Anyone hear of the MMO, Tera?

[ericb]

I managed to play around an hour today...and I really, really like it.  It's nothing like I expected but I mean that in a good way.  Doesn't hurt that it looks fantastic and runs great even at 1900x1200.

[Misguided]

I managed to play around an hour today...and I really, really like it.  It's nothing like I expected but I mean that in a good way.  Doesn't hurt that it looks fantastic and runs great even at 1900x1200.

I was surprised at how low the recommended hardware specs are. The machine I'm replacing, which is going on 5 years old, meets the recommended specs! For a game that looks to have so much eye candy, I find that surprising. A Pentium 4 3.2 is listed as minimum...that's a nearly 9 year-old processor.

[EngineNo9]

They have done a ton of work to bring the game up to what a Western audience expects in terms of character and story.

IE: quick summaries of "Kill 5 wolves" so they can skip all of the lengthy text? 

[skystride]

It feels exactly like Aion to me or any other generic Final Fantasy clone but the combat really is a lot of fun.

Dialog seems like it's written by someone who didn't graduate from highschool and voice acting is pretty horrible.  I guess these things stick out when you come to a game like this from SWTOR.

[ericb]

I'm really looking forward to playing again next weekend.  I'll try the PvP server but there's no way in hell I'll go that route when it's live in May.  Honestly I didn't notice any real problem with the dialog or voice acting...it's no SWTOR but as good as any other MMO I've played recently.

If nothing else it's a MMO that's truly trying to be different and not just create another cookie cutter middle of the road game.  Will it break the top 5 MMOs in North America...no, not a chance in hell.  But it will get a decent following and give everyone else something to think about.  It will also probably push Aion NA into going F2P just like Aion EU did and maybe finish off FF14.

[Blackjack]

I enjoyed the combat OK, and the anime-ish look didn't bother me. I didn't see anything in the questing experience to suggest I'd enjoy things in the long term though. I'll keep it installed in case it's useful for a future weekend test.

[Misguided]

Got ToR installed on the new rig. Hoping to get this set up too and have a look this weekend.

[skystride]

I'm really looking forward to playing again next weekend.  I'll try the PvP server but there's no way in hell I'll go that route when it's live in May.  Honestly I didn't notice any real problem with the dialog or voice acting...it's no SWTOR but as good as any other MMO I've played recently.

If nothing else it's a MMO that's truly trying to be different and not just create another cookie cutter middle of the road game.  Will it break the top 5 MMOs in North America...no, not a chance in hell.  But it will get a decent following and give everyone else something to think about.  It will also probably push Aion NA into going F2P just like Aion EU did and maybe finish off FF14.

I'm looking forward to playing this weekend too but I don't know how you can say the game is truly different.  Besides the combat (which really is different and a lot of fun), everything else about it says cookie cutter to me (e.g. same old quest structure, world design, crafting, pvp, and pretty much everything else besides the combat).

[Harkonis]

I see combat as the actual 'game' of any mmo, the rest is stuff to do when not fighting.  If the combat is different, that's enough for me.

[ericb]

There's a pretty substantial patch already out there for this weekend's time so if you're in the beta event make sure you start it and update before Friday afternoon.  It went fairly quick the other day but will probably be much slower tomorrow.  Be interesting to see if the performance stands up with the higher res features enabled.

[Misguided]

Thanks, that reminds me I need to get the beta client installed...Wow, their servers are fast, I've never pulled 1 MB / sec before. Looks like it will take roughly 6 hours. Download must be roughly 20-22 GB.

[ericb]

Thanks, that reminds me I need to get the beta client installed...Wow, their servers are fast, I've never pulled 1 MB / sec before. Looks like it will take roughly 6 hours. Download must be roughly 20-22 GB.

My patched and installed version is 23.6 GB as of tonight.  Don't know if there will be any more patches before CBT2 tomorrow though.

I've played about 4 hours tonight and I have to say I like it a lot better over the last CBT.  I don't know if it's the fixes and graphics upgrade (slight one anyway) or just hitting the new areas and leveling up but it's really clicking. 

[Misguided]

The game is gorgeous. My daughter said it was "Aion on crack". The questing is very WoW-like in the early going, nothing special. The combat is certainly interesting. I'm only up to about level 6 so far, with a Mystic.

[Blackjack]

Penny Arcade's Gabe (Mike) weighed in positively:
http://penny-arcade.com/2012/02/27/tera-beta

First of all Tera is the best looking MMO I have ever seen. It’s just fucking gorgeous. The crazy thing is that not only does the game look amazing, but it also runs great. I can’t believe how fast this game loads and how smooth it runs considering the visuals.

