Profile: Roadshow
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• • Tabula Rasa: Talking to New Lead Designer Tom Potter

  • What weak questioning!

    How about asking why they have destroyed the class 'Engineer' resulting in me and many others joining the thousands leaving the game?

    Or perhaps why they put out patches on the test server and then ignore player responses to them?

    Or why patches are invariably released broken or which break other elements of the game even when those problems are highlighted by players on the test server.

    Or why they are concentrating their efforts on pvp when the majority of players left in the game have little or no interest in it and would much rather have some substantial new playable content?

    Tom may have gotten his dream job as Lead Designer, but under his lead a high quality game is dying. Even those like me who loved the game will not be coming back now that alternatives like AoC have raised the bar. Every patch since February 2008 has eaten away at the playability and fun factor of TR and now Tom and his minions are simply re-arranging the deckchairs on a ship sinking because they themselves torpedoed it. Enjoy it while it lasts Tom but make sure you are wearing a life-jacket.

     

  • Posted: 5/27/08 9:45 AM
    General Discussion
• • Tabula Rasa: AFS Recruitment Drive

  • Yet more desperate tactics from a publisher whose senseless changing of skills has alienated most of those who actually enjoyed the game.

    If they are truly serious about promoting this mmo, they could start by rolling back the changes which have ruined the fun of playing the game and instead dedicate themselves to actually producing some real actual content.

    When I joined TR I thought I'd be there for years but after 1.7 I could take no more of their chaotic badly tested bull.

    Now playing POTBS which whilst less glossy to look at, in it's own way provides the pleasure in combat which has been robbed from TR. With lots more lovely mmo's due for release in the coming months, nothing short of divine intervention would get me to go back to the self-destructive chaos which is TR.

  • Posted: 5/09/08 1:45 PM
    General Discussion
• • Tabula Rasa: State of the Game

  • Tried TR on it's release as a brief change from LOTRO and have been playing it ever since. It is a really nice game with loads of exciting and visceral combat. Always feels like you are playing the game rather than pressing buttons in the right order and provides heaps of fun.

    It is certainly no more repetitive than any other mmo and to my mind it is a lot less so. The missions are go here, go there, find this, kill that, etc like every other game on the market. To it's credit though, it's npc enemies wander around, fight one another and show a lot more life and character than in any other mmo I have played. Because of this it also has replay value. Unlike LOTRO whereby everything was exactly the same when you came to play through a second time, TR often feels like a new experience, even when completing the same objectives.

    The game feels a lot more open ended than AutoAssault did so has the potential to be a slow grower like EVE and to expand in to something truly great. Whether it does or not will depend on what new PVE content NCSoft deliver over and above the interesting PvP concepts they have promised us.

    The 3 day trial will be enough for you to explore the first noobs zone, participate in mass assault and defence of control point bases and maybe even play through the first few instanced zones. That is, if you actually play the game rather than sitting in general chat moaning because it isn't the same as World Of Warcraft! You wouldn't believe how many people seem to feel compelled to do this. What 3 days won't show you is that each new area feels better built and more exciting than the last, that the storyline becomes involving and that you get a real sense of being part of something.

    Elves need not apply, but if you want to take part in a game which feels like a cross between Starship Troopers, Stargate and Saving Private Ryan, with a side order of Aliens and Predator thrown in, then this may be what you are looking for.

    In terms of population, the last figures I saw were that they had 150,000 subscribers 3 months in, which puts it on a par with City Of Heroes. The euro server is well populated and has a vibrant community. There are 3 US servers, I haven't played on them but at least one of them seems to be on a par with the euro server for player numbers.

  • Posted: 3/06/08 4:27 PM
    General Discussion
• • Tabula Rasa: financial disaster

  • The problem is not the auto function, but the complete lack of skills, or rather the lack of any need to use them.

    You didn't try playing as an engineer or even a biotech then. No escaping from skill use there. This isn't a flaw in the game, it's you not liking it.

    There is nothing wrong with shooting anyhow, I'd be damned disappointed if I bought a game based on a battlefield which didn't have shooting. But shooting to the exclusion of using skills is a choice; the skill points are there for you to allocate as you please.

    It is perfectly possible to make effective use of the skills available, but often it is a learning process to discover how best to use them. In fact using different tier levels of the same skill can be used to devastating effect as each tier may have subtle differences in it's effects. A good example of this is the biotech skill reconstruction which at first glance is an aoe heal. However at tier 2 it also drops an affected enemy's spirit points and at tier 3 his body (hit points); if you use tier 3 and then follow up with tier 2 whilst the first attack is still functioning, the results are BIG.

    The game may at first appear simplistic but, like a swan gliding across a pond, it's got a lot going on beneath the surface. If you don't look, you won't find.

  • Posted: 2/21/08 8:26 AM
    Tabula Rasa
• • Tabula Rasa: financial disaster

  • There is a lot of hate thrown at TR but I really do wonder if many of these people have played it.

    It isn't a game for everyone but it is terrifically playable, involving and above all fun.

    In it's first few months it has garnered around 150,000 subscribers which is on a par with City Of Heroes which took around 6 months to hit 180,000. LOTRO which has had almost a year to grow, has only 200,000 or thereabouts. TR may not be the new WOW but it is performing on a par with the majority of it's rivals.

    With a Japanese release later in the year and NCSoft hinting at a game-pass subscription allowing access to their whole raft of games, it seems pretty unlikely that TR will be canned any time soon.

    The only reason it's future is in question is that NCSoft killed off AutoAssault when it was still pulling in tens of thousands of subscribers. Having played both there really is no comparison between the two.

    I liked Auto Assault but it was a game which literally came to a dead end as you levelled. TR on the other hand seems ripe for new world expansions and an ever-broadening storyline. It is also a much more finessed and higher quality product than AA.

    I believe that whilst it's birth has been a relatively low-key affair, it's core gameplay is of such high quality that  like EVE it will be a slow burner which grows and grows. Certainly having spent a few months in it's free flowing and changing world, I could never envisage going back to a cookie-cutter mmo again. Provided NCSoft keep the faith, TR may still become a long-term hit.

  • Posted: 2/21/08 6:45 AM
    Tabula Rasa