If you’ve been eager to try out City of Heroes, Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa and/or Exteel but due to the lack of a credit card have been unable to do so, now there’s another option. NCsoft today announced an initiative to launch pre-paid montly game subscription cards at retail for the three aforementioned titles. City of Heroes game cards price out at $20 for 30 days of play each, Tabula Rasa $15 for 30 days, and Exteel $10 for 1,200 NCcoin to spend on upgrades via the game’s micro-transaction system. City of Heroes and Tabula Rasa cards also include bonus in-game items, a jet pack and rocket respectively.

City of Heroes and Exteel cards became available over the weekend exclusively at Target, with more scheduled to roll out to other retailers shortly. Cards for all three games are due for release at Best Buy on August 3rd, and strangely enough, come September 3rd Rite Aid will even offer City of Heroes game cards. NCsoft will also be making subscription cards available for other games soon.

One more dev diary here for you regarding Tabula Rasa. This installment, Mission Designer Rebekah Tran provides a description of the dangerous Torcastra Prison instance. Along with the diary, we also have the actual briefing cinematic that sets the stage for the Torcastra Prison mission.

Torcastra Prison
By Rebekah Tran, Mission Designer

In Tabula Rasa there are many steps involved in creating the rich story line of the world. First of all, we’ve amassed an overarching story which includes lots of detailed back-story the player may never see and branches far out into plot twists and turns that we’ll touch on in future expansions. Next, that fiction is trimmed down leaving the content that the player will visit in game. This is then split amongst all the overland maps (the persistent maps that are shared amongst all players) in the game world. Each overland map then links to about three or four instance maps that provide more unique content for individual parties. It is here that we can more intimately progress the story for each overland map.

All that background work leads to the concept behind one of the instances I worked on, Torcastra Prison. Torcastra Prison is located at the southern end of Concordia Divide (a major overland map) deep in the bowels of enemy territory. Design for this instance really was a group effort between myself and several other designers for the Divide maps; however, it was important for us to have a prisoner here for several reasons. First of all, the players haven’t yet seen a prison at this point in the game, so it keeps things fresh. Second, given the fact that Divide is a completely war-torn area where the Bane and the AFS are fighting along a proverbial line in the sand, it just makes sense that there would be prisoners-of-war held somewhere. Once it was decided that this map should be a prison, I started working on the fictional and game play components of the area, while my teamed world builder (the game designer responsible for the creation, overall layout, and beautification of the map ) started creating the map itself.

My goal as a mission designer was to give players an interesting experience that also gives them the feeling that they are really in a war, and that they have a definite impact on the area they are playing in. As a result, when I started my mission design for Torcastra, it was important to me to ensure that it felt like players were starting a prison break from the get-go and not just told, “Oh by the way, this is a massive prison and here’s a prison cell or two to prove it.” The world builder did a fantastic job of creating a huge entry area leading up to the gates of Torcastra, so I decided to set up security bunkers, air strikes, and that fabled trip wire that you need to avoid in order to make the players feel as though they had really accomplished something once they reached those gates and secured the area. However, once they get past the gates, the difficulties have just started. There is a little surprise waiting just behind the prison doors, but, hey, I never said I was nice.

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Another important element when creating the prison are the prisoners themselves. It’s a little bit of a let down to break into a huge prison and only have a few prisoners held within. Not only is Torcastra filled with a veritable honeycomb of prison cells, but those cells are also filled with prisoners. The missions were designed to flow from one into another, so once a player completes a mission which reveals the two codes needed to open the cell blocks, there’s something very satisfying about seeing the prisoners run out as a mob and head for the hills. Many times in games things will happen that aren’t very realistic and you dismiss it because it’s a game and not reality. It would have been easier for me to leave those guys in the cells and just open the door and fictionally say they’re free and good job, soldier. However, if that were me, I would have made a b-line out the door as well, so that’s exactly what I made the mob of prisoners do.

The climax of the instance comes when you receive the word about Airman Hamilton, an AFS soldier being held by the Bane in Torcastra. This mission presents players with one of many moral dilemmas and story arc missions that exist in the game. The difficult issue I had with this mission is that I wanted to give the players a choice on what to do that didn’t involve a text decision. As a result, once you uncover Airman Hamilton in his state amongst the experimental equipment, the player is told to either put him out of his misery (at his request) or to turn him over the AFS as they were originally commanded to do. In this case, the question becomes, do you do the “humane” thing and kill him or do you decide that you’re not an executioner and potentially subject him to becoming AFS high command’s guinea pig? Each decision has its own morally grey area to explore, and, on top of that, the decision will affect a series of missions that are available to from that point.

