Tera Online News

Update: Chris Hager responds to the fan feedback about this interview! Thanks, Chris!



Hey, TERA Fans! Here's the long awaited E3 interview! I had the chance to ask producer Chris Hager some of the questions suggested by you; the TERA fans! By the way, quick tidbit: the En Masse guys told me that they cheated by reading through our thread to see what we were going to ask. Hah!

Anyway, Check out the interview below :)





Q. When can we expect a CBT/OBT/Retail date?

A. We haven't announced a launch date on purpose. The reason for that is we want the game to be ready when we launch it. We've seen a lot of games in multiple industries fail because they didn't have the content running, they didn't have the game polished. So our first and foremost goal is making sure the game is ready. To circle back around, we won't have an official CBT and OBT schedule until we announce our launch date. We'll announce our launch and then our beta schedule

Q. What patches will be implemented alongside TERA's NA release?

A. That's a good question! I'm going to refer back to my first answer that we haven't announced a release period. Obviously we want to stay as close to our Korean counterparts as possible because we want to give everybody the most content we can as fast as we can. We are looking at different scenarios now and all of them involve getting the latest content into our launch build. As soon as we can get the Korean content localized and translated to the level of polish that we would like we'll put it right in.

Q. Any news on updated Racials?

A. No not as of yet.

Q. Bluehole recently stated that a new class will be released in Korea in 2012. Any hints or thoughts on this?

A. I can't talk about that yet but I'm excited.

Q. Any updated to the enchanting system as the game is westernized?

A. Right now we're looking at enchanting as well as a lot of the other systems. Right now at its core we think it works okay. I know that there are issues with RNG and I have the same frustrations myself. We're looking at ways that we can possibly make it better but no promises on if we're going to change it and if we do, how.

Q. Any information on Guild Housing?

A. None that I can talk about.

Q. Will character customization be changed for the NA/EU launch?

A. Right now if you look at it character creation is pretty good. We don't feel as if there are any super Eastern faces though we may change some of the presets up. Overall we're pretty happy with character crreation.

Q. Any more details on how PvP will be on both PvP and PvE servers?

A. We're in the process of working through all that right now. We're working with the development team about how our server sets will work. We don't have any news on it but it's something we're looking at right now.

Q. Will the 5 second PK rule be altered on PVP servers?

A. That is one of the things we are looking at right now. So no word on if it's going to change but we're looking at it.

Q. Will we get to learn about the Argons and their origins?

A. I can't talk about it. But the Argons are pretty cool and obviously we want to share that history with everyone but... I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

Q. Are there plans to allow us to rebind the combo key?

A. There is a build we just got in the office that's out in Korea and it has revamped the combo system. You can create your own combos. We haven't had a chance to play with it and see all it does but I believe it does allow you to rebind your combo key.

Q. Are their plans to add key roleplaying emotes like /walk and /sit?

A. Not right now, but that's something I can check on and get back to you about. I know they're pretty customary in MMORPGs.

Filed by TERA Fans News at 7:50 pm under Uncategorized  Tagged Cbt, Counterparts, E3, Fan Feedback, Fans, Foremost Goal, Game, Good Question, Hager, Hey, Korea, Launch, Lot Of Games, Multiple Industries, Patches, Release Period, Rng, Scenarios, Tera, Tidbit
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Hey, TERA Fans! Thank you so much for being patient as all the Curse sites weathered technical difficulties. If you're interested, here's a detailed account of what went down. Welcome back, everyone!



As many of you are probably aware, the Curse family of sites has been down since early AM (PST) the 22nd. This post is meant to clear up any questions that may arise about this event.

At approximently 7:30AM PST, on June 22nd, our primary SAN controller experienced a catastrophic failure, bringing it offline. This controller was the primary controller for most of the database nodes, and most of the web nodes. Redundant systems failed to come online, even though they had reported as 'ready' before the primary systems failed.

After replacing the failed controller, it begain booting and copying it's configuration from it's peer server. Unfortunately, as soon as the configuration was copied, the secondary controller also died.

After replacing the second failed controller, we began powering the servers that reiled on the SAN for their data - all of the database servers and the network-attached storage (NAS) file servers that store all the media, static content, and most of our web files as well.

