Tabula Rasa: Transformation

[schild]

Weeee.

Transformation
For those of you who’ve been following the development of Tabula Rasa, you may be aware that the game underwent a major transformation over the last year. We’ve hesitated to share more information about these changes as we wanted to be absolutely confident with this new direction. At present, we are pleased to report that this project is shaping up to be a truly outstanding massively multiplayer online game.

The reasons we have undergone this transformation are many and complex. Simply put, our team felt that the first incarnation of Tabula Rasa was not the game we felt it should be. We felt this way from our own reactions playing the game as well as others external to the team playing it. We believe that the change for the positive will be obvious to all.

Over the next few weeks you will see changes to the Tabula Rasa website. The site will be receiving a major overhaul in advance of this year’s E3 event. You can look forward to new creatures, new features, and new information. Everyone here at Destination Games and NCsoft is excited about the new look and feel of this highly anticipated game. We hope you’ll be excited too.

Richard Garriott and the Destination Games Development Team

I hope it's changed from fantasy gay to steampunk.

I still want to play it either way.

[Krakrok]

Here's a link I pulled off it's old site via google cache. I hadn't seen these before but they are roundtables featuring Starr Long (who now works on TR), Garriott, some other TR designers, and different community managers including the one from AutoAssault.

http://www.gamedev.net/reference/design/features/mgp1/
http://www.gamedev.net/reference/design/features/mgp2/

[WayAbvPar]

Interesting. I am always in the 'take all the time you need to get it RIGHT' camp (probably because I ain't footing the bill for the development), so this can be viewed as good news. I wasn't overly excited about their setting previously, so maybe that will improve.

[Tisirin]

Here's a link I pulled off it's old site via google cache. I hadn't seen these before but they are roundtables featuring Starr Long (who now works on TR), Garriott, some other TR designers, and different community managers including the one from AutoAssault.

http://www.gamedev.net/reference/design/features/mgp1/
http://www.gamedev.net/reference/design/features/mgp2/

Hey, I was in that roundtable, too.  No respect, I tells ya.

I think that everyone will be pretty interested in the new incarnation of TR.  There will be a ton of information released at E3 and the new website will be up for the convention. 

[Sky]

I think that everyone will be pretty interested in the new incarnation of TR.

Everyone?

Good luck with that.

[Mi_Tes]

I think that everyone will be pretty interested in the new incarnation of TR.

Everyone?

Good luck with that.

Maybe not everyone, but given RG's involvement, quite a few people are interested in seeing TR.   Just sorry that I am too busy with work to go to E3 and see TR again this year. 

[Tisirin]

I think that everyone will be pretty interested in the new incarnation of TR.

Everyone?

Good luck with that.

Apologies for the optimism.  Forgot where I was.  :)

[schild]

Apologies for the optimism.  Forgot where I was.  :)

Nothing to do with where you are. When an MMOG goes back, nearly to square one, it would take a supreme asshole to believe all is well.

That said, I'm looking forward to it. A lot.

[Sky]

What schild said.

[HaemishM]

I think Sky hates the everyone, at least when "everyone" can be taken to mean "we've retooled this game to be more appealing to the lowest common denominator, knuckle-dragging, drooling fucktard who infests the Internet like crabs on dock whores."

Or something like that.

[Shockeye]

I think Sky hates the everyone, at least when "everyone" can be taken to mean "we've retooled this game to be more appealing to the lowest common denominator, knuckle-dragging, drooling fucktard who infests the Internet like crabs on dock whores."

Or something like that.

And here I thought Tisirin was the optimist. Haemish, once again, makes me all weepy with his unabashed fanboyism.

[Sky]

I think Sky hates the everyone, at least when "everyone" can be taken to mean "we've retooled this game to be more appealing to the lowest common denominator, knuckle-dragging, drooling fucktard who infests the Internet like crabs on dock whores."

Or something like that.

Close enough. I wouldn't have beaten around the bush so much, though.

[Zane0]

Hmm.  Keep in mind that City of Heroes was retooled as well when the design team felt that it wasn't fitting their vision properly.  World of Warcraft took a tremendous amount of time to release, and it took the market by storm.

I wouldn't fully embrace the powers of cynicism with Tabula Rasa yet.

[kaid]

I would rather the game get taken back and redesigned than to set forth with a HAM system heheheh. And yes COH was closing in on release when they TOTALLY redesigned the powers and how they are granted. They did a pretty bang up job of giving folks a lot of options while limiting the cheese factor pretty well. It takes some balls to look at your baby and go hey this is just not working like we want it to and go back and fix/change it.

As with all MMRPG my optimisim is always guarded hehe I will wait to try it before I form any opinions.

kaid

[HaemishM]

World of Warcraft took a tremendous amount of time to release, and it took the market by storm.

That has more to do with Blizzard being slow as fuck to produce anything at all, less to do with a retooling for quality.

[Nekon]

I haven't really given much attention to Tablua, but personally I think Dark and Light is going to be the next best MMO. It seems like the only one i've read about that is going in the right direction and adding some new things to the genre. The story seems well layed out too, the history of the gods in it is somewhat entertaining to read. (About as close to EQ dragon lore as far as "goodness" of the material, definately better then most all MMO lore i've read.) It seems like the only one with some actual thought put into it.

www.darkandlight.com if anyone doesn't know about it. If there is already a thread about dark and light then i'm sorry for posting this here.

