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!

Patch 11.01.2007

Ok this patch changed a lot so we're going to need you to pay very close attention to the following:

Increased Server Performance.

Fixed damage stacking bug with certain damage types.

Don't try and process all that at once. There actually could've been a number of changes required for either of those so it's hard to judge. If you don't believe me and think I'm just yanking your chain you can go to the official site.

Test Notes

The first set of Test Server notes went public last week and NCsoft seems to be working on a lot especially concerning the high end portion of the game. These notes are so extensive we can't post them all here but check out the full list here. There appear to be countless bugs being squashed but a few of the notes were interesting enough to stand out.

• All creature encounters are reduced from an average scale of x2 to x1.5 - What could this mean? It appears overall encounters are easier now? x2 to x1.5? Wouldn't 25% easier been...easier to understand?
• Fithik should be easier to kill and deal less damage now.
  
  Fithik self-destruct explosions do more damage and in a slightly larger radius now. - The friggin Fithik. They seem easy in the exterior levels but a run in Devils Den shows you the stuff they are really made of. Those explosions are dangerous now when there are groups of them around. I can't imagine what the change will do.
• Kael spawns have been reduced so that no more than 2 spawn simultaneously. - Good! These things wreck absolutely havoc in a group of Linkers and 2 dozen Thrax.
• Max mission count has been changed to 30 - Probably one of the best changes we'll see, there is no reason we should only be limited to 20 missions especially if 8 of them are Logos so we know where to look. Great addition!
• You can now have three crab mines out at a time instead of a single one. - And sappers everywhere rejoiced! Crab Mines have always had limited function because you really have 0 control over where they are going to run off to. Dropping down multiple can guarantee a greater chance of hitting something you care about. Hopefully they eventually drop the cost of summoning them as well one day.

There are tons and tons more and while RGTR has hidden them (yes we noticed), there was also news that the Test server should be available soon. See the post from Community Manager CuppaJo.

Screenshot of the Week - Ok normally this might be news worthy but it's just a "Oh hey that's neat" kind of thing. This weeks is extremely unusual in it's a picture of a Thrax Machina! No I'm not joking go look! That has to be the creepiest thing they have ever put in this game. If they put audio to that thing that goes "Brainnnns" many of us will be huddled in the corner with a shotgun. Who are making the Bane machina? Are the Foreans getting revenge or are the Bane just that callous to their own race? We'll have to keep watching to find out.

Tabula Rasa Launch Video - This was actually a neat piece of video put together by NCsoft in the form of a newsreel. Reminiscent of the news you'd see from those old WWII films, this provided us a little background story on a few of the areas. It also forced at least one person to go rent Starship Troopers because of a similar story telling technique. If you didn't see it, go check it out.

Sarah Morrison Makes Playboy - Why haven't more site been talking about this?!? It's PLAYBOY! There are amazing articles in there! Stop looking at me like that...

Playboy released what is becoming an annnual tribute to videogame girls showing popular female icons in the buff. Tabula Rasa's very own Sarah Morrison made the issue and I think that is enough said right there. Giggity. Ok now it was enough said. Giggity.

CuppaJo Consults Her Magic 8 Ball - Community Manager April "CuppaJo" Burba took a few minutes to answer questions submitted by our forum readers. While some of her answers were "unclear" thanks to the Magic 8 Ball, she did clear up on whether we can buy swag from NCsoft and why Specialists don't get weapons in their Tier 4 classes. If you want to see all her answers to our questions head over here.

AFS Sci-Fi Trivia Challenge - This past week we had the first in game science fiction trivia challenge. I'll have to admit this was a really neat idea to promote some community participation. Richard Garriott asked questions in global channel and the first person to get it right, won some credits. The questions I saw usually were related to books and films but kudos to them for such an unusual and fun event.

That was pretty much it for this week, so we hope this has provided you anything you might've missed. Be sure to keep checking back and stop by our forums for up to the minute news.