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Initial Impressions of Tabula Rasa, from a 3-day Trialer.
JMadisonIV
Member Posts: 282
I spent couple hours jut running around randomly killing stuff, and I have to say...the potential is there.
my god, the potential is there. my gut feeling says that TR can turn out to be a fantastic game, albeit not a very highly populated one. it's going to develop into a Niche game with a cult-esque following similar to AC or EVE.
the Gameplay WORKS. and it is FUN. the "FPS with RPG Mechanics" formula is almost revolutionary imo. maybe that's just because i haven't played all the MMOs available. it is engaging, simple to get into, action-packed, and most of all FUN.
the way the battlefield changes as you traverse it is great as well. the Bane come in on dropships and/or teleports at random intervals and at random locations, so there isn't a set "spawn points" or "pull" system(run around,come across a group of mobs..stop..."pull" them, fight them, then move on to the next "pull") in place like in pretty much every other MMO ever made, from what I have seen. it feels very much like a living battlefield on a constant war. very dynamic in sense.
the graphics look a little cartoony, but I attribute that to me having to play on Low Settings. but even on low some of the little details, such as facial expressions, are wonderful. combat effects are very nice as well. the animations are done well,imo.
now...with all this gushing, the game is not perfect. my gripes are as follows:
1) poor Performance and memory usage. I should not have problems running this game on my machine.
this is my computer():
Manufacturer:
Dell Computer Corporation
Processor:
Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.66GHz
Memory:
1790MB RAM
Hard Drive:
60 GB
Video Card:
NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS
Monitor:
Dell E770p
Sound Card:
SoundMAX Digital Audio
this computer runs Lord of The Rings Online, on "High" Graphic settings, with just about *no* problems whatsoever, except for massive PvMP zergplay. and the game looks really nice.
and i really have no issues with any other MMOs i'd play on this computer. i mean, it's not a super-duper top of the line gaming rig, but in general it gets the job done.
yet, on TR, this computer buckles. the problem is constant stuttering particularly when I am running, and/or fighting. even with the graphics set on "Low". when I am standing still in a city, i have no problems. but as soon as I start moving, my game starts stuttering. not quite slideshow lag, but very noticeable all the same. is TR really that much more graphic intensive?
disabling my anti-virus and my windows defender helps a *little bit*, but the problem never truly goes away.
I should not need a supercomputer, or have to disable my antivirus/anti-spyware in order to simple play "a little better, but still choppy", on LOW settings. the game should also not use 50% of my Memory resources by itself. at least I don't think it should. i'll run LOTRO when i get home and see how much *it* uses. silver lining in this, is that my Ping is typically very, very low(single digits most of the time, I am seeing).
2) Brain-dead AI. Seriously...the Bane just kinda stand there...and shoot every once in a while. There is no imminent sense of danger, once the Bane have appeared, and the initial shock of their arrival has passed. I think "oh more bane to kill, i'll get around to them when i feel like it." not "uh-oh, bane are coming, get ready to fight".
now i'll attribute this to my only playing to level 5, and give TR the benefit of the doubt and assume it gets much harder as you level up. but as of right now, the Bane are stupid, and I can't fathom how they took over Earth so fast. I can stand right in front of a group of 3,face to face, and shotgun them all to death, and one of them might kick me ONCE in the entire fight...but then i get back up, get right back in their faces and keep shotgunning. they don't run, they don't seem to take cover, flank, or any other type of FPS tactical manuevers. and they don't attack that often at all, from what I have seen. they just kinda stand there like target practice dummies.
hopefully this changes as I level up.
Comments
You hit it right on the head, I am running a simlar computer to yours, I was in beta for over 5 months and the fps/ lag fps problem was constant the entire time. The game overall is pretty intresting, but even on max low, I still had problems.
"I spent couple hours jut running around randomly killing stuff, and I have to say...the potential is there.
my god, the potential is there. my gut feeling says that TR can turn out to be a fantastic game, albeit not a very highly populated one. it's going to develop into a Niche game with a cult-esque following similar to AC or EVE."
Or Auto Assault.......
I didn't feel immersed. It was just dumb quests to kill dumb creatures. If I moved, their bullets acted like heat seeking missles. How is that remotely realistic? The UI was garbage. I found myself struggling with hot keys and various other screens that I didn't understand. I've played a half dozen other MMO's in the past, and this game.. by far, is the worst in terms of getting you started. I don't have a great computer.. but I can run LOTRO on medium settings and get 40fps..while it still looking pretty good. I have my settings on low and there are snags. Cover isn't even really effective. I often tried ducking behind cover and I would still get hit. I didn't understand the life display. A game should be horribly obvious at the start.. I didn't understand any of the mechanics.. overall.. it was a really bad game. My hope is that Huxley takes this genre.. because TR failed miserably.
There is a difference between not being able to run the game due to an outdated computer.. some people might say.. well, I can't run it.. it sucks and being able to look through those problems. No, I can look past that sort of thing and come to the conclusion, after 2 hours, that I'd rather waste my time trolling the web than to play this piece of.. you know what. In fact, it almost made me miss WoW.. until I realized that I'd rather throw myself out of my 3rd story apartment window than to play that again.
well, FPS isn't my problem really. I get 35-45 FPS easy on Low settings. but the game still stutters noticeably when i start to move and/or fight..I didn't feel immersed. It was just dumb quests to kill dumb creatures.
well...if you break it down to basics...that's what a MMORPG is.
