Tabula Rasa Blog

Fitting in time here and there...

I haven't been getting a ton of playing in... I have been so swamped at GamerDNA.com... so gaming has taken a back seat... I am also trying to play a bunch of other games so that I can be "in the loop" on it all... hopefully more time will appear shortly!

I still want to get a few more prestige points so I can respec.... then life will be good.

Taking my sweet time...

Work has been crazy at GamerDNA... which means I haven't had any time to spend with my precious... ok that is a bit over kill... it isn't my precious... but it is a fun distraction. After answering a few 360voice tickets, I jumped in to the Palisades and did a quick run through the Warnet Caverns. I was saving it to play with some friends, but our schedules have been so wacky I decided to solo it...

The caverns went fairly quick... the hardest part was figuring out that I had to blow up one of the warnet hanging hives to actually unleash the special guy for the  Trophy Quest assignment. The problem is that to claim most of the quests, I have to talk to people in the River-base Krimm and that place is always over run with Bane... in fact I have rarely seen it available... I think the one time it was, was the time I accepted all the missions. Eventually I am going to have to group up with some people to take that place down and cash in these missions.

A new era!

I got a new Lenovo Thinkpad T61 for work and guess what... it runs Tabula Rasa! I had the system auto-configure the settings and it put the resolution up really high, but the level of detail on low... and when I try and change it to medium or something, it keeps setting it back to low...

But it does run at 50 frames per second on the current settings... so I can't really complain. It will be fun having a portable option for gaming! Maybe I can get a little TR in on my lunch break? Stoked!

Climbing back in the saddle... with Devil's Den,

It is funny how after being away from Tabula Rasa for only about 10 days, I turned into a complete n00b. I had a hard time remembering what keys did what... and multiple times found myself frantically hunting and pecking for something as easy as the mission list. I haven't quite gotten use to using the CTRL menu... so I still peck around for stuff... always tending to hit "K" when I mean to hit "B" or "L"...

Fatty Chubs, Squid Punch and myself fired up an instance last night though... Devil's Den, in the Palisades.

Given that we ranged from 19 - 25 going into it, things were pretty much a cake walk. We jaunted around the surprisingly large environments using a combination of lightning, shotguns, flame guns, and electric damage. The only real situation that took us by complete surprise was the level 20 Juggernaut around the end... my EMP chain gun was ripping him up, but for some reason both Squid and I kept dying... it helps having someone 5 levels above you as the healer. Fatty chubs kept bringing us back and keeping us in the game.

I continue to read hate on this game. I just don't see where it comes from. I guess I can understand the comments that in the end you just don't feel like your contributions are big enough... what the game needs is some sort of persistent/dynamic battle front so that you feel like you can take a control point and it actually matters... that you see the battle line moving back and forth and any imbalance will lead to the Bane taking back the work you did the day before... as it stands right now, things feel too random... which isn't too bad considering there are still plenty of quests to do.

Where am I?

I am currently stating a new job in Boston... this is taking all my time... and I am here without a computer that can run TR... so for now things are on hold. I do hope to get a new machine with some MMO power so I can at least tool around on my lunch break... stay tuned.

In the meantime, I have been following the online ramblings... tracking the title the best I can... and longing to load up my chaingun(s) for another go at the Bane and their shenanigans.

So I will be back... don't kill all the Bane without me...

Can't wait to check out the new 1.6 Patch

There are a few cool things I am looking forward to in the 1.6 Tabula Rasa patch. Tabula Rasa Vault has the details:

• Control Points have been revamped to have their Assault and Defence tokens be global instead of CP specific. You will find your tokens converted into this new global form.
• Missions associated with the assault and defence tokens at CP’s have been removed. In place of the mission NPC’s, you will find Assault and Defence vendors that take these tokens in exchange for items you will not find elsewhere.
• Two of these special items are Respec tokens; one for skills and another for attributes. Schematics are being added to these vendors as well. This is also where you can get XP bonus tokens.

