Jester: Good evening ladies and gentlemen. I am Dj Jester coming at you live from well, normally we would be in a game but the game we are talking about tonight isn't out yet. We are talking about Tabula Rasa. Joining as always is Miri. Miri how is it going this week?

Miri: Its going pretty good It's a little chilly down here, but i will survive.

Jester: Oh yes i forgot you southerners actually got ice finally and snow and things like that. You know how us northern folks feel now.

Miri: Well it actually didn't snow here it just got a little cold.

Jester: Ooh Ooh ok i know Austin has been buried under some ice. Cuppajoe whats going on down there?

Cj:Well hidden in away in our houses and haven't come out in 3 days so we are getting a little restlessness So glad to be on air so i can get rid of some of my nervous energy.

Jester:(Laugh) You know i lived in buffalo and Niagara falls for like seven years. Between college and three years afterwards and i have seen you know several feet of snow on the ground and people to going out to the malls for the hell of it. yet i hear about all these southern city's get a inch of snow and they shut down for a week, Just makes me giggle every time.

Cj:Yup thats us nobody has been anywhere in 3 days and you know i lived in Germany for 3 months and then you know then lived in New Hampshire for about the same amount of time over a winter. And you know i can i know how to  get out and get into snow and ice i don't have any problem. But its not me i am worried about its everybody else so ah we just don't know how to drive in the ice and our infrastructure is not really set up. We don't have like we have like three salt trucks in the entire city or something like. We just hunker down and usually it will just last 24 hours so hopefully by tomorrow we will all be better.

Jester:(laugh) Well don't we get right into what everybody has been really really anxious for us to talk about. We had problems with last week was actually trying to do this show. And start talking about whats going on with Tabula Rasa. Now you have been there since September of course we did you going away party for CoH and what a blast it was. but what has being going on since then with TR what exactly what where are we at  this point.

Cj: Well we are in friends and family beta which is basically the game industry's way of saying you know extreme Alpha. And so we have been there for a little bit. I guess since i joined we've kinda started working on kinda of the final stages of creating a game creating a MMO.  And thats where you know start adding a bunch of content in and doing a whole bunch of other stuff. So at this point we're trying to get ready for closed beta, so we're adding content and putting in systems and polishing up things and getting  things together. Its pretty exciting.

Jester: Ok, so speaking of beta sign ups started two weeks ago?

Cj: Yup two weeks ago tomorrow i believe.

Jester: And how is that going have you got your fill of applications yet?

Cj: yea its going good we got a lot of applications which is a good but we plan to take a whole bunch. I don't know if you guys have taken a look at system requirements for TR. But what we  looking, what we are trying to do is get a good range of hardware from our minimum specifications all the way to some of the newer kinda higher end just released stuff. So we want kinda of as many beta applications as possible so we can get a sampling of not only the hardware but different locations throughout the world to test the game we are to paling on having a European beta for all you guys across the pond we definitely want to hear from you as well.  Please go sign up for beta.

Jester: Ok and the euro folks should be signing up with the same links as the north American?

Cj: Yup as long as you click on that link it will take you in and you will create a account if you don't already have one and then when you put your location where you are it will decide where you go.

Jester: Ok got you. Why don't we go over those system requirements real quick i actually have them up on the screen here.  Windows® 2000/XP/Vista, 512 MB System RAM, 2.5 GHz Intel® Pentium® 4 or equivalent AMD™ processor, 128 MB Direct3D and Shader 2.0 compatible video card and Direct X 9.0 compatible driver.  Thats a mouth full do we have like a model spec that is essentially a equivalent to.

Cj: it's a pretty general standard there are a lot of cards that are 2.0 compliant. I think CoH supports Ge force 2 and its a little higher then that, but dos not seem terribly higher then that. I think the biggest  kind of stumbling block for most people is the amount of memory that has to be on the video card. Some people don't have that much memory on their video card or the processor speeds some people have issues with that. 

Jester: Right and actually the processor speed and the size of the video cards required are relatively old at this point. I mean 2.5 Ghz its not that bad what is that two years that its been out now.  So your really not  talking to  serious  If your computer is more then three years old  you might have a problem . But most people shouldn't have much problem loading up. 

Cj: Yea thats what i was going to say. That it seems in the world of computers you have this three year mark and you know games try to get into that three year, you know the last three year. If you purchased a computer from a major manufacture in the last three years we kinda want you to play so as we get closer to launch time we will see when that three year tick you know see how far back that goes. But you know i think thats right, I think if you purchased a system from a major manufacturer that wasn't a low end system but was actually a gaming system in the last two years at this point probably going to be ok.

Jester: Right right. Ok so now what kind of beta format are you folks planing to follow? Is this something that is going to be something that is going out be long and drawn out. Are you going to get in and out real quick or is this going to be one of those things where you are constantly pulling people in over next month several months.  Is there anything you can tell us about the beta process at this point. 

Cj: Well I can tell you the the first wave that we do will be all of the contest winners that we had. And then after that  we'll kinda probably hang for a bit and see how that goes. And then once we get past that first kinda wave, our tentative plan is to get people in on pretty regular cycle, not like CoV seemed like we did waves with several weeks  in between them up to a month in between them. I think we are going try to turn over faster, getting people in  fresh eyes pretty regularly so that we can respond to feed back, make changes and then get new people in to see. Especially first news or experience and get people to see that on a regular basis and get fresh opinion. Cuse you only see something the first time once and that first impression is important for a MMO. So also its going to be a average length beta i don't expect it drag out for a year or anything like that, but i don't expect it to be two moths either. So its more in between that.

Jest; Got it. Which is definitely a good thing I know some of the games coming out anymore. It seems they go into beta and come out so fast nothing really gets done with them. Now I know AA followed the slow wave invites where it was a good month or more between invites. hearing that you guys will be taken a slightly faster approach is kinda refreshing and i agree that first time experience really is kinda of a important thing. I just recently tried out the Vanguard beta, and my first experience with it was, oh god not another game where i have to kill bugs and cats to advance to anything interesting. And you know that is so, essentially old school MMO at this point and i was like yuck. Perhaps if they gotten that kind of feed back more in their beta or their early beta they could have changed into something a little more interesting.

Cj:Yea its important to look at your feedback and have time to respond to it. I know that we have planed for that and built into our schedule time to respond to feedback. Which is a very cool thing and really like that the team is doing that and has that in mind. And it seems to me that so far what i have seen from Destination Games team is they listen and they respond well and i have been very encouraged by that. 

Jester: Great to know. Now speaking of responding, are they going to take as active roll in the forums for beta and in other forums after the game goes live. Like the CoH devs are?

Cj: Probably not as heavy as the CoH devs. I think in beta, once we kinda start closed beta I expect to see them a little more active on the boards. But you know they have a time line and whole a lot to do so they are really focusing on getting things done. They are watching and reading and will be watching and reading, but i expect less direct interaction with the community the CoH team. But you have to admit the CoH team is more communicative directly with the player base then pretty much any other game i have ever seen. So thats a pretty high bar. 

Jester: Absolutely, but some of us get spoiled by those high bars we expect them where ever we go. So its good to know what to expect when you get somewhere. Now with that being said why don't we start moving into the actual game play and what its like. Explain to us in a nut shell what Tabula Rasa is as far in how the game is played.

Cj:What do you want to start with. Kinda the setting of the game is that a good place to start. 

Jester: Sure sure lets go with that.

