Games PC TRIBES User Manual

A W H O L E N E W U N I V E R S E O F 3 D C O M B A T S I M

“The game is fast and fun with dazzling 3D landscapes.”

-- GG AA M EE PP OO W EE RR

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“Clearly the frontrunner in

the industry-wide mech war.”

- O G R . C O M

Go for the ‘Goad’...

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© 1998 Sierra On-Line, Inc., Bellevue, WA 98007 ® and/or TM designate trademarks of, or licensed to, Sierra On-Line, Inc. All rights reserved. 8366710

Ta b l e o f C o n t e n t s

1.	Overview and Introduction	3
2.	Quick Start	4
3.	Timeline and Fiction	5
4. Menu System		28
5.	Playing the Game	35
6.	Personal Digital Assistant	52
7. Mission Types		59
8.	Advanced Reference Section	61
9.	Credits	76
	Index	79

What is Starsiege TRIBES?

Starsiege TRIBES is a unique first-person shooter set in the Starsiege universe. Combining breathtaking visual displays with seamless gameplay, TRIBES will revolutionize the world of multiplayer squad-level games.

With never-before-seen features like the "commander view," full support for team multiplayer games and worlds that stretch out for kilometers, TRIBES will revolutionize the way you look at and play first-person shooters.

Installation Instructions

Insert the Starsiege TRIBES CD-ROM into your CD drive. The Autostart program will automatically begin the installation procedure. Follow the instructions listed on the screen to install and begin playing Starsiege TRIBES.

System requirements and a troubleshooting guide are found in the “README” file on the TRIBES CD-ROM as well as the Starsiege TRIBES website at http://www.tribesplayers.com, in addition to an on-line manual containing the most up-to-date information about TRIBES setup.

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Note: If this is your first time playing TRIBES, it is highly recommended you start by playing the single-player “training” missions in order to acquaint yourself with the controls and feel of the game. Once you feel comfortable enough to jump into a multiplayer game, follow the steps below:

•Dial up your ISP (Internet Service Provider) to get connected to the Internet.

•Open TRIBES, either by double-clicking on the TRIBES icon on your desktop or by selecting it from your START menu.

•Select the PLAY GAME button.

•Type in a name for your player and click on DONE.

•Click on the NEXT button in the lower right-hand corner of the screen.

•Select JOIN MULTIPLAYER. Click on NEXT when done.

•Select a server from the list that is not grayed out. The server list may take a few moments to appear. For the best performance, choose a game that has a green or yellow circle in the Connection

Quality column. A red circle indicates that you may suffer from “lag.” (see PING and Lag on page 33)

•Click on JOIN GAME to join the server.

•Kick some butt.

•You can disconnect from the server and quit from the game at any time by pressing the Esc key and choosing DISCONNECT.

Newblood

by Blake Hutchins

Minax Phasma III

Month of the Burning Swan,

3940 Old Earth Reckoning

“Pay attention, newblood!” Minerva yells across your comlink. Too late, you spot the Blood Eagle hoplites waiting on the rise below. Instinctively, you cut power to your flight pack and plummet downward. A spinfusor disk slices overhead in a blue-hot whirl, instant death missing by an arm’s length. Around you, your tribesmates engage the scarletarmored Blood Eagle

in bright candle flare bursts of plasma and the

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T r i b e s F i c t i o n

sharp, popping crackle of laser bolts. Someone to your left screams and explodes in white fire.

Remember your training, your father’s voice whispers from memory, and you realize you must follow your lessons to the letter if you are to survive this day. This is no training game, and you’re not facing the prospect of bruises or embarrassment. These are Blood Eagle, your people’s ancient foes, and they will kill you if they can.

