The Front Lines

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Tabula Rasa Release Pushed Back

I saw some news today about the release of Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa being pushed back to the 2nd of November from the 19th of October.

Players who preordered still get a three day head start. The head start now falls on the 29th of October.

I really think this is a good thing. While the last patch fixed a few of the problems I was having, and added a lot of content in the Wilderness zone, there’s still quite a bit that needs doing to finish the game.

The only problem I see is that two weeks may not be enough. There will have to be some heavily caffeinated developers grinding away on the game to make the deadline. Adding an additional month would probably make more sense.

Tabula Rasa is going to be facing some stiff competition, and getting it out early isn’t going to give the game an advantage. There  is already too much competition out there, and Tabula Rasa is getting some criticism for not offering enough.

While Tabula Rasa is in no way doing a Vanguard, it’s important to get the game as good as possible before release. Yes, at some point it has to be released, and no game is perfect, but get things as polished as possible.

I really like Tabula Rasa, and I’m having a lot of fun in the beta. I think the game has a lot going for it. And, it’s different from most other offerings on the market at the moment. That’s something to capitalize on by making sure of a smooth launch.

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Taking Screenshots in Tabula Rasa

The last few times I have been playing the Tabula Rasa beta, I’ve attempted to take some screenshots of the action. It’s always nice to put something up to show everyone what you’re talking about. Alas, nothing seemed to work. Since there was no manual, I was left scouring the keybindings to see if there was some magical key combo required to work.

Seeing as that didn’t work I checked the forums. If all else fails…

It turns out that pressing the Print Screen (PrtScn) key does actually take a screenshot, but doesn’t save it to a the disk. Instead, the image is saved to the clipboard. So once you’ve hit that Print Screen key, you need to alt-Tab out of Tabula Rasa and paste to a graphics program. I use Paint.Net, but any paint program will do, including Windows Paint.

Once you’ve pasted into the paint program, it’s then easy to save it to where ever you like.

Here are a couple of images from the game.

I created a new character this evening to check out the Specialist branch of the the class tree. Her name is Angel Stropp and she was created on the second US server. After running through the recruit missions, she landed in the Wilderness Zone.

Please forgive the quality of this image, the map was cutoff because I made a mistake in pasting the image. Anyway, the starting area is Alia Das in the top right of the map. BTW, see that red spot in the middle right at the bottom. That’s the Landing Zone and it’s currently controlled by the Bane. The players will have to mount an assault to bring it back under control.

Anyway, for one mission I needed to take Angel into the caverns under Pinhole Falls.

There she met a bunch of lovely tentacled floaty Miasmas who just wanted to have her over for dinner. Unfortunately, Angel had to decline their offer. In fact she declined dinner so many times with her trusty Shinobi Shotgun that she ran out of ammo.

So there you have it. Unfortunately, taking screenshots at the moment is a real pain since you can really only take one at a time. I did read one forum post that indicated that the devs are going to implement a proper screenshot facility which saves to a file. Hopefully that will be soon.

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Tabula Rasa Now 24/7

Last weekend when I had my first look at Tabula Rasa, the play times where quite limited during the week. That has now changed. I checked the forums tonight and there is an announcement that from now until release, the beta will be open 24/7.

If you are at all interested in this game, but not sure if it will be worth a long term investment, I suggest you go to the PlayNC Store and purchase the preorder. This will allow you to get into the  beta for 4.99 US dollars. You’ll then have a month to decide if the game is for you or not. If you don’t like it, then you haven’t flushed the price of a full game.

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First Look at Tabula Rasa

Imagine if you were sitting at home, minding your own business watching reality tv, and a honking great spaceship crashed through your roof. Now imagine that you managed to escape the devastation and the relentless onslaught of alien troops to be evacuated from Earth and conscripted into a new military force to fight this enemy across countless worlds.

Welcome to Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa.

