The funeral in question is for NCSoft’s Tabula Rasa, aka Richard “Lookit Me, I’m Inna Space!” Garriot’s Tabula Rasa.  With Auto Assault shutting down its doors last year, this makes two semi-high profile NCSoft titles that have bit the big one recently, with more cuts (Dungeon Runners?) possibly to come.

I actually played Tabula Rasa for a few weeks at launch — I’m a sucker for newly-launched MMOs, and it was quite hard to resist a scifi-themed one to boot.  And after I got over the bumpy first-person shooter display (you could play in 3rd person, but 1st was supposedly the way to go), I actually enjoyed a few elements to it.  The branching career trees, for one; the massive combat where you and your squad would be taking down dozens of bad guys at once; the “logos” hideys, even though you couldn’t really experiment with them or need them all; and the much-vaunted quests that gave you branching choices that affected the outcome.  The sad thing was that for all of these interesting features, it just didn’t gel in the end — and the fact that this “scifi” game looked much like a fantasy setting with laser rifles didn’t help any.

Nobody’s really happy to see a MMO shut down, because even if you’re not playing it, you know that there’s a community over there that’s just had their virtual world rocked.  We more or less enter MMOs under the illusion that this is a potentially permanent home, yet fret when we hear about subscription numbers and wonder if that’s enough to sustain the servers and development.

This aside, you have to admit: it’s a great time to be a MMORPG player.  The planets have aligned, the dev gods smiled down, and massive expansion packs and huge content updates are landing left and right.  EQII, LOTRO and WoW all have expansion packs on the shelves, City of Heroes and WAR are eagerly looking forward to major content updates, and the Christmas gaming break is almost nigh.  Beyond this, there’s the sleeper hit of Wizard 101, old favorites like EQ and UO and AO still going strong, and potential hits like Star Wars and Star Trek and Champions Online on the horizon.  Dollar for dollar, you can’t get this much entertainment value anywhere else.

So no matter where you’re gaming right now, hopefully WAR is still on your radar and, like me, you’re eager to hear what Mythic is going to announce for the future (new state of the game anyone?).  Now, back to Heavy Metal!

      

So what are we to make of Heavy Metal at this point? Okay, apart from the rockin’ guitar riff when you open the Live Events tab (for fun, click on the tab multiple times, rapidly!) and a severe decrease of annoying summoning horn sounds, the meat of this patch was in the Reikland Factory scenario and the Heavy Metal “to do” list (which is gradually opening up, but soon will present itself in its full, naked glory in time for the Thanksgiving holiday).

The scenario is both fun and a success, visually well-designed with a lot of potential for strategies and victories. Bonus happiness for the fact that it can be accessed by people of all tiers, from rank 1 to rank 40; bonus sadness that it isn’t popping as often as people need it to be (especially for quests). It does beg the question of why popular scenarios, such as Nordenwatch, can’t be accessed by all tiers in the game.

However, what is interesting is how the Heavy Metal daily task list is resonating with players. People like it, for the reason they like these sorts of lists in other MMOs: it gives them a list of rewards and a clear, guided path of how to accomplish that goal. It feels like a step above the PQ influence bar page, because it’s not just doing one thing, but a plethora of tasks that get players out of their rut, whatever that might be — endless scenarios, endless keep taking/retaking, endless questing — and off on adventures hither and yonder. It’s also precisely the opposite of how the Tome’s worked so far.

For the most part, the Tome is reactionary — it reacts to previously hidden accomplishments when you pass an invisible line, and then rewards you (usually XP, but sometimes with other lustable loot). While being praised and rewarded for things you’ve done is all well and good, it isn’t a motivator in any sense, unless you’ve done your out-of-game research and know what to do to get certain unlocks and gain certain rewards. You aren’t aiming for a goal, just rewarded from time to time.