You fall through a deceptively peaceful blue sky toward rocky hills covered with the barbed, brittle stuff that passes for grass in this place. Dry alien air stings your nostrils despite the filter plugs. The sun is a distant white glow, and you hold the hard, reas-

suring weight of a Telamonian-made minigun, multiple barrels poised to begin their deadly spin. The familiar tingle of a phased-shield aura across your skin indicates your Hoplite armor is active, but right now the nano-threaded polybronze breastplate and

	T r i b e s F i c t i o n
greaves feel			Telamonian’s
like small			barrels blur;
protection			explosive
amid the			flechettes
chaos erupt-			shred alien
ing around			soil into
you.			chaff around
			the Blood
Keep moving,			Eagle. The
Minerva told			hoplites acti-
you as the			vate their
warband’s			flight packs,
dropship			and they’re
creaked and			agile enough
rocked its			to evade the
way down			brunt of
from the			your deadly
blackness of			spray. Only a
orbit only a			few of your
few hours			rounds hit,
ago. It’s the			sparking
main thing that’ll keep you alive -- that and not		harmlessly off the shield-reinforced crimson armors.
panicking! Trust your instincts, newblood! Phoenix		A warrior in heavy Myrmidon-class armor simply
knows enough scroffin’ time’s been spent developing		stands there, grinning behind his transteel faceplate.
them, ayia?		You curse your poor aim, and land with bone-jarring
		impact in a soft crunch of dry pseudo-grass, your
Triggering your flight pack again, you arrest your fall		powerful legs absorbing the shock easily.
with a jolt and swing the minigun at the foe. The

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T r i b e s F i c t i o n

Your lessons. Yes, you remember how you sat with the other children on the training ground of your birthworld, listening to Old Kantele as he lectured in his rasping whisper ... There are only three foes worthy of our mettle, young ones. The Starwolf, who

favor swiftness and daring. The Diamond Sword, who weave strategies of shadow and steel. And the Blood Eagle, butchers who laugh in the face

of fire...

Minerva swoops up on a blue trail of phosphorescence and fires a brace of grenades at the myrmidon. The Blood Eagle warrior leaps ponderously aside, but the grenades’ staccato explosion swats him away like a broken doll and hammers you back a few steps. A Blood Eagle hoplite scores Minerva with a laser as she descends onto the hillside. An

instant later, you regain your balance and hose the bastard down with your minigun. The Blood Eagle staggers under the incandescent hail and falls as your flechettes finally penetrate and find meat to explode in. You have marked your first kill, and you

T r i b e s F i c t i o n

scream in triumph, but there’s no pleasure in it. The stench of blood and ozone and burnt flesh fills you instead.

It is better to die than suffer capture by the Blood Eagle, you once told your father’s sister years ago. She looked into your eyes serenely and replied,

Ayia! Fear is their weapon, true. But you are of the Children of the Phoenix, the first tribe, the eldest tribe, the pure ones sprung from the Blessed Harabec himself, hero of the Cybrid Wars, savior of humanity. Such knowledge will spur you above fear.

A couple of laser pulses hit you in the back, searing even through the shield aura, and you grunt in pain, but the armor holds. You look over your shoulder and trigger your flight pack to thrust you into that indifferent blue sky. Another bolt scorches a furrow in the ground under you, and you vector toward the sniper, a female hoplite, emptying the Telamonian at her as she tries to maintain cover in the rocks of the hilltop. A bellyful of fear gives your hands speed as you let the useless minigun snap back to standby on the warharness while you pull up your plascannon. The Blood Eagle raises her longrifle too late as you drop directly onto her and crash a boot into her faceplate. The next instant, you unload white-hot plasma into her at point-blank

range. You can’t even hear her scream under the roar of the flames.

Minigun. Longrifle. Disker. Grenade launcher. Blaster. Hellshot. Lascarbine. Hawktorps. Plascannon. Sword. Shockchain. Knife. Tetrahook. Club. Hand. Foot. Teeth. You’ve trained with all these weapons since you were old enough to walk, and their use is now deeply instinctive for you. Still, you remember your father’s words to you upon Presentation after your received the Dragon Marks of adulthood: Your life, too, is a weapon.

