TERA: The Exiled Realm of Arborea: Hands-On

SBFord

TERA: The Exiled Realms of Arborea devs were on hand at this year's Comic Con and Carolyn Koh scored a lucky hands-on preview of this action-MMO. TERA is being developed by Bluehole Studios and published by En Masse in North America. Carolyn found a lot to like during her time with TERA. Find out what struck her fancy in her firsthand look at TERA.

TERA: The Exiled Realm of Arborea is the latest entry into the much vaunted “Action” MMO market, with combat that is more active/reactive than the traditional hit “A” and go for a sandwich while the game rolls the die variety. En Masse Entertainment pulled off a beautiful demo to prove that at E3. Scheduling 4 journalists into each time slot, we entered the booth, were each seated at a PC, handed headsets, a Quick-Start guide, were quickly guided through the controls and followed the Healer – an En Masse staffer into battle.

Read all of Carolyn's findings in her hands-on preview.

Kenaoshi

no news here, expecting a video

Zyllos

Ya, this link is not working...

SirGrady

don't like these huge weapons.

Nephaerius

I was previously unaware of healers having to actually target players with the reticle to cast heals.  That's pretty cool.  Stressful I'm sure, but cool.

NerdDude

Wow a game following a diffrent format sweet so sick of the tired old battle sytems that been around since EQ. (^o^)y

Drakynn

Originally posted by NerdDude

Wow a game following a diffrent format sweet so sick of the tired old battle sytems that been around since EQ. (^o^)y

Around before any MMORPG and a staple of CRPGs,some of us accept stat based and somewhat turn based combat as part of the CRPG genre and in fact like and expect it,not that I'm saying it can't be redone in a way that makes it seem new.Nor am I saying that there's anything wrong with a hybrid game,such as this one seems to be,a good game is a good game, but sometimes you do want a true CRPG experience.

rikwes

I saw this :

"merchants from whom to buy health/mana/buff potions and scrolls such as town portal scrolls. A glyph system will also be in game for stat / skill enhancements and players will have to visit NPCs in the larger towns to apply and remove/rest their glyphs. Some outlying camps will also have Pegasus platforms besides the merchants and healer for ease of travel." 

 

and already knew enough .Another Asian grinder ....

tree2me

Originally posted by rikwes

I saw this :

"merchants from whom to buy health/mana/buff potions and scrolls such as town portal scrolls. A glyph system will also be in game for stat / skill enhancements and players will have to visit NPCs in the larger towns to apply and remove/rest their glyphs. Some outlying camps will also have Pegasus platforms besides the merchants and healer for ease of travel." 

 

and already knew enough .Another Asian grinder ....

 

So....you read that there will be the standard supply merchants, a system to alter skills to have for example a higher crit rate or shorter cooldown which can be applied in the bigger towns, and that Tera will have the normal travel features to move from one area/city to another and from that you concluded it is "Another Asian grinder" ?

You must have a field day reading the mmo descriptions for anything that has released post everquest. My god the asian grinders are everywhere!

adam_nox

Originally posted by Drakynn

Originally posted by NerdDude

Wow a game following a diffrent format sweet so sick of the tired old battle sytems that been around since EQ. (^o^)y

Around before any MMORPG and a staple of CRPGs,some of us accept stat based and somewhat turn based combat as part of the CRPG genre and in fact like and expect it,not that I'm saying it can't be redone in a way that makes it seem new.Nor am I saying that there's anything wrong with a hybrid game,such as this one seems to be,a good game is a good game, but sometimes you do want a true CRPG experience.

I disagree.  MMO's invented a combat system way slower, tedius, and mind numbing than any rpg before it and outside of the genre.  In the early days it had to be this way in order to avoid straining the servers and people's limited bandwidth.  Later it became the accepted norm and a way for developers to be lazy.

alkarionlog

stil I can just read anything in the future, :P

too grind, too difficult to aim and cast spells, i'm lagging too much and I can't fight against then, what is the point in have skills if my opponent sword hit 10x more then my sword and so on.

 

new things are always new things, if is good or no I will wait till I put my hands on this game, but the complains will be all the same, in the last 10 years are the same I doubt one single game will change that...

eLdritchZ

Originally posted by Terikan3

Originally posted by Drakynn

Originally posted by NerdDude

Wow a game following a diffrent format sweet so sick of the tired old battle sytems that been around since EQ. (^o^)y

Around before any MMORPG and a staple of CRPGs,some of us accept stat based and somewhat turn based combat as part of the CRPG genre and in fact like and expect it,not that I'm saying it can't be redone in a way that makes it seem new.Nor am I saying that there's anything wrong with a hybrid game,such as this one seems to be,a good game is a good game, but sometimes you do want a true CRPG experience.