With the Heavy Metal event, the Tome swings around the other way. You have a clearly shown reward (trophy, cloak, one-week head start on tank classes) and a list of tasks in order to earn that reward. It’s straight-forward and not frustrating to the average, perhaps casual player trying to catch up with the big boys.

As Mythic evaluates how this Live Event progresses, I’d like to urge them to examine why this setup resonates in their players, and throw my opinion into the mix: we need to reveal all — or at least a large bulk — of the hidden Tome unlocks and give players a clear, guided list of things to accomplish and rewards at the end of the road. I’ve floated this idea around and several people have given me a positive thumbs up for the idea. Snafzg said that it would make the game “cooler imho” (Imho is his nickname for me). If nothing else, we can argue that this would get people diving into their Tome more often.

The Tome of Knowledge has far more muscle and scope than any other similar system in other games right now — it’s time for Mythic to pull off the covers and show it off in a big way.

      

The most excellent and most mentally disturbed group of folks that grudgingly allows me to play along with them and sing loudly on Vent has opened the doors of recruitment for the first time since open beta. That’s right! Now, you too can become a <Tome Raider>!

What’s a Tome Raider?

It’s a myth… a legend… and a lackey, all in one.

It’s the heights of mankind’s destiny, and the lows of a crappy loot roll.

It’s the frighteningly deep voice of Gronte, the nonstop chatter of Doxie, the “crap am I dead AGAIN?” exclamation of Moon, the “your MAMA!” insults of Risca, and the fabled appearance of our GM Silianu. Or Silly Putty. One of the two.

It’s the opportunity for you to go, “I’m safe and secure in my sanity, but I need to put it all on the line for fun’s sake.”

It’s the alliance between three guilds that unite to form Voltron, Defender of the Universe and Taco Bell.

It’s the ugliest guild cloak this side of a fingerpainting factory — and yet we’re weirdly proud of it.

It’s a place where bad puns and obscure movie references are not only tolerated, but encouraged and egged on.

And it’s missing you. Apply today! Regret it tomorrow! Or never! I’m not a psychic!

(Anyway, if you’re on the side of Order on Phoenix Throne, shoot on over to the Tome Raiders website, check us out and see if you might be a good fit.)

      

It looks like WAAAGH!’s transition to GameRiot is going to happen this week, so please excuse any dust or snotlings as we do so.  You might notice that waaagh.wordpress.com is already redirecting to waaagh.gameriot.com — you’ll probably want to update your bookmarks or feeds to the latter.  More info as it develops!

      

Da Bloody Twenty is a weekly countdown of the 20 most interesting, well-written or weirdest Warhammer Online articles and posts… to me.

Twenty…

Welcome to the Community: Pwnsan, Mo’ Heelz, Runt!, Printscreen GG, Sneaks Speaks, and Skurmish!

Nineteen…

EU Players Get Their Own Realm War Page So They Can Stop Crying About Meanie GOA Oppression! Next week: they get into the open beta!

Eighteen…

“WAR: Love Being Top of My Tier” @ /random - So what’s the weather like up there?

Seventeen…

“Podcasts” @ Book of Grudges - A nice rundown of WAR-related podcasts for your listening enjoyment!

Sixteen…

“Keep Siege” @ Zizlak’s Travel Diary - When you reward more for offense than defense, what’s the point?

Fifteen…

“6 Things Right With WAR” @ Way of the Chosen - All you need is war, war, war is all you need.

Fourteen…

“Warhammer Exit Poll” @ Player Versus Developer - An insightful analysis of the WAR exit survey.

Thirteen…

“The Adventures of Hocus Pocus: Cliff Jumping!” @ A Wall of Text - As if mortal combat wasn’t extreme enough…

Twelve…

“Squig Teeth Necklace Tome Unlock Guide” @ Pwnsan - Momma say knock you out!

Eleven…

“Breathin’ Wif Me Toes” @ The Inevitable City - Another exploration into the great unknown.

Ten…

“WAR Cry For Official Forums” @ Order of Destruction - Several good points made, as in Made Mafia men.

