Garriott on Tabula Rasa’s towns, instances, and missions

Speaking to MMORPG.com, NCSoft‘s Richard Garriott revealed that Tabula Rasa is unlike other traditional RPGs. In TR, towns don’t always stay the same. Garriott says that in traditional video games, players usually visit “level one towns, which send them on level one missions, to level one areas where they get level 1 gear.” In NCSoft’s game however, towns may change depending on enemy AI.

Here’s an example: A player may return to town after his quest only to discover that the town has been taken over by the enemy, and the player will only be able to finish his quest by helping friendly NPCs and other players recapture the town. Nice, huh? A large number of players going off on quests may leave towns undefended and open to attack from enemies – a decent dynamic right there.

Other differences in TR include the different structure of instances and missions. For instances, Garriott said that they plan to use that as more of a storytelling tool. Players will supposedly be able to influence instances in a dramatic way (rescue NPCs, change the environment, etc). As for missions, Garriott says that it is possible for missions to have multiple exclusive outcomes.

When it comes to that common MMO issue where players have to play multiple classes to see most of the class-exclusive content, there’s also a workaround for that in Tabula Rasa. As the character progresses, “clones” of the character can be made. This means that while the original heads off on one branch of the class tree, the clone can head in another. Clones are almost perfect copies of the characters as skills, quests done, and logos found are copied. We say “almost perfect” because things like equipment don’t get copied.

As for the worlds in the game, Garriott says that so far they’ve got Foreas and Arieki. However, they do have a third world planned.

Speaking to MMORPG.com, NCSoft‘s Richard Garriott revealed that Tabula Rasa is unlike other traditional RPGs. In TR, towns don’t always stay the same. Garriott says that in traditional video games, players usually visit “level one towns, which send them on level one missions, to level one areas where they get level 1 gear.” In NCSoft’s game however, towns may change depending on enemy AI.

Here’s an example: A player may return to town after his quest only to discover that the town has been taken over by the enemy, and the player will only be able to finish his quest by helping friendly NPCs and other players recapture the town. Nice, huh? A large number of players going off on quests may leave towns undefended and open to attack from enemies – a decent dynamic right there.

Other differences in TR include the different structure of instances and missions. For instances, Garriott said that they plan to use that as more of a storytelling tool. Players will supposedly be able to influence instances in a dramatic way (rescue NPCs, change the environment, etc). As for missions, Garriott says that it is possible for missions to have multiple exclusive outcomes.

When it comes to that common MMO issue where players have to play multiple classes to see most of the class-exclusive content, there’s also a workaround for that in Tabula Rasa. As the character progresses, “clones” of the character can be made. This means that while the original heads off on one branch of the class tree, the clone can head in another. Clones are almost perfect copies of the characters as skills, quests done, and logos found are copied. We say “almost perfect” because things like equipment don’t get copied.

As for the worlds in the game, Garriott says that so far they’ve got Foreas and Arieki. However, they do have a third world planned.