If I moved, their bullets acted like heat seeking missles. How is that remotely realistic? The UI was garbage. I found myself struggling with hot keys and various other screens that I didn't understand. I've played a half dozen other MMO's in the past, and this game.. by far, is the worst in terms of getting you started. I don't have a great computer.. but I can run LOTRO on medium settings and get 40fps..while it still looking pretty good. I have my settings on low and there are snags. Cover isn't even really effective. I often tried ducking behind cover and I would still get hit. I didn't understand the life display. A game should be horribly obvious at the start.. I didn't understand any of the mechanics.. overall.. it was a really bad game. My hope is that Huxley takes this genre.. because TR failed miserably.
eh. I didn't have very much issue getting with the UI. just gotta keep in mind that it is supposed to play like a FPS, and not like a typical RPG, and it is fairly easy to get the hang of, i'd say. i wouldn't say it was a "very bad game" or that it "failed miserably". but it isn't perfect, and it has quite a few flaws. but it also has a lot of potential.
my real issue with the game is the fact that i can run LOTRO on High, but i can only run this game on Low.
Yeah it requires some serious hardware to run properly. I upgraded to an 8800GT just to get a better framerate and High textures. It was totally worth it, the game looks beautiful. However, you can't really expect a new game to run perfect on a computer that's 3 years old. I do hope they keep optimizing the engine though. Seems like they pulled an EQ2 where the graphics are future-proof.
so why shouldn't i expect other games to?
If you have shadows enabled, tried disabling them as they cause any machine to take a hit.
If you have shadows enabled, tried disabling them as they cause any machine to take a hit.
auto-config set my computer on "High". but from my experience, there is no way in hell i can run this game on High smoothly.I'm doing "alright" on Low. but it is still noticeably choppy at times.
It may be choppy due to the server as well, for one there could be 1000s of players still in Bootcamp trolling general chat thus clogging up the instance server or it could be because players havn't let learnt to jump map nodes and all sit in Wilderness (1) and havn't yet moved to (3) or (4)..
Besides Mires which is currently nortorius for it's 'lag issues' due to a possible hole in the coding (seeing has the rest of the game seems fine and it's not just one server culster), thats my only way your FPS could be fine yet it still stutters.. Try getting out of the high populated bits of the game if you havn't already
Bring on the WARRRRGGHH!
Well on Ultra Settings, its not exactly smooth for me either. The only time it gets really noticable is when I am in a massive CP battle.
When do you see this choppiness? Is it all the time or at certain points?
Edit: Kremlick has a good point too, under certain instances of a map, the choppiness can get pretty hectic. I almost as a rule join Instance 3 or 2 if I know I am going to be in a heated battle.
I occasionally play the game on an underpowered laptop, with less CPU speed than sys req. I was getting 10-15 fps at 1280x720 with lowest settings, but then I noticed I had Nvidia's control panel set on "High Quality", when I changed to "High Performance" I noticed a speed bump of about 10 fps.
And I saw not much difference in fps when I enabled higher polygons and better textures in the game.
Your RAM should be ok, but just barely. Someone suggested that I should upgrade to atleast 2gb RAM, and it made a difference. Press F4 in game and look at your memory usage, if it goes up to 95% then, apparently, the game will use virtual memory and it will make the game crawl.
so why shouldn't i expect other games to?
I see your point but besides tweaking in game and Nvdia control panel settings, it is what it is. LotRO may be an exception because I'm pretty sure that Crysis, Hellgate London, CoD 4, <insert any new game> here would have issues as well on your system.
I have also spent the last two hours trying the three day trial. And surpisingly, quite enjoying the gameplay.
I say surprisingly, becuase I have heard quite a bit of negative feedback. While there may be some validity in that, I found myself enjoying the game.
It reminds me of Planetside in part.
I think I'll take full advantage of the three day trial and see how it goes. Who knows, I may even subscribe?
Try this:
Go into the settings and set it to Ultra and apply it. Switch to Custom and turn on real-time quality scaling. Turn off Anti Aliasing. Go down to Flora and set the bar at 50% (or just turn it off if you don't mind not having it). Set your View Distance and Terrain quality to 50%. Turn off Dynamic shadows.
After that start adjusting things from there and see where it gets you starting with model and texture detail. We seemed to get a better result by screwing with the settings on a friends pen 2.66 than just going to low settings. Low seems to shuffle a LOT of stuff off onto the CPU that simply doesn't need to be there.
No, the game didn't look great but it looked better than "low" and we got rid of the stuttering in the end.
GOD I HATE NCSOFT and their stupid, lame NCSOFT Account garbage.
I slog through the stupid regsitration process and sitting there waiting for the verification code and the idiots don't tell you that there NO WAY BACK to that freaking page if you get disconnected. You have to remain logged onto that page and god forbid your Explorer crashes (yeah that NEVER happens).
