feedback-friday
Latest
Experience buffs planned for TR patch
Another Friday, another Feedback Friday brought to you by the folks responsible for Tabula Rasa. Critters and crew have come out swinging this week with a genuinely bitching preview of some of the changes we can expect to see in patch 1.6. Chief among those is a change to the experience modifier that will see the maximum modifier go up in a tiered manner based on level. The maximum multiplier in the game now is set at 250% of the base experience, but with the patch it will go as high as 6x base experience at the highest levels. Players will also get significant experience boosts based on group size.In addition, they'll be offering an item to boost experience gain by 50% (stackable with the multiplier and group XP buffs) as part of the cache of items that you can buy by accumulating Global CP tokens. They will join the respecs we've mentioned previously along with a stock of other goodies to choose from like the old-fashioned weapon modifiers. With all these buffs to experience gain, it looks as though getting to level 50 in Tabula Rasa may change from the near-impossible test of patience and stamina to something a lot more amenable. We'll have to see for ourselves when patch 1.6 hits the PTS.
Major changes to TR PvP in the works
It's a PvPers delight today, as Tabula Rasa's Feedback Friday features a cameo from designer Chris Strasz. He's stepped in this week to reassure players that the design team is paying attention to the complaints about TR's fragmented PvP system, and there are fixes on the way that he hopes will improve the experience considerably. A big portion of the fixes he talks about have to do with the way that clans function. They're looking to fix many of the smaller problems that have plagued clan participation in the past, such as fixing the problem of leaderless clans and improving the clan roster window to allow players to see when clanmates were last active, as well as providing new incentives to participate like passive buffs.They're also looking to overhaul the nature of PvP itself. They're hoping to roll out a new system of "PvP contracts" where players, squads, and clans can map out a set number of rules before engaging in Wargames. As the system exists now, squads had to sort of amiably agree to rules before fighting, and with this new system, hopefully they'll be able to write the rules in stone instead of relying on voluntary cooperation. And of course, they're looking to more ably integrate PvP into the main part of the game with clan-captured CPs and the like. While I welcome these sorts of changes, the PvP crowd is notoriously hard to please, and one wonders whether their efforts might not be better directed somewhere where they're more likely to be appreciated... like, I don't know, PvE?
Tabula Rasa team talks two patches ahead, sort of
Another week brings another gaggle of player questions for Critters over at the Tabula Rasa community team. Nothing of terribly much interest this week, though they're reporting that the development team is already on their second week of development on patch 1.6... which saddens my little gamer heart because we've scarcely heard any details about 1.5 yet. We know it exists, surely, but since one of the few details we have heard was later rescinded, it's hard to get terribly optimistic about the whole thing. We're not totally wise on the development process, but doesn't it seem a little premature to be working on 1.6 when players have only just came to terms with 1.4? Maybe I'm out of touch, that's always a possibility.They also go on to address some slightly mundane questions like whether there are unlimited clone credits (no), whether player attributes pass over to clones (yes), whether item rarity should be affecting the quality of tools (yes, and they're fixing it), and whether we can get some more information on the always-popular Personal Armored Units (no, but stay tuned). There seems to be a growing frustration with these community updates, to which we are certainly not immune, and it stems from the general absence of real substantive developer feedback about player concerns. We'll see what the mood is next week.
Feedback Friday makes patch 1.5 blurb
After last week's less-than-exciting feedback Friday, we're happy to bring a bit of Tabula Rasa news to the forefront. High on the list this week is 1.5 patch talk, which is incidentally high on our list of things we want Destination Games to talk about.A concern among many players since the 1.4 patch has been combat speed and general soloability. Apparently the reason for this problem originates from the way attributes worked with creatures pre-1.4 compared to how they function now. We're promised changes in 1.5 that may (or may not) improve upon this issue -- although it seems like this may not be resolved immediately.There's a ton of other random bits in the update this week, but that's the biggest piece of news concerning the next patch. There is a mention of some upcoming armor optimization, specifically light armor. It's a bit vague, but players are warned to beware of some slight changes to the look of some armor pieces. We just hope that it's a good change, as nobody likes it when they log in and suddenly their armor looks a bit -- strange.
