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Tera "Sandboxy"? And Q: about pvp....
I saw a random comment in a random tera thread that said "after level 20 the game becomes more sandboxy".
I played the beta weekend.. between Tera and Diablo, I only got to lvl 13. I played on a pvp server, and I liked it, but I'm still on the fence about buying.
Could someone please explain how Tera becomes more "Sandboxy"? I read something about a political system, but I don't really know what's going on there....
And also is going to be focus here, because I saw like 15 PvE servers and only 3 PvP servers.. so I'm kinda turned off by that.
Comments
Perhaps the lack of deep quest and story line may be a reference to sandboxy gameplay.
To me the the game is mainly focused on combat. So what you do is logon and fight stuff. The quests seems to be just a side kick to your leveling. Not saying there aren't enough quests, but they're just dull and you'll pick em up as a bonus.
So that already pulls you away from the traditional theme park where you follow a certain path to enlightment and heroism.
Then you have the political system which I don't know much about. So we can assume that the player has a central role in the game, rather than scripted mechanisms.
However there are a lot of dungeons so I don't know.
Tera isn't a sandbox in any way. It's pure themepark.
I read that comment too, unfortunately the poster, once in the the first city, skipped all the quests sending him to the next area, and instead of flying a pegasus to the next area leave the city from the main door.
The area surrounding the city is quite empty, no mobs or quests so he read this as a sign of a sandbox game.
Sandboxy as in build your own gameplay? sure!
at 18 you can kill your first BAM, and then you can pretty much choose to kill them repeatedly or quest, or grind on lesser monsters through repeatable quests, all of which you can do while gathering, for more exp.
Yes there are instanced dungeons, there are also open world ones, I was in 5 open world dungeons over the open beta, and 2 instanced dungeons (sadly there were only two you could play in open beta).
Since there is open PVP there is a whole new meta game to play with many people have yet to experience, for instance, my guild is a Mercenary guild, we're working toward being hired to get folks to use us to protect them, or do their dirty work, whichever pays better.
I guess "define" sandboxy?
I never played a real sandbox (which sucks but i guess i'll AA will be my first one in the next 20 years I hope lol) but its more of the fact that after lvl 20 world opens up more. More area for questing/grinding BAM/exploring once you hit lvl 20 might be the reason the person said it become more sandboxy.
O that post lol ya, the area outside the main town is completley empty for whatever reason. But its great for pvp, and events. And ya thats pretty big misunderstanding there lol. I do hope they add more exploration factor in. Like adding in those chest again from CBT4 but you know make them RARE lol and spam randomly. Because honestly Tera has so many random unused places they seriously need to do some shit with them. And having random chest place encourges player to explore the world more. Also on PvP server help OWPVP go along as people fight to look for those chests =P
I don't completely agree.
If you put a list of 5 true themepark games and you include Tera. To me it looks like Tera is the most different one.
Can you tell me how you judge Tera being a pure themepark and not something in between in a gray area between thempark and sandbox? It may help me understand your point of view.
There were a lot of areas that were empty that were higher level, I'm assuming directly outside Velika has things, just not on the betas.... guess we'll have to wait for May 1st. There was an entire island with nothing spawned on it that we could access so I'm assuming there are other places like that...
Also, there are a lot of rare mobs and world bosses in hard to get to, or unsual looking, places. So that is rewarding for world exploring, I agree though, I liked those chests in CB4.
Sure, the quality of a sandbox is freedom in both character progression and what you can do, like in EVE, UO etc, you are free to build your character in the way you like, you can be a trader, a worker, a fighter, anything.
You usually don't have a main quest (you have tasks like the escort in UO or the mission in EVE), players create their own story, for example big alliances/wars in EVE.
A lot of players spent their day crafting or harvesting, and usually those games have a really complex crafting system (meaning that the crafting system is important as well as the rest of the game)
While a themepark has classes and you are usually guided on a predetermined path.
Tera has a real strict class system, you can customize your character but only via items and glyph. The quest system is really linear with a main story arc guiding you through the entire game.
The crafting system in tera is really linear and simple as well.
The only thing that can remember a sandbox is the OPWPVP on the PVP server.
I'd only like to add the sandboxy part about being able to choose how you level, thats sandboxY <- that y means its sorta like a sand box, I mean don't get me wrong I know its linear progression. My point is its more sand box in its progression than most themepark games.
Edit: Also the OWPVP aspect really does add a lot to the game... I can't tell you how excited we were to win our first guild war.
I believe this is a good definition of a Themepark:
In contrast, a Themepark game is heavily developer-driven. Players drop into the game and are given numerous quests, adventures and monsters to slay, monster spawns are often more fixed and predictable and the quests have a set path to follow. The developer controls the experience from start to finish.
Using this definition, one could argue that Tera is a themepark, as you start up the game and are immediately greeted with quest-givers that direct you to different areas to do clearly defined tasks. When these tasks are complete, you return to the questgiver for your reward, and are then given an additional quest. Generally you are directed in the PvE content from quest hub to quest hub until you reach max level.
Some people have suggested that Tera is a sandbox, which can be defined as:
The term sandbox refers more to the mechanics of a game and how, as in a physical sandbox, the user is entertained by his ability to play creatively and with there being "no right way"[5] of playing the game.
They argue that you do not have to follow the PvE quest markers and can instead choose to either grind mobs to level or, once you reach a high enough level, grind BAMs. They would also include open-world PvP as part of your freedom to choose. If you accept this, then I suppose you could agree that it has limited sandbox elements, though these are not things one would genearlly think of when one considers a sandbox game.
Hope this helps answer your question and that the definitions are fair.
"Loading screens" are not "instances".
Your personal efforts to troll any game will not, in fact, impact the success or failure of said game.
