Tabula Rasa

Tabula Rasa seems like a nice game.  Something fresh and different from most of what is available.

Yet, I share the same feelings as you, OP.  Especially the part where you described about visible civilization that you could be a part of and interact with.

Only if there was Anarchy Online 2... that would really get me off my ongoing vacation away from MMOs.

Graphics 8+ ; It's a MMO so i'm not expecting single player rpg type of graphics, but for its genre is sure looks very good.
Animation 8+ ; Also they work as intented, the way the AI get's hits by your weapon (its impact), the way we/mobs/creature's move. The way you holster or unholster your weapons or tools, jumping is actualy pretty cool aswell, i still don't really feel in touch with the ground we walk on as i feel WOW still seem to have mastered this, as in WOW you really feel in touch with the ground you walk on. This seems somehow very difficult for game company's to produce such "foot hits the ground" effect.(only WOW feature i really loved btw ) Also just take a close look how animation work, how the AI works, there is a bat-like creature Filcher that when it gets close to you it steals a item out of your backpack, the way how you make a small jump into the water. There are so many things that simply work, sure many things need some sort of balance, but untill it's beta we all know better then to complain on forums about bugs as we have the option to report them ingame, really all i see is people completly new to beta thinking it is needed to complain about things before it's even release'd. It's okay if they are constructive, but hey we all see that's not the case with many complaints....
Staring at a wormhole


TR is a game where you can find your own challenge, and sorry i see to many people complain about the game cause for me it seems they are not willing to challenge themselfs but are totaly depending on the guidens of a game. Yes allot seems "easykill" but does this mean we gamers can't have fun with "easy" or make "easy"even challenging.
Fun for me has soooo many lvl's, i have fun in SWG with crafting for the most part and don't really like the combat professions in SWG personaly (anymore.... did love it pre-cu), i have enjoyed myself in WOW for about i think near a year, but........meanly solo, occasionaly groups, occasionaly some dungeons, but for the most part had fun and left when i felt my time was up in that game and needed another ...fix. Tried LotrO wich is a fine game, just abit to much trolls/orcs/dwarfs for me at this moment. Always was and been a scifi....."nerd? ", have played many different mmo's between pre-cu SWG and TR, played some Vangaurd, really nice game, has/had many issue's, but the world looked amazing, it has many feature's i like'd but also it needs lots of time invested, yes i'm a patient gamer but my patients has limits aswell the time i can/want to spend on a game. SWG made it different to put considereble less time in and be rewarded in many way's, very different then the time i spend in SWG pre-cu ....think some would say i like the "fluff" of these games.
But to continue with TR, don't expect to jump into this awesome new sci-fi MMORPG, it feels more like a MMO, i have not discovered many rpg elements, thou the list of emote's is pretty decent. Well ...actualy we are roleplaying to be soldiers everytime we log in


I also have not even touche'd anything of crafting as many things are still placeholders and know crafting will be better (hopefully afcourse) and fully implimented shortly, so no need to explore it before it's done, could ruin what works now and might be enjoyeble and when it change's might not be as enjoyeble as the first time. This seems to be happening often where you see people in beta getting conforteble with certain feature's in beta, which can be change'd in the release or slightly before release, and well we all know many people seem to have a incridible hard time to addept when they used to something, but we mmorpg players should know by now many things can and will be change'd if we like it or not. The only thing we can do about it is try and behave mature and try and help in any way we can so we can have a cool gaming experiance with the games we want to play.

Grind: WHERE? lol no grind here, just make fun in the game solo or grouped, grouped is allot more fun then solo but solo can be bit more challenging at times. I also feel that the game is very well designed to prevent grinders to grind, i also do not see anything that might atract goldsellers, so these two things stand highly in my gaming book.


Bugs: They are around, some seem to be new ones where i already have certain logo's they now seem to be unreacheble or not working, one logo that still does not work for me is Summon, can't enter the room (locked but have all logo's....i think , one bas, Twin Pillars where the teleporters are not working right now (or atleast since monday evening till last night not working, did work last weekend.......oh yeah about the teleporters ingame that will teleport you across the whole map when you have found the teleport location, they actualy work very cool no load screen, just zapp/zapp and you there no loading, loading does occure when entering a instance. Also I have done many MANY quest and have not run into one that is bugged so far, did run into a few where we (grouped) or solo took out something that should have been taken out after accepting another quest in a chain, so had to reset the instance by getting out of it and waiting a few minutes for full reboot of the instance. (Pravus Facility)
Getting Stuck; , man i love the unstick feature, /stuck, you wave and are unstuck just a few feet from where you where stuck. Other games do have this feature but it mostly brings you to the other side of a world
Basicly the best way to deal with bugs for me personaly is to handle them the correct way wich is thru the beta forum or simply ingame /bug, /report so no need to go into the bugs any futher


