Tera Online News

Hey, TERA Fans! PAX 2010 ended yesterday and in the wake of the storm, I have the results of TERA Fan's interview with Senior Producer, Brian Knox! Thanks so much for contributing questions guys :D While there's not a whole lot of new information, I think some of his comments leave open at least lots of room for speculation.

So check out the interview below and enjoy! You can find all our TERA PAX coverage here.





Amira: So hey, Brian! Once again, all the questions are straight from TERA Fans. We had lots of questions for you and we picked out a few. So for one, what in-game events are being planned for players to participate in?

Brian: That's a good question! So right now, our focus for in-game events is going to be mostly on trying to find those spots where people hit a wall because we're really focused on the journey to level 60. So, once the game's out, sometimes players find areas that are hard to get through and we want to focus our events around that. How we're going to do that I don't know. But we do plan on having them!

Amira: And will there also be holiday-type events?

Brian: Yeah, we are trying to have an events system. It's one of those things that's like every feature takes away development time. We want to have these but we may not have them available right at launch.

Amira: Will there be any non-combat, or combat pets in-game?

Brian: So, we have the Homonculus which is kind of a pet. It doesn't quite follow you right now but we're looking into ways to expand that as well.

Amira: And the Mystic pets; will those really be pets?

Brian: Well they're summons: they come out and last for only a short amount of time to help out. There's a healing one, there's a dps one, and there's like a tank one. But I wouldn't call Mystics a pet class. It's hard to explain-- they're a little bit different than you're used to, so you'll see.

Amira: Sam Kim once mentioned that the development team was considering adding more armor slots. Is there any information on that?

Brian: Yeah, we've added two more slots and we'll see them soon.

Amira: Are there plans to allow players to customize the look of their gear or spells at this point?

Brian: Not at this point but we're looking heavily into both the dying system and the ability to change gear models as well. So I'm not sure if any of that would make it in by launch, but it's definitely on our list of ideas.

Amira: Some guildmasters are very concerned about recruiting more guildmates than the maximum guild size in TERA will allow for. Is there any information on about how large guilds will be able to get at launch?

Brian: Y'know, that's a good question. Right now, I can't answer that but I would really like to get back to you on it because I think that's an important one.

UPDATE: Brian Knox let me know that the current guild size is 300 members by default. This is always subject to change.

Amira: On the topic of guilds, is there any more information on how extensive the overall guild system will be?

Brian: Well the guild system will really play into the battleground system, which we're not talking a lot about just yet. I think that's where you'll see the guild system really work. Since we're not faction based, guilds will become allies or rivals as well.

Amira: Some players are very concerned about westernization. Can you talk about what aspects of gameplay are being westernized?

Brian: All aspects are being evaluated. In our last focus group test, we had everybody answer a 120 point survey which was a lot of questions. What it did was allow us to hold up a transparency and compare where results are similar and different among players in the West and players in the East. We're able to identify those areas. There's a lot of stuff that lined up and in the feedback, there were a lot of things, particularly surrounding solo play and the leveling curve. And so, those were the two areas that players felt different about. Also, specific features have been added as well. The achievement system and the controller support are things that kind of originated in the west.

Amira: How will the lore of TERA be explained to players beyond quest text? Will there be cut-scenes at all?

Brian: Yeah, actually we have been adding cut-scenes. Hopefully they'll help tell the story in a little bit more of an epic fashion.

Amira: Are there any plans to have a designated Oceanic server available at launch?

Brian: Not at this time. But we're looking at the territory. We want to make sure that if we do it, we do it right.

Amira: Is there any information available on mounts at all?

Brian: There are mounts, and we're tweaking them. We're trying to make sure they're the right speeds right now. At this time, there will not be combat mounts.

Amira: Are there any plans to allow third party addons in-game?

Brian: Not at this time. We're actually doing what we can to minimize the UI as much as possible.

Amira: Finally: are you still re-evaluating the idea of allowing all races to be able to be all classes?

Brian: Right now, it looks like that's what going to happen but I can't really say for sure. That is what we're aiming for, though. In the version that we're playing off right now, actually, we're balancing the Human male, so that way we can balance that off the other races. It's a lot less development time to balance one and get it all right-- in terms of all the numbers-- and then we can balance things around that.

Filed by TERA Fans News at 8:06 pm under Uncategorized  Tagged Amira, Amount Of Time, Armor, Development Time, Game Events, Good Question, Holiday Type, Homonculus, Interview With Brian, Launch, Little Bit, Mystics, Onc, Pax, Png, Producer Brian, Sam Kim, Slots, Speculation, Summons, Wake Of The Storm, Whole Lot
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Good morning, TERA Fans! Today we've got another great guide to share with you, this time on the Homunculus system! Written by Valaka and edited by myself, you can find out more about this fun shop system below!

(DISCLAIMER: The developers at En Masse Entertainment have enabled TERA Fans to share this information from the FGT with our community. Keep in mind that any of the information found here is subject to change as the game continues to develop.)





The Homunculus, introduced in the city of Velika, is a unique pet system in TERA. This pet may offer many different services to its owner. In the recent FGT2, the Homonculus was a personal shop system and this guide will detail the steps to setting one up. Life is much easier when someone else does the buying or selling for you, but of course this system is not without a price. The player will have to take care of its Homunculus in order to keep it alive.

