Launch nonsense aside, I’ve decided to join the masses playing SimCity 5. I’ve never played SimCity of any kind. For several years, I was a huge The Sims fan. I’ve played and owned every version and the accompanying expansions through The Sims 3 Apartment Life. I even played The Sims Online and was in the beta no less. Oh how the fall of that game broke my heart. It was like the designers had never played The Sims. *Cries big splashy tears*
A couple of years into playing MMOs, my love of The Sims slowly waned. The attraction of micromanaging a bunch of Sims in a solo play environment was less than appealing, with each new MMO adventure. Gradually, no one in our household or any of our immediate friends played The Sims anymore, having opted for massive online experiences instead. Most of my gal pals ended up in Second Life - *hurl*. While my immediate and extended family fell head over heels for fantasy MMOs and co-op console titles.
On a break from Guild Wars 2 and not wanting to burn out on Tera Online, I was in the market for a casual friendly game when I saw Gary Gannon’s play through of SimCity 5 on GBTV. I just noticed a second play through that I'll watch tonight.
My favorite game zones lean toward shire-like or Germanic folksy landscapes. I typically despise frozen zones and desert wastelands. In my experiences, they often lack imagination in their visualization – icy empty or parched empty…blah. Rift’s Shimmering Sands was a desert exception and GW2’s snow covered Frostgorge Sound delighted me and was the end-game zone I enjoyed best.
Until recently, the only dark/haunted zone I’ve enjoyed was WOW’s Darkshire. Tera Online's Popolion replaces it as my favorite spooky zone. When I first arrived I thought, “Ugh, the gratuitous spooky zone.” However, I was pleasantly surprised when I exited the township.
I think Tim Burton must have called to ask for his imaginings back. The area is so deliciously Burton-esk, it was love at first sight. Not to be left behind, Johnny Depp was there as a Blood Lord and Helena Bonham Carter, a Blood Maid. Well, not really or intentionally identified as such but could have been them all same, right out of Sweeny Todd. Popolion is perpetually twilight, something else I’m not fond of but this is hands-down my favorite Tera zone so far.
I am officially on hiatus from GW2. Although I love me some Mesmer, what I was doing became too repetitive. I was crafting, saving up money and doing monthlies for no real reason. I had all the gear I wanted, maxed crafting and amassing gold just cuz. I need some dings, places areas to explore or new skills/specs to entertain me. I think my days of deep end game are over.
My patience and tastes have changed. If it’s not player housing or fun RP themed gear and items, I can’t be bothered. Running instances over and over to obtain gear with a few more stats or different skins doesn’t appeal to me anymore. My son is also moaning about not having any new gear to obtain or a bigger variety of weapons to chase. He has all the dungeons sets he wanted, Ascended items and WvW sets. My nephews have returned to their console games, only logging into GW2 occassionally.
Just as well, fair weather days are coming with other hobbies and activities. All the more reason to rejoice that GW2 has no monthly subscription. Neither my son, nephews nor I have to make that hand wringing decision to unsubscribe. We're F2P on when the mood strikes. *Smile* I haven’t been back on since I started playing Tera Online. It ain’t no GW2 but it has new areas to explore, classes I haven’t played and dings to be had.
This is my Lancer, Saylah Noire, finishing up a quest in Tuwangi Mire. TM is a tiny area south of Fey Forrest, that's easily missed. Sarzan (duoing partner) and I didn't quest there on our main characters. I stumbled on it while exploring. It's a cute valley with fun architecture that offers a change in scenery when questing on an alt character.
My Mystic hit level 26 last week. Friday evening I decided to try my first instance in Tera Online. Initially, I tried getting in a group via chat. I didn't want to main heal my first time doing an instance or for that matter, healing a real group. I've healed people through taking down BAMs here-n-there but that's nothing compared to dungeon encounters. No luck getting a group in chat I used the LFG tool, knowing by doing so, I stood a good chance of being the healer.
