Tera Online: Release in 2012 (official statement)

As you can read on official Tera Online Website, the release has officially being moved to 2012. This is nothing new, as I already posted in a previous post, that “Tera Online release delayed – No Tera Online in 2011?” from an inside leak from within the Frogster Offices.
For everyone else, flaming in the above posts comments: Haha, sucks for you fanboys.
Here the whole post:

August 3, 2011
Hello TERA faithful! My name is Chris "Chager" Hager, and I'm the North American producer for TERA. I've got some exciting news to share today about what we've been up to this year so far, as well as what we'll be doing for the rest of 2011 and 2012.
TERA has had a busy 2011, and the year's barely half over! After successful showings at CES and GDC, we unveiled the game's political system at E3, where we received several awards and even more nominations.
The big news I'll be sharing today is our launch timing! That's right folks, we are ramping up for a spring 2012 launch date. Our focus has always been on launching TERA when it's ready, so you can take heart knowing that we feel we're getting close enough to announce our launch window. Let me explain, in further detail, what we'll be doing between now and spring 2012.
Later this year we will begin our alpha testing. For those who aren't yet familiar with this term, alpha testing is essentially small-scale testing with people outside the company, with the goal of collecting feedback on specific game features. An alpha test has the added benefit of allowing our internal teams to practice running a game in a "live" environment, so when the beta phase starts in early 2012, TERA will be operating like a well-oiled machine.
During our alpha, we'll test PvP server settings, overall progression, quest feedback, BAM (big-ass monster) fights, our brand new platform (account management), and a lot of other things that we'll talk about in greater detail later this year. In addition to testing new systems and Western features, we'll also fine-tune existing systems with our players in mind. Once all of these systems are in place, it's important to us that we get user feedback prior to our beta phase.
"Wait, did you say beta in early 2012?" Why yes, yes I did. Once we complete the alpha phase, we'll incorporate that feedback into the client, polish any new content, and then start beta testing early next year. Most of y'all are familiar with betas and how they work; for us, their main purpose is to expose greater numbers of players to TERA so they can experience the incredible action combat system, group up with some friends to take down a BAM or two, and in general enjoy a slice of TERA. We'll announce specific dates and times for our beta testing when we get a little closer, but the culmination of those beta events will be a launch for TERA in the spring of 2012!
So what does all of this mean for you? We'll be allowing a few select players to enter our alpha test later this year, and we'll open the door even wider in early 2012 with our beta testing. For details on both of these initiatives, as well as more about the features we'll be implementing and testing, stop by www.TERA-Online.com. As we've been discussing the details behind the alpha plan here at En Masse this past week, the excitement has grown palpable! We feel we're on the right path to deliver a truly epic game to our players and fans.
Thanks!
—Chager

Tera Online – New Infomation from E3 Interview

Terafans published a new interview from E3, with some interesting questions who proves my previous post right. The highlighted part below, proves that EnMasse haven’t even started making the changes to the PvP system and that they will start very very late with the Beta. If you take into account that a good Beta lasts 3-6 months, even the slowest people and biggest Pro-EME/Frogster Fanboys will realize, that it would be impossible to release the game this year!

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

TERA Online release delayed – No Tera Online in 2011?

According to internal information who got leaked out of the Tera Online offices, the westernization process is not going pretty well, neither are the Beta servers working very well.

But seeing their activity on the forums, this was no surprise. They already avoided any kind of information/questions which was about the  Beta, Westernization or the long announced changes of the PvP system and only distracted the dumb players with some boring screenshots and general information which don’t tell anything about the game or it’s mechanics itself (i.e. screenshots of dungeons, monsters or NPCs), but not a single information about PvP mechanics, Details on how Politic system or crafting works in detail or the other real interesting information.

It’s very sad to see, how they treat their future customers… like shit!

Frogster/EnMasse: How long are you going to fool around your future customers?!

Update 2011-08-03:

EnMass officially announced the delay to 2012. There won’t even be a Beta this year, just a alpha for very few selected players and Beta in early 2012. This means, no Tera until at least February or March 2012. Good Game EnMasse. You’re unable to release a game in time which has been out in Korea more than 6 months.

