HiRezSean has posted an open letter to the Tribes Community I have quoted it below for you to read.
PTS Build 4 is live and able to be played, this is the release candidate, and if all goes well it will be headed to live soon. I strongly urge everyone to hop on to the PTS to see what to expect when it hits live. When the Out of the Blue patch goes live there is a possibility that the people who have not participated in any of the testing / providing feedback may hate the sweeping changes and quit playing, making the community smaller than it is now.
PTS3 is going to be coming down soon, as we prepare to do a final PTS test. This next test server will have a couple of new weapons. The EFG will fill out the close range slot for heavies and gives them a way to sap energy off of enemies to either ground them or tear through a shield pack. The ELF Projector finally returns to Tribes and will finish off the specialty slot for medium armor giving him a nice alternative to his repair tool. In addition to new weapons we’re going to be testing a small reduction in impact splash radii, small quality of life fixes, and other various balance adjustments based on your feedback.
When we started out on Out of the Blue we knew we were taking on a ton of work by removing classes. It was a big endeavor for a 4 person team. The driving force behind the majority of the development on Out of the Blue came from a place of wanting to see a return to form. We wanted Tribes:Ascend to feel more spiritually aligned with older tribes games, but not alienate all of the T:A players. These types of large changes will make a bigger splash than simply a couple of maps and small quality of life fixes.
We have decided to push the entire patch instead cutting it up into smaller patches. This next PTS will be the release candidate for the live Out of the Blue patch. We have had tons of excellent feedback on the surveys and our general approval rating on the last couple of PTS cycles has been very positive. We feel the game is in a much better place for both quality of life and balance adjustments compared to the current live build of Tribes:Ascend.
We intend for Out of the Blue to be a new season for Tribes:Ascend. Some may be angry that ski routes are slightly different due to small impulse changes or some new “rage routes” are now possible. We understand. Some may say that the game offers less customization due to perks and call-ins being removed. This is simply not true. Due to additional weapon slots, a reduction of classes, the new weapon class system, and some new devices there are more possible combinations than ever before in Tribes:Ascend. This is even after the simplification and reduction of redundant weapon side-grades.
Thanks for giving such well thought out quality feedback. I hope everyone will take some time to check out the final PTS cycle before we push these changes to live. We understand change is hard to digest when the game has been set for a while. Out of the Blue does change the meta, we are fully aware, but we feel it’s for the better.