Risky bar raising: TR spec

August 7, 2006 on 12:40 pm | In MMO (Upcoming), Technology

Not sure who else is following Tabula Rasa, but I like what they're trying to do, both now and what they designed for previously.

But one thing I just got concerned with is the minimum system specs, as posted on Stratics:

MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

• Windows® 2000/XP/Vista
• 512 MB System RAM
• 2.5 GHz Intel® Pentium® 4 or equivalent AMD™ processor
• 128 MB Direct3D and Shader 2.0 compatible video card and DirectX 9.0 compatible driver
• 8x DVD-ROM drive
• 4.6 GB free hard disk space
• DirectX 9.0c
• DirectX 8.1 compatible sound card
• Keyboard, Mouse
• Broadband Internet connection

RECOMMENDED SYSTEM SPECIFICATIONS:

• Windows 2000/XP/Vista
• 3.5 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent AMD processor
• 2 GB System RAM
• ATI™ X1800 series, NVIDIA® GeForce 7800 series, or higher 3.0 Shader compliant video card

For an FPS, that feels right. For an MMO though, that feels high. The trouble with TR is that it's not really an FPS in the traditional sense. By integrating traditional RPG components in a hybrid system that feels like player skill matters, I feel they're balancing the good part of Planetside (an FPS for the rest of us) and the longterm interest of the average player, as seen in traditional MMORPGs.

So for them to have what appears to be fairly high minimum specs (largely related to that 2.5GHz processor) seems to be taking a risk of cutting off the RPG side of things. Granted, if someone loves RPGs, they've probably got Oblivion and a rig to play it effectively. But MMOs still traditionally lag behind the leading edge of tech, because the needs of the game spans more than any one critical component. A graphics card alone does not solve issues with a slow hard drive, slow RAM or a slow processor.

At first I thought maybe it was just me lamenting the passing of my aging rig into a new stage of its life as a print server. But in this discussion at F13, I find that I'm not alone in my concern.

Whether this relates to any sort of eyecandy in Vista, or is just the way things are, I feel Destination Games may be casting a too narrow net by setting the bar too high.ven the minimum spec for TR is fairly high by conventional means. Sure anyone who loves and only plays Prey and that ilk will have no trouble with TR. But like the Planetside discussions of old, how many people are going to come from their FPS games to a gimped FPS, and specific to TR (and in some ways Huxley), one with decidedly RPG-overtones anyone?

These are different target markets for a reason.

I want TR to succeed. I've been intrigued by it since the first generation of the title. I'm hoping either these specs change, or there'll garner a lot of success in a previously-untapped market for folks with cutting-edge rigs.