This is the very thing some of us in the community are speaking out against, games that have 0 immersion, that are using ten year old gaming concepts like the quest system in TERA and don't offer anything new, all in an effort to steal the WoW crowd. It's sad really.
This is painfully funny because TERA could never steal the WoW crowd as half the WoW crowd does not understand the game concept at all. In no way is TERA trying to steal the WoW crowd.
Combat, Art Style, Crafting, are worlds apart from WoW.
Also the group quests on BAMs just about everywhere in the entire game world passed level 20 seems to show no similarities to anything in WoW.
Boobs are a turn off for a lot of serious gamers? What makes you think that? You saw statistics somewhere? You could have worded this differently but you would've been attacked nevertheless. Boobies are a slippery and sensitive subject.
"This may not be the game for your kids." No, that's why it has an M-rating. Which means what?
Typical sliders? Which other games have these typical sliders? "To me the character generator is rather typical." Typical as in standard? Regular? Average? Compared to which other games that have released lately?
I agree on the wardrobe...for the lower levels. I want more variety and not just a recolouring. "You'll be wearing the same clothes with different colours throughout this game." Throught the game? Until max level? Ouch. No wonder some are jumping down your throat.
To say you could care less (01:35) means you have a bit of caring left, which is not what I think you meant.
"I felt like this game had been advertising really high end graphics and I didn't see anything overly special here." When you say something like this be ready to show proof. What was advertised versus what was delivered? For example it was clear as day in SWTOR and people showed proof.
"Combat animations are rather uninspired for the most part." Vague. This was your chance to show a slow-mo clip or something meaty but instead your opinion seemed to me as if it were coming over as fact. I disagree with your statement/opinion but I cannot be arsed (and not home) to do the task you set out to do, for you.
"Sound effects are very typical" Again, same as with combat. This was your opportunity to show some receipts. Nada.
Again with the use of the word *typical*.
we werent able to find a group in the starting area Did you advertise in the available channels (Area, LFG, any of the other available channels)? I think not because whenever some did, they always got whispers or replies in the channel itself telling them that Karascha is easy as pie. Also, now you know that you get an NPC healer to accompany you. Anyone who doesnt have some kind of mental retardation (not aimed at you) or problems with their motor skills can solo that place. This has always been so since the Korean beta, which I still remember. So to sum this part up, it seems to me like you made no effort. Or you didnt mention what kind of efforts you did instead of just looking for a looking-for-group tool, not finding one and then giving up and heading on to the main land (this is what it sounded like).
Themepark, World of Warcraft style questing. Is there any other kind? They can be dressed up in different ways but they are all the same. I tried a different one but not sure my spacebar agreed with me. Yes, yes, GW2 and TSW. The second coming of Pac-Man (right?) and another attempt by Funcom which were all dying to see how that works out. Theyll have their own problems, feel free to mark my words, and regardless will boil down to the same. We simply cannot escape this in MMORPGs because we are limited by several factors, I think.
TERA is hanging its hopes and dreams on its combat system as much as the other themepark MMOs are. What am I doing for the most part, by faaar, while in-game? Combat. No matter if its Lol of the Rings, Rift, Star Wars: the Cinematic Republic, Im basically killing shit. And theyre all sleep-inducingly fun. Is that even a word? I dont know, nvm, I digress. The same Rift youre going back to, is the same Rift I fell asleep to at my desk while playing. Many times.
XP in party, PvP, etc these were handled by other people.
I hope Im not coming across as too critical of your impression. But not backing up much of what you said, why would I listen to your impressions over someone else like for example TotalBiscuit? Not that I like the guy...I actually dont but whenever he gives his impression on something I can clearly see where hes coming from and from there I can decide if I agree with him or not.
You have a pleasant voice.
So this was my feedback. which is why I think you posted on these forums here. Ciao
I'm really sorry about the voice comment. Was uncalled for, really. I had kind of a bad day yesterday and took it out on your vid by being overly critical.
The vid was pretty well done and clearly narated. It just struck me how you were a tad eager to reach conclusions and a final judgement based on a very limited experience and had limited knowledge of what the game has in store for you. I.e. the stuff which Pivotelite pointed out. Like being able to solo the storyquest which makes your progression issue moot. And expecting the game to make a 180 turn as soon as you dinged 20 at the very end of the beta.
It seems to me you simply didn't have enough hands on time to give your impression the depth you wanted it to have. No offense though, it was a good effort and clearly narated and a valid personal impression. If you would have had more time the impression no doubt would have had more factual beef.
Once again, sorry for the voice remark.
Cheers,
DP
No prob, DP. It happens. I've made comments that have been moderator removed and comments that I've just removed on my own so I totally understand the uncharistic post on a bad day.
For me, when I'm looking at what games to play / buy I end up finding all these first impressions that say nothing. They record the first 10 minutes of the game and say, "that's pretty," and that's it. I've come to the conclusion that this is a colossal waste of everyone's time. Why make a video that says nothing? And why do people watch first impression videos if not to get an actual opinion and in some cases to help them decide whether or not to buy?
Of course, if you do a first impression with an opinion then you need to base your opinion on something and with limited experience you can at times be wrong (even with a lot of experience you can be wrong when it comes to mmorpgs.) If you have seen my videos, though, then you know that I will add notes if someone points out something that I've gotten wrong. There are a couple of spots in my swtor review that are factually incorrect and I've added notes. Had there been a lot of them, I would have pulled it and edited.
