Tribes RPG Newbie Guide

Welcome to Tribes RPG! This guide is designed to answer your questions and get you started playing. This explains the terms, explains character creation, and tells what to do when you first start playing.

Classes:

There are four groups of classes, warrior, priest, rouge, and wizard. Each group has classes within.

• Warrior- Fighter, Ranger, Paladin
• Priest- Cleric, Druid
• Rogue- Thief, Bard
• Wizard- Mage

Fighter- Fighters are pure fighters. Their skill goes up quickly in all fighting related skills, such as slashing, bashing, and endurance, but their magic is almost unusable.

Ranger- Rangers are similar to fighters. They are decent in most combat skills, but their archery is highest.

Paladin- Paladins are similar to fighters except they have a somewhat faster magic skill, especially defensive.

Cleric- Clerics are healers. Their defensive casting is the best of all. Clerics go up best in bludgeoning for weapons. They have a little offensive magic as well.

Druid- Druids are similar to clerics. The main difference is the offensive and defensive magic skills are more balanced.

Thief- Thieves are stealthy fighters, and excel in stealing, hiding, and backstabbing. They also have excellent dodging and good archery, but have piercing as main weapon skill.

Bard- Bards can do pretty much anything. Their skills are average all around.

Mage- Mages are pure offensive spellcasters. Defensive magic is slow, and weapon and armor skills are very slow.

The Skill System

Instead of Strength, Dexterity, and other stats guiding your character's abilities, Tribes RPG uses a skill system. All your abilities are limited by the skills. All classes can invest in all skills, but certain skills go up faster for particular classes. For example, mages have much better Offensive Casting than fighters, but do not have nearly as strong Slashing and Bludgeoning. Skills can be built up either by using abilities related to that skill or distributing skill points. You get 60 SP when you start the game, and 10 SP every time you level. Skills are capped at: (level*10)+20

You cannot go past that by either practicing skill or distributing SP.

The skills are:

• Slashing: Used for slashing weapons- more skill means more damage, accuracy, and the ability to use more powerful slashing weapons. Train by attacking with slashing weapons.
• Piercing: Used for piercing weapons- more skill means more damage, accuracy, and the ability to use more powerful piercing weapons. Train by attacking with piercing weapons.
• Bludgeoning: Used for bludgeoning weapons- more skill means more damage, accuracy, and the ability to use more powerful bludgeoning weapons. Train by attacking with bludgeoning weapons.
• Dodging: Gives a chance to dodge a enemy attack. Train by not getting hit by an enemy attack.
• Weight Capacity: Lets you carry more. Train by moving.
• Bashing: A bludgeoning attack. To bash, type #bash, then hit an enemy with a bludgeoning weapon to do extra damage and knock the enemy back. Requires 15 skill to bash. Train by bashing.
• Stealing: Lets you attempt to rob other players. To steal, type #steal when very close to your target. If you succeed, you will get some of the money the target was carrying. If you fail, the target will be alerted of your attempt and you get nothing. Requires 15 skill to steal, 270 to #pickpocket, and 620 to #mug. Train by stealing more.
• Hiding: Lets you hide in shadows. To hide, type #hide in a dark area. More skill lets you hide longer. Train by hiding. Requires 15 skill to hide.
• Backstabbing: Lets you use a piercing attack. To backstab, be hidden, use a piercing weapon, and hit the enemy from behind.
• Offensive casting: Lets you cast offensive spells. Train by attacking with spells.
• Defensive casting: Lets you cast defensive spells. Train by casting defensive spells.
• Neutral casting: Lets you cast neutral spells. Train by casting neutral spells.
• Spell Resistance: Gives a chance to avoid being hit with a spell. Train by getting hit by spells.
• Healing: Regens HP. More healing means faster regen. Train by drinking healing potions.
• Archery: Used for bows- more skill means more damage, accuracy, and the ability to use more powerful bows weapons. Train by attacking with bows.
• Endurance: Lets you wear more armor and increases your HP. Train by being attacked.
• Mining: Higher mining means a better chance of getting valuable gems. Train by mining.
• Speech: Allows use of chat commands. Requires 3 for #shout, 5 for #global, and 6 for #group. Train by chatting.
• Sense heading: Allows use of #compass, #track, and #trackpack. Tracking tells you what direction and how far a person or bot is from you. To track, type #track playername. #trackpack allows you to keep track of lost packs. Requires 3 for #compass, 15 for #track, 45 for #zonelist, and 85 for #trackpack. Train by using these abilities.
• Energy: Gives you more mana and faster regen. Train by drinking mana potions.
• Haggling: Lets you sell items for more and buy for less at merchant. Train by buying and selling at merchant.