Groups is formed and summoned into the instance. And yes, I'm the healer. Yikes! I make sure to let them know this is my first instance and attempt at healing a real group. Someone commented I might be on the low side for it having just turned 26. The tank said, "Not so good" and commenced to pulling mobs.
I'll let the video speak for itself. All in all, it wasn't a bad experience. I wished the tank had occasionally explained what he was about to do. NOT ONE SINGLE ENCOUNTER was ever discussed. Chat was fucking silent. He just mowed forward, with or without us. Luckily, I managed to keep up.
I fumbled the ball several times in my anxiety about pulling multiple rooms and being inexperienced. Things I need to do better in the future:
DO NOT under any circumstances move spells around just before going into an instance! When you're flustered muscle memory kicks in and you start going by "what was" instead of "what is". I'd moved around my cleanse and swapped the tank and healing pet locations.
Really remind people to use the healing motes since they also purge/cleanse. Most of the motes I placed around the encounters weren't used, even when people were in dire straights.
Get used to casting the player buffs. I don't use them when questing because they drain mana for every second their up and mobs die so quickly they're not needed. However, in boss fights they're useful. I'm not sure my mana could have sustained having one up anyway.
Investigate options for expanding my mana pool. I have crystals that increase the pool and others that regen. Perhaps there are more options. My heal is a small heal + HOT so I tend to be proactive and keep players topped off in case they're the victim of an alpha/enraged attack.
REMEMBER TO MEZZ what's hitting me before I attempt to summon Thrall of Life. The one time I really almost died, the caster after me kept interrupting my summon.
It's interesting and helpful to watch footage of yourself playing. I have a better sense of what I struggled with and how I might improve it in the future. I'm glad I did the run and intend run it a few more times.
We raced through it so quickly there was no time to look around or savior the experience. If I'm going to be doing instances as a healer, it may be time to find a guild. Communicating over voice would help tremendously and it's always more fun with guildies than a random PUG.
Locked. Loaded. Ready to be obssessed. I just finished watching the "Making of" and Pilot Preview for the new show. It looked like the complexity and backstory of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica + intimate and compelling characters from my beloved Firefly. OMG looks like BSG + Whedon had a baby. Am more amped about the show than ever before. How cool would it be if the game was also half decent.
I'm not often a fan of the SyFy network. They have been known to pull acclaimed shows off the air and bastardized one of my favorite fantasy series of all time, Earthsea. They have a chance here to redeem themselves and prove to me at least, that BSG wasn't luck.
Earlier in the week I encountered my 2nd Big Ass Monster that the players call BAMs. I'd only recently enountered my first as part of a quest a couple of levels ago. BAMs are designed for 5-man parties but I've seen players attempting them with less. Certain class combinations can duo them. I've heard of Lancers soloing them. I will definitely give it a try for shitz-n-grinz when my Lancer reaches this zone.
My first BAM quest completions were done duo with Sarzan. Whew, it's one hell of a long fight with little margin for error when you're messing with BAMs. Stray too far trying to evade a big hit and you might pull another BAM or set of mobs. *Raises hand* Yep, I've done that. The aggro leash is so large that other players can unintentionally drag a pack of mobs across your combat area and if you just happened to use an AOE spell... madness, weeping and death ensues.
In this first video you get a look at the zone and graphics as I travel to the area.l I'd already completed these quests these kills but wanted to record what it looked like from a full party perspective.
Tera Online Level 24 BAMs
BAM from same area as video above but as a duo- Sarzan and I. Unfortunately, I hadn't found my Fraps registration info yet and was using the unlicensed copy that stops every 30 seconds. Eventually the stop/start crashed by Tera. I made it back in time to finish him off. Sarzan kited and used the healing motes I'd dropped around the area until I made it back. But I was reluctant to re-start Fraps since we were actually completing the quest at the time. It's such a LONG FIGHT as a duo, I didn't want to take any chances.
Loralay (Sarzan) and Alysianah Duo a BAM - Partial video due to technical difficulties
Let's recap the highlights of my impressions that started here and continued here, into a bullet list and final thoughts.