You land on your belly and skid down a slope in a dry cloud of dirt, through charred patches where blaster bolts scored the ground. Two Blood Eagle peltasts snipe at you, first one, then the other, as you scramble to reload the minigun with a second ammo canister. Your shield aura won’t hold much longer, and you’re bleeding from a half-dozen minor wounds. The flamer is lost, dropped by the smouldering remains of your last kill. Come on! you pray. You’ve done this hundreds of times before, under fire, underwater, in the dark -- all in training -- but now your fingers can’t get a good grip on the canister. Then you fetch up against a rock and the ammo’s gone. Dust is everywhere. A hyper-vee round whangs off your cuirass, and you

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T r i b e s F i c t i o n

know you’re going to die.

Two standard weeks back, the Blood Eagle dropped onto a world held by your people, slaughtering the populace and setting the flayed bodies of their victims on spears around their LZs. The ghosts of our

people cry out for vengeance, the elders said. The famed Scar Captain assembled a battalion of warriors to strike in retribution. You joined quickly, eager to serve your people and win glory in the eyes of Phoenix.

One way or the other, you’re high in the favor of Phoenix today. One of the two Blood Eagle about to destroy you erupts in a spinfusor explosion, and the second one breaks off to meet the new threat. Harach’Xu. -- another newblood of your tribe -- salutes you as he skims by.

“That’s three for me!” he calls with a grin, chasing the Blood Eagle into a gully with another spinfusor shot.

Even you, newblood, should be worth any four of these Empire-loving scrofs, Minerva joked as you

T r i b e s F i c t i o n

disembarked from the dropship. I’ll have four markers on my belt by moonsrise, you boasted. She’d replied with a raised eyebrow. You know now you hadn’t any idea what you were in for.

You grope for the ammo canister, find it, and slam it into place on the Telamonian with a sharp, metallic click. Relief fills you, but it’s only momentary. The Blood Eagle peltast rockets back out of the gully with a minigun leveled and buzzing. Caught offguard, Harach’Xu tum-

bles out of the sky in pieces. You leap aside as flechettes reach for you in a wake of fury. A quick thrust from your flight pack scoots you beneath the Blood Eagle peltast, and you open up with the Telamonian, but the peltast is too damn fast ...

You remember the bruises left by your weapons instructor, Azendai, and how he taught you to focus through the pain, to keep your attention on the target. But never lose your awareness of your surroundings, he would say. Always know where the nearest ditch is, and grow eyes in the back of your head. The

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enemy does not forgive blindness or laxity.

“Left, newblood! Left, damn it!” Minerva’s voice screams in your ear and you tear your gaze away from the peltast to see a battered scarlet myrmidon drawing a bead on you with something big and black. You roll up and boost hard for cover. The myrmidon sidesteps to avoid fire from Minerva as she pokes a longrifle over the crest of the hill and snaps off a couple of shots. The Blood Eagle peltast, her true target, never makes it to the ground. The laser pulses blow his head off neatly; the sudden blast of blood reminds you fleetingly of one of the roses in your mother’s garden, its petals dissolving into gentle red mist. You glimpse the slumped body drifting downward on its flight pack’s thrust as you drop over the rocky lip of the hilltop. A heartbeat

later, before myrmidon’s rockets shatter the world and turn your day into night.

Dawn casts long shadows over you as the last warriors climb laughing into the dropships. Beyond the mobile landing pads, golden hills roll gently down to a calm sea. Your mother is there, and your sisters, offering you a luck gift: the blaster pistol your grandfather won from the Starwolf -- what? Two jumpgates ago? Three? You tell Mother not to bother, that you were killed on Minax Phasma III, but she just smiles. You are of the Phoenix, my bright one, she says. We more than any other tribe return reborn from the ashes of defeat. Go now,

and return.

“We’ll strip their armor after we’ve destroyed their

T r i b e s F i c t i o n

brethren,” the Scar Captain orders in his gravelly voice. The Blood Eagle myrmidon’s blackened corpse lies in a small crater at the foot of the hill. You rest your head on your knees while Minerva plays a knitterbeam over you. Your helmet lies nearby, blown off from the force of that last explosion. You’re exhausted, your head hurts, and your burns pulse raw agony, but you’re almost too tired to cry out, and pride keeps your teeth gritted. As the nanodocs do their work, blackened flesh flakes away to reveal pink new skin spreading across your wounds with incredible speed. The pain fades. You relax and stretch gingerly. Around you, Phoenix warriors reload their weapons and run nano-repair kits over their armor. The sight of their gleaming wingmask helmets fills you with resolve. Minerva grins and winks as she spies you clipping the Telamonian back onto your warharness.

