Hey TERA Fans! We've had a very busy week around here with all the news and interesting information out of G*Star 2010. If you missed any of it
head over to the compilation thread and check out all our translations, videos and screenshots :D
We got lots of new TERA information from various G*Star articles, videos and screenshots this week. I'll re-cap some of the most interesting pieces of information we've gathered!
UI Improvements
Although we've been hearing about the infamous new UI for a while now, G*Star was one of the first times we were able to see all of the improved UI elements in action.
- Movable UI Elements
Currently each element of the UI is movable! Although TERA's UI is sleek and unobtrusive by nature now players can customize their UI to taste.
- Target Frame
A big issue during previous TERA tests was that players had a lot of trouble seeing enemy health. Though there were enemy health bars in the game, often times on large monsters, the bar would be out of the player's view. With that in mind, one of the most important features of the new UI is the new target frame.
The target frame displays the health and level of the last mob you've hit. By default, it seems to be set to the top left of the screen, under the player's health bar.
- New Menu Icons
Though we've seen these new menu icons since San Diego Comic Con this summer, their official sort of debut to the public was at G*Star where they looked great :] These new menu icons make up the game's UI mode, which can be accessed by pressing "alt" or "esc".
- Graphical Effects for Buffs and Debuffs
As seen in the screenshot above, debuffs and buffs now have visible graphics that appear above effected character's heads.
Content Additions
Since CBT3/FGT2, TERA's seen some major content additions.
- Mounts
TERA's first mounts appeared at G*Star 2010! Although at the convention only Valkion Warhorses were available, the developers mentioned that other types of mounts would be added, including special mounts tied to the political system. Currently, the warhorses are instant spawn out of combat and instant despawn in combat and there's no word on whether this will change or not. As an interesting note, it seems that female Castanics and High Elves always ride side-saddle.
- All Classes Open to All Races
As you can see in the above example, all classes were available to all of the races during G*Star 2010! Since this is the client BHS will be using for the server stress test at the end of this week, it seems very certain that all classes will indeed be available for all races. Yay!
- Combo System
One of the more controversial additions to the game was the new combo system. With the combo system, if a skill is the first step of a combo, once it's executed, the icon of the next skill in the combo pops up on the screen. For as long as the icon is up, a player may press their space bar to continue the skill combo.
The controversy in this addition lies in the fact that combo chains can be executed by the simple press of the space bar. The community on TERA-Online.com was concerned that such a simple maneuver was trivializing in-game combat. Not long after the discussion began, CM Scapes commented on the issue.
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Originally Posted: by bygeorge
Just because the spacebar option is there doesn't mean that it will always be the best option.
---
This.
What the dynamic spacebar is very helpful for is catching proc skills, ones that become available given a status or prerequisite.
-- Scapes
What do you make of that, TERA Fans? Too easy, or just convenient? Personally, I think we'll need to do some testing before we can say for sure.
- No Large Scale PvE Content at Launch
At the end of the G*Star Press Conference Q&A, the BHS representatives stated that end game launch PvE would be limited to challenging 5-man dungeons. The reason for this is that when they tested a larger number of players fighting bosses with appropriately scaled HP, the content became far too hack and slash and far less strategic. The team is first looking to balance 5-man PvE content which I think is a step in the right direction!
- The Political System
BHS developers confirmed that the political system is indeed in the game, but due to the short demo time players had, not much of it has been tested yet. It is very likely that we'll hear about this kind of thing more once the Korean OBT starts.
Most of what has been confirmed about the political system came from En Masse Entertainment's G*Star release:
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The political system is designed from the ground-up to be a fun, community experience:
- Provinces have leaders called Vanarchs
- Vanarchs can run for the office of Exarch
- Political power includes adjusting tax rates, instituting in-game rules, and more
- Politicians receive special privileges and equipment such as mounts (much like real life)
Although we already knew all of this thanks to a talkative Frogster employee, it is nice to have the basics of the system officially spelled out :]
What didn't we hear much about?
Surprisingly, even though TERA is set to go into OBT in Korea very soon, there are still some things we know next to nothing about.
- Crafting
From BHS, we learned that crafted gear can be enchanted and from EME, we learned that crafting is now apparently a "one step process", but what does it all mean? Neither company has really come out with exactly what TERA's crafting system will look like at launch.
- Battleground System
In their G*Star information announcement, EME said that "Battlegrounds are large-scale group matches where commanding officers direct and influence the battle." That is basically all we know about Battlegrounds. How mysterious!
- Housing
Guild housing was mentioned in EME's G*Star release and during their G*Star press conference, BHS mentioned a few other kinds of housing. However, aside from those shout-outs, we have no information about how housing of any kind will specifically work.
Community Reaction and the Future
Overall, G*Star attendees seemed very impressed with TERA. In various Korean articles, the press praised the game for its improvements since CBT3 and a reoccurring theme throughout reviews was that the combat was much more fast paced.
BHS talked a lot about the future of TERA at G*Star. In the immediate future, the company will be hosting a server stress test this coming weekend, from Friday to Monday. If the stress test is successful, BHS will announce an OBT and launch schedule for TERA. Yaaay :D
Interestingly though, the developers explained that they've already begun to think about the game's long term content; stating that they have already begun to plan updates for up to 8 months after the game's initial launch. They hinted at some kind of flying addition for the first time as well as a system they're calling "server invasions" which will allow guilds to invade other servers and pillage rival guilds!
Things are getting very exciting as we move closer to launch. TERA Fans will continue to bring you the latest, most relevant news from both BHS and EME as we find it; beginning with the stress test and OBT!
Thank you so much to everyone who helped me make the TERA Fans coverage of G*Star so successful! Your screenshots, videos, article linkage, ideas, support and everything else are what really fueled our fast coverage :3 And of course, extra special thanks to
Kalsteine, who worked with me to translate 7+ articles this week, lightning fast!
Filed by TERA Fans News at 3:15 pm under Uncategorized Tagged Compilation, Fans, G-Star, Hey, News Publisher, nhn, Party Fun, Shenanigans, Star Party, Stress Test, Tera, Test Footage
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