Patch 16.03.07 and TERA Beta!

In 12 hours from this post, the NA TERA server will be up and running full throttle to kick start the fourth beta! A nice countdown timer to look at is here. Get ready!

Oh and if you haven't yet, please run your launcher now so you can pre-patch before the servers go up to save time and frustration.

Patch notes:

Cool New Stuff

• In PvP situations, player level will be exposed when you target another player (just like monsters display their level). This should help those "fight or flight" decisions.
• Doubled the maximum number of characters you can type into all chat channels. We promise it won't go all "Barrens chat" on you, though.
• Increased difficulty from levels 1–15 on an experimental basis. Players will have around 30% less HP and return to baseline by level 20. That red bar at the top of your screen? Kinda important.
• Terron Treasure Trove Event: Added surprise boxes around the world (except for Island of Dawn). We'd tell you more, but then it wouldn't be a surprise, would it?

Bugs Squashed

• Certain quest items were nonexistent due to continent restrictions, but now they're back. Quest gatherables and monsters will be back in Osgarath province for level 30–33 characters.

Raw Link: http://tera.enmasse.com/news/patch-notes/patch-160307
Countdown Timer: http://tera-na-countdown.info/

NA TERA CB4 Beta Key Giveaway!

Credits go to www.mmorpg.com for their giveaway. There are still 4,246 keys as of this posting.

Get yours now before they run out! You won't regret it.

http://www.mmorpg.com/giveaways.cfm/offer/324/TERA-Beta-Key-Handout.html

Edit: They're all gone. My goodness that was quick.

CB3 Videos!

I've been busy uploading videos (still am) I've recorded during the 3rd NA closed beta by En Masse. I'm too lazy to link to individual ones this time around, so just check out my channel at here and watch anyone you'd like. Lots of PvP and GvG action this time around so please do check it out!

NA Game Content Updates!

With the 3rd closed beta over, EME has been hard at work making TERA a better experience for all their customers. Today, they changed 3 quite impactful things that you might like or hate:

We've been working hard on bringing TERA to North America, and have also had a hand in shaping TERA specifically with our gamers in mind. This past GDC we spoke with media about what we've been working on specifically for North America, but I wanted to talk about a few changes that we’ve made:

• Removed private stores – we removed private stores from TERA so we could make the broker system the central hub of the player economy. We’ve increased the limit of items that can be sold from 8 to 50 and think this will help players to go to one place to find whatever they need

• Implemented Bind on Pickup (BoP) items – For some items, we’ve implemented a BoP system which lets us give better equipment to players without having to worry as much about RMT farming items.

• Removed Boxes of Mischief – I personally have a negative winning streak with these, and overall we felt that it was a chance based system that frustrated more players than it benefited. We removed them and used the space in the loot drop tables to chances for other cool things to drop

There are a lot more changes and enhancements that we’ve been working on, and as we get closer to our OBT and Launch we’ll keep sharing what we’re doing so y’all know what to expect and give us feedback.

Thanks!
-Chager

Yes, they've taken out player shops, introduced soulbound items, and removed those boxes that steal your materials. I'm personally against all 3 of these changes:

1. I use private stores to buy things while I'm afk at my own prices. This means I don't have to spend time and energy to look for the things I want to buy, except initially setting up the store.
2. I've always found soulbound items to be a nuisance and caused more harm then help.
3. Boxes of Mischief are fun to play with. I don't think people use these seriously in any way because they have a negative win rate. I've always treated this like a small mini-game to pass the time.

Raw Link: http://tera-forums.enmasse.com/forums/news-announcements/topics/Game-Content-Updates

Patch 16.03.06 for NA TERA!

New patch for the upcoming NA beta!

PvP Server Changes

• We've added more PvP rules with this update—it's now uncool to kill players 6+ levels lower than you. These players will now receive the red name of shame and their punishment will be left up to the community.
  • You will now earn Infamy Points for killing lower-level players—60 points for players 6-10 levels lower than you; 120 points for players 11 or more levels lower than you.
  • If you have even one Infamy Point, you will be labeled an outlaw.
  • We won't penalize you for being an outlaw (having Infamy Points), but the community may retaliate as it sees fit.
  • Infamy Points will diminish at a rate of one every five minutes. You can also work them down one at a time by killing monsters equal to your level or higher.

