Tabula Rasa, now with no FUN!

[Surlyboi]

Referrals sent.

[Morfiend]

If anyone starts on Orion, send me a tell and Ill hook you up with some credits and some lowbie weapons if I can find some low enough.

[Tannhauser]

I just got a new laptop, can someone shoot me a referral?  Want to try this out.

[Tale]

I just got a new laptop, can someone shoot me a referral?  Want to try this out.

Sent to the email address in your f13.net profile.

Happy to send any other referrals now that I've figured out how :)

[Soukyan]

I just got a new laptop, can someone shoot me a referral?  Want to try this out.

Sent to the email address in your f13.net profile.

Happy to send any other referrals now that I've figured out how :)

What does a referral get me?

[Tale]

What does a referral get me?

Just a 3-day trial code for Tabula Rasa. MMORPG.com has run out, so the only way you can get one now is a referral from an active player.

Apparently it's also about what it gets me - if you buy the game on the same PlayNC account within two months of the referral, I get a free month's play.  A player can only have 4 active referrals at a time though.

[Soukyan]

Well if you have one to spare, I wouldn't mind giving it another try. I did the 3 day trial from MMORPG.com, but only had the opportunity to try 2 hours because real life sidetracked me. Thanks.

[Tale]

(Soukyan I PM'd you asking for an email address)

Here are some helpful tips for anyone starting Tabula Rasa - the community is very spread out because there are no official forums, but these are the best links I've found.

Best TR forums:
http://www.planettr.com/forums/index.php
http://tabularasa.gangrel.me.uk

Best TR spoiler/help database:
http://tabularasa.wikia.com/

Very good thread: "Things we've learned - General tips"
http://www.planettr.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2113

What stats do - updated for 1.4 patch
http://www.planettr.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3390

Character build planner (poor, but looks updated for 1.4 patch)
http://trcpt.crymore.de:8080/

(Better character build planners - awaiting update for 1.4)
http://zeus.jrq.ch/trcb/
http://phaleux.com/tr/

My own tips:
* The tutorial is woeful. Don't let it turn you off.
* Firearms is the most important skill to raise for levelling, because your basic need is damage output. Lightning also helps, but is not as important.
* Shotgun is a short-medium range cone area effect weapon that works like a first-person shooter. Helps you fight groups of enemies.
* Other weapons are single-target. You can either point and shoot, or hit TAB to lock on to the target (good idea in case something else walks across your line of fire).
* Line of sight is key. Bring your FPS strafing skills and learn to use cover. Remember to allow for MMORPG latency.
* Switch to the right weapon for the situation. EMP guns work on shields and machines, not flesh. Sonic damage is not going to bother a machine. Rifles suck at close range, pistols are underrated. Class-specific weapons are all good, you just have to learn how to use them efficiently.
* Avoid using a clone point at level 5. Save it to use at level 14.9 - but BEFORE level 14.99 (where the game gives you another clone point). If you clone at 14.9 instead of 14.99, you'll have two characters who are about to get another clone point.
* Questing is the fastest way of levelling.
* Crafting is what you do with an alt when you reach 50. Don't bother with it at low levels.
* Defending control point bases against enemy attack is fun.

Overall I find this game best to play casually. If you obsess over it, you'll lose interest. If you spin out your enjoyment, you'll keep having fun. It has more depth than is immediately apparent, but a lot of depth comes from the variables of the combat system. You're repeating the same fighting styles against the same enemies, but it's rarely the same fight. There is potential for awesomeness in the PvP game long-term, but PvP is currently a bit wild west and full of exploits, so I'm sticking to PvE for now.

[Tannhauser]

Thanks very much Tale, you are a prince/princess among men/women.

[Morfiend]

I have to say I am really really not liking the new patch 1.4. Seems to have slowed down combat a lot, and made it easer to die and harder to kill. I was really enjoying the fast paced "fight 10 mobs at a time" combat. I was having a great time with the game until this patch, now I am having a hard time wanting to log in.

[KallDrexx]

What exactly did they do to combat in 1.4?

