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TERAfans shows off Amani cloth and leather sets
En Masse Entertainment's upcoming TERA action fantasy MMORPG continues to show off its unique armor and clothing options, this time courtesy of the TERAfans.com website. The latest installment of fan renders, where in-game avatars are displayed against a set backdrop, feature leather and cloth armors specific to the Amani race. "These armors are very impressive with their vibrant colors and uniquely Amani flare. The male armor characterizes the race as strong and vicious while the females seem just as ready to protect their honor," writes TERAfans administrator Amira on the site's forums. The post also teases an upcoming look at both male and female High Elf armors in the coming weeks. Massively readers may also be happy to note that this installment features fully-clothed models, in a bit of a departure from previous TERA armor renders. Finally, be prepared to wait a bit for the page to load due to the large number of high-quality images.
Knox details TERA's archer
Alexan over at TERAbow has posted an interesting Q&A with En Masse Entertainment's senior producer Brian Knox. The interview features TERA's archer class, no great surprise given TERAbow's focus, and highlights a few worthwhile nuggets of information for those looking to pew pew their way through the upcoming action fantasy MMORPG. "The archer is a very action-oriented class. It requires a player to aim attacks (place the crosshairs where you want the arrows to go), and also to evaluate the situation and think ahead. Higher level archers can leap backwards to create distance between themselves and a target, as well as lay traps for incoming foes," Knox says. He goes on to chat about a multitude of archer-related topics including hit-box sizes, arrows vs. mana pools, and mobile fighting styles. Check out the full interview over at TERAbow.
TERA invites the Berserker to visit for tea
When you heard that one of TERA's classes was to be called the "Berserker" and you either thought of either the 80's arcade cabinet classic or an obscure song from the movie Clerks, then we could be fast friends. In any case, TERA's Brian Knox and Scott James Magner sat down with ZAM to talk about this brutal class and why it might appeal to the barbarian in all of us. TERA's Berserker is a two-handed axe wielder who has his weapon constantly in motion. The relatively short range of the class means that Berserkers have to get up close and personal with any foe they're fighting, but the increased risk of such moves are paid off with some of the highest DPS of the game. Because TERA uses both collision and positioning in its combat system, it's essential for the Berserker to hit with the blade and then duck away before getting slammed in return. Get too close, and you'll end up hitting with the hilt and wondering why the monster is laughing at you. You can read the full interview at ZAM and check out a series of screenshots detailing one of the Berserker's key moves. The official TERA site also has an outline of the class, along with a video for your eyes only (it will self-destruct after viewing).
TERA's Southern Arun detailed
The official TERA website has been updated with a new world lore entry. En Masse Entertainment, North American publishers for the forthcoming action MMORPG, have made a concerted effort to focus marketing efforts on the title's unique lore, and today's update is the latest example. Southern Arun lies at the heart of the Valkyon Federation, below the Great Rift that bisects Arun in two. "The great human city of Velika is the jewel of Southern Arun. Built by humans in collaboration with the goddess Velik, the city is the capital of the Federation and the nexus of trade and diplomacy, as well as being the center of the struggle for Southern Arun. The landscape is dominated by the Great Machine, which not only powers the city but helps protect it," proclaims the update. You can read more about TERA's lore at the official site.
TERA shows off Oblivion Woods screens
En Masse Entertainment has revealed a new location courtesy of their Screenshots of the Week featurette. Oblivion Woods, just beyond the village of Crescentia, takes center stage in the fourth installment of TERA screen reveals. "Vibrant wildflowers bloom under a swaying verdant canopy and docile woodland creatures hide in tufts of foliage. But there are more than tall trees and furry critters in this land: groups of Devan skirmishers have set up camp near Crescentia and hulking Basilisks roam wild, attacking adventurers who stray too near," proclaims the accompanying release. You can check out the original article, or jump directly to the large-format gallery on Flickr.
TERAblah teases more armor sets
TERAblah is at it again, this time courtesy of the second installment in their series of galleries featuring armor sets from the TERA action fantasy MMORPG. This set focuses on leather armor, which is used primarily by archers, slayers, and warriors, and features both protection and maneuverability. "Once again our model of choice is a lovely female Castanic, purely a coincidence of course," writes TERAblah's ExiledRealm. "As before the look of the armor is usually shared amongst two or three other items, so in this case we just listed them based on their rare crafted names (yes, all these can be crafted)," Head on over to the post on TERAblah's forums, or jump directly to the gallery.