This process only took a few hours. The main delay was an extended period (24 hours) of checking the continuty of the data on the disks. This was the majority of the downtime experienced.

As we started pulling our servers online after check was complete, we noticed an issue with the firmware's on the new SAN controllers. The newer firmware versions were conflicting with the storage array, and thus, the controllers couldn't talk to the disks.

The manufacturer told us that this was a known issue, and provided us with a method of repairing it. We then backed up all the data again, and proceeded to apply the firmware patch.

After the patch, we were able to restore the drives, and start booting up the critical systems, followed by the non-critical systems.

We can assure you that at no time during the hardware failure was any of your personal information compromised. We take the sacred trust you put in us with your information VERY seriously.

Thank you,
The Curse team.

Filed by TERA Fans News at 3:56 pm under Uncategorized  Tagged Approximently, Catastrophic Failure, Critical Systems, Curse, Database Servers, Downtime, Fans, File Servers, Firmware Versions, Hey, Network Attached Storage, Peer Server, Redundant Systems, Secondary Controller, Static Content, Storage Array, Technical Difficulties, Tera, Web Files
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Hey, TERA Fans! Thank you so much for being patient as all the Curse sites weathered technical difficulties. If you're interested, here's a detailed account of what went down. Welcome back, everyone!



As many of you are probably aware, the Curse family of sites has been down since early AM (PST) the 22nd. This post is meant to clear up any questions that may arise about this event.

At approximently 7:30AM PST, on June 22nd, our primary SAN controller experienced a catastrophic failure, bringing it offline. This controller was the primary controller for most of the database nodes, and most of the web nodes. Redundant systems failed to come online, even though they had reported as 'ready' before the primary systems failed.

After replacing the failed controller, it begain booting and copying it's configuration from it's peer server. Unfortunately, as soon as the configuration was copied, the secondary controller also died.

After replacing the second failed controller, we began powering the servers that reiled on the SAN for their data - all of the database servers and the network-attached storage (NAS) file servers that store all the media, static content, and most of our web files as well.

This process only took a few hours. The main delay was an extended period (24 hours) of checking the continuty of the data on the disks. This was the majority of the downtime experienced.

As we started pulling our servers online after check was complete, we noticed an issue with the firmware's on the new SAN controllers. The newer firmware versions were conflicting with the storage array, and thus, the controllers couldn't talk to the disks.

The manufacturer told us that this was a known issue, and provided us with a method of repairing it. We then backed up all the data again, and proceeded to apply the firmware patch.

After the patch, we were able to restore the drives, and start booting up the critical systems, followed by the non-critical systems.

We can assure you that at no time during the hardware failure was any of your personal information compromised. We take the sacred trust you put in us with your information VERY seriously.

Thank you,
The Curse team.

Filed by TERA Fans News at 3:56 pm under Uncategorized  Tagged Approximently, Catastrophic Failure, Critical Systems, Curse, Database Servers, Downtime, Fans, File Servers, Firmware Versions, Hey, Network Attached Storage, Peer Server, Redundant Systems, Secondary Controller, Static Content, Storage Array, Technical Difficulties, Tera, Web Files
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Our first serious look at the political system, the G*Star 2010 trailer.

Hey TERA Fans! Today, the team at En Masse Entertainment released a new podcast including a segment about the E3 press demo.

Between 6:27-11:50 in the recording, producers Stefan Ramirez and Sam Kim discuss the press demo, alluding to the features it'll include. Apparently, the focus this time is on some aspects of the political system including how players will gain and retain power. They also mentioned that, hardware permitting, there would possibly be a live stream of the event for fans to watch around the world.

I'll personally be able to attend the demo and I'll give you guys a full description of my opinion of the event! What do you guys think? How do you think they'll showcase the political system in a demo?

Filed by TERA Fans News at 10:31 pm under Uncategorized  Tagged Demo, E3, Entertainment, Fans, G-Star, Live Stream, Podcast, Producers, Sam Kim, Segment, Showcase
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Ello, TERA Fans :D As you know, this year's E3 Expo is fast approaching! I have an interview all set up with the developers and I'll be experiencing the press demo as well. As usual, I'd like for our interview questions to come straight from the community!

