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Comments
These sorts of vision/strategic decisions are many layers above them, would apply to the game worldwide, and would take months/years to be implemented. What sort of further feedback do you expect?
Point taken. I should have said "want" not "expect."
People plays call of duty, lol and fifa.
Those games are pretty much the same each match and a new version of them is pretty much the same as the ones before.
People love monotonous things but they don't want to admit it.
So I wanted to go over some other things I thought about for this game, and also wanted to do a sort of near future/farther out future timeline of things that (from my perspective) may be feasible for EME/BHS to get done in order to pull this game's progress and development back on track towards something that will generally help retain players.
However, I wanted to respond to a few things people said and kind of go over why I said what I did.
I'm not sure I ask too much, considering I've not put a time stamp on when I was hoping things would get done - quite frankly I'm not expecting miracles out of a game probably pulling less than 4,000 unique logins in any given 24 hour period.
You're right that my opinion to add pots back into the game may be just subjective - I guess the point I was getting at is questioning why they were removed in the first place. That is often the question I'm asking myself more and more often these days, "Why was this removed? What benefit does removing this from the game do, that just leaving it in as another option didn't do better?"
Asking one thing every three months is reasonable - however it depends on that one thing. I'm no game developer but I'm going to guess that changing the mechanics of the GearXP system to allow 100% success rates will also require retooling not just the code itself, but also readjusting the amounts of XP required to reach 100% each time, but that's just my guess. However, I absolutely agree - removing the GearXP cap so that any piece of gear at any level can get 100% enchant success should be a high priority task - the Arsenal update was for all intents and purposes a fantastic step in the right direction, but the forced RNG must go. We are not Korea, we are not their local audience that loves ripping slot machine levers - the vast majority of people detest RNG progression and would rather just put time into a linear, guaranteed progression system like in EVE or Warframe.
"Progression should not equal punishment in the altar of p2w." - Exactly this. Progression should never be walled off by RNG.
*fixed a tiny bit there for you*
The whole post was a fantastic read, very detailed, and thank you for segmenting things with Spoilers (I should really do this myself too... but meh, efforts)
Still I must point out this block among the entire post as it points out something very critical - Tera is an extremely unique MMO that several other companies and developers have attempted to replicate, but have all failed, some more spectacularly than others. With little to no new games coming out causing a big splash in the near future, this puts Tera and BHS as you said, in a very lucrative position, assuming they capitalize on it.
For right now, Tera is..... like a boat. A boat with holes in it, and is slowly sinking. It's not submersed yet, but it's definitely sinking. These holes can be seen as the problems the game is facing right now. Some are smaller, and manageable, some are larger, and should be looked into as soon as humanly possible. Big or small though they are all causing problems, and much like holes in a boat, they need to be fixed or they will lead to catastrophic problems later on (game dying = boat sinking).
BHS adding new content is like someone asking you to ride this boat, by saying, "Hey look at this new shiny new thing I put on my boat!" - It's cool and all, and you'd normally be super excited about it....... But the boat still has holes in it and it's still sinking. Sure it's ok to be excited somewhat about this new thing, like a game's new patch. But unless that new thing fixes problems that exist right now - the problems are going to take away from that new content, or just downright outweigh any good the new content brings with the negatives of what's still broken.
This is why I suggested having both the optional Solo, and then group options of the dungeons. The solo version is for people interested in the story and interested in that longer-standing grind to the end of the single player, non-end-game content. The party version will be for those of us just leveling alts and looking to get to level cap as soon as humanly possible.
Going with this approach gives a path for both sides of the coin, and unless I’m missing something here, I just do not see any negatives to this approach considering at the end of the Dakuryon quest line and essentially the ‘end of the game’ - the player would be basically pushed into the 5-man dungeons for the last few levels until they hit 65.
This actually brings up a point I missed about the story questing - adding a solo-able Shadow Sanguinary to finalize the confrontation with Dakuryon should be added. Left as is, new players will basically fend him off - but then never get any cloture to that story without going online and actually watching SS get run. And even then, the people doing that are likely the ones that want to experience the story itself, so it will just be a half-baked end to that until BHS inevitably recycles SS back into the game.
IMS doesn’t care what server you’re on - I play on TR and regularly am queued up with people from other servers, so that doesn’t help at all. However I agree with the other point - for new players, joining a guild that supports new players is arguably one of the best things for them to do.
I’m throwing all of the +1’s at you right now.
Player disregard has become pretty rampant in the past couple years, that is true. The removal of a lot of quality of life content just screams to the average player that the developers probably don’t play this game much, or only listen to an extremely small minority of players, rather than taking in from a lot of angles and groups.
