becomes the greatest asset of this gun, fire it in to an enemy bunker and you will likely damage everything inside. This is one of the more popular guns as it works well for base busting and for chasing some one down.

Laser Rifle

This gun may only be used by someone in light armor. It also requires the use of an energy pack backpack. The Laser Rifle is the sniping weapon of tribes. Compared to other games it is relatively weak though. A head shot does deal more damage than a body shot, but still fails to kill even a light armored combatant in one hit. Firing this will deplete your entire jetpack supply so a quick escape is seldom possible when using this weapon.

Electron Flux Gun [ELF Gun]

The elf fun is one of the more underrated weapons. While it does very little damage to targets, it will drain their energy supplies quickly. This is most useful for holding someone who is trying to escape down, but also plays a big roll in knocking down the shield on turrets, which will also prevent them from firing. The range on this weapon is rather short, so you'll need to be in a pretty close proximity. This weapon will drain your energy while in use, but VERY slowly.

Mortar Gun

In terms of raw power, nothing can match the mortar gun. This gun lobs green shells of death up to very long distances which explode with a vengeance. This weapon is able to kill any light armored combatant in a single shot with a hit which registers close. It has an enormous splash radius which allows it to decimate enemy bases. Be careful not to fire one off in your own base, even with team damage off you'll probably blow up some deployables!

Targeting Laser

Not really a weapon, it does no damage at all while giving your position away with a green line! This was initially designed for painting the distance to a turret, but, it is more frequently used to spot incoming enemies or to lead allies to a flag carrier. This will slowly drain your jetpack while in use.

Packs

There are two types of packs available, permanent and deployable. Some require energy from the armor's power cell to function.

Permanent Packs

These packs are carried by tribesmen to augment their armor. Each pack has special abilities that can aid mobility, defenses, or ammo storage.

Ammo

Increases the maximum ammo the armor can hold. This pack does not require any energy from the power cell to operate. If this pack is dropped, all extra ammo beyond what the armor will carry is left in the dropped pack.

Energy

Increases the recharge rate of the armor power cell. This miniature fusion pack is especially useful when combined with an energy based weapon, like the laser rifle. It is also well suited to aid the lighter armor types in speedy escapes.

Shield

Requires energy from the armor's power cell. To activate, press P. The shield pack creates an auxiliary energy shield around the user as long as the power cell has energy. While the pack is operating the shield will absorb some, if not all, damage directed toward the player. The pack can be deactivated by pressing P. It will automatically deactivate once the power cell runs out of energy.

Jammer

Requires energy from the armor's power cell. To activate, press P. The jammer pack will make the user and any other players within 20 meters undetectable to enemy pulse sensors. The pack can be deactivated by pressing P. It will deactivate automatically once the power cell runs out.

Repair

A battlefield repair kit, this pack comes with what is colloquially referred to as the "repair gun." Using exotic nanotechnology, it can repair armor, vehicles, and base emplacements such as turrets and generators.

To use this item, press P. The repair gun will now be available in the player's hand. Aim the repair gun at a damaged teammate or equipment and "fire" it. The gun has a very short range; you must be within three meters of the target to repair it. If there are no targets within range, it will repair any damage you have taken. It will deactivate automatically once the power cell runs out of energy.

Deployable Packs

To deploy a pack, press P. You must be looking directly at the deploy point and be in range, or else you will get a "cannot deploy, out of range" prompt. If you try to place a pack at your feet or too close to a wall or other object, you will get an "item in way, cannot deploy" prompt.

With the exception of the camera pack, deployable packs cannot be placed on overly steep surfaces. All deployable packs come with their own internal power supply and do not require generator power to work (see Generators).

Remote Pulse Sensor

The small Argus pulse sensor works along the same lines as its larger counterpart. The deployable pulse sensor enables the user's team to increase the range of its sensor network.

Remote Motion Sensor

The Cerberus motion detector is small and unobtrusive, often missed by an enemy rushing into battle. Non-moving items will NOT be detected by the motion sensor. Unlike its pulse sensor brethren, it cannot be jammed.