Nine…

“Automatically Sort Bags” @ Wizards and Wenches - A good how to do something you never knew existed guide!

Eight…

“Magnus Responds To Customer Concerns” @ Book of Grudges - Taking GOA to task… you go, girl!

Seven…

“3 Tips To Fast WAR Leveling” @ Printscreen GG - Obviously, I am following none of these.

Six…

“Loot to the Rightful or the Lucky?” @ Wizards & Wenches - PQQ more, noob! (I now hold the copyright on that expression.)

Five…

“Slayer of Self” @ Mage Destruction - How to blow yourself up, and good.

Four…

“Is WAR Really DAOC 2.0?” @ The Greenskin - Personally, I think it’s DAOC II. I like Roman Numerals.

Three…

“Drastic Changes Needed For Warhammer Online” @ Keen and Graev’s - Lots of good points here, but I’d definitely add one more: /dance.

Two…

“Wrath of WAR” @ Tome of Knowledge - A good comic and even better reasons why you should stick with Warhammer Online!

One…

“A Guide To Total World Domination” @ The Herald - JoBildo crafts a great guide to stomping all over your enemy in style!

      

Calis, one of my guildies, passed along a full list of the daily chores, er, tasks, er, quests that encompass the Heavy Metal event:

1. Participate in the Reikland Factory Scenario

2. Complete 3 Stages of a Public Quest

3. Complete the Scouting Quest that begins in Reikland Factory Scenario

4. Visit the Herald in a Capital City

5. Find the Sand Castle in the Reikland Factory Scenario

6. Visit a Capital City

7. Defeat 15 enemy players in open RvR

8. Kill 10 Factory Chickens in the Reikland Factory Scenario

9. Kill 20 Undead

10. Detonate the Steam Tank Ammo in the Reikland Factory Scenario

11. Complete 5 Quests

12. Throw 5 Gaffer’s Gravybombs at enemy players in the Reikland Factory Scenario

13. Complete 3 Stages of a Public Quest

14. Have your realm eat the Famous Factory Sandwich in the Reikland Factory Scenario

Thanks Calis!

      

I’ve always found forum threads and blog posts on “post your tips/tricks/hints here” the most useful in any MMO I’ve played, and I’ve been keeping my eyes open for something similar. Happily, Mr. Wizards & Wenches pointed me to this great post at the WHA forums, which I’ve compiled to pass along. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this awesome thread!

Here are some great Warhammer Online tips and tactics that you may — or may not! — already know about:

1. If you spin your character around fast on the character selection screen, they get really dizzy and do a silly pose.
2. Barrels in Altdorf are fun to break — deadly too!
3. If you’re doing butchering, kill deer — their loot tables are similar to humans and they respawn fast — and spiders.
4. You can have your gear dyed in 2 colors. At the merchant, left click for “main color” and right click for “secondary color”.
5. /addon command. Opens a window to enable/disable installed add-ons.
6. You can use pocket items by dragging them to your spellbar.
7. When you take an RvR objective, if you wait around for 3 minutes you get extra renown.
8. The little “clock” thingys that appear on peoples names on your UI is the morale indicator.
9. You can join a group by typing /join partyleadername or /join partymembername so as long as the group is open.
10. You can sort bags based on what you pick up.
11. When equipping trophies, you have to click on the trophy in your profile window, then select the left or right arrows to determine it’s location on your body.
12. There are renown trainers and renown merchants in Keeps.
13. White Lions: /petname <pet name>
14. Marauders/White Lions Charge + Flee does stack: Use Flee first, then Charge (it doesn’t work vice versa) and get a 80% speed increase!
15. You can split stacks of items with holding SHIFT then clicking them.
16. Any quest that requires you to kill something count kills in a group.
17. Talk to the Rally Master to set bind points.
18. On the actual tab of a chat box (must click on the tab, not in the main chat, if you right click you will get the options to change colors/fonts/filters.


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