Perpetual Newbdom: The Sentinel
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We’ve all seen them. We’ve all experienced what it is like, or how it feels to be one. If there was such a thing, through the generic genetic pool of all gamers there runs a divide. There are those who explore the game, search weapons, tactics and classes. And there are those who are ‘The Sniper’. Having been one myself, it was clear to us as a race of gamers that we were superior in skill to all others. Our class, our choice, was the most difficult one to master. It simply was not for everyone. And I still agree to some extent. Old shooters of bygone eras relied on ‘The Sniper’ to be an intricate part of each tactic. Some games were won and lost by the twitch reaction speed of this long range gladiator. When it came to the Perpetual Newbies, ‘The Sniper’ was a thoroughbred. A strong family tree presented itself. Truly the 1337 $/\/!P0|2zzz are the most well known and despised. In fact they were the very reason for weapon or class caps to be introduced throughout the fractal plane of game servers. Looking back, it is amazing that some even evolved away from what was presented in public servers. And don’t worry Quake players, your railgun is just as bad. In Tribes: Ascend however, ‘The Sniper’ of old warps into a strange creature of frustrations not seen for many generations. The Signs of Damnation There are deep depths for a Perpetual Newbie to fall with the Sentinel Load Out; especially because of its heritage. Although any ‘The Sniper’ can pick up this class, understand its capabilities and play it more successfully than your average final stage Perpetual, there are some dangerous pitfalls. In Tribes:Ascend a killcount is virtually pointless outside of the public match, and even there the statistically highest scoring player could have provided nothing for his team. This is hard for the sniper mind to understand. Surely any kill is a good kill? The short answer is no. The long answer is a slightly more elaborate version of no, spanning about three lengthy paragraphs, but I’ll spare you the tedium. All kills you make need to have a purpose and a timing to them. If you kill offence while you should have been looking for the capper than just disappeared behind a hill then your kill on that offence player has actually benefited the enemy team. The offence was successful in distracting you. In the end, a competitive sniper will be judged on his long range shots on cappers that got away and calling in cappers on approach. The rest is window dressing. In Tribes:Ascend the sniper isn’t an absolute weapons. This is another problem a lot of people have. Especially these little Turbo Newbies that come from their kindergarten shooters. God I hate those little bastards. Having played a couple hundred rounds of some FPS that will fade into non-existence when everyone has completed the stupid progression to get the instakill newbtubes! “The Sniper is supposed to be a one shot one kill weapon” – No. Shut up. Shut the fuck up. Shut the fucking shut fucking up. Fucking shut the fucking shut upping fuck; Fuck up the shutting fuck!! Welcome to Tribes Universe mother fuckers! You’re a burst DPS class now! A-HAHAHAHAHAAA! *Cough* Ahem… Right, carrying right along… What I was actually getting to in the last bit isn’t unimportant. A lot of snipers thrive on the idea that they are one shot away from victory. Not only does defeating an opponent potentially dick over your team. Not only does focusing on an enemy mean you’re stuck in tunnel vision – meaning a capper could appear out of nowhere and you’ll never see him. But now, you’re going to have to wait for that rifle to recharge twice before even killing a light. You’ll be praying on the weak. The damaged. The ones that were already defeated. You’re just another member of the team. You’re not special. Sentinels aren’t even limited, having more than one would be detrimental to the team. Why are you even playing my dear ‘The Sniper’? This is a game about speed and freedom of movement; whatever the veterans might tell you. You’re choosing to sit on a forsaken hill somewhere. To end the fun of others as they zoom past. Five seconds later they’ll respawn on another hill and skii off, onwards to another adventure. You’re there, respawning on that hill. Choosing not to skii, but to remain there forever and ever. You’ll need to watch out though. Someone might hit a bad route and be frustrated enough to kill you, you might lose your killing spree. To a normal person, these might be honest frustrations. But those with the inclination to become perpetuals are in grave danger. For them the Sentinel can be a highroad to damnation.