In this case, a lot of people are throwing around the "misinformation" word but no one has made me aware of anything that is factually incorrect. I did add a note that other people are saying that pvp is really amazing. In my opinion, the fact that you can solo the first dungeon is moot and has no bearing on what I said. The game did not indicate it could be soloed so Erik and I skipped it and this caused us problems - which was what I said (we eventually went back and completed it to get back on track.) On the level 20 dungeon when we couldn't find a team we tried to do it ourselves. We survivied the first room, but it became clear that it would take us several hours to slog through and we would likely not have survived a boss. So my point stands and is not diminished by the fact that we could have soloed the first dungeon at level 10 had we only been aware.
I'm considering adding a note on outfits since there are more than I realized, but I'm hesitant to do so because the reality is that people who love outfit customization will likely find TERA lacking so I think I'm more correct than not on this point as well.
Boobs are a turn off for a lot of serious gamers? What makes you think that? You saw statistics somewhere?
You could have worded this differently but you would've been attacked nevertheless. Boobies are a slippery and sensitive subject.
"This may not be the game for your kids."
No, that's why it has an M-rating. Which means what?
Typical sliders? Which other games have these typical sliders?
"To me the character generator is rather typical."
Typical as in standard? Regular? Average? Compared to which other games that have released lately?
I agree on the wardrobe...for the lower levels. I want more variety and not just a recolouring.
"You'll be wearing the same clothes with different colours throughout this game."
Throught the game? Until max level? Ouch. No wonder some are jumping down your throat.
To say you could care less (01:35) means you have a bit of caring left, which is not what I think you meant.
"I felt like this game had been advertising really high end graphics and I didn't see anything overly special here."
When you say something like this be ready to show proof. What was advertised versus what was delivered? For example it was clear as day in SWTOR and people showed proof.
"Combat animations are rather uninspired for the most part."
Vague. This was your chance to show a slow-mo clip or something meaty but instead your opinion seemed to me as if it were coming over as fact.
I disagree with your statement/opinion but I cannot be arsed (and not home) to do the task you set out to do, for you.
"Sound effects are very typical"
Again, same as with combat. This was your opportunity to show some receipts. Nada.
Again with the use of the word *typical*.
“we weren’t able to find a group in the starting area”
Did you advertise in the available channels (Area, LFG, any of the other available channels)? I think not because whenever some did, they always got whispers or replies in the channel itself telling them that Karascha is easy as pie. Also, now you know that you get an NPC healer to accompany you.
Anyone who doesn’t have some kind of mental retardation (not aimed at you) or problems with their motor skills can solo that place.
This has always been so since the Korean beta, which I still remember.
So to sum this part up, it seems to me like you made no effort. Or you didn’t mention what kind of efforts you did instead of just looking for a looking-for-group tool, not finding one and then giving up and heading on to the main land (this is what it sounded like).
Themepark, World of Warcraft style questing. Is there any other kind? They can be dressed up in different ways but they are all the same. I tried a different one but not sure my spacebar agreed with me.
Yes, yes, GW2 and TSW. The second coming of Pac-Man (right?) and another attempt by Funcom which we’re all dying to see how that works out.
They’ll have their own problems, feel free to mark my words, and regardless will boil down to the same.
We simply cannot escape this in MMORPGs because we are limited by several factors, I think.
TERA is hanging its “hopes and dreams” on its combat system as much as the other themepark MMOs are. What am I doing for the most part, by faaar, while in-game? Combat. No matter if it’s Lol of the Rings, Rift, Star Wars: the Cinematic Republic, I’m basically killing shit. And they’re all sleep-inducingly fun. Is that even a word? I don’t know, nvm, I digress.
The same Rift you’re going back to, is the same Rift I fell asleep to at my desk while playing. Many times.
XP in party, PvP, etc these were handled by other people.
I hope I’m not coming across as too critical of your “impression”. But not backing up much of what you said, why would I listen to your impressions over someone else like for example TotalBiscuit?
Not that I like the guy...I actually don’t but whenever he gives his impression on something I can clearly see where he’s coming from and from there I can decide if I agree with him or not.
You have a pleasant voice.
So this was my feedback. which is why I think you posted on these forums here. Ciao
Awesome! This is the best post on any of my videos ever! ("pleasant voice." I actually lol'd)
A couple of things: I think the sliders are pretty typical. If you compare TERA to wow or swtor (which I lambasted for it's character creator) then it comes off fairly well, but it is typical compared to the typical game, typically. (I guess I like that word!)
Yeah... may have to note something on the outfits, which I still think are seriously lacking - but I was probably more wrong than right with that statement.
"Couldn't care less!" Didn't I say that? I must have said that, yes? crap.
We were unable to find a group. Our requests in area chat were imediately scrolled out of the box by all the inane chatter and there was nobody else standing around looking for a group, either (perhaps because it could be soloed - which we didn't know.) We tried much harder on the level 20 dungeon and came close, but people ended up going elsewhere. The issue may have been the late hour. I stand by exactly what I said. This will likely not be a problem at release, but might be a huge problem a year from now when there aren't a lot of people doing low level stuff.
I will almost certainly be buying TSW and GW2 was my point. I have no preconceived notions of how good they will be - although I'm really hoping both will be great. Actually, my initial preconceived notion of GW2 was that it's the mmorpg version of Duke Nukem Forever and will never actually be ready for launch - but I'm turning around on that a bit.
The xp issue: xp is almost cut in half if you're teaming. That's a fact. If you're a lancer grouping with a sorcerer, you may end up gaining more xp while you group. If you're a sorcerer grouping with a lancer, not so much.
I have no problem with anyting in this game...its so much fun. The sorc animations aren't the best...actually...the ranged animations in general aren't great, but the melee animations are amazing.
