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CBT #4 Recap
rexzshadow
Member Posts: 1,428
http://tera.enmasse.com/news/posts/closed-beta-test-4-recap
Howdy, TERA fans!
Hard to believe that we're less than a week away from our last Closed Beta Test and PAX East! Time is flashing by, and we are a few scant weeks away from early character creation and launching our live database. We're moving at a furious pace, and we have some great surprises in store (more on this in a bit).
Closed Beta Test 4 started with the epic return of the Dragonfall server (Closed Beta Test 1 veterans may remember its short-lived appearance). We were also able to make some incremental tweaks to PvP, improve our behind-the-scenes moderation, and reduce player hit points from levels 1–15 by 30 percent, and then restore those hit points gradually in levels 16–20. The idea behind this experiment was to increase the excitement and difficulty of the new player experience. After looking at your feedback and analyzing our internal data, we concluded that it didn't improve the excitement and difficulty enough. Our next tweak will increase the difficulty of named creatures to see whether we can get people's pulses racing! We'll be looking for feedback on this experience in our mid-April Open Beta Test, so stay tuned.
On deck for Closed Beta Test 5 is a new event that we are trying out for the first time here. I can't spill the beans lest the community and marketing teams hurt me, but it will involve BAMs, invasions, and a lot of bad-guy ass-kicking.
We've also been working for months on determining what will be in our open beta and launch build. This means weekly and often daily conference calls and communication with BHS. It means scheduling build deployments to meet testing, patching, and development milestones. This planning and work by EME and BHS gets results, such as these features:
Enchantment Changes: We are removing the failure aspect of weapon and armor enchanting. We'll have more specifics on what the changes will look like, but after countless forum posts and a lot of internal discussions about this issue, we feel y'all are going to be very happy with this change.
More Gear/Skill Options: Who doesn't like more options? With the addition of new green crystals that you can attach to accessories and advanced glyphs to further customize and tune your skills, you can now create an even more personalized—and powerful—character.
New Prologue Zone: We want to teach people about the lore behind the Island of Dawn (and throw them into some action), so we created an entirely new tutorial zone that servers as the precursor to the current Island of Dawn experience.
Voice Additions: We've gone through the entire game and added new and distinct voices to NPCs, reworked cutscenes for better quality. We also added a few voices you may recognize for Samael and Fraya…
Sealing Enhancements: We're introducing the ability to lock the random attributes earned from identifying enigmatic items. This chant will let you pick which attributes you like and lock them for your gear, while at the same time letting you change the attributes you don't like until you get the combo that is right for you.
Life is moving pretty fast around here these days, but everyone is geared in and focused on making TERA the best open beta and launch it can possibly be. See you in-game!
I'm looking foward to the New Prologue Zone, if they manage to spice up lvl1-11 that would be a great boost for the game definitly a plus and show that EME is listening and can change stuff. As for the voice I hope the voice actors are good XD or just wait for Korean voice pack =X
Comments
I'm liking what I see.. Woot!
Look at EME go! Keep up the good and hard-work guys / gals !
Very interested in testing out this new Island of Dawn precurser...
As for enchanting and voices, obviously can not complain in those departments.
Also curious what the new stuff at CBT #5 is, from what it says we might have nexus or something.
I hope it is a nexus spanning across the whole desert region or something...it will be painfully zergy though, better bring your best computer if that will be the case. :P
Wow, they have been busy indeed. I like the feeling that we have our own dev team, of sorts, here in NA. I too look forward to the tutorial zone and although "zone" was used singular maybe each races will be slightly different? I won't bet on it but it's always a possiblity with EME.
I imagine how resignly humorous working at EME is. You're trying your hardest to get the most current K-TERA content ready for NA and K-TERA is, at the same time, releasing new content or news of new content. Of course EME knows about it far before we do but it has to be interesting none the less.
Thanks Rex!
Just not worth my time anymore.
I thought the problem with the starter island was that nobody actually liked doing it. I mean, I think they'd give a better impression of the game if they shortened the starter island by about 80%, or just had you start at the level 11 portion after a intense story based instance or something.
1-11 was probably the worst part of my TERA experience during CBT4. I liked the game a lot more after I got off the island.
@Deron - All while also managing to write a paragraph to each person personally within 10 hours of sending in a ticket. I hope they continue to be like this come release, wishful thinking indeed.
On another note the game feels so smooth, couldn't play much in the last beta because i was on the toilet ever 10mins after a bad curry, but so far so good XD
Zerker ftw!
*grins*
Crystals in accessories? Invasions? Holy guacamole...aren't those part of the Queen of the Argon patch?!
Yea the Green crystals are the accessory crystals. You get them from doing Daily and Public quests though earned Reputation Points. Then you can spend those points on the crystals from the designated vendors. Some of the advanced crystals can be gathered from named mobs (field/world bosses).
Also did anyone say invasions ?
When are we getting BGs??
http://tera-forums.enmasse.com/forums/news-announcements/topics/Battlegrounds-Coming-to-TERA-This-Summer-18002
There is other interesting info there as well such as GvG on all server rulesets.
Just not worth my time anymore.
Wait what?! no BG's at launch??
Until then Deathmatches are a wonderful way to organize PvP. Half the fun is finding interesting locations to host them.
Just not worth my time anymore.
The Island of Dawn is fun the first time. Because learning the game is fun. Once you start your second toon, it just sucks.
(>^_^)> MMO Veteran <(^_^<)
Currently Playing: Tera Online
All of these changes are amazing, unexpectedly good, things I thought they would never do but did in a good way...
I'm impressed, either they're great at producing new content and listening to their customers or great at hiding things that have been in development and its kismet that they happen to be what we've been asking for...
More ways to customize your character is fantastic!