Read all the changes

I am really excited about the possibility of respecing... I definitely made some experimental choices on my lower levels and would like to get some of those mistakes back. My main issue is that an ability or weapon class might sound good, but then it turns out to be outside your play style... and there is no way to go back on that... I am hoping respec allows for that to become a reality.

I also felt that the defense/assualt token missions, being specific to the CP, was a bad idea... so I am really happy for that change as well.

Tabula Rasa, now more than ever...

I saw that you can get Tabula Rasa for $10 over at Amazon... get down on it!

I have managed to get a few people at 360voice to jump into the fray. NC Soft should hand out some commissions!:)

I still can't really put my finger on what keeps making me come back to this title. Is it the leveling? The social aspects of playing with the 360voice peeps? The drive to get that next Logos, that next weapons... that next piece of buffed armor, that next awesome paint color?

Just the other day I tried crafting for the first time to make some paint colors... my Gravitron armor is now this sweet blood red color all over... I admit, I am one of those people that will wear less powerful armor if it looks more cool than the more protective stuff...

It has been a few days since I played though... times are busy... maybe I can squeak some late night sessions in soon.

Now I know what grinding feels like...

I am not really a "completionist" when it comes to games... I play how I play and if I happen to come across something compelling... some quest or achievement... than I am happy... but I can't say I go out of my way to complete something just for the sake of completing it.

A good example is the Targets of Opportunity in the Wilderness... It seems like something I should have done as part of completing the instances there, but for some reason I still have a significant number of things to do. Last night I found myself with a little extra time so I thought I would give it a try.

The main issue is travel. If you are running around cherry-picking certain requirements here and there, you become very aware of how LONG it can take to get places. Luckily I keep a very good set of Motorized armor around so I can quickly swap into it for longer journeys (this helps alot) but it would still be great to get a mount or a jet pack or something.

Even after an hour and a half of crisscrossing the Wilderness, I still find myself short on a few items from the Targets of Opportunity. Also puzzling is that it says I have one more story item to complete, but I have played all the instances... so I don't know what I missed... frustrating.

Playing The Timora Mines

Last night, Fatty Chubs (L24), Squid Punch(L16) and I (Cole Markelz L18) ran through the Timora Mines instance. At such a high level (and with three of us) it was fairly easy to do. Chubs has all the support power... my new 88 Physical damage Chain gun tears stuff up... and Squid has some great knockback on his shotgun... when we got into trouble... my Level 2 Rage and Fatty's level 3 insta-kill lightning was enough to turn the tide of the battle.

The only confusion we really had in the instance was finding the Eloh artifact... we kept missing the path to it... actually Squid found it... but we didn't believe him because his level is the lowest. :)

I am getting to the point where I have enough money to do whatever I want... Fatty helped me out with that by donating 50,000 to the cause... the chain weapons eat up ammo so I find myself spending alot... I am also getting lazy so I have been buying lots of way points... and I need adrenaline boosters all the time when I am grouping because I always run out using Rage every 30 seconds.

I am still digging Tabula Rasa though... if only because it is something fun... social... sci-fi-ish... pretty much everything that makes it fun.

Crafting just isn't what it used to be...

First of all, Hi everyone!  That's right it is Squid Punch not your normal writer (Cole Markelz), but he asked me to pen a guest entry here on the blog (thanks!).  In most of my MMO experiences in the past I usually picked up crafting as a secondary skill.  On some of them I actually spent more time crafting than doing anything else so the case could be made that it really was my primary skill.  So needless to say once we all got into the Tabula Rasa universe, I was looking into the crafting aspect of things.