Incognito www.incognito-gaming.us "You're either with us or against us"
If you play this game like WoW, then yea I could see it sucking. Don't play this game like WoW. Get involved with world pvp, world bosses, world dungeons, etc. And combat. That is where TERA shines, and separates itself from the rest.
learn first what Tera offers to you first and then review it.
The mechanics of the review are fine. The voice might hedge a tad toward caricature of tenor announcer voices - very smooth but somewhat too tight. It works. You have clearly worked on it. Edits and sound in the video are good.
My problem is really in the content. The lack of facts leads the viewer to assume one of 2 things:
1. Reviewer is ignorant of the game's features and/or lacks the reasoning skills to objectively round out opinions beyond using his own anecdotal experiences (e.g. no meaningful PVP because you didn't find any, lvl 20 Messiah moment didn't happen for you, story quest cannot be soloed, etc.). A quick look around the interwebs would have given better insight into what is available.
2. Reviewer does not lack the knowledge or reasoning but is purposefully biased and trying to sway the viewer with unvetted conclusions and weak, anecdotal evidence.
#1 is what you get from your crazy uncle. #2 is what you get from your crafty aunt. Both are upsetting and invalid.
Here is a list of my Corrections:
1. Clothing changes at higher levels (1-20 is low level).
2. Animations are cute, deadly, sexy (awkward, yes) or a combination. IMO not uninspired.
3. Skill means group content can be soloed.
4. XP is stable and split. No bonus to group is okay, because it is actually hard enough to have killing more smoothly be the reward in itself. Mob is worth A. It takes B time and C skill to kill mob. It takes roughly B/2 time and C/2 skill to kill mob. It is fitting that a player who duos that mob gets A/2 rewards. In reality, it is not as simple as 1/2 time and 1/2 the skill to duo a mob, but I was just trying to make it super simple. Maybe it is 1/3 skill and 4/6 time. Whatever. About 1/2 rewards is acceptable. It may actually be considered too high by some.
5. Game STARTS at 20. Dungeons, BAMs (Bad Ass Monsters), etc. Getting to 20 is not the same as playing at and through he 20s. Sex may start with a kiss or with a quick car seat negotiation of price, but someone who has kissed or chosen position X for $100 is not in a position to say how the sex was.
6. GvG PVP - HUGE! On PVE servers there are rivalries between guilds for boss kills, etc. I am looking forward to having guilds compete head to head vs. one another. And not having separate factions means there cannot be faction imbalance caused by people scurrying to the stronger faction. GMs will decide who gets into their guild. Hoepfully there will be juggernaut guilds and rogue lement smaller strike force sized guilds.
---EDITED to remove an errant question mark, lol --
1. Clothing changes at higher levels (1-20 is low level).
I have added a note to correct this. Outfits are lacking in TERA, imo, but I had missed the mark in my comments.
2. Animations are cute, deadly, sexy (awkward, yes) or a combination. IMO not uninspired.
I see what you're saying, but this is an opinion. Since it's a first impression, it will have some basis in opinion and those definitely vary from person to person.
3. Skill means group content can be soloed.
My sorcerer could not solo the level 20 dungeon at level 20 and there are story quests there, so I'm not sure what skill has to do with it.
4. XP is stable and split. No bonus to group is okay, because it is actually hard enough to have killing more smoothly be the reward in itself. Mob is worth A. It takes B time and C skill to kill mob. It takes roughly B/2 time and C/2 skill to kill mob. It is fitting that a player who duos that mob gets A/2 rewards. In reality, it is not as simple as 1/2 time and 1/2 the skill to duo a mob, but I was just trying to make it super simple. Maybe it is 1/3 skill and 4/6 time. Whatever. About 1/2 rewards is acceptable. It may actually be considered too high by some.
But this is opinion as well. I stated the facts correctly that xp is cut almost in half while duoing and I was surprised that the group xp is scaled this harshly for a game that is trying to encourage grouping. Why this has caused such an uproar is a little baffling to me. If someone else thinks group xp is generous in TERA, that's certainly their prerogative.
5. Game STARTS at 20. Dungeons, BAMs (Bad Ass Monsters), etc. Getting to 20 is not the same as playing at and through he 20s. Sex may start with a kiss or with a quick car seat negotiation of price, but someone who has kissed or chosen position X for $100 is not in a position to say how the sex was.
The level 20 hype had been built up by the community on forums such as these so my primary point was that the game, in fact, does not change that much at 20. Now people are telling me that I shouldn't expect the game to change that much at 20 - which was pretty much my point. Still - I get what you are saying. Had I been able to play to 30 I may also have been prone to make the generalized statement, "the game changes at 20."
6. GvG PVP - HUGE! On PVE servers there are rivalries between guilds for boss kills, etc. I am looking forward to having guilds compete head to head vs. one another. And not having separate factions means there cannot be faction imbalance caused by people scurrying to the stronger faction. GMs will decide who gets into their guild. Hoepfully there will be juggernaut guilds and rogue lement smaller strike force sized guilds.
I'm still wondering if people are assuming that pvp will be awesome or if they've experienced it. And did they experience it in Korea or in this beta? I didn't see any organized pvp and battleground type pvp was not a part of this beta. Also, the political system is not in play, and I do mention that the political system may add to pvp in the video. I have no doubt that there was a lot of ganking on pvp servers, but that's kinda moot. I've been told there were guild battles at level cap, but since level cap was 32 this weekend, I'm not sure that saying, "the pvp is amazing" would be any more valid a statement than, "the pvp may not be amazing," since there will not be a ton of massive level 32 battles after launch.
Certainly this is a game that does not have pvp at its foundation as Mortal Online does - and I think the political system and massive pvp battles that are supposed to happen just add to my assessment that this game doesn't really know what it wants to be. Team, solo, pvp, pve? What is it? If it's all of those things can it actually do them all well? We shall see.
