TERA Server Merges

[Sep 05, 2012, 10:06 am ET] - Share - Viewing Comments

A Fall Producer Letter on the TERA Website announces server merges are coming this month for the MMORPG. Here's a server merge FAQ, and here's word:

Fall is a season of changes, and the world of TERA is going to be busy for the next few months. First on the list of change is our server status. We’ve got several metrics to measure server activity—and many of ours are below the mark. We’ve also been listening to the issues our players have been having in the game: lack of resources, lack of groups, extended wait times for dungeons, and so on. We feel that the best way to address these problems is to increase the number of simultaneous players on our servers. To that end, we will be merging servers on September 18, 2012.

Where some might look on this as a negative, I feel differently. By combining our servers, we facilitate a more unified community and give players a more full, alive world where finding groups, locating rare items (for lower prices!), and getting into dungeons quickly are the norm. Most importantly, combined servers will allow us to run more regular, player-focused events where we get to interact with our players. You can find a link to our detailed FAQ regarding this process at the bottom of this letter. It will be updated further as we get more information.

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14.

Re: TERA Server Merges

Sep 6, 2012, 04:31

Titus

PropheT wrote on Sep 5, 2012, 17:01: There wouldn't be much point to the cash shop if it was an easy conversion, they wouldn't make any money. I think the main point of the GW2 gem shop is not making money off the items themselves, but taking back the proceeds from gold trades that would otherwise go to third parties, and keep the in-game economy stable. To make such a system work, there HAVE to be some items that are desirable that can be sold for gems only. I think GW2 has struck a nice balance. Basically, only extra character and bank slots are worth the money, and they'll last through game upgrades. Everything else people want to spend their money on is basically for those with more money than sense; The keys you mention unlock chests with basically a few worthless booster items (I haven't even bothered to use the ones I got from quested keys), and potions that can change you into a mob model until zoning / combat. This comment was edited on Sep 6, 2012, 04:40.

13.

Re: TERA Server Merges

Sep 5, 2012, 17:23

PHJF

WoW style questing has been standard and around since the time it came out (EQ2 had it before WoW, technically, but close enough not to matter). It's improved since then, with Rift's public events and Warhammer's public quests, or Conan's storyline quests being a predecessor to TOR and TSW. It's not like something better in that department hadn't been around for years already before TERA released.

But at least for the month of TERA I played it was never boring to kill things, which is something every other MMO in which I've dabbled has been guilty of. Every BAM required its own set of tactics to bring down (some I could solo without so much as being hit once, others I simply couldn't handle alone). If a developer took it upon themselves to make an entire MMORPG based on battles of actual thought/skill/tactics/challenge instead of fighting hundreds of wild boars in succession... that might be the first MMORPG I'd really sink my teeth into. I can play Icewind Dale over and over and over again because if I let my guard down even once my mage or rogue is liable to end up dead, from start to finish. Battles are constantly getting more complex, and tactics that may have been fine against a pack of goblins suddenly stop working so well against phase spiders or frost giants.




Steam + PSN: PHJF

12.

Re: TERA Server Merges

Sep 5, 2012, 17:01

PropheT

Creston wrote on Sep 5, 2012, 13:00: Eh, yeah, you probably are. God what a horrible model, where I just paid for my game, and can play it for free, indefinitely! I need to put $15 somewhere so I can get no content updates and expect the dev to just completely overhaul the way my class works every year! I'm not, I think maybe you're just had enough of their kool-aid to be unable admit that there's a downside to it. You pay your money to get the game, but get drops that require real money to open. You can pay gold to buy gems to get things, but then the game becomes a bit of a job. Content will be designed around being able to cash in on it instead of free updates like you see in subscription MMO's. There are more MMO's than Warcraft, and WoW is the only one I know that completely changes how the game works every expansion...and even then I find it hard to argue that reworking the game does anything but keep you interested. Many others, like Rift as an example, have had huge additions to their game without any additional fee for them. Will that happen with GW2? Not without buying a new game. Anyway, cash shops that have more than cosmetic stuff suck and for most players the gold/gem conversion isn't going to mean dick. There wouldn't be much point to the cash shop if it was an easy conversion, they wouldn't make any money. Companies wouldn't be shifting to free to play if they were losing money on the deal, so who is it really better for? TERA, actually, has chronoscrolls btw; a system where you can spend gold to buy items that will give you subscription time. But fuck subscription based games GW2's model rules all, blah blah. Cash shops are only awesome if they're in a game you like I guess. PHJF wrote on Sep 5, 2012, 12:33: Exactly like every other MMORPG, you mean? Go here, kill 50 of these guys, collect 25 of those things? I spent a month on TERA... had a pretty good time of it, for what it's worth. Aside from the grindy nature (of which every MMORPG is guilty) the presentation was stellar and the melee combat was pretty fun. No, not really. There are three types of quests in TERA, kill quest and fed-ex quest, and rare escort quests. I don't think there's been another MMO released in the U.S. in the last ten years that had that basic of a questing system, at least not that I'm aware of (and I played most). WoW style questing has been standard and around since the time it came out (EQ2 had it before WoW, technically, but close enough not to matter). It's improved since then, with Rift's public events and Warhammer's public quests, or Conan's storyline quests being a predecessor to TOR and TSW. It's not like something better in that department hadn't been around for years already before TERA released.