I purchased the preorder on Friday evening and then spent the next couple of hours doing the download and install. Unfortunately, the available beta times don’t really work well for us Aussies. Our weeknights don’t fall into the available times. However, the beta servers are open all weekend US time. That meant up early Saturday morning, ready for enlistment and training and to kick some Bane backside.

I’ll note at this point that I just want to give my first impressions of Tabula Rasa in this post. I don’t think it’s fair to give a review, or even a preview since I haven’t played enough to see all that it has, or doesn’t have to offer.

I did enjoy the time I spent playing over the weekend. I created a character called John Stropp. When you create your first character, you pick a surname and a first name. The surname will then be used for all the characters you create on that account. The character creator is fairly flexible, but is still limited. It’s nothing like NCSoft’s stellar character creator in City of Heroes/Villians. I ended up created a fairly tall guy with dirty blond hair, a handle bar moustache and sunnies who looked a little like a 70’s pornstar. Play that funky guitar riff!

Once I created my pornstar character, I was dropped into the tutorial. It’s pretty basic as tutorials go, and is mission based in your own instance much like COH\V and LotRO. I was instructed in the use of the UI and weapons. I was also given my first taste of Logos which was a energy attack.

There is also the need to pick the right weapon for the right opponent. Some of the enemies are immune to physical attacks but will get taken down easily by an energy weapon, while others are immune to energy weapons. This will probably mean that players will need to keep a reasonable stock of weapons in their backpack for the right occasion. I like this, it reminds me of Asheron’s Call where players needed the right combo of weapons and armor to be effective. Lugians if I remember, were highly vulnerable to electical weapons.

Weapons come in four types. Projectile, energy, canister, and rockets. I haven’t picked up any canister or rocket weapons yet, but I’m finding the projectile and energy weapons suitable for nearly everything I’ve encountered. There are pistols, rifles, shotguns and chainguns, at least that’s what I’ve picked up so far. I find I need to switch fairly often. As I said above, the right weapon for the right opponent.

The environment was well done. The first major area is called Wilderness, and it’s pretty much a forested area with rivers and waterfalls. Again, I have a low end video card, so I didn’t see the game in high detail mode, but the graphics are still very nice. I’m seriously considering a new video card just so I can see these games in all their glory. I didn’t notice any major graphical bugs.

The missions and NPCs seem to be reasonably well thought out. What I saw was pretty much standard fare for the MMO genre. There seems to be a decent number of missions to do, and it looks like the missions will take a player through the levels required to get to the next area. Speaking of which, the wilderness area is pretty big. It will take a while to get through.

The main enemy is a species called the Bane. It’s probably more correct to say that the Bane are made up of multiple species. It reminded me a lot of the enemies in games like Unreal 1 and Halo. So far, I haven’t had much trouble with any of them except for the bosses. By crouching and using cover, my attacks were more effective. The enemy AI is pretty standard, that is to say dumb. I did notice from time to time that they tried to outflank me, but it didn’t make that much difference.

My benchmark for game betas is Lord of the Rings Online. Say what you will about lack of content at the high end for LotRO, it was one of the smoothest betas I’ve ever seen. When Lord of the Rings Online was released, it was ready to be released.

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes on the other hand was released way too early. It was full of bugs, unpolished, and really needed six to twelve more months of development. The Vanguard developers didn’t listen to their beta testers.

First of all let me say that I like this game. I had fun playing it, even when things didn’t really work perfectly.

It’s also a beta, and yes there are bugs. Nothing spectacularly show stopping mind you. Most of the issues I had were with getting stuck in the terrain, a few invisible walls where there shouldn’t be, and some slight targeting problems. In fact, the issues were really to do with lack of polish. I did hear some beta testers talking about unfinished missions, which may be why I couldn’t complete one or two of the missions I did. On the other hand, I might simply have just not found what I was looking for.

As I said earlier, it’s too early to really make a judgement about Tabula Rasa. However, I’ve read a number of commentors say that they think that the game is a bit thin. Sadly, I think I have to agree.

