[TERA PC & Console] En Masse is closing, but TERA lives on! We will continue to support TERA PC (NA) and TERA Console until service is transferred. Stay tuned for more information.
[TERA Console] The Grotto of Lost Souls update (v85) is now live! Read the patch notes here: https://bit.ly/TERACon_v85
[TERA PC] The 64-bit update (v97) is now live. Check out all the changes delivered on August 11 here: https://bit.ly/tera64_patchnotes
[TERA PC & CONSOLE] Summerfest Part 2: The Beach Bash is on from August 11 until September 1! Participate in event activities to earn tokens redeemable for costumes, consumables, mounts, and more! Details: https://bit.ly/tera_sf20
Comments
"Okay everyone! Due to no one knowing how to use the <Everful Nostrum>, let's just have it permanently added to their stats! Oh, and don't forget to put out VM7.5 since they think there is already too many out there... Gotta keep our players happy!"
Eh, a lot of the things that make an MMO unique is the consumables you can get that do neat things. TERA won't have that aspect anymore. The 10 second potion cooldown is also silly in my opinion.
Nexon has nothing to do with Tera. I stay up to date with the Nexon site. If nexon did have anything to do with Tera it would be on the Nexon Launcher which it isn't. It's Bluehole Studios and EnMasse. Oh wait perhaps Bluehole studio's and Nexon are one in the same? I doubt it.
Not US Nexon man, but perhaps KR Nexon as they are the publisher if I remember it right. We dont' get exclusive stuffs, just hand-over from what the KR already has...playing catch up. KR Nexon probably want simpler stuffs for their player base.
BHS and Nexon one in the same? I'd say more or less. Developers have a very hard time getting their work out without a publisher...especially when they don't have the resources to. Who's to say KR Nexon didn't request these changed to be made?
So Yes, you may not like it, but don't for one second think that "OMG EVERYONE THINKS ITS HORRIBLE." Your game needs new players to survive, and that has been the push from BHS and Nexon in every patch.
Totally agree crafting/gathering needs a complete overhaul, that's why I haven't done it in over a year (besides making Heaven's Elixirs.)
And the biggest hidden upside to these changes, is that it will allow BHS to make more difficult content. You can't balance content when your intended clearing groups (120% stam, charms, nostrum, and scrosls) suddenly has 27 different consumable and food buffs, 135% stam, 5 more in-combat scroll and potions and an overall 30+% damage increase over the average consumable group. I'm all for little buffs to help the hardcore clear groups, but it was Extremely out of hand.
Yeah that's commercial nonsense for you. There shouldn't be two separate branches of a game developer just because of a language difference. And it makes absolutely no logic at all for US Nexon to not be in control of Tera if it is indeed a KR Nexon inspiration. Then again it probably would not be much different then it is now. If KR Nexon is indeed responsible for the negative changes in this game. Then perhaps it's time for Enmasse to look into a different investment. I see it only going sour to cater to a type of community, that goes against the very fabric of my morals.
I've seen this happen before in World of Warcraft. Ever wondered why the current set of dungeons are laughably easy compared to RG/BRHM/SCNM/SCHM? The current playerbase isn't conditioned to learn about the upcoming difficulty of the endgame - as it is, people are already being rushed through 1-65 without the faintest idea of what is expected of them in say, DFHM/SSNM, let alone SSHM/DSU. When I leveled in 2014, by level 30 I knew I had to start taking note of things or I'd be in trouble later on in the game. When I died to open world BAMs due to my own stupidity, the penalty was having to recharge my Stamina. When I died to Darkan in SCHM, my penalty was to be on low HP after being ressed and to have to re-charm/consumables while the boss was firing swipes and donuts all over the place. No incentive to get better = there is no game. There is a point to these things.
It's hilarious how people get handed everything - it leaves no impression on a new player. KC forces you to buy nostrums/scrolls, the game mails you crystals while leveling - yet people are missing these things in DFNM/CW etc when you queue for instance matching. Some Priests aren't using Energy Stars, Mana Charge and Triple Nemesis at 65, should we remove those too?