11.

Re: TERA Server Merges

Sep 5, 2012, 14:21

Jivaro

I am still playing TERA, and enjoy it. Then again, I am leveling multiple characters at a time, am only paying like 10 bucks a month, and haven't even made it to endgame yet. I haven't done any dungeon more then 3 times either. My game time per week is probably limited to about 10 hours..tops. So most of the complaints people have, I can't even address because I haven't gotten there yet. I am atypical of many vocal players regarding MMOS in the way that I rarely make it to top level in the first 3-6 months of a MMO unless the game design is specifically oriented towards hustling you that way. I would love to brag about having this hugely busy life that keeps me out of video games, but alas, my life is fairly slow paced. I just like to play a variety of games and can't force myself to play 40 hours of the same anything in a week. The server merges address my only real complaint, which is that the group finder for dungeons is useless because it takes so damn long. With higher populations at least it won't take me so much of my limited time just to get into a dungeon. That said, they really should have gone F2P by now. It isn't like the players who are still left wouldn't buy things from an in-game store. They buy things now for ridiculous prices. (10 bucks for a weapon skin, for example) Isn't KTERA already F2P?

10.

Re: TERA Server Merges

Sep 5, 2012, 13:41

Stanly Manly

PHJF wrote on Sep 5, 2012, 12:33: TERA has what can fairly be called the shittiest quest system of any modern MMO. It's very old-school, Exactly like every other MMORPG, you mean? Go here, kill 50 of these guys, collect 25 of those things? I spent a month on TERA... had a pretty good time of it, for what it's worth. Aside from the grindy nature (of which every MMORPG is guilty) the presentation was stellar and the melee combat was pretty fun. I agree that the game certainly was fun in a lot of aspects, but it got real old, real fast at end game. I'm curious as to the reasons you stopped playing, care to share?

Re: TERA Server Merges

Sep 5, 2012, 13:07

briktal

PHJF wrote on Sep 5, 2012, 12:33: TERA has what can fairly be called the shittiest quest system of any modern MMO. It's very old-school, Exactly like every other MMORPG, you mean? Go here, kill 50 of these guys, collect 25 of those things? I spent a month on TERA... had a pretty good time of it, for what it's worth. Aside from the grindy nature (of which every MMORPG is guilty) the presentation was stellar and the melee combat was pretty fun. Well the numbers of things you had to kill/collect were higher in TERA.

Re: TERA Server Merges

Sep 5, 2012, 13:07

Omni

F2P gogogogo. Radio: (Roger)

Re: TERA Server Merges

Sep 5, 2012, 13:00

Creston

PropheT wrote on Sep 5, 2012, 12:24: and I can't be the only person who thinks the freemium model as seen in GW2 is horrible for the people playing. Eh, yeah, you probably are. God what a horrible model, where I just paid for my game, and can play it for free, indefinitely! I need to put $15 somewhere so I can get no content updates and expect the dev to just completely overhaul the way my class works every year! ... Creston

Re: TERA Server Merges

Sep 5, 2012, 12:33

PHJF

TERA has what can fairly be called the shittiest quest system of any modern MMO. It's very old-school,

Exactly like every other MMORPG, you mean? Go here, kill 50 of these guys, collect 25 of those things? I spent a month on TERA... had a pretty good time of it, for what it's worth. Aside from the grindy nature (of which every MMORPG is guilty) the presentation was stellar and the melee combat was pretty fun.