Cj:Ok so its in a nutshell the game the earth has been attacked by a alien race called the Bane. And they have pretty much made earth inhabitable, and some of us have escaped and ended up on a planet called Foreas. And on Foreas we are working with other humans who have escaped as well as several other races who are also being attacked by the Bane to try to fight back. And to over throw them and to insure our own survival because they pretty much want to make humans and other races extinct and take over everything in fact the entire universe. So in a nutshell i mean thats what it is intergalactic war, basically that is what it is. So the combat is now what is different about Tabula Rasa then most MMOs that the style of the game is more of a action RPG. i heard a lot of people say that its like a FPS MMO and its not a FPS MMO. It has some shooter elements to it, the combat and camera control. People who play FPS may be familiar with key mappings that we have taken as a standard from those games. But at its heart at its core you know  its made by Richard  Garriott its a RPG. So its this action RPG and Richard you know feels like that you can always give RPGers more action and they will like it. So thats kinda the ideal behind it.

Jester: Ok now i am getting questions about the playable races and character customization and things like that. So why don't we delve into that character creation process a little bit. And explain to people as much as you can of course whats to be found in the game so far. Just how is customization achieved how unique is your character going to be. In a soldier mindset and story line wise it seems most people should be fairly similar in look because their hair should be certain way. There are regulations for being in the military, so how is character customization achieved in Tabula Rasa.

Cj: So everybody is human, at least at launch. Everyone will be human you start as human you are taken to a character creation screen first name and last name. Then you pick a hair style, hair color, skin tone, you can color you uniform. We are debating and working on  several different armor pieces that you can wear and even chose at the beginning. Right now it's just coloring but i believe we are going to make those available to further make people more unique at the beginning. But you are right it is a military and everybody starts out as a recruit, rather then choosing from a whole bunch of different power choices or skill choices or points or anything like that in the beginning. Everybody starts out the same, so just like the military everybody goes in at the ground level. Here is your basic equipment here is your basic set of statics as far as your skills are concerned. And then as you play the game thats when you level up and start becoming unique by your own choices. As you defeat enemies and pick up loot you find better armor or purchase better armors, weapons and stuff like that and become more unique like that way. So at first it seems like there are not a lot of choices to make, but as you play the game you get more and more choices. I feel pretty positive about that , I know that there are a lot of games i played where you start of in the character creation and you have all this decisions to make. And You know nothing about how those decisions are going to affect you. So you roll a character and you go play it and you don't like something then you have to start all over and make different choices. Where in Tabula Rasa we want you to be more informed about your choices. So as you play and you can learn the game, you say oh i feel like i want to be more shooting oriented i am going to go the route of the soldier rather then being more of the medic roll. So as you level and you get to the point where you  get to actually make that decision. Do you want to be more of a soldier or do you want to be more of a specialist, and maybe be  a medic or something like that. So that you are more familiar with game and how the game works before you have to make those decision. I think that its a little more beginner friendly that way.

Jester: Ok now lets get into the classes since we are starting touch upon it a just a little bit. Its a rank, its a skill based system but its in a class tree. correct you have to go through one class to get to the next?

Cj: Right its a inverse tree leveling system. So everybody starts as a recruit, and then you get to a certain level and the tree splits. And you decide whither you want to be a soldier and go down the soldier side of the tree. Or do you want to be a specialist and go down the specialist branch. And then level a couple more times and you get to make that choice again and get to choice from there what  next you kinda of specialization is going to be. The higher your level the more specialized you become.

Jester: Ok, and what are some of the abilities some of these are going to have. I mean if you are going from a specialist which is looking more towards a medic. What other options are there beyond becoming a actual medic. 

Cj: So like from the specialist after you become a specialist. Your next choice is either a biotechnician  or sapper. A sapper is kinda like a robotic engineer, hacker  type person. You access secure systems hack enemy robotics to disarm them stuff like that. Biotechs are little more like. Kinda of like there is healing in there its more of a crafting type micromechs abilities, different poison type powers and stuff like that. You get different weaponry with each class that you chose. So its just more then just being a healer  does that make sense.

Jester: Yea i think so. Its a little convoluted sometimes for those folks who really want to know check out the basic training section under the. I believe its what the news section or is it features. Its under features on the TR site.  You have a basic click able tree you can go through which is pretty neat. Its got the first three tiers. How many tiers are there total. 

Cj: Four. Right now for launch 

Jester: Ok and with this system (stuttering). It always go back to the old fantasy games because thats what most people have the most experience with. So in this game what is your rogue, what is your thief class kinda deal in this?

Cj:So probably ranger. Rangers have stealth armor if thats what you mean by your rogue.

Jester: Yea yea the stealthier your sneak and attack class. 

Cj: Your sneaky sneaky. Yea the rangers are the sneaky sneaky.

Jester: Ok and checking this out it says here that they got weapons an net gun. Abilities are reinforcements and air strikes. What exactly is a Net gun? Does it shoot out a giant net to people?

Cj: Right it kinda off roots the enemy, you shoot the Net gun and it will root the enemy just like it sounds.

Jester: So its literally like a snare, its not a gun that does some kind of laser net that damages them massively. 

Cj: No i don't think so. 

Jester: Ok that was one of those that didn't quite click with me what is was going to be in a Sc-fi setting. You know developers like to toss little curve balls at you. Now one of the questions i saw on one of the sites. Are we going to see like standard modern day weapons that the AFS are using or is it all futuristic stuff. 

Cj: Thats still to be determined, right now the names of the weapons are pretty generic there are some in game brand names if you well. But your not actually holding a Smith&Wesson pistol. But thats more from the fact that if we said that you are holding a Smith&Wesson pistol we would have to license that name from Smith&Wesson probably. Its probably a legal thing. Its not to say something like that wont happen it could happen. I know we have discussed having actual name brand of things and working with various companies to do that. But right now things have none recognizable names, Its the Acumax rifle or whatever. So still kinda thats up in the air a little bit. 

Jester; Ok Ok. Now with the combat how exactly does it work. its sort of a FPS a lot of the controls are based upon FPS. But its not, how exactly does that work?

Cj: So once you log into the game your going to move with W-A-S-D, but your camera is going be controlled by your mouse. Your not holding any buttons down on your mouse to control the camera like in CoH. Like if you right click you can look around with your mouse and do mouse look.  Your actually looking through your reticle and where ever you mover your mouse is where your reticle goes and your camera follows that reticle. Now the targeting is sticky targeting. So if i move my reticle lets say with in 2 to 3 feet real distance of a enemy. That reticle is going to snap to that enemy and kinda of stick to that target until I pull a certain distance away from the enemy then that reticle will snap off that target and go to the next target or where ever you are pointing. Now one of the cool things is in the options menu you can adjust the stickiness of that reticle. So if your are more of a RPGer  your not really concerned with realistic aiming  and stuff like that you can adjust it so you have a pretty high stickiness factor.  So that you can kinda go from enemy to enemy pretty quickly. And let that reticle do the aiming for you. Or you can adjust it all the way down the other end of the scale and almost have a true point and shoot. Instead of having that reticle snap to the targets. So its actually more of a shooter feel to it, does that make sense.

Jester: Yea so essentially it would literally be if your reticle is over the target you fire that where your going to shoot at. But if you move off just slightly it wont be targeted.

Cj: Exactly so we're also going to have  a certain button and you can lock onto that target if you choose. You can crouch and that will increase the speed by which you aim in on somebody. You can actually hide behind objects and get some cover, if that makes sense. So there are some more what i would call realistic shooting elements to it. If you are running while shooting your accuracy is not going to be as good. If your enemy is running while shooting at you its accuracy is not going to be as good. So there is a mixture of different elements. 

Jester: Is it harder to hit you if your running?

Cj: Yes. Its actually the way it works is there is not that much accuracy in the game you don't shoot and miss. As much as what it does it does less damage. If i am running by you and your shooting at me, your going to do less damage then if i was standing still. 

Jester: Ok (?) from Xfire just tossed me a msg and has a very good question about weapons. He says one question i have about Tabula Rasa is the weapons. I know futuristic and i know there are lots of guns. What about the melee fighting? Is there any at all?