---EDITED to remove an errant question mark, lol --
The PvP system in the NA CBT to this point is not like it will be at launch. They are phasing in changes made on the Korean side. Right now it's FFA everywhere except rest areas/towns if you did your 5 minute outlaw quest. Right now GvG is not going to look any different to you unless you are a part of the two (or more) guilds at war.
I know the game seems ready to launch but keep in mind there is a month and a half until launch and some things are still in the air or not implemented fully.
Between all of there CBTs, each with six forum categories for feedback, and the "TERA answers" page you have an opportunity to be heard and change the game at a level I haven't seen before. If you see something that should be changed then do something about it.
1. Clothing changes at higher levels (1-20 is low level).
I have added a note to correct this. Outfits are lacking in TERA, imo, but I had missed the mark in my comments.
2. Animations are cute, deadly, sexy (awkward, yes) or a combination. IMO not uninspired.
I see what you're saying, but this is an opinion. Since it's a first impression, it will have some basis in opinion and those definitely vary from person to person.
3. Skill means group content can be soloed.
My sorcerer could not solo the level 20 dungeon at level 20 and there are story quests there, so I'm not sure what skill has to do with it.
4. XP is stable and split. No bonus to group is okay, because it is actually hard enough to have killing more smoothly be the reward in itself. Mob is worth A. It takes B time and C skill to kill mob. It takes roughly B/2 time and C/2 skill to kill mob. It is fitting that a player who duos that mob gets A/2 rewards. In reality, it is not as simple as 1/2 time and 1/2 the skill to duo a mob, but I was just trying to make it super simple. Maybe it is 1/3 skill and 4/6 time. Whatever. About 1/2 rewards is acceptable. It may actually be considered too high by some.
But this is opinion as well. I stated the facts correctly that xp is cut almost in half while duoing and I was surprised that the group xp is scaled this harshly for a game that is trying to encourage grouping. Why this has caused such an uproar is a little baffling to me. If someone else thinks group xp is generous in TERA, that's certainly their prerogative.
5. Game STARTS at 20. Dungeons, BAMs (Bad Ass Monsters), etc. Getting to 20 is not the same as playing at and through he 20s. Sex may start with a kiss or with a quick car seat negotiation of price, but someone who has kissed or chosen position X for $100 is not in a position to say how the sex was.
The level 20 hype had been built up by the community on forums such as these so my primary point was that the game, in fact, does not change that much at 20. Now people are telling me that I shouldn't expect the game to change that much at 20 - which was pretty much my point. Still - I get what you are saying. Had I been able to play to 30 I may also have been prone to make the generalized statement, "the game changes at 20."
6. GvG PVP - HUGE! On PVE servers there are rivalries between guilds for boss kills, etc. I am looking forward to having guilds compete head to head vs. one another. And not having separate factions means there cannot be faction imbalance caused by people scurrying to the stronger faction. GMs will decide who gets into their guild. Hoepfully there will be juggernaut guilds and rogue lement smaller strike force sized guilds.
I'm still wondering if people are assuming that pvp will be awesome or if they've experienced it. And did they experience it in Korea or in this beta? I didn't see any organized pvp and battleground type pvp was not a part of this beta. Also, the political system is not in play, and I do mention that the political system may add to pvp in the video. I have no doubt that there was a lot of ganking on pvp servers, but that's kinda moot. I've been told there were guild battles at level cap, but since level cap was 32 this weekend, I'm not sure that saying, "the pvp is amazing" would be any more valid a statement than, "the pvp may not be amazing," since there will not be a ton of massive level 32 battles after launch.
Certainly this is a game that does not have pvp at its foundation as Mortal Online does - and I think the political system and massive pvp battles that are supposed to happen just add to my assessment that this game doesn't really know what it wants to be. Team, solo, pvp, pve? What is it? If it's all of those things can it actually do them all well? We shall see.
---EDITED to remove an errant question mark, lol --
I appreciate you going point by point with this.
Those corrections were from my perspective as opinions/ways to better formulate a conclusion.
You are absoutey correct that opinions can go either way. The animations things is one of those. I thing the Elin animations are goofy enough to match the craziness/cartooniness of them trying to use the weapons. I think that the Castanics (my race of choice) look badass as Warriors. Lancer can get a little boring, but that is what you get when they are going for stability. Stable is often boring. But it makes up for it in the coolness of withstanding the storm holding firm the shield.
I did not mean to say that the PVP IS great. It has great potential as it sets up for a more sandbox pride vs. pride kind of setup. It could be great. It could be lame. The combat means that your skill more than your gear will be refected in your victories and losses (the same as in PVE) which is a huge plus. Ranged classes are probably still OP due to this, but I would say that PVP on a PVP server is where the game does have a chance to shine.
I do agree with you that oftentimes people of the opposite OPINION take a conficting OPINION as an affront and fight back on it. That is an all too human trait. I personally, was not engaging in that. I was trying to point out that the game does have PVP focus elements that may really work for PVPers. I am not a PVPer, but with this game being more skill oriented than time/gear oriented, I am planning on actually giving it a chance in this game.
Again, I have no problem with differing opinions arrived to by facts but colored by personal tastes, but I felt that there were easily accessible facts which were missing from the video.
It honestly seems like the OP has experienced non of the game, and is going on to base his impression off of... nothing.
In this past closed beta weekend, I was personally a part of mass open world PVP, open world boss killing, open world dungeon hunting, instanced dungeon hunting, and BAM killing. It's all there. The OP just either didn't play long enough, or didn't bother to experience these things.
Like I said, if you play it like WoW, it will feel like WoW.
