Tabula Rasa: Popular or not?

Well I'm getting really desparate. There's really no good MMORPG out right now that tops World of Warcraft, and I'm fed up with it. I have been for several months on end! You may disagree with that statement about WoW being untopped, but statistically, it's a correct statement.

But like most people, I'm looking for something new and huge to immerse into. Tabula Rasa...I've been casually playing beta, but I'm still not sure enough about the game to give any opinion or view on it. What do you all think about Tabula Rasa? Do you think it will be successful at all? How popular do you think it's numbers will range to? What do you think about the game, overall (without naming the specifics...'cause I think that's illegal or something for beta testers to do)?

Yes, I already know about Warhammer, but it won't be out for a long while. I need something to take it off my mind with - and at the same time, keep me entertained until then.

I think it'll be successful, but not popular.

I cant see this game appealing a whole lot to the casual crowd, not to mention the slightly high hardware requirements put it out of league with a lot of the existing WoW crowd, so they couldnt jump over even if they wanted to.

As for my thoughts on it? Its fun, but lacking alot of polish in every area. Combat feels ok, but weapons tend to feel weak. Leveling is fun and somewhat fast, but its very confusing knowing what skills to take and whats effective. Theres lots of instances, but they tend to be too hectic and chaotic -I pray to anyone planning to be mostly a healer. On a similar note, its great how you can largely solo the game, but team work and team combat are terrible because everyone goes rambo; its aworse than most other MMO's pick up groups. The whole Logo's system does a decent job at moving the story and providing as checkpoints, but it then dissolves to nothing more than collectables. Theres a lot of classes and abilities, but they all feel the same since you'll only focus on a tiny handful of skills almost regardless of your class choice.

Some things it has are just plain good with no real faults, particularly its cloning system and how it handles quests and quest hubs.

Some things are just plain bad with no redeeming points, like its interface and lack of a social aspect (largely due to the bad interface's means of talking and dealing with people).

Theres other things too that are good and bad, but im not going to comment on since thats still being tweaked and worked in the beta, like balance, crafting, and quest rewards.

XaosII has said all the important things so I won't say much... but I played beta for short while and couldn't get into this game. It plays badly on the network side of things and graphically its dated. Interface is another huge world of problems.

You know this game may turn out if they had another year or two to modernize the graphics and fix the rubberband lag, and add more interactivity with npcs and the rest of the world. Once you do the first mission, thats it, there isn't anything else, its just exactly the same thing over and over.

If this game does get released this year, do not buy it, it'll be in a huge mess. And since this games been in production for so many years, I'm sure they will rush it out even though its far from acceptable.

Back to graphics, when you make a character, it makes little difference, everyone looks idential and looks like little clones running around... its really depressing to see.

Its mostly promises of good content that they are saying, that they will add it after release (More PvP, Clans, Housing, etc). If they don't delay the game it will be a total disaster. Current content keeps you entertained for a week and then it just gets as dull as any other MMO with quests like (Go kill this monster XX times) or (Go get these Logos, which are on entirely different sides of the maps). Groups are still hard to get into and at such low levels they all have the same skills/weapons anyways. Monsters are fun to kill (if you get a critical hit, you can walk up and melee them for bonus exp. and a cool death animation), but by no means challenging. One player can take down about 5 creatures 5 levels above him at the same time, but when one elite comes by (white glow), its impossible to solo even if its about 10 levels below you. End game sounds fun, but no one has played it yet (I saw one endgame monster, which was really awesome until the server shutdown). I must warn you its NOT an FPS. Point in general direction of enemy and it targets it (makes it hard for medics to heal with beasts swarming around their target). Bullets also go through objects so you can't dodge behind a tree or whatnot. The cover system is rather poor because you only get damage reduction (Red, Yellow, Green). If you get Green then you are probably in a bunker, but if you get yellow you could be anywhere on the map. There seems to be no relation between cover and the yellow damage reduction. Red means you take full damage.

Overall its quite boring too anyone who has played a decent FPS and goes in expecting some FPS elements.

The game has loads of potential. Varied missions that dont bog down to kill 7 of X monster all the time? CHeck. An MMO that actually has a decent story? Check. An MMO with a good combat system that goes against the norm? Check. Beautiful graphics? CHeck.

THe only thing this game is missing is polish. Of course it's only in beta so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, but some missions can't be completed for some weird reason. Alsoprojectiles from your enemiesseem to go through solid objects(I tested this out) which is a shame, but tolerable. They also need to fix the indicator saying yourlevel of cover. I remember playing through the beta and wondering what level of cover I was in, and could only find out by being hit from an enemy. Even then it wasn't particularly obvious. Thelast problem is a bit of a petpeeve, since this is an RPG, but I hate having to shoot 20 or so rifle round(Not machine gun rounds) into an enemy before they die. Since the whole game revolves around ranged weapons can't the enemies go down easier?