Removing of content like bandages was actually quite infuriating to me as a player. I actually used them quite often when doing IoD with my alts, as I found myself coming out of fights without full HP since I wasn’t in 2nd best or BIS gear at the time.
I can understand scrolls being removed - they got consolidated into one item that is both more convenient for the player, as well as the server running the game. That’s fine, as much as it bums me out that it removed another thing from the crafting/gathering side, I can live with it. I just felt that removing things like the HP/MP pots, as well as the bandages was….. not necessary. At all. It served no beneficial purpose to this game by removing it.
Just add the new pots and let me decide what I want to use. Stop TELLING ME how to play this game. That’s why I want it back - I want the *option* to choose which potion to use.
“Does this help the game?” - That I feel should be the very first question when thinking about any design change, or content update to a game, any game. Removal of content like these potions did not help - removing old dungeons to rework and update them? I can live with that as long as it is done in an expedient manner.
Dungeon and Daily Rewards
- I definitely agree with you in regards to earning gems. Considering how many rubies it takes to make one Emerald, and how many Emeralds it takes to make one Diamond, the cost skyrockets pretty quickly to “lol wait a minute, what?” levels of cost.
This post actually gave me some ideas for how to update the Vanguard System (both in completing tasks, and spending credits). I’ve detailed them below.
+1 to the idea of controlled testing and the use of a training ground. This would be an immense help to new players as it gives them a place to actually learn how to fight in this game in an area that won’t kill them, and gives them all the time they need to get better at their own pace.
Heck, there’s already a small training grounds area INSIDE VELIKA that has test dummies in it that people can use. It would probably have to be instanced, but that’s fine, it would be a nice addition to the early game for new players.
@Cezzare - The thing about what I was getting at with IoD was that it makes for a better experience for new players. Yes, it does get old for anyone starting a fourth or fifth character - but that is the same for generally any video game. The problem with SSA was not only that it was boring and tedious from the start - it was also useless too.
IOD might be tedious to us veterans, but it isn’t to new players. Stepstone Aisle is just downright annoying to everyone. It’s faster, sure, but SSA and an annoying crying child are heck of a lot more irritating and not nearly as impressive of a start to an MMO as IOD.
Anyway, I wanted to go over a few other things that I personally have thought over the years that this game could either do better, or have back again. I wanted to put this sort of into a timeline of sorts, however I’m no developer, so this is more or less just me taking a wild guess at how long these things can take to implement, or re-implement back into the game.
QOL Changes:
0-30 Days
1: Reintroduce Campfires.
There was no reason to remove them completely from the game. They were a widely accepted cosmetic that, more often that not, served little more than just that. A convenient cosmetic to gather around with other players, and on occasion, burn your standard flavor of charms in.
The game assets should still exist, and so I don’t see why these can’t be re-implemented into the game with a hot-fix. Heck, this may even be something EME can do themselves, but I don’t know.
2: Reintroduce old HP/MP pots and Bandages
I went over this earlier, and while not everyone wants to use them - it gave gatherers and crafters something to work on and sell - and it gave everyone options.
Need a small pick-me-up? Use the 30s CD potion we can buy from vendors.
Need a bit more than that? Use the 1m CD potion that gives about twice as much.
Need HP over time because you’re playing passively or in between combat? HP/s Potions
Or better yet, pop a medicated bandage, they work fantastic and heal for a lot more than potions, and are cheaper than 50% pots or Rejuvenation potions.
Need a massive boost of HP to survive that flat damage attack because your healer is dead? Health Drought X will give you a huge HP boost but comes at a huge 3 minute CD.
The choice is yours. But most importantly, you HAVE the choice. The other pots gave survivability when the healer went down - the current pots are nice for little boosts here or there, but are nowhere near enough when you’re in the middle of a boss fight and have no healer.
3: Bring back Gatherfaster and Crafting Speed scrolls
Again, there was zero point in removing them from the game - and now with the Arsenal patch, the crafting speed scrolls offer non-elite players a temporary boost to craft all of those Gold Darics and Plates they need in order to upgrade gear. It actually makes sense now more than ever to bring them back into the game, really.
The demand for these would also spike the need for people to go out and gather the materials to make these. Again, it does more good than harm to have them in the game.
The assets should still exist, so they too should be able to be brought back into the game fairly easily.
1: Elite Status Update
This has been an ongoing topic for a long time now, and I’m going to touch up on this subject once more - A lot of these ideas I’ve seen in the forums and agree with.
