Tera Online News

Update 4: Also, please note that all beta times are 12:00 PM PST on the Friday to 11:59 PM PST on the Sunday!

Update 3: Added a twitter news section soon with important tweets pertaining to pre-order!

Update 2: A little more information can be found in the new FAQ EME just released. Basically, all I see of note is that it seems to insinuiate that retail copies of the game may have different bonuses than the digital ones.

They keep mentioning some TBD horse! Haha.

Update 1: At this point, none of the physical retailers have the Retail CE version available for purchase. :(



Pre-Order Details

TERA is now available for pre-order from the En Masse Store! Check out the options available for pre-order!

En Masse/Frogster Store Digital Standard Edition
[NA Pre-Order] - $49.99
[EU Pre-Order] - €49.95

• White stallion mount
  
• Early access to beta test
  
• Early name reservation
  
• Start playing before launch
  
• Level 35 Seren’s Sand Ring - increases attack and max MP
  
• Level 10 City Wheel Earring - increases defense and max HP
  
• 30 days of free in-game time (37 days EU)

Digital Collector's Edition
[NA Pre-Order] - $59.99
[EU Pre-Order] - €59.95

• Regal Frostlion Mount
  
• Level 15 Velik's Bloodstone Necklace - increases damage and attack speed
  
• Level 40 Shakan's Bloodstone Necklace - increases damage and attack speed
  
• White stallion mount
  
• Early access to beta test
  
• Early name reservation
  
• Start playing before launch
  
• Level 35 Seren’s Sand Ring - increases attack and max MP
  
• Level 10 City Wheel Earring - increases defense and max HP
  
• 30 days of free in-game time (37 days EU)

Retail Collector's Edition
[NA Pre-Order] - $79.99
[EU Pre-Order unknown]

• Regal Frostlion Mount
  
• Level 15 Velik's Bloodstone Necklace - increases damage and attack speed
  
• Level 40 Shakan's Bloodstone Necklace - increases damage and attack speed
  
• White stallion mount
  
• Early access to beta test
  
• Early name reservation
  
• Start playing before launch
  
• Level 35 Seren’s Sand Ring - increases attack and max MP
  
• Level 10 City Wheel Earring - increases defense and max HP
  
• Letter of Marque
  
• Federation Issued Compass
  
• Cloth Map of TERA
  
• Valkyon Federation Handbook
  
• Original Soundtrack
  
• 30 days of free in-game time(37 days EU)

Sadly, pricing in the EU is exactly the same as the NA region. This means that the Standard Edition's €49.95 price tag actually amounts to $65 making it more expensive for Europeans.



Pre-Order In-Game Items Details
Many in-game items are available for players who pre-order. Check out all of the in-game pre-order item information below.



White Stallion Mount

• Exclusive to all who pre-order.

City Wheel Earring

• Exclusive to all who pre-order.
  
• Level 10+, Defense +7, Balance +3, Max HP +178

Seren's Sand Ring

• Exclusive to all who pre-order.
  
• Level 35+, Attack +57, Damage +30, Max MP +82

Regal Frostlion Mount

• Exclusive to those who pre-order a physical or digital collector's edition.

Velik's Bloodstone Necklace

• Exclusive to those who pre-order a physical or digital collector's edition.
  
• Level 15+, Attack +21, Damage +8, Max MP +70, Attack Speed +4%

Shakan's Bloodstone Necklace

• Exclusive to those who pre-order a physical or digital collector's edition.
  
• Level 40+, Attack +91, Damage +59, Max MP +143, Attack Speed +6%

Beta Schedule

In addition, En Masse Entertainment released their beta schedule.

There will be five, two day closed beta periods, one open beta, and a head start period for players who pre-order the game. Players who pre-order the game will also have the ability to retain their closed beta characters for the duration of the closed beta period.

Signing up for the beta gets you a chance to be randomly selected to participate and the only way to definitely play in all beta events is to pre-order.

Have a look at the schedule and En Masse's official announcement below.

• Closed Beta Test 1: February 10 – 12
  
• Closed Beta Test 2: February 24 – 26
  
• Closed Beta Test 3: March 9 – 11
  
• Closed Beta Test 4: March 23 – 25
  
• Closed Beta Test 5: April 6 – 8
  
• Open Beta Test: April 19 – 22
  
• Head Start: April 28 – May 1

En Masse's official announcement on the schedule:

Quote

Twitter Q&A
The EME team answered a few useful questions about the beta/per-order period! I've gathered them below, just PM me if you think I missed something big!

