Tabula Rasa

[Calindor]

Hello all, this is just in info thread about a great game from NCSoft...as you see from the "mmos are becoming generic" thread, I recently tried the trial (along with Marchosias) and am loving it.

All those bugs and complaints people had about the beta are pretty much patched up now, I saw nothing wrong, buggy or missing when I was playing.

Heres some basic info of the game Tabula Rasa - Wikipedia

But here are what I find to make the game awesome, unique, and an excellent change of pace from grind/wolf pelt questing, or just general swords and magic style (MMO)RPG's.
The world and combat feels sort of "Haloish"...The shooting is sticky targeting, but it requires more aim than you'd think. For key targets you want to destroy first you can lock on, but for general combat if your mouse strays off of what you are shooting, you'll switch or lose your target. Missions and quests are similar to that of any FPS single player game...you may get objective to go and destroy, there are also instances to be done with squad party members that are almost identical to say a map/mission you would get in Halo or a Medal of Honor game. But the missions out in the world are great because everywhere you go, all the way points and bases there are constant NPC battles going on, you team up with NPC's and just ther random players running around the area, you cant help but get sidetracked into little skirmishes, and they are also nice EXP too.
Another thing is when in a party you get more exp per mob than you do solo. The exp isnt split up between between party members, everyone gets the same amount, plus a squad bonus which increases with each person that joins.
There are "Control Points" all over the worlds (several planets to go on), which have regularly scripted attacks by NPC's of the side that does not own it, players can go there and take on armies of mobs along with friendly NPC's, you also get a great bonus called "base" bonus just for getting kills while defending a CP....its a great way to grind, and also the funnest way I've ever seen, sometimes in the middle of missions I just want to go to those and go crazy...its pretty much like levelling off of mini, simplified castle sieges in L2.
Theres great customization, more character models than most MMO's (but nothing like Aion)..probably 40-50 faces to choose from for each sex/race. Hundreds of shades of armour paint, for example red and blue will be split up into bright, normal and dark, and for each of those when you get that shade of paint, there will be 16 shades within those to choose from, so theres hundreds of different colours for your armour.

Its extremely immersive, more-so than any other MMO I've seen in the past few years, but the great part is along with the RPG style, the combat just feels like you're going through some FPS...its an awesome change of pace, which I imagine many people are looking for after years of the same WoW, L2, FFXI, etc...

End game consists of Clan war PvP, similar to Lineage 2, and GM spawned Control Points, which are done on a regular basis, there are also just high level and huge scripted CP battles, but the GM's will regularly increase them and give the mobs more structure, and make it a raid style I guess for the server, where dozens of players, or clans show up to.


There are tons of videos out there, but I got bored and frapsed some awesome PvE questing, and defending a CP, also included the game intro cinematic.

YouTube - Tabula Rasa PvE

YouTube - Tabula Rasa PvE

My graphics are on medium (which still looks amazing in game), it goes low, med, high, ultra, extreme or something, but the vid looks awesome and even decent in full screen if you open up the link and click the higher quality option.




I know some other aionsource members are playing, we should all meet up and get a clan going, I'm almost definitely going to buy the game, my char is on the US East server.







edit: also forgot 2 things. The classes are great, theres a progressive class transfer system like L2, where at level intervals you can expand your class into a certain area, everyone starts out at the same thing. It ranges from snipers, to melees, defenders, aoe grenade and rocket launchrs, healers, biowarriors, etc...great combinations.
Next is the weapons, theres tons to choose from, from rifles, chain guns, grenade launchers, rocket launchers, blades, staves (yeah theres a cool class that uses a staff), leech guns, bio guns, net guns, etc...many more I cant think of/don't know...and each of those breaks into subgroups like EMP which is good for armour/shields/machines, projectile, electric, laser, sonic, etc...which all do different things, tons and tons of customization which is a lot more than hmm...should i use an axe or a sword? Each weapon can be crafted with special abilities like leeching armour, life, adrenaline, energy, increase regen, damage, resistances, etc...You can craft them yourself, you wont need to go searching everywhere to find the right materials either, you find most of the schematics you need just from regular PvE...I think each weapon can hold 4 attributes (armour holds them aswell), theres also many different types of armour, from reflective, regular, graviton, stealth, etc...If you need a material to enchant a peice of gear, you can buy other lower grade gear that has the same attribute you want, and if you "disenchant" that gear at a crafting station, you have a % chance to get what you need.

