Tabula Rasa

[Komier Nainhammer]

Anyone try this game out yet? Im very interested in trying it but im looking for some feedback before i purchase it. Any/all comments appreciated.

[tramsan]

I did, for a very brief time. Didn't strike me as anything special - just a regular MMORPG with a worse-than-usual target selection system.

[Vaz]

I'm going to try it someday.

[Grogo]

I did purchase Tabula Rasa ans all I can say is that the people playing right now are paying for beta. There are a ton of bugs that still need to be fixed. Weapons don't always register a hit when it is obvious that a hit should have occurred. Quests cannot always be completed and the devs solution is to delete the quest and do it again until it does complete correctly. There has been one small patch since release that did not fix some of the more obvious errors.

There is no real reason to group except in some of the instances. The best part of their earlier game City of Heroes seems to have been completely left out, the ability to group and play with your friends no matter what your level is.

The crafting system is best described as pathetic.

[Velea]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Tabula Rasa isn't developed by the same company as City of Heroes. The publisher, NCSoft, is the same, but I think the developers are different. Isn't Tabula Rasa one of Garriot's "babies"? I'm not as in to sci-fi games as I am fantasy, so I haven't followed it closely. Anyone know what the game is "supposed" to be? Because every one now days seems to come out with a particular target audience in mind.

[tramsan]

Yeah, it's Garriot's love child (with himself.)

The game is supposed to be a blend between MMORPG and FPS, a brand new way of playing MMOs, to remove the grind of all the other MMOs before it. Except that's all wrong.

[gopher65]

I took a quick look at this game a while ago and was briefly intrigued. And then I investigated more closely and found out that it is another horizons/vanguard type game that has been designed and redesigned several times and put through a food processor before having its chopped remains scattered in the vague direction of the marketplace (yaaaay for runons!). There are some neat things about the game, but I'm afraid that I can only support so many 'teetering on the edge of oblivion' games at one time. Limited finances and all that jazz.

[Komier Nainhammer]

Thx for all the replies. Currently mmorpg.com has a 3 day trial going and you dont need a credit card, so im giving it a shot.

Thx again

[Vaz]

Took advantage of that three-day free trial and found it thoroughly enjoyable. If I weren't here I'd be there.

[Komier Nainhammer]

Im agreeing with you Xoshara, i enjoyed it as well. Looks like im going to be splitting my time between the 2 games now.

[Frith-Rae]

well..dangit - what is it that you guys enjoy! :P

[Vaz]

Reasons I enjoyed it:
- The (science-fiction) story/setting/lore is unique (among MMOs) and intriguing, both in concept and in implementation. One of its points is that there is no good vs. evil, just opposing motives.
- The Logos and missions seem to be done well. In the six levels I played, I only saw one or two missions of the type "kill # of X." Instead, there was for example a mission where the player is sent to arrest a Logos-receptive Forean who has deserted the war effort in hope of applying his abilities to peaceful pursuits. Once finding the deserter, the player is presented with the choice of whether to arrest him or escort him to his escape. As for the Logos, seeking the places to acquire them was conducive to exploration, thus IMO collecting them was fun and probably would've constituted an activity I'd've enjoyed for a long time.
- The graphics are nice, especially the animations, which are smooth and realistic.
- Spawning of Bane enemies is unlike any spawning I've seen in any other game. Instead of simply appearing out of nowhere, a "dropship" flies in and hovers for a moment, beams down a group of the enemies, then flies away. This is a nice addition to immersion.
- There is a strong atmospheric feeling of ongoing war, accentuated to a sense of dynamicism by the existence of Control Points which can be fought for and held by either the players or the Bane. Participating in the seemingly frequent battles to hold a Control Point was fun. During these battles, AFS (side the players are on) dropships occasionally arrive to deposit reinforcements in the form of NPC-driven combat mechs.
- Carnivorous animals autonomously attack herbivores; previously something I'd only seen in Ryzom. On that note, it looks like the non-Bane creatures are indeed animals rather than nonsensical monsters.
- Character customisation at creation is decent. You can choose face, hairstyle, neck accessory, glasses/goggles, outfit (either all at once or individually selecting clothing for torso, hands, lower body, and feet), colours of accessories and clothing, skin colour, and hair colour. Maybe more I forgot.
- One can greet non-missiongiving NPCs and read computer terminals, the dialogues of which are sometimes amusing, i.e. "I believe the invasion of the Bane was the universe's way of punishing us for Reality TV."
- I didn't get around to testing the crafting system, but the fact that there is one seems like a good sign.
- Edited-in addendum: Amid all this, I scarcely noticed the FPS elements. The combat isn't really twitch-based, because of "sticky targeting." Thus, the FPS aspect's visibility lies mostly in the interface/controls.

[Raeshlavik]

I played Tabula Rasa to 30-something (out of 50). It is different and will probably shape up to be a good game, but with all of the issues it has had and functionality they've been trying to deliver, there isn't much past 30 for content besides killing more Bane.

My attention span (or available time) isn't great enough to do the same thing overnadoverandover - which is my biggest gripe with HZ's "crafting"... It's not a crafting system, it's a gathering system, but that's not the topic of the thread.

The thing I like most about Tabula Rasa are the occasional 'moral quests' where you are given a choice to do several things, all with certain consequences that play out after you complete the quest. These are really novel in my MMO experience and to occasionally have to really read the quest text and make a decision is refreshing... Sort of like the "wedding quest" in HZ that I still haven't managed to get to work.

Another aspect of Tabula Rasa I liked was the 'cloning' system, where every set number of levels or with the completion of certain quests you get a clone credit. This clone credit allows you to create another character of the same level you are when you use it, but without any points spent... To put this in HZ terms you could level to 20 as a Dragon, then create another character, say as a Saris, and split 20 levels worth of points into healer and scout just to see what it's like.

There is also some HZ-isms in Tabula Rasa in that the 'bad guys' can and will take over areas and you have to get rid of them, which was a design concept for HZ.

The crafting system in Tabula Rasa leaves much to be desired currently, and there isn't much of economy even after they put in the ability to sell things, but I'm sure this will all get worked out over time.

All in all it is a good game with a lot of promise, but I would suggest holding off on playing it for a few more major patches. Currently there are still a lot of quests that work a lot like HZ's quests in that you can get out of sequence by not stepping in the right area and breaking the whole quest chain, instances that don't populate correctly, and MOBs that suddenly appear out of thin air... Actually, if you can handle HZ's quirks, you can probably handle TR's quirks just fine.

And, of course, this is all how I see it and your mileage will vary considerably.

[Kerech]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I'd watched this game off and on before release but due to the complaints of bugs, etc. I never tried it out.

Then I read this today:

http://www.massively.com/2008/08/06/...as-omega-labs/

and it makes me want to try it out. Sure it's a high level zone (lots of spoilers in the article), but it seems like something unique to the mmo world.

Any of the people that posted here earlier, have the bugs been sorted out? Is it a fun game these days? Are there more areas like the one in that article?

[pevil2000]

I keep being vaguely tempted too Kerech. However I know I won't like the game, as it's sci-fi-ish (i prefer my old medieval fantasy ) but the fact it is Garriott... well... *hugs UO*