@Shablewski asked:

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EME Answered:

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@clockworkfaerie asked:

Quote

EME Answered:

Quote

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@ThrangisTheRed asked:

Quote

EME Answered:

Quote

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@jessetrevor asked:

Quote

EME Answered:

Quote

(wow, imo.)

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@Manic33 asked:

Quote

EME Answered:

Quote

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Filed by TERA Fans News at 7:26 pm under Uncategorized  Tagged Attack Speed, Beta Test, Bloodstone, Earring, Game Time, Hp, Launch, Max Hp, Max Mp, Options, Regal, Retail Copies, Ring Increases, Seren, Speed Level, Tera, Tweets, Wheel, White Stallion
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Hey folks!

It's been a while, but TeraCast is back! It may be episode 20, but you may want to consider it to be TeraCast 2.0! The new TeraCast will feature myself, Caelixian, as well as Kiojii, my new co-host, discussing all things Tera and Tera Community.



Hope you all embrace the changes and tune in, as well as provide feedback, suggestions, and even segments. Send anything to Caelixian@gmail.com!

This episode we talk Release date, Beta, FAQ's, and more! Stay with us. :thumbsup:

Get it here, or iTunes!

-Cael

Filed by TERA Fans News at 6:55 am under Uncategorized  Tagged Beta Faq, Co Host, Ep, Hey, Segments, Tera
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In these dark times, we all need a TERA fix now and then. While I don't actually have any new videos that were recently recorded and uploaded, I do have videos that I never put in a news post. So to those that either haven't looked on my YouTube or those that weren't following the kOBT and launch video thread or even those that only come here for posts on the front page and not for the spectacular community here (shame on you) - these videos will still be relatively new.

I'd also like to briefly voice my opinion on one of the announced changes to kTERA since my last column - warriors becoming more offensive. Some who have seen me around TERAFans may know my opinion on warriors tanking, and may be expecting little more than "suck it, warriors." However. I'm not entirely sure that this change is for the best. There are a lot of problems with warrior tanks mostly involving the boss not staying in one place and not facing just a single direction. Rather than just eliminating warriors as tanks, wouldn't it make more sense just to rework how they tank?


For the sake of not making the post rather long, I'll only be embedding a select few videos. At the end there will be a link to a YouTube playlist containing all of my current TERA gameplay videos.

As always, all videos are done in the perspective of the lancer tank.










Here's the playlist.

Filed by TERA Fans News at 10:59 am under Uncategorized  Tagged Boss, Current, Front Page, Kobt, Lancer, Launch Video, New Videos, News Post, Perspective, Sake, Shame, Spectacular Community, Suck, Tank, Tanks, Tera, Videos Videos, Warriors, Youtube
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This year at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, both En Masse Entertainment and Frogster Interactive were showing TERA to the European public. In addition to featuring TERA's action combat, the main focus was on a few details surrounding the nature of the Argons and the cross-server invasion system.

During the press demo, Stefan Ramirez and Chris Hager described the cross-server invasion system as an end-game activity allowing players from separate servers to come together and fight amongst each other in a unique way. They stated that there will be both a PvE and PvP component and that more details will be announced later.

The press demo itself was an attack on an Argon stronghold called the "Necromancer's Cell". Prior to the demo, Argons were characterized as chaotic and mysterious "metallic monstrosities" who use a mixture of magic and technology. They reanimate fallen Valkyon Federation heroes, turning them into undead soldiers. In the scenario for the demo, a group of Argons under the leader Kaidu were plotting to attack Allemantheia and had to be stopped before damage could be done.


Image of the creation of a Gamescom TERA play station, from Frogster's FrogCast facebook page.

Following the demo, a Curse colleague asked both Stefan and Chager a few questions on TERA Fan's behalf. Check out the interview below.

Curse: What's new and exciting at Gamescom?
Stefan Ramirez: We revealed the Argon race in some more detail. They will effect players in the end game. We also touched on future development, things like server invasions, that are coming and are on the road map for TERA's future.

