Tribes: Vengeance/Gameplay

Terminology
With every game you play comes unique terms that people use to describe an item or an action. Tribes: Vengeance has its fair share.


 * T:V - This goes with out saying... it's short for Tribes:Vengeance
 * T1, T2 - Tribes 1 and Tribes 2
 * MA - Mid-Air. It's the act of hitting a player with a projectile while he's in the air (not an easy task)
 * LO/MO/HO - These are short for different armor classes on offense (Light Offense/Medium Offense/Heavy Offence)
 * LD/MD/HD - Same as above, except Offense has been replaced with Defense
 * Capper - A player that captures the enemy flag
 * Turtling - You'll see this one a lot. Turtling is when both teams have the other team's flag, and at least 1 of the cappers is hiding in his base for protection. This method is VERY cheap. In some servers, it can get you TK'd, kicked, or banned. Nobody likes 20 minute standoffs due to players hiding in their base, in HD with turrets, mines, and repair packs to protect them. It can make the game very boring. Some people don't have a problem with it, and some do. Personally, I think that it takes the focus off CTF and turns it into a Team DM style of playing since no actual flag capping is going on.
 * Osnipe - Offensive sniping. This isn't much of a problem in T:V as it was in previous Tribes games. Basically osniping is when you do nothing but snipe the enemy when they're in their base. Sort of like spawn camping from far away. Like turtling, this is frowned uppon by some players. T:V has put an ammo limit on the sniper rifle, so it's not as bad anymore.
 * BB - Body Block. Pull out your buckler and simply run into a player. The buckler will push them in the direction you're facing. Best used against people coming to cap your flag
 * HOF - Heavy on Flag. This is when a player suits up in HD and sits at his/her flag stand and tries to stop all incoming cappers. This doesn't work as well in T:V as it did for T1/T2. In T:V you might come across the term MOF more often since Medium armor does a better job in this game.
 * DJ - Disc Jump. If you need to gain some hight/speed, this is an easy and instant way. Simply look down at your feet, fire a disc, and use your jets. You'll lose considerable health, but sometimes the situation demands it.
 * Skiing - This doesn't need much of an explanation in T:V. Skiing has been simplified so that all you need to do is simply hold down your ski button. This allows you to glide over terrain with little friction; a great way to not lose momentum/speed when traveling to your destination.
 * Loadout - A pre-set assembly of armor, weapons, and packs. This is a quick way to use the inventory station and grab everything you need all in 1 second. The use of loadouts is absolute. Your team needs you for every second of the match. Don't waste 5-10 seconds in the station selecting your equip. Not only are you out of the action, but you're also taking up an inventory station that somebody else might need to access.

Voting
This game has a working voting system that is used to kick ill-mannered players from a server. T1 and T2 had a very good voting system. Did the developers bother to design one similar to those? not even close! T:Vs vote system is one of the lest effective I've ever seen. So bad in fact, I doubt very few people know it exists or knows how to vote. Which brings me to the reason why I felt this was important enough to mention. In order to kick a player from the server, you need 51% to pass the vote. Mathematically, that works out to a vote to kick from every player on your team, and 1 vote from a player on the other team. As if that wasn't bad enough, you'll have to understand that the guy on your team won't vote to kick himself... so you're going to need 2 votes from the other team.

You can vote to kick any player in the game... I just refer to the person being on your team because it's usually the people being TK'd who want to do the kicking. What you need to do to cast a vote is simple. Press Esc to bring up your menu. It'll have a list of all the players on both teams. Simply click once on the player to highlight their name. On the left hand side there is a list of buttons, one of which is "vote to kick".

Most importantly, kick an ill-mannered player regardless of what team he/she is on. I've seen a lot of players ignore the vote just because they weren't on the TKers team. When every round starts, players are randomly placed on a team. Keep that in mind when you say to yourself "why should I kick him? he's not on my team". If they're not on your team now, chances are they will be later.

Scores
Tribes is mainly a Capture the Flag game. I see a lot of people who comment on how good their own score is, even though their team was shut out. These people have completely missed the boat. Nobody cares about your personal score. Anybody can suit up in HO and fire mortar rounds into a tiny room that is filled with enemies for 20 minutes. In fact, a lot of people get so carried away with blowing up enemy gens/inventory stations, they ignore the guy that's been stealing their flag all game. Cappers don't care if you're destroying their base... they're too busy winning the game. Instead, try killing the capper by lobbing mortars onto your flag stand when he/she tries to take it.

