Tabula Rasa Community Manager April Burba has come back for another round of questioning. This time, Matt Lowery asks about medics, melee options and more in this soon to be released NCSoft product.
Answers by April Burba (Community Manager)
Questions by Matt Lowery
WarCry: How exactly do Medics work? Can they heal you in combat, do they have to stand next to you?
April Burba: Medics have a combination of ways to heal allies. They have Regen Wave that massively raises the health and power regeneration rates of all squad members within a 25m radius for a full minute. There is also a healing disc tool that can be a direct target tool, a cone, or an AoE around the medic. Medics also have a leech ability that when cast on a bad guy causes anyone who damages the enemy to gain health or power based on the attack damage type done. Further, Medics have an insanity ability that turns baddies against each other – if you make an enemy healer insane, it will heal the good guys in your squad.
WarCry: We see lots of guns blazing in the screen shots, what melee weapons are available for use?
April Burba: We have Hand to Hand melee available to everyone from when they start the game, and they can add skill points to it and use it throughout the game. We also have a filament sword for Spy’s and a Staff for Guardians. The staff is both ranged and melee. There are several different damage types for both the sword and staff including ice, fire, and electric. Fire swords FTW!
WarCry: Will there by a badge, or title system in game, and how will it work?
April Burba: Yes, we have a new title system we just added as part of our Targets of Opportunity system. You earn titles by completing objectives such as collecting all the logos on a map, or killing a set number of a type of enemy. There are other rewards for completing all of the Targets of Opportunity missions on a continent such as extra clone credits.
WarCry: With the ongoing war with the Bane, are there any rewards besides experience points for holding a point, or taking one?
April Burba: Yes, you now earn tokens for defending or attacking bases (depending on who controls them). You trade these tokens in for assorted rewards. Plus with the revamped control point system it’s just plain fun to attack and defend a base. Total chaos. It’s a great way to pop in game and grab 30 minutes of combat. Like one of our testers said, you can log into another MMO, run around for 30 minutes getting ready, getting quests, and getting your team together or you can log into TR, step outside a base and get into an engaging firefight within 5 minutes.
WarCry: Could you tell us your favorite planet in game, and why?
April Burba: Areiki. I love the color palette used, the Raintrees, and the Brann architecture. It has a ton of molten lava that was done beautifully by our artists and the sky is very alien. The game also really starts to open up once you hit Areiki and the story kind of, well, turns. Let’s just say you are no longer a Gung-ho recruit at this point.