Curse: During the E3 press presentation, the possibility of a jailing system as part of the political system was announced. Can you talk in more detail about that?
Chris Hager: This is a cool feature the dev team had always worked on, kind of like the extension of the power of influence of the Vanarch. They worked on it a lot and as of yet they have not been able to make a solution that is rewarding to both the jailer and the jailee. As a Vanarch I have the power to put someone in jail but as someone put in jail it needs to be engaging in some way as well. We can't let players punish other players without some form of retribution. As of yet the development team has not been able to find that balance. It is not in the game as of right now.

Curse: Is this a feature you're still confident is going to make it in and you just want to make sure it's right before implementing it?
Chris Hager: It's one of those things where we would like to put it in but we can't put it in until it's balanced correctly. If it hits the chopping block because we can't find a way to balance it then I would rather take the feature out than put an unbalanced feature in.

Curse: For both the North American and European regions there's a lot of Westernization being done. Aside from language, how do the regions differ in terms of localization?
Stefan Ramirez: It's hard to speak to the European side of things. Our [En Masse's] focus has been on North America so as far as North America goes we have a renowned team of writers who are working on the game and developing this story line with the BHS writers. It's a very Western story, it's deep, and rich, and fulfilling. From there, Europe gets the same story. The over-arching story doesn't change between NA and EU.

Curse: The Elin changes are a popular topic in the community. How are they coming along?
Chris Hager: The Elin race is made up essentially of timeless goddesses in the likeness of the goddess Elinu. When we looked at the models we didn't feel like they were timeless. It didn't feel like they were beings who had been around for thousands of years. We had a bunch of internal discussions and the resulting change is very small.

I will say it has been developed, we're just waiting to sign off on it. I think everybody will be really pleased with the changes, or lack of changes, I guess. I've seen them myself both in the client and in screenshots and if you had not known about the Elin before versus after, you would never be able to tell there was a change. I think even players who know about the Elin would be hard pressed to find the changes. I think overall everyone will be pretty happy with these minimal changes.



Curse: The TERA Gamescom trailer features some massive dragons and a vengeful Mystic. What was the inspiration for this trailer?
Stefan Ramirez: It's basically the second part of a trilogy of videos, the first one being the one seen at E3 and it's kind of carried on with this heroine. The first one gives you the story of desperation. The second video adds hope as well. It's an emotional piece that was kind of showing you how big that threat is and the reason for banding together to form this federation.

Chris Hager: It also kind of beckons to our presentation on depth in terms of the story. Every player plays a game A) because it seems cool, but you play all the way through a game because it has a compelling story line that kind of sucks you in. It makes you feel like you're part of the action and part of the story and that you relate to the characters in the story. That's what we've tried to make here: an emotional piece where you can kind of put yourself in those shoes and where you can understand what it would feel like to face this field of enemies but then to have your crew and your friends at your back, knowing that you're fighting for the right cause. Getting that perspective we think helps tell a really good story of what TERA is.

Stefan Ramirez: We're very proud of the video itself. It's not CG, it's all made with the in-game engine. This is what you would see in the game.

Curse: Just a final question that Amira didn't ask, but in relation to the cross-server PvP: are there going to be any limitations to entry on that? Is it something that I can initiate myself and go do or do you have to have a guild or a certain number of people?
Chris Hager: Players should look at it as another element of TERA's end-game. The closer we get to launch the more we're going to start revealing details. We gotta hold a couple things back! But in revealing cross-server invasions we wanted to get players to see we're thinking of other things as well. It's still in the early developmental stages so there are still details we need to work out within the game as far as how this is going to function, what it is going to look like. We're going to release more details later.

Filed by TERA Fans News at 11:35 pm under Uncategorized  Tagged Argon, Argons, Cologne Germany, Curse, Dev Team, End Game, Facebook, Frogster Interactive, Future Development, Game Activity, Gamescom, Hager, Invasions, Monstrosities, Necromancer, Pve, Pvp, Road Map, Stronghold, Tera
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Hey, TERA Fans! Check out the new TERA Gamescom trailer below and let us know what you think!