Even with my complaints the game is still great, and I've had a much better experience in this beta(During your early levels at least) Than WoW, which is pretty much not fun at low levels or if you're soloing. This MMO definitely shows some promise.

I've played TR for 75 hours and I'll say this: it's a good but not great MMO which'll last maybe half the time a regular MMO would. Ill play it as long as i can stand it....it'd be great if it could last me till Age of Conan but it won't and that's 6 months from now.

I gave it a go and I mostly agree with whats been said. It lacks a lot of polish. I also solo'd nearly everything. I hardly ever encountered something I needed to group to do, which I think could be considered a slight failing point. I was able to walk into instances and solo those once I got better at the combat system.

Also given the style of combat, I think grouping would be kind of a chaotic disaster. I can't imagine what it would be like trying to get a group of ten people through a complex instance. I'll wait and see there.

In the end I doubt I'll get it. I tend to just freeload on MMO's anyway. I'm not a fan of pay to play, or the general style of their gameplay lately. They all feel like they largely recycle the same tried and true gameplay. Make levelling fast at the start to hook people as they gain large amounts of noticeable power increases. Then slow it way down as they level up higher, and really slow it down at 'end game', to make them inch forward in power with gear. The PK'ing is also generally unfun in most of these, and the lack of serious death penalties really takes a lot of fun and suspense. You die? You have to walk back to your body and rez. You lose nearly nothing. This really takes a lot of fun out for me, and really encourages suicide tactics.

I wish MMO designers could find some happy medium of death penalty that doesn't wade into frustrating territory, but isn't utterly painless either. I also wish someone would shake up some of the fundamental design specs of them. They're all seeming really similar right now, even down to the coloring conventions of gear. White is always plain, green is slightly better, blue is really good, purple is amazing.

I was pondering playing this game upon release after spending some time in the beta. It's good fun and is definately more entertaining than most MMO's I have played. There is certainly something nice about a completely different world that I enjoy. However, the game still needs a good bit of work and the weapons and skills are retardedly unbalanced, and I don't think everything is even in the game yet. So while I do have a lot of fun playing it, picking up the game as soon as its released might just prove to be disappointing.

On the note of the actual subject, I don't expect the game to be very popular. I think it has a chance of becoming rather successful in its own right, but I won't expect it to get 1 million + subscribers.

I'd agree with the fact that it lacks polish. I actually didn't play much of this game...maybe 5-6 hours when I concluded with the feeling of, "This game feels incomplete." (which it is)

It comes out in nearly a month, but the release date can stil be postponed. My point is...I'm bored with Warcraft and I'm looking for something else to eat up my life. Would this be the game, or not? That's the question I'm really trying to ask. Maybe I just need to play more...I don't know.

I played this Beta for a bit... same probs with it that everyone else seems to have.

Hellgate london looks pretty cool if you can wait a month

I played this Beta for a bit... same probs with it that everyone else seems to have.

Hellgate london looks pretty cool if you can wait a month

ender

I can barely wait. I'm going to go pre-order it at Gamestop so I can try out the beta when they get their keys. I really, REALLY hope that game doesn't suck.

TR is another clone in alot of respects. While i do not expect NC soft to reinvent the MMO, it would have been nice to see some innovation and not just cloning parts of successful games. The simple fact is that WOW, and to a lesser extent LOTRO are thesuccessful conclusion of the 2st generation MMO. They could even be argued as 1st gen in some respects.

TR basically copies wow and lotro without adding anything new other then the setting. The combat while slightly more fun and different, still follows the same dice roll/timed combat rounds as previous MMO's. If you look at combat closely, its still a dice roll system, before you even shoot the hit/miss calculations are known. Things like cover, range, line of sight etc etc do not really matter. Coupled with the 8 billion mindless quests that make you fetch 12 gizmos, or kill 10 mobs for advancement it really fails to do much.

TR could have been an improvement ,and from a richard garriot game i expect it to be alot better. The Non existant AI, Failure to create a hybred fps/rpg combat system, failure to move away from mindless questing for no reason, lack of innovation reguarding charecter types, etc etc etc, just relagates this MMO to clone status. It will probably be successful for awile, but its not going to be anything special.

With alot more effort, TR could have been great. skill based charecter system w/choice, FPS Twitch game system, with allowences for the RPG crowd, Epic Storytelling, are just a few things that would make the game stand out.