Tribes: Ascend/HERC

HERC
HERC
General Information
Health Pool	14,200
Top Speed	16 m/s
Passengers	1
Primary Weapon
Type	Cannon
Projectile Speed	80 m/s
Projectile Live Time	10 seconds
Projectile Hitbox	0.84 meters
Splash Radius	1 meter
Magazine Size	1
Ammo	Infinite
Secondary Weapon
Type	Explosive
Projectile Speed	4,000 m/s
Projectile Live Time	8 seconds
Projectile Hitbox	0.84 meters
Splash Radius	14 meters
Ammo	Infinite
Cost
Credits	10,000

The HERC, is a tank-like vehicle in Tribes: Ascend, that was removed from the game as of patch v1.0.1268.1. Unlike the Havoc, the HERC was very much a work in progress, with the vehicle's model not even complete. This vehicle has no resemblence of the HERCs of lore from Earthsiege or Starsiege, which saddened the Tribes community. The original HERCs were bipedal mechs, in Ascend, it is a tank that is about four times the size of the Beowulf.

All of the information in this article was pulled from the game files before Hi-Rez removed them. The HERC was designed similar to the Beowulf, having a main cannon, and a secondary weapon that can be controlled by a passenger. A video of the HERC in action can be seen here. While the damage values below for the main cannon are rather low, most likely temporary values for testing or possibly a laser, it is assumed that the HERC was supposed to be a unit that could change the tide of a game. This is based on the fact that when a HERC is purchased, it alerts all players of its presence with unique audio files. The announcer for the Blood Eagle says, "We've detected an enemy HERC!" and "Bringing the pain, HERC is deployed!" The announcer for the Diamond Sword says, "Any enemy HERC has deployed to the field!" and "Request approved, HERC deployment underway!"

HERC Announcements
File:TA Vehicle Herc Voices.oga

Damage Table

Below are the damage values for the HERC.

	Main Cannon	Secondary Weapon
Base Damage	300	1,400
Beowulf	360	1,680
Deployables	300	1,400
Generator	375	1,750
Grav Cycle	360	1,680
Player	300	1,400
Sensor	360	1,680
Shrike	450	1,680
Turret	360	1,680
Splash Damage	210 - 300	980 - 1,400

Trivia

The HERC originates from Earthsiege and was playable in Starsiege as well. The Tribes of Man abandonded the use of HERCs due to the impossibel task of keeping them maintained on the field, therefore HERCs were only used on core worlds.
The HERC model for Tribes: Ascend was created by Max Ko^[1].