Richard Garriot's Tabula Rasa - PC - Closed Beta

[Gilvan Blight]

Okay I got an invite to the Tabula Rasa beta on the weekend. This is the latest MMO soon to be released by the company that brings us my favorite MMOs: Guild Wars, AutoAssault and City of Heroes/Villains. They also put out Lineage, Dungeon Runners and more.

This is a Sci-Fi action/rpg style MMO that I truly think can be called Next Gen.

You start off making a character who is Human, and only Human. No silly races to pick from, no sides to chose, just decide how you look. The character gen is pretty in depth as far as changing your looks. The nicest being that they offer a full range of colors (via color wheel) for all parts of your look. This is nice compared to the usual set of colors most mmos offer. There are enough combination of face shapes, facial hair styles, hair styles and eye ware, that even without the color options you shouldn't run into too many if anyone else that looks like you. You then get to customize a set of clothes ranging from the Han Solo like scrounger look to a Military Uniform.

You then get dropped right into a Warzone! The game immediately reminded me of Starship Troopers which was a very good thing. You are standing there in a war zone with a commander in front of you barking orders. It almost felt like a Medal of Honour game for a few minutes until you realize that this is an rpg and nothing is going to happen until you click on the guy and talk to him to get your first mission.

You go through a great tutorial (one of the best I have played since Auto assault) then are immediately given a team of about 10 Marines and you raid your first base. The base raiding system is very similar to that of the Battlefront games. With command posts that you need to hold and capture.

The combat system in this is action based but not on any FPS level. It reminds me of the failed attempt Star Wars Galaxies made at action based MMOs. It reminds me more of AutoAssault without turrets too. You use your WADS keys to run around, and your mouse is constantly in mouse look mode with a target reticle (third person from your character). You left click to shoot, right click to use 'powers'. Combat is real time but due to the reload time on the weapons feels a bit turn based. Actually battles turn into events where you fire off a few shots, run to cover, crouch down, fire a few more, move cover, etc.

The game at first seems like all sci-fi military at first. All equipment is either guns, ammo or amour. All pick ups are trophies or crafting supplies. Then you do another mission where you get a Logos. This is a magic glyph thing that gives you magical powers. Well I guess they aren't magical, it's funky mixed psy/tech stuff you do by clicking the other mouse button. The first you get is the ability to launch lightning. It sounds cheesy but it makes sense if you pay attention to the storyline.

Characters all start out equal (a nice touch). You decide as you level up what style of character you want to play. You have 3 stats to chose from when leveling up, and these three derive all your important numbers (hit points, endurance, focus, etc). You also get a set of powers that grow with the Logos you find and a set of Skills. The choosing of what skills and powers to level up is what sets you apart from someone else. In the skill section there is also some type of Tree at the top, that so far hasn't been used (I have only finished the tutorial level).

Some other thoughts: best graphics in an MMO I have seen. Though on the best graphics setting things lag pretty bad. Surprisingly though the lowest graphics setting is still better looking then any other game I have seen. Think of Sci-Fi Guild Wars with a bit better graphics and more special effects.

Great use of instancing. When you use a drop ship to move to a new area you choose the instance you want to enter. So heading into town to trade you would pick a busy instance, out to hunt solo you would pick a near empty instance.

Interesting character naming. You pick a first name and a last name for your first character. Every character after that has to have the same last name as they are all expected to be family. This was cool, but Blight was already taken

So far I am really loving this new game. This may be the next MMO I pay for.

I know they still have Beta Slots open, join me in testing this, so far, amazing new game:
www.rgtr.com/index.html

[ghostwes]

Think I'll try this one, if my computer will run it.

And if my Xbox will let me.

[Gilvan Blight]

I feel stupid. It took a public announcement from the Games Designer for it to click in just who's game this was.

Everywhere this is advertised as Richard Garriot's Tabula Rasa. I kept thinking, "boy that name sounds familiar" but never placing just who it was. Until I got the message last night from "Sargent British" thanking me for helping test the latest build of his latest game.