“Awesome! This is the best post on any of my videos ever! ("pleasant voice." I actually lol'd)”
Haha thank you! I meant it.
“A couple of things: I think the sliders are pretty typical.”
I disagree. AION has the best character creator out there in the MMORPG fantasy subgenre. TERA is no slouch and comes really close to it (or AoC) and it’s only missing body sliders and horn from hair separation for the Castanics.
The following was from the Korean client. I didn’t care to update it because I didn’t think I would be debating this!
You can choose from many preset faces.
Or the following can be combined differently for pretty unique looking results. You can
choose from different hairstyles. Amount & style differing per race, sex.
choose from different hair colors.
choose from many different face templates. Amount differing per race, sex.
choose different skin colors and every race has their own palette. E.g. you can’t make a dark skinned Elin.
choose from different "makeup" styles, with 2 sub choices on some styles (ornaments?).
You can fine tune your face further:
Face (forehead, cheekbones, three kinds of jaw tweaks),
Eyes & brow (size, shape, position, space between both eyes, tilt, two kinds of eyebrow tweaks),
Nose (8 different tweaks),
Mouth (6 different tweaks),
Ear (4 different tweaks)
You can choose from 6 different voices.
You didn’t go into this well enough and dismissed it just like that. I feel that’s not doing the game justice.
“but it is typical compared to the typical game, typically. (I guess I like that word!)”
I guess you do! Because again you gave nothing concrete what typical is in this case, in your book.
“Yeah... may have to note something on the outfits, which I still think are seriously lacking - but I was probably more wrong than right with that statement.”
I was thinking about this. I think it was a design decision. To sink resources into higher end (I don’t mean levels by this) gear instead of regular gear. I.e. crit crafted gear, gold dungeons drop (people were getting these @ lvl 27), expensive purchasable skins bought from an NPC skin vendor. Vendor in Velika. Maybe other cities as well. Haven’t looked. Didn’t care to.
When you see someone run by you can tell it’s high-end stuff which took a while to get and looks .
“We were unable to find a group. Our requests in area chat were imediately scrolled out of the box by all the inane chatter”
I found the NA server I was on to be particularly bad. The EU server I played on simmered down in the previous beta weekend.
“The issue may have been the late hour.”
Maybe. It was worth testing different times before reaching a conclusion.
“This will likely not be a problem at release, but might be a huge problem a year from now when there aren't a lot of people doing low level stuff.”
Back in K-TERA, me and a buddy outleveled the first instance by 2-3 levels and we managed to duo it. Berserker + mystic. That little endeavour took us a while though. It was immensely fun and we didn’t regret it.
Any higher level class will be able to run these places if it ever would get so bad a year later. If they need it for a quest.
I can’t think of what else they can do to alleviate this. Grouping, being part of a guild is encouraged (duh, MMORPG).
If they make it so these places scale down to 1 player then I see another problem arising.
“I will almost certainly be buying TSW and GW2 was my point. I have no preconceived notions of how good they will be - although I'm really hoping both will be great.”
We are all hoping both will be great.
“The xp issue: xp is almost cut in half if you're teaming. That's a fact. If you're a lancer grouping with a sorcerer, you may end up gaining more xp while you group. If you're a sorcerer grouping with a lancer, not so much.”
Which solution do you propose? What other problems do you foresee arising from that?
What I foresee: I can already see soloists getting their torches and pitch forks
There is a story quest around lvl 24 that introduces you to glyphs. I believe at lvl 20 you can talk to the glyph trainer and buy your glyphs. Glyphs can drastically change your combat. There are cooldown reset procs, duration increases and many more. Glyphs in TERA are like a cross between talents and glyphs in WoW.
Runes are small increases that can be freely equipped into your weapon (red) and armor (blue). They provide MP/hp regen, move speed, shield procs from being knocked down, reduced dmg taken and increase dmg done to knocked down targets/minions/bosses/enraged. Ktera patch is adding in green colored runes for accessories.
Chain skills. Certain skills get bonuses if used in succession to other skills. You can customize what skills chain into other skills. Some, like retaliate are used when knocked down, are automatically configured to show up on screen.
Every race has different graphics for armor. So the same armor will look different based on the race/gender that is wearing it. There are dyes to change color and templates/crafted gear to change the look but not the stats.
Groups are encouraged because they want you to fight BAMs or do dungeons. They don't expect you to spam LFG to fight normal mobs like the 'high lvl area' near the end of you video. I could 2 shot those guys on my slayer in cbt3. Every class can solo any BAM, if you're skilled/patient enough. That is the most potent idea any game can offer. Rift/wow/swtor all offered dice rolls and gear checks, TERA gives you the option to just play better.
I've played every cbt and can't stand logging into RIFT/WoW/SWTOR anymore, they all seem comepletely stale now. I am TERA spoiled. GL with GW2. Tab targetting is a crutch.
It honestly seems like the OP has experienced non of the game, and is going on to base his impression off of... nothing.
In this past closed beta weekend, I was personally a part of mass open world PVP, open world boss killing, open world dungeon hunting, instanced dungeon hunting, and BAM killing. It's all there. The OP just either didn't play long enough, or didn't bother to experience these things.
Like I said, if you play it like WoW, it will feel like WoW.
That last line is exactly what I have been saying forever, try to have fun, don't just say here's my quests this is what I should do then. Have some damn fun, join a guild, get groups together and do fun shit.
Go on PvP expeditions, go search open world instance bosses and battle people for the right to fight them, go grind BAMs while fending off anyone who wants to steal them from you, go run the instances for gear, go talk to other guilds to organize full blown Guild vs Guild showdowns or 10v10 deathmatches for money.
