Can you explain how the concept of hybrids came about? What made you decide to put them in the game?

Community feedback had a lot to do with this. Richard felt strongly that the story of Tabula Rasa was a human story. Throughout the history of his games, it has been about the player actually being in the world. So it seemed natural that at launch we told the human story. The internal and external community feedback was that they wanted to play alien races as well. So now it is time to tell the story, still human, but with a twist, or a splice, if you prefer, of alien DNA.

We've heard there are three Human-alien hybrids, Brann, Forean and Thrax. What is the fiction behind them?

I don’t want to give too much of the fiction away, because that might ruin the fun of discovering it in game. However, I will say that the DNA of all of these races share a common marker and from there, the AFS have found a way to put the ‘best characteristics’ of the alien races into humanity.

How do you get a hybrid character and what do you see as the benefit to having one?

In order to be able to start a new character or clone a current character with alien DNA added, you must complete a mission chain. Each race, Forean, Brann and Thrax have their own chain that must be completed.

Once you have opened up the ability to create a hybrid, your hybrid will get more points in certain attributes like Body, Mind or Spirit, than the normal human. It varies from hybrid to hybrid. It is important to note that with the Hybrid publish, attributes play an even more substantive part in the game. Body, for instance, adds to not only health, but armor as well. So a Thrax-Human hybrid can have more total Body than a regular human which means they can absorb more total damage. Hybrids also have natural resistances to certain damage types, as well as vulnerabilities, that regular humans don’t have.

We've also heard that this is just the first iteration of the hybrid feature. Can you tell us how you intend to add to this feature?

In the future, we will be adding hybrid-specific weaponry and armor. We may also be adding hybrid-specific missions later this year.

Can you talk about a couple of design or art hurdles you had to overcome to get hybrids in the game?

Sure. We would like to get unique weapons and armor for hybrids in. However, that will take freeing up more video memory. We’re looking at ways of doing that right now, but it is an ongoing process.

Will hybrids affect your ability to clone characters?

Only in a positive way. Any time you clone you will now be able to reallocate attribute points. We felt it was necessary to open this up when we added Hybrids, but it is available any time you clone your character.

What else can you share with us about plans for Tabula Rasa?

The team has some core things we want to concentrate on. Those are: veteran content, improved PvP, improved class balance and more consistent AI for summoned creatures / NPCs / pets. Most of the updates will revolve around these core ideals. Also, we are extremely excited about launching in Japan this year.

Hybrid Video

NCsoft has released this video featuring the new hybrid race system.