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Keys to EME and Tera's success
I am writing this post with two goals in mind. First one is that I have been swimming in sub par MMO's for a very long time (pretty much since EQ1) and I really want this game to be good because I am actually excited for the first time in a long time. The second is because I have been thru pretty much EVERY "what where they thinking moment" in over 30 MMO's thru-out my 15 years of MMO's. Hopefully I can just make a blunt post to the devs in the hopes that one of them reads this and says hey....maybe we shouldn't do that with our game.
So where we go....the KEYS to making Tera stay around and grow stronger over the years!
-Keep your word and stick to your ORIGINAL Vision of the game! If your intent is to make this an action MMO then don't change it to something else just because you "think" it's going to improve sales (SWG...skill based to level base!) and Everquest 2...everyone will have voice over....o wait NM that cost more then we thought!
-Do not nerf a class just because it is to powerful in PVP! Which in turns makes it completely useless in PVE! Some classes are always going to be amazing in pvp and others won't. There is NO balance when a game is based off gear! When people play a tank they know right away in PVE they won't be tops in dps. Same holds true in PVP. A tank is suppose to survive, in pvp they don't die as fast. They are not suppose to go around and one shot everything because people cry on the forums! Take your time and figure out a solution that isn't just to calm the forum trolls that cry foul. Soon as you nerf them, other trolls come out and the cycle ALWAYS continues. People will respect you more if you stick to your guns. (Rift nerfed warriors this way, and cholomancers/Wow rogues/Ultima online mages/jedi's in SWG)
-Fix bugs! but do not focus your entire time on them! If the bug is critical then yes rush to fix it, if its minor then push your focus on new content and fix the old bugs when its good for you. You will lose WAY more players to not having anything "new" for them to do then you will when someone does a quest and can't turn it in. They may be upset at that quest....but at least they have 100 more quest to do! Dungeon and Dragons online (pre free to play....now its actually pretty awesome). People left that game because it would take months for new stuff to come out and people would beat it in 2 weeks, and I'm talking casual players but every new patch there was like 1000 bug fixes on quest no one really payed attention to anymore! Rift has gotten this down perfect. They are pushing new stuff every month, not that I agree with what they are pushing but still at least it's something to get excited about.
-DO not get lazy on character armor and looks. A lot of people will play your game just because the graphics are amazing! Flaunt it! Aion has some of the best looking armor I've ever seen and Tera is graphically way more powerful. Make our characters look amazing! Do not cut and paste the same armor look and slap a new name on them! Bronze armor/Silver armor/Platnuim armor. They should not look the same except the color! People do not want to run around and see their twin everywhere. City of Heroes bar none has the best character design screen ever. NO characters in that game will ever look the same. People take pride in how they look. That's why sex sells! If it looks good people want it! Hint HINT!
-Own up to your mistakes! Do not try to spin it in a way to make yourself look better! If you put a new patch out and a whole group of people exploit it DO SOMETHING about it! Do not let bad people go unpunished. Gamers are not stupid. (I have faith) They know when they are doing something they shouldn't. If they are standing on some beam using a wall glitch to kill a raid boss by themselves...THEY know they are cheating. If you make a mistake that allows stuff like that...just be a mature company and say "Our intentions where in the right place but we did not execute it as well as we expected, with that said we will punish those whose exploited our system and for everyone else we will give a free double exp weekend or increased crafting skill ups. In general giving people stuff they weren't expecting ....those are called presents. EVERYONE LOVES presents. Aion does this like no other game.
-Use these open betas to actually get a GOOD idea on how many servers you need. If 4 months from now you are doing a server merge....you are failing! Even if the population is good and growing....server merges are assumed by the public to mean "losing people" This is a fine balance because you do not want to launch and have 4 hour que times....but do not just dump 25 servers into the mix because its the easy solution! Also note that people just bought SWTOR and RIFT in the past 6 months ....and might not be willing to preorder another game. They already invested money into their new game..and will hold off to make sure the reviews on this one is good. So make the reviews good! Smooth launch. No excuses...put in the man hours and the time to do this RIGHT the first time. When they are ready to jump ship and come over...make it so they know right away they made the right choice. Its always easier to go back to the the safe loving arms of a familiar MMO ..remember that!