I don't agree with this direction that the game's going. Might explain why people aren't satisfied with the current level of content. If TERA's gonna follow the path of WoW to just appeal to the lowest common denominator, well, you can already see the effects of it - people quit WoW in droves last year, as well as an increased demand for the classic version of the game. There are people looking for a different MMO experience. TERA was the reigning best F2P MMO for 3 years for a reason. WoW will always do WoW better.
Sure, change it up a bit sometimes, but maybe gradually? Flat out removing everything especially when there are other priorities at hand (content woes, awakening, optimization, class balance etc), possibly at the expense of displeasing the more veteran players - is that really worth it, BHS?
That still doesn't resolve the inconvenience thing. Removing mounts and panacea while keeping the stamina system only makes it even more of an inconvenience than it already is. Most people do not want to sit around waiting for stamina, and it surely wasn't making the average person more social. People that want to socialize will on their own time.
Personally, I'd go with like a 50% minimum leveling exp decrease for accounts that don't already have a 65. A smaller decrease for those that do, since they'd only need to learn the class, not the basics. I understand them wanting to streamline leveling, but leveling is important, and should take a least a couple weeks to get through, not a couple days.
They took out so much customisation from the game, that you can't really run around with less seen things.
Everful Nostrum being a permanent thing is a joke. Having one size fits all items doesn't work in this game.
While I don't have a character with alchemy, I hope that people can craft a version of the nostrums... but I guess they are going to try and demolish the entire artisan system for everyone so that everyone can get to end game with easy mode stuff.
And I hate having an easymode no matter how casual I am.
Of course to a newbie player, the updates is a massive help to them. Not being conditioned to a whole ton of mechanics added over the years, it will take forever to get used to it. But I don't like the fact that you can't eventually customise the things that you want. Mystics using Crit Power Onslaughts instead of Attack Speed for example.
Nexon needs to realise that easier =/= better. Bring the old TERA back.
For Pt 16 low level crafting was already pointless due to drops being too common and avatar weapon just being handed out like candy. This just makes it even easier for them to not need .
The GM notes that are being published are based on the GM's gaming experience (as well as reading up player guides and asking around), so they are technically slightly above noob being just below "average". But that's just judging from what I see on their posts on their own guides on certain things.
I really do like NEXON GMs though, GM Lukina seems like she enjoy exploring the game than playing dungeons while GM Ramus seems like he really enjoy digging around the game. I'm not sure about the shy highelf GM but from what I hear he's really social.
Now Developer's Note, this is a message from Developers posted by GM (probably) for everyone. The issue here is that we obviously can tell how "experienced" developers are with the game, and as they stated that their original developers are no longer around. So it's highly likely that all of the original intentions to develop this game had been lost. I mean Baldera and Velik Wilds are two of the unused maps we still have no idea what they were for-- literally one of the many wonders of TERA including Skywhale which we worship as a divine figure other than the gods/goddesses.
With all that KTERA's BHS and NEXON stuff aside, my opinion about this patch is-- well, I'll be blunt and say this is hopeless. However, this is a better approach for newer players, perhaps it will likely prevent players dropping the game "because it's complex". Now, I know that veteran players prefer-- or rather crave-- complex systems, but those were the cause of new players dropping the game, whether that experience was direct or indirect. The main issue is that progression is way too fast, where new players literally do not have time to understand their skills and new items received (not that they pause for a second to do so anyways).
STAMINA
Stamina was something I couldn't understand for a while when I started the game, and I only understood when I reached level 60 while running Balder's Temple where a DPS was yelling at a priest for not having a hearty resurrection glyph... I think... but you get the picture. I literally thought Stamina was related to rested bonus exp until then lol;;; that's about a month since I started playing actively.
CONSUMABLES
You might get cancer but I also had no idea about crystals, gearing, re-rollable stats, master working, charms, nostrums, and scrolls until level 65 after Fate of Arun patch (literally about 2 months after learning about Stamins) while running BRNM being called a trash tank. Literally, whenever I recall those times, I get cancer knowing how terrible I was.
HP/MP Pot and Nostrum BS on ALCHEMY
Oh nice, 10 sec cooldown and some rework which I have no idea what they based it on but okay this seems cool haha... no. I really don't see it necessary either. Potions were fine as they were. With Bandages gone, I guess I'll start doing those bandage achievement as legacy thing.