Tera Online Closed Beta Client Download

Today I want to give you some Links to the Tera Online Closed Beta Client. It’s hosted directly on the Frogster servers. So for everyone who’s waiting for the Closed Beta Test and already wants to download the client, has now the chance to do so. You can also download it to unpack it with Unreal Model Viewer.
Whoever downloads the client and prepares himself for the Tera Online Closed Beta Test, should also take a look at our Tera Online Closed Beta Keys Giveaway Event and participate, if you don’t already have a key or are in a big and active Tera Online Guild.
Tera Online Client Files Download:

http://download.frogster.de/FOG/tera/tera_eu_14.10.03/TERASetup.exe
http://download.frogster.de/FOG/tera/tera_eu_14.10.03/TERASetup-1.bin
http://download.frogster.de/FOG/tera/tera_eu_14.10.03/TERASetup-2.bin
http://download.frogster.de/FOG/tera/tera_eu_14.10.03/TERASetup-3.bin
http://download.frogster.de/FOG/tera/tera_eu_14.10.03/TERASetup-4.bin
http://download.frogster.de/FOG/tera/tera_eu_14.10.03/TERASetup-5.bin
http://download.frogster.de/FOG/tera/tera_eu_14.10.03/TERASetup-6.bin
http://download.frogster.de/FOG/tera/tera_eu_14.10.03/TERASetup-7.bin
http://download.frogster.de/FOG/tera/tera_eu_14.10.03/TERASetup-8.bin
http://download.frogster.de/FOG/tera/tera_eu_14.10.03/TERASetup-9.bin
http://download.frogster.de/FOG/tera/tera_eu_14.10.03/TERASetup-10.bin
http://download.frogster.de/FOG/tera/tera_eu_14.10.03/TERASetup-11.bin
http://download.frogster.de/FOG/tera/tera_eu_14.10.03/TERASetup-12.bin
http://download.frogster.de/FOG/tera/tera_eu_14.10.03/TERASetup-13.bin
http://download.frogster.de/FOG/tera/tera_eu_14.10.03/TERASetup-14.bin
http://download.frogster.de/FOG/tera/tera_eu_14.10.03/TERASetup-15.bin

Edit 2013-04-07: Comments closed due to excessive spam.

TERA Online: Open Beta FAQ

Originally posted on ThisIsGame, this Q&A about the TERA Open Beta translated by TeraFans has a great deal of information about the game. The answers are from Hyun-Kyu Park, Executive Developer, Kang-Suk Kim, CEO, and Lead Graphic artist Chul-Woon Hwang.

Some of the topics discussed are graphics, endgame content, battlefields, the political system, changes made since the stress test, level cap, dungeons and more.

“TERA’s max level to be 50, enjoy politics and battlefields.”

- Hyun-Kyu Park, Executive Developer for Bluehole Studio, Kang-Suk Kim, CEO, and Lead Graphic artist Chul-Woon Hwang.

TERA Online: K-TERA (Korean TERA) Patchnotes – 4.7.11

K-TERA Patch Notes | 4.7.11


[System > Politics]

• Vote counts will no longer show and instead will just show a ‘Contending’ mark.
  - The voting UI will no longer show the vote counts.
  - Between candidates with similar vote counts they will show ‘Contending’ mark for them.
  - This patch is to stop people from just voting for the candidate with the highest vote count.
  
• Changed the placements of the candidates on the voting UI.
  - The candidates are placed randomly on the list instead of in the order they signed up.
  
• Limited vote number per account.
  - 1 account can only vote once with 1 character on the entire server.
  
• Changed the voting requirement level
  - Now you only have to be level 20 to vote.
  
• Changed the time of Archon’s Battlegrounds competition points given
  - The times when archons will receive their battlegrounds competition points:
  - Weekdays: 21:00 ~ 23:00
  - Weekends: 21:00 ~ next day of 14:00
  ** This new political system change will take effect on the next upcoming election.