If that DOES happen you have to go through the whole stupid process again. NEVER had this much trouble trying to register for a freaking game. My friends who used to play City of Heroes all told me NCsoft Account management is garbage, now I completely believe them.
Too bad this game is stuck with a stupid, lame company like NCSoft. No wonder Cryptic sold their superhero game to them so they didn't have to deal with NCSoft anymore.
Then You have connection lag. If Your computers graphics FPS is good, and You still lag, there isn't much left than connection and server. As most have allready here sayed it's not server, because it would affect everyone same time. So, There is only connection left.
MMORPG.COM has worst forum editor ever exists
I enjoyed playing Tabula Rasa during beta, just don't have the money currently to buy the game or I probably would. Didn't have much lag that I don't have in most other newer games, but then my computer is over 4 years old so I can't really complain. No idea what my fps rate was, but stuttering/lagging didn't noticably hamper my enjoyment of the game, and I was using the "detected" settings. An occasional hiccup was basically the worst I experienced. Of course could be that there are a lot more players on now and that might influence how much it stutters/lags.
system homemade.
P4 2.4GHz
1.25 GB RAM (approx)
Radeon 9600 (256 MB memory)
on board soundcard
500+ GB harddrive space (approx 100 GB free)
well, after playing a bit more, things are running "ok" on low settings. still some noticeable hitches, but nothing that makes the game unplayable. but still...low settings *frown*
i can not definitively say whether LOTRO or TR is the better game, fun/gameplay-wise. I enjoy them both.
I will say that the FPS-style gameplay in TR is a real turn-on for me. it's very fun. however, TR seems very loose and unstructured, in a way. I have trouble figuring out what exactly is my purpose for going to various places in the game world, and I tend to end up just randomly running around shooting Bane just because they are there. and admittedly, i haven't gotten too much into the story of the game. still wondering who the chick in all the promo pictures is....
LOTRO *does* run so much better on my machine though....
perhaps the only solution is to simply pony up for a different video card, then perhaps TR will run better.
the 'chick' is the girl from the intro movy , after she leaves earth and becomes a sniper
Well I am just going to take a stab in the dark (being I haven't played LotR), but I can say that TR has a lot more dynamic action going on than LotR. All this movement, action, large amounts of various creatures fighting, explosions, dropships... there is just alot of things going on that will affect your frame rate as well as what it needs to cache in your Ram.
This is my Rig.
3ghz P4 - FSB800
ATI 1950 GT 256mg - AGP
2 gigs of DDR400
36 gig Raptor Drive
My system is over 3 years old (with the exception of the graphics card), but overall the biggest need I think TR has is on your RAM. Your graphics card is obviously able to take the punishment, but your computer needs the RAM to access the information quickly, otherwise its feeding off your slower hard drive for the info.
As i posted in another thread earlier, i was downloading it about 7 hours ago...i played for about 5 hours. It was pretty fun in the begining. Then the Fun realy just drained away once i got to about level 5 and realized that this it pretty much all the game has to offer (Atleast right now....acording to the hopes of other people who have been following the game).
At level one i started out doing the tutorial quests and learned the minimal basics about the interface. Levels 1-4 went fast and painless, as is customary for all MMO's now i guess. Cool. Then i got to what was apparently the newbie area....where i proceeded to to the "Kill 200 infantry or something" and half a dozen of the mark of time/power/...ect things for the next 3-4 hours. I ended my playtime flipping through the character screens searching for an experience bar....wondering WTH it took 4 hours, hundreds of kills of level 10+ things, and dozens of quests to get from level 4 to 6. I'm a bit of a powergamer(arn't we all), but i've never played a game that took hour*S* in the newbie are to get just one level. I was hoping i would find the XP bar, but I didn't find an XP bar or percentage or anything(although i'm sure there must be one somwhere)....but it doesn't realy matter.
The interface aside, It seemed way WAY too grindy for me...and with no PvP or "raids(?)" currently it didn't seem to have any point except to prepare for more and more NPC grind.
Anyway, I'm sure it would redeem itself a bit...but only a bit...if i had a subscription and gave it a full month....but i don't think its worth 50$ to give it that shot.
* I also have a fairly new high spec comp...but that didn't prevent jerky'ness from server conectivity lag or whatever causes it. WTG spikes of 70fps broken by spikes of 5fps every other second...even with the settings turned to the lowest possible levels with all the options clicked off.
You clearly did not follow the quests and instead, went off on your own. You did not experience Wilderness, nor the game as it was intended.
Furthermore, any lag you had in Wilderness was your own net connection r your own PC. Only the best PCs can run 30+ FPS at max settings...turn yours down some and you'll be fine. This isn't wow where a 2 year old game can run maxed out. Its the newest MMO on the market. Max here is not the same as max on other MMOs.
Oh and the XP bar is the BIG huge BAR at the bottom of your screen. Are you sure you even played?
Seriously. Hours to get one lvl in wilderness? To be blunt....you failed at TR. Your experience is limited only to those that don't know how to play MMOs or don;t know how to follow directions. Anyone that knows how to do either of those will have a much more enjoyable time in game.