Steam + PSN: PHJF

Re: TERA Server Merges

Sep 5, 2012, 12:24

PropheT

Creston wrote on Sep 5, 2012, 11:03: Subscription model MMOs are dead. Give up. It has nothing to do with subscriptions. Aside from the other reasons already mentioned, TERA has what can fairly be called the shittiest quest system of any modern MMO. It's very old-school, very hardcore and very asian game design...none of which have ever been monumentally successful here numbers wise. As far as TES goes, I don't think they've released enough information to be hand wringing about WoW-clones or subscription models or that either would even cause it that much harm. By the time it comes out people are probably going to be looking for an outright replacement for WoW in earnest, and I can't be the only person who thinks the freemium model as seen in GW2 is horrible for the people playing.

Re: TERA Server Merges

Sep 5, 2012, 11:46

NKD

wtf_man wrote on Sep 5, 2012, 10:23:
I think we can say that subscription based model is "officially dead".

Not so much dead as currently full. No one wants to shell out for more than one MMO a month, and millions of people, a huge chunk of the MMO market, are still paying for WoW.

A shitty MMO or an MMO designed to keep people playing for only a month or two before they run out of things to do will never be able to charge a monthly fee and expect runaway success. But if a true WoW successor came along at some point, they could get away with it.

Everyone else will just have to be content with selling aviator sunglasses and boxing gloves in their cash shop.




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Re: TERA Server Merges

Sep 5, 2012, 11:31

Stanly Manly

Tera's lack of success has nothing to do with its subscription based model. It suffered from a few fatal flaws, one of which was not the game's fault though... 1. Massive class imbalance in high end PvP, coupled with awful latency in twitch based combat. This was the deciding factor in why I left the game. I won't bore anyone with the details, but it was truly a terrible experience to have picked the wrong class and be completely dominated/negated in PvP by those that chose the right class. Add on the latency... cripes, I don't even want to start thinking about it again... 2. Lack of end game. The end game gear grind was, without a doubt, the worst iteration of an end game I have seen in an MMO. Barely a month into the game's life cycle, and all there was to do was run the same tired couple of dungeons to try to get enchantment fodder to beef up your gear... over, and over... and over... And Nexus... what a joke. Seriously look up some youtube videos on it. You'll laugh, hard. 3. This one is not the game's fault, but Tera had, without a doubt, the worst PvP community I have ever seen. The only reason to join a PvP server is for the open world PvP, but the community there shunned open world PvP like it was the bane of their existence. The prevailing attitude was "you are a douche, I was leveling/questing/fighting a mob, how dare you attack me". So, subscription had nothing to do with this game's failure, and anyone who actually played it knows it. I'd have happily continued to pay a subscription to this game if it had fixed PvP and had even a hint of a decent end game. Alas... it was not meant to be. Keeping my eye on Blade and Soul. No interest in GW2... that looks like garbage.

Re: TERA Server Merges

Sep 5, 2012, 11:03

Creston

Where some might look on this as a negative, I feel differently. Good for you, son. It doesn't change the fact that your game is dying, however. Just admit that GW2 is wiping its ass with your game, and go FTP already. Subscription model MMOs are dead. Give up. If TES Online pulls a subscription base model... they'll be dead out the gate. If TES Online pulls a "WoW in Tamriel"... they'll be dead out the gate. They're doing both. They'll last even less than Tera and ToR did. The ONLY interesting thing about TES is that they're apparently doing the entire continent of (whateveritscalled), and it'd be fun to go back to Morrowind (which is where everyone would be hanging out. There'd be nobody in Cyrodiil.) And that's really the ONLY interesting thing in that entire MMO. If I was Bethesda, I'd be fucking murdering people at Zenimax over raping my IP this badly. Creston

Re: TERA Server Merges

Sep 5, 2012, 10:23

wtf_man

I think we can say that subscription based model is "officially dead". SWTOR, The Secret World, Tera... all recent subscription based launches that can barely get off the ground.

If TES Online pulls a subscription base model... they'll be dead out the gate.
If TES Online pulls a "WoW in Tamriel"... they'll be dead out the gate.

Viva La MMO Revolu-she-oh-ehn!!! GW2 has shown the way!!!




"Did you even read cutters post or are you just suffering from rectal cranial inversion." - RedEye9

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