Tera Online

There has been a lot of interest in Tera Online so Obsolete Gamer wanted to answer some questions for those looking to get into it and hopefully some for fans of the upcoming MMO. Some of these are gathered from various websites and message boards and others from the development team at En Masse entertainment. If you have additional questions on Tera Online post them on our Tera Online Q&A section on our forums.

Q: Where can I download or how can I play TERA?

A: You cannot download nor play TERA at this time as it is not yet released. However, you may be able to test TERA.

Q: Is TERA available for Xbox 360 or PS3?

A: No. TERA is a PC game.

Q: Can TERA be run using Macintosh, Linux, or Ubuntu?

A: No, Windows only.

Q: What is TERA’s payment model?

A: The payment model will be a retail box product with a monthly subscription. Costs of both are not yet determined.

Q: When will TERA be released?

A: This Winter.

Q: Is there a male and female version of each playable race?

A: Yes, there will be male and female versions of each race except Baraka.

Q: Will there be PvP servers where PvP is everywhere as well as PvE servers where you have to flag yourself to be part of PvP?

A: Yes. We expect to have both PvE and PvP servers. PvE servers will still have consensual PvP content such as battlegrounds and duels.

Q: How will I level up in TERA: through quests or grinding?

A: The game will launch with more than a thousand quests.

Q: Are raid bosses going too accessed through instances or the persistent world?

A: This is information is unknown. However you can expect to see both persistent world and instanced raid bosses.

Q: I’m a mouse clicker, can I use the mouse to point and click?

A: The action combat interface isn’t about point-and-click, it’s more about aim-and-shoot. You can use the mouse to aim and attack (shoot, melee, etc.).

Obsolete Gamer was able to ask some additional questions to Tera Online Senior Producer Brain Knox.

Obsolete Gamer: What would be the minimum requirements to play Tera Online, will it require a high-end system?

Brain Knox: We haven’t defined the exact system specs yet, but we are using the Unreal 3 engine, which has already helped bring a variety of titles to market. We believe that a gaming PC bought in the last 4–5 years should have what it takes to run TERA. It is important to us that we optimize continuously, so you won’t see the official specs until all of our testing is complete in a few months.

Obsolete Gamer: When you die, how is that handled? Do you lose exp, turn into a ghost, have to retrieve your body? Does it differ in PVE over PVP?

Brain Knox: When characters die in the game, they lose what we call “stamina.” Stamina can be regained quickly by spending gold, or you can heal your character’s stamina by resting near a campfire. Additionally, there is a chance that any enhancement crystals you placed into your character’s weapon or armor might break when you die. Upon death, your character respawns at the nearest campsite in full gear; there is no corpse retrieval or costly experience loss.

Obsolete Gamer:  How often do you plan to add content to the game and will it be in patches, expansions or both?

Brain Knox: Both! An MMO is a living, breathing organism that we must continually nourish. We plan to release content updates regularly after launch through patches, and work toward larger expansion updates as well.

Obsolete Gamer: What day and how long would you expect maintenance to be?

Brain Knox: This is a great question because it seems simple but actually requires a ton of thought and planning. The En Masse team wants maintenance and updates to impact the player experience as little as possible. As of now, we have not yet defined the specifics.

Obsolete Gamer:  Will there be play guides or VIP members on forums and in game?

Brain Knox: We are looking for the best way to involve all of our community members, but we understand that some want to go above and beyond the call. We have some good ideas but aren’t ready to release anything quite yet.

Obsolete Gamer: What is your stance on removing loot or changing encounters based on player feedback?

Brain Knox: Feedback helps call attention to areas of need, and for that reason, it is invaluable! Much of the time the game element in question just needs further explanation, but there are times when it is broken or unbalanced. This will just have to be a situational call on a case-by-case basis.

Obsolete Gamer: How long will it take to reach max level?

Brain Knox: Another good question! Most MMOs can throw out a number, but I can’t tell you for sure right now. This is something we are spending a lot of time ironing out in our Focus Group Tests. The journey to max level should be fun, consistent, and never feel like a chore. We talk with the developers constantly about what the right number is for the Western market.

Obsolete Gamer: Going after the big monsters and boss encounters, how long to you plan these to take?

Brain Knox: Again, this is a balance issue we are working on. It needs to be long enough to feel epic and well fought, but not so long that you feel annoyed or bored throughout the encounter.

Obsolete Gamer: Healers in PVP are sometimes considered overpowered because of their ability to withstand damage and heal themselves, how have you dealt with this?

Brain Knox: We’re not looking at each class on a one-to-one basis with regard to PvP. We have designed our game for group PvP encounters, and that is our goal in balancing the classes.

Obsolete Gamer: What is the plan when the best players and groups burn though new content?

Brain Knox: We hope to have enough content for multiple play-throughs with alt characters, but we also hope that our endgame content—battlegrounds, crafting, the political system, and a variety of PvE instances—will provide a great experience for max level players.

Obsolete Gamer would like to thank Brian Knox and everyone else at En Masse entertainment for answering our questions and reaching out to the community. If you have any additional questions post them on our message board and we will see what we can do.

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