Tabula Rasa (computer game)
| Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio |
 NCsoft Austin
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| Publisher |
 NCsoft
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| Erstveröffent- lichung |
November 2, 2007 | ||
| platform | Windows | ||
| genre | MMORPG | ||
| Subject | Science fiction | ||
| Game mode | Multiplayer | ||
| control | Mouse , keyboard | ||
| system advantages preconditions |
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| language | German , English , ... | ||
| Current version | 1.13.8.0 (October 27, 2008) | ||
| Age rating |
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| information | Discontinued in 2009 | ||
Tabula Rasa was a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). The game was developed by NCsoft Austin , a development studio of NCsoft (including Guild Wars ). The game's chief developer was Richard Garriott , the designer of the popular Ultima series and the original Ultima Online . In addition to the cost of purchasing the actual game, there were ongoing fees, so one or more months of game time had to be paid in advance.
background
The action is set in the near future. The Earth was overrun within 5 days by an alien force called the Bane. It was obvious that they were not interested in people. Most were killed. But some scientists were able to use ancient texts to build wormhole portals and organize an exodus. At some point the contact with earth broke off. The rest of humanity was scattered across a handful of planets in the universe. There they found allies, other sentient species that also suffered from the Bane. They founded the AFS, the Allied Free Sentients (meaning: Alliance of free sentient beings), an army to fight against the Bane. You start the game as a recruit in this army.
Game mechanics
Class system
In contrast to other role-playing games , in Tabula Rasa you don't select a class when generating characters, but everyone starts with the class “Recruit”. In the course of the game you have to choose one of 2 advanced classes 3 times (at levels 5, 15 and 30). There are two classes between levels 5 and 15, four classes between levels 15 and 30 and eight classes from level 30. This class system is intended to represent a military career with ongoing specialization. The first choice (between “soldier” and “specialist”) already decides on the later possible classes.
| recruit | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| soldier | specialist | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Commando soldier | spotter | pioneer | Biotechnician | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| grenadier | Guardsman | sniper | spy | saboteur | engineer | Microbiologist | Xenobiologist | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Each class has certain skills and abilities, e.g. B. the training to wear certain armor and weapons, or the ability to use certain tools. These skills can usually be increased in up to 5 levels. In order to carry out these increases, you have to use training points, whereby an increase costs as many points as the level to which you want to increase (from level 4 to 5 therefore costs 5 points). Since only 2 points are granted per character level (with the exception of levels 5, 15 and 30, 4 points each), you sometimes have to save several levels in order to increase your skill level, in which you could improve other, lower skills.
Logos
One of the allies of humans are the so-called Eloh. They are a very old race and, thanks to their technical progress, have found a way to tap into the universe's very own forces and to manipulate the environment with their help. This ability is called Logos. When the Eloh first visited the earth 10,000 years ago, they saw in primitive humans the potential for great things. Therefore, like many other peoples before, they planted the genetic predispositions for the use of logos. As a result, part of the people today are Logos Media, able to use the Logo's abilities to fight the Bane.
Player characters are always logo media. The Logos skills are class-specific skills. In order to be able to learn them, you do not have to spend training points, but first collect the required logo symbols, which can be found scattered on shrines all over the game world.
In addition to its function in the game, the logo pictograms represent an independent font that was specially developed by Richard Garriott for “Tabula Rasa”. There are always logos inscriptions in the game world, and some missions can only be completed successfully with the knowledge of the meaning of various pictograms.
Clone
In order not to have to play up a completely new character for each class, the clone system was devised. You can clone a current character, even change appearance, first name and gender, and create a new character that shares the level and logos with the old one, but not the equipment. In order to create a clone, you must first purchase a clone credit. You get these automatically at levels 5, 15 and 30, but they can also be acquired by completing very extensive, multi-part missions.
Development history
attitude
The end of Tabula Rasa was announced with a message from Richard Garriott that he wanted to leave NCsoft, who later denied being the author and sued NCsoft. On November 21, 2008, the Tabula Rasa team announced that the servers would be shut down on February 28, 2009. This was justified with the fact that the game never had the expected number of players and was therefore not profitable enough to finance future development. Players who have a subscription to Tabula Rasa that is valid after January 10th, 2009, have the opportunity to receive various severance payments. The game has been free to play since December 19th.
The game finally ended on March 1, 2009 with a major attack by the Alliance on the earth conquered by the Bane, which the Alliance won and thus the earth was freed from the Bane.
Richard Garriott later sued NCsoft for $ 24 million over the circumstances of his departure from NCsoft. In July 2010, Garriott was awarded $ 28 million by the Austin District Court.
Web links
- eu.playtr.com ( Memento from February 28, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Tabula Rasa Homepage (archived February 2009)
- Tabula Rasa (computer game) at MobyGames (English)
swell
- ↑ An Open Letter From General British. November 21, 2008, archived from the original on February 10, 2009 ; accessed on November 22, 2011 (English).
- ↑ Garriot NCsoft complaint. 2009, archived from the original on February 8, 2011 ; accessed on November 23, 2011 (English).
- ^ Message from Tabula Rasa Team. playtr.com, November 21, 2008, archived from the original on December 20, 2008 ; accessed on November 20, 2011 (English).
- ↑ http://www.rgtr.com/news/latest_news/tabula_rasa_now_with_more_free.html ( Memento from January 5, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Chris Remo: Tabula Rasa To Go Out With A Dark, Unusual Bang. In: Gamasutra . February 27, 2009, accessed March 3, 2009 .
- ↑ Ben Kuchera: Does a game have to fail to have an ending? Tabula rasa. In: ars technica. March 2, 2009, accessed March 3, 2009 .
- ↑ Tabula Rasa Shutdown Events. Archived from the original on March 2, 2009 ; Retrieved November 23, 2011 . (currently unavailable, Nov. 23, 2011)
- ^ Luke Plunkett: Richard Garriott Suing NCsoft For $ 24,000,000. Retrieved November 23, 2011 .
- ^ Richard Garriott Sue's NC Soft Over Millions in Stock Options. www.gamepolitics.com, accessed November 23, 2011 .
- ^ AJ Glasser: Lord British wins $ 28 million in NCsoft lawsuit. Retrieved November 23, 2011 .
- ↑ Kirk Ladendorf: Garriott wins $ 28 million jury award in NCsoft suit. gamepro.com, archived from the original on September 20, 2011 ; accessed on November 23, 2011 (English).