tabula-rasa
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Kieron Gillen on TR, betas, and free trials
Kieron Gillen of Rock, Paper, Shotgun has a great retrospective up about Tabula Rasa, its launch, and where Destination Games should go from here.Kieron talks about how he actually likes TR, but how the game has been damaged -- maybe ruined -- by an ill-advised Beta test. Which is spot on, really. Loads of serious MMO fans played the Beta at one time or another, and it was missing so many features that made it into the final game it's not even funny -- in fact, it's still missing some even now, hence the rush for patches and new content. The solution? Kieron recommends TR gets a free trial. Not the refer a friend scheme going around at present -- a real free trial so Beta testers can reevaluate the game as it stands.The quality of a Beta influences how successfully a game sells much more than publishers seem to believe, and similarly, free trials. It's always struck me as foolish that every MMOG doesn't have a free trial to begin with. Whilst retail sales is something publishers will always hate to lose, surely if subscriptions are increased in the long-term it's a wise investment?
Hard sell of the week: ads in games are good!
Taking what is perhaps the most transparently self-interested position of the century, Frank Sagnier of ad firm Double Fusion (who you may remember inked a deal with NCsoft not long ago) made the case in Develop Magazine that in-game advertising is not just another stream of revenue for cash-strapped game developers and publishers, but also a useful level design tool. Sagnier says that the programming metrics that are installed to track views of in-game advertising can also be utilized to make observations of player behavior within the game space.Of course, this begs the question: why can't developers just install the code themselves? Ostensibly, the demands of the advertisers give developers a monetary incentive to improve on the existing design and architecture of their game that they might not otherwise have. In an ideal world, making their playerbase happy would be reason enough for developers to get things right the first time, but in this cynical world we live in, I guess that's just not the case. Still, whether it streamlines the design or not, we're still going to bitch about seeing ads in places where they don't fit. See: the above image of a Dell XPS computer housed in a tent on the tropical planet of Foreas in Tabula Rasa. I always pictured the Foreans being Mac users, myself.
Tabula Rasa players ask: where's the rage?
One of the biggest questions that Tabula Rasa players have had since the new patch went out on the public test realm has been: what happened to the nerf to Rage that the devs had been rumored to be talking about? Rage is an attack enhancement for those in the Soldier tree that, when fully pumped, offers a temporary 100% buff to damage output. Outside of maybe Training: Weapons, Rage is probably the most ubiquitous skill choice people take, and is almost directly responsible for the huge imbalance between the Soldier and Specialist trees. Destination Games had been proposing a reduction of the damage buff down to 25%, but it was conspicuously absent from the patch notes.We still haven't heard anything official from the developers themselves, but the rumor so far has been pervasive. We weren't able to track down the original source of the rumor, though threads discussing it can be found on most RGTR forums. It's something that makes sense from a balance standpoint and that is the topic du jour in general chat, so we'll see if we can't get any official word. In the meantime, keep an eye on the patch note pages to see if any incremental updates pop up on the PTR.
NCsoft: has the focus shifted?
NCsoft -- known for such stunningly beautiful games as Guild Wars and Lineage/Lineage II -- is slowly expanding its focus in Korea into the non-game sector. Working with in-house studio Openmaru, the company is building a series of online services to aid in comforting investors. Admittedly, the South Korean Won (KRW) is trading in a slightly stronger position against the United States Dollar (USD) now than it was in October, but that doesn't stop their concern over seeing NCsoft's stock slowly spiral downward from 86,4000 KRW in October (approximately $94.43/share) to 45,000 KRW ($48.27/share) as of Friday's market close. As a result of this move, CEO Kim Taek-jin has promised that the company will increase its investment in online applications, including data and schedule management programs and social-networking services.
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.