Well you have the same freedom, the package is just a little different.
You choose your character progression in Sandbox games. In Tera you choose it from start, which I agree is different.
But the main difference between Sandbox and themepark is the dynamic isn't it? The reason you log on and the reason you play. The practical implementations of those dynamics are just details. It's the nature of dynamics itself that are important.
The way I experienced Tera, the dynamics won't be completely about scripted mechanisms such as storyline (themepark). So that's already a step back. I had the feeling that the more I level, the more I'm on my own to have fun. Eventually, I bet I have to find myself some activities to keep interest in the game. And at the moment I have no doubt I won't find it.
It's true that you won't have pure crafters. But is that what it takes to have a Sandbox games? To me those are just details.
It's more Sandboxy then WoW but it isn't an EVE or even a SWG.
I will not play a game with a cash shop ever again. A dev job should be to make the game better not make me pay so it sucks less.
First of all, don't get me wrong i love Tera, it's a great game but in my book is a pure themepark.
True you choose your character, but you choose it between 8 classes you are limited.
I understand what you mean about game dynamics and, true, in Tera mobs pay enough that you can skip quests. But you still have to follow the main quest if you want to reach the istances.
And if you want the right items, you have to run those dungeons. More you level more you'll have to run istances for equips.
The word sandbox and themepark are really self explanatory, you can put a boy inside a sandbox and say "here do whatever you want, the only limit is your fantasy" or you can take him to disneyland, where there are nice premade attractions.
The crafting is really important cause it was an example of the freedom. For example, if i start a character on UO and let's say i want to be a tailor i choose to give some point to tailoring for starting.
I spawn into the world with almost nothing: pair of scissor, a sewing kit (and some other junks i don't remember
). Then i can go and search for some sheeps, shear them, spin the wool into thread, making cloth from thread and then i can craft a dress a shirt or whatever i want. I can seel this to the vendor to get some money, i can use the money to get food or other items i can use to craft etc... and so on.
This is the freedom i'm talking of, and it's pretty much the same on EVE.
Your definition of a sandbox vs a themepark is very black and white, there are degrees of choice.
This game has more choice than most games that are considered "ride the rails" or themepark.
TERA definitly has a sandboxy feeling due to open world pvp.
Played-Everything
Playing-LoL
Well is black and white cause it has to be
They are one the opposite of the other.
Ok you can reach istances without doing the story quests, then let's say you have to do them if you want to remove them from the quest log, since they are automatically added.
Not to mention that the east continet we saw till now, from what a friend told me (he played on kTera) is the easy one, so i'm not so sure it will be so easy to keep leveling without following quests later on.
TERA is a "SandPark", and is NOT a "Sandbox". However, the first 1-30 levels is essentially "On Rails" questing until you get into BAMS etc.
The Theory of Conservative Conservation of Ignorant Stupidity:
Having a different opinion must mean you're a troll.
Thats for stress test reason to discourge player from going there but like out side Velkia is empty like legitly empty for whatever reason.
Also world boss have set location so once you find them its there =P i want something thats exciting that make people go out and just run around XD also have to be rare and random enough where you won't get large guilds campping maps.
Yea, in CBT (cap 38) those areas were populated.
how is tera even close to being a sandbox?
-there is no player economy economy because items and bound and do not break/decay
-crafting is pointless because the best items can be attained through killing stuff.
-classes are fixed and there isnt even any talent/skill trees
-leveling is a linear quest grind
-dungeon finder does
- instances and battlegrounds
- global auction house
- politcal system will allow people to control cities. this is a sandbox feature but it wont really fit the game since there is no player economy. setting taxes on NPC vendors isnt really that sandbox. NPC vendors isnt something your really want to see much of in a sandbox in the first place.
sandbox games allow you to change the world and give you lots of freedome
- you can capture cities, rent out shop space, charge people to use the forge
- you can build your character however you want? you can even make a archer that heals and summons skeletons
- the best items can be crafted by players. items should eventually break to prevent inflation and bound items shouldnt exist.
- you cant have a global auction house. regional pricing makes for an interesting economy and allows people to run business in many different ways eg.had to haul a cart full of dragon scales all the across the map because there is no dragons in derpville,ofc you will charge extra, you are the only seller of dragon scales in derpville.
-you shouldnt have instances. or if you do have instances, items should not be dropped. instances will then become a renewable resource than can be accessed without risk/competition. this is not healthy for a player economy.
2x post
Why shouldn't there be instances in a 'sandbox' game? Why shouldn't items be dropped? The whole farming wolves for wolf hide and the amount of wolves reduced for a period of time is stupid, we're playing a game, not the sims.
you can have the freedom of choice to build a character the way you want still be in a themepark setting without it automatically being labeled as a sandbox core theme.
the best items being crafted by players, whats the difference between that and the best items dropping from a boss?
items should eventually break you say, meaning no matter even if you repair, eventually its gonna break? thats just....
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I'm sorry but tera is not sandboxy else most mmos would be sandboxy by your definitions.
Almost all games you can grind or quest to level it's not exclusive to tera same for the open world pvp.
To be sandboxy the game must let you wander, do whatever you want how YOU want with no restrictions or at the very least small restrictions. Even a game with quests can be sandboxy if you get choices that ultimately go different routes based on what you want to do.
These small things tera and most mmos have make the game a little less linear but ultimately the game world is not big enough to accomodate the freedom on what you want to do, you'll eventually be forced to go in x dungeon or y camp regardless if you killed monsters to level instead of doing quests.
I don't believe any mmo apart of the real sandbox ones are really sandboxy, maybe archage will, who knows?
Define whatever you want. Because int eh end game will always have constriant. How much freedom do you define a sand box? Also he said sandboxy as haveing sandbox feeling but not a sand box.