And no, I don't mean the actual bases in Tribes. Well, some bases are pretty good, but they're just bases. Tribes 'base' is, essentially, Tribes in its birthday suit. No modifications at all, other than a few base alterations. There are 5 basic aspects of 'base': Defend your flag, go after the enemy flag, defend your flag carrier, attack the enemy flag carrier, and of course capping the flag(if you have it). You're constantly doing something. Simply squatting behind the enemy base isn't a smart move, and it's actually frowned upon. You'll sometimes get kicked for doing such thing. Now, I don't normally play on 'base' servers. While I originally played Tribes without mods back in 1998/99, since then I've grown so accustomed to mods that 'base' looked boring. No new armors? Weapons? Turrets? It really didn't seem appealing, and I never saw the advantage. How wrong I was...

Tribes base is easily the most intense version of Tribes you can play nowadays. Simply watching a game is intense, which I've done a few times. To me, base players completely outrank every other player on the other servers for one simple reason: teamwork. They actually work as a team, which is what Tribes is all about. Go to any other server and it's every man for himself. While this isn't a bad thing, working with a team like you do in base is much more thrilling. Now, I'll admit that I've been a bit worried about going into a base game, mainly because of how much I know I'll suck and let my team down. You can get away with stupid shit on other servers, but not here. base is serious business.

But, with the recent news of Tribes coming back, I knew I'd better at least get a feel of it. I decided to join a game about half an hour ago, and it was just as expected. Intense-and hard-as hell. Right off the bat luck was against me since the map was Dangerous Crossing, one of my least favorite maps. I'm not exactly sure why I don't like it. I just don't. I played the game anyways and overall I sucked, but had a few highpoints. About half way through the game I got a pretty kick-ass midair disc hit, something I rarely do on any server. It didn't kill the flag carrier, but at least I hit him. I then tried to stop being Rambo, calm my shit down, and think about what position I'd be most useful in. Going after the flag carrier just wasn't cutting it for me. These guys knew the map like the back of their hand, memorizing which routes were the fastest. I'd decided to stay at the base whenever our flag was back home.

Defending your flag on Dangerous Crossing isn't terribly difficult, but you've gotta have at least 2 guys doing it. One for each entrance. And, as time went by, I found out that simply blocking the enemy from grabbing the flag, instead of trying to kill him when he's outside the base, is just as effective. I've seen this done before but never really attempted it. As the enemy is flying into the base, you jump right in his path, causing him to come to a dead stop. This allows my teammates to easily kill him(and me). So it was decided. Defense it was.

Overall I know I could've done better. Hell I could've capped the flag if my head wasn't up my ass. Scenario: Our flag is at the base. 2 guys, including me, are defending each entrance. I see our flag carrier approaching the base, so I step back to get out of his way. What I wasn't expecting him to do was throw the flag at me. I quickly realize this, but was too late. The enemy had already returned it before I had time to know what happened. I let my team down big time, but we still ended up winning with 7 points. It was certainly intense, and I can safely say I enjoyed it. I'll probably give it another go sometime tonight, then play on modded servers for a while.