Explore Richard Garriott's secret dungeons
Ever wanted to own a medieval-esque castle with secret passages and a dungeon? Produce one of the most significant gaming franchises in history and that dream could become a reality.The HGTV show Secret Spaces was guided by gaming industry eccentric Richard Garriott, aka Lord/General British, through Garriott's Austin home. Garriott became extravagantly wealthy through his Ultima series of computer games, and has spent some of his money building a house/castle hybrid called "Britannia Manor." The manor is full of secret passageways, hidden rooms, and strange artifacts.We have the YouTube video here for you. Unfortunately, they didn't show where he keeps his Sputnik satellite.[Via Joystiq]
Starr Long talks Personal Armor Units
Destination Games have been talking quite a bit recently about what's to come in Tabula Rasa, but the main focus is on ... giant robots! TenTonHammer have a sneak peek up, talking to Starr Long, discussing the Personal Armor Units -- no screenshots or concept art, unfortunately, but there's decent descriptions.Personal Armor Units, as they're known, are TR's version of mounts. The names of five are known so far -- Angel, Ghoul, Grendel, Shiva, and Spectre. According to Paul Sage, Lead Designer of TR, you'll get access to your PAU at level 40. All we know so far is that Grendel is Grenadier only, Spectre seems to be Spy only, and that you can fight in them. These ain't no horses!There's some details about other end-game content in TR, though whether that will come in the same update as PAUs is anyone's guess.
Tabula Rasa RP bloggers wanted
Though there are some among us who espouse that roleplaying is dead, Destination Games apparently hasn't gotten the memo. As part of their on-going community-outreach efforts, which have been fairly awesome to date, they're looking for capable roleplayers to blog, in character, about their experiences fighting the Bane in Tabula Rasa.All you have to do is head over to their fansite registration page, fill out a few forms, check a few boxes, and you could very well have your work shown as part of their on-going Soul of a Soldier feature. So far a lot of the content they have posted is from the perspective of humans just coming to terms with their place in a pitched-battle that encompasses nearly all of the known universe. Granted, Tabula Rasa is less than a month old, but I think there's a big niche that can be filled beyond this sort of "wow, I'm fighting aliens" material that is up there so far. So hop to it, Massively scribes, and smite those bane with your thesauruses!
Building the Bane
Over at GameZone, there's a lengthy article about the origins of the main villains of the whole Tabula Rasa saga: The Bane. It's also got some beautiful shots from Destination Games of a Thrax soldier and the Neph, and goes into a bit of detail of the Bane hierarchy -- standard story fluff, you'd think, but intriguing.The Thrax are quite well personalized as a race, actually -- in that they're immediately recognizeable as repulsive, and that you want to shoot them. It also makes a break from tradition in that they're the first foe you'll encounter in TR, and that they're not stupid; instead of the usual fighting of rats / bats / giant spiders / kobolds to introduce you to a standard MMO, dropping assorted body parts that you'll immediately sell for two shillings. Not that I'm a cynic, and not that other MMOs don't have their own memorable opponents -- be they Charr, Nazgûl, or other players.Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to kill some Trolls.
Tabula Rasa seeks more rookies
Tabula Rasa has wasted no time in joining the list of MMOs with "refer a friend" schemes. After all, if Earth had just been invaded by aliens -- and assuming Will Smith wasn't available -- the first thing you'd do would be to get your buddies to join the military and flee into ancient wormholes. Right?It's a pretty tempting offer with the game having been released so recently, though. If anyone you know happens to pick up a copy of TR, they get three extra days playtime and you get an additional month -- not a bad deal. Of course if Tabula Rasa really wants to sell some more copies, it could do with more than a handful of reviews on the internet. Perhaps General British is storming offices?
Come kick Bane butt, make some cash, in RGTR player event
A call to arms is going out on Tabula Rasa's Orion server for players willing to help engage a large concentration of Bane troops near Lower Eloh Creek. Field Sgt. Witherspoon and the clan "Panic" have been holding the line at the river, but are putting out an all points bulletin looking for reinforcements to help beat back the Thrax and recapture this strategically important objective. Players interested in throwing their weight into the counter-offensive should assemble at Lower Eloh Creek at 9PM CST (10PM EST) on Saturday the 17th. While this is part recruiting event for Panic, they're also encouraging other players to help out, and are offering a $200,000 credit bonus to the first player to complete a special operation.For our part, we're rather impressed that Destination Games is encouraging this level of community involvement through their official channels. Clan raids are hardly anything new, but it's still pretty rare that they get acknowledged enough to be featured on the game's website. So if you play on the Orion server and want the opportunity to make some cash or meet an established group of players, make sure to free up your Saturday night.