“Welcome back ... warrior,” she says, and tosses you your helmet. “Remember, you owe me two more by moonsrise, ayia?”

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Tribe Descriptions

Children of

the Phoenix

“Someday, perhaps, the tribes will be one again. Let us keep that flame burning. Until that day comes, we must remain vigilant against those

who would extinguish the light and cast us into the darkness of anarchy.”

— Renn Gistos yl-Harabec, Phoenix Prime

he oldest and most traditional of the tribes,

Tthe Children trace their ancestry back to the legendary Harabec, the immortal Phoenix.

Their ultimate goal is reunification of all tribes under the Phoenix banner. The Children adhere to a body of custom called "The Tenets of Harabec" and expect other tribes to follow it as well.

Although the Children speak of peace among the tribes, they are warriors without peer, and finish their battles with terrifying finality. The Phoenix take pride in their elite status. And so far, no other tribe has succeeded in shattering that reputation.

They organize themselves into armies called Wings,

regiments called Pyres, and squads called Flames.

On the Starwolf: "They turn disadvantage to advantage, adversity into asset. A worthy ally and a dangerous enemy, they are yet too fond of roaming to accept the wisdom of our teachings."

On the Diamond Sword: "Everything is a question to them, a puzzle to solve, a mystery to unravel. But not everything is gray, and the Sworders lack the strength of conviction necessary to act decisively."

On the Blood Eagle: "Butchers united only by bloodlust and their preposterous claim to be the oldest tribe. How they have fallen from their noble origins."

On lesser tribes: "Those who join us are welcome. Those who choose otherwise will suffer. We can only hope to show them the truth."

On the Empire: "Let it rot in decadence and greed. Someday Phoenix will return, and we will raise something infinitely finer in place of mere Empire."

On Immortals: "Some deny that Harabec and other ancient warriors still walk among us. Fools! Have they not listened to the histories? The Immortals exist!"

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Tr i b e D e s c r i p t i o n s

Claws, and then into Squads.

Starwolf

“Victory is within our jaws today. The Great Wolf walks with us this day, and those who fall shall walk with him for all eternity.”

—Viktor Abanath, Great Sergeant, Third Claw, Hepta Ourubis Pack

The Starwolf tribe evolved from humble

Torigins. But adversity bred strength, and the Starwolf eventually exploded into the tribal

wars and carved out a large holding with predatory swiftness.

The Starwolf follow a shamanistic religion, with "The Great Wolf" as their tribal totem. Warriors who fall in battle are said to "walk with the Great Wolf." Starwolf holdings spread across vast regions of space, and Starwolf warriors are the first to explore new worlds and follow jumpgates into the unknown. This great dispersal makes massing large armies difficult, and so the Starwolf favor fluid, guerrilla-style tactics and mobility.

Starwolf organize themselves into Packs named for their world of residence. Packs are broken down into

On the Children of the Phoenix: "The Phoenix want everyone to suck up to them, but they'll never make us bow our heads. Never. We choose our own way."

On the Blood Eagle: "They favor slow and heavy fighting, which makes them our meat. Don't let them capture you, though."

On the Diamond Sword: "Too much thinking, not enough fighting. The quickest way through a knot is a sharp knife."

On the Empire: "Feh! Crabs. Crack their war machines, and it's all soft flesh inside."

On lesser tribes: "If they cross us, we cut them out of the herd."

On Immortals: "Make the sign of the Wolf when you mention Harabec. Not that I believe that scrof about Immortals, but you never really know, ayia?"

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Tr i b e D e s c r i p t i o n s

Diamond Sword

“The sharpest sword cannot compare

to the sharpest mind.”

