TERA Online (Now Free to Play) - Catch All

Michael Zenke wrote:

I agree, fang. I made a human woman and elven woman to see how they fared, and generally dug them ... except for the part where they have some sort of harsh spinal deformity. ;P

Oh, right, and they get NO PANTS! Bah.

At least anytime somebody wonders aloud why more women don't play games, we can just link them to the TERA homepage as an informational exercise.

Kinda NSFW: http://gomakemeasandwich.wordpress.com/2011/02/25/tera-competing-with-bayonetta-for-the-sluttiest-women-still-wearing-clothes/

I had a really great time with the game and like most of you, it's mostly due to the awesome combat in my opinion.

My highest level was a level 15 Sorcerer and I really enjoyed it. Questing is old school and after playing SWTOR, I think nothing will really compare for a long time, but I didn't even bother reading anything. Just go around town, grab all quests and go out killing stuff with a couple of my friends. We had a great time.

Another thing that impressed me was how well the engine kept the game running very smoothly even with the higher quality settings and around very populated areas like the main city Velika.

I was a bit skeptical that the game would have too many Korean MMO conventions, but other than the fact that female characters get less clothes as you level up, I didn't feel the grind, quests were done really quickly and I loved the fact that I got a fast mount for free at level 10 by just talking to a couple NPCs. Oh, and you can summon it instantly too!

I didn't have a chance to test any Crafting skills. Apparently everyone can gather everything and also use all the crafting professions. I have no idea how useful they are during the leveling process though.

I end up rolling a Sorcerer up to 15, but I also got a Berserker, Slayer, Priest and Mistic to 12, just to have a feel on different classes and now I have a better idea on what to concentrate my beta time coming next tests. I was not really sure what to expect, but from my initial impression, I plan on playing every beta event and if the experience stays positive up until release, I'll probably give this game a couple months, specially since my friends and I are getting bored of SWTOR at this point.

On the clothing issue, I think it's on the ridiculous end of the scale, but I'm not sure I'd want to say "no slutty clothes for anyone" like the moral police. That's presumably how they wanted the game to look.

What I think would be a better solution is to allow the player to make up their costume in a way that is kind-of consistent with the armour type, but lets them design it a bit so it can be what they want, or put together component parts of their wardrobe. Something a bit different to WoW's transmogrification (the stats of one with the looks of another).

I'm sure it's probably a designer's nightmare to allow a few dozen component parts per character, especially in an MMO, and then you've got the technical problems of making it look good and glitch-free (no clipping). I think clothing tech is coming along though, so it would be nice to see a nice 'dress up' tech demo, or actual implementation in a game.

Scratched wrote:

On the clothing issue, I think it's on the ridiculous end of the scale, but I'm not sure I'd want to say "no slutty clothes for anyone" like the moral police. That's presumably how they wanted the game to look.

100% And, I should say: I think sexy girls are sexy! Crazy, no?

What tweaks me is the contortion of adult women into sex objects to up the slut-factor. For example:

IMAGE(http://www1.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Stana+Katic+2010+American+Music+Awards+Arrivals+odnNuAnFwgDl.jpg)

Stana Katic, star of Castle, in a sexy dress. Hot lady is hot, yes? Compare with:

IMAGE(http://www.crimsonvow.net/TERA_Castanic_female_2k.jpg)

This is a female Castanic from TERA. See the difference? Her spine is bent suggestively, her pelvis is thrust out, her back is arched to push out her boobs. And in-game, she runs bent over to show off her ass. It's screwed up. Like, really screwed up.

The human lady and elven lady are *much* much better, but even they have contorted frames to sex them up.

I say, why not just let hot ladies be hot? Ya know?

More player control of animation would be an interesting approach, letting players emote through means other than slash commands that just play a canned animation. I don't have much idea how it would work without overcomplicating things though, you would need five buttons just to stand still. You would probably need something like kinect combined with second life, which may be heading into mind-bleach territory.

Jesse did the Beta over the weekend, and his reactions in the character create are fantastic.

Its really funny because there is a preset human that looks exactly like Tricia Helfer. Its the one I chose for my sorceress.

Hotness

Okay, I've got a hook in my jaw. Is anyone else thinking of picking this up? Given that this is very much a weird game coming out at a weird time, this feels like a 'grab your fun while you can' opportunity. If you're thinking of playing, then what do you say to a static group?

If you've never done a static group in an MMO before, here's what I have in mind: A group of five goodjers who play the same characters together every week, with the goal of hitting dungeons and Big Ass Monsters (BAMs). For the most part I suspect we'll be able to 'only' play the characters during our weekly sessions, if you're worried about TERA-time interacting with other life stuff. Some weeks we might have to grind out a level or two so that we can move on to the next area of Dungeon/BAM content. But since BAMs can be ground out and are a lot more fun (I think) than questing in TERA, we might not even have to do that.

I'd like to go for a balanced group. 1 Tank (Warrior or Lancer), 1 Healer (Priest, pretty much), and three DPS. I'm eager to heal, so I'm happy to jump into the Priest role. Are there four other folks who would be willing to go on an odyssey of discovery with me? We'll use a gdoc to organize times, and all that.

