Allow me to share my personal experience of TERA with you, OP. We have some factors in common that I really want to address before you make your final decision.

About a month ago a close friend of mine randomly told me he spent his last $60 on purchasing this game called TERA and was unable to go out and have dinner with me. Curious, I checked out some videos to see what this "TERA" was that my friend would buy (he doesn't play subscription based games). I saw some first look videos and thought it was pretty cool at best, but nothing really shone. I went ahead and pre ordered the game because I was in the mood to play some MMORPG with some rl friends for a change.

I first played on closed beta 4. I remember playing through the first area and thought everything was horrendously boring and was pretty much a dolled up F2P game. The questing was so typical of any other random Asian MMORPG out there. You talk to an NPC, they give you a wall of text, you click next and the quest tracker pops up telling you to kill 5 tree monsters.
The combat was fun, but I was still pretty PO for having paid (and continue to pay subscription) for a game I could have played for free. I reached level 8 and thought "screw it, I can't do this. It's so boring". I was ready to quit when my friend came online, and we skyped and I pushed on for a while with him.

I got to level 12 with him by midnight that night and couldn't stop playing. I swear, getting those extra skills to play around with and having to fight monsters that looks aesthetically awesome as well as being pretty damn strong made the whole experience... extraordinary. And this was just level 12 - I had barely left the "noob" island and had just arrived at the main town.

The next day I got to level 20 and experienced my first battle with a BAM (big [filtered] monsters). That sealed the deal for me. It was just my friend (a tank) and I (a sorc) trying to take on this beefy level 20 boss monster. It took us a good 7-8 minutes, and every single second of it had me on the edge of my seat. I actually had to think about my actions. One wrong move and I was pretty much dead. I had to communicate with my friend at all time to check if he was alright. I was completely hooked.

When you do try out open beta this weekend, really give it a go. Take everything you've heard about this game with a grain of salt, and really immerse yourself to each and every fight you encounter. If I had not stuck it out, I would have missed out on this amazing game.

I've heard many things about GW2 and I'll definitely be checking that out, although the thing that has most of my interest so far is the dynamic event thing. I seriously doubt it can be good enough to replace the combat system in TERA to make me make the switch. But I must admit, it does look incredibly interesting and I'll be giving it a try whenever I can. Just saying though, TERA is a gem that most might miss just because it's so incredibly typical until a bit later into the experience.

Hope to see you around the forums more, OP. Enjoy your stay.

Quote: SpyderArachnid on 04/12/2012, 05:58 AM - view

My question... if you've played all those games going as far back and UO... is, what really do you expect?

Points.

Questing. The reason questing hasn't changed much in the last two decades is basically because this is the easiest most efficient way to provide the "heroic experience" to hundreds of thousands to million of player simultaneously. Everyone has to feel "special" but no one can be unique, otherwise it isn't fair to Joe paying 15 a months to constantly be in the spotlight while Bill pays the same amount and never gets the same treatment.

You're not going to get away from killing MOB after MOB, because this (or any other MMO) is a video game at the end of the day, so you either kill MOBs, or you kill other players. It doesn't matter what MMO it is, you are going to end up killing more mobs and mor PC's than you will ever want to count.

Gear, will always be an integral part of any MMO and part of that integrality (no this isn't a real word) is grinding for it. It's a matter of effort vs. reward. If rewards are gained quickly and easily people lose interest, if rewards are too hard to get but take less (persistent) effort people lose interest. So it's a balance. However so far from what I've seen of Tera gear is of slightly less importance than in other games.


Sure a game GW2 has their "Dynamic event" content thing, and I applaud them for that, trying to do something a little different. But guess what, it still has traditional quests too. And trust me, the "dynamic event" thing will get old and stale very soon just like Rifts did in well Rift, which were really just a much more generic single facet of a similar system.

As combat goes I wouldn't say either game (Tera of GW2) is more dynamic than the other, but they certainly offer more than any other game out there, and they do so in their own different ways.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you're in it for the MMOs, they're ALL going to essentially be the same. One is going to have this feature, another is going to have that feature. This one might try this new thing and it fails, that one might try a different new thing or even the same thing and might succeed.

The problem is, I see in every new MMO somone posting what you did, "I'm tired of the same old thing." Well 1. What do you expect? and 2. what different thing do you really want?

I can answer that partiall. I personally want a new MMO that is fun to play (combat wise I think Tera has that), and one that fuses sandbox and themepark into a new style of gameplay that takes all the strengths of each and none of the weaknesses of the other.

My advice, take these games for what they are supposed to be taken for. Entertainment. If it's fun and you enjoy it, play it. Dont dwell so much on what you do or don't like, because I assure you if you do, you'll eventually hate every game you play. Conversely if it isn't fun and you don't enjoy playing it... it's quite simple, dont.

Quote: Pandalax on 04/15/2012, 02:50 AM - view

I've heard this a lot too. That the game really starts getting interesting at lvl20, and I have to agree.. noob island is a boring experience and I think if Blue Hole/En Masse were smart they'd figure out something else to do for the first 10-12 levels, because that short stretch will hurt them in the long run. I would have been much more impressed earlier even if they broke the beginner experience up into racial starting areas and let you build your way up to the capital but, eh...

OP just stick with it past level 12, and you'll see.

