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It's been a fairly good run for Tabula Rasa, but the inevitable has now been announced. As of February 28, 2009, Tabula Rasa will be shutting down its servers for good. We've feared an Auto-Assault-like fate for the game for a while now, but confirmation of this event truly saddens everyone in the MMO community.

According to the announcement, the folks at TR plan on going out in style, though. Not only will they continue to pump out some new, quality content in the remaining months, but the game will actually go free-to-play for its final month and a half. You can check out more of their upcoming final plans with the game, as well as the official announcement at their website.

In the worlds of Tabula Rasa, the Bane have been relentless in their attacks against the remaining humans who threaten their plans of complete domination. In response to this, they have developed a new type of super-troop to turn the tide in their favor a bit. These new Bane are called E.P.I.C., or Enhanced Primary Invasion Conscripts. They have shown up in small groups sporadically throughout Foreas and Arieki, killing all AFS they encounter.

According to the most recent Feedback Friday, these Epics will need a full squad of high-ranking soldiers to take them down. Among the Epics spotted so far, there have been reports of Caretakers, Technicians, Grenadiers, Pistol and Rifle Soldiers wreaking havoc across the two planets. Is this a last-ditch effort by the Bane, or a simply a distraction used while they focus their true power elsewhere? Hop in game and find out as the interesting elements of TR's lore continue to unfold.

Some say they knew this day would come, while others swore it never would. In an official announcement on the Tabula Rasa website, Richard Garriott announced to the world today that he is leaving NCsoft to pursue other interests.

According to the announcement, Garriott's experience pursuing his lifelong dream of spaceflight has sparked some new interests in him, and he aims to devote his time and resources into these, instead of the MMO he worked to build for so many years. This still leaves us with many unanswered questions. Does this mean the end of Tabula Rasa as we know it? That part has not been mentioned at all, but we imagine there will at least be some upcoming changes, like, to the logo. You can read Garriott's departing letter just after the cut below, and let us know what you think of his resignation in the comments.

The Server vs. Server War in Tabula Rasa is ready for this month's installment, as the PlanetTR folks get ready for what has quickly become one of their largest events. As with last month's server war, this one will follow the same rules, although this time Pegasus will join forces with Cassiopeia to battle those in Orion and Centaurus.

Join the fun on Saturday, December 6th from 3pm-5:30pm CTS. This will be held on the Public Test Server, on the Divide and Wilderness maps. Over 14 clans from all four servers will be involved, as this fourth installment of this event should prove to be their largest yet. Check out more information on the main site, as well as the sign-up threads for both sides at the PlanetTR forums.

Even though Tabula Rasa has just reached its one-year anniversary, there are certainly new players coming into the game constantly. Whether people have heard about the newest crafting changes, the return to Earth or are simply coming back into the game after a long hiatus, they may need a bit of a brushing up on their skills. Luckily, there's an upcoming event to explain the basics of the game to us.

This Tabula Rasa 101 Q&A session will be held in-game at Alia Das in Wilderness 1 during the following times:

• Monday, November 10th, 2:00 PM CT - Centaurus
• Monday, November 10th, 8:00 PM CT - Orion
• Tuesday, November 11th, 8:00 PM CT - Cassiopeia
• Wednesday, November 12th, 8:00 PM CT - Pegasus

Once there, new recruits can meet up with GM_Vagabond to fire away any basic mechanics or gameplay questions you may have. Good luck, soldiers!

Earlier today we started giving away 50 Tabula Rasa soldier packs. There's some really nice swag in there ... but it is just not enough. See, Massively and Tabula Rasa share pretty much the same birthday. Last year's giveaway extranavangza had us doing an entire 24-hour marathon of giveaways. So this year we wanted to offer something really special to everyone serving in the AFS. That's why we have the AFS Commander Prize Pack. If you win this one-of-a-kind pack you'll get: A collector's edition box of Tabula Rasa (retail: $39.99), a Tabula Rasa T-Shirt, a TR Zboard keyset, TR dogtags, a TR hat, a Tabula Rasa lanyard, a commemorative patch from Richard Garriott's flight to the ISS, and a fantastic Tabula Rasa poster signed by General British and Starr Long. Total estimated retail value: $116.

All you have to do to win this kingly swag pack is leave a comment on this post telling us whether you'd want to serve on the front lines against the Bane. Would you sign up, or leave the alien-fighting to others? You'll need to comment before 7:00 AM EST Wednesday, November 5th to be eligible. You can only enter once per person, and after the contest closes we'll ship out the prize pack to one randomly-selected winner. Give us at least a week to ship out this massive pile of swag, though. To win you must be age 18 or up and a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec). For full eligibility details, we suggest you read our official rules. Good luck!

We thought we'd kick off today's giveaways with a bang! You're almost guaranteed* to win one of these packs, we've got so many of them! 50 of you lucky readers will get to walk away with the ultimate in Tabula Rasa swag packs! Each pack has (at least) 1 XL Tabula Rasa T-shirt, 1 set of Tabula Rasa Dog Tags, and 1 Tabula Rasa Lanyard! Of those 50 packs, 9 of them are going to find an extra special addition slipped inside: a commorative patch from Richard Garriott's historic flight to the International Space Station! Total retail value of everything is less than $20. Plus, every NCsoft giveaway we do today is going to get some extras, like City of Heroes/Villains balloons, buttons, and bumper stickers ... what you get is a total surprise!

Remember, we've got 50 of these things to giveaway! Enter quick to get your chance! All you have to do is leave a comment on this post telling us what you like about Tabula Rasa! You'll need to comment before 7:00 AM EST Wednesday, November 5th. You can only enter once per person, and after the contest closes we'll ship out these fantastic prizes to 50 randomly-selected winners. Give us at least a week to ship out this massive pile of swag. To win you must be age 18 or up and a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec). For full eligibility details, we suggest you read our official rules. Good luck!

