En Masse confirms TERA for E3, hints at crafting systems [Updated]
En Masse has officially confirmed TERA's presence at this year's E3, and the company has also just released a gaggle of screenshots and a new dungeon-crawl video designed to tease fans in the lead up to various convention reveals scheduled for June 7th through June 9th.
TERA's crafting game gets a brief mention in today's press release as well, with En Masse trumpeting the fact that the tradeskill system features "more than a thousand items to create, use, and sell." Crafting is also presented as "more than clicking a button," with the collection of blueprints and mythic elements -- as well as the use of forges -- highlighted in today's news blast.
En Masse also hints at TERA's equipment customization, enchanting, and glyph systems. Read all about it via the full press release after the cut. Don't forget to check out the new screens in the gallery below while you're at it.
[Updated with a video of the Pirate Grotto dungeon, after the break!]
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Gear up for action
From the massive battle-axes of the berserkers to the flowing robes of the sorcerers, TERA's weapons and armor are at the heart of the game's action combat. TERA's crafting system gives players the tools they need to build their own gear. Whether a player wants the rock-solid protection of hematescent kryplate armor or the earth-shattering power of a lustrum scepter, they'll discover that crafting in TERA is a game in itself, with more than a thousand items to create, use, and sell.
Crafting is more than clicking a button, though-it starts with adventuring across the globe, seeking out rare blueprints and mythic elements, then working in the forges of TERA's great cities, building weapons and armor that enemies will fear and friends will envy.
Ultimate customization
Skilled TERA players customize their weapons and armor with magic crystals and enchantments to make sure they're ready for action, whether they're fighting devas in Blightwood or ovoliths deep in the caverns of Arachnaea. Putting the right crystals into a weapon can give it the power to blast enemies off their feet, reveal a foe's vulnerabilities, or poison the target. Installed in armor, the right crystal can provide perpetual healing magic, shield a player against sneak attacks, or grant extra energy for magic spells.
TERA also provides a use for the treasures a player collects but doesn't need: enchanting. A sword-wielding warrior, for example, can take the magic energy from an axe and transfer it to a favorite sword, making the sword more powerful. Repeat the enchanting process enough, and the player will "unlock" new abilities and powers for the item.
The choice is yours
In TERA, you don't just customize your gear; you customize yourself as well. Each magic spell a player casts or powerful attack a player makes can be customized with magic bonuses called glyphs. The right glyph can make a berserker's axe swing more swiftly, for example, or make an archer's arrows fly farther. Glyph choice enables new battlefield tactics-like a numbing arrow that deadens the nerves of the enemy it hits-and it poses interesting strategic questions for the player. Would a sorcerer prefer a fireblast that launches more quickly, or a fireblast that uses less magic energy? Different players will make different choices; multiply those choices over TERA's hundreds of skills, and no two players are the same.
Scheduled for release in 2011, TERA is developed by Bluehole Studio, and will be released by En Masse Entertainment in North America and Frogster in Europe. We will continue to release more information about the mysterious world of TERA leading up to the game's launch, so stay tuned!
