Tabula Rasa, now with no FUN!

[Lantyssa]

That's one unhappy unicorn.

I'd be unhappy, too, were I cut from the original game for what it has turned into.

[Signe]

Oh.  I think you're right... it's a unicorn, not a billy goat.  I still don't understand the reward, though.

[tmp]

Oh.  I think you're right... it's a unicorn, not a billy goat.  I still don't understand the reward, though.

Don't underestimate the power of furry market.

[HaemishM]

A unicorn... HELMET?

That's so  it makes my intestines go 

[Tale]

avatar time - the contrast between the armour and the unicorn texture is so bizarre

[stray]

Wait, that's a helmet? Wtf? I thought it was some weird little mech unicorn pet (err, not that that's any less bizarre).

[Surlyboi]

Yeah, I hopped in today to give it a shot. Even my almighty spy is getting his ass handed to him by stuff he used to plow through.

In the words of a famous horse. No sir, Don't like it.

[KallDrexx]

gg for the changes then.  Glad I had my fun and quit before it.

[Signe]

That can't be a helmet.  It's got, like, eyes and shit.

[Kageru]

That is bizarre indeed. I don't get the feeling Garriot actually has much to do with the game. Likewise given their floundering and a complete lack of interest from the MMORPG community I think a dismal decline is all this game can hope for.

[Abelian75]

Is there, like, some sort of explanation for the unicorn head?  Or is it just like, yo, here's a unicorn head?

[Signe]

This has creeped me out.   

[Tale]

Is there, like, some sort of explanation for the unicorn head?  Or is it just like, yo, here's a unicorn head?

Here's the thread I first saw it in: http://www.planettr.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3543

[Abelian75]

Here's the thread I first saw it in: http://www.planettr.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3543

So... what I'm getting from that is that, yeah, it's just a totally out-of-context unicorn head.  Nice.

[Miasma]

Maybe they are slowly trying to turn people into the butterfly unicorns that were in the first incarnation of Tabula Rasa...

[SnakeCharmer]

What the hell?!?

[stray]

This is almost epic failure, but not quite. It's just  .

[Venkman]

I read that thread. No official reason for this at all? This is really on the weird side of insane.

Also, is it confirmed that combat is slowed down? I can't see how that could be good, a non-story-based game that's all about the fun of combat where combat itself starts to suck?

[Tale]

The positive feedback on 1.4 seems to be about PvP. This is from the gangrel forums:

Did squad wars with a buddy clan for about 2 hours last night... and I love the new balance changes.  This is coming from a biotech, who "supposedly" got nerfed bad, now that virulent can't be abused.  I still held more than my own, and even better, had more fun than ever before.  With the new HP changes, you can actually stay alive for more than 2 seconds - this means, more time to use skills, more time to use tactics (especially taking cover to heal and retreating when outnumbered), and overall all just more time for strategy.  Before, I felt like whoever had the fastest reflexes won.  For example, vs a spy, if I was caught off guard and net gun + traitored in the old patch, I would be dead.  Now, I can actually take a couple of hits, dodge a bit when the net wears off, cure, lightning, recon, and bam, I've taken back some momentum.

Also I found a good analysis of what stats do in 1.4: http://tabularasavault.ign.com/View.php?view=Editorials.Detail&id=7

Now I'm finally getting time to log in and try it for myself. This is the levelling build I came up with for my level 20 sapper:
http://zeus.jrq.ch/trcb/?x=20360021511000003012004360000086048067

In stats I went for 2/3 Body, 1/3 Spirit (ignoring Mind because I don't rely on Power pool). In abilities I went for firepower and regen. Using the Polarity gun as my main weapon, with the Firearms group of weapons for situational use, I seem to be able to do much the same as before, but I need to break out the Leech gun every now and then to restore armour.

[CharlieMopps]

I was stupid enough to waste $40 on this game. BOOORING

I never thought shooting space aliens with laser rifels could get boring... but there is literally, nothing at all to do in this game. I mean nothing. To level, I can either:
A: Shoot aliens
or
B: Get a quest, that requires me to shoot aliens

All the aliens generally look the same. All the zones generally look the same. YOU CAN'T GO FIRST PERSON. I mean really... wtf... Who'd idiotic idea was that? The price of ammo needs to be cut in half, the aliens doubled. We need armed vehicles, I should be able to fly the dropship... Oh yea, and FULL PVP. In fact, why not let us play aliens?

All in all, this games pretty laughable.

[SnakeCharmer]

Which exactly sums up why I don't play.

[Venkman]

TR is a good example of a game too wrapped in tradition to truly push things the way they should have been pushed. The result of a change-from-within type thinking (conservative change).