*Mr. Asterisk guarantees nothing.

Have you ever wondered why a game like Tabula Rasa never utilized that classic first-person view, considering the fact that it's billed as an FPS-style MMO? The over-the-shoulder view never really did it for most players who were looking for more of a shooter aspect in their game. Rest easy in knowing that the FPS view is finally coming to this NCsoft sci-fi MMO, according to the latest Feedback Friday.

If that's not enough, there will also be a scope view, allowing players to use their Torqueshell Rifles more authentically and adding to the immersion of playing an actual Sniper class. But wait, there's more! This Feedback Friday also describes a new mech cockpit view and increased camera distance from the character, which will be great news for the support classes who tend to hang back a bit from the front lines. Although there's no date mentioned for the implementation of these improvements, you can check out the entire news story for some impressive screenshots showcasing these new views.

According to an in-character communique from Tabula Rasa postergirl Sarah Morrison, something big is about to hit the proverbial fan. The implication is that a large-scale Bane attack is coming, and scuttlebutt among the game's players suggests that General British himself may make an appearance:

'Increasing Bane activity has been detected across Foreas and Arieki over the past few days. [...] seeking to get as much intel as possible to explain this and have managed to intercept a message between what we believe to be one of their primary Tactical Operations Centers and one of their motherships [...] hard at work trying to decipher the entirety of the message [...] contained information on a possible large scale assault scheduled to take place in approximately 9 days. [...] is probably the last message I am able to send through this channel. It has become increasingly difficult to [...]. Hopefully the bulk of this message will reach you.'

The date of the event, November 2nd, should be familiar to Tabula Rasa players as the day the game went live, almost a year ago. It's also the anniversary of Massively - good heavens, hasn't the time flown?

Richard Garriott's space flight has certainly caught the attention of more than just the fans of his MMO development career. He's been all over the mainstream networks for several months as preparations were made and he was eventually launched into orbit earlier this month. Now Garriott has returned safely to Earth in what was said to be a highly-successful mission with Russian Cosmonauts.

Not only has the father of the modern MMO concluded the Tabula Rasa: Operation Immortality project with his trip to the International Space Station, but he has also become the second person to ever follow in their father's footsteps into space. Garriott's father Owen Garriott is a retired NASA astronaut who flew on the U.S. space station Skylap in 1973. Ironically, Garriott's return to Earth perfectly coincides with Tabula Rasa's own news of the game making a return to the home planet.

You can see more information, videos and interviews with Garriott upon his return at his website richardinspace.com.

After an alien attack led the Logos-receptive humans to find safety in other planets, the fate of the home planet was grim. It was rumored that Earth had been completely destroyed by the Bane, and that's what they came to accept after all this time. Yet, new research has discovered that those rumors were wrong. Not only is Earth still alive, but there are humans there left to save.

The return to Earth is a prospect in Tabula Rasa that probably every single player -- past and present -- have longed to see. With the upcoming Deployment 15, those dreams will come true. This exciting new content will include:

• Epic instanced control point gameplay for level 48 to 50 players
• All new setting and art design
• New monsters, including new Epic creatures and mini-bosses. These new Epic creatures are designed to be a greater challenge, requiring the efforts of coordinated squads with excellent weapons and gear to be defeated.
• PvE Mech gameplay opportunities
• New armor sets available only on Earth

Tabula Rasa Designer Jason Ford takes the Feedback Friday controls this week to explain a bit about the changes to the Raksha Robotic Facility coming soon with Deployment 14. As he describes, "The Bane have blown a hole through the roof of the C.D.U. (Central Dispatch Unit) in Raksha Robotic Facility on Torden Incline. They've seized control of the C.D.U. system allowing them to start reprogramming the Wardenbots to fight on their behalf."

So now it's time for you to do something about it. A new group encounter has been added, entitled Central Dispatch Unit. This is a Wardenbot Control Point recommended for players between levels 25-32, and it is repeatable. This also spawns a new corresponding mission entitled War Machine, but is not required for participation on the Control Point encounter.

Read more about the details of this addition to the game, coming soon with Deployment 14.

We've been talking about it since our interview with Dane Caruthers during PAX08 in August, but it's finally here! Tabula Rasa's megapatch, Deployment 13.4, has hit the live servers today, and with it comes some enormous gameplay changes, a new crafting system and more!

Plus, the new Command System is now set into place, which we've discussed briefly when it first went to the Public Test Server. This has been highly-anticipated among TR players as it gives a whole new dynamic to the existing pets. Instead of simply linking to the patch notes as we'd normally do, we've included everything for you just below the cut. Enjoy!

A couple of minutes after Richard Garriott's flight to the International Space Station blasted off, he held up a sign for the camera, consisting of two strings of heiroglyphs. Tabula Rasa players will have recognised these instantly as Logos, the pictographs of the Eloh, and key to unlocking the various Logos abilities. The message's cryptic quality was further enhanced by the obscurity of some of the symbols, which were completely new.

As of last night, community member Lady Valashar has provided the translation: 'Earth is the cradle of humanity but mankind will not be in the cradle forever', first spoken by Soviet rocket scientist Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky. What's even more thrilling for those of us who follow Tabula Rasa news closely is a hint dropped by NCsoft staff member Leilo, who stated 'Several of the symbols are new. Though one will have significance in-game in the near future...'

Among the new symbols is the very first one, interpreted as 'Earth', and it's third-rock-from-the-sun appearance can surely mean nothing else. There have been many rumors recently that a return to Earth is on the cards in Tabula Rasa, including the exhortation to 'kick those Bane bastards off our own planet' from new Lead Designer Susan Kath. If this is really the news that's waiting to drop, it's going to be huge for the game.