Richard Garriot = Lord British! The kid that made Ultima in his parents basement! The Lord British!

No wonder this game rocks.

Some more details now having hit level 5.

Missions thus far are MMO typical, go here, talk to this person, kill so many of X, find Y, etc. Interesting there have been a few escort missions. Lead someone somewhere, or lead a team somewhere. These surprisingly have been a ton of fun, as the escorts aren't idiots or unarmed like most games. These are missions where you lead an NPC packing heat across enemy territory and where they can hold their own (while still needing just enough help to keep it interesting).

The whole magic thing has gotten a bit more explanation. You hunt around the battle grounds for what are called Logos, these are marks of an ancient race left behind to help the humans. You are a special human that can attune with theses. They have names like Power, Strength, Aim, Vision, Speed, etc. There must be a ton of them, as my character sheet has hundreds of slots for them (making my two look really lonely). What's odd is that getting them doesn't seem to do much besides be a pre-req for using certain magic like powers. Now I started with only 1 power, but have quests to get 8 different logos. Not sure what I will be doing with them when I get them.

Shades of Autoassault and Guild Wars - NCsoft seems to like making you colour your gear the way you like difficult. Like the aforementioned games you need to find paint pots to re-colour the great you will inevitably pick up and wear. The difference in this game though is that your look and equip change far more often then they do in GW or AA. To compensate you can get recipes for paints, that make pots with 10 uses. These are uber cheap to make once you have the recipe.

Crafting is pretty typical: find recipes, find or buy ingredients, hit a crafting station and make stuff. You don't seem to level up in crafting (at least not that I have noticed).

Swapping Weapons and Powers is the meat of the game, I mentioned it above, but the elegance of it is very nice. You are using wasd and the mouse to walk and aim. You use Q to swap weapons and E to swap skills (or items). So in a typical fight I will walk up with a rifle equipped. Fire off three or so shots at long range, as the opponent charges, fire off a lightning bolt with the other button while hitting Q to swap weapons to a Shotgun. By now the beast is in pretty close, so I fire away with my shotgun while backing up and hitting E to swap to my sprint power. As I back up if I can't keep my distance I hit that sprint power and back off quicker. Usually the mob is dead long before then but it works out that way for big mobs. After the fight I swap back to rifle and lightning. It sounds a bit hard, but compared to hitting a variety of number keys 1-10 in the right order at the right time, it's a nice change. Most of the 'skill' of combat is swapping weapons and skills at the right time, keeping in cover and aiming well.

As for the Aiming the game has a nice auto-lock feature for us less FPS inclined. Once you have fired at a target for the next little bit every shot you take will target the same spot. So as long as you don't pause between shots for too long you will continue to hit your target while running for cover or whatever. Moving the mouse overrides this so that, if you have the skill, you can still pull off head shots and the like.

Clones - this is something I am just starting to try to figure out. You can get awarded clones for clearing out areas. These look like they let you make new characters (same last name) but I haven't tried it to see if you keep your skills or whatever.

The Tree - I figured out what the tree at the top of the skills section is. Once you hit level 5 you get to specialize. This is where your Character Classes come in. Everyone starts as a Recruit, but once you hit level 5 you get to specialize in Sniping or Tech, your choice. The choice determines what new skills you learn. This continues at higher levels with multiple branches of specialization. It's a unique system, that seems rather interesting and fun.

If anyone does join, I'm on US Public Test Server 1, Currently in Wilderness (3) with the name Gilvan CoeurDeLion

[devon]

This games looks awesome. It may be my next MMO.

[Gilvan Blight]

I have to admit I was loving it until my PC caught on fire. With only like one week left in the Beta that really sucked. I had just gotten to my first point where I cloned my character. I had just bought a full hazmat suit for my Specialist Clone and was working on some Armour and Weapons for my Soldier Clone.

They re-named the Servers as well. I think I was on Orion, though I can't verify that right now.

I just hope I get my PC back before the end so I can get a bit more trial out of this.

I'm seriously thinking of cancelling WoW so I can play RG'sTR.