Tabula Rasa gains test server, patch notes
Tabula Rasa received an official test server a few days ago, but of more interest is the public test patch notes that are now up over at the official site.It's about five thousand bug fixes, with a few more welcomed tweaks. 30 max missions in your log, a few specific mob nerfs (not Warnets, unfortunately), plus increased server / client stability & performance. Goodbye memory leak?Whilst there's no new servers announced, French & German TR installations are at least getting their own language-specific channels, which should clear things up a bit on Centaurus. There's no ETA for when these changes will go live, but let's hope soon.Full Public Test patch notes can be found here.
One Shots: A moment in history
Today we've captured a little Easter egg in Tabula Rasa just for you. There are numerous computers throughout the game and most of them are usable -- which means you can see interesting little messages on them. Some are bits of story or lore, others simply give the world and environment a bit more depth than it would have had otherwise. This one, however, is a blast from the past! Using a particular computer in the Cormon base in Raja Gorge fires up Akalabeth, Richard Garriott's first game, published in 1980. (Though how the NCsoft crew managed to misspell Akalabeth with the original game disks hanging in their lobby I'm not sure...!)Do you have a screenshot of your own that you think expresses a unique or memorable moment in your favorite MMO? Send them to us with a description (including game name and location) and you may see it posted here for tomorrow's One Shots. %Gallery-9798%
Tabula Rasa crafting 101
Over at Stratics, there's a good guide for learning how to craft, modify and disassemble items in Tabula Rasa.Crafting was relatively broken in the Tabula Rasa beta, so I'm looking forward to creating enough paint to drive Dulux out of business. Delicious, delicious paint.Several TR veterans have also recommended you start disassembling weapons for their components immediately -- whilst it loses you some credits in the short term, it'll give you a wider range of modification ingredients when you're a higher level and with a Supersonic Rocket Launcher Flamethrower of Doom that you want to upgrade. Try it out.Be sure to read the end of the guide too, if you've been curious what the numbers next to a weapon attribute mean!EDIT: fixed link, tricksy blogsmith
Jesus Christ spotted in Tabula Rasa
Razor over at Razorwire experienced a surprising theophany in the world of Tabula Rasa. "I was playing Tabula Rasa last night," he said, "when a figure wearing battle armor and carrying a chain gun ran past me and my avatar provided the appropriate double-take for me. The character's name was Jesus Christ."Yes, Jesus Christ in Tabula Rasa. Obviously, Jesus Christ wasn't really playing Tabula Rasa (well, we assume he wasn't, anyway), but whether the use of the name amuses you, offends you, or both, it brings up some interesting questions about Tabula Rasa's naming policy -- questions Razor asks in his post. Give it a read. It's not super in-depth, but he points out that because Tabula Rasa is not a fantasy world like World of Warcraft or The Lord of the Rings Online, it uses a different naming policy. That policy opens the door to abuses that would have been nipped in the bud far earlier in those other titles.According to Razor there is unfortunately no way to report the name because the game's GM help features are still disabled.
The Digital Continuum: Don't Fear The Re: Console
Massively Multiplayer Online Games have always been the slaves to their PC masters, rarely able to exist on anything other than the PC platform. That isn't to say there haven't been partial attempts in the past such as Final Fantasy XI, but since launch that game has been developed for three different platforms including the PC. Developers still have yet to create a console MMOG that becomes as financially successful as some of the more popular PC titles. In all reality, it still remains easier to make and maintain MMOGs for PCs. The reason MMOG developers find creating and sustaining their games on the PC easier is the very problem with a console exclusive. When creating any Massively Multiplayer Online Game for the Xbox 360 or the Playstation 3 that problem happens to be that as advanced as those consoles are they do not offer the flexibility of a PC. A large part of Blizzard's longterm success with World of Warcraft comes from the depth of the community tools and game customization. It's the wonderful ability to alter your user interface and the incredibly addicting habit of alt-tabbing back and forth from game window, forum posts or online game guides. I'm personally unable count the number of times I've been playing City of Heroes windowed while listening to various albums, simultaneously browsing news, guild forum posts or maybe just checking my email. You may be able to get a browser onto your PS3 and you might manage custom music on both the 360/PS3 but in the end would it be as easy as a keystroke to flip back and forth between both of those functions?