-If you go free to play, you are failing. That is how we view it. Has World of Warcraft gone free to play? Nope. If you wanted to go free to play...prior to launch is when it should of been mentioned. If you go free to play in a year, everyone will assume you are failing. You will lose a lot of customers, and gain some new ones but at that point this game will no longer be what we thought it was going to be. No free to play game will be considered a powerhouse. Not saying they can't make a profit (DDO/LOTRO/Runes of Magic/Aion) but the Yankess will never become a free to watch major league baseball team.
-Make grouping matter! Friendships is what keeps players around long term. Yes make stuff soloable, but make grouping matter.
-Let people who are elite....be elite! I'm sorry to the little guy out there but if someone devotes 150 hours a week playing then he SHOULD be more uber then they guy that logs in an hour a night! Do not allow the guy who rarely plays to get the gear mister no life has a few weeks afterwords. Back in the day during everquest, if you got your epic weapon the ENTIRE server knew you got it because it was hard and rare and an accomplishment! You where proud, respected and looked at by others of your class as...wow he's cool. Wow has a decent system in place...I wouldnt use thiers ..maybe something a little less extreme but something like it. Pure raiders in WOW get the best stuff for at least 2-3 months longer then casual gamers. This would be a minimum as my suggestions.
-Make epic mounts hard to get and worth more then normal mounts! No one wants a rare black dragon to take months to get and then next patch everyone can get it in 2 days! Be smart. Simple as that.
-DO not slack on one area. Crafting is just as important to some players as raiding or pvp. If you do not keep those gamers interested they will drop you on your butt and hit the cancel button. Vanguard had a diplomacy system all lined up prior to launch and sold it as a great new thing...and after the first 20 levels it was worthless. Good idea...bad execution.
-Player housing. Even if its a PAIN to program in do it ANYWAYS. Just makes you stand out from other MMO's Everyone loves decorating their house and showing their stuff off. Especially elitist and crafters! Party at my house. Sounds cheesy but its what we do.
-Make PVP fair if you do battleground situations. And make it fun. Nothing like being down to 10 percent health and somehow you pull off the win because of some crazy strat you thought of on the fly actually worked out! Nothing more then I hate is when I am in a pvp situation (WOW battleground or Dredge in aion) knowing that with 15 minutes left.....its actually IMPOSSIBLE to win so people go afk or actually make it easier for the other team to win. There should always be a chance! Give people a reason to keep fighting and not give up. By that wierd chance they pull off that miracle ..you can bet your bank they will be super excited and talking about it all night (which means they are enjoying the game and WILL pay next months subscription..ding ding)
-Do player events for the holidays and make them actually worth it. You only get one chance at this before you have to spend the next 2 years playing catch up. If this Christmas your event sucks and you give away cheap pointless stuff....then next year everyone will ASSUME it will suck again. But if you make an event awesome from the start...they will look forward to it next year! Wow does this and Lotro online do this very well. Every year they give you great stuff (if you do the event). The next year people are talking about it a month prior.
-Surprise us! Hold secrets on neat stuff. I do not want to know everything that's coming out! Its nice sometimes to read the patch notes and be like wow...really!
-Guilds are your allies, DO not make it impossibles for us to keep them strong. Give us guild perks. If people can come and go as they please with no penalties ...then they will. Guild ranks with perks is always nice. Do not make them so overpowered...but make them nice to have. Faster travel or better storage. Stuff that takes away some annoying things that once you have....you can't live without. Gives people more reason to try to work out problems then actually rage quitting because they can hit the disband button with no problem. If a person spends a lot of time in a guild maybe give them special bonuses. Hmm....just thought of that. I'll give an example. Say the guild gets overall 3 percent more loot cash per mob. This is the entire guild. But say you been in the guild two months. Maybe for you and you only ...get 4 percent because of a dedication bonus. Make it like vet rewards for players. They longer they are in the guild (active account) the more bonuses they get. I dunno..just random waiting for servers to come up thought.