—Wylim Totoro, Warrior/Philosopher

he Diamond Sword craft the most innovative

Tand dangerous strategies of any tribe. They say the mind is the greatest weapon, and practice a philosophy derived from the Zen Buddhist teachings of ancient Terra. Tribe members tend to be enigmat-

ic, even cryptic. When not fighting, they are usually meditating on obscure riddles. The phrase "talking to a sword" comes from the Sworders' reputation for answering with a question.

The Diamond Sword tend to rely overmuch on their elaborate plans. If caught unprepared (a rare event), they become surprisingly disorganized and vulnerable.

Diamond Sword forces fall into three main armies: the Unyielding Facet, the Reflective Facet, and the Pure Facet. A Facet contains from three to eight Bolts, which in turn contain up to fifteen squads called Blades.

On the Children of the Phoenix: "Their aim is true, but the distance is far greater than they think."

On the Starwolf: "There is a time to fight and a time not to fight. The Starwolf have yet to learn the second lesson."

On the Blood Eagle: "Their dark past devours their hearts."

On the Empire: "Hollow and blind, wrapped in the gilded veils and perfumed smoke of illusion."

On the lesser tribes: "In the forest there are many paths. Those without light lead to oblivion."

On Immortals: "They need to exist. Logic alone cannot answer all the questions of the universe."

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T r i b e D e s c r i p t i o n s

Blood Eagle

"There's one simple rule in war: Win and live, or lose and die. If the other tribes are too weak, we'll carve the blood eagle on their sorry carcasses and carry the remains as banners into battle."

- Brakus D'Vehne, Blood Eagle Talon Prime

he Blood Eagle claim descent from an Order

Tof Imperial Knights sent to conquer the tribes long ago. They maintain a formal military

hierarchy marked by byzantine politics. Rumors say they maintain contact, perhaps even trade, with the Empire. Blood Eagle technology is the most advanced of any tribe.

In combat, the Blood Eagle are unmatched for sheer ferocity. They use the flayed bodies of fallen enemies as banners, follow a scorched earth strategy, and never accept or offer surrender. Despite their brutality, they follow a rigorous code of honor and are the most courteous of hosts during a parley. They never break their sworn word. Never.

Blood Eagle forces are precisely organized into Pennants, which are in turn broken down into divi-

sions called Talons. Talons are divided into Squads. Most units use colorful titles, for example, the Second Pennant, Third Talon, is known within the Blood Eagle as "the Eviscerator Talon of the Wolfslayer Pennant."

On the Starwolf: "Don't waste my time. I have a wolfskin rug in my quarters."

On the Diamond Sword: "Words make poor weapons. The sandrakers pose little threat with their mumblings."

On the Children of the Phoenix: "Dreamers easily placated with honeyed words. Beware, though, for they fight almost as well as we do."

On the Empire: "We remember our roots, and the Empire respects our strength. It's enough... for now."

On the lesser tribes: "Target practice."

On Immortals: "Give me a break. My plascannon says no one's immortal."

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TRIBES Timeline

ca. 2832 — Starsiege ends.

2845 — Beginning of the Chase. Humans pursue defeated Cybrids to other star systems using new FTL technology.

3245 — Beginning of Cyberstorm corporate wars; discovery of first interstellar transfer conduit, or “jumpgate.”

3289 — Discovery of first “meta-jumpgate,” allowing travel over far greater distances.

3291 — Cyberstorm corporations battle for control of the meta-jumpgate.

3350 — Meta-jumpgate discovered to be part of a network of such gates. Beginning of the Diaspora, as humanity begins to spread throughout the galaxy.

“Those Who Jumped,” the first people travelling through the jumpgate, forsake the security of the Great Human Empire to journey into the unknown. These pioneers develop a nomadic tradition and find new pride in their ability to survive away from the trappings of civilization.

ca. 3400 — Settlers begin to refer to themselves as a “tribe,” the Children of the Phoenix, claiming to follow the teachings of the renowned warrior Harabec Weathers, hero of the Cybrid Wars.

3450 — A powerful force of Imperial Knights, the Blood Eagle, appear in tribe space to “subdue” the

Children of the Phoenix for the Great Human Empire. The conflict fractures the Children as groups break away to form their own tribes. This event becomes known as the Splintering.

