Seems like we all agree about the questing :-)    Seeing how Im the guy who READS the text to get some form of context, for others who have read it - is the Lore interesting enough to read through while I quest?  Or is it so bad I might as well click next and just complete them?

Also for those who made it to max level, I only made it to level 12 or so.  Does the landscape signifigantly change as you get higher up?  I love worlds where I get to explore different regions.  Is there any value in exploring every inch of a zone?  Are their achievements or is the games' world built around questing.

TERA looks pretty and has interesting combat, but curious about what else it delivers to keep me interested as I move up to max level.

Originally posted by darkhalf357x

Seems like we all agree about the questing :-)    Seeing how Im the guy who READS the text to get some form of context, for others who have read it - is the Lore interesting enough to read through while I quest?  Or is it so bad I might as well click next and just complete them?

Also for those who made it to max level, I only made it to level 12 or so.  Does the landscape signifigantly change as you get higher up?  I love worlds where I get to explore different regions.  Is there any value in exploring every inch of a zone?  Are their achievements or is the games' world built around questing.

TERA looks pretty and has interesting combat, but curious about what else it delivers to keep me interested as I move up to max level.

we have forrest, plains, tribal jungle, haloween/scary area, desert wasteland, beach, and avataresque. for zones so far and I am currently lvl 36

Not much exploring but I have noticed if you go quest in the alternate area's or do some quests you find while running around you do get achievments and odd tittles from it.  like repairman.

Originally posted by darkhalf357x

Seems like we all agree about the questing :-)    Seeing how Im the guy who READS the text to get some form of context, for others who have read it - is the Lore interesting enough to read through while I quest?  Or is it so bad I might as well click next and just complete them?

I would say I read about 80% of the quest dialogues (excl. repeatables, kill x / x parts) up to the cap level. I really reaaaally took my time. Out of the 80% of what I did read I would say about a bit more than half of those were written in such a way that they made me chuckle. It took me back to my time in WoW pre Burning Crusade.

To be honest, only parts you should pay attention to are the story quests. And those fly by, so it stays enjoyable. Everything else is filler and sometimes gives a little background but nothing too drastic that would hurt your enjoyment of a zone (thinking about zompories lol...)

Also for those who made it to max level, I only made it to level 12 or so.  Does the landscape signifigantly change as you get higher up?  I love worlds where I get to explore different regions.

I loved Arborea. It got progressively sci-fi-ish and I didn't enjoy one of the zones where Nexuses would spawn. Note that I don't enjoy sci-fi too much.

 Is there any value in exploring every inch of a zone?

Not when I left the game back in October of last year.

 Are their achievements

Yes. Plenty. Many of them I found to be of the grind variety (think LOTRO).

or is the games' world built around questing.

In my opinion, too much open space. Poorly utilized zones. So not really.

TERA looks pretty and has interesting combat, but curious about what else it delivers to keep me interested as I move up to max level.

Adrenaline filled (boss) fights, graphics and amazing art direction. That's it. 

Originally posted by FallguyArmy
While things usually tend to look better on paper (e.g. developer interviews), I have to say what I've read so far looks promising. The guys at En Masse seem to have an awareness of the stupidity when it comes to F2P restrictions in other online games. 

It's PR, and nothing more. They're talking out of their asses. If they knew what they were talking about they wouldn't have made the fumbles that they made after the game was launched in the west.

They need to show me the receipts before I start believing anything they have to say. Same as with the other dev/publishing companies.

While TERA isn't completely flawless, it's still much better than most of the (now) F2P online games out there.

Maybe.

I hope En Masse improves on their marketing campaign to help bring more publicity to this game.

If they didn't, after all this time, what would make it any different now? Even GW2 made a serious push for publicity (commercials, TIME etc).

Originally posted by NBlitz

Originally posted by FallguyArmy
While things usually tend to look better on paper (e.g. developer interviews), I have to say what I've read so far looks promising. The guys at En Masse seem to have an awareness of the stupidity when it comes to F2P restrictions in other online games. 

It's PR, and nothing more. They're talking out of their asses. If they knew what they were talking about they wouldn't have made the fumbles that they made after the game was launched in the west.