Cj: There is, there is hand to hand combat it's one of the first skills you get right in boot camp. melee fighting in a lot of games is like you punch thats  all you can do. But melee fighting in Tabula Rasa is if your using the melee fighting ability its punches and kicks. And then we actually have a staff one of the weapon is a staff. So thats a weapon you can use for melee based combat. And any weapon you use you can smash your enemy in the face with it. And thats pretty effective currently. 

Jester: Nice. Ok Archinbandan(?) Wants to know heck with weapons what about the logos. What exactly are these abilities like, and how do they work. 

Cj: So logos are the mystical power if you will of Tabula Rasa. There are certain people who are more in tune with this particular mystical force then aren't. Every player character is of course in tune with this mystical force and all the NPCs are not.  Their kind of like super powers. One of the very first powers you get is a lightning power and when you activate that power you actually kinda of shoot bolts lightning at your enemies. There is a gambit of these types of powers that you get as you level up in Tabula Rasa. The way you fire a ability, to talk a little bit more about how the combat works. With your left mouse button your firing your weapon, with your right mouse button your firing you logo ability's.

Jester: Ok got you its left click for guns and right click for specials.

Cj: Got it.

Jest: Ok i really have not let Miri talk so far tonight. Miri is there any questions you want to get into on the combat side of things. 

Miri; I was just going to say a squad thats how  military units usually are broken into. How can we expect squad combat to go.?

Cj: So there is teaming, and we have voice chat that goes with teaming. If your in a team you can use integrated voice chat to talk with them. Currently i think the squad limit is six or eight i cant remember pretty sure its six. The ideal in Tabula Rasa is that squad combat should allow each of its different members to play off each other. Its part of the specialization of that tree. You got the people on the specialist side that are going to  do things like debuff enemies and buff teammates and keep people healthy. And then the soldier classes are going to be doing massive damage..................from all angles. from the front you can have a character who does more tanking...........classes that are maybe more scouting stealthy like we talked about.  That can go do some recon maybe sneak through some of the areas. And determine where the enemies are or ways around. One of the things about Tabula Rasa there is a little bit of puzzle solving aspect to some of the missions. There are multiple ways to solve missions a lot of times and sometimes as a team you can use your strengths to figure out alternate ways to finish a mission. Rather then just brute force, brute force is great but sometimes if you have a particular small squad or  a  squad made up of specialist classes your going want to out think you enemy.  So does that kinda help answer your question?

Miri: Yea sure does.

Jester: While we are on the subject of teaming. Imcompa over on the tr stratics boards posted a good question about this. He says “Will I be able to hop on for about 2 hours, and spend 95% of that time playing the game?  Not looking for a group, spamming to sell something, running long distances... etc.”
How much of it is going to be jump right into the action for Tabula Rasa.

Cj: Well i think you will get a really good sense on how action packed the game is from the first moment you step into Tabula Rasa we throw you right into the action. And i would say that you know there is a good chance you can jump in for two hours, and spend a hour and 45 minutes of that shooting stuff. Its very action oriented I think ultimately we hope to have the game designed in such a way that if you wanted to log in for thirty minutes log in for thirty minutes get something done see a lot of action and have a great time. Or you can log in for thirty minutes hang out talk to people do some crafting some PvP  and give you a lot of options there. But definitely if you want to get in and go and shoot and blow some stuff up. Tabula Rasa is going to have more blowing stuff up then probably any MMO out there. 

Jester: Really so your are going to make AA a liar on the fastest most destructive MMO?

CJ:(laughter)I would not try to make AA a liar, but i think that as far as individual blowing stuff up shooting combat. Its up there its definitely up there with AA.

Jester: Ok I just had t bring that up. While we are mentioning AA lets get into talking about the loot system and how things work in comparison. I have to say out of all the games i have played  in the last couple years  the loot system in AA has me hooked. I get loot in that game its virtually all unique stuff because its a randomly generated system. I just twitch every time i find something kewler. And i have been playing the thing for over a year at this point and i am still finding kewl stuff i love. So is there going to be a that random quality to the loot In tabula or is it going to be more of a formulaic and much less the ability to find this really uber named gun everyone is going to have the exact same gun.\

Cj: Yea i don't think so thats not the intent. Right now we have loot in the game and we are still working on crafting its not anything i am allowed to talk about at this point. And a lot of loot is going to be related to crafting. Its going to be a combination of kinda what people would consider trash loot, which is loot you would basically use to build up your money. Because you take it back and sell it at the store or what ever and get cash for it. You can sell it to another player who is going to craft out of that particular, what you consider trash they can turn that trash into whatever through there crafting system. trash loot to make money. And the there is going to be the uber loot as well but their stats on loot on guns and on armor and stuff like that, and there are rares. But I don't think its going to be the situation where people are spawn camping and stuff like that it seems more randomly generated to me then that. Does that make sense? Other then that i can't really get more specific then that because where we are at and me not being allowed to say anything.

Jester: Ok got you.  I know you cant say anything about the crafting system but with the crafting system is there a plan for auction houses, mail, and maybe player run stores. Or is it just going to be this is what you got, trade it to someone you know or toss it. 

Cj: We are still thinking about that and i know we are thinking about auction houses pretty hard. I doubt very seriously we will have player run stores for a long launch. And then  what was the other thing you said auction house player house or email. There's probably going to be a way for you to move loot around your particular characters, but as far a like email a gun to somebody i don't know about that.

Jester: So that actually brings up probably the next best place to start talking. You say moving items around your characters, one of the interesting things AA does is creating a bunch of new characters. You can actually clone you existing one what exactly is the concept behind that.

Cj: You said AA

Jester: Oh my god i am sorry. Between Tabula Rasa and Auto Assault.

Cj: Ok i got you there are going to be people who play Auto Assault and think they can clone their car .

Jester:(laughter) Oops.

Cj: That would be sweet.

Jester: Well last week we have been talking Auto Assault so much cause update 3 come out update 4 is all ready out. I just got it on the brains forgive me there. Any way with TR all right lets just go to the question.

Cj: So the cloning system. TR  is unique in that it has a way for you to clone a character. So lets say you get to level 4 and you level up and hit level 5 and you need to go see a trainer and pick between soldier and specialist. This is your first kinda branching in the tree if you will. Tabula Rasa has a way for you to go to character select screen and hit the button that says clone and make a exact copy of character. Now that copy will not have you characters loot and will not have your characters cash, which we call credits. But it will be like a copy of your character xp and stuff up to that point. Now this is useful because the is basically like a MMO with a save function. Since you can make a copy of it you can take one of those characters and go down the soldier path and head off into the sunset that way. And with the other character you can head down the specialist path and head down the sunset that way. The beautiful thing about this is you don't have to start over at level one and play 17 different characters and play the first 20 levels over and over again in order to experience all the different classes in the game. This should really reduce the amount of repeating the first 5 levels which i particular hate. Its one of my pet peeves with MMOs. So thats kinda part of the beauty of the cloning system.

Jester: Now with the cloning system thou are missions in the game going to be similar to CoH. Where depending on what archetype you are you get certain mission trees opening up to you, and certain contacts. Is that something thats going to be happening in Tabula where end up cloning and don't replay you might end up missing some of the content or is everyone playing the same thing through every time.

Cj:Hum that's a really good question. I do not know for sure if there are class specific missions. I would bet there are or there going to be class specific missions , but you know what i am not going to say that for sure cause i honestly do not know at this time. 

Jester: With the cloning system, with a game like CoH thats one of the reasons why some people that game for so long because alterholics. Are you worried about people actually cloning through and then essentially ever clone after a certain point less less time played till its at max level. Are you worried about people getting bored quicker by not having to grind through those earlier levels.