I have to say the best part of Tera though is the combat. This is an MMO but it plays more like an action game. There is no hotbar clicking here. You assign skills to your mouse buttons and the number keys but the real fun comes in building triggered skills...
...
With all that said, I did have one major problem with the game. The quests in Tera are horrible even by MMO standards.

I pretty much agree from my brief experience: looks great, runs well, fun combat, the PVE questing is from Hell and I don't mean Diablo.  

Just have to keep in mind this is an Asia-developed mmorpg that's been westernized in many ways but not (afik) in terms of the basic PvE quest content. As a PvE focused fella, I probably wouldn't pay $15 a month, but I might be inclined to check it out for a month after launch. If I was more into PvP, I might be more inclined.

[skystride]

The graphics didn't blow me away like when playing Aion for the first time.
I also got a little bored with PvE questing continuing to play my level 16 character from before (quests kept leading me to the same area I've been for too long).  I rolled a new character but got bored as well going through the same starting content.  I like the combat and the classes but the game could use more branching/alternative content.

I'm curious how PvP is in this game but didn't get to experience it in the beta.  There are no factions so I wonder how it works.  Is it just FFA and Guild vs Guild?

[Misguided]

Finished the starter area as a mystic then got a berserker up to level 8. I generally do not play melee classes in MMOs but I had a blast and a half with the zerker. I'm actually thinking of giving the lancer a go when the next beta comes around.

While I like the mystic a lot, my concern is that they might not be much in demand at higher levels, which is often the case for hybrid classes in other MMOs.

[Misguided]

I find myself really wishing the servers were going to be back up this weekend. I'm itching to play some more.

[ericb]

Finished the starter area as a mystic then got a berserker up to level 8. I generally do not play melee classes in MMOs but I had a blast and a half with the zerker. I'm actually thinking of giving the lancer a go when the next beta comes around.

While I like the mystic a lot, my concern is that they might not be much in demand at higher levels, which is often the case for hybrid classes in other MMOs.

Don't know how it will apply here but I've read the Mystic is highly regarded in Korean-Tera and in some cases preferred over the Priest.  It helps that there's only two healing classes and the mystic provides a lot of offensive buffs.

I've also read the warrior may go full dps with a 9th class being introduced as a second tank class.

I'll second the no way in hell I'll play on a PvP server when it goes live.  First thing people did this past weekend was get to max level and then camp the 11-12s at lumbertown for hours.  Also the stories of guild vs guild...except it's not 1 guild vs 1 guild but more like 16 guilds vs 1 guild in some cases.

[Jag]

If I order this on Amazon and use the Beta key does anyone know if I can still cancel it before release if I don't like it?

[Misguided]

Finished the starter area as a mystic then got a berserker up to level 8. I generally do not play melee classes in MMOs but I had a blast and a half with the zerker. I'm actually thinking of giving the lancer a go when the next beta comes around.

While I like the mystic a lot, my concern is that they might not be much in demand at higher levels, which is often the case for hybrid classes in other MMOs.

Don't know how it will apply here but I've read the Mystic is highly regarded in Korean-Tera and in some cases preferred over the Priest.  It helps that there's only two healing classes and the mystic provides a lot of offensive buffs.

Yeah, that's the other reason I probably won't play one as my main. I don't really enjoy being a healer, and if I play a Mystic, chances are that will be expected most of the time, especially at higher levels. I don't mind doing it in a secondary role, or primary on occasion, but what drew me to it were other aspects.

If the change the Warrior to be straight dps, how will it be that different from the Slayer? I thought the idea of a mobile tank was kind of neat, but could see where it would be tough in practice, especially in a game where many buffs and heals have to be aimed.

[ericb]

If I order this on Amazon and use the Beta key does anyone know if I can still cancel it before release if I don't like it?

I've read on their forums you can pre-order from enmasse and cancel with no issues but it's unknown with other 3rd party vendors.

[Misguided]

There's a patch up for CBT3 but it is small (25MB I think). I plan to try a lancer this weekend and spend more time with the berserker. I probably shouldn't bother with the Lancer honestly. I don't like the pressure of being the tank. I don't like being expected to mark targets.

[Elmo]

Massively has beta keys.

[Elmo]

MMORPG has keys now too.

[Misguided]

Weird they are giving out keys when the servers won't be back until next weekend.

[Elmo]

The download servers must be up.  I have been doing the download but it keeps failing after about another 20% each time.  It kills my Internet and I have to reboot the router.  Very strange.