Jets
This is the most important tool you have at your disposal. Your Jets are fueled by your energy (represented by a blue bar on your HUD). You're going to need to learn how to conserve your energy supply in order to utilize your jet pack. If you find yourself in a duel with the enemy, your jet pack will save your life. When you fly through the air, you make yourself a harder target to hit. The weapons in Tribes: Vengeance are projectiles, and are best used against a player who is on the ground. Some of the more popular weapons deal explosive damage; so if you're in the air, you've reduced your enemy to rely on marksmanship. They'll need to deliver a MA, or throw hand nades to deal damage. Learn to ration your energy. If you use it all in 1 burst, you'll find yourself grounded while you wait for it to recharge.

Skiing
Welcome to T:V, it can be a very fast-paced game, and skiing is the reason why. For those of you who played the single player missions and couldn't get past the Phoenix trials (more specifically the speed trial); DON'T GIVE UP! This isn't a skill you can ignore. You won't be a great help to your team if you're unable to ski properly. The reason for this is; most of the T:V servers are CTF. the entire point of CTF is to be the team that captures the most flags. I can guarantee you that a good capper in T:V knows what he/she is doing, and you're going to need to be able to keep pace. A good capper will spend a lot of time practicing ski routes. a ski route is a path a player takes that'll allow them to gain the most speed, grab the flag, and continue the momentum back to their flag stand. If you're team can't chase down players that are capping your flag, you will lose.

Skiing plays a big role in both capping and chasing. Keeping your momentum and speed will give you a better chance of survival. If you take the enemy's flag while they have yours, you're going to need to stay alive while your team  gets your flag back. Don't use turtling as a tactic just because you can't defend yourself. Sometimes you're going to lose, the sooner you can accept that, the sooner you'll deter from turtling. The less you turtle, the more experience you'll gain. Taking shortcuts is not a long-term solution.

Ultimately, if you want to master skiing, you're going to have to memorize your maps. Practice learning ski routes on your own time. A good capper can ski without stopping indefinitely. The longer you can keep your speed going, the better. For best results, you'll want to hit a slope at a parallel  angle, and make sure the slope does not have any bumps or pits in it. For some maps, this can be easier then others. Isle for example is great for skiing. It has very high slopes across the entire landscape. A true way to master skiing is to combine it with the use of a grapple. You can use the grapple to change your direction without taking a huge drop in speed or energy. I'll talk more about that more in the weapon section.

Armor
3 choices, each with their own pros and cons. Each armor class will determine: your health, energy, movement speed, weapons, and ammo. Little explination is needed for the first 3 among that list. The lighter you are, the less health, and energy you'll have and the faster you'll move. Also the bigger you are, the more ammo you can carry. Now for weapons: there are 3 weapons that are class-specific (1 for each class). Light armor gets to use the Sniper Rifle. Mediums can carry the buckler. Heavies get the mortars. Armor selection almost comes down to personal preference. Any class can be useful in almost any situation, if you have a lot of experience.

Sometimes if the enemy is turtling in their base, a HO with a shield pack might be your only way of getting your flag back. Generally, players use light for capping, heavy for base attack/defense, and medium for both. I spend about 99% of my time in LO. I prefer light all the time so that I can change my task without having to change my armor. In light, I'm best at capping, destroying enemy generators, dueling, and chasing cappers. Each of those take a lot of time to master. You might find it easier to get comfortable with your own style. There are plenty of players that are very successful in medium or heavy.

Packs
T:V has shrunk the pack count to a measly 4. But that's ok, each is very useful and much like the armor, it comes down to your personal style. Each pack has its pros and cons.

Energy Pack

 * Passive bonus - Regenerates energy supply faster then normal
 * Active bonus - Gives an instant boost in speed

This is probably the most popular pack among players. For cappers, it can aid your skiing and the active bonus can mean the difference between a quick death, or a quick getaway. Keep in mind, this pack will give you a boost of speed in the direction you're facing. So if you're in the air and looking down at your feet, activate the pack to drop quickly. This can give you a huge boost when skiing.

