News

The latest edition of Feedback Friday is available and it's a long one. "Critters" takes a look at sniper issues and gets some time in with Lee Ridout about the concerns:

Hi everyone, Critters here. I sat down with Lee Ridout a couple days ago to talk about some of the issues brought up by the community with Snipers.

Some of the main concerns from the players that I discussed with him are:

• Snipers are saying that they are still hurting from the changes to Called Shot 5.
• Complaints of Shredder Ammo proc'ing too little, players do not like the unreliability
• Players want Armor Piercing Shredder Ammo
• Should you be able to one-shot kill something without buffs/debuffs?
• What mobs/levels should I expect to be able to kill with a sniper rifle?
• Snipers and new aggro system, how is this fair?

Following a short discussion about snipers, there is a guide to check out.

It used to be that players could head to the official site of games like City of Heroes, Guild Wars or Lineage II and download a two week trial for free. It's rare that those sites haven't had an offer like that available to potential player.

NC Soft Europe, however, is now selling two week "starter packs" at retail outlets. Here's what GamesIndustry.biz discovered:

These "starter packs" will be sold at retailers for GBP 1.99 and will provide a game and a two week subscription intended as an introduction to MMORPGs. Consumers who decide they want the full game can then return to the retailer and purchase the whole product.

"The Starter Packs are an exciting retail initiative to drive physical sales of NCsoft titles at store level. At £1.99 they represent great value for money to players interested in online gaming and through their messaging will drive sales back to the retail outlet," stated Duncan Hamilton, Northern European sales manager for NCsoft Europe.

Well...alrighty then.

The weekly Wrap Report has been published at the official site. As always, the report deals with issues and happenings around the Tabula Rasa world during the preceding weekend. Included in the host of things discussed is this PvP announcement:

Greetings Tabula Community!

In correlation with DEV_Critters, Warlords of Exodus is hosting a live event for all levels to participate! The event is to take place at the Geodesic sphere at Retread City in the Marshes. We will be having a PvP Singles event for all levels. We will be matching opponents by their level and profession to avoid our players from fighting classes in their own skill tree. This system will provide a diverse matching schedule, and also allow all levels to fight their own caliber as long as possible. We want to encourage PvP in a productive manor to make our patrons return for our next event!

Since all the levels are involved in the same category, the level 50s will eventually prevail, but our clan will be observing the heavy hitters from each class with specially crafted purple items, and other forms of GM loot!. So even if you're not the top dog, there's something to be found here for everyone!

There is not a formal sign up at the moment, just plan to show up and we'll be there. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to post on the Official PvP Singles Tournament Thread.

Check out the rest of this one. It's a dandy!

As game worlds become more and more advanced, they also grow larger and larger. The by-product of this improvement is the long distances that must be traveled between locations. For some reason, with this increase in world size, there is not a corresponding improvement in traveling systems. Indeed, there seems to be almost a perverse joy in sending players on quests that involve running back and forth between two distant points with no other objective but carrying a bickering message between a pair of NPCs.

Tabula Rasa's weekly Friday Feedback is out and about. The discussion kicks off with some news about the upcoming patches and new features to be included:

PTS Level Command

Meet PTS Level Command. Level Command will be activated on the Public Test Server with Deployment 8.3 with one sole mission - to grant your character with levels and sweet cash! Don't you wish all NPC's were this way? At this time Level Command does not dispense logos, so for the time being, you will have to collect them yourself. Level Command is just part of several changes we have planned to make testing easier and more fun for Tabula Rasa players.

Patch Note Update

There is a patch note in Deployment 8 that the Classes and Combat Team would like to expand upon.

Crab Mines are now more responsive. They acquire targets sooner, chase them earlier, and explode with little or no delay.

The developers adjusted the Crab Mine AI in an effort to make them more responsive. They will now generally acquire a target within 0.5 seconds of creation and they will now generally detonate within 0.5 seconds of arriving at their targets' feet. However, they still for unknown reasons sometimes fail to detonate, or switch targets without reason. The Classes and Combat team is working towards improving the reliability of Crab Mines in for a future Deployment, and more information will be released as changes are put into place.