[Misguided]

The download servers must be up.  I have been doing the download but it keeps failing after about another 20% each time.  It kills my Internet and I have to reboot the router.  Very strange.

Yeah, the download servers have been up the whole time afaik. I didn't have any problems downloading awhile back.

[Elmo]

The downloader was running in P2P mode so I killed that and it's working better now.  I hate it when that is running and they don't tell me up front.  Probably buried in the fine print somewhere.

[skystride]

I'm probably going to cancel my preorder with the imminent release of Diablo 3 and then GW2 on the horizon.  For some reason I thought Tera would come out much sooner and I could kill some time in it while waiting for the big boys.

[Fez]

Well, I gave Tera a spin this past weekend.  As everyone else has said, graphically it looks great, and it runs remarkably smoothly. 

I ended up leveling an Archer to 12, and tried Sorcerer, Mystic, and Priest as well, leveling them to anywhere from 6-9.  The combat was interesting as it is a bit different than your typical MMO.  You have to actually target the Mob to hit it, although I felt a bit at the end of the day that it just resulted in too much spamming on the left mouse button -- my hand feels rather tired this week from all clicking.  In view of this dynamic, as you level you will find that you have fewer abilities than you might find in other MMOs, which is both a good thing and a bad thing.  On my archer, the combat began to feel very repetitive after I hit level 10 because I had the general sequence down.  I didn't have to vary that sequence much.

The PvE questing and leveling gets rather tedious.  I found myself essentially just clicking and accepting quests with no "pull" to read the story or even what I was supposed to do.  I'd just look at the quest tracker afterwards to see the objective.  Perhaps this is an artifact of having plaved SWTOR, where the story really sucks you in with all of the voice acting, but it does remind me of Aion, which is a game I couldn't play past level 25 due to basically the same issues.

At this point, I haven't seen whether there is anything in the game to break up the tedious PvE leveling. I didn't get a chance to try out crafting, although it seems like there are plenty of "anime" style loot that is used to augment and craft gear, or otherwise provide bonuses.  I also don't know if there are any PvP warzones or battlegrounds like you might find in WoW, Rift, and SWTOR.  I find they go a long way towards breaking up any tedious questing.  I obviously wasn't high enough to try any dungeons as well, although I know they are in the game.

[Misguided]

Yeah, the main draw is the combat. The one dungeon I've done was pretty nuts. I had hoped for a bit more from the quest system.

[Elmo]

I have a Tera beta key for the next round (April 6-8).  First PM to me can have it.

Edit - Key has been claimed.

[Blackjack]

I have a Tera beta key for the next round (April 6-8).  First PM to me can have it.

Edit - Key has been claimed.

I have a friend key for the final April 20-23 weekend testing round. PM me if you're interested in it.   If you pre-order, you get to play on the 19th too.

Also saw this reminder note in the notification e-mail:

Your TERA journey starts here. There will be no character wipe following the Open Beta Test!

So that's kinda neat.

And FYI:

The Open Beta Test will use a new build of TERA requiring a 4.3 GB patch. Run the TERA launcher to update the game so you're ready to go on April 20!

I just feel that with Diablo 3 out next month, I wouldn't probably spend much time on this after launch.

I'll try to give it a good whirl next weekend though.

[EngineNo9]

I just got an email with the "open beta key".  Not sure why you need a key for an open beta, but so it goes.

[Elmo]

I did as well if anyone wants it.

[ericb]

I'm pretty sure anyone can register for the open beta by creating an account and using the code "TERABETA" as the key. 

I'm still amazed at how fast their download servers are...got the 4 GB patch tonight in under an hour.

[Misguided]

If you have preordered, don't forget you can make one character (thus preserving a name) starting at 7pm Pacific tonight.

You will probably have to patch first, and it is a large download.

[skystride]

Which server would I reserve my name on?  Is the list of servers in beta the same as live?

[ericb]

Which server would I reserve my name on?  Is the list of servers in beta the same as live?

I picked the only RP PVE server listed...there are 10ish servers listed now including 3 PvP but I'm hoping the RP server will be a little better with community policing and attitude.  No way I'm going free for all PvP after my experiences in beta...people were camping new players almost immediately and chat was middle school level at best.

[skystride]

Which server would I reserve my name on?  Is the list of servers in beta the same as live?

I picked the only RP PVE server listed...there are 10ish servers listed now including 3 PvP but I'm hoping the RP server will be a little better with community policing and attitude.  No way I'm going free for all PvP after my experiences in beta...people were camping new players almost immediately and chat was middle school level at best.

Hmm I picked a server at random but I'm wondering if I should switch if there are a few people from GT who are playing, we might as well go to the same on.