Magic

To cast a spell, type either #cast spellname or #spell spellname. (They do the same thing.) The target (if needed) is the crosshair. Each spell has different casting times and recovery time. (time before you can cast another spell) For offensive spells, the higher your offensive casting, the more damage you do.

Spells:

• Offensive:

• Thorn- 15 O casting- 1 Mana- Shoots a thorn. Instant cast, fast recovery.
• Fireball- 20 O casting- 3 Mana- Small fireball. Fast cast, fast recovery.
• Firebomb- 35 O casting- 5 Mana- Larger fireball. Medium cast, medium recovery.
• Icespike- 45 O casting- 3 Mana- Spike of ice. Instant cast, fast recovery.
• Icestorm- 85 O casting- 4 Mana- Large storm of ice. Fast cast, medium recovery.
• Ironfist- 110 O casting- 12 Mana- Explosive crushing attack. Instant cast, very slow recovery.
• Cloud- 145 O casting- 10 Mana- Explosive cloud. Medium cast, medium recovery.
• Melt- 220 O casting- 15 Mana- Searing heat explosion. Medium cast, medium recovery.
• Powercloud- 340 O casting- 20 Mana- Trio of explosive clouds. Medium cast, slow recovery.
• Hellstorm- 420 O casting- 20 Mana- Very large blast of flame. Slow cast, slow recovery.
• Beam- 520 O casting- 30 Mana- A beam of light. Instant cast, very slow recovery.
• Dimensionrift- 750 O casting- 40 Mana- A hole to another dimension opens, ripping pieces of anything nearby away. Very slow cast, very slow recovery.

• Defensive:

�  Heal- 10 D casting- 2 Mana- Heals you. Medium cast, medium recovery.

�  Advheal1- 80 D casting- 3 Mana- Heals you or target in LOS. Medium cast, medium recovery.

�  Advheal2- 110 D casting- 4 Mana- Heals you or target in LOS. Medium cast, medium recovery.

�  Advheal3- 200 D casting- 5 Mana- Heals you or target in LOS. Medium cast, medium recovery.

�  Advheal4- 320 D casting- 6 Mana- Heals you or target in LOS. Medium cast, medium recovery.

�  Advheal5- 400 D casting- 7 Mana- Heals you or target in LOS. Medium cast, slow recovery.

�  Advheal6- 500 D casting- 8 Mana- Heals you or target in LOS. Medium cast, slow recovery.

�  Godlyheal- 600 D casting- 15 Mana- Heals you or target in LOS. Medium cast, slow recovery.

�  Fullheal- 750 D casting- 2 Mana- Heals you completely. Medium cast, REALLY slow recovery.

�  Massheal- 850 D casting, remort level 2- 12 Mana- Heals you and all players near you. Medium cast, slow recovery.

�  MassFullheal- 950 D casting, remort level 3- 200 Mana- Heals you and all players near you completely. Medium cast, insanely slow recovery.

�  Shield- 20 D casting- 5 Mana- Creates a protecting magical shield around you. Medium cast, slow recovery.

�  AdvShield1- 60 D casting- 8 Mana- Creates a protecting magical shield around you or target in LOS. Medium cast, slow recovery.

�  AdvShield2- 140 D casting- 15 Mana- Creates a protecting magical shield around you or target in LOS. Medium cast, slow recovery.

�  AdvShield3- 290 D casting- 18 Mana- Creates a protecting magical shield around you or target in LOS. Medium cast, very slow recovery.

�  AdvShield4- 420 D casting- 22 Mana- Creates a protecting magical shield around you or target in LOS. Medium cast, very slow recovery.

�  AdvShield5- 635 D casting- 25 Mana- Creates a protecting magical shield around you or target in LOS. Medium cast, very slow recovery.

