Tabula Rasa

[Kodylan]

Originally Posted by Twobit Whore

Maybe he was laughing because that exact phrase applies perfectly to another recent game.

That's fine too, I don't really listen to other people's opinions on games when I decide to try something/play it/buy it. If I did, I'd be playing Vanguard right now.

[Jabberwhacky]

Good thing more people don't follow your behavior or you'd be out of a job!

[Kodylan]

Originally Posted by Jabberwhacky

Good thing more people don't follow your behavior or you'd be out of a job!

Yeah sorry, I probably should have directed that more toward tjac when saying if I listened to him I'd be playing Vanguard.

[Shots]

I like the premise of the game (after having been in the beta for the last weekend) and it's an enjoyable sight to not be in a fantasy MMO. I don't have any problems with the controls and it seems pretty easy to get accustomed to for me. The instanced caves are enjoyable, with a goal to a certain area (I wish there were many more such caves). But I don't think it is ready for release.

There's no content being tested at the 30+ range. I know they'll add some *eventually* (there's THAT word) but it'll be up to the masses at release to test it out and I'm unsure of how fast they can put out content (no MMO currently puts it out as fast as they claim they can). It's pretty easy to level quickly, so I can see always being at the cap waiting to chomp on more content. It also doesn't appear as though different content paths are available on future characters. All your future characters will be doing the same missions as your current one.

Crafting, to my understanding, was just put in not long ago and it shows. It's very basic and at the same time very confusing. I still have not been able to figure out what to do with the armor and weapon bonus recipes so I end up selling them to the vendor. The price to craft at the early levels is insane. I wasn't rolling in the money enough to even think about dropping 1000 credits on a minor upgrade that I'll quickly grow out of.

The social aspects are almost non-existant so far as I can see. I'm kind of split on this, as at times it fits a military type environment (people going here and there, departures and new arrivals, things of that nature) but it doesn't really have any areas that could be fun with a larger group of people (large battle areas) or any situations that would really benefit from having a semi-static group (or any reason to add people to a Friends list). Also, I'd love to see some contention type battlefields where the NPCs attack in a large scale public battle and it's possible for either side to win the base/post. This would give people a reason to battle in mass to take or defend an obstacle.

Currently, I just can't see this being more than a single month subscription to play thru the current content and then shelving it for 6 months or longer to wait for enough new content to start it up again.

[Cantatus]

Originally Posted by Remf da Troll

Not made by maybe, but you can definitely tell he was involved at some level, he was always nuts about the arcane symbols (logos in TR, like the shrines in UO, etc.). They really could do something nifty with all those logos, but I get the feeling whatever they had planned for them is definitely back-burnered...

RdT.

That's sort of the impression I get as well. As far as I can tell, the most they do is unlock your powers. Even the exploration factor is removed from them since the quest giver puts their locations on your map, which is contrary to all the NPCs that hint at locations and encourage you to explore (although maybe the quests to get Logos don't exist at higher levels?).

Not sure what they were originally intended for (maybe to create powers?), but right now, I'd say they are fairly uninspiring.

Originally Posted by Vatoreus

The only thing that gets me is Garriott was so big on community and shit, but this game seriously feels like a huge single player game with the option of unnecessarily grouping with people. It lacks nearly everything that made UO great and makes MMOs great in the first place and just feels like an ankle deep stream. It's really amazing gameplay with really good art style and graphics, but just fails to deliver on nearly every other front. It's really sad.

That's one of the reasons it reminds me of Auto Assault so much. AA had pretty much the same issue. It had the graphics and the unique combat and was largely praised by critics for these things. It was just the lack of depth anywhere else that inevitably doomed the game. The tradeskills, for example, were pretty much of an afterthought. If I recall correctly, they weren't implemented until towards the end of AA beta and never fully fleshed out. We're seeing exactly the same thing in Tabula Rasa now. And, like you say in regards to grouping, AA had the same issue - grouping was unnecessary and not even really that encouraged.

It sort of surprises me how similar the games are considering AA's demise, especially since they're being published by the same company. You'd think someone at NCSoft would've wised up months ago and realized where this was heading and tried to point them in another direction.

[Gaereth]

It kinda evokes a feeling of mehhh in me. Its a little to much FPS to feel like an MMORPG and a little to much like an MMO to feel like a FPS. Its a bit clunky and doesn't feel very deep.

[I'm Rich Bitch]

[blumblum]

release date : october 19th.

one month to go...