[Zone > Monsters]

• Lowered the attack power of some monsters in the Ancient Castle of Evil.
  - Cursed Clown’s basic attack damage reduced by 54% and its other attack damage reduced by 36%.
  - Twin Clown Lektown’s basic attack damage was reduced by 22% and its other attack damage raised by 9%.
  - Jester Taruruk’s damages were fixed from where some of the skills used to hit for 0.

[ETC > Bug Fix]

• Fixed the bug where the chat window disappeared
  - Fixed the chat window disappearing on a low chance.
• Fixed English to Korean transition
  - Fixed the issue where you couldn’t change Korean to English in the chat box.
• Fixed tooltip errors on some restore items
  - Fixed the added effect text on equipment from ‘Instant cast healing skills amount 9.1% increase’ to ‘Healing amount increased by 9.1%’
  - It is only a tooltip text change and the gear still acts the same.
  - If you use bandages the heal amount is also increased by the above effect.
  - Heal spheres and Life Elemental skills are not affected by the above.

Tera Basic Mechanics: Controls Guide

One of the most important things in MMORPG games which is directly linked to your success in game are controls. Knowing the right keybinds and actually using them is half the battle so see below to find out the default controls for movement, various actions and interface elements.

Movement Keys & Mouse Buttons

Keyboard Shortcuts

TERA Online PvP Mechanics: Duels, Group Duels (Death Match) And More

The senior community manager for TERA, Evan ‘Scapes’ Berman, took some time out to chat with IncGamers yesterday about the highly anticipated game. While talking about what TERA has over existing MMOs, they touched on the “all action no faction” aspect of the game, and asked what that meant for PvP, an important part of most MMOs.

“PvP’s going to be something that we can detail a little bit more as we reach the E3 part of the year, but what I can tell you now is that we know it’s going to be a major element of the game.”

Scapes assured us. Further on he mentioned PvP part of the game is still in development so he can’t provide many details about it yet, but apparently duels are already implemented. In addition to duels, TERA will also offer group dueling where you can gather people and fight another group for as he calls it instantaneous, emergent PvP.

The game’s launch is this winter, when we will hear more about battlegrounds, ladders and other game info.

TERA Skills: Archer Skill Introduction

In this blog entry, I will be writing about Tera Archer Skills. Archer’s in Tera have some really powerful nuking skills. These ranged skills deal a lot of damage.

Tera Archer skills mainly fall into two categories – Power shot type skills and trap skills.

Okay, now let’s have a look at Tera Online Archer Skills

Tera: Gameplay, Localization & More FAQs Answered

Over the past week, En Masse staff members have asked you to pose your most burning questions to the team. Yesterday, they answered many of them, and here’s the first batch!

Gameplay

Q: How long will in take to reach the level cap?
A: It will no doubt take players of different skills different amounts of time, and we’re still soliciting feedback from focus groups and beta tests, so it’s too early to give any definitive length of time.

Q: Has there been any thought about a sub-classing system once a character reaches the level cap?
A: Not specifically, no. There will be other things for players to do once they reach the level cap.

Q: What end-game content is planned?
A: Players will find that at higher levels they’ll have the potential to affect both events and the world itself. We’ll have more to announce about this soon, so stay tuned!

Q; How does PVP work?
A: PVP will be on a sever-by-server basis, meaning that players who chose to participate in PVP may do so but those who do not, will not be required to play on severs that allow PVP. There are no predetermined factions in TERA, but we expect guilds to come into conflict with each other and PVP will be one way that conflict is expressed. Since we’re still making adjustments based on feedback from the FGTs and Beta tests, we’ll share further details on PVP in the future.

Localization

Q: Will the localization process affect voiceovers, NPC names, and the overall difficulty of the game?
A: Localization will include more than just translation; we’re going to be fleshing out many of the game’s story elements, including NPC names, and taking the feedback from the focus groups into account for the game’s playability as well.

Q: Do you plan on localizing the music of TERA as well?
A: At this time, it is unlikely that the soundtrack will be affected by localization efforts.