As a Alchemy master (on priest) this is just ludicrous. I make very slow, steady income by crafting and selling pots and scrolls. I even take advantage of swift scroll and warding scroll as well. But removing Alchemy's capability like this was the funniest thing I've seen. I literally stopped and gave an applause to BHS for slaughtering Alchemy Masters indiscriminately, just like how they chopped off Armor/Weapon Masters' hands. Even etchings are pretty much unstable.
Gee, so many removed items, I don't know what can be crafted with Alchemy anymore... so let's go down the list together while crossing out what's deleted....
Onslaught Scrolls
Onslaught Scroll: Crit Factor I ~ VII
Onslaught Scroll: Crit Power I ~ VII
Onslaught Scroll: Impact Factor I ~ V
Onslaught Scroll: Attack Speed I ~ V
Mobility Scrolls
Warding Scroll I ~ VI
Scroll of Dash I ~ III
Resistance Scrolls
Scroll of Tenacity I ~ V
Burst of Tenacity I ~ V
Curative Scroll I ~ V
Curative Burst I ~ V
Caduceus Scroll I ~ V
Caduceus Burst I ~ V
MP Alchemical Liquids
Mana Potions I ~ X
Mana Elixirs I ~ X
Mana Draught I ~ X
Mana Restorative I ~ X
HP Alchemical Liquids
Health Potions I ~ X
Health Elixirs I ~ X
Health Draught I ~ X
Health Restorative I ~ X
Other Alchemical Liquids
Eclipse Potion I ~ V
Panaceaic Bolster I ~ III
Heart Potion I ~ III
Extensive Battle Nostrum
Heaven's Elixir
Refining
Daga/ Geit/ Isthel/ Sulfa/ Kran/ Glora/ Sikka/ Zirc Rune
Hijka Oil
Other Scrolls
Dedicated Crafter's Scroll
Gatherfaster Scroll
WOW look what we have left!
Runes which have no use whatsoever in the game anymore
Hijka Oil for Master Weapon Crafting
Dedicated Crafter's scroll for faster crafting
Gatherfaster scroll for faster gathering
*slowly clapping* I'm speechless. They better give us Alchemy masters some kind of compensation, as well as Armor/Weapon crafters while at it. The realism in this game is so real man. You have a profession or skill, but there are no jobs to use them.
BUFF UI
.... it's okay... i guess... eh. It's not impressive at all, but i won't have a bunch of icons floating on my screen. It's a nice change, but not something to be impressed about. I really hoped that I can move debuff bar separately from buff bar.
PROGRESSION STUFF
wait, leveling exists in this game? /s
Jokes aside, i'm not sure how much of a "change" it is for that loot table thing. Also it seems like i skipped a paragraph about feedstock drops, which just says that instead of having them spread everywhere like candies from pinata party, they're making them drop in 4 batches at max while keeping the same amount of drop.... I want to ask, why couldn't they do this before?
A lot of these simplification isn't entirely... bad.... but I agree that it's a huge slap in the face to veterans or those who have had rough time learning all these from scratch (ok, they are mentioned on player-created guides too and I can see that it's my fault for not paying close attention).
I guess I would differentiate between something being a "good system" and a few of the byproducts of the system being good. The old system supported hundreds (thousands?) of different potential combinations of a large number of consumables, but only a small handful of them were truly efficient or useful in practice. It's a whole lot of "flexibility" for a very small amount of actually-viable customization, and in exchange for a fair bit of extra (buried) complication. But on the other hand, it's also fair to say that the new system has gone too far the other way in offering no choice at all. So, if we could make a good list of "here are the specific, useful combinations of things the old system allowed me to do that the new system won't," those are probably the points to bring forward. Obviously who knows if they will listen, but I don't think I could argue in good faith that the current system was better on the whole and deserves to be kept for those reasons alone. At least saying "that's fine and all, but what about <these specific valid cases>?" seems more likely to get a possible audience. There may be a solution that adds back some flexibility without creating so much excessive bloat.
Incidentally, for whatever it's worth, I agree with your list of other important issues to fix as well, but I guess I still would have put this issue up there on the list as well, whether or not this is the right solution.