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Tabula Rasa's new Mechs: How do I find them?
While we gear up for the official release of Tabula Rasa's Deployment 16 onto the live servers, which is rumored to happen later this week, we find ourselves excited for the features coming along with it. These are features we've been awaiting for months, and even if we can only enjoy them for the remaining two weeks, they're fun to play with nonetheless.One of those features is the drivable Mechs, or Personal Armor Units. These PAUs were announced very early in the game's development and have become almost a joke for the game's skeptics. So we thought we'd take this opportunity to give a quick little guide on how to obtain your PAU on the test server, and eventually the live server.
TR's Mechs have arrived on PTS with Deployment 16
Tabula Rasa's Public Test Server just received a brand new shipment of Mechs, and the AFS recruits are pumped! With the highly-anticipated Deployment 16 hitting the PTS last night, Personal Armor Units are finally here. The CELLAR Arena and the Edmund Range Training Grounds have both been expanded to accommodate the Mechs, as well as some newly available combat technology installed.This patch also brought about some other goodies, including three new armor sets with level 50 stats that can be worn by any level, new pets, new emote items, hyper-EXP tokens and probably the coolest thing of all time: 40 unique weapons named after some of the game's most involved players. Look for a post later today regarding more on that. In the meantime, if you don't already have the PTS installed, check it out for these latest changes to the game before they go live.
Tabula Rasa to merge all servers into one
NCsoft has just announced during today's Feedback Friday that they will be merging all four Tabula Rasa servers into one main server, in preparation for the final shutdown next month. This server merge will basically combine all characters and items onto one main server, located on the East Coast of the US.In a situation like this, many factors are to be considered. What about duplicate character or clan names? Will all characters on one account be combined onto the same character selection screen? These questions, and more, are answered by a handy FAQ set up on the main TR website. They also mention a release of Deployment 16 coming during or shortly after the merge itself, which will introduce all the goodies we've been hearing about for awhile.
Tabula Rasa's PAUs and Mechs coming in next patch
Just when we thought the Tabula Rasa news couldn't get any better with today's Deployment 15 reaching the live servers, we now get word that the highly-anticipated Personal Armor Units that we've been hearing about for a year now are finally coming in Deployment 16.These PAUs and Mechs will be two separate unit types, obtainable through either a control point mech pad or in the case of the PAU, as a "mount" of sorts. PAUs will only be available to the highest level of Logos Receptives and require a certain skill requirement for usage. Right now, we have word of the Angel PAU for Specialists, the Vulcan PAU for Soldiers, the standard AFS Mech which players are already aware of, the Orson Mech which acts much like a Sapper and finally the Grendel Mech which is described as having the ability to bring down the mightiest of base defenses (it's the big guy in the screenshot above). Check out the complete announcement and let us know what you think in the comments below.
Player controlled Mech spotted on Tabula Rasa test server
It's a long time since the first sighting of a Personal Armor Unit on Tabula Rasa - and that one was disassembled. Now, on TR's public test server, the first prototype mech has been unveiled that players can test-drive. PlanetTR.com board poster RWScissors has bagged a couple of screenshots of the stompy vehicle in action.The original plan for PAUs called for one specific type per tier-4 class. It's not yet clear whether the developers have stuck to this plan or revised it, though the hint given by new lead designer Susan Kath of 'a cool new system to allow you to customize your mechs through a type of alternative advancement' may suggest the latter. The possibilities have Tabula Rasa players very excited, if unsure about the exact role the mech is meant to play.For the immediate future, the best source for definitive information on the PAUs must surely be Dev_Ridout, who's going to be doing a podcast with PlanetTR any day now. There's still time for interested players to get questions in.
TR's PAUs: batteries included, some assembly required
Giant, walking, robotic instruments of death. There's just something about them that appeals to us as geeks. Sure, it might be more practical to build a tank or an airplane as an instrument of war, but you don't get that same rush as you do when you see a bipedal weapons platform in motion. As we've reported to you recently, Tabula Rasa's own bipedal instruments of death have made an appearance on the public test server, and, even in their unassembled form, we couldn't be more excited to see them.A poster by the name of Seraph on the Planet TR forums went even further than we did, using his photoshop-fu to put together what the Grendel might look like fully assembled, just from looking at the parts sitting around the garage in Foreas Base. While we'd rather like to believe that it would be slightly taller and imposing, it seems like a pretty accurate mock-up from what we can tell at this point. But then, that's just the Grenadier's PAU. We've still got seven more to go!
Tabula Rasa's PAUs make appearance on PTS
Personal Armor Units, or PAUs, are one of the most highly anticipated features coming down the track for Tabula Rasa. In lieu of a mount, Destination Games is looking to give higher level players a boost in prestige by letting them tramp around and scare the newbies in giant mechanical robots. Most players have already grown accustomed to the intimidating AFS mechs, but one imagines that actually being able to pilot a similar hulking death machine will be a new and exciting experience.As it turns out, a PAU is making an appearance in patch 1.6, in unassembled form in a garage in Foreas Base. From what we can tell, it looks to be a Grendel, the Grenadier-class PAU that is one of the few to have actually been fleshed out by the devs so far. If you check out the video we've made of the new mechanized monster after the jump, two uniformed ladies appear to be conversing in front of the half-unpacked crate, but some sort of bug is speeding their dialog along at such a clip that all we can do is pick out random words like "coolant," "duct tape," and "human flesh." PAUs powered by human flesh? Confirmed.
AFS mechs' new animations show their mettle
As is usually the case, there were a lot of things that we wanted the Destination Games team to put into Tabula Rasa's patch 1.5 that we don't see in the build on the PTS. The opacity of the development process usually has that effect. But one of the nice benefits of our ignorance is that we are often quite pleasantly surprised by the unexpected things that we find every time a new build shows up on our a desktop. One of the things that eluded as when the patch notes were posted yesterday, but which delighted us when shown in motion is the new attacks and animations for the mechs that patrol the heavier AFS bases.One player who goes by the name of Flashburn on the Planet TR forums was courteous enough to record these new animations for our viewing pleasure. Notice the way the mech raps on his head to unjam the rockets. It's subtle, but worthy of a chuckle. And who can't be at least slightly awed by that new jumping attack? Are these new animations in some a way preview for what's ahead with the long-promised personal armored units? We can only speculate at this point, but we're suddenly excited about the prospect all over again. We'll have more on the new build as we explore it.
Our 2008 Tabula Rasa wish list: it's sci-fi-tastic!
The past year was a big one for Tabula Rasa and all who call it a virtual home. While most players only had a scant two months to enjoy the worlds that Richard Garriott and company created, the news came thick, and the time was exceedingly well spent. And Massively has been there from the beginning. From the end of beta event to the 24 hours of Tabula Rasa contests, from our visit to the NCsoft office to Richard Garriott's lecture at George Washington University, we've been all over Tabula Rasa like white on rice, and we plan to keep it that way.Having said that, we have a few things we're looking forward to from the Destination Games crew for the year 2008, from the more mundane to the potentially fantastic. As much as we enjoy blasting the Bane in the game's current state, if we had our way, this wish list would be on the public test realm tomorrow.