PM me or pipe up here if you're interested!

I'm interested.
I'll play... oh man, gah! I don't know.
I was originally going to say mystic or sorceress. So maybe I will just stick with that and not think about it too much.

Though an archer might be better for BAMs than a sorceress (better single target vs. better aoe dps). And of course my highest level class in the beta is a slayer which would only be more fun in a BAMing group.

Which then leads me to a berserker being much more incredible in a group...

Lancer? HELP

From what I've played, I'm having some level of withdrawal right now. I can't wait for the next beta weekend. But then again, I'm still a bit skeptical, because I was this excited when Aion came out and its first 15 levels were very well done and they concealed most of the "Korean MMO grind" pretty well and then it became a horrible experience.

If the experience throughout the beta tests is consistent with what I've seen so far, I'm totally picking this up and I'd like to be part of a Goodjer static group. I can play either a healer or DPS, thinking about a Priest or a Sorcerer at this point.

I paid up to be in the beta, so sign me up to play with you guys while the playing's good.

What happened to the beta event this weekend? When I signed up it was supposed to be every weekend up until release.

Now the launcher tells me the next beta weekend will start on the 9th...

fangblackbone wrote:

What happened to the beta event this weekend? When I signed up it was supposed to be every weekend up until release.

Now the launcher tells me the next beta weekend will start on the 9th...

The last one was two weeks apart as well.

http://tera.enmasse.com/news/posts/b...

Yeah, there was never supposed to be one this weekend. Dunno why.

The static group *will* happen. I've had some additional interest outside the thread.

I ended up biting and pre-ordering. Haven't had a game turn my opinion around so much in a while.

Yeah, there was never supposed to be one this weekend. Dunno why.

The static group *will* happen. I've had some additional interest outside the thread.

I ended up biting and pre-ordering. Haven't had a game turn my opinion around so much in a while.

fangblackbone wrote:

What happened to the beta event this weekend? When I signed up it was supposed to be every weekend up until release.

Now the launcher tells me the next beta weekend will start on the 9th...

I posted this info in the OP, but here it is again. They are every 2 weeks. The EU beta test is happening this weekend though.

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

Damn you Zenke. Damn you to hell.

zeroKFE wrote:

Damn you Zenke. Damn you to hell. :P

I am such a pusher.

The official site has up a quick (and essentially meaningless) look back at the last Beta weekend and a look ahead to the upcoming Beta weekend.

Static groupers: Please PM me an email address. I'll start a thread for coordination - maybe we can try to meet up at some point this weekend?

Sorry to say guys but I am pretty sure I am going to cancel my preorder.

I am not going to color anyone else's interest in TERA further. Sometimes I lose sight of the fact that I have a choice when it comes to up and coming mmo's. As much as I am choking on the words I am about to say, I don't have to play everyone that gets released.

fangblackbone wrote:

I am not going to color anyone else's interest in TERA further. Sometimes I lose sight of the fact that I have a choice when it comes to up and coming mmo's. As much as I am choking on the words I am about to say, I don't have to play everyone that gets released.

No, that's actually a very healthy and intelligent choice to make. No worries man, we'll catch up with you on a good one down the road.

Which beta server are GWJ folks playing on? I'll probably only get in an hour or two this weekend (Mass Effect says hi!), but it would be nice to have the chance to run into a familiar face.

I say Serpentis Isle. Randomly. It looks like folks aren't generally up for this weekend, so I'll seeya if I seeya.

I was excited for this weekend and I wanted to get a character to cap, but I don't think that will be possible. Today it's my wife's birthday, so I won't be playing anything tonight. Tomorrow we are out on a little trip to Key West so I will probably have just a bit of time on Sunday to play the 3rd beta. I have 2 characters on Serpentis Isles, but I don't remember their names. I'll check back here when I get back to see if I can hook up with some of you guys Sunday, if possible.

I'm still excited by the game a whole though and I'm pretty sure I'll be playing on release.

Yeah at this point I'm 'sold' enough to play TERA at release, and my MMO malaise has kicked in: I basically lament soloing. Can't wait to try in a group, I think it'll be a lot of fun.

Tried a couple hours of the beta this weekend before I started getting the shakes from Mass Effect detox. I certainly didn't play long enough to get the full flavor of my class, but I'm definitely in for at least a month or two, especially if we can get some good groups going.

I noticed the beta-ish-ness of it this weekend, with a lot of CTDs and one BSOD, which put me off from playing much.

I made my beta characters on Arach-something but they're under 10 so I have no problem rerolling elsewhere.

I was able to log in for half an hour over the weekend and played my Sorc a bit. I can't wait for open beta, where we will have to re-roll and those characters won't be wiped for release.

KillTrash wrote:

I was able to log in for half an hour over the weekend and played my Sorc a bit. I can't wait for open beta, where we will have to re-roll and those characters won't be wiped for release.

Aye. This is the point where I'd really like us to try to get together for something.

A lot of their dungeon videos look kind of meh, but this one really grabbed me for some reason: