Tabula Rasa beta feedback, big ideas, choices, and more

One of the fun things about a game in the beta stage is reading the bright ideas of the testers and developers. Tabula Rasa is no exception. We took a look at the Tabula Rasa forum at OGaming and found these:

• Cooler-looking weapons. “Fractured” suggested weapon add-ons that actually show up. We agree with this one. You don’t want to see your character running around the screen with a dinky rifle that looks like every other noob’s rifle! If you worked hard enough to get a cool add-on, then your weapon should look like it has that add-on! The more add-ons you put on your weapons, the cooler they should look.
• I want my melee heroics! MentisVenator1 suggested more melee weapons. I’m probably the biggest melee advocate here at QJ so I’m going to rant a bit. I mean, Jedi, ninja, barbarians, and armored bears always look cool, so Tabula Rasa should also allow for the big, strong, hack-and-slash characters. MentisVenator1 brought up the idea of a physical shield like our modern riot shields. I want a weapon that does more damage the closer you are to the enemy. Think about it: suicidal body-strong warriors can use the weapon to go in (and do melee damage to a group of bad guys) while the non-melee wimps can use the same weapon to clean up from far away.

But those are ideas coming from the gamers. We’ve also got some clarifications and updates about the game itself (and a quick update from the game’s official site).

Click on where it says “Full Article” below to read more.

One of the fun things about a game in the beta stage is reading the bright ideas of the testers and developers. NCSoft‘s Tabula Rasa is no exception. We took a look at the Tabula Rasa forum at OGaming and found these:

• Cooler-looking weapons. “Fractured” suggested weapon add-ons that actually show up. We agree with this one. You don’t want to see your character running around the screen with a dinky rifle that looks like every other noob’s rifle! If you worked hard enough to get a cool add-on, then your weapon should look like it has that add-on! The more add-ons you put on your weapons, the cooler they should look.
• I want my melee heroics! MentisVenator1 suggested more melee weapons. I’m probably the biggest melee advocate here at QJ so I’m going to rant a bit. I mean, Jedi, ninja, barbarians, and armored bears always look cool, so Tabula Rasa should also allow for the big, strong, hack-and-slash characters. MentisVenator1 brought up the idea of a physical shield like our modern riot shields. I want a weapon that does more damage the closer you are to the enemy. Think about it: suicidal body-strong warriors can use the weapon to go in (and do melee damage to a group of bad guys) while the non-melee wimps can use the same weapon to clean up from far away.

But those are ideas coming from the gamers. We’ve also got some clarifications and updates about the game itself. First, let’s play good news and bad news. Good news first.

• You have lots of choices. Have you ever played a game and realized that you made the wrong decision? Wouldn’t it be nice to go back in time and make a different choice instead? Tabula Rasa lets you develop along three paths (body, mind, and spirit), and each path has its own skills and weapons. But what if you don’t like the way your character is developing? Well, in a sense, you can rewind and try a different path.
  You get a bunch of “save points” (although the number of save points isn’t final yet). Each save point is like a snapshot of your character. If you don’t like the way your mind character, you can always go back to a past snapshot and make your character into a spirit one.
• You have no choice? As you may already know, players in Tabula Rasa can only choose their name and gender. Appearance is randomized when the game starts. To some of us, that sounds like a bit of a bummer (I don’t want to play a game where my character looks fugly). But since the game is still in beta, we’ll see if this policy changes.

Also, the Tabula Rasa team is always making a few changes to class design. Their official news page says that “things are mostly the same, but with some consolidation and refinement of class choices to help players feel more specialized and unique as they are promoted to higher ranks.”

Whew. That’s only half of the Tabula Rasa news we got planned today. We’ll update you when we can.