[Tale]

I dunno yet, I haven't logged in - they refunded all stats to be respent, and I've used all my clone points so I have one shot at getting the distribution right ... been playing with character builds. (Has Morfiend realised? Maybe he's playing with no stats spent  )

Edit: I've read around forums there are some bugs with 1.4 and another patch is on Test server already, e.g. line of sight has gone all Nazi and even a tree branch is enough to stop you hitting an enemy.

[Morfiend]

Some of the major things they did:

Hybrids:
You can now do quests to unlock hybrid clones. There is one quest line for each hybrid. Forean is in Thoria Das and around level 15. Brann is at the Brann LZ in Mires, and Thrax is some where in Crucible.
Each quest will unlock that race for the entire account, so you only need to do the quest line once. But the quest line for each gives a Clone Credit, and you can do it once for each character (for the clone point) if you want.

Stats:
Stats are much more important now.

Body
•   16 HP
•   1 Power
•   .66% total armor

Mind
•   2 Power
•   .375% Logos Damage
•   1% Regen (Health/Power, not armor)

Spirit
•   2% Regen (Health/Power, not armor)
•   .065% Crit Chance
•   8 HP

Health:
They increased health across the board. For players and Mobs. Before the average ratio was about 1:5 or 1:6 Health to Armor. Or less. If your armor was gone, it was time to worry. Now most classes are running 1:2 or 1:1. Hell, buffed my Medic is running WAY more health and armor. At around 11k health and 7k Armor.

They also WAY upped monster regen.

What this has lead to is combat taking a lot longer for some classes, and a decent amount longer for others. In general people are finding it takes 1.5 to 3 times more ammo to kill the same monsters as prepatch. Also, the monsters seem to hit a LOT harder. Prepatch I had 4.5k armor and 1.8k health. Now I have way more (7k armor, 8k health unbuffed) but a small pack of mobs can rip me apart in seconds.

This leads to combat taking a lot longer, and for none squashy classes, who arnt getting killed quickly like my medic, just straight up longer combat.

I am very disappointed. I really loved the fast paced combat, and I see this as a step in the wrong direction for the game. We will have to see how it sakes out, but I am predicting a lot of cookie cutter builds, and much less experimenting as not having the best build will really lead to slow killing and or survival.

Also, the body stat is so powerful, almost every class can get the best bang for their buck by investing in all body. I feel that 1.4 was a huge step back for the game, and honestly it has sucked a lot of the fun right out.

[Lt.Dan]

I'll echo those comments about patch 1.4 combat.  It was fun (very like CoH) wading into piles of mobs.  Now not so much.  I'm only a lowly soldier but now even cons are even and higher cons are touch and go.  I now chew through ridicuous amounts of ammo - I went through over 4k bullets last night, probably double what I'd expect.

The thing with slower combat is that it's still MMO combat.  At least when combat was faster you felt a bit like a hero and your brain could ignore the fact that you're basically holding down one button.  Slower combat is a stark reminder that MMO combat sucks balls.

[Johny Cee]

Wow.  Sounds like the killed everything that was enjoyable about this game?

[Morfiend]

Wow.  Sounds like the killed everything that was enjoyable about this game?

So far thats the underlying feeling.

Oh yeah I forgot to mention. Before you could get awesome rewards from questing. Same color scheme as wow. Grey < Green < Blue < Purple.

Before you could get lots of purple items from questing. Now, green items only. And blue items for instance quests, and purples are only random drops. It really feels like some higher up type said "The game is not doing so well, QUICK MAKE IT MORE LIKE WOW".

[KallDrexx]

wtf Upped the mob regen?

As a specialist (or whatever it was, can't remember exactly what I specced into after specialist)  they already regened pretty fast.  Making them regen faster is rediculous.  Guess I'm not coming back.

[Trippy]

Sounds like Jack Emmert (aka Statesman from CoH) has been moonlighting at NCsoft.

wtf Upped the mob regen?

As a specialist (or whatever it was, can't remember exactly what I specced into after specialist)  they already regened pretty fast.  Making them regen faster is rediculous.  Guess I'm not coming back.

Late during beta they drastically upped the regen of those big Stalker mobs so that you could no longer solo them, even with an EMP chaingun. I knew then that the game was only going to get worse.