Example: if you ski down a slope, and use your energy pack while you ski... you'll gain a huge boost in forward momentum (make sure you look at your feet when you use it while skiing). If you used the pack after you had gone down the slope and into the air; the pack will give you a boost sending you upward and outward. Your speed in this game is based on your forward momentum, so using the pack while you ski down will actually give you a faster speed. using the pack once you're in the air will send you further but slower. You'll have to decide which method will benefit you best.

Speed Pack

 * Passive bonus - Improves running speed
 * Active bonus - Speeds up rate of fire

The passive mode doesn't offer much considering players prefer to travel via jet packs. However, the active mode on this pack can make a huge difference to your rate of fire. Lets look at the chain gun: normally, the CG can fire about 40 bullets in 5 seconds. With the active speed pack, you can fire 75 rounds in 5 seconds. This can make a big difference if you're chasing a player that has capped your flag and is en route back to his base.

Shield Pack

 * Passive bonus - Reduces about 25% of the damage you normally take
 * Active bonus - Reduces about 75% of the damage you take

if you're suiting up in heavy armor, you might want to consider taking this pack with you. Since Heavies are big and slow, you're more prone to be a sitting duck to the faster and more agile lights and meds. This pack also provides a feasible alternative to the energy pack for light cappers. Cappers need a speed boost, and disk jumping is a quick way of doing so. The shield pack recharges faster then the energy, so if the map is small enough, it might be better for you to use 2 disk jumps, rather then 1 speed boost. A disk jump without a shield pack can take off about 40 health. With the shield pack, it'll only take off 10-12 health (more or less).

Repair Pack

 * Passive bonus - Slowly regenerates health
 * Active bonus - Quickly repairs other players and units (stations, ships etc.)

The repair pack can not be used on yourself in the active mode. The uses for this are self explanatory, if you want to use it for something other then base repair, you'd be an asset to the others on your team. ideally, if you pilot a vehicle, you'll want a repair pack. Vehicles take a long time to respawn at your base, so don't waste them. The longer you can keep your vehicles in the battle, the better off your team is. As the pilot, take a repair pack. Once your vehicle's health gets low enough (25% or so), try to get to a safe spot, repair, and get back into the action.

Spinfusor
This weapon may as well be the mascot of the Tribes franchise. Also known as the disc launcher, this gun is probably you're most used weapon. The disk is a slow moving projectile that can deal about 40 damage on a direct hit. It also has an explosive feature when it makes contact which can push a player off his path. This weapon is the sole reason for staying in the air. If you remember to my tutorial on jets, then you'll know why it's important to stay in the air. If you're on the ground and not moving very fast, your opponant won't need to be very accurate with his/her shots since the blast damage will chip away at your health.

Mastering this weapon is one of the skills that separates the vets from the newbloods. Even though staying in the air will give you a better edge in a spinfusor fight, a vet can still drill you with multiple MAs. MA hits not only take off the most damage, but they knock you back far and fast. Also, player speed is a big factor when you're aiming your shot. If you're chasing a capper, you're going to have to aim far ahead along his/her path. Ideally, you won't be using this weapon when chasing a capper. If they have a marginal lead on you, the Grenade Launcher is a better choice.

Chain Gun
The CG isn't my favorite weapon... it's one of the my least favs in fact. That's not to say that this weapon sucks though. In the right hands, this gun can deal a lot of damage quickly. Close combat would be the ideal situation for this gun. Since the bullets don't fire dead on, the further your target is, the lower your accuracy will be. Also, the accuracy will decrease the longer you hold down the fire button (due to the weapon over heating). So if it's at all possible, sit in the water or fly through the air to keep it cooled down. Failing those 2 suggestions, try tapping the fire button to fire 3-4 round bursts, it'll give a slower rate of fire, but you'll have better accuracy. What makes this gun deadly is the use of the speed pack's active mode. If you're close to your target and use the speed pack in combination with the CG, you can take off a lot of health very quickly. This weapon is also best when used to finish off an enemy. If your opponent is down to 20% health or less; a few rounds from your CG is a quick and easy way to finish them off.

Blaster
For those of you new to the Tribes series... this is NOT a shotgun. Since T:V is a prequel to T1, mostly everything that was in T1 has been taken back a few technilogical generations. In T1 and T2, the blaster fired a pulse of energy. Since T:V is more primitive it doesn't look as fancy, but it is still an energy weapon. It does not use ammunition, it's tied into your energy reserve. This weapon is probably my least favorite. Much like the CG it's accuracy is poor over long distances. Also like the CG, this weapon can really shine when used in close proximity to your target with the speed packs active boost. Mostly everybody will go with a different weapon loadout.