Remote Jammer

The Buzzbox pack creates a short-ranged jamming "umbrella" making any tribesman within it's field effectively invisible to pulse sensors.

Remote Turret

The Claptrap miniature turret is a nasty and unexpected surprise for many an enemy. Firing energy bolts and equipped with a built-in motion sensor, it's small size makes it ideal for placement indoors, in caves, and in other hard to reach places, or large numbers may be used to create an effective defensive perimeter. There are, however, limitations on the number that can be placed in one area. Because of the weight of the turret, only the medium and heavy armors can bear the weight; light-armored individuals cannot purchase the turret pack from the inventory stations. Like the larger permanent turrets, remote turrets may be controlled via the PDA.

Remote Camera

The Scryer miniature camera that can be positioned most anywhere and can be accessed with the PDA. Properly placed, the viewer is just like a "fly on the wall" when observing enemy activities. Unlike its counterparts, it can be placed on any surface.

Inventory and Ammo Stations

These deployable stations provide ammunition and supplies away from a player's base. They can only be carried by a tribesman in medium or heavy armor and have a limited energy supply. See Stations on page 50 for further information.

Gameplay & Strategy

Gameplay

For starters, play through the three simple tutorials provided by Tribes, to get a feel for the game, the jetpack, the weapons and the vehicles. You purchase weapons and packs from Inventory Stations, either the stationary ones in your base or mobile ones. Almost everything in this game can be destroyed and repaired, with the exception of the buildings themselves (some mods allow this too). Most gameplay modes pit your team and your base against opponents and their base.

Your jetpack is bound to energy, which depletes if you use it too much, but refills infinitely. Your weapons may also be bound to that same energy, or can simply be ammo-based. There are three main armors, light, medium and heavy, with their respective purposes/strengths/weaknesses. Vehicles add to the gameplay by allowing quick transportation for scouting/spying ability or transportation for a group attack with multiple teammates on the same vehicle.

"Skiing" in Tribes is named so because you can actually ski down hills. This is done by jetting up in the air then coming down onto the side of a hill while pressing the jump key repeatedly. There are scripts to automate skiing, so that all you have to do is hold down any key you specify.

There is at least one Commander Station in each team's base. This allows you to see your team on the whole map and also enemies that your radars detect. From here, you may also set "waypoints", locations to which you suggest your teammates should go. You can set waypoints specifically for each player.

There is at least one base, with a flagstand for each, in Capture The Flag. For Capture and Hold, there can be many buildings to gain control of. Other game modes incorporate slight variations of these.

The most common gameplay modes for Tribes are Capture The Flag, Defend and Destroy, Find and Retrieve, Capture and Hold and Deathmatch.

Strategy

The most important asset in Tribes is teamplay. Use the commander stations, they're not decorations. There is no 'best' way to setup defenses, it depends on what your opponents throw at you. Make sure you set it up quick. Learn the strengths and weaknesses of turrets and other items to maximize protection and dealt damage. There is a best method to offensive, and it's called "hit 'em with all you got". If done skilfully, quickly and properly, you will manage to take out their power before they can setup their defenses. This allows your team to come in strong and without resistance. It will take them some time to recuperate from such an attack while you prepare your next and hence you will have the upper hand. This method may lead to weakness on your side as well, so use it cautiously, if you trust your defenses.

Game Credits

Server Installation

Make sure in Tribes options, "Network", that "Register with master server" is checked.

Check that your appropriate ports are open:
https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2 (click Proceed)
Tribes servers run on port 28001, unless you specify otherwise.
You must also configure your router to forward the appropriate port to your PC.

There are two types of servers for Tribes: non-dedicated and dedicated.

Non-dedicated

When you click "Host a Game" in Tribes, this is the kind of server you're running.

Non-dedicated allows you to play on the same PC that is hosting the game, but so does Dedicated.

This type of server is really not recommended, it uses more resources than Dedicated.

Dedicated

Tribes 1.11 comes with "InfiniteSpawn.exe", which is a dedicated server.

"InfiniteSpawn.exe" has a huge gaping security hole in it, so you shouldn't use it.
Instead, use the DOSFix version, available here.