What I like Best
Solo / duo friendly
Classes are what caught my attention and make questing fun
Customizable UI - you're staring at it and using it, I prefer making it suit me personally not a designer's idea of where things should be. I'm talking to you ANet.
Gear doesn't matter too much. You can function just fine wearing the drops provided. That may change later in the game.
Creating combines in crafting provides levels. Sure it's the same ole create 1000 fozzles before making anything you really want BUT it helps when you can level making the stacks of cloth, leather, ingots, yada.
Environments are pleasant to be in and ride around if you like typical fantasy. It's no GW2, Aion or AOC but it's nice enough and polished enough to be enjoyable.
Your first mount comes early and free via a quest.
There are crafting quests and you can craft anywhere in the world if you have a campfire
It's F2P - play as long or as short as you like, it doesn't matter. Since it's free you can avail yourself of cash shop conveniences for far less than a subscription. I'm not into leveling or stat boosts but faster travel always appeals to me. Sarzan and I each purchased gems to unlock a third character slot.
Sprinkling of unique monsters in the higher level zones which breaks up the generic feeling.
You can play with a controller. I gave it a try with the XBox version. It was good for movement which felt more fluid. However, I couldn't see how to access the 20 skills I have and need. They mapped the mouse buttons to the colored buttons and triggers for interactions but I can't survive in combat without the rest so not sure how that's supposed to work.
UI changes are universal. There's good and bad with that but for me it's good. I prefer consistency in my custom settings. Unfortunately, the keybindings are not universal which is a huge pain.
What I like Least
My biggest gripe is that all skills root you in combat, even instant ones. This is another element we need to move beyond in MMOs. I'm over taking it in the face to cast a spell. With AOC, Rift and GW2 in particular, really moving the needle on 100% rooted skills, I want...I need this to die. I can only imagine how much more fun combat would be if it was free moving like GW2. I keep trying to dodge out of the way. Sure it's not target locked but who cares, if you're aim is good enough to hit and move, we should be able to so. If not, then you'll voluntarily stand still. My feet feel stuck to the ground. There's a hesitation / delay after I cast a spell before I can move again. It's very annoying.
GEAR MODELS SUCK or rather, the need to have female characters in nities sucks. Metal nities I don't like but am over it. This stuff on the other hand, literally looks like my nightgown, slip or some other completely uninspired design. Really??? Is this the best you can do!?!
Cash shop costumes are even worse! They have NOTHING AT ALL to do with Tera. Yellow wanna be lame looking Star Trek spandex suits. Uh? Playboy Bunny outfits. Wuwhat? Cash left on the table fellas.
EVERYTHING is very expensive. Intra-city portal travel costs. City to City is pricey. I thought we left the long ass gryphon rides back in EQ2 and WOW. And don't get me started on the cost of travel scrolls. Wuwow, expensive. I did notice today that subscribers get instant travel options so this may be the reason.
A lot of back and forth questing.
UI elements that can't have transparency adjusted. I must be going blind or something but the default settings for transparency on many games are illegible for me. I have a large wide screen monitor set at the highest resolution which means my text is small. I really can't read pale yellow on light brown or similar combos, of which GW2 is also fond of using.
Unlike UI settings, the keybindings are not universal and have no in game method for copying them replicating them across characters.
Most of what you'll craft is garbage until you get to the few coveted items at the top. This was the norm but here again, GW2 made some improvements so the comparative lack is more glaring.
This may be cultural but there's something not right about child-like female characters running around bent over with their panties showing. It's creepy!!
Staying on Board
I'm sitting at level 23 of 60 as of this writing. We're approaching the levels for the first instance and content that requires a full party. I'm looking forward to seeing how this class and I, fare in longer combat scenarios.
I can easily recommend Tera Online to any gamer that prefers fantasy, is open to enjoying the ride to max level, even if the setting is generic in some aspects. Or someone who wants a break from their main MMO that's pleasant diversion that's not too taxing or demanding. It also gets a recommend if you'd like to try a F2P game that's not a cash-grab or complete pay-to-win scenario and where the content itself is free.
