TERA Q & A by Chager

Angelo · Jul 8, 2011

Thanks for being patient all! Here are answers to some of the questions ya'll asked on the E3 Interview forum topic. Please note I didn't get to all of the questions you asked, but covered a good amount of them.

Q: Why does it look like TERA has aim-assist skills for certain spells? (Some mystic/archer skills seem to curve as the target moves.)
A: Early in TERA’s dev cycle, attacks didn’t have aim-assist. Once people started playing, we noticed there were a lot of people who couldn’t hit the target with the basic attacks because the control and targeting became very difficult. Because of this, we changed a few skills to instant timing, which is why some skills look like they curve. For these few skills the ‘hit’ is based on the reticle & target at the time of cast. We adjusted the lock-on for some skills and are happy with the results; it doesn’t spoil the non-targeting feel of TERA.

Q: Will mystics get more control over their pets?
A: In the latest build we have, the mystic pet has the ability to attack or follow by command. We plan to continue work on this, and it is quite high on our to-do list. The only issue is that adding a skill requires a lot of balancing¬ against itself and other class skills. We are always slammed for time in our dev cycles, so we can’t say exactly when we’ll complete this, but it is on our ‘high priority to-do’ list.

Q: When will there be guild housing?
A: This is something we are actively exploring. Initially, we had the plan to use the buildings in big cities as guild houses. Once we started looking more into this, we realized there was a conflict between what we could do with the existing buildings in the cities and what the player expectation was. Putting something unpolished in game can create incomplete content that satisfies no one (players or devs). We are currently looking at what we can do with guild housing so that it’s polished content and meets not only player expectations, but our own.

Q: Will there be player housing?
A: If we implement housing, then the order would be guild housing, then player housing. Right now it is difficult to say specifically if/when we will implement these. As I said above, we are actively investigating housing.

Q: Will the five-second PK rule be altered on PvP servers?
A: PK declaration time requires a very delicate balance that satisfies the majority of players. EME will begin our PvP server testing with a five-second PK rule, but will have external testing for these settings this fall and will adjust the final settings based on feedback and overall functionality.

Q: What do you plan on doing with damage scaling in PvP? PvP specific armor? Damage reduction in PK/BGs?
A: There is already a damage-scaling system in place, but the issue is balancing. There are PvP armor/weapon sets as well as PvP-specific skills and crystals. For now, we think the bigger issue is the balance between classes and the user’s skill in controlling a character rather than equipment. We are always listening to player opinions regarding balance, and as we go through external testing and CBTs, we will continue to monitor and implement feedback.

Q: Any news on updated racial skill balance?
A: There hasn’t been an instance where racial skill balance has been a big issue. We hear a lot more issues regarding class balance instead. Once the classes are more or less balanced, we think the next balance issue will be racial skills, and at that time we’ll start working on those.

Q: Any more/new options for character creation? ie hairstyles, faces, etc. (When will horns/ears be seperated from hairstyles?)
A: TERA’s current character creation has a lot of ways to make a character feel unique. Although it is better to have more character creation options, we don’t feel TERA’s at a loss here. As we come out with new content and updates, there will be a natural addition to character creation, but it won’t be something we add right away. We’ve got more content work to do first.

Q: Will there ever be any options to "physically" change your armor; rip off a sleeve, shorten the bottoms, etc.
A: Currently there is no plan to implement physical damage effects for armor. We reduced the customizable portions of a player’s armor/weapons so we could add more detail and polish to those pieces. If there is a high player demand for costume customization, it could be possible to add that feature into future development plans.

Q: Will there be any hair/face/skin-changing NPCs (hair salons, cosmotologists) which you could go to and pay in-game gold to change one of the desired features?
A: In the most recent update, we’ve added functionality so a user can change a character’s appearance.

Q: Will any substantial info be released on argons and their origins? Being the main antagonists, there isn't a lot of info about these metallic creatures from another dimension.
A: More information will come in time. We can’t reveal more about the story now because it would point towards our future content update plans, and we have to keep some things secret!

Q: Are barakas now constructs made from the giants, or are they a friendly clan of the giants? Lore is very wishy-washy; one says they are constructs, the other says they are relatives.
A: The barakas don’t have a home because we haven’t revealed it… yet. Their home is in a continent that we are planning on introducing in an upcoming content update, so stay tuned and learn more about baraka lore.

Q: Are there plans to enhance the guild leveling system?
A: We have a lot of ideas on ways to enhance guilds and the guild leveling system in TERA. Unfortunately we have a huge list of content we want to add or enhance, and all of it takes time, development, and testing cycles before it goes live. Please know we’re actively working on ways to enhance guilds, and you will see this in future updates.

Q: Will we get emotes for slow walking and sitting? If not, why? These little things support roleplay a lot.
A: We had a similar thought when we initially started working on TERA, and the development team shared that opinion, too. When we thought of implementing them, we came to the conclusion that those emotes would be cosmetic only, which goes against the HP recovery that sitting has in other current games. Because we want everything in TERA to have a reason that makes sense, we decided to leave these emotes out. We do recognize that emotes like this are a huge part in roleplaying, though, so these (and other) emotes have not been totally killed from a future dev list, they are just low priority compared to the other things we want to accomplish in the game first.

I hope these answers gives you all some good info and maybe a few more discussion points to talk about here on the forums. We're always reading and listening to feedback so please keep it coming!

Thanks,
-Chager

Just thought I'd post this here for those who hadn't seen it.

Honesty · Jul 9, 2011

Thanks for sharing.

Merketh · Jul 9, 2011

Got a source for it?

Jasra · Jul 10, 2011

http://www.terafans.com/topic/9751-chris-hager-answers-more-of-our-e3-questions/

Angelo · Jul 10, 2011

Merketh said: ↑

Got a source for it?

Oh sorry thought I had linked it in the post my bad

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TERA Q & A by Chager

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TERA Q & A by Chager

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