Controller Updates!

• We added a /controller command to access the controller options. We're looking at you, Nostromo users.
• The controller option will now default to camera- or reticle-facing rather than character-facing. This should also please players using a controller-plus-mouse combination.
• Quick tip: if you are using a controller with a melee class, try using the character-facing option.
• All classes can now hold down the main attack controller button to activate the combo attacks. This works the same way as holding down your mouse button.

Quest Updates

• Strife in Fey Forest and Keeping the Quota now spawn their quest objectives more often in more places.
• A Measure of Vengeance will now spawn its objective in three different locations.
• Faeries in a Fix is no longer a prerequisite to the Faerie Emissary quest.

A Few Other Miscellaneous Changes

• Implemented a five-second cast time to switch between channels. No more sitting on the couch and channel-surfing.
• Zone channels now have better scaling based on population, so should provide a more seamless party experience when zoning into an area.
• The "Exchange" menu option has been changed to "Claim Items". You won’t have items to claim yet, but this is where your pre-order and Collector's Edition goodies will be!
• Guild slash commands (/gkick, /guildkick, /gmaster, /guildmaster) are no longer case sensitive to the player's name. Rage-kicking your guildies has never been easier!

What Happened? (Some Things to Still Look Out For)

• Circle the Wagons – Cinematic will not render environmental detail if player has Distant Environmental detail below the max setting of six.
• Cancelling a teleport still consumes the scroll.
• Mystic thrall re-engages monster after player dies. Seeking revenge, we presume.
• Closing your launcher after entering TERA will cause possible crashes at server select. Please keep your launcher running to avoid this issue.
• Dynamic Veridian – This mount quest will appear twice now if you are level 11 and log into 16.03.05. It won’t, however, get you a horse of another color.
• Queues are displaying ordinals incorrectly. ("You are 1th} in line.") If it was just "1th" it wouldn’t be a big deal, but you can’t handle the "2th".
• Items with a re-use cooldown over 20 minutes display the cooldown abnormally in the tooltip window.
• When the Negotiate Confirmation popup (the brokerage negotiation) UI shows under ten seconds remaining, clicking OK does not work.
• When a priest's Final Reprisal is triggered as a chain skill, the chain skill icon disappears too quickly.
• Lock-on skills that are not registered on the first skill tray do not fire with left-click.
• Mystic's Thrall of Life reports amount healed twice. That thrall…what a showoff.
• The effects of both glyphs for the mystic's skill Teleport Jaunt do not apply at the same time.
• When a stacked item without a cooldown (such as a charm) is placed on the shortcut tray and right-clicked, you will spend two rather than just one. Charming.

Raw Link: http://tera.enmasse.com/news/patch-notes/patch-160306

Super Super Super Sampling!

Forgot to post this but a while back, I got my hands on this picture that shows how to get SGSSAA (Sparse Grid Super Sampling Anti Aliasing). What this does is it smooths the entire frame instead of the edge of each polygon (normal Anti Aliasing). In layman terms, basically it makes the game look better with no jagged edges you always see in 3D games, but at the hefty cost of your precious framerate. It is also recommended to only do this if your machine is relatively good, else stay away or you're going to make your game unplayable. I haven't had the chance to test this yet as I haven't played for almost two weeks and I only recently got this info. Unfortunately, this picture only shows how to do it with an NVidia card, though I'm sure ATI cards can also enable SGSSAA if you really wanted to.

Click to enlarge

Source was from a TERA General thread on /vg/ of 4chan.

NA Closed Beta 3

Friday this week at 12:00pm PST! I'll be playing my Slayer again, but hopefully, my Mystic will get some playtime as well.

Whilst they're upping the level cap to 32, the bad thing is that there is no new dungeon. What this ultimately means is, we're going to be stuck with the manor dungeon; doing runs over and over again to get all the gold equips. I don't mind it though, as we will be seeing some new grinding areas. The scenery in this game never fails to astound me.

I can't wait!