General British wants you for a trivia contest
To celebrate the successful launch of Tabula Rasa, the folks at NCsoft have set up a surprise in-game event ... for tonight! General British / Richard Garriott will be on-hand for the AFS Sci-Fi Trivia Contest to be held in-game throughout the evening, and across the servers. The release alerting us to the event included this quote from the man himself: "I wanted to quickly do something fun in-game as a thank you to the players who have made this such a smooth launch. We have continued NCsoft's track record for incredibly successful launches and player interest and excitement is higher than we expected in both North America and Europe. The battlefields are full of players taking down Bane invaders & we're having a blast kicking alien butt."No word on where in-game you'll be able to play, but one can only assume details will be given out in the public channels. Here are the times for each server: Centaurus 1pm – Central Pegasus – 6pm Central Orion – 8 pm Central Cassiopeia – 9pm Central Bring your trivia caps and you could find yourself winning some credits. Good luck!
Tabula Rasa launches in Austin, Texas
For those of you who have been in hiding recently, I'll let you in on a little secret: Tabula Rasa, the latest MMO from NCsoft, was launched this past Friday. In Austin, Texas, home to Destination Games, developer of Tabula Rasa, there wasn't much fanfare -- but the developers did leave their offices for a few hours on Friday night to chat with fans and sign autographs. When asked about the launch, the game's producer Starr Long told us that he felt things were going well -- there were about 5000 players logged on to the game when he left the office and no major complaints emerging of yet. (Though it sounds like the launch may not have gone so smoothly in Europe.) For those of you who couldn't make the launch event, however, we have good news! While you may not have had the opportunity to hang out with Richard Garriott, Starr Long, and the rest of the NCsoft crew, we did pick up a poster sighted by Garriott and Long which we're going to give away to one of our readers! Want a signed Tabula Rasa poster? All you have to do is leave one comment below (just one, please!) between now and 3:30 PM EST tomorrow (that's Tuesday, November 6th, folks!). As usual, with our contests, you must be age 18 or older and a US resident to enter: please direct any questions towards our official rules. In the end, we'll pick one winner at random to take home this fine piece of swag. %Gallery-9822%
Massively interviews: Starr Long of Tabula Rasa
Two weeks before the launch of NCsoft's latest MMO, Tabula Rasa, Massively had a chance to sit down and chat with the game's producer, Starr Long, in their Austin offices. We discuss Tabula Rasa's past, present, and future -- including a first glimpse at the game's ambitious expansion plans. So what's there to look forward to in Tabula Rasa? Alien-human hybrid races, a major expansion a year (each featuring an entirely new planet), and major content patches every few months. Need to know more? Keep reading!
Tabula Rasa launch: how it went
It's now over three days since Tabula Rasa went retail, so I thought I'd cover the kind of launch and reception that it's received so far.Let's face it: MMO launch servers are notorious for spending their first couple of days offline -- but in a surprise twist, I'm still yet to encounter any of the TR servers going down for more than a second. Having said that, the game seems to have attracted a lot more players than NCsoft were expecting -- the solitary EU server in particular has been almost continuously maximum population since day one, and starting today I've had to queue up to enter. Not cool. There's also been major lag on the EU server at peak times with so many players logged in at once.In more continental news, there's a large French (and German) community on Centaurus, both of which are obviously keen on getting their own language-specific server. A second or third EU server at very least is badly needed, but as yet there's been no announcement from NCsoft. Over on the US servers, things have been a lot more stable -- so much so, I've already decided to skip over to Pegasus.Overall, I've been quite surprised by how enthusiastic the reception Tabula Rasa has received from players in-game has been. Opinions were divided in the beta prior to launch, and I personally thought the game was being launched early -- but the TR crew have cleared up the code, improved framerates, and given the game the extra layer of polish needed. By polish, yes, I *do* mean wearable shades.The chat interface is still awful, though.(Note -- there's almost no reviews for RGTR up at present, but once a sufficient amount have hit the Internet, we'll throw up a Joystiq-style metareview for your enjoyment.)
