TERA news » Noesis Notes for February 2017

It’s sometimes hard to believe it’s only been a few months since Spacecats first introduced me as the new product manager for TERA. A lot has happened since then, but one of the things I promised in that first stream was a producer letter. My goal was to get that out in January, but the day to day work of making TERA awesome has a way of filling up all the available space in my schedule.

But the past is prologue (at least that’s what they say), and just because it’s the end of February doesn’t mean a producer letter isn’t still relevant. There’s a lot for us to talk about today, and I’m going to lay out as much as I can of what we’re doing behind the scenes, and why.

For starters, Kyra’s Pop-Up Potion Shack! This normally would be a ‘coming soon” item, but obviously it’s already underway, and people are really brewing up some fun stuff! This has been my first large-scale TERA event, and let me tell you, it’s a lot of work! I wanted to bring something new to a very popular event, letting players choose between several different potion loot tables: enchanting/crafting consumables, and accessory/costume goodies. The results have been interesting to say the least, and like with any large-scale event, we’re taking a close look not only at the player response, but how we can improve the process for the next time Kyra pops up in TERA.

Coming in the very near future, we’re spinning up a temporary test server to try out new rulesets and events. We're naming it Wonderholme. While you won’t be able to transfer characters to (or from) this server, and it will be subject to frequent wipes and resets, it’s a way for us to experiment with different server configurations and let you have some fun at the same time. Our goal is to stress-test just about everything, so be sure to play as hard, and as often as you can. A full announcement will give more details in the next week or two.

Also coming up in the near future is the v53 content update. A lot of people have been calling this the “slayer update,” and while there are some balance changes and tweaks, they’re not as large-scale as those for warriors, archers, and sorcerers. But there’s still some great stuff coming your way next month, including some special weekend events, and the opportunity to reserve a character name for our next big update and TERA’s next playable character class! Reserving a name in advance will grant you a variety of rewards when v54 arrives, including a free character slot and various other benefits I’ll go into as we get closer to the event.

Those of you who’ve been with us for a while know that TERA’s 5th anniversary in NA is coming up as well. We’re going to have a special events and gifts for all players who log in and celebrate with us, and I look forward to telling you more about my plans soon.

If I’ve learned anything from my first three months on TERA, it’s that it’s good to have aspirational goals and a desire to fix all the things. But Things Happen ™, and sometimes we need to focus on what matters most. For me, that’s getting new content out to our players as quickly as we can. So even with a new class, our 5th anniversary celebration, and more new dungeons and gear coming your way in the next few months, I’m still working on other initiatives, and trying to improve as many of our processes as I can to make the fun in TERA even more so!

Thanks for reading, and look for more from me soon.