[schild]

The DnL people have been in a "beta" period too long to be creating anything more than total shit.

Call me jaded, pessimistic, whatever. But we've seen this far too many times.

They've shot their wad. And missed.

[Nekon]

They haven't really shot off any wads yet though, there is almost absolutely no advertising for the game at all. I don't think they are going to end up being the attention desiring whores like Blizzard, and I can't blame them for not wanting to be like that, shit look at how blizzard gets talked about now.  I was never a believer for blizzard taking their time on games to get them right, and i'm definately no believer after WoW. Dark and Light though i think will possibly be the first to try thinking things through right. If they can get everything in their FAQ into the game on release day, then that proves they are actually trying to revitalize the genre. I'm not holding my breath on it, but i can always hope.

[Nekon]

Was gonna edit the last thread but figured i'd make a new one if incase it got missed. The one thing that worries me about the game though is the pvp core of it. In my opinion, focus on pvp for any game is just an excuse for lack of content.

[Zane0]

The fraction of extra time that Blizzard uses productively is a figure that very few could give.  Still, I can't see how someone could think that Blizzard spends none of it trying to perfect their games.  All of Blizzard's products have been technically near-flawless and often very addictive; not liked by everyone, but generally respected I would hope. 

I guess that we've had successful procrastinators such as HL2 and (maybe!) WoW, and failure-procrastinators like BC3K and Duke Nukem 4.  Success or failure on a long time-table would seem to depend on the lead dev in particular to keep things rolling.  In this case, with a controversial leader at the helm, the conclusion may be one that some are loathe to admit- the outcome is uncertain.

[WayAbvPar]

They've shot their wad. And missed.

A slight upgrade over Wish, for example, who shot their wad and had it dribble down into the crack of their ass.


DnL is going to have to do something spectacular to get my attention...like Schild said- too long a beta period reeks of trouble.

[AOFanboi]

Funcom will apparently spend more on their Conan MMORPG than they did on Anarchy Online. One can only hope they do, and that they wait with the release until it actually is done.

They do NOT want a second launch disaster on their hands.

Oh, and I hope they respect the licensed source material. Nubian warrior princesses FTW.

[Margalis]

Funcom will apparently spend more on their Conan MMORPG than they did on Anarchy Online. One can only hope they do, and that they wait with the release until it actually is done.

A Conan MMORPG would rock. Conan rules! I'm a huge fan of Conan and Soloman Kane as well.

[Hoax]

I will never buy a Funcom game that is not being proclaimed as a robot jesus incarnate.  It wasn't the magnificent disaster of a launch it was their inability to show any spine whatsoever.  Literally people were getting 30lvl's a day if they were an agent or soldier and Funcom sat on their fucking ass.  I was at the top of the level curve then I wake up and two classes are all level 120 and I'm lvl4x.

I really dont like cheaters, but I CANT STAND games where they just let that shit go.

[shiznitz]

If you care about what level everyone else is, you have already lost.

[Krakrok]

WoW suXx0rs

What are you smoking? WoW did it so right it's wrong.

Lots of MMOs sound good on paper but until they actually release it, it's vaporware.

[AOFanboi]

I really dont like cheaters, but I CANT STAND games where they just let that shit go.

AFAIK the cheat bugs were fixed and a new server (RK2) opened if such mattered (that someone cheat-raced to max level in a game with zero endgame content) to you.

What really annoys me is that a large part of the launch content was and still is pointless, like the weapon recipes in stores. Oh, and the simplification (like no exp loss until level 20 instead of 6), and making expansions instead of fixing Rubi-Ka content.

Oh and silly details like Tir and Newland having mission entrances with "Subway" above them, but when they introduced the Subway static dungeon they decided to make new ones in Athen and Borealis instead of using the existing. So what was the point of the 25 level limit (same as for Subway) for missions in Tir and Newland then?

(I assume there is a Subway-like entrance in Omni Ent as well, since that's Omni's max level 25 zone. Haven't looked though.)

Oh, and if the point of the level 25 limit is to make them newbie cities, then why are newbies instead sent to Athen, Rome and Borealis?

Argh, stupid design decisions in AO makes my blood boil. Have I mentioned the special role granted to the Time & Space nano skill yet? As in, "Why oh why"? The whole Adventuring/falling damage/Shadowlands thing? Drop rates for the first part of the sided shoulderpads quest? Aggro grey mobs in Temple of Three Winds?

I need to make a website with all my AO gripes soon.

[Llava]

like Schild said- too long a beta period reeks of trouble.

Could be worse.  They could've said "beta is a few months away" for 2 years or so, then closed shop.

[Azaroth]

Oh, wait. Getting ahead of myself.

[schild]

This is fun.

Edit: Wrong image.

[ahoythematey]

[NiX]

[Miscreant]

The TR ad material in the Guild Wars box shows screens of guys in tights, like previous TR shots, but now they have machine guns and pistols instead of harps.  One of the bullet points is:

"- Gun-based combat and modernized weapons on the front line of galactic battlefields"

A lot different from the guitar-based combat at e3 last year...

[schild]

The TR ad material in the Guild Wars box shows screens of guys in tights, like previous TR shots, but now they have machine guns and pistols instead of harps.  One of the bullet points is:

"- Gun-based combat and modernized weapons on the front line of galactic battlefields"

A lot different from the guitar-based combat at e3 last year...

Yup.  :-D