Filed by TERA Fans News at 4:24 am under Uncategorized  Tagged Fans, Hey, Tera
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Hey, TERA Fans! Curse is looking for skilled gamers wanting to get into the industry! Curse has several job openings right now, including:

• System Administrator
  
• PHP Web Developer
  
• Lead Editor

There are a lot of openings right now, so please check the full list over at the Curse site :) Thanks!

Filed by TERA Fans News at 2:58 pm under Uncategorized  Tagged Curse, Fans, Gamers, Hey, Job Openings, Job Opportunities, System Administrator, Tera, Web Developer
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Hey, TERA Fans! Today our translator Kalsteine translated a "sneak peak" of what's to come to K-TERA throughout July and August. There's some interesting stuff in here, so it's definitely worth a read. Enjoy!

July's Sneak Peek

1. Increased Rewards for Shara continent:
We will be increasing the rewards for all types of quests in the Northern & Southern Shara continents.

2. Re-balancing Monsters:
Some monsters have been balanced to be of an appropriate difficulty for their level range.

3. Token Item Distribution:
We changed the way dungeon tokens are distributed. Right now the token items only go to the player who wins the roll. To address this issue, we will be distributing token items to all party members who successfully clear the dungeon.

4. Increasing Dungeon Drop Rates:
On July 7th we’ve made changes so that the end boss of any instance would drop a Unique level items on a 100% ratio, we will also be increasing the drop rate of Legendary items so it feels more rewarding for the players to complete an instance.

5. Lowering the difficulty on the “Black Tower and “Labyrinth of Fear:
Everyone who recently hit level 58 has been complaining that the above two dungeons were too hard; to address this issue we've decided to lower the difficulty on some of the lower tier dungeons. We will try to make a gradual increase in difficulty to help players be able to practice on lower tier dungeons, then conquer higher tier dungeons as well.

6. Battleground abuse:
Battleground abuse has become a big problem and we have been working on some ways to fix it. Some of the fix will be applied within July and we will continue to work to solve this issue.

7. Changed Instance cooldown period:
Currently, dungeon reset timers last 24 hours from the last time you cleared the dungeon and this makes organizing groups difficult. To make it easier on people to gather groups, we'll implemented a reset time that is shared by everyone.

8. Relocation of named monsters:
Having some named monsters spawn near normal leveling areas caused massive amounts of PK and other abuses so we've decided to relocate named monsters that caused those issues.

9. Raising the level bar for voting:
We've made the voting level 40 so people can't abuse the voting system by just hitting level 20 to cheat.


August's Sneak Peek

1. Warrior & Sorcerer class, rebalanced:
Many of you have been asking for this and we will bring it to you: the rebalancing of Warrior & Sorcerer classes. The warrior class will be reborn as an offensive class with the upcoming August patch. They will still do some defensive work but in parties they will be taking on offensive roles much more often.

Sorcerers will have an easier time maintaining their mana during battle with skill balances and MP Leech skills; also they will get some new devastating spells that will aid them.

More precise notes will be available with the August patch notes.

2. New method to gain items:
We will add new methods to gain items, not only the dice rolling option but also an option for party members to bid against each other for a dropped item.

3. Bind on Pick-up items:
We will be adding a bind on pick-up quality to items that are extremely hard to get.

Filed by TERA Fans News at 10:55 pm under Uncategorized  Tagged Battleground, Black Tower, Boss, Continent, Continents, Dungeon Drop, Interesting Stuff, July 7th, Labyrinth, Last Time, Monsters, Party Members, Relocat, Reset Time, Rewards, Sneak Peek, Tera, Timers, Tokens, Translator
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Hey, TERA Fans! Today our translator Kalsteine translated a "sneak peak" of what's to come to K-TERA throughout July and August. There's some interesting stuff in here, so it's definitely worth a read. Enjoy!

July's Sneak Peek

1. Increased Rewards for Shara continent:
We will be increasing the rewards for all types of quests in the Northern & Southern Shara continents.

2. Re-balancing Monsters:
Some monsters have been balanced to be of an appropriate difficulty for their level range.

3. Token Item Distribution:
We changed the way dungeon tokens are distributed. Right now the token items only go to the player who wins the roll. To address this issue, we will be distributing token items to all party members who successfully clear the dungeon.

4. Increasing Dungeon Drop Rates:
On July 7th we’ve made changes so that the end boss of any instance would drop a Unique level items on a 100% ratio, we will also be increasing the drop rate of Legendary items so it feels more rewarding for the players to complete an instance.

