Topic: TERA Online (Korean MMO, coming to NA on May 1)

[W7RE]

New MMO coming from Korea. Developed by a studio called BlueHole (ex NCSoft employees, from the Lineage II team). The NA version is being handles by En Masse Entertainment. It uses the Unreal engine, so it's very pretty. One of the best looking MMOs I've seen to date.

The combat system is what makes the game stand out. In most MMOs you tab target (or click to target something) and then all of your abilities automatically hit (assuming you're within range, have enough +hit chance, etc). In Tera, you aim and attack, and never click or tab target. You have a crosshair in the middle of your screen, and you just aim and shoot. Range does apply, but you're doing the aiming and dodging.


The best way to understand the combat system is to just watch this video:
TERA Combat Overview (YouTube link)



My screenshot gallery on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150600756296904.403589.766526903&type=3







This is the default look of the action bar. The 3 buttons on the bottom right are left click, right click, and tab. You can change these just like any other action bar button. For ranged classes, left click will be a standard attack (arrow shot for archer, fireball for sorcerer). For melee classes, you get a 4 part combo chain (very similar to spamming one button in God of War or Darksiders or something, where you have 4 different swing styles that it cycles through as you attack over and over). You use alt or escape to switch between aiming mode and mouse mode, so you can interact with the various UI panels.

This action bar can be expanded to have 2 full bars of 12 buttons each, and there's another 2 full length bars you can turn on as well.




Questing is very similar to World of Warcraft and most other MMOs: you go to a quest hub and get your quest, finish them, move on to the next hub or NPC. Quests are things like "collect x of y", or "kill x number of this creature". Despite being Korean, it's not grindy at all though. The Koreans apparently have been complaining it's not grindy enough, and it's been streamlined even more for the North American release. I've leveled to 22 twice now (the current beta cap), and by just doing all the quests I run across, I'm finding myself a couple levels above the enemies I'm fighting. There are repeatable quest for those who like to grind, but I've been skipping all of those.

PVP. There are no factions in the game. Instead, PvP is a free for all. By default you can't attack other players. You have a skill that by pressing it, makes you an "outlaw". Once you do this, you can attack anyone. After 60 seconds of no combat, it turns off. It has no cooldown. On PvE servers, you don't have access to this skill until near the level cap, and there are heavy penalties for killing other players (stacking outlaw points that reduce your dmg and HP the more you have).




I could say more, but I've actually got to go for now.

[idolminds]

Is this going to be a free to play dealie?

[W7RE]

Is this going to be a free to play dealie?

Nope, this one is a subscription model. $15/month.

[W7RE]

Oh yea, demo info beta test info for anyone that wants to try it out:

The betas are 3 days each, every other weekend. The first one is over already, second one is Feb 24-26. You can apply for a chance at the beta here. (You just put in your email, no registration needed.) Anyone who preorders the game gets guaranteed access to all betas, and characters aren't wiped between events, so you can keep playing the same one through all the betas.

Amazon preorders DO work, and then you can cancel later. So you can get full beta access for free if you want that way.


Full beta schedule:
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

I keep hearing that characters won't be wiped after Open Beta. So anyone who plays in Open Beta won't have to restart their character if they decide to buy the game. I believe Open Beta is truly open to anyone, so it could also be used as a trial.

NOTE: The client is almost 25 gigs in size, so think about download times and bandwidth caps if you want to play the beta.





If you're REALLY crazy (me), you can also participate in the European beta, which is also every 2 weeks, but on different weekends than the NA beta. So playing in both gets you access every weekend instead of every other weekend. Amazon.uk is not giving out beta codes. Amazon.de is though. I ordered from them, got a code 48 hours later, then cancelled my order.



Also, I have a spare North American beta code if anyone wants it. It will give access to all beta weekends, the open beta, and the head start. You'll just have to put in a retail code if you want to continue playing after the head start. (This is from a spare Amazon preorder I had, but didn't end up needing.) First come, first serve, whoever wants it can have it.