I disagree.  MMO's invented a combat system way slower, tedius, and mind numbing than any rpg before it and outside of the genre.  In the early days it had to be this way in order to avoid straining the servers and people's limited bandwidth.  Later it became the accepted norm and a way for developers to be lazy.

i don't know what MMOs you have been playing in the last couple of years... but with WoW, WAR, AoC and LotRO i had about 3-4 or more quickbars full of skills... that alone makes the combat very interesting... you know? with memorizing 30-odd keys for your character... it's not twitch but it surely flows well and favours player skill, too... sure you can just /autoattack stuff to death or click your skills or just use 5 of them and you might be fine for normal mobs and situation... but then comes the time where you need another ability and that's where the "action" starts...

compare it to RTS. you might not need the twitch you need for, say, quake3, but you sure have to memorize a lot more hotkeys than quake3 to excel(and build orders, etc) it's the same with the "standard" MMO combat... not a lot of twitch but lots and lots of hotkeys to memorize and (for pvp) a lot of other classes' abilities to memorize as well

it's true that it originated back in the old days because of server strain, blabla but it evolved as well... DAoC combat f.e. was a bit more on the slower side and the skills filled max 2 hotbars including macros... nowadays combat flows a lot more in most MMOs than it did back then and classes have got more abilities and so on...

not saying I'm not open to new stuff... tried Tabula Rasa and enjoyed it, tried AoC (don't kid yourself... TERA's combat is pretty much AoC without combos and more dodge-di-doo-da) and liked it... but the oldschool autohit+skills system has something going for it.

 

Also TERA is still an Asian Grinder.... not saying it's bad for everybody, hell there are loads of people enjoying Aion and Lineage2... but don't kid yourself into thinking that TERA is going to be THE one exception to the westernization rule... you're just gonna cry tears of woe later...

aurick

Originally posted by Nephaerius

I was previously unaware of healers having to actually target players with the reticle to cast heals.  That's pretty cool.  Stressful I'm sure, but cool.

 

 

It SOUNDS cool, but in practice it can get really annoying.  There was a similar system in Tabula Rasa.  If I remember right, that one even had a semi-smart targeting system that would try to help you target other players so that you could heal them.  It was NOT a lot of fun and drew plenty of complaints from those trying to play support classes.

Soultice

I too am leary of another asian production company promising the moon and delivering crap.  This game look promising and yet I am going to wait and see before I buy this time.  Aion, a beautiful game, that was nothing but a grind, once you hit lvl 36.   Many other Asian Dev's in the past did the same thing. Most gamers are not into grinding in the same location day after day and then move,grind in another area day after day.  Rinse, repeat.

Tera does have some hope with the new studio here in the West helping them.  I can only hope this time an Asian dev can deliver something besides a graphically beautiful game that is nothing more then a grind!

 

Blindchance

Interesting concept in a theme park game, a step closer to full FPS like combat ( which we already have in games like DF or MO ), BUT I don't like the asian art style. Oversized weapons, Popori race, strange manga like style ( take a look at monsters on those screenshots  ), that's just screams: NO for me.

Scot

There is a lot I like here; reactive combat without target lock, good avatar sliders, races with a strong sense of individuality about them. Lots of other things as well, but we can't get away from the grind unless they implement a lot more quests it seems. So definalty one to keep an eye on, but as always no preorder, lets see how it pans out.

NerdDude

Originally posted by eLdritchZ

Originally posted by Terikan3

Originally posted by Drakynn

Originally posted by NerdDude

Wow a game following a diffrent format sweet so sick of the tired old battle sytems that been around since EQ. (^o^)y

Around before any MMORPG and a staple of CRPGs,some of us accept stat based and somewhat turn based combat as part of the CRPG genre and in fact like and expect it,not that I'm saying it can't be redone in a way that makes it seem new.Nor am I saying that there's anything wrong with a hybrid game,such as this one seems to be,a good game is a good game, but sometimes you do want a true CRPG experience.

