The PAX 2011 En Masse Entertainment Open House Event!

Update:
Just an update! The team at EME uploaded a video of our day at the office! I'm the one who's ALWAYS ready to kick some ass :D (in my curse shirt xD)!



Thanks again to all the staff at En Masse! What an awesome experience!

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Hey, TERA Fans :D As you all know, the team at En Masse Entertainment was kind enough to invite the community into their new office in Seattle this Saturday and I was one of the attendees! In this post I'll detail the events of the visit from my perspective :)

On Saturday afternoon, the group met up with Scapes at the convention center and we all made the trek over in a fairly orderly fashion! When we got to the office we rode the elevator up in groups, met the team, and took a tour of the office.





Their office is entirely open with almost no one having an actual enclosed office or cubicle. Beautiful views of the water can be seen from nearly every corner of the space as you'll see in the above pictures! There are huge, brilliant pictures of TERA characters and landscapes all around. Needless to say, the office just bleeds inspiration and looks like a lovely place to work.

After the tour, COO Patrick Wyatt sat us down to reveal their secret weapon in the fight against illegal RMT: the chronoscroll system. Alongside the event the team published a detailed description of this feature over on the official site, but here are the basics:

  • Chronoscrolls are items which will be purchasable on the official site at TERA's launch.
  • The cost of chronoscrolls will be equal to the cost of a monthly subscription.
  • Chronoscrolls will be able to be sold in the in-game auction house or in player shops for in-game money. En Masse will have no say in how much in-game money the chronoscrolls cost: the players of the server will be in total control of placing value on the scrolls.
  • Therefore, with this system, in-game money will be able to buy subscription time and subscription time will be able to earn players in-game money.

The goal for the feature is to kill the incentive for illegal RMT by legalizing a Gametime to in-game money type of RMT. I think it's an interesting idea that could definitely be successful. How about you, TERA Fans?

After the chat with Partick, we learned that our demo would be the same instance used during this year's Gamescom: Necromancer's Cell. We were placed into teams for the run and Organic and I spent the time waiting to play by chatting up the writers and other team members (the fruit of which can be found in his notes here!)

While I was waiting to play, Brian Knox alerted me to something I did not expect-- the Elin in the current build of the game were wearing release-candidate state, updated armors! I let him know that with this knowledge I was obliged to hijack a computer station and take pictures and to my further astonishment, he agreed to let me post them here for you guys! (Thanks a TON EME! <3)

So without further ado, have a look at the updated Elin armor:





I personally found the changes remarkably subtle and in some cases I had trouble locating what was changed. I learned that nearly all of the Elin armors were updated in some way; all short skirts gained shorts underneath, some panties were changed to shorts, some skirts were made slightly longer, and most stomachs were covered. I feel that they are tasteful and preserve the spirit of the original armors. I'm so excited I was able to take pictures and share them with you all, so please, let me know what you think!

The build of TERA we played also had a couple of additional features:

  • Localized voice acting: All of the voices were provided by Seattle based actors. High Elves had slight British accents.
  • Updated UI Icons: A few of the UI icons were changed around. See a picture over here.
  • The build included the Korean Dark Awakening patch.
  • New PvP ranking sheet, see picture here.
  • Updated controller support.

After I had snapped all the pictures I could of the new Elin, Brian was awesome enough to hook up a controller for me to test the game with as it's a feature the team is really proud of; and understandably so! The controller was nearly plug-n-play: when it was plugged into the PC, TERA immediately recognized it. I was able to change bindings through an in-game menu and even hold down the attack button to spam the basic attack just like you're able to with the left mouse button.

The clunkiest aspect of controller use at this time is picking up quests, since you have to get the cursor to the "accept quest" rectangle using the joystick. However, the team has plans to refine this and I have no doubt they will! They seem extremely dedicated to controller support and as a huge keyboard and mouse fan I have to say, leaning back with a controller and some TERA was pretty sweet!

The Necromancer's Cell instance was a lot of fun! I played a sorcerer and felt that my group did extremely well as we had no deaths what-so-ever and cleared the place in 19 minutes! The two bosses we fought were pretty fun and not too challenging from a ranged perspective.



The final boss included static adds which pulsed AoE lightning that hit you hard if you got into their melee range, so it was essential that ranged classes cleared them out when they started to take up too much space. Overall the demo dungeon was a great experience.

The promised swag bags did not disappoint! They included TERA posters signed by the team, a TERA messenger bag, a TERA rock, and most importantly, the world's first chronoscrolls. That's right! We were granted physical chronoscrolls which we will be able to use as one month of free gametime at release. Completely awesome, check it out below!



On the whole, the EME open house event was awesome. I'm so glad I was able to attend and I really appreciate the team for opening up their doors to me and other community members!

TERA Fans GDC Interview

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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!


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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.

Mystic Column: Justice friends, assemble!

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On November 19th, TERAblah was able to finally get some information out of En Masse regarding, what some might call the best class, the Mystic! Some questions that everyone wanted to know about were answered, and some questions we already knew to be true were also answered.