�  MassShield- 680 D casting- 20 Mana- Creates a protecting magical shield around you and everyone nearby. Medium cast, very slow recovery.

�  Neutral:

• Teleport- 60 N casting- 8 Mana- Teleports you near the closest zone. Syntax is #cast teleport (town or dungeon). Takes you to nearest of chosen type. It is important to know that you may not end up very close to the zone you wanted to go to- it is somewhat random and you may be outside the zone.
• Transport- 200 N casting- 12 Mana- Takes you directly to specific zone. Syntax is #cast transport (name of zone). You do not have to type the entire name- you just need enough to separate it from all other zones. This spell is much more accurate than Teleport- you always end up inside or right at the zone.
• Advtransport- 350 N casting- 16 Mana- Takes you or person in crosshair to the chosen zone. It is the same as Transport with the exception of being able to transport others. The other person must be in your group list (explained later) to be transported.
• MassTransport- 650 N casting, remort level 1- 50 Mana- Takes you and everyone on grouplist nearby to the chosen zone.
• Mimic- 145 N casting, remort level 2- 80 Mana- An unusual spell that has a chance of transforming you into the enemy in your LOS...

Starting to play

Talking to other players is slightly different then in regular Tribes. Using regular chat (non-team) is "say". Only people near you hear the message. To talk to NPCs, (non-playing characters) use say to say a greeting, such as "hello", "hail", "hi", or similar. To reply to their message, say the keyword. (in all caps or in brackets) Team chat is "zone". This sends a message to everyone in the same zone as you, so using this in town sends a message to everyone in town with you. Typing #global in front of your message (i.e. "#global Hello everyone" instead of "Hello everyone") sends your message to all players. There is also #shout, which is like say except a longer range. #tell sends a message to a specific person that no one else can read. The syntax is #tell playername, message.

To level up, you have to get experience points, gained by killing monsters (bots) or doing quests. Leveling up improves your HP and gives you more skill points.

You join the game in Keldrin Town. The town has a bank, a merchant, a smith, an inn, and an arena to practice fighting. Your starting equipment is a pickaxe, some blue potions, some crystal blue potions and some money. The banker can hold your money, and keep items in storage for you. Money in the bank cannot be stolen by thieves. Both services are free. You can buy and sell items to the merchant, which works in a similar way to inventory station in Tribes. Click to buy or sell something, and the merchant will quote a price. If it is acceptable, click again to buy or sell the item for that price. The more of a specific item sold, the less money you get for that item, and the more of an item bought, the less the price. Selling weapons taken from slain monsters is the most common way of making money. If you go upstairs in the inn, you can sleep for a while by typing #sleep. Sleeping recovers your HP and mana faster than regular recovery. Wake up by typing #wake.

The arena is a place to practice your fighting skills and gain exp and a little cash. To go in, talk to the porter. The price is 5 coins to fight as long as you wish. When you go in the arena, you can stay on the starting area to watch fights or talk to the manager. Tell him leave if you are ready to go, or fight to join the next battle. When you fight, you are given a knife, a club, and a hatchet to fight with, but your other equipment is held for you. You wait in a separate area until the fight starts. The fights are 2 on 2, with any places not taken by human players are filled with bots. The bots adapt to the average level of human players currently fighting. Any winning players are awarded prize money. The prizes are randomly chosen from 50, 500, 1000, or 5000 coins. The top prizes are very rare. After the fight, you are taken to the top area where you can watch or talk to the manager again.

Most monsters drop rusty or damaged weapons. These function the same as their new counterparts, but less efficiently. (i.e. less damage and slower swing) To repair them, take them to the blacksmith in Keldrin Town. He will fix them for a fee. (The fee is always less than buying the same weapon new.) The smith can also smith certain items together to make a new, more powerful item. For example, smithing 3 Clubs, 5 Granite, and 5 Quartz will give you the more powerful Ogre Hammer.

The pickaxe can be used to mine various gems. To mine, swing your pickaxe at a crystal (large and purple) to get something. There are many crystals- just look in most enemy zones. Sell the gems at a merchant for various prices. This is an alternate way to make money. More mining gets you better gems more often.

The tab menu gives you a few options. You can see what level and class everyone is and which zone they are. You can cut on ignore global to have no global messages be displayed on your screen. You can see your stats and skill points here. You spend skill points here. You can also change luck mode here. (More on these later.)