[Kageru]

I expected this when I read the initial patch notes for test, that the health improvements would also be extended to the mobs and not in an enjoyable way. I'm not sure if they're trying to slow down levelling, encourage grouping or simply don't understand how their mechanics interact. Either way it seems like a bad move. The game is really grindy and this will make it much more obvious and they've already lost anyone who was looking for a group PvE game.

Then again, I left earlier at the medic revamp when it became clear they were just monkeying about without any sort of clue or plan.

[Lantyssa]

They did a similar thing in beta, and it felt like a bad change then.  Good to see they haven't learned.

[Tale]

3 month veteran reward

[amiable]

wtf Upped the mob regen?

As a specialist (or whatever it was, can't remember exactly what I specced into after specialist)  they already regened pretty fast.  Making them regen faster is rediculous.  Guess I'm not coming back.

Seriously, specialists in general and biotechs in general are completely hosed... I wonder if it occured to them that a 10:1 soldier to specialist ration may be a tad bit of a problem...

[KallDrexx]

Seriously, specialists in general and biotechs in general are completely hosed... I wonder if it occured to them that a 10:1 soldier to specialist ration may be a tad bit of a problem...

I wouldn't say that they were hosed before this update.  I had a good amount of fun soloing mostly because there as a good bit of challenge without it being fustrating, even with a constant 500 ping.  It just required knowing when to heal, when to find cover, etc...

Upping the enemy's regen rate probably pushed it way into the fustrating zone though.

[shiznitz]

Is there any justification given for this change? Slowing down combat makes no sense.

[Ratman_tf]

Is there any justification given for this change? Slowing down combat makes no sense.

It makes it longer to level so you can get more of their lovely green money?

Dunno. I was holding out for power armors, but if they're going to continue to dink around making combats take longer, it's harshing my already low interest.

[Signe]

I'm confused.  The three month veteran reward turns you into a billy goat?

Righ also quit the beta because they did something that made the game horrible for him.  I don't know what, I didn't play long enough.  Until then he was enjoying it.

[Soukyan]

Your avatar makes me want to go play Ragnarok Online again, Signe.

[Signe]

Your avatar makes me want to go play Ragnarok Online again, Signe.

Me too.  I'm not giving in, though.  (yet)

[Soukyan]

I caved. Downloading the client now. 

[Morfiend]

Seriously, specialists in general and biotechs in general are completely hosed... I wonder if it occured to them that a 10:1 soldier to specialist ration may be a tad bit of a problem...

I wouldn't say that they were hosed before this update.  I had a good amount of fun soloing mostly because there as a good bit of challenge without it being fustrating, even with a constant 500 ping.  It just required knowing when to heal, when to find cover, etc...

Upping the enemy's regen rate probably pushed it way into the fustrating zone though.

Oh man, my Biotech (now medic) was so much fun to play pre patch. I had awesome buffs and debuffs, I had a nice weapon that can do 50% armor bypass. Life was good.

Now, not so much. 50% armor bypass doesnt help very much anymore because the mob health is so high. My buffs/debuffs all got reduced in effect by 20%, and even though I have a ton more health and armor, my heal and repair tools still heal and repair the same amount as before, but since all the mobs do much more damage to compensate for the new increased health and armor, its basically like just nerfing my healing abilities.

As to the 10:1 soldier to specialist. I think you can thank the Spy class for that. Wow are there a lot of Spys. In all the level 30+ zones I go in to, it seems like there is 4:1 spys to everyone else. I think I have seen 1 Exobiologist my whole time in game, and not very many medics ether. I can only imagine thgis is going to get worse, as Spys seem to be one of the only classes that didnt get a huge nerf in 1.4.

[Morfiend]

3 month veteran reward

I thought this was a joke. As to show how wacky the dev have been being lately. ITS FUCKING REAL. WTF.

I seriously have no fucking idea whats going on over there right now. Its like they are just totally losing it.

[stray]

That's one unhappy unicorn.

Uh, at least that's what I think it is?

[Rasix]

This thread keeps making the thread title more and more awesome.   You're doing a heckuva job, TR devs!

[Soukyan]

Seems like Garriott really wants to force the fantasy back into the game. Unicorn helmets are not the way to do it.

[Mrbloodworth]

Looks like part of a model from the original incarnation.