They need to show me the receipts before I start believing anything they have to say. Same as with the other dev/publishing companies.

 

While TERA isn't completely flawless, it's still much better than most of the (now) F2P online games out there.

Maybe.

 

I hope En Masse improves on their marketing campaign to help bring more publicity to this game.

If they didn't, after all this time, what would make it any different now? Even GW2 made a serious push for publicity (commercials, TIME etc).

Having played the game since beta I can tell you TERA Online isn't a perfect game, but it still has some redeeming qualities to it. Gamepad support, non-target combat system, an easy leveling system (good for casual gamers), and some pretty tough dungeon/BAM fights, these are just some of the few good things about the game. But it also does have its share of issues, such as boring questing progression, uncreative endgame content, and a really grindy crafting system (which I hear is going to be improved upon next patch, actually, so that's a good thing). 

Yeah, of course what they said on the interviews is a PR stunt. Hell, every company does that. And En Masse is no different. But I'm HOPING that they will do as they say. And if that's the case, then I can tell you right off the bat that TERA Online will be the only F2P MMORPG that actually got it "right" this generation thus far. Because all the other P2P-to-F2P games out there have been stripped of content for non-paying members, which is stupid and greedy, plain and simple.

Originally posted by FallguyArmy

Originally posted by NBlitz

Originally posted by FallguyArmy
While things usually tend to look better on paper (e.g. developer interviews), I have to say what I've read so far looks promising. The guys at En Masse seem to have an awareness of the stupidity when it comes to F2P restrictions in other online games. 

It's PR, and nothing more. They're talking out of their asses. If they knew what they were talking about they wouldn't have made the fumbles that they made after the game was launched in the west.

They need to show me the receipts before I start believing anything they have to say. Same as with the other dev/publishing companies.

 

While TERA isn't completely flawless, it's still much better than most of the (now) F2P online games out there.

Maybe.

 

I hope En Masse improves on their marketing campaign to help bring more publicity to this game.

If they didn't, after all this time, what would make it any different now? Even GW2 made a serious push for publicity (commercials, TIME etc).

Having played the game since beta I can tell you TERA Online isn't a perfect game, but it still has some redeeming qualities to it. Gamepad support, non-target combat system, an easy leveling system (good for casual gamers), and some pretty tough dungeon/BAM fights, these are just some of the few good things about the game. But it also does have its share of issues, such as boring questing progression, uncreative endgame content, and a really grindy crafting system (which I hear is going to be improved upon next patch, actually, so that's a good thing). 

 

Yeah, of course what they said on the interviews is a PR stunt. Hell, every company does that. And En Masse is no different. But I'm HOPING that they will do as they say. And if that's the case, then I can tell you right off the bat that TERA Online will be the only F2P MMORPG that actually got it "right" this generation thus far. Because all the other P2P-to-F2P games out there have been stripped of content for non-paying members, which is stupid and greedy, plain and simple.

Im glad you added the P2P-F2P part because im continualy shocked by the number of idiots who say that all F2P games are like this, cause its simply not true.  There have been games for years that have properly incorporated successful item malls that in no way whatsoever give you any real advantages.  The best exampls as to such are games like Atlantica Online where people spend hunred of dollars to get a new mount that in the end adds trivial stats.  The one mistake I see most item mall games making these days though is not allowing the items bought on the item mall to be sold in game to other players.  

I think that when a company elects to go from P2P-F2P it often a sign of desperation to get money back on a failed game.  It is a shame that this is true because most moderately successful games could make even more money as an item mall than as sub game.  Look at LoL I'll be the first to admit I have spent more in the item mall for that game then I ever would on a sub.

I love the combat in TERA and now that I can play for free I'm getting back into it. At the same time, I'm also a big fan of TSW. I play both but for diferent reasons. With TERA I get great combat with a frankly boring and unengaging storyline and lots of grinding. With TSW I get a deep, engaging, and well-presented storyline and very little grindy content but a rather mediocre and repetitive combat system. With these games, I can have one or the other but not both at the same time.

Personally, I believe that if TERA's main storyline was rewritten and the presentation was significantly improved (more and better voice acting and cutscenes that actually move the story along in significant and interesting ways and inspire players to want to experience the next chapter as they progress through the game) and cut down on the grindyness in favor of more inventive mission structure this game would be unstoppable. 

