Tribes 2 toys
Buggy, but popular teamplay FPS prompts much fan interest
Tribes 2 may be laden with bugs and require next year's concept technology to run properly, but one has to admit that it's popular. The community that has sprung up around the game in Europe alone already threatens to give Counter-Strike a run for its money. A major Tribes 2 tournament has already been announced by Euro-Tribesplayers.com and Sierra, and the web is now rife with tools and toys to enhance the game. We thought it would be a nice idea to let you in on a couple of them. First up is a tool for frustrated server admins. Tricon 2 is a remote access tool for administrating dedicated Tribes 2 servers, funnily enough, and uses all sorts of tricks and protocols to make things easier for hard-working game admins. There's a nice screenshot of the application at work here. A bit of fun, this time for clients, is Wizpack, available here. It contains a number of handy enhancements that take the strain off players wrestling with the complex control system. Constant repair, for example, frees your hands up to deal with other matters while you fix up a turret or generator, and Jump-Jet maximises the power of the jetpack by jumping a split-second before thrust. The Pilot mode tool enables you to increase sensitivity once piloting a craft (incredibly useful actually -Ed), and the most popular addition is weapon keys, which don't just select a single weapon, but cycle through a certain selection. Great if you need to switch between predefined weaps on the go (e.g. Spinfusor and rocket launcher). Wizpack is currently at version 0.82. Another item we uncovered today was this Tribes 2 tweak guide at 3D Spotlight. Interesting for all manner of reasons, not least of which is instruction on how to install hi-resolution (512x512) player models. The technique just requires Winzip and a bit of file-renaming. Definitely worth taking the time to do if your machine is up to it (the performance hit was acceptable here, even when we swapped out 64Mb Radeon DDR for a 32Mb graphics card). If you've been struggling with Tribes 2 in its infancy and fancy easing your burden, keep an eye on Euro-Tribesplayers, Planet Tribes and the like. The scripting community is already growing, and keeping up will be the best way to help yourself improve. Related Feature - Tribes 2 patched