During GDC 2012, we caught up with TERA's Associate Producer Stefan Ramirez to talk about a variety of subjects near and dear to the hearts of our readers. Find out more about guild features, PvP and the political system in TERA and then leave us a comment or two.

MMORPG.com:  Can you talk about TERA’s political system?

Stefan Ramirez: The political system in TERA is something you start experiencing more towards the end levels, endgame stuff. Players will be able to vote, through a popular vote, and there are provinces within TERA. These provinces can each have their own Vanarch. These Vanarchs can control things, like taxes for the area, so when people buy things from the shops and vendors, they’re actually paying taxes back to the Vanarch. They can also turn on special NPCs, they have these things called policy points, and these policy points allow them to manage, basically, the province.

Read more of Mike Bitton's TERA: Politics, PvP & Guilds...OH MY!

Sounds fun.  Absolutely in no way my cup of tea, but I hope this game makes it out the door despite the legal troubles.

Really looking foward to the Political System.

For PvP content they forgot to mention deathmatches you can scedule with any for up to 10v10 and you can wager money/items. Those are always fun.

Regardless it was a good read, although sometimes hard to make out. The wording seemed really random and out of place at some times.

Also it is my understanding certain territories can also be controlled from battlegrounds from my talks with people playing in Korea. They only mentioned the voting in this article.

sigh, makes me want to run a guild again.

I made it to my high 20's this past CBT on my Priest, fought my first BAM, ran a dungeon, and experienced the GvG, it was a lot of fun. I rolled a Slayer near the end of beta and felt that the combat of TERA really shines with this mele class. I'm normally a caster, but I think I may have found a new class.

I can't wait for this game to release, and highly recommend everyone try this game out before it is released, instead of listening to other's opnion (mine included). There are some annoyances, but these exist in every game. I honestly hope GW2 blows this game out of the water, because this game is so fun, to do so will make GW2 the greatest thing since sliced bread.  Either way I will be playing both, and TSW. 

This is a good year to be a gamer in the MMORPG world.

Originally posted by Pivotelite

For PvP content they forgot to mention deathmatches you can scedule with any for up to 10v10 and you can wager money/items. Those are always fun.

Regardless it was a good read, although sometimes hard to make out. The wording seemed really random and out of place at some times.

Also it is my understanding certain territories can also be controlled from battlegrounds from my talks with people playing in Korea. They only mentioned the voting in this article.

 

6 areas, 3 vanarchs appointed through vote, 3 by pvp rank

Looks cool,  hope people play past the starting island and play past level 10 to start getting a better feel and realize this game isnt as easy as it seems at level 2

Originally posted by Entropy14

Looks cool,  hope people play plast the starting island and play past level 10 to start getting a better feel and realize this game isnt as easy as it seems at level 2

This. I do hope they make some improvement to the starting zone, it's turning to many people off, which is a shame.

ya it could use some work, I think somewhere in Teras mind they think this will allow the casual gamer to get a feel for the game and not get turned off by it being too difficult, but sadly its so easy and boring that lots of people will just get to level  4, delete and not bother playing.

@Entropy14 I think you are correct about the fact that they try to make it easy for players who are new to this style of combat. I played with some players this past test who had alot of problems with the combat, so for people like them I'm sure it doesn't seem too easy. 

I wish they would make it optional after playing it once, much like Champions Online did for their tutorial section. I like to roll alts, but it's painful to have to spend 2-3 hours grinding this zone to get to the real game. It is a beautil zone however. I also wish you could choose to repeat the only fun quest in the zone, where you have to defend the bridge at Tainted Gorge. They need more quests like that, fast, fun, and continuous action. Perhaps a few BAM's in IoD as well. 

Originally posted by nadaji

Originally posted by Entropy14

Looks cool,  hope people play plast the starting island and play past level 10 to start getting a better feel and realize this game isnt as easy as it seems at level 2

This. I do hope they make some improvement to the starting zone, it's turning to many people off, which is a shame.

 

I am pretty sure when TERA came out it used to be pretty difficult in the starting zone so it got nerfed because Koreans complained. :P

Regardless, they are planning on revising 1-40 content and have stated they have plans to spice it up, I look forward to whatever they implement.

Two months to release and they are not sure how PvP will work together with political system? This does not bode well....

Originally posted by Yamota

Two months to release and they are not sure how PvP will work together with political system? This does not bode well....

 

Yeah that kinda struck me funny, too. I mean, the game's been in development for how long now? Don't they have a basis to go on from how it's handled in the KR version? Are they trying to do something completely different?

My understanding about game design in general is that game systems are conceived, designed and established before a line of code is written. I imagine this would be especially important in something as massive as this.

I can understand it being something different to grapple with from a design stand-point. PvP can be so chaotic and player-driven politics so fluid, that a system consistently encompassing and balancing both could be rather slippery to come up with. 

But still, it's not like this game hasn't been in development for a while. The political system is one of the things I've been most excited about with TERA. It has me a bit worried that they couldn't give a more decisive answer and seemed to stammer a bit.

Originally posted by TangentPoint

Originally posted by Yamota

Two months to release and they are not sure how PvP will work together with political system? This does not bode well....

 

Yeah that kinda struck me funny, too. I mean, the game's been in development for how long now? Don't they have a basis to go on from how it's handled in the KR version? Are they trying to do something completely different?

My understanding about game design in general is that game systems are conceived, designed and established before a line of code is written. I imagine this would be especially important in something as massive as this.

I can understand it being something different to grapple with from a design stand-point. PvP can be so chaotic and player-driven politics so fluid, that a system consistently encompassing and balancing both could be rather slippery to come up with. 

But still, it's not like this game hasn't been in development for a while. The political system is one of the things I've been most excited about with TERA. It has me a bit worried that they couldn't give a more decisive answer and seemed to stammer a bit.

 

These retards keep "westernizing" the game, the game is nothing like the korean version thats why they have no clue how the politcal system is going to work in regards to pvp

These retards keep "westernizing" the game, the game is nothing like the korean version thats why they have no clue how the politcal system is going to work in regards to pvp

 

That's because most 'westerners' are retards.  There's plenty of existing MMOs out there with completely different levelling curves and PvP mechanics than their Asian counterparts.

This is going to be so kick ass cant wait!

It really is bothersome that every single PVP question comes up with "Umm, we are working on it (unitelligible response)."

I don't like PVP, so I could just about care less, but still - the fact that the eastern version has been out for a long time now, and these guys are still trying to figure out what to do with PVP? Why even include it if you aren't going to take the time to figure it out, especially ~this~ close to release.

If your looking for awesome PVP, this game probably won't be it, because these guys seem pretty clueless in this interview, and it's a shame, because I was looking forward to this game.

People complaining about the lack of knowledge on PvP...if you have been playing in the Beta you would realize they have been changing rules almost each weekend as a result of our specific responses and complaints with regards to PvP.

That is why they don't know, because it is entirely dependant on us.

Also Ridelyn, I have not had more fun in PvP in TERA than any other game, it's just non-stop fun every beta with guildies. Going on PvP expeditions, fighting over BAMs and instance entrance, 10v10 deathmatches for money, GvG war gets declared on any guild we don't like..etc.