Yeah like I said before, I'll definitely be playing for the entirety of the beta. I want to give the game a chance and try out as much as I can before beta ends before I decide on whether the game is for me or not.

I haven't really posted in the thread that much anymore cause it was veering more onto the features of GW2, and felt I kind of drew it to that topic without meaning to. So didn't want to continue on about Gw2 in a Tera forum. :P

But do agree, the first levels should be a great experience. That is what is supposed to draw you into the game. If the whole starter area, up to level 20-30 is completely boring, it will steer players away. The beginning of the game needs to be just as epic as the end game. It needs to captivate you and make you want to see what else is going to happen. Otherwise, if there is nothing exciting at the beginning, how do you expect to keep players interested? First impression is the best impression.

One of my big issues is the whole "Don't worry, after you get out of the boring starter area and reach level 20-30, the real game picks up". I don't like that at all. The game should catch my attention from the beginning, not the end. When new players join, they need a reason from the beginning to play your game. Otherwise, they'll find something else quick if the game can't offer a great starter experience for them to continue playing.

Try open beta, get past level 20-ish. You should have a good idea of whether you like it or not at that point (after you made it to the first BAM).

Quote: SpyderArachnid on 04/15/2012, 05:57 AM - viewHonestly though, how many MMOs have you played where the first bunch of levels are interesting to play?

The fact that:
-You have virtually no abilities
-You have virtually no gear
-Enemies are easier since it's the beginning of the game
-Areas aren't usually too amazing since you'll be flying through them
-The complicated/exciting aspects of a game can't usually be shown in full light because of the above

In all honesty though, if the mobs on Noob Island simply attacked faster and the 'boss' for Dark Revelations was buffed to actually require AT LEAST 3 people instead of all classes being able to solo it, it might catch the attention of people.

The thing I hated the most for those starter levels playing as an Archer and a Priest was that most of the early mobs were dead before they even got to me. I could hit them a good 5+ times before they'd clue in "Hey, I'm getting hit!" and turn towards me to slowly hobble their way to me. If they were to move a little faster and attack a little faster, it would up the difficulty and maybe get people interested...



Then again, it might make things "too hard" for some and people would get angry and frustrated at having a challenge while leveling...

Response without reading the whole thread, but I felt the need to rush this in.

When I first heard about TERA, I thought almost the same exact thing. "Just another MMO where the only thing that changes is the targeting system. Ridiculous, that's not enough." Oh my god I was so wrong. "Just combat" changing has been monumental, especially for me as a person who finds combat the most exciting part of the MMO. The combat is superbly balanced, too. Instead of having incredibly fast paced, high action, low consequence combat, TERA has medium paced, nice action, and high consequence combat. One of the best things about the combat is that when you commit to something, you usually commit to something. There aren't many ways to get out of an ill-timed skill.

And to be honest, GW2 was much more of a let down, and I can say that having played since the alpha...

@ Spyder - bro, really...you're better off in GW2. Tera really doesn't have exactly what you're looking for. You're looking for that extremely detailed story line, where the game revolves around YOU. Yeah, i played GW 1 and I know what you mean. I personally haven't played GW2 (i know its not out yet, but haven't done the Alphas) and I haven't seen any videos on it either. Simply because I love tera :3

I love tera because..well it's the first game that I wouldn't be ashamed to show my friends. I've been playing MMO's hard since..well since 2006. I'm one of those "closet gamers" when it comes to MMO's because they all look so stupid. Sure my friends play xbox (madden and such) and I know they would ridicule me if they saw me fighting a mob.

Why?

Because it's just plain dumb that a mob doesn't even really touch me and I STILL get hit.

That's not the case in Tera, in Tera you could dodge them and run around in circles so you don't get tagged :D

The combat in Tera, it's just awesome ^_^ psh, I play it using an xbox 360 controller!!

As far for the negative feedback you've heard...dude...it's the forums. Everyone talks [filtered]! You should know this by now! Dude, the developers (or whatever) make a change, and EVERYONE Q_Q's. They can'd do anything without people crying in the forums. But remember, there's only a few hundred in the forums, when there's thousands in game :) so don't pay attention to the forum trolls.

I was the same as you, OP. I've had my eyes on GW2 for a long time now. However, a friend gave me a CBT5 code a couple weeks ago so I thought I'd try it out. Prior to that, I had seen a few screenshots of Tera and a couple of youtubes and I thought that the graphics looked very impressive. But, I was worried this would be a Korean uninspired grind fest.

I was wrong.

The combat in Tera is amazing and very fun. I've played MMO's since UO and Tera, by far, has the best combat of them all. Gone is tab targetting, gone is auto-facing monsters, gone are most lock on abilities. Enter a combat system that is truly skill based.

Now I am more excited about Tera than GW2. I think that PvP in GW2 has great potential and I'm looking forward to trying it out. But I see myself playing Tera for a long time.

Quote: havenae on 04/15/2012, 05:23 AM - view

Quote: MChrome on 04/15/2012, 08:07 AM

This pretty much sums it up. I was not sold on pre-ordering the game until A.) I found the class I really enjoy playing and B.) I made it to level 20+ and started seeing more zones, ran my first instance, and started getting a decent arsenal of abilities (not to mention my first glyphs).