Luck or LCK, in its default mode, protects your pack when you die. If you have luck, you only drop some of your things (anything equipped and cash) and your pack is protected for a while, and only you can pick it up during that time. One luck point is also taken away. If you have no luck, you drop everything and anyone (including monsters) can pick it up. Some people might give it back, but there's no guarantee. You can set in the tab menu so that instead of it protecting your pack, any blow that would kill you will miss instead at the cost of a luck point.

At level 25, you can join a House by talking to the Guildmaster in Fort Ethren. Joining a house allows you to PK and be PKed by members of other houses. The risk is not without rewards, as you get an EXP bonus that depends on the number of rank points you have. Earn more rank points by PKing members of other houses. You also get double EXP for killing a player as opposed to a bot, so joining a house gives rich rewards.
An alternate method of PKing is using the target list. Putting someone on your target list allows both of you to hurt each other, but warns the target. If you take that person off, you can no longer hurt each other.

In the Tab menu, you can create a party. In a party, if more than one member hits a monster, you get bonus party EXP. Invite a player by clicking their name in the Tab menu and selecting "Invite to party".

To start fighting monsters, go south over the bridge along the path to Keldrin Mine, the easiest dungeon. You can fight either goblins or gnolls here. The goblins are the easiest and suitable to low levels. Runts are the easiest, then Thieves, then Raiders, then Wizard. Watch out for the Wizard's spells- they can catch you by surprise! Gnolls are harder, and you might wish to leave them to level 5 or so. Pups are easiest, then Shamans, then Scavengers, then Hunters. Pups carry crystal blue potions. Goblins are found in the upper levels, to the right as you enter, and gnolls are in the lower levels, to the left. When you start out, use your pickaxe to kill one monster, then switch to their weapon, as the pickaxe is a poor weapon. If you ask a higher level, they may give you a weapon to start with. If you get hurt, you can use potions or go to town and sleep. Blue potions cure 15 hp, and crystal blue potions cure 60 hp. Use blue potions first. Energy Vials are useful for recovering mana. If you start to move slowly, you are probably overweight. Go to town and sell items or drop excess items to lower your weight.

The Stronghold is the next dungeon. It is east of town, over the water and up a big hill. You can fight orcs here. The order of difficultly is Warlock being the easiest, then Beserker, then Ravager, then Slayers. Ravagers carry blue potions. Level 10 is a suggested level to start on orcs. Ogres, the next enemy level, are hidden somewhere in the mine. The temple is the next zone. The temple is through the valley from stopping point of east town boat, then east up a hill. Fight undead here. The Elven Forest is an outdoor zone with many trees. The elves are harder than undead, but watch out for the bows! After that comes the Traveller's Den (don't fall), and then the hidden Minotaur's Lair. However, there are rumors of a hidden zone for people who have surmounted great challenges...

BIG WARNING!!! Falling can prove VERY damaging! Be careful, or you WILL die!

Miscellaneous-

• Learn the #w command. Using it gets you information on any spell, command, or weapon. Syntax is:

• #w shortsword
• #w fullplatearmor
• #w fireball
• #w beam
• #w #bash
• #w #hide

And so on. Note the lack of spaces.

• Keep potions on you, especially for warriors. They are lifesavers.
• Learn the spawn spots of the bots. This information is useful if you want to fight a specific enemy.
• Black statues, Enchanted stones, and Skeleton bones are quest items. Give them to people who ask for them to get a reward. To find the people who want them, explore! There is a lot to find if you just look.
• Each different server has a different character for your name, so if you play in one server then go to play in a new one, you have to start a new character.
• If you want to start a new character in a server, change your name. Only admins can delete your char.
• The game saves your character occasionally, but you can save it at any time by typing #savecharacter.
• Typing #compass (town or dungeon) gives you the direction of the nearest zone of that type if you have 3 Sense Heading. Useful if you are lost.
• If someone steals from you, DON'T whine about it. That makes you unpopular and thieves certainly won't stop if you annoy them. Moving a lot makes it hard to be stolen from. It also helps to learn who is a thief.
• PKing does happen. Like stealing, whining only makes it WORSE. PKers like nothing more than killing whiners. I speak from experience.
• This should go without saying, but don't be a rude moron. Show some respect to everyone, and it should get shown back.
• Complaining about lag DOES NOT make it go away. We all know if it's lagging, you DO NOT need to tell everyone.
• Spells that target a specific person (the advheals, godlyheal, and advtransport) are locked in at the time you start to cast the spell, not the time the spell actually happens.
• Some scripts can interfere with RPG. If you are having problems, try turning them off before you play.
• To set a password on your character, type #mypassword password. Enter the password you typed there in the Other Info box on the Tribes alias selection screen. (The other info blank is on the screen where you pick your voice pack and personal skin and has a model of a running figure)
• Some of the bots have things you can buy even if they do not have buy as a keyword, like the bots in the mage tower.
• If you try to join a server and it tells you that you are missing a file, you probably do not have the latest update. Go to the website and download the mod package again. If it still doesn't work:

• Rename your RPG directory to RPGtemp or similar.
• Download the full ver and install it.
• Download the update and install it.

If it still does not work, the server probably does not have the latest version. JI and PoG's server, run by the mod creator, always has the latest version- check your server's version against that one.

• If you fall off the map, wait a few seconds and type #recall. If it doesn't work, keep trying. Also, if you get lost, you can type #recall and hold still for 5 minutes to be taken back to town.
• In Fort Ethren, you can rent bots from a guard on the wall. These bots will fight for you for about an hour. Various commands to control them-

• #eyes - Sees what the bot sees.
• #possess - Takes control of the bot.
• #revert - Stops using #eyes and #possess.
• #freeze - Freezes the bot in place.
• #cancelfreeze - Unfreezes the bot.
• #attacklos - Bot guards point at LOS.
• #botnormal - Cancels an #attacklos.

• The #shove command moves people out of your way. It requires 5 bashing, and gets stronger with higher level.
• Tents let you sleep anywhere you set them up. Buy them in Jaten. To set it up, type #camp. To sleep in one, go inside and type #sleep. To pack it up, type #uncamp. You may set it up as many times as you want, but if you leave it set up too long, it disappears.
• You can mass buy and sell to save time at merchants. While at merchant, hit buy/sell on the item. After it quotes price, say the number you want to buy/sell. Hit buy/sell again, and that amount is sold. This also works with storage.
• Nevim, the man in the inn, sells Orbs of Luminence you can use as lights. Be careful, as rain puts them out.

This guide should help you get started and enjoy Tribes RPG!

Appendix- Binding keys and running a server

Starting a non-dedicated RPG server is the same as starting a non-dedicated regular tribes server- just select the right map. (RPGmap5) Start a dedicated RPG server by selecting "dedicated" on the RPG autoloader. To set admin passwords, put this into autoexec.cs:



$AdminPassword[1] = "aaa";

$AdminPassword[2] = "bbb";

$AdminPassword[3] = "ccc";

$AdminPassword[4] = "ddd";

$AdminPassword[5] = "eee";

$loginmsg = "Login message here";

$console::logmode = 0;

Change the passwords and the login message to whatever you like. Put the file in the Tribes config folder.

Binding Keys:

Put this in your autoexec.cs folder:


editActionMap("playmap.sae");

bindAction(keyboard0, make, "x", TO, IDACTION_MOVEFORWARD, 1.000000);

bindCommand(Keyboard0, make, "h", TO, "postaction(2048,IDACTION_FIRE1,-0);");

bindCommand(keyboard0, make, "0", TO, "use(\"Crystal Blue Potion\");");

bindCommand(keyboard0, make, "9", TO, "remoteeval(2048, say(0, \"#cast firebomb\"));");

bindCommand(keyboard0, make, "8", TO, "remoteeval(2048, say(0, \"#steal\"));");

bindCommand(keyboard0, make, "7", TO, "remoteeval(2048, say(0, \"#cast cloud\"));");

bindCommand(keyboard0, make, "6", TO, "remoteeval(2048, say(0, \"#cast melt\"));");

The top one is autowalker. The second is autofire, which is useful for mining. The third one uses crystal blue potions. The rest do that action as if it was typed in the chat window. Change the character in quotes after "make" to whatever you like.





Have fun!

Toaster


Special thanks to JeremyIrons for creating this wonderful mod!