I have to say that unfortunately I am not very pleased with the crafting professions in the game, at least not what I have seen of them so far.  Creating your own ammo, grenades, healing kits, and even upgrades to current equipment is pretty interesting, don't get me wrong - but I feel your ability to do that effectively is a bit limited.  One thing that does make it a bit more interesting is in order to craft something you need a schematic, making crafting a bit more then click *fail*, click *fail*, click *success* of some of the previous games - so you have to explore and find or buy these schematics from other players, this however is not the limitation, in fact I see having the explore option as a benefit, making crafting an actual adventure, not just who can spend the most money and click the fastest.

The limitations come with the level restrictions that items, and the schematics have.  For example, I have a schematic that I can use to upgrade an item to have better health regeneration.  This upgrade can only be added to armor that has a min level of 15 or lower, but also in order to use the schematic I need to be level 15.  Most of my schematics seem to be like this, they require a minimum level to craft which is similar to the minimum level of the equipment they can be combined on - which also happens to be similar to the level at which I obtained the item. 

I guess if you have the materials readily available then this works out rather well - to make yourself equipment at your level range - but thus far the items I have collected in battle exceed the statistics I could add to equipment myself for my level - not to mention I have yet to loot some of the materials required for those upgrades.  So it is pretty much impossible to be an effective crafter for the rest of my clan (most of which are above me a few levels).

I suppose once I am level 50 crafting will work perfectly, assuming I can get all the materials and schematics, I can enhance equipment for all levels - making crafting a viable profession, but unlike games of the past it seems rather limited when trying to craft as your character grows, even if you have the extra time, money, and patience to do so.  Limiting the ability to craft an item based on the character level really restricts your crafters.  Sure there is always a limitation on creating that level 50 uber weapon, but on games of the past they limited this by your advancement in the crafting skills - which was not level based, which makes a bit more sense doesn't it?  I mean just because i have killed X of a certain enemy, or defended a control point for Y hours doesn't really directly correlate to my ability to enhance an item does it?

Getting official

I suppose that once you create a custom header for your blog you are getting official. I happen to be in the Divide so I walked around a bit... tried a few screen shots... and ultimately settled on one of my character chilling by the drop ship pad... I like using angles in backgrounds so Cole, silhouetted against the drop ship beam seemed fitting. The Divide isn't a visually appealing location in general... so I didn't have much to work with scenery wise... I didn't want to turn it into an all day project.

For the record I now have exactly ONE reader according to my Feedburner stats... w00t!

The server came back!

After about 20 minutes of waiting, the Pegasus server came back from the dead. Fatty Chubs, Squid Punch and I (Cole Markelz) went out and did the Torcastra Prison instance in the Divide. It took about an hour to do... the tedious part was just figuring out the doors to go through in the prison. At the end of it I managed to climb up a level (to 17) so that was nice. I rounded out the night in the Palisades picking up a few missions... I still have to finish quite a bit in the Divide... and I found myself dying while soloing in Palisades...

I used some cash to build out my Gravitron armor... so my dude has an all new look. Screen shot posted.

My biggest character complaint at this point is that my chain gun weapons (Physical and Laser) don't seem to be quite powerful enough. I feel like I should be cutting through things faster. I really haven't looks at the damage per second of that weapon compared to others at my level (like the shotgun)... but it seems like I should be a little more powerful than I am currently. I will have to play with it a bit.

Oh and for the record the Rocket Launcher seems WAY too slow to be effective. At least at my current level.

Pegasus NO!!!!

So I finally set aside some time to play for MANY hours... and what happens? Pegasus server is OFFLINE. I was right in the middle of a new Gravitron Armor load out... was painting it all up pretty (Red and Grey) and wouldn't you know it...

So here I sit... hitting the refresh button... waiting for my fix... I just got to level 16 and spent the points on Launcher and Gravitron. I haven't enjoyed either in battle yet.

Tabula Rasa wins best Sci-fi MMO?

With all the doom and gloom that is tossed around about Tabula Rasa these days, I was surprised to see it picking up the Beckett Massive Online Gamer Magazine 2007 Reader choice award for Best Sci-Fi MMO.