The problem I think is that the gameplay will turn out to be fairly one dimensional. There seems to be only one real style of play, and that is using guns with some Logos action in the mix. Games like WoW, LotRO, and the like have a number of classes which allow a player to mix it up. Mages can be Frost, Fire or Arcane. There are Tanks, Rogues, Hunters with lots of variations. Tabula Rasa does allow specialisation of your character into a Guardian, Ranger, Demolitionist, Medic and the like later in the game, so it’s hard to say for certainty on this, but I’m not sure it will really make all that much of difference to mix up the gameplay.

Overall, Tabula Rasa is way closer to LotRO on the scale than it is to VG:SOH. However, that is not to say that it is ready. The game is scheduled to be released on October the 19th which is less than a month away. I think it’s too soon.

The impression that I got after a weekend in the beta is that there is probably at least three months necessary to polish up the game. Unfortunately that will push the release out to January/February when every other MMO is set to release. I’m not sure TR can stand up to Warhammer, Age of Conan, or the Wrath of the Lich King.

Will I buy Tabula Rasa? I’m not sure at this stage. I had fun this weekend, and it has science fiction, lots of guns, evil aliens, and tons of potential. Is that enough?

Popularity: 51%

Richard Garriotts Tabula Rasa - Golden

The other big news of the last couple of days is the announcement of a release date for Tabula Rasa, and the lifting of the NDA for the beta testers. Officially called Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa, the game will be released on the 19th of October. For the beta testers there will be an official end of beta event.

The lifting of the NDA has had another effect. Bloggers and game reporters are finally allowed to press the publish button. A number of articles are springing up across the web. I’ll post links to the articles that I’ve seen below.

For links to some of these articles you might want to check out Kill Ten Rats. He’s already gathered a few to various blogs.

I’ve been interested in Tabula Rasa for quite a while. It’s a sci-fi themed game, which in itself holds a lot of appeal for me. I love fantasy books, games and movies, but I’ve been a sci-fi nerd since I was four years old. No joke, I used to chuck a tanty if I wasn’t allowed to watch Lost in Space. My first sci-fi book was 2001: A Space Odyssey which my Grandma bought for me when I was eight.

I have a special place in my heart for science fiction. Which is why I’m heartened by the upcoming sci-fi MMO releases. Tabula Rasa is just the first. Stargate Worlds is in development, as is Star Trek Online. Both promise to be true to their universes. There’s even a post apocalyptic MMO in the style of Fallout in the works. Fallout itself is supposed to be getting the MMO treatment, though I haven’t heard much lately.

So I’m hoping Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa will do really well. I’ve heard good and bad things said about it, the bad mostly about lack of content. That can be remedied though with regular content releases like LotRO.

Whether I have time to play it is another thing. I might just have to make some. Pity I don’t have a TARDIS.

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Tabula Rasa Starts Taking Preorders

The up and coming science fiction MMO, Tabula Rasa may still be in closed beta, but they’re definitely looking ahead.

This morning I received an email announcing that NCSoft are now taking preorders for Tabula Rasa. The preorder boxes have begun shipping to retailers across North America and Europe. Players can also head over to the PlayNC.com store to purchase the digital download.

Players who purchase the preorder will get a number of bonuses, including:

• a three day head start on the live servers,
• two exclusive character emotes,
• exclusive Shell Bot or Pine Ock in-game non-combat pets to accompany their characters,
• a serial code for unlocking bonus in-game content and access to the beta test,
• a DVD with the game client, and bonus wallpapers and art.

The preorder only costs 4.99 US dollars. It looks like if you buy the game from the digital store, the DVD, wallpapers and art won’t be included. There’s no mention of them on the product page. However, for those of you who are itching to get into the beta it looks like you can get immediate entry into it for a pretty minor cost.

However, there is no mention of a collectors edition that I could find. That doesn’t mean one isn’t being planned, just that you can’t preorder it. I also couldn’t find any mention of when the game would be released in Australia and the rest of the world. The digital purchase might be the quickest option for those of us outside Nth America and Europe.

The game is slated for release in the northern fall season.