If you have a question for En Masse Entertainment, please leave it in this thread between now and Saturday (June 4th). From your suggestions I'll select the questions most likely to be answered by the team. Thanks, guys!

Filed by TERA Fans News at 5:56 pm under Uncategorized  Tagged Demo, Developers, E3 Expo, Fans, Interview Questions, Saturday June, Team Thanks, Tera
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First and foremost, I've updated the TERA Fans wiki to include up to date (i.e., taken from the CPE) skills and glyphs for lancers, and also updated the starting stats on the lancer page. For this post I'm going to talk about my thoughts and opinions on a few of the officially translated glyphs (but not the skills as I did that in my previous column) and then some of my thoughts on (low level) PvP, mainly duels.

Glyphs
Glyph of Polish (Stand Fast) - Reflects 20% of blocked damage. This one caught my eye straight away. Most likely to be a staple for PvP of any sort. If you have this glyph enabled and you block, say, a sorcerer's firebomb attack the reflected damage will be a good chunk of the sorcerer's health. Not only will it be good for damaging ranged classes when you can't get close but it could even scare your opponent into not attacking you. Imagine a sorcerer being too afraid of you blocking (thus reflecting 20% of the damage) their biggest attacks to even use them. Or a berserker too afraid to do the same.

Most of the other glyphs are nothing special except perhaps Glyph of Energy (Leash) - Reduces cooldown by 20%. Leash is an amazing skill to use against those pesky kiters who just refuse to stay in close proximity to you for longer than a second or two. With this glyph the cooldown will be reduced from 40 seconds to 32 seconds, quite nice.

While not eyecatching, two glyphs deserve honourable mentions. Glyph of Threat (Challenging Shout) - Provides 10% additional aggro. While 10% isn't much extra, threat issues with the lancer's low default threat and healers inciting rage in monsters like you've never seen dictate this to be an essential glyph for PvE. Not so useful in PvP.
Glyph of Spirit (Combo Attack) - Increases MP regeneration by 20%. Lancers eat up MP like there's no tomorrow. At the state of the CPE client version, lancers need all the extra MP regeneration they can get. Recent changes to the kTERA client may have absolved this need for extra MP regen, but extra couldn't hurt. Right?


Level 17 PvP
Lancers are pretty beastly in 1v1 PvP, at least against melee classes. I found slayers to be the toughest melee opponenents merely because just by using their standard attack they can get behind you and, even if they're facing the other direction, their weapon swings will hit you in the back - quite a pain when you're trying to block. On the other hand mystics and sorcerers can cause big problems for a lancer. They each have a good keepaway game which works extra well at level 17 because the only way lancers can close distance is with Charging Lunge, which has a 10 second cooldown. While 10 seconds may not seem like much, it feels like forever when you've got a sorcerer pelting you with fireballs.

I also had some clipping problems with dueling, where I would stun an enemy and then my Combo Attacks would just go right through the opponent. I'm not sure what was causing it though - it's either a hit detection bug or it's lag related. Perhaps a hit detection bug caused by lag.

I won't be writing about what it was like to fight every class as a lancer, as some either weren't very notable or I didn't get enough experience against them to write an informed paragraph. I did get my conqueror title though. :D

Sorcerer
They're like rabbits, always hopping around. If I get in close, they jump away. If by some miracle I get in close again within a few seconds, they have another jump to use. While this did cause problems, it was easily solved by doing nothing but blocking. While it's not a permanent solution, it can make an impatient sorcerer get closer to you so they can attack from your side or behind you. That's when you hit them with a stun. With HP/MP regeneration enhancement crystals this is not only a way to force the sorcerer to get closer, it grants you a small reprieve to generate some more HP/MP, and wait out the cooldown on Second Wind while not having to worry too much about taking damage.

Mystic
Mystics just have too many options. They can kite you all day long. If they're in danger of dying? They'll just sleep you and heal up. If they need to heal while you're right next to them and they don't have sleep? They have a summon that heals them while they avoid you. It's possible to kill this summon, but trying to do that can just leave you open to attacks by the mystic or, even worse, give them a chance to heal themselves up properly and/or drop orbs. That's not to say that mystics are unbeatable - it's just a long, tedious battle. Their damage output isn't the greatest but their survivability tools more than make up for that. They strike me as like lancers in that regard. Just try to stay alive and slowly whittle away at your enemy. In one of my duels against a mystic, I got 3 knockdowns in a row. Unbelievable, right? Unfortunately I ended up losing that duel, as fun as it was.

