by John Hoskin on Mar 20, 2007
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I promised I would give out more information about Tabula Rasa and well, I keep my promises.
Tabula Rasa has two interesting types of areas of conflict, named "battlefields" and "instances" by Richard Garriott.
It is important to remember that Tabula Rasa will be a story-driven game. Mission arcs are an evolutionary step up from the quest-chains that we know and love in World of Warcraft, Everquest 2 and the current crop of MMOs. As you work your way through a mission arc you will be given sub-quests that must be completed in order to complete the main quest as a whole. Think of mission arcs like the Shaman totem quests in World of Warcraft ratcheted up about five notches. Instead of collecting the fur of ten rats, returning it and never speaking to that NPC again you will be sent to uncover a story that will encompass numerous sidequests in order to complete.
Instances are areas that only your group or you yourself are allowed into. You can play out the scenario as you see fit, free of players not partaking in your portion of the storyline.
Richard Garriott had this to say about instances:
"Instances are used to make the game more like a single-player game. Many include one-time scripted events."
Battlefields also advance the story, but in a different way. Battlefields have their own ebb and flow with NPCs from both sides of the war taking part in combat. NPCs will spawn with the ebb and flow of the battle around major tactical areas changing the tide of the war. Control of these tactical areas is very important. Losing one could result in the loss of a repair area, defenses, or worse.
"Battlefields will literally play themselves when no players are present" - Richard Garriott
TR looked like a game that put the player first. Though I didn't get to try it hands-on, I am looking forward to doing so. I'll divulge even more tomorrow, including some details about the language that Richard Garriott has created just for this game.
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