Hi Guys,
below you will find a translation of the "This is Game.com" press conferece that was held during the G*Star event.
Hope you guys enjoy!
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-BHS's CEO Kang-Suk Kim and Hyun-Kyu Park of the development team.
On November 15th, the CEO of Blue Hole Studio and the Lead Game Designer talked about TERA's launch plans and future goals at the G*Star 2010 press event.
Firstly, TERA's payment model will be monthly subscription based and with the launch of the OBT they will reveal a lot of new content, such as the Political system. The development team already has updates planed for up to 8 months after the OBT. The game's launch date will be determined after a server stress test next week.
board.tera.gameforge.com/wcf/index.php?attachment/6088/
Q: After G*Star, you will be going through a server stress test, will it be the last stress test?
CEO: We are hoping it will be the last stress test. If we get satisfying results with this test, it will lead to the OBT. We really hope this will be our last test.
Q: During NHN's Business sales report it was said that TERA would be launching soon after the OBT. Did you decide on a payment method?
CEO: We discussed the various payment methods with NHN and we have decided on a monthly subscription plan in Korea.
Q: Recently many MMORPG's go the free to play route using cash shops, are you saying there is something positive about TERA going subscription based?
CEO: We can't say that TERA was made specifically for a subscription based model, but we thought a lot about what the game was worth to players.
We came to the conclusion that a monthly subscription would allow players to enjoy the game most easily. We are not interested in cash shops or partially making the game a pay model like some MMORPGs out there.
Q: What is the approximate launch date?
CEO: We can't predict a launch date since we're not sure of the OBT's start date yet. One rule we have is, the game will be ready when it's ready.
We apologize for not giving specific launch date at this time, but our goal is still the end of this year's holiday season. If our last test reveals positive results, we think we will be able to reach our goal.
Q: TERA's development has cost 35 Million USD (40 Billion Korean Won) so far. We are afraid that because of this the monthly fee will be expensive.
CEO: ROI is very important on CEO stand point(laugh). But, TERA is meant to be loved by people for a long time, all over the world. Since the beginning of TERA's development we always had the World in mind. We are expecting to ship the game out internationally, there is no need for us to instate an unnecessarily expensive subscription fee.
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You have revealed the game to the NA and EU regions, however you still have yet to decide on releasing the game in the largest market, China.
CEO: Of course we are very interested in China. We already had a few talks on the Chinese side. As a result we decided not to make a quick decision about the Chinese market.
Because the market in China is so large, lots of localization is required to be successful. At this moment Blue Hole Studio doesn't have enough man power to support such an undertaking. We are currently focusing on getting the product out to other markets.
*"We solved all the issues we had during 3rd CBT."
Q: I am interested to know how much content was added for the OBT.
LGD: It is hard to discuss every little detail, but the Political System and all of the initial leveling content will be included. Firstly, the leveling cap for the OBT will be level 50. We also have updates planned and set to be released through 8 months after the OBT.
What are some of the things that changed since the 3rd CBT?
LGD: In terms of combat, the game has seen 3 major changes. Firstly, the UI has changed. This change allows all characters to move more fluidly.
In past versions of the client, characters used to attack in the direction they were facing instead of where the crosshair was placed. Now, attacks will be made depending on where the crosshair is placed. So, if you are running forward while facing back, if you attack, the attack will be made where the crosshair is placed.
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Also, camera views and hotkeys were minimized. We added a skill combo system. When we were first developing TERA, we felt that if we added too many skills, the controls might get too complicated and the difficulty would sky rocket. With the skill combo system, all combos will be accessed with a simple tap of the 'Space Bar'.
The controls should be much more fluid. There was a major interface overhaul. For fast paced action, we applied the skills to be quicker for shorter battles. Compared to CBT3, the game should feel more exciting.
The theme of today's trailer was Politics. When will the Political System be seen in TERA?
LGD: The political system will be added in the OBT. The political system is actually end game content so it won't really be active until the game's launch. We will time the event when there are a fair number of high level players around and have a first election of an Exarch. After that, PK rules and other systems will be shown one by one through the reign of the first Exarch.
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What are some of the features that had a major overhaul since CBT3?
LGD: We had a lot to look back on and fix. After CBT3, we decided to tweak a lot of things instead of focusing on one big thing. Us developers also experienced and felt the weakness of the client.
We focused on polishing the game and because of that we updated a lot content. We added a lot of variety and polish to the game, instead of just focusing on the action part of the game.
*TERA in the future.
There are many big titles coming out. Which game do you think is your biggest rival?
CEO: Unfortunately, we haven't had the chance to test many of the games that are soon to be released. Our main goal is to polish TERA. Unless the launch date of another game is the same as ours, we don't even consider it competition.
Q: The E3 2010 version of the client was able to be controlled with console controllers.
LGD: Applying console controllers was suggested by the Western publisher. We didn't find any reason to take that feature out of the game, so the Korean version of the game will support controllers.
TERA is driven by its non-targeting system. Is there anything in particular that you weren't able to integrate in terms of the non-targeting system?
LGD: There are two view points on this. The non-targeting system itself is not so new to the gaming world, but it is new to the MMORPG world.
TERA's action is still not on par with some console games and we are currently working hard, client and server side, to try and implement those features players see in console games.
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You said future updates will bring server invasions and air combat.
LGD: The theme of our first round of updates will be air. However we are planning to restrict any flying around to certain areas and servers.
Of course the normal field monsters will not be able to counter you while you are flying but if there are flying monsters flying around, the players should be able to fly as well. We don't have any of these details finalized yet.
How would something like Castle Sieges and massive battles be implemented in TERA?
LGD: Normal games don't require too much FPS and massive battles could have been implemented, but since this is an action game, during PvP, FPS is very important.
For normal battles we require about 20 FPS. Since this is such an action oriented game, it would probably become confusing with so many people fighting one another. We don't want that to happen.
Right now we are thinking about starting from 5 vs 5 and to 10 vs 10 , 15 vs 10 first. If we find that these numbers are working well and bigger would be better, we will make battles bigger progressively. First, we want to bring fun and balanced small scale PvP.
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Recently MMORPG's require 20~50 people to conquer raid content. Is TERA readying such large-scale raid content?
LGD: We also want raiding to be slightly casual. During the OBT we will show fun 5 man party raids.
Within the development team, we tested a 10 man group versus a one man boss and it became no strategy and just forcing the monster down with firepower. Our first goal is to balance strategic combat with 5 people.
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We hope to have more information for you to enjoy soon!
EDIT: ALL credit goes to Kalsteine and Amira from TERAfans.com for this article. A mistake was made on our part, and we fully apologise for it.
Their Article is found here: http://www.terafans.com/topic/…star-press-conference-qa/
come on Frogster, is this how you gain the very much needed trust of your to-be European customers?