Berserker
Heavy hitters, but easy to block. With one exception. Their spinning attack, if aimed a little to the side of you, will just spin right past you and start hitting you from behind. If you don't react fast enough to this and turn around to block the other way, you could potentially be taking a lot of damage from just this one attack. Other than that berserkers aren't really anything special at this level. Their guard is easy to get around and the rest of their heavy hits can be easily blocked if you see them coming. Which shouldn't be hard as they have to charge them.

Lancer
While I didn't get much experience against other lancers, I felt I had to write here about them because of how fun it was. Perhaps the most fun I had dueling was against another lancer. Though I don't imagine it was too much fun to watch - 50% of the duel was either me or the other lancer blocking. It helped me learn to get around opponent's blocks though. Shield Barrage, while being a decent damaging tool, makes you dash forwards a little before the attack and then you can change the direction for your second attack with the shield. Aim the first swing a little to the side of the blocking opponent and then aim towards their back for the second swing. Not only will it get you behind them and do a decent amount of damage, you'll have a chance to stun them. They're blocking, they think they're safe, then all of a sudden you're behind them and they're stunned.

Deathmatches
Personally I didn't enjoy deathmatches all that much, I feel that at least at level 17 lancers have no place in them. Our damage output just isn't good enough to hurt multiple opponents at once, and it's certainly not good enough to keep people afraid of going after our healer. While having a certain stun and a potential stun is helpful in group PvP, I just don't feel it outweighs the cons of lancers at this point. Later, perhaps, when we get our Leash and AoE slow, we'll find our place in group PvP.



Thoughts? Opinions? Dissenting or otherwise?

Filed by TERA Fans News at 5:59 pm under Uncategorized  Tagged Aggro, Berserker, Chunk, Close Proximity, Duels, Fans, Glyphs, Honourable, Lancers, Monsters, Mp, Opponent, Pve, Rage, Regeneration, Shout, Sorcerer, Spirit, Staple, Tera
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Hey TERA Fans! The long awaited CPE is only a few hours away! Here's a quick recap of the testing schedule:

Quote

Can't wait to see you all in-game bright and early tomorrow morning! :D Both testers and non-testers should keep an eye on our Community Play Event forums for the latest information coming out of the test. I'd encourage testers to utilize the reviews forum in particular this weekend because after the test is done I'll be going through and summarizing the major themes seen through these public reviews. We want to know what you think, so be sure to let us know!

See you in-game soon!

Filed by TERA Fans News at 6:49 am under Uncategorized  Tagged 6am, Cpe, Fans, Forums, Game, Hey, Public Reviews, Quote, Tera, Tomorrow Morning
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If this doesn't make it feel like we're finally moving closer to the game's release, I don't know what will! Today, CM Scapes of En Masse Entertainment revealed the box art we'll be seeing all across store shelves once the game launches in North America and Europe this year!



I find the art so striking! What an amazing choice :) Tomorrow, hundreds of TERA fans will get to test the game during the Community Play Event. Join our community as we discuss the test and get involved in our group picture effort!

Filed by TERA Fans News at 7:48 pm under Uncategorized  Tagged Box Art, Entertainment, Europe, Fans, Game, North America, Retail Box, Scapes, Store Shelves, Tera
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Here you can find links to all of the Korean TERA Patch notes TERA Fans Staff have translated. We try to have the patch notes translated as soon as we can, but keep in mind that all of the patch notes here are translated by a human (Kalsteine), then edited by another human (Amira) so that they are accurate and easily read. This takes a lot of time and sometimes one of us is busy when the patch notes go out.

The patch notes are listed from newest to oldest, enjoy! :3

• 4-7-11 <- Most recent!
  
• 3-31-11
  
• 3-24-11
  
• 3-17-11
  
• 3-3-11
  
• 2-23-11
  
• 1-25-11

Filed by TERA Fans News at 5:01 pm under Uncategorized  Tagged Amira, Fans, Lt, Tera
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Ello TERA Fans! Today I have the answers to our PAX interview with Senior Producer Brian Knox! All of the questions were based on questions you all asked so thank you very much for that!

