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TERA play diary takes you to the Oblivion Woods
TERA news has been at a premium lately, and aside from yesterday's BAM reveal, it's been all quiet on the Arborean front for some time now. Luckily, En Masse has graced us with its latest TERA community play diary, and our intrepid hosts -- Jason "BrotherMagneto" Mical and Evan "Scapes" Berman -- are back to guide us through the upcoming title's fantasy dreamscape. This time, the pair are causing all sorts of trouble in and around TERA's Oblivion Woods, and there's a bit of discussion about new spells (including AoE heals and a crowd-control ability known as Ishara's lullaby). As per usual with the community play diary series, there are also several gorgeous screenshots to be had, so head to the official TERA website and have a look.
TERA community play diary visits Velika
It's time for another entry in En Masse Entertainment's community play diary series, and this week finds Jason "BrotherMagneto" Mical and Evan "Scapes" Berman exploring the human city of Velika and its outlying provinces. Velika is one of the initial stopovers for new characters after leaving the Isle of Dawn, and the city serves as a quest hub, a place to learn about TERA's crafting system, and a vast fantasy-scape rife with exploration opportunities. The city is so vast, in fact, that Scapes points out the city teleporter, "a rotating contraption made of gears and magic that will port you to distant corners fo the town for a small fee." The diary goes on to mention the crafting introduction quests, during which players may choose from the weaponsmithing, armorsmithing, tailoring, leatherworking, or alchemy disciplines. Scapes and BrotherMagneto also stumble across Velika's dueling arena before collecting their quests and setting out for Lumbertown. Read all about it at the official TERA website.
TERA producer: Getting to endgame doesn't take a lot of time
Episode three of the official TERA podcast is a wrap, and community director Jason "BrotherMagneto" Mical sits down with En Masse producers Brian Knox and Chris Hager to talk voice acting, E3 2011, and the recently concluded community play event. There's also a few interesting blurbs related to TERA's endgame, both in terms of reaching it and what it entails. Hager discusses the challenges of recording "greet and goodbye" dialogue snippets for quest-givers as well as more involved cinematic presentations that will occur throughout the TERA progression experience. Knox jumps right to fan concerns about TERA's leveling curve, saying that it doesn't have much in common with your typical grindfest. "We're putting a lot of focus on adding more content to the endgame and making sure there's lots to do at max level. Getting to max level in TERA, it doesn't take a lot of time. We've made sure that progress is fast and efficient," Knox explains. So what is there to do at endgame? Knox says that dungeons and boss fights will play a significant role, and En Masse will be tweaking the difficulty levels to continually challenge players.
TERA play diary visits the Isle of Dawn and the Tainted Gorge
TERA's Community Play Event may be over, but the Community Play Diary is still rolling right along. For those of you who haven't checked it out yet: The diary is basically a running commentary on the fantasy MMO's newbie experience (at least until narrators Jason "BrotherMagneto" Mical and Evan "Scapes" Berman move on to some higher-level play fields). The En Masse community management dynamic duo is back with the latest diary installment, which finds the pair finishing up its tour of the Isle of Dawn and moving on toward the Tainted Gorge outpost. Along the way, we're treated to random nuggets of advice and commentary relating to gathering and ranged aiming as well as a few mentions of noteworthy quests in the area. There are also some accompanying screenshots that are worth a look, and you can view the piece at the official TERA website.
TERA play diary talks world size, combat timing, and more
The Isle of Dawn may be the proverbial newbie area when it comes to TERA, but if En Masse Entertainment's recent Community Play Diaries are any indication, the locale is anything but a smallish tutorial zone. En Masse's Jason "BrotherMagneto" Mical and Evan "Scapes" Berman are back with another diary entry that aims to give readers a glimpse into everyday play sessions involving the upcoming fantasy MMO. The fact that the dynamic duo are still on the Isle of Dawn after several weeks worth of diaries speaks to the sheer size of the place. "The Island of Dawn feels big, and when you look at the game map, it's really just a tiny blip. One of these days, I'm going to have to do a run-across-the-world adventure and time myself," Mical writes, while also hinting at the vastness of Arborea proper. This week's diary sees Mical and Berman carving a path through the Isle's numerous mobs toward Leander's Outpost. Along the way, they find time to discuss the finer points of TERA's action combat, and more specifically, the way that timing, motor skills, and repetition will determine your success -- as opposed to RNG and better equipment. "Since this is my alt character and I haven't played AnungUnRama since last week, fighting the terrons and noruks feels a little sluggish, and it's not hard to see why -- my timing's all off," Mical explains.
En Masse releases new TERA Community Play Diary entry
TERA may have had a relatively laid-back showing at this year's GDC, but development continues apace for the folks at En Masse Entertainment. Community director Jason "BrotherMagneto" Mical and community manager Evan "Scapes" Berman have returned to give anxious fans another peek behind the curtain, courtesy of the latest installment in the ongoing Community Play Diary series. This week's episode, dubbed Learning the Ropes, sees our intrepid hosts showing off a few of TERA's more unique tutorial aspects. Activities include bomb-throwing and climbing along with more traditional NPC interaction and UI familiarization fare that takes the form of story-based quests from the perspective of a raw Valkyon Federation recruit. Read all about it on the official TERA website, and check out this handy forum thread if you've missed any of the previous series installments.