Feedback Friday not as fun
It happens to even the best games out there. In the wake of the latest patch release, the next few updates from the developer prove... underwhelming. They've already blown their proverbial wad, so there isn't really much for them to put on offer. In this week's edition of Feedback Friday, the Tabula Rasa team posted to let us know that there are uh... still hybrids! I suppose it's handy to compile all the information for people who don't have the time to comb through the community sites, but it's still a bit of a downer for your average Joe Grenadier.They also included a short Q&A that outlines some of what we can assume are the more common questions from the player base. They ask such pertinent questions as whether vehicles are in the works, whether they plan to add new paint schemes such as camo, and whether secondary color schemes will ever be something that players can tinker with. Unfortunately, the answers are no, no, and no. Well nyah at you too, Destination Games!
Goodies galore in Tabula Rasa Feedback Friday
Gamer goodies abound in this week's version of Tabula Rasa's Feedback Friday from the fine folks at Destination Games. There doesn't appear to be terribly much development as far as the 1.4 patch is concerned (for those were sleeping under a rock last week - they gave a little preview of the new content), beyond that they're shoring up some of the bugs before they drop the patch on the public test realm. They also announced a new /robot emote and kirin mask for the three month veteran reward, and revealed that players will find some fireworks in their packs post-patch to help celebrate the Chinese new year. Sounds fun!The biggest development this week is the announcement of Sanctus Grotto, a level 50 instance coming out later this month that will have players racing against the Bane to get to an Eloh artifact deep in the instance's bowls. They describe the instance as a "desperate race" against time, and we're hoping that this means it will actually be timed, and not just an inconsequential part of the lore. The end-game is in desperate need of being fleshed out, so the more content, the better. We'll likely hear more about this next week as 1.4 moves closer to being released on the PTR. Can't wait!
TR attribute changes unveiled, coming in 1.4
The indispensable Paul Sage has released another Feedback Friday update over on the official site, and we're pleased to report that they're ushering in another big change that will change the way people play Tabula Rasa. As most people well know, the big ability changes that came with patch 1.3 were not accompanied by the tweak to attributes as originally planned. Instead, they were bumped to the next patch, 1.4. The only snag was, they never really expounded on what these changes were going to be. That is, of course, until today.The basic rundown is that attributes have been given new utility, to allow people to tweak their builds for their own personal goals. Points in Body will add addition armor for those concerned with survivability, points in Mind will bump up the damage of Logos abilities, and points in Spirit will increase the likelihood of delivering a critical hit. In addition, the health levels for all characters is being bumped up to better emphasize the role of healing in combat. The way it works currently, if your armor is stripped away, you're basically dead in the water -- it only takes a few good hits to deplete all of your health. By making the health bar bigger, healers actually have a chance to apply their skills before their buddies wipe.1.4 isn't on the PTR just yet, but Sage is encouraging people to try it out while it's still being tweaked so they can get some good feedback on it.
New Tabula Rasa build on PTR, includes screenshot feature
As part of their "Feedback Friday" feature (which in honor of the holiday this week, was written on Wednesday), Tabula Rasa developer Destination Games revealed that a new build is officially live on the Public Test Server, and includes a number of changes and bug fixes. Among the added goodies is the inclusion of a Military Surplus store, which promises to be the primary venue for selling your old weapons, armor, and other bag-cloggers. There are military surpluses available in all the major zones, alongside the normal vendors. They've also added the ability to toggle the UI and added an integrated screenshot taking utility -- which was really long overdue.I've only just started in Wilderness myself, but my impression is that there are lots of prominent bugs that still need to be stamped out. It seems like every few minutes somebody in general chat asks why a quest turn-in doesn't work or why they can't enter a cave to access one quest without triggering another. Further complicating the frustrations is that fact that players can't copy their characters to PTRs manually. They're populated with copies of a given server, so advanced players who might otherwise be able to provide valuable feedback are barred from contributing by this arbitrary limitation. These are the sort of things that can keep people from resubscribing, and moving to other, newer offerings.
