This week saw a lot of changes in Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa. NCsoft have released the Weekend Wrapup which gives gamers information on a new known issue, an event called the Blind Race, as well as a preview on patch 1.5. In addition, it also gives a few details on both the Mid-week Massacre and Friday Night Fights. If you're lagging behind on intel, head on over to the full article to update your information log.

Hot on the Destination Games and NCSoft's list of updates was the news of the new hybrid races rolling out for Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa, a futuristic MMORPG which was originally focused on the story of the human race. But after a partial downtime back in February 1, 2008, patch version 1.4 went live and the now the community has their wishes fulfilled. Excited about the inclusion of hybrids? We've got some primers at the full story.

Over at the official website for Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa, NCSoft's looking for a few brave souls who's willing to help spread the holiday spirit. Via three online auctions, they're giving us the chance to be an NPC and to help folks from the Child's Play charity. Find out more information on this after the jump!

NCsoft, the Korea-based MMORPG publisher, wired over its financial performance for the third quarter (Q3) of the company's operating year 2007. With sales from Guild Wars, Lineage, Lineage II, and City of Heroes/Villains, NCsoft observed a net income of US$ 11.2 million (KRW 10.1 billion).

Despite a slight dip in income performance, NCsoft noted a Guild Wars sales rise of 57% overall, thanks to the release of Guild Wars: Eye of the North in Europe. Lineage II has also seen modest increase in sales, and the publisher expects a better financial outcome by Q4.

Destination Games and NCsoft finally ship Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa, and they know it's far from perfect. The sci-fi, non-grind MMORPG has its share of flaws even after prolonged development, and NCsoft addressed some of those concerns with a known issue list at the official website.

Aside from minor login issues for pre-order launch candidates, Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa also exhibits client start hiccups for some unknown reason. There are also some graphics artifacts issues that needed to be addressed with on-board graphics accelerators, especially laptop versions (Radeon Mobility, GeForce Go, Intel GMA). NCsoft has listed the following issues and their likely solutions:

• Enemy is located behind Imperial Valley control point and not near the Miasma Cave.
• If you want to delete all of your characters and choose another last name do NOT log off first. Delete all characters and then make the new one with the new last name. Logging off between this step will cause your old last name to stick and you will have to repeat the process.
• Mission: Wilderness: Predatory: Mission cannot be completed.
• If you having a bit of lag, you might try going to another copy of the map you are on. for example if you are on Wilderness 1 you might try popping over to Wilderness 5.
• To complete the Wilderness ToO Mission you must complete the Assault and Defense missions for the map. (LZ and Imperial Valley)
• If you aren't seeing your pre-order special items, try logging out and back in or creating other characters. They will show up shortly.
• The sky doesn't render on some hardware/driver combinations. This causes the "hall of mirrors" effect because where the sky should be you instead see pixels left over from previous frames.
• Solution: First, make sure you have a fairly new (last 6 months) driver. In some cases a newer driver will fix them (but not all). This has been fixed and will be in an upcoming patch. There is a workaround; however, if you enable this workaround you will need to revert the change after the patch. In their client.cfg file you can disable mesh compression:
• Client.Graphics.EnableMeshCompression = False
• Geometry flashes and stuff pops in and out — lots of graphical anomalies.
• Update your driver; this fixes the problem. In some cases (such as laptop computers) if you are using the latest driver provided by their hardware manufacturer but the driver is still too old (this is known to be the case on certain Asus models) you can disable mesh compression in your client.cfg file. You should revert this change when your hardware manufacturer releases a newer driver.
• Client.Graphics.EnableMeshCompression = False
• Client one day decides to not start. After splash screen the client unexpectedly just quits.
• Solution: Delete your client.cfg file and try again. This resets all options in the file (including resolution) to default values. Warning: this will revert a lot of their settings to default values.

