During their weekly livestream, Gameforge (EU) announced they would also be running a classic server event soon. There are some caveats associated with these “classic” servers though where they aren’t exactly the same state (i.e. features, game systems, content).
UPDATE: Gameforge Classic Server Event Announcement
I finally started leveling on K-TERA’s classic server and it isn’t what one can consider an actual legacy server that was based on some specific patch since Bluehole rolled in other changes. Like leveling is still much faster while portions of the Island of Dawn starter zone are a bit more streamlined (though nowhere close to say before it was patched out and Stepstone Island patched in as the new (and significantly streamlined starter area). It’s better to look at it as more or less a “nostalgia” server event (where even back then, not everything was perfect or as good as nostalgia can tint the colors that ones tends to see when looking through the glasses of time gone by).
Gameforge specified they will be basing it on patch 27 (similar to both J-TERA and K-TERA) while rolling in content from the VM1-3 eras (dungeons that were removed with VM3 will be re-enabled). Classes will be as they were at that time with the addition of the Reaper. Leveling speed will also be increased along with higher success rates with enchanting and masterworking. Similarly, their classic server will also be PvE only.
I previously had setup my own TERA Rising emulator so that I could experience the original Island of Dawn (given that I barely played at launch) and the earlier versions were pretty bad when it came to its quality of life aspects and streamlining. I could spawn in a mount which made getting around a godsend. But in the actual games quest chain, you only get your mount once you’ve completed the main line level 10 quest portion that gives you the pegasus quest to Velika (where you then complete a short quest chain that progresses you to Lumbertown where you get the quest for the mount NPC). The original Island of Dawn starter zone was indeed a very beautiful place to start the game and then to AFK in, but I’m also not going to sit here and say that its structuring as a newbie area was good.
Even in this 2014 “classic” incarnation, the questing was nothing remarkable (effectively most of the main line ones are kill 5 of these mobs and then one specific enemy) as is the case for many of these type of games. Side quests would either be filler for extra XP/silver while others would be short tutorials. The faster leveling curve reduces that grind which was nothing special except to those who felt that slower leveling (just for the sake of slower leveling and one not associated with interesting content and/or story), was a “great” thing about the “good old days”.
And unless you ran some of these quest chains before, the game didn’t really do a good job pointing out some of their locations (unless you remembered to use the quest tracker to ping that location and show a marker on the map). Again, I’m as much a critic of game design that hand holds the player too much. However, obtuse designs (as opposed to well designed immersive exploration) are just meant to serve as time sinks. One perfect example is one point where you need to run all the way back from the Tainted Gorge area (since no teleporter) to the Tower Base to turn in the quest just before you catch the pegasus to Velika (sometimes, it was easier to just get killed by a mob so that you could resurrect back at the Tower Base).
This is why I don’t really have much issues with a lot of the streamlining that has taken place with the questing in TERA. This classic server highlights how most of them were just time sinked grinds through zones (where eventually, some of them were completely bypassed). Later versions of pre-Fate of Arun Island of Dawn slowly began removing more of the NPC’s and consolidating the questing; this classic version still has many of the NPC’s (same with other zones) including the Elin teleport masters like Hermaiorni. But that’s part of the reason why a different team ended up creating the more streamlined Stepstone Island (albeit with throwing curve balls into the original story line which takes place on the original Island of Dawn starter zone) and repurposing Island of Dawn as a burnt to a crisp level 65 zone with some unspecified future as to whether or not it will eventually be returned to its original state.
Once past level 10, the questing still takes place through Lumbertown and Fey Forest (if you run through this zone now, everything has been left in place but with no real purpose unless a newer player purposely goes through that area and pickups whatever side quests that an NPC offers up). While I’ve been re-visiting a lot of these locations with the updated gathering, questing through this “classic” server content reminded me again about how much stuff has been simply removed or abandoned in place in TERA (so much lost potential is what it all comes down to).
I know the current team noted their 2019 goal with repurposing such existing content but I hope it doesn’t come at the expense of at least some new ones (like new zones and associated story as well as not leaving the Island of Dawn story hanging). One thing I would like to see (even though if it is a remote chance) is some type of player housing; guild sky castles had that customization system which could be adapted for player housing even if instanced (though it would be cool to be able to show off more custom flair in-game since currently, the only user-generated content allowed are guild logos).