Q: If the NPC voices are changed, is there any chance that we’ll be able to choose between the Western and Korean voices?
A: No, as some of the content may be fundamentally different between the two versions.

Q: Will the western version of TERA include everything that the Korean version has?
A: Although there may be some differences, the western version will have content and story that is specifically designed for the North American and European audience.

Q: What kind of changes will be made to the western version of TERA and how much influence does the community have?
A: The localization process will include fleshing out the game’s lore, storyline, quests, and dialogue. Community feedback is extremely important to us; we will be continuing to run focus groups and to take community suggestions and feedback into account.

Q: In Korea, TERA is rated for adults. Can we expect the western version of the game to receive an M rating? Will any content be cut to get a T-rating?
A: Although it’s premature to speculate on which rating it will receive at this time, we do not anticipate cutting content for rating purposes.

Q: Is there any chance the female Popori will be redesigned as part of TERA’s localization?
A: The Popori females take offense at such a question!

Security

Q: How aggressively are you planning to combat botting?
A: Any method of cheating will not be tolerated, and we plan to work both proactively and reactively to ensure everyone has an enjoyable gaming experience and environment.

Q: Will Gameguard be included in the western version of the game?
A: We’ve seen quite a bit of player feedback about GameGuard in the last couple of weeks and will definitely take it into consideration. Please know that our goal is to provide players a seamless, safe, and fair gameplay experience and not to create barriers to entry.

Q: Will there be an in-game system for users to report spamming?
A: We are aware of the potential for such a system and will be considering it as TERA moves forward in development.

Publishing

Q: Will TERA be released in Spanish or Portuguese?
A: Our evaluation of which languages to release TERA in is still underway.

Q: When will the western version of TERA be released?
A: We will be announcing estimated release windows at a later time.

Q: Will players be able to play on any TERA server regardless of geographic location?
A: Region filtering will depend on server architecture and location and is not yet decided.

There will be a lot more news and updates the closer we get to the game’s release so stay tuned for updates via our RSS feed or email subscriptions!

TERA Online: Character Creation Video

This official character creation video features hyper-speed character creation of a male Human, Baraka, male High Elf, male and female Aman, male Castanic, and female Popori (you can learn more about those races). In addition it introduces new facial feature sliders as a reaction to player feedback. You can watch the video below!

Tera Focus Group Test FAQ

FGT is an acronym for Focus Test Group. This is a pre-beta phase in which Bluehole has sent invites out to random people — much like an open beta. FGT participants do not test content like a normal beta tester, though, but rather give their opinions on the already-developed content through surveys and questionnaires.

In order to participate on FGT, you must be 18+ years old so you can legal sign a contract known as NDA (A non-disclosure agreement) or confidential disclosure agreement (CDA).Being a FGT participant prevents you to share sensitive and/or game and gameplay info. Yesterday, the TERA team took to the official forums to answer some questions about how the upcoming FGT2 will work.

Within the Q&A, En Masse has affirmed that the FGT is not meant to be a traditional beta test for reporting bug fixes, but more a study on what players think of certain aspects of the game. The game will only be available for play at certain hours of the day and will not be up 24-7 during FGT2, though it will last around a week.

TERA Third Closed Beta Screenshots

TERA, a MMORPG developed by Bluehole Studio, which was founded by the former development team of Lineage 3, and operated by NHN, the largest game producer in South Korea is now undergoing the third closed beta test in South Korea. Recently, a Korean player nicknamed “zenyceny” has shared some awesome screenshots generated in this test period through his blog on naver.com, allowing those unable to join the test to enjoy the surprises brought by TERA’s gorgeous graphics.

TERA’s third closed beta test will last till March 7, 2010. The 10-day test will unveil 11 new hunting grounds including West Lumbering Field, Crazy Mound, Pirate Nest and Moon Lake, and 3 mid-level maps like Abandoned Valley. New characters such as the male Castanic and female Human will be made available for players. Besides, TERA players can also expect various new skills and optimized game interfaces. The US version of TERA is scheduled to start its closed beta test in the second half of this year.