While choosing questions, I noticed a lot of repeat questions which we already have the answers to and so I chose not to have them asked. Here are some examples!

• EME has already said over and over again that there will be "as little delay as possible" between K-TERA and Western TERA updates.
  
• There won't be a sub-class system.
  
• There won't be any large scale/siege style battles at launch. There may be later in the game's life.
  
• TERA may have "item remodeling" or a "dye system" someday, but it is not a serious priority.
  
• Guild v. Guild rivalries are to play out through politics.

With that out of the way, enjoy the interview!





Q. A few months ago an En Masse Entertainment post alluded to guild housing, but we never heard about it again. What happened to guild housing and will we see it in western TERA?

It's something I'll say is "in development," I'm not sure when we'll get to it or if it will make our launch, but it's definitely something we're looking at for Western TERA.

Q. At level 60, what will keep players coming out into the open world?

There's a lot of good named bosses that kind of roam the fields. There's some good challenges that, you know--epic boss fights--as well as if you're on a PvP server, there's going to be political intrigue with guild-vs.-guild combat. Hunting zones you can get badges in.

Q. There are some concerns about how damage scales with armor. Will these numbers be tweaked in time for TERA's western release?

A lot of it is through the leveling up process, you have to balance PvE and PvP. So as you're going through, that's consistently tweaked just to make sure you can find that kind of sweet spot. Armor and weapons do make a difference in TERA--it's still going to set people apart when everything else is equal, by quite a bit.

Q. Currently due to the extremely high critical strike damage, damage in PvP is very high. Do you have anything in mind to address this to take it down a notch?

Yeah I mean, that's all stuff that comes with balance over time. We're looking at it--I'm guessing they're playing on the Korean servers, so I can't really comment on that. But at the same time, all that stuff is looked at.

Q. In one of last year's demos the media was able to experience traps and other kinds of interactivity in an instance. Will there be more content added with traps and puzzles?

Yeah we want the world to be as interactive as possible. So in the PvE dungeons, one boss in particular has a couple traps so that you can get the boss hurt as well on them, so I think you'll find a few surprises like that.

Q. How will the PK system work on both PvP and PvE servers in North America?

On the PvE server we're just removing the PK system, so any open world PvP isn't gonna happen unless it's consentual through a duel or a death match, or in the battlegrounds. On PvP servers, there's going to be some slight variance from the Korean rule system, but the Korean rule system is gonna be our base. We'll work off the community feedback on that to tweak the PvP servers.

Q. Will players be able to queue for BGs anywhere in the world in western TERA?

That's something we're evaluating right now, kind of going over that with the lead designer, both in the times it's available as well as where you can queue. So the answer is: not sure yet.

Q. Are there any plans to let players disable or rebind the combo hotkey (spacebar)?

That's a good question. It hasn't really been brought up, but that's definitely something I could ask about.

Q. Are there plans to include more movable, separate, non-paged action bars?

Not at this time, but that's another good suggestion we can queue and see as players play the game more. Stuff like that isn't terribly difficult, but there's a lot of stuff in the queue from other feedback as well.

Q. Are there any plans to change racial bonuses for the western release?

We're going to keep the racial bonuses, but we are going to make sure they're balanced and tweaked appropriately. I think there are a couple that are off right now, but it's more about finding a balance than changing them for the Western market.

Q. Is there any information on a pre-selection service allowing players to reserve their name on their chosen server etc for the NA release?

No official information on it, but we're definitely investigating it. We really liked how it went for NHN, so that's definitely a feature we're seeing how we can best implement for our market.

Q. Will leveling in western TERA be less group oriented than it currently is in Korean TERA?

That's probably the major focus that we're looking at, here and the development team. Korean players want a little bit more soloability as well, so it's very high on our list.

Filed by TERA Fans News at 11:40 pm under Uncategorized  Tagged Armor, Badges, Boss, Challenges, Dye System, Fans, Game, Hunting Zones, Large Scale, Launch, Pax, Png, Political Intrigue, Priority, Producer Brian, Pvp Server, Remodeling, Rivalries, Scales, Sweet Spot, Weapons
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