Comments
This is painfully funny because TERA could never steal the WoW crowd as half the WoW crowd does not understand the game concept at all. In no way is TERA trying to steal the WoW crowd.
Combat, Art Style, Crafting, are worlds apart from WoW.
Also the group quests on BAMs just about everywhere in the entire game world passed level 20 seems to show no similarities to anything in WoW.
You could have worded this differently but you would've been attacked nevertheless. Boobies are a slippery and sensitive subject.
"This may not be the game for your kids."
No, that's why it has an M-rating. Which means what?
Typical sliders? Which other games have these typical sliders?
"To me the character generator is rather typical."
Typical as in standard? Regular? Average? Compared to which other games that have released lately?
I agree on the wardrobe...for the lower levels. I want more variety and not just a recolouring.
"You'll be wearing the same clothes with different colours throughout this game."
Throught the game? Until max level? Ouch. No wonder some are jumping down your throat.
To say you could care less (01:35) means you have a bit of caring left, which is not what I think you meant.
"I felt like this game had been advertising really high end graphics and I didn't see anything overly special here."
When you say something like this be ready to show proof. What was advertised versus what was delivered? For example it was clear as day in SWTOR and people showed proof.
"Combat animations are rather uninspired for the most part."
Vague. This was your chance to show a slow-mo clip or something meaty but instead your opinion seemed to me as if it were coming over as fact.
I disagree with your statement/opinion but I cannot be arsed (and not home) to do the task you set out to do, for you.
"Sound effects are very typical"
Again, same as with combat. This was your opportunity to show some receipts. Nada.
Again with the use of the word *typical*.
we werent able to find a group in the starting area
Did you advertise in the available channels (Area, LFG, any of the other available channels)? I think not because whenever some did, they always got whispers or replies in the channel itself telling them that Karascha is easy as pie. Also, now you know that you get an NPC healer to accompany you.
Anyone who doesnt have some kind of mental retardation (not aimed at you) or problems with their motor skills can solo that place.
This has always been so since the Korean beta, which I still remember.
So to sum this part up, it seems to me like you made no effort. Or you didnt mention what kind of efforts you did instead of just looking for a looking-for-group tool, not finding one and then giving up and heading on to the main land (this is what it sounded like).
Themepark, World of Warcraft style questing. Is there any other kind?
Yes, yes, GW2 and TSW. The second coming of Pac-Man (right?) and another attempt by Funcom which were all dying to see how that works out.
Theyll have their own problems, feel free to mark my words, and regardless will boil down to the same.
We simply cannot escape this in MMORPGs because we are limited by several factors, I think.
TERA is hanging its hopes and dreams on its combat system as much as the other themepark MMOs are. What am I doing for the most part, by faaar, while in-game? Combat. No matter if its Lol of the Rings, Rift, Star Wars: the Cinematic Republic, Im basically killing shit. And theyre all sleep-inducingly fun. Is that even a word? I dont know, nvm, I digress.
The same Rift youre going back to, is the same Rift I fell asleep to at my desk while playing. Many times.
XP in party, PvP, etc these were handled by other people.
I hope Im not coming across as too critical of your impression. But not backing up much of what you said, why would I listen to your impressions over someone else like for example TotalBiscuit?
Not that I like the guy...I actually dont but whenever he gives his impression on something I can clearly see where hes coming from and from there I can decide if I agree with him or not.
You have a pleasant voice.
So this was my feedback. which is why I think you posted on these forums here. Ciao
No prob, DP. It happens. I've made comments that have been moderator removed and comments that I've just removed on my own so I totally understand the uncharistic post on a bad day.
For me, when I'm looking at what games to play / buy I end up finding all these first impressions that say nothing. They record the first 10 minutes of the game and say, "that's pretty," and that's it. I've come to the conclusion that this is a colossal waste of everyone's time. Why make a video that says nothing? And why do people watch first impression videos if not to get an actual opinion and in some cases to help them decide whether or not to buy?
Of course, if you do a first impression with an opinion then you need to base your opinion on something and with limited experience you can at times be wrong (even with a lot of experience you can be wrong when it comes to mmorpgs.) If you have seen my videos, though, then you know that I will add notes if someone points out something that I've gotten wrong. There are a couple of spots in my swtor review that are factually incorrect and I've added notes. Had there been a lot of them, I would have pulled it and edited.
In this case, a lot of people are throwing around the "misinformation" word but no one has made me aware of anything that is factually incorrect. I did add a note that other people are saying that pvp is really amazing. In my opinion, the fact that you can solo the first dungeon is moot and has no bearing on what I said. The game did not indicate it could be soloed so Erik and I skipped it and this caused us problems - which was what I said (we eventually went back and completed it to get back on track.) On the level 20 dungeon when we couldn't find a team we tried to do it ourselves. We survivied the first room, but it became clear that it would take us several hours to slog through and we would likely not have survived a boss. So my point stands and is not diminished by the fact that we could have soloed the first dungeon at level 10 had we only been aware.
I'm considering adding a note on outfits since there are more than I realized, but I'm hesitant to do so because the reality is that people who love outfit customization will likely find TERA lacking so I think I'm more correct than not on this point as well.
http://www.youtube.com/flymolo
Awesome! This is the best post on any of my videos ever! ("pleasant voice." I actually lol'd)
A couple of things: I think the sliders are pretty typical. If you compare TERA to wow or swtor (which I lambasted for it's character creator) then it comes off fairly well, but it is typical compared to the typical game, typically. (I guess I like that word!)
Yeah... may have to note something on the outfits, which I still think are seriously lacking - but I was probably more wrong than right with that statement.
"Couldn't care less!" Didn't I say that? I must have said that, yes? crap.
