Hunters

From Tribes2Wiki

Hunters is a game type created late in the life of Starsiege: Tribes. In order to gain points in Hunters, a player must collect flags and bring them to a central location called the nexus; due to the way the scoring system works, it is best to cash as many flags at once as is possible. Every player drops a flag from his body when he is killed in addition to any other flags he has collected.

Contents 1 Scoring 2 Rules of Engagement 3 Variations 3.1 Team Hunters 3.2 Greed mode 3.3 Hoard mode

[edit] Scoring

You get 1 point for kills and lose 1 point for suicides, but the majority of your points when playing hunters will be obtained by cashing in your flags at the nexus. Due to the way the scoring system works, it is best to cash as many flags at once as is possible.

Scoring is by using the formula Points = (Flags * (Flags + 1)) / 2

In simpler terms, each additional flag you pick up is worth the number of flags you have at the time of pickup.

• 1 flag is worth 1 point.
• 2 flags are worth (1 + 2) = 3 points.
• 3 flags are worth (1 + 2 + 3) = 6 points.
• 4 flags are worth (1 + 2 + 3 + 4) = 10 points.
• etc.

There are scripts that will show how much your flags are worth and how many you need to take the lead (or how many your closest opponent needs to catch up). It's usually best not to cash in until you have at least as many as is needed, because you'll have to cash more flags later on just to make up for it. In example, 14 flags are worth 105 points, and if you only cash 10 flags you will only get 55 points - a deficit that you'll have to make up by cashing 10 more flags.

[edit] Rules of Engagement

Hunters has a set of rules that a player needs to be aware of in order to do well at the game.

• A player cannot camp out at the nexus. Staying too close to the nexus will deal damage to a player over time, much like out-of-bounds damage. However, just because a player can't camp the nexus doesn't mean a player won't put down a satchel charge...
• A yard sale occurs whenever a player drops 10 or more flags at once. The game will drop a waypoint at the location of corpse and announce the yard sale. The yard sale will be announced even if you drop your flags manually.

• You can check the number of flags any player has from the scoring screen.
• If a player holds 5 flags, they will have a flag mounted on their body.
• If a player holds 15 flags, they are considered a flag hoarder and everyone else in the game gets a waypoint showing the hoarder's last location. There can only be one hoarder at a time; the player with the highest flag count will be designated as the hoarder.

[edit] Variations

Very few people have worked with Hunters to make variations on the gametype, but Dynamix included a few variations with Tribes 2.

[edit] Team Hunters

Team Hunters was a new variation of hunters made for Tribes 2 where everyone is divided into two teams. The goal in team hunters is pretty much the same as regular hunters, except that you're working cooperatively with teammates to win the game. Any flags brought to the nexus count toward the team's score. Unlike the individualist version of hunters, kills and suicides do not count towards the team's score.

It is often best to designate a player who camps out in a building and bring your flags to them so that your team can score a massive jackpot by having him cash a massive set of flags later in the map. Flag hoarder waypoints don't show up in team hunters, but players should be careful not to toss too many flags to their designated player at once, or else they get the yard sale waypoint alerting the enemy to what's going on. However, it's likely that good players on the enemy team will know what's going on and where the enemy's designated player is camped out.

Team Hunters was played competitively on TeamWarfare League in 2001, and team scores in the tens of thousands were common among good teams, except in games where their designated player was stopped on their way to the nexus.

[edit] Greed mode

Greed mode requires a player to have 8 flags in order to score. This can keep newbies from cashing in only a few flags and getting a low number of points due to not understanding the scoring system, while keeping veterans from trying to remove flags from play after gaining a good lead. For reference, cashing 8 flags at once will give you 36 points.

[edit] Hoard mode

Hoard mode will shut down the nexus when 5 minutes remain in the map, and reopen the nexus after 3 minutes. During this time, flags cannot be scored, and the game turns into a frantic scramble to stay alive as long as possible and not lose the flags you've gained. The map ends 2 minutes after hoard mode expires.