by: Tony "RadarX" Jones

It's been an extremely busy week for Tabula Rasa soldiers, and the AFS has kept us engaged with lots of news and events. Here are the highlights of this week and what you need to know!

Test Patch 12.05.2007

It seems like almost every week we've got some type of Test or Patch notes to cover which means the Devs are doing a lot of work. This weeks patch to test was admittedly an early one and not necessarily reflective of what will make it to Live.

Festive Seasonal Holiday Observance Flora have been placed in the following Secularly Oriented Locations- Wow. I don't know how this could possibly get any more PC. Observance Flora? Seriously? I don't know what that means. Is it wreathes? Trees? And why are they observing me?

Every character has had their skill points and attribute points reset so that they may make adjustments to these skills based on game changes - This isn't unexpected and was actually announced last week. We'll be getting a free skill point respec thanks to the Rage changes being made on Test right now which most people agree is fair.

You can now buy and sell items from/to other players via Military Surplus. At this early stage you should be able to browse existing sales, make a purchase, and place an item for sale - Yeah, no offense NCsoft but I'm not getting excited until I see the vendors on the Live servers. When they do finally make it, that will kick some serious butt, but until then we just dream.

Item Rarity (green, blue, purple) has new effects on equipment- Green now gets a +20% damage bonus, blue 40% and purple 80% which is what I said whoever you were in General chat arguing with me about "Every weapon is the same, you have to MAKE it better with mods." That is NOT the same. Ok, I'm done sorry.

Numerous Atta Changes - The Atta's got a number of changes to their AI, abilities, and damage. First of all their spit is now virulent meaning it cuts right through your armor making me an unhappy camper. Harvesters now call for nearby assistance like a good ant would, and their rocks can now have a chance of knockdown so we can look forward to challenging situations. I'll have to try this one to see how it is.

Spy: Ability: Polymorph: Using Poly after attacking with any sword crashes client- Holy crap! Now THAT is a bug... I can imagine a lot of people are anxious to get that fixed because wow...

There are tons and tons more changes, bug squashing, and adjustments you can read about in the patch notes. It looks like they were all over the map from professions to instance. If you really are interested in everything the update said we've got it all over on our forums.

Paul Sage Covers Biotech/Medic Changes on Test - Lead Designer Paul Sage put together a pretty thorough explanation of the changes going in to the Test server for the Biotech and Medic classes. Biotechs will have the "Fear" ability replaced with Cure which will allow a rez at pump 3 and higher not to mention a new AE heal/damage ability all rolled into one.

The biggest change for the Medic class will be the ability to change any of their virulent damage into other types such as physical, sonic, laser, etc... That should make a huge impact against some creatures. For a full blown discussion, head to the forums.

Consumables - Something fairly unexpected came off the Test server notes that NCsoft made it a point to highlight. Consumable items that do things like open wormholes, generate adrenaline, etc...

I'm guessing these are similar to healing potions, hearthstones, etc... for us intended to provide a convenient way for us to play the game. Beyond being a brilliant money sink, the Wormholes in particular are a very nice touch. There is nothing more frustrating that logging out in the middle of nowhere and coming back surrounded by 20 creatures who immediately kill you.

Check out the entire feature over at RGTR.

Tabula Rasa Now Half Price - Some concern was brought up to recent advertising for Tabula Rasa boxes at $25-30 50% off what we paid retail last month. The people buying up the game a day or two before the transition are with good reason upset but there are actually a number of good reasons for this like: Lack of competition making TR extremely pricey, the retail season being competitive, and an underestimation of digital downloads. Check out our thread on it here.

Grinding 33-36 - A few of the more veteran players shared tips on grinding out these levels. If this is where you are, you'll find some great tips.

Guides/Features - Here is a list of last weeks guides and features in case you missed any!


We hope this has been helpful for you. Be sure to drop by our forums and discuss this and other Tabula Rasa news!

That's it for this week! Be sure to stop by our forums to discuss any of this news.


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Tabula Rasa Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

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