Ultimately, the goal was to make sure that Torcastra feels like a dangerous place where players get a taste of the horrible things that the Bane are doing to the AFS soldiers they capture. If the Bane are experimenting on Humans on Divide, one can only imagine what is happening in other parts of the Tabula Rasa universe. It only gets worse from here, and only the player can help the AFS save other victims of the Bane.

In this latest dev diary for Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa, producer Starr Long shares some insight behind the game’s Control Points system. Read the diary in full below, complemented by a gallery of 12 new screenshots.

Control Points in Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa
By Starr Long, Producer

One of the fundamental goals for Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa was to simulate a war by creating what we call a dynamic battlefield. One of the ways we did that was to have the NPCs fight each other, but we wanted to take these battles a step further where they didn’t just fight each other sporadically as they encountered each other. Instead, we wanted them to actually fight over key pieces of territory which could alter the game environment in that area. These key territories are control points, and they are an integral part of what defines our dynamic battlefields.

Of course, there are more elements to the dynamics of the battlefield, but the control points are certainly a keystone of it. When the control points change ownership from the AFS to the Bane, for example, that changes a bunch of variables in the environment, including what NPCs are spawning and where they are spawning. In addition, this affects what missions are available to the players, so control point ownership even directly influences a player’s ability to complete missions. And it makes sense. If you were a soldier and had been asked to deliver a field report, for instance, and the destination base was under heavy attack, it’s unlikely you could just wander in, deliver your report, and then move on. You would more likely be ordered to help defend the outpost, or in the least, volunteer to stay and assist in the battle. Similarly, when I wander into a specific area in game that is under attack, I have to make an important decision, because what I’m fighting and where I’m fighting is directly linked to the control point. The fluid nature of where the front lines are and the ebb and flow of the battlefield is directly connected to the control points. As a result, a player’s decision to defend a control point personally impacts the face of that particular map.

Whether players decide to defend a base or take a base back from the enemy, they are still directly impacting the surrounding area. If they stay and fight to defend a base, they help ensure that it remains in the hands of the Allies, and ensures that the missions and NPCs in that base are available to other players. Likewise, if they seek out an enemy base, or fight to re-take an AFS base that has been captured by the Bane, they are deciding the extent of the front lines in that area, and how many resources are available to them as well as the players around them. In this way, the players are constantly reshaping and influencing the game environment.

Control points add a definite level of excitement to the game as well. I remember a really fun experience with the control points system, back when they were first implemented into Tabula Rasa. I’ll have to explain the background of this a bit. When the enemy takes and holds a control point, one of the things players can no longer access is the waypoint system within the base. Well, as we were first integrating the control points into the game, the waypoints were not set up to switch off, so we could teleport into a base even when it was under ownership of the Bane. So, I teleported into Wilderness LZ during one of my regular play sessions, only to find that it was no longer in AFS control. There were at least twenty Bane all around me. It was like one of those moments in an old western where a guy walks into a bar, the music screeches to a halt, and suddenly everyone is ducking for cover. I stood there a moment, and then they all open fire on me. It was a huge adrenaline rush and a lot of fun running back to the base with reinforcements to take it back. There was a real sense of satisfaction in clearing the last of the Bane out of that base.

There are other reasons to take or hold a control point as well. A direct and very compelling incentive is, as I mentioned before, if a player needs to complete a mission that ends in a base that has been taken by the enemy. The player may have to step out of his usual routine and to re-take the base before being able to complete the mission. Similarly, if they need to use a vendor or hospital in the area and the base is not under AFS control, they will not be able to do so. Recapturing the base at that point is not only in their best interest, but also benefits all of the players in that area. We have also introduced collectable medals that players receive for successfully defending or taking back a control point. These medals can then be turned in for other rewards, as an added incentive.

Taking and keeping control points also lends itself well to several aspects of the high-level content in Tabula Rasa. For example, some control points will be very challenging to take and even more challenging to keep unless a large group of players is holding it—a clan perhaps. Of course, this provides a player with “bragging rights,” but it is also a large incentive for other clans to try and take the control point for themselves. Eventually, I feel that that the control point system will evolve in such a way that the players who hold a control point will receive some sort of incentive or bonus for their efforts, making the stakes even higher for groups that want to hold ownership of a base.