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MMO Beta News

A couple of announcements were made today regarding current and up-coming betas.

Vanguard: SOH

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes have opened up their Beta 5. Vanguard is a very Everquesty style of game. The developers have attempted to capture the feel of the early EQ days, with the look of a modern MMO. You can access the beta by downloading it from Fileplanet.

While Beta 5 is not quite a public beta, you have to be a resident of the US to participate, it is open and the NDA has been lifted. So we should be seeing a lot more info about this game soon.

Tabula Rasa

Tabula Rasa has started taking applications for their first beta.

Destination Games and NCsoft are looking for a few good testers – and now is the time to enlist for the early rounds of Tabula Rasa
beta testing. We will be selecting testers based on system
specifications, game experience, location, and date submitted. Please
note that processing your beta application will take some time and we
have a limited number of beta slots available. Closed beta slots are
limited to players over the age of 18 and require acceptance of a
Non-Disclosure legal agreement.

My understanding is that the Tabula Rasa beta should up and running in about a month. At that time I expect that it will be a select few only to test the basic functions. Later beta phases will increase the number of beta testers accepted.

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Impressive Up and Coming MMOs

A few days ago, I wrote that I had signed up for the beta of Lord of the Rings Online. At the end of that post I mentioned that there were a bunch of other impressive MMOs on the horizon. A reader commented, asking me what they are.

Here is my list of impressive up and coming MMOs.

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures

Developer: Funcom Official Website
Release: Q2 2007

Age of Conan is set in the universe of Conan the Barbarian at the time in the novels where Conan has become king. This is going to be a very violent game with a MA rating. It is also the only game I’ve seen where the character creation allows you to configure the shape of your arse.

Tabula Rasa

Developer: NCSoft Official Website
Release: Unknown

Tabula Rasa is a Sci-Fi MMO being developed by Richard Garriot, the man behind the Ultima games including Ultima Online. This game plays more like a FPS, but has the character development of a RPG.

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning

Developer: Mythic Entertainment Official Website
Release: 2007

Warhammer Online is being produced by the developers of the online game, Dark Age of Camelot, and is being set in the Warhammer universe. The graphics seem to be a little reminiscent of World of Warcrafts style, but the game as I understand it, will be substantially different.

Huxley

Developer: Webzen, Inc. (No Website)
Release: 2007

Another Sci-Fi MMO that has the leveling system of most MMORPGs, but from what I understand is more of a FPS action style. I saw some gameplay video a few months ago on the G4 TV site, and this game looks awesome. Unfortunately, as yet they don’t seem to have an official site for the game.

Star Trek Online

Developer: Perpetual Entertainment Official Website
Release: 2007?

Supposed to go to beta sometime in summer 2007. It will include starship combat as well as PvP and solo play. STO will deliver the essential experiences associated with Star Trek: shipboard and starbase life, away-team missions, holodeck activities, and encounters with other starships. And the best thing about this game is that I can be a Klingon. Scrape ‘em of Jim!

Stargate Worlds

Developer: Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment Official Website
Release: Unknown

One of my favorite TV series, so I really hope they do a good job. Stargate Worlds will let you play as a Human, Jaffa, Goa’uld, or Asgard. It looks like they will include the Atlantis worlds as well, which creates almost infinite possibilities for missions. I don’t really see a warrior class for the Asgard though.

Final Thoughts

Including LotRO, this makes seven big online games in development that will soon be released. There are a few other games out there that I haven’t mentioned that are imminent. Vanguard: Saga of Heroes is one that I’ve only recently heard about. Just about every other week I see a report of another MMORPG being announced. It seems every man and his dog is getting into the business. This is not to mention the latest announcements of MMORPGs set in the Firefly and Fallout universes which can also be considered reasonably hefty licences.

I was going to include more information on each of these games, but as I was writing this article, I became aware that I couldn’t do each of these games justice with a single paragraph. If anyone is interested, I’ll do more complete articles on each of these games in the coming weeks.

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