TERA community play diaries detail character creation
We talked briefly last week about TERA's upcoming community play test, an event designed to give TERA fans the opportunity to see and discuss the game's latest build prior to the start of North American beta activities. As a prelude, En Masse Entertainment community team members Jason "BrotherMagneto" Mical and Evan "Scapes" Berman have penned a couple of Community Play Diary blog entries to whet our collective appetite. Mical's In the Beginning piece focuses on character creation and offers a bit of commentary on the new build, new character options, and the author's roleplaying background. There's also a couple of nifty screenshots including one from the new introduction cinematic that shows a freshly created character flying to the Isle of Dawn. Berman's A Labor of Love entry gives us the low-down on the En Masse employee guild as well as a few anecdotes from staffers who spent time grouping and questing together in the new build. Scapes goes into a good bit of detail regarding customization sliders and also notes that he spent 54 minutes perfecting his character's look. You can read both play diaries in full at the official TERA website.
TERA's Jason Mical teases politics, group balancing
TERA's political system continues to be shrouded in mystery, and whether it's a proper MacGuffin or some sort of public-relations red herring designed to simultaneously titillate and obfuscate is unclear. One thing that is clear is the fact that En Masse Entertainment representatives are reluctant to do much beyond tease the fact that the system exists. The latest example comes via an interview with community director Jason "BrotherMagneto" Mical over at World of TERA. Mical talks briefly about the level of player freedom inherent in the system. "I suppose the level of freedom will in some part depend on who gets elected. Some leaders might be benevolent, while others might become outright tyrants. Some who start with the best of intentions will probably end up tyrants. In other words, it's going to be a bit like real politics," he says. He goes on to state that PvP will influence TERA's political system quite a bit, referencing Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton "on a much larger and more common scale."
TERA's Mical talks political system, endgame PvP
Want to know more about TERA's political system, as well as juicy details on the forthcoming action MMORPG's endgame PvP? Yeah so do we, but at the moment the best we can do is an interview with En Masse Entertainment's Jason "BrotherMagneto" Mical. The German fansite Onlinewelten managed to snag a few moments of the community manager's time, and while he steadfastly avoids revealing much beyond the title's talking points, at least the talking points are moving away from Westernization and in the general direction of actual game information. Perhaps the most interesting comment to come out of the interview is a remark tying together the title's PvP and political systems. "Valkyon points are part of the political system, and yes they are associated with PvP as well. Political clout can be gained by defeating enemies-especially very skilled ones-or enemies with clout of their own," Mical says.
TERA's Jason Mical talks community, crafting
TERAHispano has a new interview with En Masse Entertainment community director Jason "BrotherMagneto" Mical. The TERA developer weighs in on a wide range of subjects including what it takes to be a community director, working at En Masse, and a bit of teaser regarding equipment and crafting. "The current plan is to make the highest-end items exclusive to raid boss drops, but crafted items can come very close to these high-end items. We'll talk more about the crafting and enchanting systems soon, and get more in-depth about what exactly that means," Michal says. He goes on to chat about his PR experiences, and how they help him channel both En Masse's and Bluehole Studio's vision of TERA into a coherent and community-focused message. "Apart from working on TERA, a great game, the attraction of En Masse is that the company is small enough -- and daring enough -- that the marketing team (including community) has a lot of latitude to do some really cutting-edge stuff," he says. View the full interview at TERAHispano.
TERA devs talk grind, player choice
TERA devs and community staff have been out in force as of late, making the rounds with interviews, podcast appearances, and forum posts at fan sites around the world. Roger over at For the Lore writes in to let us know about his podcast interview with En Masse producer Brian Knox and creative writer Robin MacPherson, which you can check out here. Also, En Masse community director Jason "BrotherMagneto" Mical stopped by Russian fan site GoHa.ru to answer a lengthy series of questions including bits on the PvP flagging system, grind, and player choice. "Our goal is to make multiple ways to reach any goal with no one way 'better' or more 'profitable' than others, and to give players the choice of achieving mastery based on their specific style of gameplay," Mical says. "This is another example of the range of choices players have in TERA – you can play either way. There's a rich story-driven experience in TERA, and our intent is to create questlines that will take you from the first to the final level without having to repeat a single one or grind for experience in the interim," he continues. Check out the full interview over at GoHa.ru. Please note that the forum post is in Russian. To view the interview in English, scroll to the bottom of the first post and click the green plus icon.
En Masse devs interviewed on TERACast
Caelixian, creator and host of TERACast, has managed to score a couple of impressive interviews recently. This week, he talks to TERA community director Jason "BrotherMagneto" Mical, and delves into topics ranging from Focus Group Test 2, to En Masse Entertainment's interaction with Bluehole Studio, to TERA's westernization. "Fleshing out lore, tweaking game mechanics, you know, westernization is all of those things. It's fleshing out the story, looking at what works with the Western audience and taking it forward to make the game successful," Mical says. Mical goes on to discuss En Masse's approach to building community and how it differs from the industry norm. "I want to take that experience that you get in the game and translate it outside the game. How can we take that TERA experience and make it something that you want to interact with all the time," he says. Check out the podcast for the full interview.
TERA dev talks political system, westernization
Amira over at Terafans.com points us toward a nifty developer interview with En Masse Entertainment's Jason 'BrotherMagneto' Mical, Community Director for the publisher's forthcoming TERA action MMORPG. The piece touches on everything from languages and localization to the political system, which remains shrouded in a bit of mystery. "We're still putting the finishing touches on the system, and we don't want to leak too much, too early. However, I can share that it will be heavily dependent on guilds and groups, so PvP players will probably find something very much to their liking in the system," said Mical. The interview also features a couple of noteworthy bits about developing TERA for the western market. The game is the brainchild of Korean MMO heavyweight Bluehole Studio, an outfit composed of Lineage II veterans. "The Western version of TERA will differ distinctly from the Korean version. There will be additional lore and quests, location and NPC names will differ, and there will be other cosmetic changes, too. We're still determining how much the two versions will differ in terms of game mechanics. Our input is helping to influence the game's development in Korea, and mechanics will likely be very similar, but not identical," Mical said.