Grenade Launcher
One of my favorites. This weapon is better aimed when you have elevation over your target since this projectile arches downward when it's fired. The more elevation you have, the further you can fire this weapon. This is my primary weapon for chasing flag cappers, especially on larger maps like Isle. Once you've learned how to aim ahead of your target's path, it's quite easy to drill them from a 300m+ distance... a task that is not so easy with the spinfusor. This weapon is also good for bouncing shots around corners. It's a good way to clear out turrets or mines from an enemy base before you enter.

Rocket Pod
One of the most misused and least understood weapons. This is the strongest weapon you're going to get your hands on, provided that you know what to use it for, and how. Fortunately for you, I'm going to tell you. firstly, this weapon has a bit of a distance limit to it. If you're too close, the missiles won't arm themselves and will be useless. If you fire them from too far way, they'll do very little damage or none... I don't know why, i just know they do /shrug. Ok, so once you've gotten the hang of firing from the proper distance, lets take a look at your targets: vehicles, and other large and slow moving targets. Not all vehicles are easy to hit with this gun. Fighter pods are very hard to hit. Tanks and rovers are usually stationary, so let them have it. Also, players in heavy armor hug the ground and aren't very fast. As log as you can aim to hit the ground they're next to, the explosion can work down their health.

Most important of all, and the main use for this weapon is: DESTROYING SENSORS! If you figured that out, good for you... not many have (not in the servers I played in). Since sensors have shields that block almost all damage from any conventional weapon, the rocket pod succeeds where others fail. First of all, you're going to need a speed pack. next, find a spot where enemies won't bother you for the next 10 seconds or so. The rockets are guided by your reticle, so stay very still. Zoom in on the sensor, activate the pack and fire 2 rounds. Out of the 12 rockets only 8 or so have to hit to destroy a sensor at full health. This can give your team a bit of an edge at the very beginning of the round. Rush out, take down their sensors before their team can even mobilize. Your cappers will be able to grab the flag with ease since your enemies won't be able to see them coming on the radar.

Burner
This weapon completes my main weapon loadout. It's another energy based weapon, so you don't need to worry about ammo. You can come up with a bunch of uses for this weapon. Fire it at a generator to have it's shielding constantly drained. While it's burning, throw some hand nades and discs, and it'll be destroyed in seconds. My main use for this weapon however, is to burn fighter pods (more on this when I discuss the grapple), and players that hang from the roof. in maps like cavern, you can have some tricky players that can be a little hard to hit because they hang from the roof and swing in a circle. Pull out your burner and constantly fire into their path. Those grapple users seldomly try to do that twice after they've been burned and realise their tactic is easily countered.

Buckler
As mentioned before in the BB definition. This weapon can not only defect projectiles, but also other players. This weapon is limited to medium class armor. Since you can guide the buckler when it's thrown, it's possible to hit a player twice in one throw (once when it's thrown, and once as it returns). Simply holding the buckler can deflect projectiles, but this takes a lot of practice because the buckler only covers about 40% of your body. The buckler is the main reason why mediums can be better on the flag stand then a HOF. There are few things funnier in T:V then when a capper is skiing towards your flag at 150mph+ and you BB back in the direction he came from. On a map like Emerald, it might be a good idea to BB the player into the fence. If you have turrets set up close to your flag, even better. not only will you stop the caper dead in his/her tracks, but they'll be dead in a few seconds as well.

Sniper Rifle
I'm not going into much detail on this one. except to point out a few things. The SR is restricted to light armor only. Also, it uses both ammo and energy. Head shots deal more damage, so if it's possible, aim for the face :P Another thing of note; the damage your shot deals is based on how much energy is used. If you fire with a full energy bar, you'll deal a lot of damage. Taking a shot right after you first would be a bad idea. It'll do very little damage, and your target will probably spot the red beam if they didn't see it the first time.

Mortar
Only heavy armor is blessed with this weapon. However devastating it's blast may be, it's not enough to warrant the use of heavy armor for me. Despite my own preference, mortars make very good offensive and defensive weapons. How you use it is up to you. If you practice your timing, killing cappers as they grab your flag can be both fun and a strong defence. Destroying every piece of equipment in the enemies base is another obvious use for the mortar. The only time I prefer to suit up in HO is when I need to kill a turtle and get my flag back. Not much else to say... Blow stuff up, Blow stuff up, Blow stuff up.