Check out the rest of the Feedback Friday news by clicking below.

Devs have announced a couple of neat things for the community: The latest TabulaCast is out as well as a Haiku Contest:

The Latest TabulaCast is up!

Episode 22

This week on TabulaCast, John and Matt discuss..

• Patch 1.7 goes live
• Paul Sage steps down as lead designer, welcome Tom Potter
• The Bristol Comic Expo
• NCSoft prize for an amazing competition (see more below)

Tabula Cast Haiku Competition

TabulaCast and Tabula Blogger recently announced a Tabula Rasa Haiku Competition where the winners will have their character sketched by a top artist at the next NCsoft convention. Below is a snippet from the Tabula Blogger...

Desperate to get your hands on your character portrait by a top comic book artist?

Well, here is your chance!

All you need to do is send a Tabula Rasa Haiku to me at john@tabulacast.com if we decide yours is the best we'll email you back very soon requesting you send us some screen grabs to give for Rockjaw to take with him to the Expo and they will make a donation on your behalf and get your character drawn.

Easy? We'll get cracking then!

Sharpen your nibs and get busy writing!

General British has decreed that all squad players will gain double experience between Monday, May 5th and Monday, May 12th. Here's the official communique:

To encourage teamwork with fellow AFS soldiers, General British has authorized Double XP to be awarded to those soldiers who play as part of squads between Monday, May 5, 2008 10AM CDT and Monday, May 12, 2008 at 4pm CDT. All soldiers fighting in squads will earn 2x the XP normally awarded while in a group.

Great way to move your characters along so check it out.

Jim Moreno tackles the difficult task of roleplaying a merchant in this edition of RoleCraft: "Even roleplayers are known to struggle with this cookie cutter gameplay, and with keeping their characters from looking and acting just like every other character in game. What to do? One sure way to avoid the pitfalls of routine is to realize that there are many other classes in game besides adventurer. It's time to become a professional roleplayer!"

The May 5, 2008 version of the Weekend Wrap Report has been posted. Featuring the usual results from the Friday Night Fights, there is also a report of a fan video and an announcement of the Atrus Manus Event winners:

Atrus Manus hosted an event on Pegasus this Saturday to test the might of level 50 players. Each team of 3 fought their way through several spawns provided by Critters. Their times were averaged, and the winners received: 1000 Assault and Defense tokens, a General British beret, 10 white dye, and crafted items courtesy of YoungBlood.

It was a close race with each round getting more and more destructive. In the end, three winners prevailed.

1st Place
With an average time of 45.25 seconds
Stricnine
Oniguma
Sanz

Check out the rest at the link above.

This week's Feedback Friday has been posted and there's some suprising news from lead designer Paul Sage:

This Feedback Friday includes some bittersweet news for me. I have decided to pursue another very exciting opportunity within NCsoft, which means I will be handing the Lead Design reigns over to Tom Potter. I joined NCsoft in 2001 as a designer on a completely different game named Tabula Rasa. After seven years, and several iterations of TR, I do feel the need to stretch out a bit. It was an exciting time in my life, and I have definitely had many great experiences working with the Tabula Rasa team. I must also say that I have truly enjoyed the great people of the Tabula Rasa community. I have found them to be considerate and intelligent with their feedback. Thank you for taking the time out of your life to enjoy TR. Though my feelings are mixed about leaving, I feel the game really is going the right way now, and that this is a good time for me to pursue something new. Obviously I cannot discuss anything too early on what I am moving on to, but if things go well, I hope to do so one day in the not-too-distant future.

And speaking of the future, this is where I would like to introduce Tom. Tom has been a great addition to the team since he was hired in 2007. He came to NCsoft from Iron Lore, where he was the Lead Content Designer on Titan's Quest. Again, I would like to thank the community for their loyalty and involvement in the game, and I know you are in very good hands with Tom as Lead Designer. But, I don't want to speak for Tom, so I will let Tom speak.

-Paul Sage

Click through to read the rest.