Cj: Not really. You know i think that as with most MMOs most of the best content is towards the end game so the longest common period of time. Lets talk about CoH for a second and think about this. It takes longer to get from 40 to 50 then it does from 1 to 40 right. And so there all these people who have played CoH for all this time all these years almost on 3 years right as of April. And never really made it past level 30. There are a lot of people i know that have a ton of alts have every single character slot filled, but have never made it that far. And I think some of the best content in that game is that level 40 to 50 content. And with Tabula Rasa the likely hood that they actually will be able to experience that high level content is much higher because they are not going have to go through all of those lower levels over and over again to try out different things and see if they like particular class more then another. They are going be able to do that a lot quicker and not get bored with those first 5 or 10 levels. But will be able to play that endgame content and get a chance to experience the entire game. Also i think it makes it easier for someone experience the entire game from all those different angles. And really get to know the different archetypes at that high end a lot better.

Jester: While we are talking about cloning and classes and stuff. Is there anyway to back out of a class and go to a different one once you tried it. Or do you have to make the clone first and if you forget your SOL. 

Cj: You can't go back.

Jester: And there is not going to be any sort of respecking correct?

Cj; I have not heard any plans to do that.

Jester: Now of course the people that are hearing that are going OMG what if major changes about a power. Is there that many powers and abilities in the game where there would be drastic changes after the beta is over . Or is it really more of a couple here and a couple there and they are going to be pretty by the time beta is done your going to be pretty happy with them. 

Cj: Yea there are a couple here and couple there and by the time beta gets done we will be pretty happy with them. I think thats how its going to work. I think also  the DG guys are really fair and that if they made a particular major change they would find a way to compensate for it or do something to help take care of that. I have all the faith in the world that they will be fair about it. I just don't think that...... you know i can't say that it will come back and bite me in the butt if i just say they wont make any changes significant enough to screw your character. But i am not going to say that cause you know if i do it will happen. So I think it will work out I really trust these guys to look out for the players. these guys are players to and i have been pretty impressed with their ability's to get what gamers want.

Jester: Now here is a good question from Disastrom(?) he says. When you clone your character does it look exactly like you appearance wise so all your characters end up looking exactly the same?

Cj: No once you clone the character, you go back to that character creation screen go through the same character creation screen you went through the first time. So your clone can look completely different which is kinda strange it works out all right cause you really don't want all your characters to look the same. So it may not be a 100% realistic of real life cloning for game purposes it works out better. 

Jester; So its really it's more of a advance cloning. Are you able to swap genders as well?

Cj: Yes

Jester: Now with that there is a mention well heard mentioned somewhere a family name. And it being a very important thing in the game do you want to explain what that is.

Cj: You have a family name which is basically your last name. Your last name when you create your first character in Tabula Rasa you pick a first name and a last name for that character. And that last name becomes the last name for all your characters. Its Tabula Rasa's version of a global handle, if someone messages you in the game they will message you by your last name. So when you chat thats what comes up on the screen it will have your last name and then your chat or what ever. The current implantation of that is that all your characters will have the same last name.

Jester: And you won't have any choice....

Cj: I am not sure if that will last beta.

Jester: Really. I can see where there would be..

Cj: Well..

Jester: Go ahead.

Cj: Well i think there is definitely some concern from several different camps. The main one is the roll playing camp that wants the opportunity to be able to create completely different characters and different character lines and all that kind of stuff. An we chat about it internally a couple of times. We will see how that plays out. I think its a good ideal in a way it creates a global handle for you to. So no matter what character you logged in as people can still talk to with out getting confused. But then you have deal with the issues of privacy and roll playing and having a different last name and those kind of things. So i think they will work something out in the end and we will see if it stays that way for launch.

Jester: right what about players that want to have the same last name as someone else. In a roll playing aspect or just a reality aspect where you got a father and son playing the game and they want to be father and son in the game. Will they be able to have the same last name or would it have to be completely different. 

Cj; Currently I think it would have to be different. This happens with MMOs all the time, its one of the hard things to figure out. Its one of the more frustrating things for players because your name always has to be unique on a server. And thats going to be same in this case your last name has to be unique on the server. 

Jester: Ok but your first name will not have to be correct?

Cj: No, I don't think so

Jester: Good cause i can see names getting eaten up pretty quickly if everyone is claiming 2 per character.

Cj: Yea, naw i don't think so. 

Jester: Ok good to know. Lets see here we are about at the top of the hour at this point and we had said we were going to give away some beta slots. So why don't we start thinking about that , perhaps we should do a trivia question Cuppa what do you  think.

Cj: Ooh your going to make me think of it aren't you. 

Jester: Actually i have one. We have the character on the front page of the website who is in the join the fight poster. She is essentially the pin up girl for Tabula Rasa she is every where. But what i think our question should be what is her name. 

Cj: Do we want them to have to give her full name. Should have to give her full name.

Jester: I think we should definitely get her full name(Gives out contact info).. How many are we giving away Cuppa?

Cj: We should give them away twice so lets give away 2 now.

Jester: All righty we are going to give away first 2, and we will give those to the first 2 people that i get messages from with the correct answer. While we are doing that lets move on here and continue talking. With this whole cloning and the character name system stuff we were talking about. I just want to just kinda break off and what being able to look for teams in the game. How is that system handled is there any thing defined yet or is it to early to talk about yet? 
 
Cj: Its to early to talk about about right now we are working on some of that right now. Grouping like looking for group, grouping chat system functionality. And then clans are something currently working on that i don't have any particular information to give out at this time. But hopefully we will know about those in the near future.

Jester: Ok so i have not gotten any guesses this is kinda scary i am thinking people don't know there going have to hit me up. So Miri you got any questions on the character system the cloning or any of the stuff or do we want to move into something new?

Miri: let's got ahead and move into something else because you pretty much asked all the questions i was going to ask.

Jester: Well then why don't you start the next topic then.

Miri: All righty then. 

Jester : Uh Oh i put him on the spot. 

Miri: Yea. What does. I see from the images from the front on the web page some of the other races. What does, I see Foreans listed and some kind of hominus listed how many of these are going to be on our side and what kind of alien allies are we looking at here?

Cj: So Foreans are a ally of ours, Foreans of course are the inhabitants of Foreas which is the first planet that everyone will go to when they get started in the game. Then we got some Eloh which are another more of  etherical  type race. We got the Corman which are, gosh i don't want to give away any of the story the story Miri. There not actually alien. So those are some of the allies we're going to be working with. The hominus That you're looking at actually on the images from the front is actually a bad guy. So those are a couple that i can mention right off.

Jester: All right i just wanted to break in real quick I got our first winner. His name is (?) off of yahoo he hit me up, he is better known in the w00t radio chat room on occasion as Mith. And i wanted to give him a big congrats, still waiting for one more person to get that right answer. Hurry up folks and i will announce what it is over the air. Now with the Allied Free Sentients, I know you can't give away to much on the story line. But did you humanity start this or no?

Cj: The humans are the ones who came up with the Allied Free Sentients. As far as the, thats what we call it.  Thats kinda its name, it's a very human thing to do to form a collation. So yea.

Jester: Ok thats one of those little, little points of the universe that had missed me for awhile. So all right lets see here I am trying to go through we had put up a couple different threads on some of the sites. Oh i just got my second winner. Let me get this question asked. (?) on Xfire I will be talking to you in just a moment this train of thought out of my head first. We had put up a thread asking questions from players on TR.Stratics and PlanetTR and Just a Gamer correct.

Cj: Yup

Jester: Yea and we gotten some really good questions in here. And I know there are a lot of folks that are asking about PvP and really can't talk about that yet correct?

Cj: The things i can say about PvP are the plan is at launch to support a clan versus clan PvP system. So that would be squad based it would be completely consensual. there is no random ganking, no n00bs who don't wan to PvP. If you want a random ganking of n00b game i got one for you its called Lineage II. But thats all i can say about PvP at this Point.