[spronk]

Too much competition sadly, I'd rather play TF2, Halo3, SSMB, Crysis, maybe Hellgate, and even WoW rather than TR. They should have really tried to go for a Guild wars no-sub model, I just can't see myself paying a monthly fee for TR and so won't even bother buying the box.

[orcmauler]

semi-thread necro but, where do you grind 21-30? Palisades is rather barren (as are its instances thus far) and with only once "version" the competition for what spawns is overwhelming? I would like to hit sniper/spy level before beta ends since it will be the make or break point of buying the game.

[Agraza]

You "MUST" perform the temple quests in the west/northwest of the zone and gain access to Eloh Vale(instance). Completing it teleports you to Arieki where there is higher level content. Previous to this patch you could just jump to Arieki from the wormhole in Foreas Base, but now the quest is required. I don't consider the first zone on Arieki all that, but the second zone is decent.

Apparently, and this is kinda weird, you move on from the first continent on Arieki back to a second continent on Foreas then finish on the second continent on Arieki, but both second continents are unavailable during this phase of beta. I guess this is to prevent you from becoming bored with one environment.

[Auro]

The game is just being rushed out the door at this point, it's an unfinished Diablo II MMO set in space.

All drops are random, they can be green, blue or purple. (Ring any bells?) and you move around with a "waypoint" system straight outta D2. Chests drop the majority of the best loot I've seen and at least 50% of the named mobs I've killed don't drop anything, pretty much all of the quests in the game above level 25 are still giving place holder rewards of "100 standard grade cartridges."

Leveling is fast, and the one thing I really like is that 99% of gear doesn't bind to your character, so combined with the "cloning" system where each time you specialize at a tier you can make a copy of your character you can twink very easily. Shared banks across all your characters also make this easy and really the primary replay value of the game right now is going to be leveling your character, then twinking all your best gear back down and leveling your clones.

With less than a month to release there is no end game right now. Zero, zip zilch nada. There's guild vs. guild consensual PvP, but there's no risk/reward system setup at all. Level 30+ content is for the most part non-existent and testing is turned off right now with the zones being closed. Most of the Tier 4 skills (top tier of the game) are not functioning correctly and a large number of them still don't have the "logos" placed anywhere in the game to be able to use them. (all skills in the game require you to acquire a set of 3 "logos" powers to use, they basically are a 1 time flag scattered across the maps for your character that let you use different power-sets and are a cryptic language of the planet)

There are still game-wide crippling bugs popping up all the time. My main characters entire inventory was wiped the other day, the entire server's were rolled back losing an entire days playtime, for some odd reason every single character's PANTS were deleted on another occasion. If you crash out or logout incorrectly the waypoints you've aquired that playsession won't save correctly. Certain armor types such as stealth are breaking if you wear all dropped pieces. The stats system has been broken down by a few guys on the beta boards and doesn't seem to do anything right now at all, it won't let you gimp a character as far as they can tell, but the effect is so minor or complex and completely different for each character type it just seems broken.

Despite all the problems and my complaints there, the game PLAYS FUN I've got my pre-order in for a Collector's Edition and don't plan to cancel, the only thing that could make me would them bumping up the amount of experience needed to level as a band-aid for no end-game. If they do that, fuck them, it's a kick in the teeth to players and would only signal worse things to come.

Unfortunately it looks to me like they're planning to break the golden rule of MMO's: Release an unfinished buggy product and not even the Vanbois will save you. I wish they'd push it back and polish the game enough for a respectable launch, I'm just afraid at this point it's too late.

[Tyen]

30+ content is not non-existant. It is very much in the game. 42+ content drops off to one zone only and the only reason it does is because they are turned off. CuppaJo showed me a few zones of them during gencon and they will very much be live before they are needed.

The only content that is non-existant is raids which is not fun times.

[Kodylan]

I'll have to agree that they picked a very bad time to release; tons of premier console games are coming out in the next month or two which is going to leave a lot of gamers strapped for cash. With TR being a very niche MMO it will probably struggle due to other releases alone; they'll have to overcome that and release proper end-game content fairly rapidly.

At the Logos Academy they mentioned they'll be doing monthly patches and then a once-a-year expansion model that will introduce entire new worlds and features.

[I'm Rich Bitch]

I think TR will bring in new people to the genre in the way that Guildwars did (for better or worst). I know this game is on the radar of a few clans I play FPS' with. These people generally consider MMORPGs for fags and would never play a fantasy MMO. Of course once they get into the game they may give it up but they do not have prior expectations of end game and loot drops. Of course the lack of PvP may be a problem with this group.

Personally, I will buy it and roll with the punches if only because I have such a high regard for Garriott.