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.
Answers by April “CuppaJo” Burb
Questions by Matt Lowery
WarCry: Many MMOs have level restrictions for grouping together. What is the goal with Tabula Rasa with grouping? Can my friend who just started playing today, group with me, when I have been playing for months?
April Burba: There is no ‘sidekicking’ system, but between the cloning system and the wide level range with which you can still be affective against enemies it should be easier than most MMOs.
WarCry: Raids! Some people love them, others hate them. Will there be raids in TR and how will they be handled? What do you plan to be the average size group in TR?
April Burba: So we have large instanced areas – but the max group size will be the same as all other groupings – 6. As for stuff to do with large groups of people, there are large enemy controlled bases which if players wanted to take them over would require working together in large groups. More like castle sieges.
WarCry: We know that if your character dies in TR you will respawn at a checkpoint. What other penalties are there for dieing?
April Burba: We know we will have a death penalty, but it has not been added yet and we aren’t really ready to talk about it until we have had a chance to put it in game and see how it works out.
WarCry: At level 1 everyone starts out as a recruit, then specializes from there. Will Tabula Rasa have stats, for players to add to? For example, is every level 1 recruit the same as the next one? Can you modify other things as you level besides skills?
April Burba: Oh yeah – we have body, mind, and spirit stats. When you level you get points to put in these stats as well as points for your skills.
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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