Tabula Rasa: Interview Series

In the latest installment of our ongoing Tabula Rasa Q&A series, we get a special treat. Richard Garriott parachuted in for one answer in this edition to talk about Logo. The remainder of the Q&A is answered by Lead Designer Paul Sage and Community Manager April Burba.

WarCry: Have we asked "Why did you pick "Logos" to describe the psionics and language in the game? Are you referring to the ancient Greek philosophical concept or to the more Biblical connotation"?

Richard Garriott: The word "Logos" is used in our game both for the symbolic language and for the force-like super powers our players learn to wield. "Logos" is often used to describe god-like powers that manifest reality with the power of your mind and spoken words, such as "Let There Be Light and there was." Added to this is the concept of a logogrammatic language, which uses pictographic symbols for communication.

Read more after the click.

Lead Designer Paul Sage joins April Burba to answer the latest in our Tabula Rasa Q&A series and the first since they launched the game on Friday. Burba and Sage tackle questions on humor, differentiation and what launch day was like.

WarCry: One underplayed part of TR is that the game actually has quite the sense of humor, such as the messages played over the PA systems in human bases. Talk about some of the ways you guys have taken the destruction Earth and made it a touch less than serious.

April Burba: That's nothing. Have you seen the Mini-British running around? He is on a quest to find his rat-tail. There are tons of little 'easter-eggs' if you want to call them that all over the world. There are Apple IIe's that have the opening lines from Akalabeth. There are also some pretty funny NPC chatter/actions. There is one NPC standing precariously on several chairs welding directly into a pipe. Another NPC has some funny commentary about it.

Read more after the leap.

Tabula Rasa Community Manager April Burba has come back for another round of questioning. This time, Matt Lowery asks about medics, melee options and more in this soon to be released NCSoft product.

WarCry: How exactly do Medics work? Can they heal you in combat, do they have to stand next to you?

April Burba: Medics have a combination of ways to heal allies. They have Regen Wave that massively raises the health and power regeneration rates of all squad members within a 25m radius for a full minute. There is also a healing disc tool that can be a direct target tool, a cone, or an AoE around the medic. Medics also have a leech ability that when cast on a bad guy causes anyone who damages the enemy to gain health or power based on the attack damage type done. Further, Medics have an insanity ability that turns baddies against each other - if you make an enemy healer insane, it will heal the good guys in your squad.

The full interview after you click "Read More".

Tabula Rasa's twice a month Q&A series gets back on its feet with the return of Community Manager April Burba. Today, Site Manager Scott Clark asks about a range of features that players would be interested in as NCSoft's big project runs down the home stretch.

WarCry: A game like Tabula Rasa seems to thrive, more than other MMOs, on unbroken, fast-paced battlefield combat. What form will the proposed death penalty take, and what considerations have been given to avoiding downtime that might take players out of that action?

April Burba: We do have a death penalty of stat reduction for a short time after you respawn at a hospital. You can purchase Res Trama kits at the hospital to eliminate the stat reduction, so you can get back to the action quickly. You can also take a Res Kit with you in case a friendly res's you in the field.

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Tabula Rasa Community Manager April "CuppaJo" Burba is back with another installment of our ongoing Q&A series. This week she answers questions on instancing, the Bane, perspective and much more.

WarCry: The Beta is now underway, how is it going? Do you plan on opening the floodgates anytime soon?

April Burba: It's going really well. We opened one floodgate already with a batch of 10K invites recently, and we are pretty close to another batch of 10K soon, so everyone should be watching their mailbox. It's always interesting with your first big batch because until then you haven't really seen what your game might look like on launch day, with a large majority of the population in starting areas. It was an amazing feeling for the team to see so many people in-game.

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In the third part of our twice-monthly Q&A series, Community Manager April Burba answers five more questions from our staff on the status of Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa.

WarCry:How will PvP work in the game? We know we are all human, and fighting the bane, so how do you handle any PvP?

April Burba: Throughout human history in spite of the presence of a common enemy, humans still fight amongst themselves. Humans still love, they still lust, they still fear. Our humanness does not disappear in war, rather it is amplified. The world (in-game and out) is not black and white. There are ethical shades of grey that can make you wonder which side is really good or evil. Where there is doubt, there is conflict.

But if shades of grey aren't your thing you can always call it training.

There will be 1v1, small team vs. small team and clan vs. clan PvP .

Read more after you click.

In the second of our twice-monthly interviews with NCSoft's Tabula Rasa, Community Manager April "CuppaJo" Burba talks to us about the death penalty, level restrictions, raids and more subjects. Remember, check back in a couple weeks for more, as well as our report from an even they're holding this week in Austin.

WarCry: You have said that Tabula Rasa will use Instancing. Could you explain how often we will see instancing, and what kind of things we can look forward to seeing in the instances?

April Burba: Instancing runs about 40% of the game at the start and then moves to about 60% towards the end. Instances are more like single player games - lots of story, lots of amazing things going on. Instances in TR blow me away. There is more thinking going on in instances with cameras, alarms, and interacting with your environment and it's just cool as hell.

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Today we're happy to kick off a new twice-monthly Q&A series with the people behind Tabula Rasa. Every couple weeks, we'll bring you a Q&A with Community Manager April Burba or some other member of the team. Today, we get our first five questions in.

WarCry: There has been much talk about Logos in TR, and the unique language they make. Will people be able to enjoy the game if they don't wish to learn the Logos language?

April Burba: Yes. Learning the language will not be required, however, players are bound to pick some up during the game as they are exposed to it. It's also really easy to pick up, so I expect that many people will be able to get the basics of a Logos paragraph in game without having to know every Logos symbol in existence.

Read more after the click.