ZAM interviews TERA's Brian Knox
En Masse Entertainment's Brian Knox answers some moderately tough questions about the studio's upcoming TERA action MMORPG. The interview, courtesy of ZAM.com, touches on a little bit of everything including what makes TERA a next-generation title, enemy challenge levels, and the difficulties in appealing to both hardcore and casual gamers. "The good thing about action combat is that it lets the player's skill determine the complexity. We worked very hard to make the game intuitive for any gamer, and we believe players will really be able to stretch the system. For example, one person playing as a sorcerer might be more inclined to use area-of-effect skills and dodging, whereas another may choose to use direct damage skills and focus on healing. Each class has a lot of variables, and gamers are going to be able to play the game the way they want," Knox says. You can check out the full interview at ZAM.com.
TERAblah shows off Castanic armor gallery
TERAblah.com, a fansite dedicated to En Masse Entertainment's forthcoming TERA action MMORPG, has put together a nifty custom gallery featuring some of the game's armor. The gallery is the first installment of a planned series of articles on TERA's equipment, and focuses on the mail armor used by the Lancer and Berserker classes. "Our model of choice is a lovely female Castanic, where seemingly less equals more," writes TERAblah's ExiledRealm. "The look of the armor is usually shared amongst two or three other items, so in this case we just listed them based on their rare crafted names (yes, all these can be crafted!)" Head on over to the TERAblah forums, or link directly to the gallery.
TERA's Brian Knox talks PvP
En Masse Entertainment's Brian Knox, producer for the forthcoming TERA action MMORPG, recently stopped by the TERAonline.it forums for a PvP-centric interview. The piece touches on everything from dedicated servers, to PvP gear and bonuses, to a brief hint about the game's political system. "We want to create a system that allows for full PvP freedom but discourages ganking. The declaration of PvP you're referring to is something in the Korean version of the game that warns a PK target you're about to kill them, which we actually removed in our first Focus Group Test to see how the game worked without it. It's not quite perfect yet but we're getting close," Knox says. Check out the full article over at TERAonline.it. Be sure to click the "spoiler: show" link if you'd like to read the English translation.
TERA releases more Screenshots of the Week
En Masse Entertainment, North American publisher for the Bluehole Studio action fantasy MMORPG TERA, has released the third edition of their Screenshots of the Week feature. The latest entry in the series showcases the city of Velika and the neighboring villages of Crecentia and Lumbertown. "These villages border Fey Forest and Oblivion Woods respectively, two different wooded lands each home to different creatures," writes Community Manager Evan "Scapes" Berman on the game's official boards. You can view the new images on the official TERA website, or for larger versions, check out the game's Flickr photostream. TERA fans can also vote to decide the focus of the next installment of Screenshots of the Week on the official forums.
TERA focus group postmortem looks at westernization
The second installment of the TERA Focus Group 2 postmortem is out, and this time it's all about the westernization of the game. TERA fans are generally happy to see En Masse Entertainment working to westernize the game, but En Masse acknowledged that they still have a long way to go. The focus group felt that the first eleven levels of the game were well done -- immersive, fun, and rewarding with a great story. The consensus from there on out was that the rewards didn't scale to match the difficulty, leading to a situation where it was more rewarding to ignore the quests, and instead kill monsters. Since the majority of the TERA story is told through quests, it's important that they be worth doing. This information allowed the TERA developers to go forward with a better distribution of quests, better rewards, and a lot more quests overall as part of the westernization of the game. Take a look at the full account on the TERA site for all the details.
TERA class trailer available on YouTube
We here at Massively are unabashedly looking forward to TERA, the forthcoming fantasy action MMORPG from Bluehole Studio and En Masse Entertainment. For those of you who were unable to attend this year's GDC10, En Masse has helpfully released the teaser trailer (that originally debuted at the conference way back in March) on YouTube. The two-minute video focuses on the game's eight classes, and was created using in-game footage. Taking center stage are the Slayer, the Archer, the Lancer, the Warrior, the Sorcerer, the Berserker, the Priest and the Mystic, each featuring a few moments of gameplay footage interspersed with some brief concept art shots. Check out the trailer embedded after the cut or over on YouTube.