Remove the Gold Boost for a Gear XP boost. If not permanent, then make it like the gold boost, you get 12 of them, each for 1 hour and is just a simple right-click on the Elite Bar. This alone would bring Elite status a good leap forward back into the current game’s relevancy, and give people a LOT more reason to spend money on Elite every month.
Update and improve the daily login rewards. I’m not going to lie, I’ve been playing a ton of Warframe lately and something I noticed was that for EVERY PLAYER, not just Prime Access players, but for literally every single person that logs into the game each day - they get a daily item.
Now I’m not going to do a Tera vs Warframe post but there are some glaring similarities between these two games that I think Tera can take ideas from to improve itself.
Namely - the daily rewards need to be updated. Remove useless rolls like the 5 Gold Talents, or 300 Metamorphic Emblems. These are the people providing you a constant revenue stream every month - 5 Gold Talents for a daily login crate is actually pretty insulting.
Doubly so when I log into Warframe and get something like a 50% off coupon to their store for the next 48 hours. So I have two days where I can choose one thing out of *nearly everything* in their store to buy, and I can buy it at half off, be it with in-game credits, or their premium currency.
That is insanely awesome. Something like that would HIGHLY encourage people to purchase something in your store. I’ll admit right now I sank money into the game in my first 48 hours BECAUSE I got one of those, and I’ll probably do it again when I get another one later.
Items like these, and things like a Gear XP buff (if not implemented into the elite bar) or item drop rate buffs for a day would be HUGE boosts to the rewards offered by the daily elite boxes and would make having Elite a LOT more enticing. You can also make them non-tradeable so the people who have 900 elite boxes don’t destroy the economy overnight, just to be safe.
2: Vanguard Update
The Vanguard store is in a bad spot right now, that’s no mystery to anyone. So here are some ideas I have to help repair this system with a lot of potential:
Update the Entropic Box to drop 32-64 Entropic Emblems - as it stands right now this box is basically useless given its price. Updating what is rewarded by these is a good first step to giving people something worth spending their credits on.
Also, update the Consumables Boon Box to include other consumables:
- Health Potions (50% ones, not the ones you buy at the shop).
- Mana Elixirs
- Valiant Potions (75% HP in 15s ones)
- Noctenium Infusions
- Noctenium Elixirs (of both kinds)
- Travel Journals
Basically make it what its name is - a box that will give you a random amount of a random consumable item. This change would make them a much more enticing offer if I knew I could get some Nocteniums in them, or if I could get an Elixir or other consumables besides just what we have now.
Update the ‘bonus’ items you get when opening boxes like the Entropic Emblem box to include some of the above items, while at the same time, please remove the old outdated Cruxes like the boss damage, or minion damage cruxes. This should have been done a long time ago, so as just a “let’s finally get this out of the way” bit - I would love to see these useless crystals removed finally.
Add a new item to the Vanguard shop:
Name: Gem Box
Cost: 400 credits
What is it: Gives 1-5 of a random gem (3 Rubies minimum, 5 emeralds or 1 diamond max)
This pretty much instantly solves two or three problems. It solves the issue with not having enough gems in the game for upgrading. It solves giving people something worth grinding Vanguard points for, and allows some players with less cash to exchange credits for an item to sell for gold (let’s face it, upgrading in this patch is crazy gold intensive).
Another thing you could do to help expand the Vanguard shop’s utility is allow people to buy Dyad Niveot Structures from the crystal merchant - they won’t be cheap, let’s say…. 1000 credits a pop? So if you bought one with three Niveots that should be in the ballpark of ~2000 credits per Dyad, and even then you still have to pray to RNGeezus that it’s a dyad you actually want?
I don’t see a problem with this since Dyad structures can’t be sold on broker or traded, and their rarity and that they are basically BIS crystals means they shouldn’t be a cheap and easy thing to acquire. Doing this offers players a way to get Dyad Niveot Structures for their gear without having to rely on Crystal Boxes, and removes at least that level of RNG from the game.
Lastly I want to touch up on Daily Vanguard Rewards -
They’re pretty ‘meh’ right now, and I thing diversifying them would help give players more incentive to run dungeons, rather than just knocking out 8-16 rounds of Basilisks every day with their alts.
The concept is simple - Have different kinds of rewards for 3 and 8 completed tasks.
You’ll have your basic 3 and 8 completed daily rewards that do not change.
However, you will also now have two new options:
3 and 8 completed IoD rewards - This offers you some basic materials like Talents, gold, and/or gems for upgrading. That’s the main focus of why you’re on IOD anyway, so it makes sense to keep those rewards in line with that.