Symptoms of the Perpetual
The Ever Present The first stage of the Perpetual. The disease is there, but hard to notice. The public server is his playground. He’ll be yelled at, he’ll be screamed at. He’ll laugh and laugh. Eventually the fame will wane. He’ll always be there. The center of the map will fade to him, as he hasn’t been there in such a long time. Sometimes he still gets hunted, but mostly it’s just a bored juggernaut or Beowulf. Enemies fall by the dozens but somehow the outcome of the game is hardly affected. You win, you lose. But it doesn’t seem to matter. You are there, on defense, but you don’t seem to remember why. You fight wars with other snipers across the field from Crossfire and Drydock as cappers fly past. You’ll shrug when you come down to plant down claymores on an empty flag stand. You look up to a score of 4-0 to the enemy team and you can only think about using your credits before the map is over. Maybe upgrade the sensor array. Welcome to the land of the lost.
The Finite These are the call of Duty and Counterstrike players who are past their prime. Although many have never known the game as it was meant to be played. Their aim is still true to some extent. They aren’t rooted as some of their brethren. They were still adaptable enough to learn the art of skiing and jetting. Some are Quake players, unlocking the Phase Rifle in the hopes of finding the old glory of the railgun. Sadly their world was never beyond that of a few walls and a door. Never like Tribes. They grow agoraphobic, afraid of the open space that surrounds them. Their twitch aim abandons them. And they cannot face the stress of the extreme distance. They will fight valiantly, but never beyond the next hill. If they notice this soon enough, they will switch to a real projectile class, to be more than a light with a good smg. Trying to find new life somewhere. But if they remain, forever ‘training’ the aim that never was, that never will be. They will be the sniper’s whose shots you see whizzing past a capper now and then, never really hitting. Shots that won’t come anymore. A sniper chasing at the speed that is allowed of them. Trying to get into position for a shot, only to be forced to reposition again. They carry their rifle as a Sisyphus stone. Damned to see their target fade time and time again.
The Forgotten The purest and most final of all the Perpetual Sentinels is what I have come to call ‘The Forgotten’. Indistinguishable from a true Newbie, these are the players that might have seen other stages, but eventually fall into this pit of dementia. They are the true ghosts of Tribes:Ascend multiplayer. These are the ones that plant the claymores that never kill. These are the ones that deposit random Drop Jammers as memorials to their former intelligence. They are drones that still remember to zoom and follow the colored dots on their screen, but the importance of the kill has eluded them. They fire, sometimes they hit, but they are already distracted or have already walked off their platform to fall down to the ground. Confused they will skitter on their back like a distressed woodlouse for a while, only to track another shiny and forget about its troubles. They blend into the final scores, never mentioned in anything more than an occasional long range kill, a glimmer of their former self. Rounds come and go and their scores never reach the halfway point. This is the point where a regular human being will stop. But the Perpetual Newbie will persist. They have forgotten what it is like not to play and in turns the world forgets them. The Sentinel is the perfect vessel. Although the skill ceiling is high, the floor is quite low. Nothing more than sitting and pointing is required, an anomaly in this game. In other FPS games these players would blend in more, but The Forgotten stands out amongst the regular Tribes Perpetuals. It is a sad creature, not to be pitied. But maybe you can write down the account name and signal HiRez to send someone to put it down.
Escaping Limbo First and foremost, urge your friends and loved ones to avoid the Sentinel as a first unlock class. Many Newbies will be tempted by the ancient tales of ‘The Sniper’ and they will never know the glory of what Tribes can be. They’ll be knocked into a skewered perception of what they are capable of. If you are a Sentinel player, look around you. What are you doing? Are you even using this class for its intended purpose? Or are you sitting in the midfield, deathmatching with a class that isn’t quite designed for it. Maybe it’s time to try something new. You don’t want to get stuck into a rut that will eventually mean the loss of your cognitive ability. The threat is real. And playing the Sentinel is dancing on the steps of the gateway to Hell. You have been warned. Until next time, Greth PS: Tell me in the comments what class you’d like to see described next. Llamagrabbing will be a separate issue.