[Meldarion]

Reminds me of the good old bounty hunting days of SWG. I may give the trial a try in which case I'll join your server. But be honest here, how good is the pvp really.

[N0rdic Ninja]

You've actually got me interested now, I never tried the game cause it got completely bashed when it first came out and haven't really looked at it since. It actually look mildly entertaining though. =)

[Calindor]

I havent experienced PvP yet, there were some arenas I saw, but I didnt bother to go in cause I was having so much fun elsewhere...PvE in this game really is something fun that you want to do...its not something you feel like you have to do just to level up.

Heres a video of frap footage of a clan war

YouTube - Tabula Rasa: Genesis vs Exile (end of Beta)

YouTube - Tabula Rasa: Genesis vs Exile (end of Beta)

My guess would be its just footage from ganking out in the world, the same as any L2 PvP movie. Also I guess there are "Wargame CP's" which are probably something similar to Alterac Valley, or BG's in WoW

[Mr Mage]

Calindor your link does not go to the correct website so try this one Tabula Rasa (video game) I also think that the main website might be better click.
I might join you.

[Darkwood]

Is it open pvp, like L2?
Is the world instanced like GW or is everything seamless?

It got a good rating for an MMO (that wasn't wow) so I'm thinking about checking it out.

[Calindor]

Its all open world, but not open PvP...the enemy faction is all NPC, however you can make clan wars like L2, and it is open PvP with whatever clans you are at war with.

I fixed the link.

And also heres another awesome vid of a CP

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.
The guy is lvl 50 and the area is all level 25, so you can see why he's slicing through everything like butter.

[Darkwood]

I think I may have just found my mmo fix untill Aion.
As long as it lives up to its looks.

BTW is it WASD movement?

[Calindor]

Yeah its WASD..also I forgot to say there are instances, from what I gather, about 2-4 in each zone, probably more at higherlevels. They are also very hard to solo, you would need a group...and they are more just like missions from a shooter game like halo or something, rather than a Dungeon, just so you can be there uninterrupted with scripted stuff...theres also no need to run them more than once when you finished the quests.

You go between forts/cities/bases or whatever through a teleport system, between zones by Drop ships (instantaneous, though), and between planets through wormholes...but going around questing is all running around and getting caught in battles along the way.

Your quest objectives and locations are all nicely laid out on the map, and directional arrows in the minimap, so you're never really wondering where to go...The interface is also great, one of the best I've seen in a game, although there could be a little more to the skillbars.

[Meldarion]

Well I'm downloading the 3 day trial right now gonna make a char in US east. Whats your IG name?

[VendorTrash]

i played it at release for about a month and wasnt really impressed.
how is content and everything now?

[Mr Mage]

Originally Posted by Meldarion

Well I'm downloading the 3 day trial right now gonna make a char in US east. Whats your IG name?

Where can you download a 3 trial?

[Calindor]

You can download it at the official site Science Fiction MMORPG: Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa, it gives you a link to mmorpg.com to get your trial.

My trial ends tonight and I'm at work, so I wont really get to play again...however I'm gonna buy it this week, you PM through last names, my char is Sikozu Shanu, but I didnt know you would get stuck with that last name for all of your chars, so I'm probably going to reroll...it would be cool to start up from scratch again with a few ppl, maybe make a clan.

[Chaos_Theory]

I am tempted to try this game.

I had an open beta pass but didn't redeem it in time.

[Karnage]

I played this and am planning on reactivating my account soon(money not game issues). I played from the day after release until about a month ago, and I loved every minute of it. They really have improved a lot of things in game, and added a lot of new content, like quests that allow you to unlock "hybrids" which are a genetic combination of human DNA and the different alien races you encounter in-game, with each having different bonuses and detriments.

Also, sometime in the future they will be installing battle-mounts into the game that will be available at level 40. These won't be simple ride around mounts either. The Grenadier mount(the only mount that has had specifics realeased, last I checked anyway) has duel gatling guns and a rocket attack finishing move. I really can't wait for these.

A really great game and good to know that it's getting some attention now.