Jester: Ok Here is a good question from Obiyer who i actually did see in the w00t chat room here. He is saying how is agro handled in the game, is it similar to other MMORPGs where the kinda omnisciently know that your there after you get to a certain point. Or do they kinda, does it, is it more realistic in many ways?

Cj: I think it's more realistic in many ways, I know that one of the things that has impressed me playing Tabula Rasa is the AI is whole lot smarter then i think i have ever played against before. Number one they, there is a lot of movement. there is a lot of patrolling and movement to both the enemy AI and the ally AI. For instance you go to certain(audio break) moving along and moving towards a objective all of sudden a human drop ship will appear and drop off reinforcements. They will kinda of fight along side you and help you complete a objective during some missions. Drop ships also drop enemy forces at times, you will be cruising along and think your doing good on a pathway going somewhere. The all of sudden you know here comes a drop ship drop enemies in front of you. As far as the agro is concerned, to me it doesn't feel like you kind of like. you could walk to a certain point and you have that in some MMOs you know how far away stand from a guy before he will see you. And you know you learn how to ride that fine line so that your not agroing people. Or you know exactly how fast you have to run to get away from them, or how far. And to me it seems like the AI is a lot more sensitive to that, and its harder to as a human as a person to figure out where those lines are and what their behavior is going to be. Or what their movement patterns are going to be. I know a lot of the games the AI is such that one you engage a enemy you know exactly what that enemy is going to do and anticipate, and get a edge up in combat. A lot of the groups in Tabula Rasa I've noticed will do things that are smart from a AI perspective. Like if you com upon a group of patrolling baddies, instead of turning around and looking at you and firing at you in that group. They will, one will turn around and start firing at you, the other two will run in opposite directions and hide behind cover and shot at you that way.  That forces you to move as well so your not being taken advantage of. Seems like pretty smart AI to me and it seems to being getting better all the time.

Jester: Good to know. Miri you got a comment?

Miri: Yea you it brought up with the patterns that some other game AI run. And I was just recently watching my brother play another game and they were taking out a dragon. And every now and then one of the installs for his UI would pop up and say this was going to happen. Now this leads me to a question. I know it has been said that they want us to play the game and not play the UI. But are they going to allow us to do third party modify the UI in any way?

Cj: No. Definitely not for launch. I don't know if its something that will happen after. That is a decision later to allow people to do that. But no not for launch. 

Jester: Do we know how flexible the UI is going to be at launch or is still in a very much in a premature state? 

Cj: Its still a premature state. I think the look and feel is getting closer and closer to what it will be. But as far as the flexibility of that UI. I am not sure how much more is still to be done on it. 

Jester: Any chance you can comment on the chat system. I know a lot of use especially all your loyal fans from CoH have really gotten spoiled by that global chat system. Are there plans for something similar in Tabula Rasa where that global handle is going to be across all the servers and be able to talk to friend no matter where they are? Or is it going to be more of a traditional level like other games, where its 
server wide channel, local channel, and then maybe private tells, and then a guild channel chat.

Cj: So thats something we are still working on. So I'm not sure how its going to finally end up. But I'm just as spoiled as the rest of you. CoH has what i would consider a superior chat system for a MMO. Tons of flexibility, it has tons of ways to looking for groups and stuff is phenomenal. To me it feels like WoW completely copied it exactly. I think the ability to create tabs and different windows to put chats in. To be able to create basically have a mini IRC inside I think is just superior. It's definitely what i would love to see Tabula Rasa do, whether or not that level functionality will be available at launch. I don't know and i kinda doubt it. But if you think about it COH didn't have that functionality at launch either. The chat system was a lot more elementary at launch. So i hope that we have some of the basic elements of that level of sophistication of chat and looking for group. But i actually don't know still waiting to see.

Jester: Ok, thats good to know. I know that I'm getting quite a few different questions from everybody   and we kinda touched on a lot of them. But why don't we talk about post beta and into retail. I know you cant say to much but has it been decided about how expansions for TR are going to be handled. Is it going to be the AA and CoH method. Or is it going to be something different? 

Cj: It hasn't been finalized yet. 

Jester: Just wanted to try and get that question out there, people would yell at me if i didn't try. We've got it out there now.  Another question that seems really popular with folks, Willowleaf at the stratics TT.Stratics boards had actually asked it about player housing. Will it be implemented at some point, or is it just one of those things that really doesn't fit with the game. 

Cj: Well i would never say never. I know we wont have it at launch, will we have it after launch maybe. I know that is something that, long time ago back i think back when TR was still unicorns and musical instruments. I think they has said that they were going to have player housing. But thats changed and you know there is kinda of a issue does it fit. I mean this is definitely a war game and you don't go to war and build a house.  You go to war your fight your war then hopefully get to eventually come back home and live your life at home. You know thats always the desire this is definitely a race going after genocide. The focus is on defeating them, so there is kinda of issue does that fit. And if it does fit in the game and yet still give people what they want. So there is quite a bit of discussion about it, and whether or not it should be clan tents what ever.  But i don't think any of those things will make it into launch, but definitely something the team is looking at for some time after launch.

Miri: So were not likely to see anybody sitting river side with fishing poll in hand or see some guy crafting furniture. 

Cj: No those people would have their head blown off by the bane. 

Jester: Excellent how about someone crafting a nuke?

Cj: (laughter) I found the plutonium all i need is this shell.

Jester: Exactly i want play Einstein. 

Cj: I think there will be crafting of sort of explosive devices at some point, but i don't know about nukes. 

Jester: Ahh but come one. I want a Nuke. anyways.

Miri: Bigger the boom the better.

Jester: Exactly we could end this war so quickly. Which is probably my next question what is the future for story advancement if you got it where its this on going never ending war against the massive bad guy.  Are they going to advance the story line were the AFS actually starts winning some. And Foreas becomes safe place or i mean you can't really just constantly move your N00b zones. So how will that really work is just going to be this never ending conflict:

Cj: My evil side wants to say something things about the government right now, but I'm not going to. You know its fiction its Richard Garriott  he'll think of something crazy and spectacular and it will work. You know it's fiction you can do anything you want. You never know what's going to happen, and i couldn't tell you if i knew. So I'm sure its going to be cool what ever it is.

Jester: Actually back to the TR boards here. Izanhund(?) is how he says it yea Izanhund(?) I guess is what it is. One of his questions is  he read that you folks are using the same engine as AA the havoc engine for  Tabula Rasa is that true?

Cj: No we are using our own engine. A internal proprietary engine that we developed ourselves called the plantar engine.

Jester: Plantar hum is that something developed by destination or Ncsoft.

Cj: I believe it was a collaborative effort.

Jester: Ok interesting ok. That's very good to know and that will clear up one rumor apparently started somewhere. With that being said is there a destructive environment?

Cj: I know that we have talked about and that the ideals some of the environment would be destructible. I believe the are still working on some of that and kind of work those kinks in those systems and stuff like that. We'll see how it goes.

Jester: Ok. I know a lot of the Ncsoft games have been implementing physics engine of with the AGEIA cards and such  are they going to be doing the same with Tabula?

Cj: I have not heard of any plans to integrate AGEIA physics into out game. But you know it could happen, I don't think they originally intended for AA to have AGEIA physics engine in it either. So anything is possible, but head of that.

Jester: CoH really didn't have it at first because it really didn't exist at the time.

Cj: Exactly

Jester: So it's something that obviously can be added on later. For those of you folks that are playing AA and CoH were debating whether or not could have pushed them over the edge. But since we don't know you will have to make your decision with out our help folks. One the, lets see i actually caught another oh where did it go lost my question . Darn it.

Miri: Oh i have one.