It is one of the examples I use as to why the only true change that'll come to this genre will be from the outside (radical change). Hey-let's-make-it-aliens doesn't change that it's still DIKU with a weaksauce FPS-wannabe UI.

[Kageru]

Wouldn't it be more correct to say this was a game attempting to push the boundaries that failed in a spectacular fashion during the development process. Leading to a lucky second in command,under significant time and resource pressure, attempting to sew together whatever assets and coding he could find into a shambling undead that at least looked like a MMORPG (a la Vanguard)? My understanding is that the original vision was both wildly imaginative and impractical. Though I wasn't in beta so I don't know the full story.

That said only the end result matters, and it really is paper thin. Sort of like CoH at its best but even more shallow.

[Ratman_tf]

Wouldn't it be more correct to say this was a game attempting to push the boundaries that failed in a spectacular fashion during the development process. Leading to a lucky second in command,under significant time and resource pressure, attempting to sew together whatever assets and coding he could find into a shambling undead that at least looked like a MMORPG (a la Vanguard)? My understanding is that the original vision was both wildly imaginative and impractical. Though I wasn't in beta so I don't know the full story.

That said only the end result matters, and it really is paper thin. Sort of like CoH at its best but even more shallow.

The only thing I ever got from the "original vision" is that it was going to look all JapanaRPG. I mean, all I ever saw was screenshots and movies of duderz beating on monsters. I'm pretty sure I've seen that before in other games.

[Venkman]

The original version had two playable levels at E3 err 2002 or 2003 iirc. It was a very fast-paced fantasy RPG with integrated voicechat, player teleporting at or near start and in general felt like the game that beat them to the punch: Guild Wars.

Otherwise it was not the complete reinvention that was promised and which could still be useful to have. It was just more overhyped meh which itself needed to be reinvented just to make marketable...into another meh.

[Tale]

I'm still really liking the game. My character is level 21 and fighting in a place called Torden Plains. There is a grimly realised sci-fi military prison there, and down a gentle hill from it is a supply outpost. Between the prison and the outpost, is a pitched battle of pure hell and trenches and giant machines. It's the best realised battle I think I've ever seen, in any game (and I'm a pretty big player of FPS games). It seems amazing to me that they've been able to implement this kind of pitched battle within what is essentially a MMOG. I tried making an animated GIF from somewhere in the action but it's kind of crap, I'll have to get FRAPS out: 1.8Mb animated GIF

[Ratman_tf]

I'm still really liking the game. My character is level 21 and fighting in a place called Torden Plains.

Lots of people like the game at first. Something about "potential". 

[Morfiend]

I'm still really liking the game. My character is level 21 and fighting in a place called Torden Plains. There is a grimly realised sci-fi military prison there, and down a gentle hill from it is a supply outpost. Between the prison and the outpost, is a pitched battle of pure hell and trenches and giant machines. It's the best realised battle I think I've ever seen, in any game (and I'm a pretty big player of FPS games). It seems amazing to me that they've been able to implement this kind of pitched battle within what is essentially a MMOG. I tried making an animated GIF from somewhere in the action but it's kind of crap, I'll have to get FRAPS out: 1.8Mb animated GIF

Tale, wait till you get to the next zone, its even more of a battleground. Its all designed around the idea of futuristic trench warfare. Its pretty cool.

I just have no intrest in playing the game since the patch. They have sucked all the fun out of combat for me.

[Tannhauser]

I looked thru Dark Heresy this weekend, it's a meaty tome and the famous GW fluff was lessened.  Interesting that they have dropped careers and just basically have 8 or so classes with a rigid progression.  No mention of space ships except as adventure locations, I guess thats for a follow up.

Overall it's a pretty sweet looking book with better than average artwork.  It is $50 but thats less than a 360 game.  I wanted to get it but just knowing the line is already dead made me a sad panda.

Plus my group is already doing both B5 and BG, another scifi game would be 

[Lt.Dan]

This is not the thread you are looking for.

[We need a jedi smilie]

[UnSub]

I was going to trial EVE this month, but the Unicorn helmet followed by the dramatic patch have clinched it: could someone please send me a referral for TR?

[Tale]

UnSub referral sent to email address in f13.net profile.

I have one more referral available to give. (EDIT - last referral is gone, I can't give any more referrals till late March)

[Nebu]

Can someone that has been playing this a while speak to the issue of "stickiness"?

[UnSub]

UnSub referral sent to email address in f13.net profile.

I have one more referral available to give.

Thank you. I'll download it and trial it next week - this week is a bit busy to put the time in.

[Johny Cee]

Can someone that has been playing this a while speak to the issue of "stickiness"?

In reference to?  The aiming mechanism,  or the desire to keep playing the game?