I see myself continuing to play unless the Asian grinding game hits. Is that politically incorrect to say? Not sure of another way. Apologies if it is. The grind was masked in Aion until the late early 30s which is when I bailed. I'm hoping that's not the case in Tera. I would like to have this as my off game, my take a break from GW2 game. GW2 and I are sealed, that's not going anywhere but an alternative is nice. I might pony-up for a month's subscription for the faster travel to help with harvesting. Yes, 1K foozles or not, I must craft. *smile*
Where Tera shines for me are the classes. The world can be bland if the classes are cool. Back to the basic party trinity of tank, healer and damage, you have at least two options for each role. I messed around with a few and ended up enjoying Lancer (tank) and Mystic (healer/support) the best.
From a pure combat point of view, I think the Lancer is pretty sweet. His moves have a visceral feel to them. I feel the impact in combat and his animations are tight. Who wouldn't enjoy slamming a wall of mobs in the face with a shield??? Or a basic lance attack that inches you forward with each thrust, with the 3rd delivering big damage if you can pull it off. Think fencing moves with a lance 2x your height and a big whomping shield. It's muhaha goodness. We don't have macros but there's a spell/skill chain feature which lets you link abilities together into sequences that are advanced using the spacebar.
For the past few weeks, I've been playing Tera Online 1 to 2 evenings a week as a static duo with Sarzan, who is by the way, starting to blog on Spicy Funyun. For me, the idea is to surf F2P games until the next big surge of enthusiasm for GW2 aka an expansion, as filler. GW2 is my home for the foreseeable future but an alternative would be nice.
Despite having a list, of which Tera Online wasn't even included, that's where we've landed first. I don't remember how that happened. *Smile* Going in, I knew Tera Online wasn't targeted to players like me. I'm no FPS gamer. I've played a few in my day and have enjoyed them but I suck at them. I'm a die hard keyboard gamer. Me and PC games go way back. Me and controllers, not so much. So I can't blame the game for aspects that are awkward for me merely because I prefer to do most things with the keyboard. So I'll skip my opinion on those aspects for the most part.
It Ain't no Tyria
I don't know when I'll see the likes of GW2 Tyria graphics and detail again in another MMO. It's incomparable, inspiring and stunning. We do pay dearly for all this pomp and circumstance. Large body combat can be an agonizing slide show. For me culling just added insult to injury. Even so, gaming in Tyria's lush world that always feels alive, reminds me why I play fantasy games, in particular, MMOs.
Tera is somewhat of a generic fantasy MMO environment. The art style feels a bit dated coming out of GW2. It's not on the level of realism like Age of Conan, nor is it stylistic like Allods. Don't get me wrong, the graphics are "nice" but they're not really special. There are elements that appeal to me. So far I've seen shire-like areas, woods and germanic style locations I'm partial to as zones. The human city is slightly industrial in a way that gives it a whisper of steampunk.
Beyond Aesthetics
For questing you have your bears, pigs and boars clustered in groupings that are all too familiar and doing nothing new - same old pathing and static behavior. The zones themselves are very reminiscent of Runes of Magic. If ROM wasn't your cup of tea, Tera won't impress you much either. It doesn't feel like developers have come to terms with the sheer variety of choices we have now in the MMO space and that merely decent or "okay", isn't going to get you monthly subscribers anymore.
You will encounter some NPC and mob types I've not seen anywhere before, with details that are very nicely done. However, so far, it's back to questing in the wilds ala EQ1/2, WOW and the rest of the old guard. This questing in the wilds leaves me flat. I'm left wondering why I'm supposed to care what these creatures are doing out here amongst themselves? The answer is I don't. For me, there's no sense of urgency in that questing model. I don't bother with the quest text. I'm merely a schlub grabbing tasks and managing a "To Do" list.
All that said, there are aspects of Tera that shine, such as the classes and other reasons that kept me moving past the starter area. Check back on Wednesday for part 2 of my early impressions and Friday for the conclusion.
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