5. Lowering the difficulty on the “Black Tower and “Labyrinth of Fear:
Everyone who recently hit level 58 has been complaining that the above two dungeons were too hard; to address this issue we've decided to lower the difficulty on some of the lower tier dungeons. We will try to make a gradual increase in difficulty to help players be able to practice on lower tier dungeons, then conquer higher tier dungeons as well.

6. Battleground abuse:
Battleground abuse has become a big problem and we have been working on some ways to fix it. Some of the fix will be applied within July and we will continue to work to solve this issue.

7. Changed Instance cooldown period:
Currently, dungeon reset timers last 24 hours from the last time you cleared the dungeon and this makes organizing groups difficult. To make it easier on people to gather groups, we'll implemented a reset time that is shared by everyone.

8. Relocation of named monsters:
Having some named monsters spawn near normal leveling areas caused massive amounts of PK and other abuses so we've decided to relocate named monsters that caused those issues.

9. Raising the level bar for voting:
We've made the voting level 40 so people can't abuse the voting system by just hitting level 20 to cheat.


August's Sneak Peek

1. Warrior & Sorcerer class, rebalanced:
Many of you have been asking for this and we will bring it to you: the rebalancing of Warrior & Sorcerer classes. The warrior class will be reborn as offensive class with the upcoming August patch. They will still do some defensive work but in parties they will be taking on offensive roles much more often.

Sorcerers will have an easier time maintaining their mana during battle with skill balances and MP Leech skills; also they will get some new devastating spells that will aid them.

More precise notes will be available with the August patch notes.

2. New method to gain items:
We will add new methods to gain items, not only the dice rolling option but also an option for party members to bid against each other for a dropped item.

3. Bind on Pick-up items:
We will be adding a bind on pick-up quality to items that are extremely hard to get.

Filed by TERA Fans News at 10:55 pm under Uncategorized  Tagged Battleground, Black Tower, Boss, Continent, Continents, Dungeon Drop, Interesting Stuff, July 7th, Labyrinth, Last Time, Monsters, Party Members, Relocat, Reset Time, Rewards, Sneak Peek, Tera, Timers, Tokens, Translator
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Hello, TERA Fans! :) Today from 1 PM CST to 2 PM CST, TERA Fans will be down for maintenance as it undergoes some upgrades. The forums will be upgraded to IPB 3.1.4 and the Gallery will be upgraded to version 4.0.4.

The new upgrades have undergone some testing, but there still may be issues. If you discover any bugs please post about them in the TERA Fans Feedback forum with as much information as you can provide.

Thank you for your patience as the site is upgraded and I hope you enjoy the new features!

Filed by TERA Fans News at 5:16 pm under Uncategorized  Tagged Bugs, Fans, Feedback Forum, Hello, New Features, Patience, Tera
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Thanks for being patient all! Here are answers to some of the questions ya'll asked on the E3 Interview forum topic. Please note I didn't get to all of the questions you asked, but covered a good amount of them.

Q: Why does it look like TERA has aim-assist skills for certain spells? (Some mystic/archer skills seem to curve as the target moves.)
A: Early in TERA’s dev cycle, attacks didn’t have aim-assist. Once people started playing, we noticed there were a lot of people who couldn’t hit the target with the basic attacks because the control and targeting became very difficult. Because of this, we changed a few skills to instant timing, which is why some skills look like they curve. For these few skills the ‘hit’ is based on the reticle & target at the time of cast. We adjusted the lock-on for some skills and are happy with the results; it doesn’t spoil the non-targeting feel of TERA.

Q: Will mystics get more control over their pets?
A: In the latest build we have, the mystic pet has the ability to attack or follow by command. We plan to continue work on this, and it is quite high on our to-do list. The only issue is that adding a skill requires a lot of balancing¬ against itself and other class skills. We are always slammed for time in our dev cycles, so we can’t say exactly when we’ll complete this, but it is on our ‘high priority to-do’ list.

Q: When will there be guild housing?
A: This is something we are actively exploring. Initially, we had the plan to use the buildings in big cities as guild houses. Once we started looking more into this, we realized there was a conflict between what we could do with the existing buildings in the cities and what the player expectation was. Putting something unpolished in game can create incomplete content that satisfies no one (players or devs). We are currently looking at what we can do with guild housing so that it’s polished content and meets not only player expectations, but our own.