-Lastly because I could do this all day...so ill just end it with this. RAIDS! Make them hard dang it! I do not want to beat the endgame in 2 months and wait 4 months for an expansion. Make the bosses hard. Who cares if people whine. Let them WHINE! Earn that kill. There is nothing like in a MMO that after hard fought battle number 28 with way OP uber super dragon....that when he finally dies to your spell or blade you aren't a kid all over again! I'm serious here. When its to easy ...you don't care! If I gave someone 10000 dollars and said here its yours free, I know exactly what they are going to do with it. They are going to buy a big screen tv or a car that is all flashy or try something to impress the ladies. They didn't earn that money. Who cares. But if you go out and redo someones kitchen and bathroom for 2 months thru blood sweat and tears and at the end they gave you 10000 dollars, I know for a fact that most people would think twice on what they spend it on and maybe invest it because they don't want it to go away!
There is nothing like killing a mob that's super hard for the first time with a group of friends. Vent (or whatever chat service you use) will have 20 screaming people in it...and at-least 2 of the people in the raid will get up like total goobs and run thru their house doing the tiger woods fist pump in triumph. (Everquest/Heroic WOW/Aion old school abyss raids/Vanguard)
Ok that's all for now. Please feel free to add your own bullets underneath. Like I said I could just keep going.
P.S. Do not doing anything that's related to what SWG did during the NGE phase. Unless you enjoy self imploding.
Cheers
Vicus
GL Dark Horizon
Comments
i didn't read your entire post, but im sure EME, BHS, and everyone at TERA will.
I've got the straight edge.
Spec'ing properly is a gateway drug.
12 Million People have been meter spammed in heroics.
I would like to add. EXPAND THE PLAYER VS PLAYER INTERACTION.. Pump the game full of guild rewards, guild housing, Guild Castles, Guild VS GUILD conflict.. Dont focus to much on PvE... Just make Insanly hard content with BAMS that have super smart AI and have like 25 attack patterns and are Randomized... So you never know what version you will go up against. This will keep the PvE crowed happy.. They will have to use their brains to beat Horror mode mechanics, and they love shit like that. Think Dark souls and Ninja Gaiden. The harder the better.... Make side things at engame. Like Mount racing, Put In one large Tavern in the game and just, Fill it up with diffrent mini games. Dice games, card games, chesslike games.. So high level players can hang out there and play them, and bet ingame money on them... Look at all the games that Fable series put in there games. Use your Imagination.
But main focus make content that we can do against one another... Because as long as we can effect one another you will keep our Interest in the game. Let the players work it for you... people have more Imagination then most developers give them credit for... And they will use Social TOOLS to make the ingame experince much better. And all you need to do is Give them the TOOLS to do it...
TERA already has guild housing I am pretty sure.
I actually agree with a lot of this.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Yes they have but we NEED more content.. on the Guild side. hell I say ripp off the Guild Battle standards from Warhammer online.. make them give buffs and show the what the guild has done. And make others be able to take them in battle... MORE Guild vs Guild interaction tools..
And for the PvE crowed just HORROR mode them... Make cool mechanics that need brains to figure out.. then make the encounters RANDOM.. So iven if you have done an Instance and think you have it on farm.. Suddenlythe BOsses behave totaly diffrently... Be sure to warn the PvE crowed that this mechanic is in effect though.. Or you will get 1000+ threads about Bugs... hehe
FACT.. If TERAS endgame instanced raid content and world BOSSES are the hardest, most tricky to beat in the genre. People will come and play the game.. Because the ELITE crowed that do this in other games wont be the ELIT annymore if their game is not as hard as TERA..
This genre is so much about E-pen these days, that if people understand that TERA has the most HORROR mode of anny MMO they have to play it, or they look like they dont have what it takes...
I agree with most of it, But Make pvp fair in an armor based game doesnt work... those times in aion when people went afk was most likely due to the other team being in full gold pvp elite armor
Timezone77 I hope they 60 instances are harder than the 58s, while the 58s can look pretty challenging even when ran by people who are experienced they don't live up to my expectations. So I will be patiently awaiting videos from Korea on the 60 dungeons.
I know it isent hard enough that is why I said they should step it up... and make it DARK SOULS hard..
I actually have a system that would solve all problems..
You all know that we can climb in this game right?
Here is the scenario
THE VALLEY OF MIST... Level 60 Raid ZONE with Multiple Instanced dungeons.. You have to climb down to get into this zone and its filled with nasty AI monsters AND......