In the interview with Brain Knox at PAX, TERA Fans was able to clarify whether the Mystic class can really be considered a pet class or not. Now we know, thanks to various interviews, that not only are they summons, but short-duration allies. The tanking summon and damage dealing summon attack the last mob the player has hit and the healing summon only heals the Mystic and has the shortest duration.

We also now know that the summons are not player controlled, but AI guided, and the summons will have constant, generic names, and no mater what race a player plays, all the summons will look simmer when they are summoned. En Masse also states that the summons are skills which can be upgraded once a player meets the upgrade requirements.

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I am also planing on asking En Masse some questions about the Mystic class, in our very first Mystic class interview! I would like everyone to chip in, even if you are not planing on play a Mystic. If you have a question that you would like to see answered, you can either leave a reply to the thread, or PM me with the question.

Screenshots of the Week: A Deadly Duo

This week's screenshots of the week have been released and they feature two of the enemies found in Cultist's Refuge (the instance where the PAX Media Demo took place). Check em out :D

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Our nineteenth screenshot set showcases two formidable foes to be found within the Cultist's Refuge (see last week's Screenshots of the Week: Cultist's Refuge). Akia—a malevolent priestess—is virtually immortal as long as she continues to sacrifice living beings to dark Atel Akkad rituals. Terkasia, it is said, once guarded the vaults of Heaven for Balder, but betrayed him to a demon-god who coveted the divine treasures.

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An exclusive look at one of PAX's most talked-about demos! Producer Sam Kim and Associate Producer Stefan Ramirez lead you through a group combat adventure where you’ll see for yourself why we say TERA doesn't just have a story—it is a story.
-- Scapes

PAX 2010 Demo Video Released!

Hey, TERA Fans! Today, En Masse Entertainment released their new demo video featuring the PAX Demo the press was able to play. Check it out, it's awesome!



TERA's demo for PAX showed off just how interactive TERA's instances will be with traps, a rich story, and massive bossses. What do you think, TERA Fans? How does this demo compare to the demo from E3?

Screenshots of the Week: Cultist’s Refuge

Scapes on the official forum has posted a new set of screenshots of the week featuring a zone called Cultist's Refuge.

Not only does this zone seem to boast some interesting lore, it also introduces the idea of hiring mercenaries. I don't believe I've heard about a feature like that before! What do you guys think?

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Our eighteenth screenshot collection features the Cultist’s Refuge, headquarters of the Atel Akkad conspiracy. This soaring gothic fortress is a stronghold of forbidden magics dedicated to resurrecting the demon god Lok. Here and there, victims of failed Atel Akkad mind-control experiments can be hired as mercenaries. They burn with the need for vengeance against their former masters.

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The Cultist's Refuge was the dungeon showcased in the PAX 2010 press demo and will be featured in our video of the demo coming next week!
-- Scapes

TERA Fans PAX Interview with Brian Knox!

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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.


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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.

TERA Fans PAX 2010 Coverage!

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Hey, TERA Fans :D! I just got home from PAX 2010 last night and it was a blast! Between me and TERA Fans member Organic, we've got all kinds of TERA goodies :3

This thread will contain links to all the coverage TERA Fans has of PAX 2010 so you can most easily find what you're looking for.

  • Amira's PAX Demo Experience
    - Click the link to check it out on Curse.com!

  • Organic's PAX 2010: The Scoop!
    - Organic spent most of his PAX time at the TERA booth, so he has tons of great information to share! I'd definitely advise reading through the whole thread. Thank you so much for the hard work, Organic!

  • TERA Fans PAX Interview with Brian Knox
    - I'll have this up soon!

  • PAX TERA Party
    - This article will be up later today or tomorrow. Check back!

  • TERA @ PAX Pictures

    - TERA Booth



    - TERA Swag (Poster is signed by all the En Masse writers! Sadly when I got mine laminated at Kinkos, it had a little accident on the top left side D: But that's okay, it's still amazing!)



    - TERA Breakfast (From left to right: Scapes, me, BrotherMagneto, Kyoji, and Mark)



I'll add updates so check back often :D! Enjoy!

TERA Fans PAX 2010 Coverage!

Update #2: Added a compilation of off-site interviews from PAX.

Update #1: Added the link to the TF Interview with Brian Knox!

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Hey, TERA Fans :D! I just got home from PAX 2010 last night and it was a blast! Between me and TERA Fans member Organic, we've got all kinds of TERA goodies :3

This thread will contain links to all the coverage TERA Fans has of PAX 2010 so you can most easily find what you're looking for.



I'll add updates so check back often :D! Enjoy!

Exclusive Gamescom Extended Trailer

Good evening, TERA Fans! Today we're happy to feature a TERA Fans exclusive! Remember the Gamescom trailer released last month? Just in time for PAX, En Masse Entertainment has re-released the trailer with an additional ~20 seconds of footage and new voice acting.

The extra few seconds of footage show a massive army of TeraFans Wiki - ArgonArgons preparing for battle. It's pretty awesome, so check it out!



Also, just a reminder, PAX starts this Friday! Keep an eye on TERA Fans for all kinds of goodies including pictures, my experience with the build of the game they'll be showing, coverage of the TERA party and anything else I find there!
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