TERA's David Noonan talks lore, geography
TERA is rapidly becoming synonymous with lore in MMORPG circles, as En Masse Entertainment has gone to great lengths to talk about the game's back story as well as highlighting some of the individuals creating it. Lead writer David Noonan was recently interviewed over at The Examiner, and spoke at length about what makes a unique MMO, artistic inspiration, and literal versus figurative takes on the lore. "The characters in the world regard the world-creation story as a literal truth -- even if it happened long before they were born. And I think that's important to the feel of the world. We want TERA to be a place where gods and magic have a very real, authentic presence," Noonan says. You can check out the full interview over at The Examiner, and don't forget to peruse the nifty new screenshots accompanying the article.
New TERA character creation video debuts
En Masse Entertainment's Evan "Scapes" Berman has called our attention to a new TERA-centric video over on the game's official forums. The short, produced by the development team at Bluehole Studio in Korea, shows various changes made in the character creation process as a result of player feedback. "One of the key pieces of feedback we received was the desire for more character customization and this video shows one of the upcoming enhancements to TERA that allows players to customize the unique look of their character: more facial feature options and feature sliders to allow for custom modification," Berman writes. Jump directly to the video on the Hangame website, or access it via the official TERA forums.
En Masse unveils more TERA screens
The kind folks over at En Masse Entertainment continue to feed our TERA habit, this time in the form of their second Screenshots of the Week offering. As with last week, the shots focus on some of the big nasties that populate the Isle of Dawn. Community manager Evan "Scapes" Berman has all the details on the official forums. "This darkened corner is infested with fearsome monsters and evil manifestations who threaten the local populace with their presence. Heroes are needed to rise to the challenge and send these foes back to the darkness," he writes. You can view the images on the official TERA website, or for larger versions, check out the official Flickr photostream. Can't get enough of Massively's TERA coverage? Be sure and check out our exclusive Lore Dev Diary as well as the associated screen shots.
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.
Exclusive TERA lore dev diary #2: Rough Lessons
TERA sure is easy on the eyes, but it isn't just another pretty face -- it's got a sharp mind as well, ready to cut to the quick. If you can avoid getting lost in the gorgeous graphics that can only be properly described by a wordsmith such as Stephanie Meyer, you'll find that there's a concerted effort by the TERA team to build up a library of lore for players to enjoy. While you'll have to wait several months to get your hands on this up-and-coming title, you don't have to wait another second to dine on a delectable piece of TERA backstory (continuing from April's first lore dev diary). In this exclusive dev diary entitled "Rough Lessons," TERA scribe Stacey Janssen throws us in the midst of a brutal training session, where hints as to the game's creatures and combat moves tease the full potential of the game. Seeing as how we all begin as nooblet trainees, this tale speaks to us on a common level. Hit the jump for the full story and a couple new screenshots! What, can't we admire a game for both its mind and its body?
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.
The Daily Grind: What crazy idea should someone try?
If you want to be a cynic, or you just happen to be one anyway, it's easy to complain that MMOs have turned into something of a cookie-cutter genre. So many of the basic expectations that players have are all but carved into stone, and there's a well-understood set of basics, ranging from quests to default control schemes. Of course, there's no shortage of variances between the biggest titles, but there's certainly a general idea in people's heads of what an MMO should look like by default. Of course, any artist knows the best thing for when a genre starts to stagnate: trying something truly absurd, something that breaks down basic assumptions of what should be done. And we're seeing games with systems that do precisely that, like TERA's action-oriented combat with no lock-on or Guild Wars 2 experimenting with environmental gameplay. But those only scratch the surface of all the assumptions about MMOs that could be turned on their ear. What insane idea would you like to see a game put into practice?
TERA compiles Elleon's Journal, starts Day 2
Lore and storytelling often seem like lost arts in the majority of today's MMORPGs, as the games (and the players) tend to focus heavily on advancement and item collecting. TERA, the upcoming action fantasy title from Bluehole Studio and En Masse Entertainment, looks to change that equation with compelling world and character lore designed to flesh out the game's unique setting. Lead writer David Noonan has been delivering story updates via Twitter for some time, effectively using the microblogging service to disseminate the journal entries of a TERA NPC known as Elleon. "I want to make something absolutely clear at the outset: Elleon isn't tweeting. That would be wrong, wrong, wrong. But we are using Twitter to distribute Elleon's journal entries, which will tell a story (and give you a peek at game content) over the coming weeks and months. Twitter is just the distribution technique; Elleon isn't going to retweet, reply, or anything like that," Noonan said in a forum post last month. Fast forward four weeks and the official TERA website has released a compilation of the Day 1 journal entries. Check it out, and don't forget to get your lore fix with Elleon's Journal: Day 2 on the official Twitter feed.
