Hi friends and foes,
It was the 4th May 2012
I created my ingame character. I entered the online world of the new true action combat MMO TERA: The Exiled Realm of Arborea. As a seasoned mmo veteran I rushed with my friends to enjoy the endgame where the fun was. Game was brand new, we had some gameplay knowledge from Ktera, facing some trials and errors of an new online world experience, fun times. All the players at that time were stunned by the gameplay and the visuals.
We got to the endgame. Tried and more or less enjoyed every feature/class/content available. The TERA was growing on us. As true nolifers we were taking sick days or vacations just to enjoy this amazing gameplay with friends or foes. I´ve seen real life friendships being broken by legendary Manaya (Hard). I´ve enjoyed 3fps massive Nexus GvG clashes between dozens of raids. Zulfikar and Kanstria being drowned in everyones blood. These areas were small for such battles! We were setting up alarm clocks at the night just to login and prevent enemies from taking keys in Alliance territories. Had over thousand Kelsaik nest/Labyrinth of Terror solo runs. You name it. You choose your own memorable moment of your Tera virtual life.
Today is the 9th August 2019
Seven years later the sole reason why we are all still playing this game is the combat system. Its lingering with us the whole time. Its still unique and there is still no alternative on the market to it. The thrill and the feel of this gameplay is the core of the game without any doubts. Whether PvE or PvP grinds your gears. But if you are a veteran player like me you cant deny the fact that this game was built on Player vs Player experience. Sure there are too many aspects we could be endlessly arguing about like classes, balancing,rng, etc. aint no time for that.
My personal theory whats happening through the course of time:
PvE is being dominant because with plummeting playerbase numbers the developer needs to sustain the economical damage with predictable outcomes. In other words they are certain about how long they can keep you hooked with a dungeon designs (AI is the same with little rng in it and it takes only x ammount of tries till you succeed or till its profitable for you to even run it) but PvP is driven by players will to fight. Class balance and gear disparity can be almost neglected by big enough active playerbase. Defeat of the enemy can be achieved within a single fight aswell as 10000 clashes. No matter if its duel/Bg/OwPvP/Cu. From developers point of view PvP environment is highly unpredictable thus slowly being purged as it generates only fun for players and not enough money for the makers of this game. Jokingly you can say that if we would have bought more costumes when the PvP gear was farmable without p2w we wouldnt have had such a huge goldsink(RNG) progression as of with the latest +9 PvP set.
Shorehold may have dried up because the community kicked people trying it out, but the design of shorehold is to blame. In a BG that is smaller scale, performance of each individual matters a whole lot more. In a game where the winners are rewarded the most while losers walk away with a consolation prize, it makes sense to kick weakest links out to increase your odds on a more rewarding experience.
Tera of the tommorow aka Tera 2020
Early P2P build of the game was several months of excessive farming to get BiS or get close to it. More skill better gear. No skill no gear.
Early F2P helped you to skip content for money. Not fair? Nah its standard from now on. Ok.
First P2W era gave you option to play 500days excessively or pay 500 Euros to BiS.
Curent P2W (pre +15 gear) era makes you spend 500 Euros and you still might get nothing from it. Maybe another 500 Euros will do it!*wink*
You can see the tendency which is also now comming to PvE world with announced +15 non-echantment correction gear. Removal of the gear crystals to make the game available to wider audience is just another proof of it. P2W system will never change in Tera but my biggest concern is that this will drive away everyone as soon as they see through it. Thats what basicaly happend to curent PvP gear and will be soon™ implemented into PvE. You have skill and you have money yet you cant get the BiS gear.
The server merge
The most anticipated event of this year but it is too late coz players joining the realm wont even match the players who already left. There might be temporal influx of curious individuals but for how long. It had to be done, it was needed and thanks Velik that its comming. However the way its going to be done is very disappointing. Basicaly closure of Killian and copy pasta its accounts into Mystel. Im sure its the safest/easiest way you came up with but removing one of the foundation stones of the game which was OwPVP wont do anything good.
TLDR
Im typing all of this out of personal frustration but can I get answer for following three questions from Community Manager
1) Is it possible to enable PK/GvG or both in one of the ingame channels
2) Is it possible to rewamp and return Fraywind Canyon
3) Is it possible to make event CU with 30v30v30v30v30v... teams?
Bye friends and foes.