IN FGT2, TERA offered a small in-game tutorial explaining all the basics about the Homunculus. Today we will share this information with the community, including some additional information from our team's experience with our own Homunculi.

Currently, TERA offers 4 types of homunculi, each type with its own unique look. The different types are ‘Pooky’, ‘Mewy’, ‘Tuwangi’, ‘Darling’ (The images below are of each homunculus in the same order as mentioned in the text). Currently, A player can own as many homunculi as they want but can only use one at the time. They are tradeable until bound to the character.





Hatching

Your Homunculus begins its life as an egg. Your egg can be bought in the Homunculus Lab or, occassionally, they can be found around the world. There are different egg types available and the current FGT offered 2 egg types, the normal ‘Homunculus Egg’ and the ‘Prized Homunculus Egg’. As you can see in the tooltip below, the “Prized Homunculus Egg’ has a higher chance to hatch a ‘Darling’.

Once the player has acquired an egg, they will have to place it in an incubator. It only takes a few minutes to hatch and the process doesn't require any direct supervision allowing the player to do other things while they wait. Hatching isn't without any risks as there is always a chance that an egg will not hatch, leaving a usless ‘Unhatched Egg’ in your inventory.


1. Get an egg

As stated above, the player can buy an egg or occasionally find one around Arborea.




2. Place the egg in the Incubator

You must use the incubator to hatch your egg. Drop the egg in a socket and press 'Incubate. Once the incubation is complete just press 'Collect' to retrieve the item from the Incubator. The number of orbs your Homunculus can support is determined at hatching.






3. Imprint your Homunculus[/i]

Keep in mind, even if the Homunculus is tradeable at hatching, once imprinted in the Homunculus Social Window it will become bound to the character.




Orbs

Another very important Homunculus item is an orb. Without an orb the Homunculus is useless! Orbs can be attached through the Homunculus Social window.

Currently, the Homunculus Labs offers 3 types of orbs: “Buy”, “Sell”, “Buy and Sell”. The more actions the orb offers the higher its value. Attaching an orb to the Homunculus has its risks as well, since they have a chance to break upon attachment. A higher-grade orb will automatically replace a lower-grade orb of the same kind. The player may attach as many orbs as the Homunculus has open orb-slots for.


4. Buy an orb

Currently, orbs can only be bought from the merchant located in the Homunculus Lab.





5. Attaching an orb

Note that the player is allowed to attach multiple orbs at a time to a Homunculus, but the Homunculus will only be able to use one orb at the time. Thus if you have bought separate 'buying' and 'selling' orbs, you won't be able to buy and sell at the same time. You must attach the specific 'buying and selling' orb to have a Homunculus who will both buy and sell.





6. Placing your Homunculus

You can only place your Homunculus on dedicated locations. Those locations are marked by a logo on the 'radar'.

- Player is able to place their Homunculus in their current location.
- Player will be unable to place the Homunculus at his current position.

The player will see one or more icons next to the Homunculus status window (see image below). Right-clicking on one of these orb function icons will open a shop which functions according to the selected orb.




7. Opening shop (buy/sell)
After activating an orb, the player will enter the shop interface. Place the items you wish to sell in the shop and press 'We're open!'





8. Repairing your Homunculus

Repairing the Homunculus happens through the Homunculus social window. Repair the Homunculus in order to keep it alive and avoid losing items.




9. Closing the shop

You may close your shop through the shop interface. Once open, there will be a new button that reads 'Shut Down'. Shutting down will move all the remaining items in your inventory.





Ranking

Each Homunculus has a rank, this rank determines the Homunculus' durability. A higher ranked Homunculus will have a longer durability. The player's incubation skill level determines the rank of the Homunculus, therefor it is recommended to increase this skill.




Durability

Durability is very important as it determines the time the Homunculus can sit unattended for. A player must repair the Homunculus before its durability hits ‘zero’. If the player lets the Homunculus die, all items on the Homunculus will be destroyed, along with the Homunculus itself.




Theories and possibilities

This section will contain some initial thoughts on the Homunculus system. The Homunculus itself could be an interesting business for people who want to invest the time and money into this system. Since the Homunculus can be sold, I presume some players may choose to spend their time hatching and selling Homunculus to people who are looking for a certain quality of Homunculus. You can easily compare this with item crafting.

What is the advantage of selling your items on a Homunculus in the presence of a broker? This is the question many players will ask themselves when faced with spending time and gold in the Homunculus business. An advantage of the Homunculus is its mobility as you can find many locations around Arborea were you can place your Homunculus. A player may easily sell a dropped item in a region where players searching for the same item may quickly buy it. When the player Homunculus can sell and buy at the same time, it can allow people to quickly check both demand and offer from that Homunculus.

Filed by TERA Fans News at 5:07 pm under Uncategorized  Tagged Darli, Darling, Developers, Different Services, Egg, Fgt, Fun Shop, Game, Homonculus, Homunculi, Homunculus, Images, Personal Shop, Png, Tera, Tooltip
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