We were unable to find a group. Our requests in area chat were imediately scrolled out of the box by all the inane chatter and there was nobody else standing around looking for a group, either (perhaps because it could be soloed - which we didn't know.) We tried much harder on the level 20 dungeon and came close, but people ended up going elsewhere. The issue may have been the late hour. I stand by exactly what I said. This will likely not be a problem at release, but might be a huge problem a year from now when there aren't a lot of people doing low level stuff.
I will almost certainly be buying TSW and GW2 was my point. I have no preconceived notions of how good they will be - although I'm really hoping both will be great. Actually, my initial preconceived notion of GW2 was that it's the mmorpg version of Duke Nukem Forever and will never actually be ready for launch - but I'm turning around on that a bit.
The xp issue: xp is almost cut in half if you're teaming. That's a fact. If you're a lancer grouping with a sorcerer, you may end up gaining more xp while you group. If you're a sorcerer grouping with a lancer, not so much.
http://www.youtube.com/flymolo
I have no problem with anyting in this game...its so much fun. The sorc animations aren't the best...actually...the ranged animations in general aren't great, but the melee animations are amazing.
Incognito
www.incognito-gaming.us
"You're either with us or against us"
If you play this game like WoW, then yea I could see it sucking. Don't play this game like WoW. Get involved with world pvp, world bosses, world dungeons, etc. And combat. That is where TERA shines, and separates itself from the rest.
The mechanics of the review are fine. The voice might hedge a tad toward caricature of tenor announcer voices - very smooth but somewhat too tight. It works. You have clearly worked on it. Edits and sound in the video are good.
My problem is really in the content. The lack of facts leads the viewer to assume one of 2 things:
1. Reviewer is ignorant of the game's features and/or lacks the reasoning skills to objectively round out opinions beyond using his own anecdotal experiences (e.g. no meaningful PVP because you didn't find any, lvl 20 Messiah moment didn't happen for you, story quest cannot be soloed, etc.). A quick look around the interwebs would have given better insight into what is available.
2. Reviewer does not lack the knowledge or reasoning but is purposefully biased and trying to sway the viewer with unvetted conclusions and weak, anecdotal evidence.
#1 is what you get from your crazy uncle. #2 is what you get from your crafty aunt. Both are upsetting and invalid.
Here is a list of my Corrections:
1. Clothing changes at higher levels (1-20 is low level).
2. Animations are cute, deadly, sexy (awkward, yes) or a combination. IMO not uninspired.
3. Skill means group content can be soloed.
4. XP is stable and split. No bonus to group is okay, because it is actually hard enough to have killing more smoothly be the reward in itself. Mob is worth A. It takes B time and C skill to kill mob. It takes roughly B/2 time and C/2 skill to kill mob. It is fitting that a player who duos that mob gets A/2 rewards. In reality, it is not as simple as 1/2 time and 1/2 the skill to duo a mob, but I was just trying to make it super simple. Maybe it is 1/3 skill and 4/6 time. Whatever. About 1/2 rewards is acceptable. It may actually be considered too high by some.
5. Game STARTS at 20. Dungeons, BAMs (Bad Ass Monsters), etc. Getting to 20 is not the same as playing at and through he 20s. Sex may start with a kiss or with a quick car seat negotiation of price, but someone who has kissed or chosen position X for $100 is not in a position to say how the sex was.
6. GvG PVP - HUGE! On PVE servers there are rivalries between guilds for boss kills, etc. I am looking forward to having guilds compete head to head vs. one another. And not having separate factions means there cannot be faction imbalance caused by people scurrying to the stronger faction. GMs will decide who gets into their guild. Hoepfully there will be juggernaut guilds and rogue lement smaller strike force sized guilds.
---EDITED to remove an errant question mark, lol --
Someone please make a good MMO.
http://www.youtube.com/flymolo
I know the game seems ready to launch but keep in mind there is a month and a half until launch and some things are still in the air or not implemented fully.
Between all of there CBTs, each with six forum categories for feedback, and the "TERA answers" page you have an opportunity to be heard and change the game at a level I haven't seen before. If you see something that should be changed then do something about it.
http://tera-forums.enmasse.com/forums
(bottom of the page)
Just not worth my time anymore.
I appreciate you going point by point with this.
Those corrections were from my perspective as opinions/ways to better formulate a conclusion.
You are absoutey correct that opinions can go either way. The animations things is one of those. I thing the Elin animations are goofy enough to match the craziness/cartooniness of them trying to use the weapons. I think that the Castanics (my race of choice) look badass as Warriors. Lancer can get a little boring, but that is what you get when they are going for stability. Stable is often boring. But it makes up for it in the coolness of withstanding the storm holding firm the shield.
I did not mean to say that the PVP IS great. It has great potential as it sets up for a more sandbox pride vs. pride kind of setup. It could be great. It could be lame. The combat means that your skill more than your gear will be refected in your victories and losses (the same as in PVE) which is a huge plus. Ranged classes are probably still OP due to this, but I would say that PVP on a PVP server is where the game does have a chance to shine.
I do agree with you that oftentimes people of the opposite OPINION take a conficting OPINION as an affront and fight back on it. That is an all too human trait. I personally, was not engaging in that. I was trying to point out that the game does have PVP focus elements that may really work for PVPers. I am not a PVPer, but with this game being more skill oriented than time/gear oriented, I am planning on actually giving it a chance in this game.
Again, I have no problem with differing opinions arrived to by facts but colored by personal tastes, but I felt that there were easily accessible facts which were missing from the video.
Thanks for a thorough reply.
Someone please make a good MMO.
It honestly seems like the OP has experienced non of the game, and is going on to base his impression off of... nothing.