If you encounter more problems that NCsoft's support team needs to attend to, make sure you contact the developers so they can be documented. Expect an update to this list or a completely new list of fixes once the developers have shipped a quick fix or a full-blown patch - whichever comes first.

The weekly screenshot update for Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa has just been released and it features the advanced alien species known as the Eloh. It should be remembered that after a great war won by the Eloh, a separatist movement was formed called the Neph. This faction later became the Bane after allying itself with other forces.

The screenshot above shows two AFS soldiers consulting a hologram created by the Eloh. This device, alongside other ancient technologies, was left behind by the once mighty race to tell their story to the younger generation. These devices also tell about the war fought long ago and how the Bane can be ultimately defeated.

Tabula Rasa is home to a rich lore aside from engaging gameplay experience - two ingredients that never fail to create a hit MMORPG. Developed by Destination Games and to be published by NCsoft, the video game is expected to go live on November 2.

For those of us eagerly anticipating the release of NCsoft's upcoming title, Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa, here's a video that should get you up to speed on one of the first instance maps of the game that you'll be able to explore, namely the Caves of Donn. Be warned, as this is no cavern romp, as hidden inside the network of caves lie lost Eloh technology - and you'll be racing against the Bane in order to find it.

So, what is the Caves of Donn? Simply put, it's a place sacred to the Forean people, rumored to be where the Eloh had stashed many of their artifacts. The Foreans themselves are willing to assist in finding these artifacts, as well as fill in any adventurer with knowledge about the Eloh - but even then, it's going to be tough, as even the Bane knows how powerful Eloh technology can be. In the wrong hands, it could mean disaster.

This and more tips at the full article!

 

Talk about the beta phase drawing to a close has been confirmed by none other than NCsoft community Community Manager April "CuppaJo" Burba. "We are also ramping up for the end of beta event," said CuppaJo in an interview, as NCsoft gears up for the release of Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa coming real soon.

According to CuppaJo, NCsoft is already going through with the implementation of "Operations" - Tabula Rasa's equivalent of content additions. In this regard, the developers have already mapped out Operation 0 (that's Operation Fair Trade) and are prepping to spill info on Operation 1, all before the game even launches!

Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa is developed by Destination Games and is expected to hit PCs on November 2, 2007 over DVDs and digital download means.

 

War is hell, and in NCsoft and Destination Games' Tabula Rasa, that idea gets magnified a hundred times over. Sometimes beating back the Bane with toe-to-toe muscle confrontations just won't cut it for the Allied Free Sentients, so it's time that brains and stealth were introduced to the mix. Taking a slice of both, we can sink our teeth into what's in store for the soon-to-be Spies and Snipers, members of the Ranger class.

Spies are your signature avatars for espionage, albeit with mastery of LOGOS powers. The typical Spy is armed with an AFS Filament Blade, the perfect silent weapon for the sneaky kill. Distant targets can be taken down with Net Guns and Chain Guns, though facing against an enemy group would be better off handled by the combat classes.

Instead, Spies sneaking into enemy installations, using the Camouflage powers to walk undetected among "friendlies." Causing chaos would be a piece of cake, since the LOGOS power Traitor will allow them to brand an enemy as a betrayer. Sentries would be quick to apprehend the unfortunate target. With ample mastery, Spies will also be able to create a zone that will give allies 75% more stealth.

More details and screenshots at the full article!

Attention space cadets! We've got another screenshot update for the upcoming MMO, Tabula Rasa. Nope, we don't have the screenshot of the week. Rather, there's a whole batch of them for you to uncover.

In case you've been living under a moss-covered rock, Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa is an MMO from NCSoft and Destination Games that features a post apocalyptic world where humans are battling with nasty aliens. In the screenshots, we see some pretty effects (that blue net-like projection looks cool), a number of big and small alien species, plus some environments-slash-battlefields.

While we wait for Tabula Rasa to see its public release, check out the screenshots, just so you see what we mean.

   

More screenshots come after the jump!