Grapple
Some think this weapon is cheap, in some cases I might agree... but it only has 15 shots so at least it can't be used infinitely. With a lot of practice, the grapple can be used for a lot of situations. I'll go over a few of it's uses.

Most obvious use; hang from the ceiling. If you're in the air, you can avoid splash damage from weapons like the spinfusor, grenades, and mortar. The grapple makes a quick getaway tool in cavern for a flag capper.

I mentioned earlier under the skiing section that the grapple can help you change your direction with no loss in momentum. If you grapple to the ground, and hold down your ski button, you'll ski in a circumference around the anchor. This means you can pull a 180 degree turn on the spot and not slow down. This is a bit harder then it sounds. You'll want to practice this over and over. It would be better if you could see it demonstrated (play long enough to get showed up by a good grappler and you'll get a good idea).

Ever have a problem with those cheap fighter pods having their way in your base? well, take a grapple and a burner or CG, jet up close to the pod and grapple it. once you've done that, pull out your burner look up, and set the pod on fire. Or use a CG and work away at the pods health until it's destroyed.

Hanging from your own team's vehicles is a good way of getting across the map, especially if you're in HO. Tactics like these require some teamwork since you'll need a pilot who will take you where you need to go. If you can get said pilot, flag capping can get pretty inventive. Get the pilot to fly past the flag while you hang from the pod. you'll be able to cap the flag without having to even touch the ground. Unfortunately, tactics like these don't happen very often in public servers.

Also, if you want to play HOF (or MOF) use the grapple to anchor yourself to the flag stand. This will prevent enemies from knocking you off the stand with explosive weapons.

Hand Grenades
Make sure you bind these to a key you can easily press as you're moving/strafing and firing your weapon. Hitting the enemy with a disc is good. Hitting the enemy with a disc and a hand grenade is better. If you use the arrow keys to move, numpad 0 is a good hand nade button to use. Configure your keys any way you want... just make sure you can use those grenades. Hand grenades and disc combo is also a quick way of taking down a generator in 3  seconds. Just spam those two weapons simultaneously and you can take out an enemy rover in a few seconds as well. One final use is when you're dueling another player and you're both in the air. Hand nades explode quickly, so hitting your opponent while you're both in the air isn't too difficult.

Repair Station
Probably best used when planted next to a generator, sensor, or a group of deployed turrets. If your team-mates can place turrets and a repair station together, you've got a good place to idol if you have the flag and are waiting for you flag to be returned. Anyone coming after you will have to deal with you and the turrets; all of which will be constantly repaired.

Turrets
Place these together. I highly suggest close to the flag and hopefully next to the repair station. There can be some conflict within the team when it comes to deployables. Some people will want turrets to defend the base or gens. Others, like myself think they are better allocated towards flag defence. Some players will go as far as to destroy your turret, grab it from the station, and deploy it in the exact same place just to get the points for kills. To those people, I highly suggest you stop playing Tribes because nobody cares at all about your score... this isn't CS, so either grow up, or go home. CTF has 1 score that counts for anything: Team Score.

Having said that, you'll also understand why i think placing all your deployables around the flag is key. If you defend your base, great... but thats not going to prevent your flag from being stolen. Keep in mind that base equipment can be repaired in 4-6 seconds. I can guarantee it's a lot easier to repair an inventory station then it is to chase down and kill a capper. Help your team out by pooling your resources into something that matters.

Turrets need constant repair and replacement. It only takes 2 discs to destroy a turret... so if you're on defence take a repair pack with you and keep the turrets fully repaired. If one goes down, get another one to take it's place ASAP.

Mines
Not much to say about these guys... putting one on your flag stand is a good idea. Any other high traffic area in your base where the enemies like go is a good place for a mine. If you want a laugh, try putting on on the enemy's flag stand. I've killed the enemy capper with a mine at their stand more then once and it never gets old :P

Inventory Stations
Without beacons in T:V (why on earth would they remove these from the game?) inventory stations kind of lose their purpose. The only place you can put down a station where your whole team can find it is at your base... even though your base already has inventory station. Which doesn't leave many other options, other than using it for your own private use. If that's the case, it should be around your base somewhere to restock players on defence. Try not to put one out in the middle of nowhere so you can resupply you sniper rifle ammo.