My personal passion for the game really revolves around that main goal of simulating a war and making parts of the environment a little more unpredictable and dynamic then we’ve done previously. I remember the first time we got the control point system working the way we wanted it to. I logged in and started following my usual routine and completing my current mission. When I got to the base to meet with my contact, there was a huge mass of Bane outside, right between me and where I needed to be. Suddenly I had to rethink what I was going to do. I had to figure out how I was going to get into the base. The main entrance was heavily guarded, so I tried going around and sneaking in, and I kept getting shot when I got too close. It was great, because all of a sudden, I was taken out of my regular routine. I felt like there was really a war going on and I suddenly had a chance to do something very exciting when I wasn’t initially expecting to. I could take back the control point and make a difference in the battle for control of the Tabula Rasa universe.

As part of the three-day pre-order headstart for Tabula Rasa, the dev team will be hosting a special in-game Halloween event come October 31st. During the event, players will have the chance to participate in goodie-spreading missions and earn exclusive Halloween masks, of which there will be nine to collect in all. If you’d like to get in on the Halloween celebration, drop by your local game shop or head online for a Tabula Rasa pre-order bonus pack of your very own.

NCsoft has released the first details on a Limited Collector’s Edition Game Pack for the upcoming fall release of Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa. Pictured above, the Collector’s Edition pack comes will all sorts of sweet loot, including a briefing from Richard Garriott’s game character General British, classified maps, an Allied Free Sentients (AFS) field guide, dog tags, an AFS challenge coin, a special edition poster and a “Making of Tabula Rasa” DVD. A bunch of exclusive in-game items come with the purchase too, things like a special character emote, a unique pet and dye recipes, plus one free month of play time. The only mystery here is cost, as a price for the LE box wasn’t issued in today’s press release.

“The Limited Collector’s Edition we have put together for Tabula Rasa is loaded with cool things for players who really get into the role-playing aspect of the game,” said Executive Producer Richard Garriott. “Regular players will find the maps and field guide useful as they move full-force into the game’s fast-paced action. Other items, like the dog tags and challenge coins, bring home the ‘brothers in arms’ feeling of this game even when you aren’t playing.”

So what comes with the pre-order pack? Well, for starters it provides instant access to the beta test (which I’m currently in and really enjoying) and three days of early access to the final live game prior to its public launch this fall. Exclusive character emotes, in-game pets, and a DVD loaded with the game client, bonus wallpapers and artwork are also included in the box.

“There is an amazing amount of anticipation for Tabula Rasa‘s launch within our development team and the player community,” said Richard Garriott, executive producer. “The player feedback at this point has been extremely helpful and we’re putting the final touches on the game. This pre-order release truly marks the final stages in developing this epic adventure, and since owning the pre-order allows players beta access, it is a great way to try Tabula Rasa out before we launch the game.”

Unleash the Power of LOGOS:

Thousands of years ago, an Ancient Species known as the Eloh, made a great discovery. They uncovered a key to a powerful science unifying all known theories of physics. With this key, they were able to unlock answers to the fundamental questions of the Universe that explain the nature of all matter and energy. This knowledge allowed them to develop Logos, a way to manipulate matter, energy, and force in unique and powerful ways.

With the power of LOGOS at their disposal, they began exploring the universe. By folding space to quickly cross vast distances, they visited galaxies of all sizes in a quest to meet other sentient life. The Eloh shared their knowledge with all whom could comprehend this powerful truth. But sharing such knowledge and giving other LOGOS-receptive beings the ability to manipulate matter, energy, and force would eventually trigger an intergalactic war between the Eloh and the Bane, resulting in the enslavement of many species and ensuring the Bane’s place as our oppressors.

Like any science, LOGOS can be used for great advancement and discovery, or great destruction and oppression. Though the enemy has access to the knowledge of LOGOS, like all beings the Eloh visited, they are not able to harness its full power. Luckily for the members of the Allied Free Sentients, Bane usage of this power has always been volatile and unpredictable. Whether it is lack of training, lack of discipline, or an incomplete understanding of the power they hold, the Bane have never been able to master LOGOS. We must exploit this weakness. Our mastery of LOGOS is what will ensure our success and grant us freedom from our oppressors.

In Tabula Rasa, you are a LOGOS-receptive soldier of the AFS, and are able to learn the language of LOGOS at shrines throughout the worlds you travel to. Not only can your knowledge of LOGOS be used to activate special abilities that can help the AFS win this war, but the ancient symbols you uncover can also unlock hidden locations where you can further your training and enhance your skills. Ancient secrets will be revealed to you as you collect more and more LOGOS to your tablet.

LOGOS abilities will allow you to harness the very fabric of the cosmos. Use this power to defeat the Bane and secure our future!

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