T r i b e s T i m e l i n e

3455 — The Starwolf tribe forms, supposedly from renegades of the Children of the Phoenix and

Blood Eagle.

3480 — Tribal culture is now a perpetual state of war. The Blood Eagle, far from their home bases for decades, begin to consider themselves a “tribe.” Finding Hercs impossible to maintain, they adopt the flexible armors used by the many tribes.

3530 — Formation of the Diamond Sword tribe under the tutelage of the Enlightened Master.

3641 — First Firetruce held by the Children of the Phoenix. They declare this event will take place twice each century on a planet chosen by the Children. The collective tribes gather on these worlds in an event similar to the ancient Olympics on Terra.

Much is accomplished. A convention of tenets is drawn up, and all tribes agree to abide by them.

3670 — Using innovative strategies and striking with precision and economy, the Diamond Sword rapidly carve out a large holding for themselves.

3741 — Third Firetruce: Whispers of the Empire battling some “scourge” abound, as Imperial advances

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into tribal space falter and fade. It is a time of much prosperity among the tribes, and a lengthy period of peace ensues. Many smaller tribes fall back in line with the Children of the Phoenix.

3831 — Hector Komarosu, Great Eagle of the Blood Eagle, is assassinated. The culprit is never caught or identified, but the Blood Eagle’s age-old nemesis, the Starwolf, are blamed.

3841 — The ultimate purpose of the

Firetruces historically has been to try to reunite the tribes, but the harsh reality is that little progress is ever made toward unity, and splinter groups from

larger tribes often take the opportunity to be recognized as independent tribes.

still undecided, is unable to hold the allegiances of the

Wolfsbane, Excelsior, and Shadow Stalker groups. Many skirmishes break out between Blood Eagle and Starwolf warriors. The Diamond Sword champion humiliates the

chief of the Gorgon Killers. There is little peace at this “time of reconciliation.”

3844 — Illya Ajax Konovalev is named Great Eagle of the Blood Eagle. The Wolfsbane tribe rejoins the Blood Eagle, but the Excelsior and

Shadow Stalker tribes choose to remain independent.

3903 — Phoenix

Prime Alexi Stefanos

yl-Harabec, leader of the

Children of the Phoenix, dies in his bed at the age

of 106. His son, Renn Gistos yl-Harabec, is elevated to Phoenix Prime.

This year is no different, as the Blood Eagle leadership,

3904 — Alexandre Konovalev, grandson of Illya Ajax,

Tr i b e s T i m e l i n e

assumes the mantle of Great Eagle. In an effort to reconcile age-old differences with the Starwolf, he takes Freya Cloudchaser, daughter of a Starwolf

chieftain, as his wife.

3905 — Birth of

Ulysses Konovalev to

Alexandre and Freya.

3922 — The Starslayer tribe settles on Theta Draconis IV after lengthy battle with Diamond Sword over possession of the planet.

3924 — The union between Alexandre and Freya decays to the point where she leaves him to rejoin her pack. Ulysses Konovalev takes command of his father’s Marathon Pennant to recapture her.

3925 — Most of the Marathon Pennant dies in battle with the Starwolf Hepta Ourubis Pack. Ulysses Konovalev is not found among the survivors. An incon-

solable Illya Ajax Konovalev vows to destroy the

Starwolf once and for all.

3925 — The Blood Eagle Wolfslayer Pennant, including the elite Eviscerator and Deathbringer talons, begins an offensive against the Starwolf holdings in the Hepta Ourubis system.

3929 — Starslayer tribe vanishes from Theta Draconis IV. No trace of the 100,000 tribesmen remains, and no clue sheds light on their disappearance.

3932 — Blood Eagle forces prevail in the Hepta Ourubis system following use of ecocidal weapons

on Hepta Ourubis II. Starwolf losses are high, as the entire Ourubis Pack, nearly 80,000 strong, is wiped out. The Starwolf are outraged that any tribe would resort to using ecocidal weapons, outlawed for

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