Weapons; basicly you have 4 type of weapons, rifle/shotgun/pistol/skill for starters, all these weapons can have specials for example you can have a laser rifle or a regular rifle, depending on your enemy what to use on them, some don't get hurt by lasers and need to be pumped with regular bullet, anything machine related can often be taken out with EMP Bombs (mines...and i love blowing up stuff), or weapons that have EMP damage but will do minimal damage against Bane but do nice damage on machine's, forcefields, shield ect ect..All in all there is a wide variaity of weapons when moving along the lvl's and how to use them. All weapons have melee damage, meaning you can hit your target with your weapon (F) and depending its strenght in some cases you can take a target down quicker hitting it then shooting it, as i have notice'd i was carrying a rifle with 26 laser damage and 126 melee damage, at first i thought it sucked i could take a target down quicker melee then with a bullit, cause i didn't know my melee damage was far greatere then my laser damage, now most of my weapons have a pretty equel melee and normal damage which is very usefull when you almost out of bullits or just to safe your bullits, as you need to keep track of your bullits especialy in the beginning cause there is a price attached to them, they are sold at every major base at vendors, so far there are only Armor/Weapon and Medical vendors that also carry crafting items, but there isn't very much choice on them as looted items as like with most mmo's are allot better, thou damage/armor and such with vendor bought gear/weapons can be great but looted stuff have stats on it which we don't have with vendor goods.


Exploring; I enjoy exploring the map and finding the somewhat hidden passage all over, some you walk right in by following the path, for some you have to cross over some hills to spot a new cave or passage, at first the map feels small but after exploring it its pretty big in its own way and layout, talking about the map this is also a very functional feature that WORKS as it should be, though i must admit i would have liked it even more if there was nothing on it untill you have discovered it or traveled trhu a area'. But overall the map is well thought out and detailed.
the collection system is also pretty decent as it makes allmost any kill especialy in the beginning add up, granting you with new ranks/ ability's when collecting them all, aswell a new quest that can/will open up...thou not quite sure about that quest thing....yet.


Cloning; First time i clone'd i made my clone at lvl 6, and thought i would have a lvl 6 clone that could change his profession as i have taken the specialist route. Unfortunaly can't change my clone'd specialist. I made lvl 15 yesterday and got the question if i would like to clone, did so and after i cloned myself took bio-engineer, where my clone still can decide what i will train him with . Nevertheless my clone remains a specialist, still not sure if i could have clone'd before lvl 5 with my profession so my clone could take another route instead of specialist, might have missed/skipped that part to quickly.
I have not found one boring moment in the game when i was playing it, it's fastpace'd, its different then i was expecting, but have notice'd the game is growing on me. Since last weekend have not touche'd any of the other games i playe'd, basicly cause i have fun with TR, and isn't that why we gamers play game to have fun

Anyway i would say check it out, don't expect it to be a full mmorpg but look at it sort of differently.

TR is weak. 

Don't get me wrong its a short term blast, but there is nothing there that will hold the player base for longer than a couple months.

This is not to say that some people won't be completely enamoured, they will, a very tiny group of Garriotians will bask in the shallow glory of TR for years to come, of that I have absolutly no doubts.  Look no further than Vanguards McQuadians for proof.

TR is just lacking too many of the things that actually make an MMO world worth spending time in.  While at the same time relying on too many of the crutch norms of current MMOs.

There is little character customization, armors and weapons look more or less the same. 

The quests, such as they are are absolutly nothing anyone who has played an MMO before hasnt seen. 

There is practically no opportunity at all for players to "make thier mark" on the world.

I do fear that the cloning system will do the exact opposite of what is intended.  Much like DAoC it will create a situation where longer time players will not interact with new players until those player are up to the same level as the older ones.  This means that after the initial rush of new customers, the truly new will be playing solo for a relativly long time, this is never a good thing for a social MMO.

The biggest reason that TR will ultimately fail will be because it is a game in which action action action is the only viable play style, my friends I ask you, what is the point of playing an MMO in that case?  Failure here will be measured in direct relation to pre-launch hype.  Looks to be a year of fallen design Giants.

Short term fun, absolutly.

Long term enjoyment, its just not there.

-Gooney

Questions:

Where are the shadows?

Were they turned off??

Can't seem to select them yet, these are locked settings, only option i can use is video detail, resolution, gamma, fullscreen and realtime quality scalling.