Fighter Pod
Probably the cheapest vehicle T:V has to offer. Small, agile, fast rate of fire and an infinite amount of missiles... what's not to hate? like I mentioned in the grapple section, the pod makes a great taxi. If you can get a few people together, try having multiple HOs hanging from 1 pod. Aside from chasing down cappers, the pod is good for destroying other vehicles.

Assault Ship
A powerful ship when it's fully armed. If you jump into the pilot's seat, let your team know you need two gunners. 1 fighter pod can take down an assault ship quickly so make sure you've got a fully loaded ship. If you are the only gunner in the ship, you can change seats by pressing 2 and 3 on your keyboard. This will toggle you between the two guns. Keep that in mind when a fighter flies out of your field of view.

Rover
This vehicle can carry 6 players into the enemies base. In a public server, i've never seen more then a driver and a gunner at the same time. Aside from a direct transport into a base, the rover can be used as a 3rd spawn point. Generally, you'll want to park the rover close to a base, but far enough out of sight. It also helps if the enemy's radar is down. If you find an enemy rover close to your base, jump in the driver's seat. Once you do that, it becomes your team's rover, and the enemy won't be able to spawn from it. Unfortunately, there's a bug that prevents stolen rovers from becoming spawn points for your team... but at least the enemy can't use it either. Once you've stolen it, either drive it out to the middle of nowhere and leave it, or destroy it. Just make sure the enemy doesn't take it back.

Tank
I don't have much advice for you that you can't already imagine on your own. Tanks are usually the vehicles I see get destroyed the fastest. I avoid them like the plague. If I want strong, slow, and a quick death I'll use my HO loadout thanks.

Extra Tips
Organized teamwork might be a little tough to pull off in a public server where you're playing complete strangers. One thing you can do to work with teamates is help the flag carrier. Keep yourself available so when a team-mate takes the flag, you can escort him/her back to your base. This may seem obvious, but it's rare to see in a pub.

Be flexible. If you're on HO keeping the enemy's base in ruins, and they're still beating your team in score... it's time for you to either go on flag defense, or start capping. Even if your previous task was important, Flag capping takes priority over all. Try not to stick to one position and hope someone on your team will start capping. In a public server, there just aren't enough good players to do that. T:V can't be played with the mentality "Someone else will do it", simply because they won't.

If your base is under constant attack by HO players, there's a good chance they're spawning from a rover. Heavy armor is slow, so if you notice a HO in your base moments after you just killed him, there's probably a rover close to your base. I see a lot of new players with the wrong priorities. They're stuck in a loop of: kill HO, repair, kill HO, repair, etc... Instead it's more important to leave your base, spot the rover that's hidden close by, and destory it. Once you've done that, then you kill the HOs, then you repair.

Use your voice chat often to alert your team of incoming threats.

Pilots of the Fighter Pods are vulnerable from behind. In maps like cavern where they fly low, try to deliver a MA from behind. It's possible to kill the enemy pilot without dealing a lot of damage to the pod.

Similar to the last tip, players that operate base turrets are also vulnerable, either from behind or above. I find it easier to run up to the turret, jet above the gunner's head drop discs and nades down onto him. If you wish to keep your distance, grab a sniper rifle and get some easy head shots.

I can't stress the usefulness of hand grenades. By throwing those at the same time you fire a disc or GL, you can easily destroy stations, generators, grounded vehicles, etc. Since you can carry 5 hand grenades, you can destory objects in a matter of seconds. This can be useful if someone has placed a bunch of turrets around a repair station. Since the station will instantly beging fixing any damage you cause, the additional nades will make the repair staion irrelevant.

To enable your console:
 * 1) create a shortcut to run T:V from
 * 2) right click and select properties
 * 3) in the "Target" add -console after the directory in "quotes"
 * 4) * it should look like this:

To access the console in game, press the tab key. some commands include (type these without the "quotes"): " " <- changes the field of view. default value is between 80-95.
 * " " <- displayes fps
 * " " <- displayes ping
 * " " <- connect to a server

TribalWar.com can be a good source for everything Tribes. It's basically the place where you're going to find all the people making mods and maps for T:V.