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TERA's Patrick Wyatt talks lag, security, and an M-rating
TERA is shaping up to be a huge hit with international audiences, and nowhere is this more evident than in En Masse Entertainment's willingness to reach out to fan communities outside the U.S. The latest example comes courtesy of TERAHispano, as they recently sat down with En Masse COO Patrick Wyatt for a round of questions regarding everything from microtransactions, to account security, to lag. Wyatt has lots to say in the lengthy interview, and among the more interesting nuggets is the fact that En Masse expects TERA to ship with an M-rating. He also touches on performance issues, pointing to the Focus Group Tests as evidence that lag won't be an issue for the game's action combat system. "When we built the first Western servers for TERA, we selected a QA datacenter just a few miles from our offices in Seattle, which meant that European players who joined our Focus Group Tests were playing on servers over 5000 miles away. Based on the forum posts, polls, and informal surveys from those events, we didn't see lag problems," Wyatt says. Finally, he reiterates that TERA will not be a microtransaction-based title, and also discusses GameGuard and alternatives to the intrusive anti-cheat software.
TERA releases new Screens of the Week, skill change info
We may not have much information on TERA's highly secret political system, nor do we have a ton of new gameplay details to report, but one thing we always have in abundance regarding the forthcoming action MMORPG is screenshots. Yes, En Masse has delivered the eleventh installment of their venerable Screenshots of the Week featurette, this time focusing on the Valley of Nihil. Situated on TERA's western continent, the valley is an arid wasteland of cracked plateaus and foreboding sandstone that you can view in our gallery below. En Masse was also kind enough to drop a few tidbits regarding skill tweaks earlier this week. In a brief news release, the TERA publisher details some of the feedback received from the Focus Group Test 2 that concluded earlier this spring, as well as some new skills that resulted from the feedback. Have a look at the skill descriptions as well as the in-game icons on the game's official website. %Gallery-96720%
TERA FGT2 recap features new screens
TERA Fans does it again, this time with some nifty screen shots and a wee bit of commentary on the second Focus Group Test. Judging by the images, the action fantasy MMORPG from Bluehole Studio and En Masse Entertainment is going to be one of the prettiest on the market. From shots of character creation and armor choices to vast panoramas and even a brief look at the Homunculus pet system interface, this update delivers the visual goods. "This weekend, many TERA fans got a chance to test our favorite game! From what was available for us to test, the TERA Fans staff is able to discuss a few exciting features. Over the next few weeks, we'll be featuring wiki articles and guides with some exclusive information on the topics found below! Keep a look out," writes Amira, TERA Fans administrator.