I disagree.  MMO's invented a combat system way slower, tedius, and mind numbing than any rpg before it and outside of the genre.  In the early days it had to be this way in order to avoid straining the servers and people's limited bandwidth.  Later it became the accepted norm and a way for developers to be lazy.

i don't know what MMOs you have been playing in the last couple of years... but with WoW, WAR, AoC and LotRO i had about 3-4 or more quickbars full of skills... that alone makes the combat very interesting... you know? with memorizing 30-odd keys for your character... it's not twitch but it surely flows well and favours player skill, too... sure you can just /autoattack stuff to death or click your skills or just use 5 of them and you might be fine for normal mobs and situation... but then comes the time where you need another ability and that's where the "action" starts...

compare it to RTS. you might not need the twitch you need for, say, quake3, but you sure have to memorize a lot more hotkeys than quake3 to excel(and build orders, etc) it's the same with the "standard" MMO combat... not a lot of twitch but lots and lots of hotkeys to memorize and (for pvp) a lot of other classes' abilities to memorize as well

it's true that it originated back in the old days because of server strain, blabla but it evolved as well... DAoC combat f.e. was a bit more on the slower side and the skills filled max 2 hotbars including macros... nowadays combat flows a lot more in most MMOs than it did back then and classes have got more abilities and so on...

not saying I'm not open to new stuff... tried Tabula Rasa and enjoyed it, tried AoC (don't kid yourself... TERA's combat is pretty much AoC without combos and more dodge-di-doo-da) and liked it... but the oldschool autohit+skills system has something going for it.

 

Also TERA is still an Asian Grinder.... not saying it's bad for everybody, hell there are loads of people enjoying Aion and Lineage2... but don't kid yourself into thinking that TERA is going to be THE one exception to the westernization rule... you're just gonna cry tears of woe later...

 

yea 3 -4 quickbars full of skills but you spam only like 3 or 4 buttons if your lucky lol. (^o^)V

Bastioni

Originally posted by eLdritchZ

Also TERA is still an Asian Grinder....

... you're just gonna cry tears of woe later...

 

There will still be people who buy it and then complain it is grind. Happens every time, they will never learn.

Game has boobies + huge weapons, so most think it will be awesome, even though they know nothing about the game at all.

Bastioni

Originally posted by NerdDude

Wow a game following a diffrent format sweet so sick of the tired old battle sytems that been around since EQ. (^o^)y

 

"The Mystic have more offensive magic, and have a nifty spell called Vampiric Circle that drains the health of enemies within the circle and converts it to mana for your party."

= Mana tap from EQ necromancer class.

lol

paterah

Can't wait for this awesomeness. TERA is going to make the break in the mmo genre and I'm certainly pumped up for it. Go TERA!

Raventree

Yeah, I am with the majority here.  I am playing Aion right now and when I hear "asian mmo" red flags still come up.  As promising as this game looks, the proof will be in the pudding when it arrives.  This game definately has my attention, but I will definately wait and see what people say after it comes out before rushing off to buy it.

Otakun

I think Bluehole/EnMasse tapped into the Korean addiction for us westerners. Here is proof

http://news.mmosite.com/content/2010-07-30/nerds_forced_to_leave_comic_con_after_playing_tera_for_six_straight_hours.shtml

lokilogic

Originally posted by rikwes

I saw this :

"merchants from whom to buy health/mana/buff potions and scrolls such as town portal scrolls. A glyph system will also be in game for stat / skill enhancements and players will have to visit NPCs in the larger towns to apply and remove/rest their glyphs. Some outlying camps will also have Pegasus platforms besides the merchants and healer for ease of travel." 

 

and already knew enough .Another Asian grinder ....

 

Yeah I fear!!! that this is going to be Aion all over again. Well ok, the combat system sounds better but everything else sounds like Aion.

Makmax6666

Unlike Aion who did not have the full right to make a western version and always follow up with the korean patches, these guys have a full green light to modify the game leveling experiance differently from the Korean version, so no i do not think they will do the same mistake as Aion, unless they are so blind to see what has happened in it..

Mikeha

Still waiting on the info on the political system. This devs said this game is going to be sandbox and not a themepark!

NerdDude

Originally posted by Bastioni

Originally posted by NerdDude

Wow a game following a diffrent format sweet so sick of the tired old battle sytems that been around since EQ. (^o^)y

 

"The Mystic have more offensive magic, and have a nifty spell called Vampiric Circle that drains the health of enemies within the circle and converts it to mana for your party."

= Mana tap from EQ necromancer class.

lol

 

thats a spell not a combat system lol.