Richard Garriott, NCSoft Finally Reveal Tabula Rasa

An anonymous reader writes "GameSpy has released the first concrete details on Ultima creator Richard Garriott's PC sci-fi MMORPG, Tabula Rasa, after years of development at Destination Games and NCSoft. The game promises to do away with MMO annoyances such as excessive 'travel time', indicating: 'one of the first elements added to the game was the ability to teleport to a friend - not as a power, but merely as an ability inherent to anyone in the world.' The combat system (in which the developers 'took inspiration from console titles like Soul Calibur II') and level structure is also more unconventional: 'The bulk of the game outside of the Hubs and the Estates is focused on squad-based cooperative gameplay in instanced missions that are available to anyone.'" GameSpy also has first in-depth details on another NCSoft title, Auto Assault, offering "[massively multiplayer] car combat in a Mad Max-type universe."

Sci-Fi?

[UnknownSoldier]

I am of mixed opinions on this ... Sci-Fi tradionally doesn't do as well (gameplay-wise, financially, etc) as historical / social settings (i.e.Age of Empires, Sims, etc), because of the lack of familiarity and ability to relate to the material. i.e. techno-babble.

Hopefully I'll be proven wrong, and the game will be a lot of fun.

Can anyone comment on the strengths and weaknesses of KOTOR ?

Re:Follow id Software's, Multi-OS Release

[sYn pHrEAk]

id released Quake 3 on Win32, Mac, and Linux. That was years ago. Probably before S2Games was even around. If I remember correctly there were also Linux versions of Quake 1 and 2 released for download. All you had to do was copy the graphic files off of your regular CD to the right directory.

Don't get me wrong, Savage is hella fun, but the first big name multi-OS release credit goes to id.

Re:I believe you're right...

[DAldredge]

It was an early Steve Jackson game that Origin licensed.

Re:Eliminate Travel Time

[blincoln]

As someone else suggested, there are lots of ways to get around the travel time in Morrowind.

You can purchase transport at all of the major cities in the game. If you complete the Boots of Blinding Speed quest you can increase your speed 200 points whenever you feel like it. If you collect the Propylon indices, you can teleport between the various Dwemer fortresses. If you have any magic skills, you can learn Mark/Recall, Divine Intervention, and Almsivi Intervention. There are two handy magical items (Amulet of Levitation and Blade of the Wind(?)) that let you levitate basically as much as you want to get over mountains.

The skill system is awesome, IMO. I am usually not a fan of RPGs at all, but basing levels and skills on how much you use them made me really interested in Morrowind.

The only complaint I had about the game was the over-abundance of Cliff Racers.