3 and 8 completed dungeon rewards - This offers you a good bit more gold and materials, but also offers you higher tier materials - like at 8 dungeon runs, you would get some Emeralds, gold, and gold talents. It seems like a lot, but consider you just ran through eight dungeons.
How much of what you’d get varies, and could be determined at a later date, but that’s the general concept. Allow people to get rewards specific to their playstyle, and reward them more for investing more time into the game.
That’s all I have for now, sorry it’s not quite as polished as the last post but I didn’t have as much time to write it this time. If you made it this far, I thank you for your time and look forward to reading what you guys have to say about any of this.
We could try to keep this thread alive and those who like the idea from OP give a like.
Just passing this along and hope that others do the same:
I hardly post on the forums anymore and I stopped playing the game months ago. That said, there are changes that were mentioned in the game that would make me play again, and so I've given a like to the posts that give good suggestions and posted this comment on the thread.
Even if your comment isn't technically useful please comment so we can keep this thread alive. I want to show BHS and EME that the playerbase cares about the game. Yes, even if you're angry in the direction the game has been going, please comment something, because being angry simply means that we care. As soon as we stop caring, the game will die for real.
Basically, I feel like some of the ideas are more about bringing back the past (nostalgia?) than looking critically at the features' merits (and demerits) to find better ways to address the underlying needs and problems. If you asked me literally if I wanted all these exact changes and thought that would make the game better... it's about 50/50 for me, honestly. Of course it would be -- part of this is about personal preferences. But as a starting point for a potential conversation about things some people liked about the past and would like to see reconsidered, it makes sense.
Anyway, just as one point of order...
Our calendar serves this purpose. Elite members get a second daily item through the gift box. Maybe both of these could be improved more, but as it stands everyone does get a daily item.
I know you have some things you would love to see change/implemented into the game, and once again it's not your job to do so, but I feel like it would help, not only by keeping the thread alive, but also even more feedback, so please I encourage you to share those ideas. I would personally love to read what you have in mind in the hope of pushing TERA forward.
There are other things I'd personally want for my own enjoyment, but in terms of pushing TERA forward in our region:
1. Make PvP a "first class citizen" alongside PvE in gear progression, and fully support/encourage the PvP community with PvP-specific balance changes, initiatives, and tournaments.
2. Re-introduce competitive PvE aspects both native to the game and through events to encourage the community through content droughts. (Also, closely monitor for K-TERA content droughts and introduce timely new content to fill the gap.)
3. Add a true "level sync" system, allowing level 65 players to party with low-level players to complete dungeons/content, increasing the potential for cooperative PvE play with new players.
4. Eliminate talents in K-TERA and implement the same buffs via a different system (or as part of an existing system) that is accessible to all regions (so there is no perception of "preferential treatment" in class balance).
5. Have a constant stream of small events running in the game all the time (such as various boosts, spawn events, featured content, etc.), rather than relying so much on "big deal" events that might be flops. (Though keep doing occasional "big deal" events also.)
6. Further improve the gearing system to reduce the impact of RNG, allowing a definitive "fail-safe" that is reasonable for each gear tier.
7. Finally finish the revamp of all in-game merchants (fashion coupons, vanguard, buddy up, reward emporium, etc.) and regularly introduce new items going forward to keep things interesting. (i.e. Don't allow things to fall this far behind again.)
8. Closer monitoring of broker prices when determining event rewards, and closer attention to balance of prize awarding, to maintain a better sense of "worth" of event prizes for dedicated and new players alike.
9. Change TERA Rewards so that all in-game actions that reward points also give corresponding credits, and make it so that Elite players earn rewards/credits at a higher rate (double?).
10. Have continuous and constantly-rotating Elite Discounts on the cash shop every day/week.
11. Since eliminating cash shop lootboxes is unlikely, require all lootboxes to have posted odds and an absolute failure cap.
12. Regular and on-going meetings with Player Council to create a constant feedback loop, with tracking of delivered improvements and measurable results.
13. Find/hire regular forum moderators who can monitor the forum on weekends/evenings/holidays for any forum or in-game issues, and trigger appropriate staff action as needed.
Of course, these are just my opinions, and I'm sure that some of them people won't agree with. (It's also off the top of my head, so I'm sure I missed some.) And I'm also not trying to make this a competition of who has the better opinions on how to improve TERA either. Everyone has their own things that are important to them and will help their own enjoyment of the game, and they're not wrong whether I personally agree or not.
The only thing about this would be to remove the rng loots on dungeons and allow the players to get the same loot for each one who cleared the dungeon.
The gear revamp system would be better if we wouldnt have to rely on RNG to get the enchanting mat we need from a dungeon designed to get them.