Here is the fun mechanic Indroducing DEMIGOD MODE..
In EvE online we have a help system, experinced players can join a volunteer program. We have one both for RP and for Helping NOOBS. There text is green in chat, if anyone played EvE here they know what Im talking about. These Volunteers would be doing the same in TERA. But with one added Feture... (they have to sign an NDA etc OFC) and then they can instead of making normal charecters (they should have played the game to 60, and been there of a while and have extencive knowledge about the game etc). BACK to point that aded feture they get is, instead of a normal Charecters on the server they are Volunteering on they get to make a BAM(big ass MONSTER) they design it using the BAM Charecter creator. They get a Personal Instance in the vally of the MIST. Were they can put monsters, traps and more fun things. They also get a loot dropp table. They cant group with other BAMS ofc...
Say you could have about max 50 Volunteers per server, all have their OWN Mini Instance... They get more points to spend on Cool shit the more groups of players they stop from killing them.. Their loot table becomes better and better depending on how many groups of players they have wiped/stoped from killing them. When they die they have to make a new BAM...
SO vally of the MIST has 50 player controled BAMS with their own (designed) entourage of monsters.. Ordinary players enter at their own RISK.. All TERA devs need to do after this is monitor that nobody is exploting the mechanic.. and End game raids are solved forever....
To make this work the players need to be loged on X hours per week, but this is easy to cheak by TERA devs.. and they can ofc play on other servers NORMALY...
With 50 people you could have that they have to be online 3 days a week from 18:00-22:00.. You have a forum were they post when they will be online.. So players can cheak when they can go RAID THEM... Filling the game up with normal monsters this would just be another added feture...
Lotro has tried a light version of this.... And I think its an exellent Idea for making a so called Closed ECO sytem.. it RUns itself.. without having to work out new AI patterns for new raid fights etc.. Just release more and more tools for the volunteers to use.
You dont have to limit them to be inside their dungeon either I would op for them to be able to go out in the vally of the mist if they want... and then hurry back to their lair if they see a large RAID party coming for them, that they cant handle... without suport of thier minions..
Building and expanding your Monster Lair becomes a mini game.. And they could have mechanics for collecting and crafting.. in the vally of the mist.. Doing Repetable monster quest to bring Up thier RAID value.. making them stronger etc.. You could even let BAM.. players fight one another in the vally of the mist.. If they kill another BAM they absorb part of his strenght.. BAMs can never enter another BAMS lair..
I personly think this would be a very COOL IDEA.. and giving the monster players Incentatives to keep themselves alive. Giving them stuff on their ordinary charecters ( get special mount after defending themselves 5 times, or get a special title, cool social gear etc) Because they are in fact doing the community a great service playing monsters...
PS the monster Lair can always be raided and are filled with the Ordinary Endgame content. So even if the BAM is not around you can mess up his lair... If he is around though the fight becomes much, much harder hehe
Nothing is stoping him from making a surprise visit.. and when players are thinking hehe he wont be around tonight, lets grab his liar.. OPS...
i am the dude who lurks in the background and does not usually reply. i actually activated my mmorpg.com to reply to this post.
for what its worth, if the devs are reading this, i can /sign every single point the OP raised. i am feeling exactly the same way since daoc/shadowbane days and I hope devs will take into account the points he raised.
You're most probably wasting your time, OP. This is a Korean game, the devs only listen to Korean feedback. The localized version we get to play is always 6 months behind the version they play over there so our feedback is pretty useless to them anyway.
Either learn Korean and go post on their forums or just accept the game as it is, imo.
This isn't a jab at Koreans, it's just that I witnessed this first handedly in Lineage 2, they just don't read the western forums and don't seem to care all that much about our concerns.
Of course there is a small chance that Bluehole might behave differently than NCsoft but I doubt it since some of the Bluehole people actually come from NCsoft. We'll see I guess.
nice suggestings something most mmorpg should follow.
Obviously you know nothing about Tera -.- EME has been working with blue hole on this game westernization since the game started been programed. They have right and ability to change the game to fit our side. Changes already are been made and EME does listen to us. Their customer support is god damn amazing compare to any other mmorpg company.