I believe TERA could be one of the top games out there if they could prove to their players that you can have both great combat and an engaging and interesting storyline in the same game. Until that happens though, I think TERA will remain mired in the middle of the a very large and ever-increasing pack of FTP MMO's.

Originally posted by ZeGerman

Im glad you added the P2P-F2P part because im continualy shocked by the number of idiots who say that all F2P games are like this, cause its simply not true.  There have been games for years that have properly incorporated successful item malls that in no way whatsoever give you any real advantages.  The best exampls as to such are games like Atlantica Online where people spend hunred of dollars to get a new mount that in the end adds trivial stats.  The one mistake I see most item mall games making these days though is not allowing the items bought on the item mall to be sold in game to other players.  

I think that when a company elects to go from P2P-F2P it often a sign of desperation to get money back on a failed game.  It is a shame that this is true because most moderately successful games could make even more money as an item mall than as sub game.  Look at LoL I'll be the first to admit I have spent more in the item mall for that game then I ever would on a sub.

The first highlight I definitely agree with.  It would add value to the real money spent in terms of your game, and it would also allow those who only want to game for their items, access to the store without spending money.  The flaw to this model is it can cost both in game gold inflation creep and the ability for the publisher to gouge on virtual items and be stingy with their drops in game.  Those are pretty real concerns with that system, but that doesn't mean it automatically has to be a gouge.  The ability to add grind and squeeze cash is available with pretty much every payment model.

The second highlight I disagree with.  I think the industry as a whole has some very dated policies and systems which have stunted progress.  Games that shift business models didn't properly assess how to market their product.  The entire online environment has changed and so has how we consume and pay for entertainment.  The mmo branch is behind the curve on this.  Shifting a model to make your product more successful is more akin to an "aha" moment than an indicator of a failed product.  Then again a bad product isn't likely to be saved by a change in revenue models.  This is true for a lot of software, not just mmos.

Originally posted by darkhalf357x

Seems like we all agree about the questing :-)    Seeing how Im the guy who READS the text to get some form of context, for others who have read it - is the Lore interesting enough to read through while I quest?  Or is it so bad I might as well click next and just complete them?

Also for those who made it to max level, I only made it to level 12 or so.  Does the landscape signifigantly change as you get higher up?  I love worlds where I get to explore different regions.  Is there any value in exploring every inch of a zone?  Are their achievements or is the games' world built around questing.

TERA looks pretty and has interesting combat, but curious about what else it delivers to keep me interested as I move up to max level.

Since you specifically stated you are the type of guy who actually does read quest text then yes, quests can actually be pretty entertaining and funny.  Saw some threads a few weeks back with some people linking a few and I was like.....I gotta start reading these things . . they're not half bad. 

Some storylines are OK, some are terrible, some are epic.  But the quest text writers did take the time of making the minutiae entertaining for those who enjoy that ype of thing. 

As for zones there's a large number of gorgeous areas with different themes, all of which are linked in such a way you don't find yourself booted out to a loading screen if you chose not to.  You can ride by pony from area to area, and far distances between continents are connected by some tunnel technology when on a flying taxi, you remain in the game world, UI up, chat up, never pushed out.  Pretty nifty to keep the sense of a seamless world.  Later on as you level and don't want to take panoramic routes people use teleport scrolls.

best combat in 'non lobby style' mmo, but pvp is as bas as all other gear centric games.

Hope there comes a day when devs finally realize one thing... open world pvp, in a gear centric game = no go.

Seriously, why do they keep on making open world, faction based games... (not talking about tera only,)... if one or two levels, or a few stats make such a huge difference ? 

They have a really awesome battle system (for mmo standards), hampered by a really really retarded stats/gear system. And its not the 1st  game to make such a mistake. Not saying to remove gear progression, because thats what makes so many mmo players tick, sort of, and for all i care they could keep it as it is now - for pve, but would scaling gear/stats importance when it comes to pvp really make anyone unhappy? 

I seriously dont get it. Maybe its just me and other people actually like it that way, but why bother with making an open world, action based combat mmo, if its still stats/gear that will decide 95% of pvp encounters?