Q: Will there be player housing?
A: If we implement housing, then the order would be guild housing, then player housing. Right now it is difficult to say specifically if/when we will implement these. As I said above, we are actively investigating housing.

Q: Will the five-second PK rule be altered on PvP servers?
A: PK declaration time requires a very delicate balance that satisfies the majority of players. EME will begin our PvP server testing with a five-second PK rule, but will have external testing for these settings this fall and will adjust the final settings based on feedback and overall functionality.

Q: What do you plan on doing with damage scaling in PvP? PvP specific armor? Damage reduction in PK/BGs?
A: There is already a damage-scaling system in place, but the issue is balancing. There are PvP armor/weapon sets as well as PvP-specific skills and crystals. For now, we think the bigger issue is the balance between classes and the user’s skill in controlling a character rather than equipment. We are always listening to player opinions regarding balance, and as we go through external testing and CBTs, we will continue to monitor and implement feedback.

Q: Any news on updated racial skill balance?
A: There hasn’t been an instance where racial skill balance has been a big issue. We hear a lot more issues regarding class balance instead. Once the classes are more or less balanced, we think the next balance issue will be racial skills, and at that time we’ll start working on those.

Q: Any more/new options for character creation? ie hairstyles, faces, etc. (When will horns/ears be seperated from hairstyles?)
A: TERA’s current character creation has a lot of ways to make a character feel unique. Although it is better to have more character creation options, we don’t feel TERA’s at a loss here. As we come out with new content and updates, there will be a natural addition to character creation, but it won’t be something we add right away. We’ve got more content work to do first.

Q: Will there ever be any options to "physically" change your armor; rip off a sleeve, shorten the bottoms, etc.
A: Currently there is no plan to implement physical damage effects for armor. We reduced the customizable portions of a player’s armor/weapons so we could add more detail and polish to those pieces. If there is a high player demand for costume customization, it could be possible to add that feature into future development plans.

Q: Will there be any hair/face/skin-changing NPCs (hair salons, cosmotologists) which you could go to and pay in-game gold to change one of the desired features?
A: In the most recent update, we’ve added functionality so a user can change a character’s appearance.

Q: Will any substantial info be released on argons and their origins? Being the main antagonists, there isn't a lot of info about these metallic creatures from another dimension.
A: More information will come in time. We can’t reveal more about the story now because it would point towards our future content update plans, and we have to keep some things secret!

Q: Are barakas now constructs made from the giants, or are they a friendly clan of the giants? Lore is very wishy-washy; one says they are constructs, the other says they are relatives.
A: The barakas don’t have a home because we haven’t revealed it… yet. Their home is in a continent that we are planning on introducing in an upcoming content update, so stay tuned and learn more about baraka lore.

Q: Are there plans to enhance the guild leveling system?
A: We have a lot of ideas on ways to enhance guilds and the guild leveling system in TERA. Unfortunately we have a huge list of content we want to add or enhance, and all of it takes time, development, and testing cycles before it goes live. Please know we’re actively working on ways to enhance guilds, and you will see this in future updates.

Q: Will we get emotes for slow walking and sitting? If not, why? These little things support roleplay a lot.
A: We had a similar thought when we initially started working on TERA, and the development team shared that opinion, too. When we thought of implementing them, we came to the conclusion that those emotes would be cosmetic only, which goes against the HP recovery that sitting has in other current games. Because we want everything in TERA to have a reason that makes sense, we decided to leave these emotes out. We do recognize that emotes like this are a huge part in roleplaying, though, so these (and other) emotes have not been totally killed from a future dev list, they are just low priority compared to the other things we want to accomplish in the game first.

I hope these answers gives you all some good info and maybe a few more discussion points to talk about here on the forums. We're always reading and listening to feedback so please keep it coming!

Thanks,
-Chager

Filed by TERA Fans News at 8:53 pm under Uncategorized  Tagged Aim, Archer, Class Skills, Conflict, Control, Curve, E3, Expectation, Forum Topic, Game, Guild Houses, Hager, High Priority, Lot, Mystics, Pets, Target, Tera
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