In this past closed beta weekend, I was personally a part of mass open world PVP, open world boss killing, open world dungeon hunting, instanced dungeon hunting, and BAM killing. It's all there. The OP just either didn't play long enough, or didn't bother to experience these things.
Like I said, if you play it like WoW, it will feel like WoW.
“Awesome! This is the best post on any of my videos ever! ("pleasant voice." I actually lol'd)”
Haha thank you! I meant it.
“A couple of things: I think the sliders are pretty typical.”
I disagree. AION has the best character creator out there in the MMORPG fantasy subgenre. TERA is no slouch and comes really close to it (or AoC) and it’s only missing body sliders and horn from hair separation for the Castanics.
The following was from the Korean client. I didn’t care to update it because I didn’t think I would be debating this!
You can choose from many preset faces.
Or the following can be combined differently for pretty unique looking results. You can
choose from different hairstyles. Amount & style differing per race, sex.
choose from different hair colors.
choose from many different face templates. Amount differing per race, sex.
choose different skin colors and every race has their own palette. E.g. you can’t make a dark skinned Elin.
choose from different "makeup" styles, with 2 sub choices on some styles (ornaments?).
You can fine tune your face further:
Face (forehead, cheekbones, three kinds of jaw tweaks),
Eyes & brow (size, shape, position, space between both eyes, tilt, two kinds of eyebrow tweaks),
Nose (8 different tweaks),
Mouth (6 different tweaks),
Ear (4 different tweaks)
You can choose from 6 different voices.
.
You didn’t go into this well enough and dismissed it just like that. I feel that’s not doing the game justice.
“but it is typical compared to the typical game, typically. (I guess I like that word!)”
I guess you do! Because again you gave nothing concrete what typical is in this case, in your book.
“Yeah... may have to note something on the outfits, which I still think are seriously lacking - but I was probably more wrong than right with that statement.”
I was thinking about this. I think it was a design decision. To sink resources into higher end (I don’t mean levels by this) gear instead of regular gear. I.e. crit crafted gear, gold dungeons drop (people were getting these @ lvl 27), expensive purchasable skins bought from an NPC skin vendor. Vendor in Velika. Maybe other cities as well. Haven’t looked. Didn’t care to.
When you see someone run by you can tell it’s high-end stuff which took a while to get and looks
“We were unable to find a group. Our requests in area chat were imediately scrolled out of the box by all the inane chatter”
I found the NA server I was on to be particularly bad. The EU server I played on simmered down in the previous beta weekend.
“The issue may have been the late hour.”
Maybe. It was worth testing different times before reaching a conclusion.
“This will likely not be a problem at release, but might be a huge problem a year from now when there aren't a lot of people doing low level stuff.”
Back in K-TERA, me and a buddy outleveled the first instance by 2-3 levels and we managed to duo it. Berserker + mystic. That little endeavour took us a while though. It was immensely fun and we didn’t regret it.
Any higher level class will be able to run these places if it ever would get so bad a year later. If they need it for a quest.
I can’t think of what else they can do to alleviate this. Grouping, being part of a guild is encouraged (duh, MMORPG).
If they make it so these places scale down to 1 player then I see another problem arising.
“I will almost certainly be buying TSW and GW2 was my point. I have no preconceived notions of how good they will be - although I'm really hoping both will be great.”
We are all hoping both will be great.
“The xp issue: xp is almost cut in half if you're teaming. That's a fact. If you're a lancer grouping with a sorcerer, you may end up gaining more xp while you group. If you're a sorcerer grouping with a lancer, not so much.”
Which solution do you propose? What other problems do you foresee arising from that?
What I foresee: I can already see soloists getting their torches and pitch forks
Damned if they do, damned if they don’t.
There is a story quest around lvl 24 that introduces you to glyphs. I believe at lvl 20 you can talk to the glyph trainer and buy your glyphs. Glyphs can drastically change your combat. There are cooldown reset procs, duration increases and many more. Glyphs in TERA are like a cross between talents and glyphs in WoW.
Runes are small increases that can be freely equipped into your weapon (red) and armor (blue). They provide MP/hp regen, move speed, shield procs from being knocked down, reduced dmg taken and increase dmg done to knocked down targets/minions/bosses/enraged. Ktera patch is adding in green colored runes for accessories.
Chain skills. Certain skills get bonuses if used in succession to other skills. You can customize what skills chain into other skills. Some, like retaliate are used when knocked down, are automatically configured to show up on screen.
Every race has different graphics for armor. So the same armor will look different based on the race/gender that is wearing it. There are dyes to change color and templates/crafted gear to change the look but not the stats.
Groups are encouraged because they want you to fight BAMs or do dungeons. They don't expect you to spam LFG to fight normal mobs like the 'high lvl area' near the end of you video. I could 2 shot those guys on my slayer in cbt3. Every class can solo any BAM, if you're skilled/patient enough. That is the most potent idea any game can offer. Rift/wow/swtor all offered dice rolls and gear checks, TERA gives you the option to just play better.
I've played every cbt and can't stand logging into RIFT/WoW/SWTOR anymore, they all seem comepletely stale now. I am TERA spoiled. GL with GW2. Tab targetting is a crutch.
That last line is exactly what I have been saying forever, try to have fun, don't just say here's my quests this is what I should do then. Have some damn fun, join a guild, get groups together and do fun shit.
Go on PvP expeditions, go search open world instance bosses and battle people for the right to fight them, go grind BAMs while fending off anyone who wants to steal them from you, go run the instances for gear, go talk to other guilds to organize full blown Guild vs Guild showdowns or 10v10 deathmatches for money.
Just have fun!