Jester: Go for it:

Miri: Tabula Rasa is coming out say end of the year if we are lucky. CoH is out AA is out Lineage II is out Lineage is playable. There are starting to be a lot of play NC games, is there going to be any kind of integrating between them for billing? Which is something i personally been looking for.

Cj: It's something we're exploring.

Jester: Are we talking Star Trek exploring or actually might actually happen? 

Cj: No all I can say its something we are exploring.

Jester: Good enough obviously there's nothing to be said there we'll move on. Now we have been going for a good hour and fifteen minutes here. Cuppa is there anything we haven't touched on yet that you really want to talk about?

Cj: Let me talk about ethical parables.

Jester: All right ethical parables, I know what they are but what are they in relation to Tabula Rasa?

Cj: So this is a Richard Garriott  game and i think one of the things Richard is known for is making you make choices.  Choices that can influence your environment and your character, how people treat you and thats definitely the case in Tabula Rasa. I think one of the most unique and exciting things about Tabula Rasa in the MMO field is that players are always asking me about any game i know or work on. Is there going to be way for us to make a real big impact on the environment. Or change the game significantly or any kind of those things. And you know thats one of the really difficult thing to do in MMO's, because you know if everybody is special then nobody is special. Difficult to allow individual players to make large changes to the world, because all the other players have to come and interact in that world and they want to be big heroes too.  Thats why people play single player games is the ability to make really big changes world. But i think you know there is the possibility to make changes for your own story line and make changes for yourself as a character. And the way Tabula Rasa taps into that by using ethical parables in missions. A example of one of these missions would be, say you go and talk to a NPC and he's got a crate of drugs stim packs whatever.  And he says “Hey you know I got these stim packs  and there are three different NPCs at three different locations at. That would love to get these drugs since I can't take take them since I'm on post, their kinda of illegal. But you know we will pay you whole bunch of money, and take them and distribute them to these guys.” So you take the drugs and instead of it being like a normal MMO, and you go do the FedEx mission. You have a choice, and the choices is that you can do the FedEx mission and take the stuff and go. Or you can turn him into the base commander, because this is illegal activity. And these drugs may have a larger use somewhere else, they may be needed supplies, so you can turn him into the base commander. I think it's unique enough that you get to make the choice, a lot of MMOs don't give you a whole heck of a lot of choices to missions. But beyond that what choice you make determines through actions whats going to happen to you.  Interactions of some NPCs what's going to happen to you as you complete these missions. if you choice to run the drugs you might be intercepted by members of the black market that are interested in taking those drugs from you and leaving your dead corpse on the ground. As you deliver those drugs those particular NPCs you visit to drop those drugs off are gonna react to you positively. And say hey thanks man really appreciate it. If you turn the guy in all those NPCs are pretty much going to hate you.  And you know the beautiful thing about it is it's just not a black and white choice. I think a lot of people know from some of Richards games that you feel like you're making the right choice. The good choice quote un quote, but realize ethics aren't like that there's not a whole lot of black and white there's a whole lot of grey. So while you may turn in the guy and your on your ethical high horse for having turned in this guy and he's not abusing the drugs or the system. You know you go in and talk to him again. And he is like thanks a lot you ruined a bunch of peoples day because its a really hard job for these guys to be standing out there, and their probably going  to die. And this could have helped them get through their twenty four hour shift they have to do. Standing out there and you just made these guys lives miserable for no good reason. And thats just one example of one mission, and i think thats something really unique about Tabula Rasa. And i really think its interesting and engaging and you can really get into some roll playing really differentiate your character. And it changes the world you interact with, and i real think thats exciting for a MMO. 

Jester: Great so bringing guilt into gaming. 

Cj: Everybody needs a little guilt.

Jester: What is this the Catholic MMO, come on. Actually it sounds like it will be fun. It will definitely be something to make it worth while to actually read the mission text, because something like this could pop up anytime. 

Cj: Exactly.

Jester: Cuse i know....

Cj: And thats one of those challenges.

Jester: Right that's what i was just about to say. Its one of the hard things to get people to actually read the text instead of just saying. What do i have to do, ok good, boom go, go, go.

Cj: And you know i really believe that the reason people don't read the text is because there are no surprises. And you know there is no, i mean it's so easy and so many MMOs just you know run up to the NPC . Engage the NPC and click OK and go on. Cuse you know exactly what is happening your going to get a way point, you don't have to read text of the mission as much anymore. Because we have those way points, we've added them to the mapping direction compass systems. So now it tells you where to go, unlike the very first MMOs that didn't. You would actually read the text and follow the directions to the location, which i hated personally. So there's no reason to read the text anymore in a lot of MMOs, and i believe people have gotten into that habit and they just go go go. But with this not only do you have to read, and you know some people will be like. Man I don't want to have to read. The thing is there is a reward for it.  I mean you get to make a choice, a meaningful choice. And you know there is a determination and something that happens because of it. And those are the interesting things that happen in the game, and mission text changes from NPC to NPC based upon decisions that you made. That is changing the world that is engaging and that make me want to read to find out. You know this random NPC might treat me differently because of that decision i made. So i more then likely going to go talk to random NPCs. I think it's pretty smart.

Jester: Yea it;s definitely unique interesting and should add a nice little addition to the game especially for the roll playing fans. So you have, I love to hear that. What other new nonces are in the game that we can talk about?

Cj: Those are defiantly the high points I wanted to hit, ethical parables. Control points is another one of the fun things that Tabula Rasa does some other MMOs do this as well. CoHs has some elements of this in their PvP zones. Control points what I mean by control points is. Lets say that there is a base and it is controlled by the Bane. And you and your squad or clan decide you want to go and take over that base. You would go to the base and you know set up what ever tactics your going us to actually attack the base. You go in and attack the base, in the middle of the base is a tale almost flag pole looking type thing. And once you get in the base and defeat the guys you can go in there and hit that flag pole and change control of that base over to the good guys. Once you do that the turrets in the base, the force fields in the base, NPCs in the base are going to become under your under the good guys control. Now those turrets instead of firing at you are going to fire at the Bane if they try to retake the base. NPCs will come into the base that are AFS and maybe some missions will open up if have taken that base over that may not have been. So thats another kind of cool thing Tabula Rasa does i think is a interesting. Another way Players impact the environment.

Jester: Speaking of the environment, how heavy are instanced maps used? Is it like CoHs where 90% of your missions are going to be in a instance. Or is it more like Everquest where you going to be out there with everyone else waiting for spawns. 

Cj: It's a pretty good mix. The lower levels your 60% regular maps 40% instanced. As you get into the higher levels that swaps and you 60% instanced and 40% common maps. Because of course as you move along in the upper levels, move along the story line as you. The cool thing in instance is that you can have a direct impact on the environment and it can be this large thing happens that is very story driven. So of course as you get into the higher levels there's more of that going on. But it's pretty good balance i think. It definitely doesn't fell like your all alone like in GW, I think that's what 95% of what you do it's kinda of in a instance. I think it's a pretty good mix, it seems pretty good mix. 

Jester: Ok good. One of the things going on in the w00t radio chat room right now. There's a conversation about how is loot determined for loot drops, and are healers going to losing out because they aren't doing as much damage.

Cj: Ahh no. they're working out all the kinks on th looting system, but it's going to be a more fair. If you are in a squad it's going to be distrusted in a certain way. Right now I think the leader of the squad can change the way the loot is distributed. It can either be like currently you can set it to even distribute, so no mater where you are and where someone else is you kill a bad guy and he drops three pieces of loot each one of you is going to get a piece of loot no matter where you are on the map. Or you can set it thats its a free for all, where basically if you, the first to it gets it. You as the squad leader get a chance to have some control over that as well.

Jester: Is it it like AA where something drops it automatically goes into you inventory, or do you actually have to go pick it up.?

Cj: You have to go pick it up. 