Last year, EVE Online and Star Wars Galaxies were neck and neck with EVE squeezing by with a victory over SWG. This year these two titles are just as close as ever, EVE with 30% of the votes and SWG with 27%. But it will be the newcomer, Tabula Rasa, who will take home the gold and squeak by with 32% of the votes! It'll be interesting to see what all three of these great sci-fi MMOs will unveil in 2008.

Subscribe to Beckett MOG

In fact, every mention of TR in the magazine is extremely positive, even claiming its release as one of the highlights of the 2007-2008 MMO year. I can't help but feel that TR's largest problem is hype. It seems to be a really solid experience... and appeals to gamers that fall on the sci-fi side of the fence as opposed to fantasy. I personally have never been into fantasy... never played D&D... never read the LOTR books... but I did play Battletech... and have seen all the Star Trek tv episodes in order for TOS, TNG, and DS9... and claim Accelerando as my favorite book... so it makes since why Tabula Rasa falls in my "cool" zone.

One man control point capture!

Last night I had a little bit of time before bed... so I jumped into Tabula Rasa and figured I would try a one-man assault on the Landing Zone outpost in the Wilderness.

I raced in using sprint past the perimeter guards... used Rushing Blow on the turret to leap over the wall... ran to the tower and teleported to the top. From there I used a combination of chain guns (Physical, Laser, EMP) and my Rifle to take down anyone and anything I could see... After about 10 minutes of dealing out death from the tower, I walked down, finished off a few straglers, and claimed the control point.

I am only a level 15 Commando, and yes it would have been alot easier with others... but I like to solo. :) I didn't really make any level progress, but it was a fun exercise in assault tactics. I find it strange that the enemies can't follow you up into the tower... it makes you very protected... a tactic I will definitely take advantage of in the future on some harder control points.

On the equipment front, I was really commited to my Mobile armor, but I recently switched to Reflective... and while I notice the slow down quite a bit... I have to say the extra protection really helps. I guess if I am going to go down the path of a tank, I have to get use to moving slow... my next step is to pump up my Rage ability... and get access to some of the new commando weapons.

Zero Punctuation: Tabula Rasa

This is from back in Oct 2007, but I only recently started playing so it was fun to find this and watch it. If you have already seen it, I am sure it is still funny. :)

This week, Richard Garriott's Magnum Opus gets a little love. A long distance dedication, from Yahtzee to General British.

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The New Patch... 1.6

Lots of people are talking about it... I had a few small thoughts. Meanwhile check out WarCry's coverage:

With 1.6 in the works right now, we thought we'd give you a sneak peek of what you will able to experience for yourself once 1.6 goes live. These are but a couple of those handy little features that were requested at some point or another and we would be happy to get your feedback on some of the changes outlined below by using our Feedback Form.

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My favorite? Really the interruptible reload sounds like a good time. I do get frustrated when I am in an extended chain-laser reload and I just want to bring myself back from the brink.

What does the end of Tabula Rasa look like?

Trullz went to the end of the world... and gazed upon oblivion...

I got my strategy guide in the mail today

If I really like something, I like to support it all the ways that I can. In the case of TR, I decided to pick up the Official Strategy Guide. If anything it will give me something to read on the train right?

But, I was excited to learn something in the first few pages. As a n00b in the game, I always wondered what the red skull was that appeared over a dying enemy. Turns out if you run up to the dying enemy and melee attack, you performa  "finishing move" and recieve double the experience. Put that in the GOOD TO KNOW folder!

If it is good enough for a bitter old n00b...

This is encouraging... if Tabula Rasa is good enough for a Bitter Old Noob, than it has to be good enough for me!

I've been playing a bit of Tabula Rasa again,lately, and it is dangerously close to supplanting WoW as my non-EVE MMO of choice. They've done a lot to the game since the weeks after release when I played, most of it good.

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So at least in this one instance... we have TR beating out WoW as a second class citizen to EVE. Why this makes me excited... one can only guess...