I am the same as you. I post on the Tera forums or on other games I have interest in, but I've only reviewed forum post here. I have been playing the CB1-2 and I also dabbled in KTera from a friends account * I live in Japan*. The game is amazing. The action based combat is just fun. I don't care if it has little irks that upset people, but new powers feel like new powers! The Mobs in the game, everytime they do one of thier "special moves" I just giggle a little inside. The game gets so much faster as you level, but even at level 2 when I first went against a Trent and he did a special move where he stood tall and then fell over like a tree on top of me *timber!* I just couldnt help myself but laugh. Not only was it so obvious that I should of moved but I didn't, it was awesome to see him fall like a Tree and then slowly try to get back up because he looked like he was struggling. That's a level 2 mob.
This game has that feeling for me. I don't see it leaving any time soon.
Vicus
http://darkhorizontera.guildlaunch.com/
Dark Horizon Oceanic PVE guild
To Rexs,
I already posted this on Tera's forum a week ago, but your more then welcome to repost it. The more people they hear it from the better I say.
Vicus
Maybe, just maybe things might be different. I mean maybe a BHS representative might be reading this right now, you never know.
this the same Dark Horizon guild that was in eq1
"-Own up to your mistakes! Do not try to spin it in a way to make yourself look better! If you put a new patch out and a whole group of people exploit it DO SOMETHING about it! Do not let bad people go unpunished. Gamers are not stupid. (I have faith) They know when they are doing something they shouldn't. If they are standing on some beam using a wall glitch to kill a raid boss by themselves...THEY know they are cheating. If you make a mistake that allows stuff like that...just be a mature company and say "Our intentions where in the right place but we did not execute it as well as we expected, with that said we will punish those whose exploited our system and for everyone else we will give a free double exp weekend or increased crafting skill ups. In general giving people stuff they weren't expecting ....those are called presents. EVERYONE LOVES presents. Aion does this like no other game."
worst idea ever.
exploiters are the most valuible people in a comunity. if oyu player wow early on, you will recall that there was allot of bruhaha about gnomes and Night elves in pvp, because when they jump their character models shrink and most people apparently used mouse click targeting.
people who play a game play to win- to accomplish their goals. if they play a game for roleplaying then allot of mechanics will be moot, but punishing people to using the functionality of the game in the optimal manner is unethical.
people playing better than you, makes you seem incompetant, not them seem to be cheaters.
should a single person be able to play how they want, and exploit everything to accomplish their goals? of course. getting a ban hammered out due to kiting, or some models or targeting not working under certain circumstance is the easiest way to lose your community.
fix the game mechanics, not the community.
cause effectively by trying to fix the community you are saying "oh you cast a greater heal? you're gone".
No not the same Dark Horizon. My wife actually came up with that name for this game. I was Guild Leader of Deadly Sins in EQ1 on Bertox. We were an aussie/oceanic guild. Characters name was Kumate Karaoke *bard* Miss that guy!
Vicus.
Currently this doesn't seem to be a problem as the classes look about balanced. One great thing is that TERA has dedicated PvE servers, something Aion should have done from that start.
Great read though, thanks!
Just not worth my time anymore.
Yeah maybe but anyways this is all in the realm of "I'll believe it when I see it".
Pre release promises made by devs or publishers don't always pan out and don't have much value.
However, I like the idea of En Masse being on board since the beginning - if it's true. That at least would be doing things differently than NCsoft, so it's a good start.
Lenybob,
I disagree and think you took my subject of that out of context. I am not saying anything about nerfing someone because they have an advantage over someone else, I was talking about EME/Blue Hole actually making a mistake.
Examples, Star wars TOR recently messed something up on a pvp event that allowed one side to get a huge advantage which shifted the balance of the game. Thier fix for it was very weak basically upset a big portion of the community.
Rift, during thier first Server wide event made it impossible for more then half of the players to actually take part in the vent because the que times where over 6 hours long...and the event was only 2 hours long.
So Rift decided to give everyone after the event all the items that where possible to obtain at the event to every character that was already created prior. They also issued a post basically saying, we are sorry, we learned, and next event will be different. And it was. Everyone praised Trion for this action.
That was the point of my bullet. Don't just let things slide and act like nothing happen. Man up to your mistakes. In general, life is better that way.
Vicus
Just not worth my time anymore.