Jester: So if your on the other side of the map because you died and your trying to get back over and they kill something there is a good chance your not going to get something in that loot correct?

Cj: Unless the loot is set to evenly distribute. If its set to evenly distribute then that loot is going to be yours and your the only person that can pick it up. 

Jester: Ok but does it despawn relatively quickly is that part of the penalty of death. Or is it the matter of will it be there quite a bit of time. And you can probably get there and get it. 

Cj: It seems I can always get there to get it, or most of the time I can get there to get it. It seems reasonably long at this point.

Jester: Go ahead Miri

Miri: Speaking of death there has been a lot of talk in a lot of games recently about a death penalty. is there a death penalty. 

Cj: Right now if you die you spawn in a hospital, it's a hospital of your choosing, any of the hospitals you have visited previous. And then you have to run back of course to where ever you were, you don't have. Pretty much you die and end up some where else, if you want to get back to where you were you have to run back there. That is the current death penalty. I'm not saying that is a 100% percent for sure what the death penalty is going to be at launch, I think as we move through the closed beta and we see how people react to that. We may try out a couple things you never know. And see what the reactions are. it may change but thats currently what it is. 

Jester: So right now the only negative to death is you have to find the way back to where you were. Which could be a tough fight if there are a lot of people in the area.

Cj: Right.

Jester: Ok now what about transport around, people have been asking are there going to be vehicles. How are we going to travel from place to place. Are the maps so huge is it going to take us forever to walk across because we don't have vehicles, or because we do you know it's going to be really quick. What is the travel like in Tabula Rasa.

Cj: So there aren't any vehicles, there aren't scheduled to be any vehicles at launch. But there are teleporters. Lets say on a map in a particular region of the planet, and you will start out in one particular location and it will have a teleporter and as you explorer the map and you find other teleporters as you walk over that teleporter becomes active to you. Then anytime you go to a teleporter you can visit anyone of the teleporters you have previously visited. So yes i think that speeds up things up a lot but yet its still encourages exploration and you have to get there the first time and that kind of stuff. And on top of that there is a sprint ability that ever character gets as a recruit. That ability can be improved upon so that if travel is particular important to you, you don't like hanging around a lot you can buff up that power. And then actually some of the armor is actually going to have a bonus to speed as well. If you lets say buff up your sprint and you put on that particular armor you can move pretty quick. Its like having super speed almost, and you combine that with the teleporters and your clicking along pretty good. I haven't felt like particular restrictive or frustrating at this point.

Jester: Ok going back to spawns and mention of spawn camping, Shadowofduce tossed me a question on Xfire. With spawn foes is there a decent spawn rate or is it like lineage II where each person in line has to wait 15 to 20 minutes for a single kill? 

Cj: Definitely depends on the area, some areas are big spawn, or just more densely populated with bad guys. I still think that still remains to be seen and i think thats something that has to be worked out in closed beta and definitely in open beta. I think open beta is the time when you find out about your respawn rates. Because till you have that almost server capacity level of players I think its really hard to tell how much is to much. Or how little is to little in your spawn rates. You kinda have to know what your server population is going to be like what your concurrency level is going to be like. Then you kinda have to adjust spawn rates from there. It feels ok in the game now but the number of players is nothing like the number of players at launch. it's something they will tweak. It's something each game should really tweak s things go along, and as their player counts increase or decrease or there currency levels rises or falls or whatever. 

Jester: Ok speaking of talking about numbers on servers. Are you looking at having one massive server like where GW does where there are going to be multiple copies of instances of the same common zone. Or there going to be multiple servers  like CoHs or even WoW?

Cj: Multiple servers.

Jester: Ok so we are going to have multiple servers, that's good to know. With that i guess my next thing is actually we had somebody ask a good question here. Absidus wanted to know how exactly are skills improved? You talked about sprint being you can have a chance to improve it. How does that work, do you go to a trainer and train them up like a CoHs or just spend your skill points and thats the end of it. 

Cj: So it's a combination actually you level you get points you can spend. If its a, we had talked about it's a inverse tree system so once you reach certain levels you have to make a decision on what branch of the tree your going to go on. If it's before that you can level your self in your little skill window. But once you reach that decision point you have to go talk to a trainer. That is how it is currently you know i have said over and over again it's still in beta it can change so you have to go to a trainer every time. It could change to where you don't ever have to go to a trainer, something different could happen.  You may have to find a character higher level then you and use them to train I don't know. Not sure how it will finally end up. but currently it's, you level you earn points you spend points in your skill window unless it's a tree. A time       branching then you would go talk to a trainer.

Jester: All right excellent. Let's see beyond that, that's a good number of the questions on the PlayTR site pretty much covered it at this point. Miri you got any questions? 

Miri: Not at the moment no 

Jester: Why don't we kinda continue on the discussion. lets vear towards the non combat side of things. We know you already mentioned a crafting system but there's nothing set on what it's going to be. What other social interaction concepts have you guys planed for the game? Is there anything or have you not gotten that far yet. 

Cj: As for the social aspects of the game there are taverns for social gathering areas. Since this is a war game there a lot of bases, so stuff goes on at bases. That is where you are going to go to buy armor, buy weapons, and sell loot and that kind of stuff.  Talk to trainers, talk to NPCs, get missions. You're obviously not going to do everything in town. Not all NPCs are going to be in town, there are going to be a lot of people in those areas. So they will become the social gathering areas, some of the mapped taverns and stuff like that. We're also working on some of the event tools for the community to use, for community events. We're working on some other tools that hopefully will allow players to do some of their own events and stuff.  Is that kinda of the stuff your talking about?

Jester: Yea the parts that take a MMO and make them special in a MMO aspect and not a massively single player game. 

Cj: Yup we're working on some of that stuff, some of that stuff is still in works so I cant really talk about yet. But yea it's something were definitely thinking about. 

Jester: Ok good.  Hum with one of the teleportaion system. Are you going to be able to like pop open a communicator and tell them to beam you up to whatever point you want to to be beamed up to. As fas as to a base or is it only teleporter to teleporter.

Cj: It's teleporter to teleporter.

Jester: Ok and there is no cost or negative to using the teleporters correct?

Cj: Correct.

Jester: Lets see i am scrolling through to make sure I haven't missed any of the really really great questions in the Stratics site. While I am doing that lets see. Dark666105 in the w00t chat room is asking about shops. We have actually already covered that. We don't know if there is ever going to be personal shops or not setup, so we really don't need to go there again. Did you want to comment Cuppa?

Cj: I doubt seriously that there will be personal shops set up at launch.

Jester: Ok. Is it something that will be added later on, if there was a high enough demand. Or is it something that doesn't work with the concept of the game?

Cj: Anything is possible. I think you could write a fictional explanation for damn near anything you want to. But i haven't heard any chatter, I think part of what will determine that will be. Is it necessarily, do players think it's something they want or something they want and is healthy for the economy of the game. 

Jester: Ok now here is a good question Stimjunkie just tossed me over on Xfire. He says, do you group easily with people that are not your level? Is there any kind of side kicking like in CoHs, or is it you got to find people your level or miss out. 

Cj: You can group with people of different levels. Like i said they are still working on some of the grouping stuff so I don't know. You know i really don't want to talk to those particular aspects because i don't know if all of that is probably going to change and evolve. Currently you can group with anybody of any level and go and do missions and stuff. As far as you know is there a side kicking feature like in CoHs, were you take a complete n00b with you one a level 50 is that going to work out. I haven't seen that yet but doesn't mean thats not in development.

Jester: Ok. Definitely something I have, when i have gone to to other games after being in CoH for so long. I really did miss would be nice to see something similar to that. Some sort of mentoring system, but at the same time its hard to get it rationalized quite right in some of these games. with TR it could be relativity easy since your all just soldiers. But it's hard really to say what, how that's that going to turn out. From what i can see here we've gone through pretty much all of the major questions that are out there. We have covered a lot of info. I am getting a question here, what about GM hosted events and things like that? Are we going to see like we did in CoHs where there are going to be signature characters popping up all over the place that are controlled by GMs. You know rallying the troops and stuff like. Or is it not something that is going to work for the game. 

