A first-person shooter with a ground-breaking emphasis on online teamplay, incredible outdoor landscapes, and innovative, fast-moving gameplay. It's a thinking player's game more than a pure twitch game.

Who is this game being made for?

We're interested in hitting both hardcore gamers and people who enjoy coordinating strategy and tactics in a teamplay context.

How important is the plot in a game of this outing?

Frankly, not terribly, given that the online multiplayer games will have nothing to do with plot. We strongly believe in immersiveness, even though our single-player game will emphasize action and skill development over in-game plot and roleplaying-style interaction. There will, however, be a LOT of backstory support that will put muscle onto what we think is a pretty compelling background setting. The BioDerms offer a strong focus for the plotline, and we will develop that story in detail throughout the single-player campaign.

How many scenarios and missions will Tribes 2 offer?

We're shooting for a lot of multiplayer missions, between 40 and 50. Single player will be heavily focused for long, immersive missions that help the player acquire the skills necessary for competitive online play. What we end up with will depend on how much time it takes to polish each mission to the high standards we've set.

The game looks to have a massive playing area. Tell us about the different types of indoor and outdoor environments that will feature in Tribes 2.

Outdoor environments will encompass five different "worlds": badlands, ice, lush/jungle; desert; and volcanic. There will be terrain and weather effects and hazards, such as fog, lava, and lightning. The maps will provide a much larger playing area, but will take up less data space on the computer than TRIBES 1 maps do. Indoor environments will be gorgeous and can be scaled to different sizes depending on host preference. Each world's base art showcases the look and feel of one of the four stock tribes in the game (plus the BioDerms, who constitute a fifth "tribe").

Tell us more about the latest engine on which Tribe 2 is based. What are its capabilities and how has it allowed you to expand the game beyond the scope of the original?

It's a completely redesigned engine which adds a lot more polygons, so the immersive factor and detail levels are far greater than in TRIBES 1. The increased poly count lets us do more with architecture, and the new terrains are so far advanced over the old ones that they alone will push TRIBES 2 radically beyond TRIBES 1 gameplay. In addition, environmental effects like water and fog will also make dramatic differences in gameplay, since they permit more stealth-based strategy.

How have you dealt with the game's physics engine and 3D engine? Will there be any curved surfaces, akin to the Quake III engine? How does your engine both compare and contrast to such highly-respected company?

My understanding is that there won't be any truly curved surfaces per se, but that the textures and angles we have in the game will come pretty close. Physics will be realistic and will include new effects such as lightning, different terrain friction, and improved vehicle physics for both ground and air. Explosions and weapon effects will be affected by water and fog, which will add a new twist to gameplay.

What part will sound play in the game?

Huge. We're hoping to have 3D sound that will let you triangulate on enemies by the sound of their approach or their weapons. We believe sound is one of the key immersive elements of a great game, so we're putting a lot of effort into ambient environmental sounds, from birds on the lush world to the breathing and armor hum of your own character.

How far have you gone to incorporate an element of realism in the game? How do you think this will offer gamers a new challenge in terms of gameplay and achieving their objectives using thought rather than just fire-power?

With a science-fiction setting, some degree of realism is always tossed from the get-go. However, we are working to keep physics as realistic as possible, and we're trying to stay consistent with the futuristic rules of technology we've set for ourselves. The biggest gameplay impact, in my opinion, is going to be the vehicles. We're putting a lot more emphasis on designing our vehicles to serve a definite strategic purpose. Hopefully, they'll stimulate more truly cooperative play among TRIBES gamers.

To what extent does this title differ from its many competitors in the FPS genre?

Quite a bit. We have player-controlled vehicles, the fluid mobility of the jet packs, vast and varied outdoor environments, and excellent gameplay. It's my belief that our environments and vehicles alone would be enough to separate us from the pack, but there's a lot more in TRIBES 2 as well.

What new multiplay features will Tribes 2 offer?

Aside from more vehicles that require player cooperation - such as the bomber, which is a three-person vehicle - we'll include new game types, new weapons in addition to the old ones, new vehicles, and new deployable equipment. Also, we're going to adjust our scoring to reward actions aside from frags and flag caps, since there are a lot of defenders out there who spend their time repairing base equipment and setting up defensive perimeters. We want to provide a system that counts actions taken on behalf of the team, not just solo glory hunts.

We're also increasing the effectiveness of the command functions, by shifting to a queue-based system where players will select their objectives from a list. Commanders will contribute to the list and coordinate players, but whether to accept orders or not will be decided by the individual player. Finally, we're offering a powerful, in-game set of communications features from key-driven voice binds to full-voice microphone support and all-new community communication and recruitment features that let you contact other players and tribes through the game shell itself.

What new repertoire of moves will we be able to perform and will we be seeing any new weapons and items?

More death, celebration, and taunt animations, for instance. New items will include new weapons such as the portable rocket launcher and new packs such as the Environmental pack, which will permit unlimited time underwater.

How different will Tribes 2 be from the previous incarnation? How much of the original game is incorporated in this latest version?

None of the original code will transfer. However, we are definitely going to keep the excellent balance and fluid gameplay of the original. TRIBES 2 will still be TRIBES, but with a LOT more to it.

For gamers who have already played the previous version, what do you think will attract them back to this latest version?

It'll be TRIBES with a LOT more options, new challenges, new weapons, new vehicles, new games, better command and teamwork features, awesome graphics with a lot of eye candy, incredible terrains, better physics modeling, and enhanced scoring.

Can we expect a playable demo before the game's release?

We'll absolutely release a demo well before we ship, but we're not going to release the full game before it's done. TRIBES set some pretty high standards, so we want to be sure we've thoroughly tested and balanced everything before we ship.