Cj: I think we will see. I would expect. You know Tabula Rasa at this point really doesn't have signature characters like CoHs does. CoHs is a very different game, it's very super hero oriented, its based upon comic. There's definitely key characters, Tabula Rasa is more about you, it's more about your story. your particular relationship with dealing with the Bane. And all that kind of stuff so it's less focused on those  particular signature individual characters. As far as events go, i am getting event tools created by the development team to do events. One of the the things i love about CoHs is some of the annual events. And we're discussing some that stuff internally to. So you know I think there are going to be some stuff like that. I don;t know if the dev to player ratios is going to be the same or not. And that remains to be seen, its stuff were still working on. 

Jester: Ok how about, here we are on a alien planet. Are we stuck on one planet or are there many planets, are there just a couple. How is that going to work in the game?

Cj: So there are multiple planets. There will be several planets that players can go to. Some of that stuff is still being worked out for sure. But, for instance there is Foreas, and definitely be Arieki. And then possibly be a third planet to start out with. But thats also something thats a opportunity in a expansion to add more planets or something in that nature. 

Jester: Right and with that, what are the climates like on these planets? Are they giant mega city wastelands, are they desert like, arctic. What are they, the ones we know about.

Cj: That depends on the planet. Arieki is very forestry type planet very lush and green there's water on. You know waterfalls and stuff like that. Arieki is more, it feels more alien. There are these giant mushrooms, these rain trees, it's more of the darker land. Purples and bright colors and more lava and stuff like that. Its all these different environments depending on what area of the planet you on. there's giant farming areas look like Iowa which is kinda weird. It just depends on where you are and what part of the planet. Just like on earth. I could be in Hawaii and its very volcanic and lava and stuff while being very beautiful. then be in the middle of Iowa where it all looks like a farm. There are a lot of varied environments:

Jester: Ok. Now what about weather is that ever going to play in the game or is it static weather like most MMOs? 

Cj: As far as I know at this time. Nothing for launch, it's going to be static weather.

Jester: Ok good to know. Miri any other questions while we are here. 

Miri. No but actually didn't tell us the name of the hot redhead on the front pages.

Jester: Ahh yes that's true. Cuppa would you like to do the honors.

Cj: so the redhead on the Tabula Rasa web pages Playtr.com is Sarah Morrison.

Jester: Ok and are we going to be able to find out more about Sarah some where. Or is she going to be more of that semi-named character that's out there that's on the front of the box. 

Cj: Maybe.

Jester: Maybe, oh there's a tease and a half. With that being said we do have another trivia question to come up with here. I am going to leave this one up to you Cuppa. It can be about what ever you want to ask. And were going to give away the last of the beta slots, we only have like 15 minutes left, before we have to wrap this up and go on for the night. While we are talking her if you can come up with a question just let me know and we will fire it off, and move on and see if people can get it. 

Cj: So what was the name of the first Video game that Richard Garriott ever sold. What was the name of that game. 

Jester: Ahh  the name of the first Video game that Richard Garriott ever sold. Alright for those who want to answer this question and get a beta slot. We're giving away 2 more correct?

Cj: yup

Jester: Ok first 2 people to instant message me on (contact info) well get the beta slots. And Cuppa i will need you to toss me the correct answer, because the one i am thinking isn't the right one. And we will get that there in just a moment. While we are talking we've got confirmed on multi planets are we going to see space at all. Is there going to be instances were we transport up to a ship and help fight back. Or is it all pretty much planet based?

Cj: I think it will be mostly planet based. But you know thats not to say that some mission at some point. Some expansion that we wont have that. 

Jester: Ok good. well it looks like we have our winners, and i wanted to give a congrats to Disastorm and Shadowofduce. Both of them just got in a couple of seconds under a few other folks. And Cuppa why don't you go ahead and give us the pronunciation of this game, and maybe a brief intro into what it was. 

Cj: Name of the game was Akalabeth, and some people regard it as the very first Ultima. Ultima Zero I think it has been called. And it was basically created a long time ago. I actually don't remember what the year was.  The people who answered the question could probably tell us. But the game was created for the Apple IIe.  It was Richards first game he ever sold, he sold a couple in little plastic baggies. he made a copy of the game and put into a plastic baggy and put a little label on it. Sold a couple to some friends and stuff eventually that game got picked up by another company and they produced the game and sold it commercially.  So actually a very few, if you have one of the original copies of the game sold by Richard in the plastic bag actually pretty rare. Less then oh god can't remember it less the 20,less then 50 of those ever sold. So that's pretty rare. 

Jester: Wow thats really cool. SO all right I want to give out a big congratulations again to Disastorm and Shadowofduce. As well as our earlier winners. That will be our TR winners for beta tonight, we gave away 7 during our Cuppathon on September first. Thats four more we're up to eleven so far here at w00t. And I'm sure we will find more ways to hook you guys up with more in the future. We got a long way before beta is over considering it hasn't even started yet. 

Jester: So the one question I did see fly by in the w00t radio chat room that really hasn't been discussed yet is there ever going to be a chance to play the Bane. Or they always going to be that NPC evil?

Cj: As i have said before nothing is impossible, it's a possibility one of the expansions, future content, updates whatever they will be called could be you get to play a different race. It could very well be you get to play the Bane. So I'm not going to count it out. But definitely something thats not going to happen for launch.  

Jester: With that being said we're going to wrap things up. Cuppa any final comments or questions you know of  that you want to answer before we move on.

Cj: If anyone is wondering to sign up for beta to be considered for the closed beta you go to Playtr.com. And there is a link at the top that says beta were you can click on Sarah Morrison's picture where it says join the fight. And go to the beta registration page and all the system specifications information is on that page. As well as a brief description of the game. You have to be 18 to be in the closed beta or older, because you have to sign a NDA. And A NDA is a legal document and the people under the age of 18 aren't allowed to sign legal documents. So go check it out and, sign up and. It's going to be a couple weeks before we even start the closed beta, it's not to late to sign up. I would like to thank everybody for their interest in Tabula Rasa. If you want to talk about the game come and talk to us on the Stratic TRStratic website, or the PlanetTR or Just a Gamer or w00t Radio. I am on all of those message boards, talking to people. So come and ask questions there if your question didn't get answered. 

Jester: All right and for those who didn't catch where to get that beta sign up w00t radio forums, the Tabula Rasa sections. there is a Post by Cuppa with the link directly to it. Or go got Playtr.com there is a beta sign up banner right on the front page of theirs so you cant miss it.  Thanks for joining us again Cuppa. It's funny we ended up having to postpone this a week ago. It was a year ago this week you made a your first appearance on the court back with Elxa talking about CoH and CoV.

Cj: Wow time flies.

Jester: I know it seems like such eons ago. And its funny how things have changed since then. Really things have changed a whole lot. So i want to thank you for joining us again. This makes your what fifth or sixth time official time on w00t radio, and i am sure there will be many more in the near future.

Cj: Absolutely it's a pleasure to be here.

Jester: Miri thanks for joining again as always it's great having you on. Your questions are always worth while, so we will talk to you next week when we get back into our normal fair of talking about CoH and AA and what is going on in gaming in general. And just so folks know Cuppa you have talked a minute ago politics. We here at w00t radio actually looking to start up a gaming politics discussion panel slash show. That we are going to do on a semi regular basis. So if your interested in getting involved with that, just toss us a post on the w00t forums. Let us know what you think and if you want to start talking about that sort of thing. And see about getting some community interaction on that sort of thing. 

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