Saturday, October 9, 2010

Tera: Lost in Translation

"This adventure ends sour this failure. Too bad. This adventurer was nice. In their benevolence badge, the ancient gods were bearing the body of Marcel in a sanctuary..."
   
I got to the point last night where I started writing my first blog entry for Wizardry IV, but then I sat back and thought, "CRPG Addict, people read your blog specifically to hear about games they might otherwise not play. And, honestly, how many of your readers are likely ever to play Tera?"
   

    
So I went back to Tera, and wandered around some more. I came across the city of Kronopolis, which looks huge in the screenshot but actually has only three shops, apparently. Fortunately, the first two items need no translation. Unfortunately, I got an error every time I tried to buy something.
   
Only 50 ducats for a "container of energy"?!
    
Ultimately, I wandered into the wrong place and ran into some sorcerers. The list of commands led me to believe that "C" was the way to engage in combatte, but everything I tried led to the game asking me things like "êtes-vous un idiot?!" and "essayer autre chose" before I quickly died.

Look, I'm man enough for a challenge, like playing a game without any instructions, or playing a game in a foreign language. Just not together at the same time. And here's the other thing: I'm not entirely sure that Tera isn't really stupid. I mean, like Ultima II stupid.
   
Point de l'exposition
    
So I'm going to move on to Wizardry IV for now, but I'll think about giving Tera another try if someone comes up with a manual (one that doesn't require telechargement, thanks, Murlock) or if any reader who has played it can give me some advice.

I know this is a short, lame posting, so I promise one for Wizardry IV in a couple hours.

[Note from 2017: My adventures with Tera continued, more successfully, nearly 7 years later. Check out the updated coverage starting here.]

20 comments:

  1. "CRPG Addict, people read your blog specifically to hear about games they might otherwise not play. And, honestly, how many of your readers are likely ever to play Tera?"

    You are certainly right - as I haven't even heard of this title.
    As I've said before: You are enriching the net with your addiction and work. Thanks!

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  2. You gave it a good shot, and it was entertaining, but I don't think struggling through it is worth your time.

    Basically, I think you're making a good decision.

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  3. I'd make the same choice... You might be blogging so we can read about titles we might not have tried (at least not in the last 15 years), but all the fun for us goes out the window if you're frustrated/unhappy while playing.

    Maybe you should add a #7 to the "Rules" sidebar stating that any/all previous rules may be suspended in the event of a non-English title?

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  4. Just for the record: "telecharger" simply means download. :) No money involved.

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  5. Thanks, 'Nym. I probably should have bothered to send it through Google translate before making assumptions.

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  6. "êtes-vous un idiot?!"

    Very polite of them, using the vous form.

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  7. Man you're totally a hero.
    I played this game somewhat 25years ago (btw I'm french) and I didn't quite understand what I had to do. But being 5, wandering and killing things was good enough.
    Now I found that game again and tried it...

    I still don't understand what I have to do.
    And I've never understood what half the commands are doing (I've never been able to sleep (dormir), eat (manger) or drink (boire) for exemple).
    There's a command to invoke, but you have to write what you want to invoke...but I don't have any f... idea...

    now I came here because I'm wandering the web to find some clues...but I'm afraid this game will remain a mystery my whole life :P

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    Replies
    1. I wish I'd given it more of a chance. I got frustrated too easily and probably missed out on a chance to be a real authority on an obscure game.

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    2. Man, I too hoped to finally find some insight on this game. I'm french too, and played it a LOT without ever getting close to understand what it is all about. It sure seems like there is something there, just very well hidden (obfuscated even).
      One (maybe stupid) word of advice if you ever come back to this one : I'm pretty sure TERA's programmer never thought about QWERTY keyboard users (We use AZERTY here). I'm not sure how that affects your experience, through DOSBox and all, but I bet some of your problems come from that.

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  8. I bet there are tons, or let's say dozens, of these oddities out there, from France, Germany, Canada... You'd need a whole team of researchers to find them and then they probably aren't even worth it. If they were, we'd know them...

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    Replies
    1. I don't know. There are some pretty obscure Asian games on online lists of RPGs. I feel pretty confident that if Canada had produced even one RPG in the 1980s, let alone "dozens," we'd know about it.

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    2. Yeah, most of the games out of Canada were sold in the US, since we speak the same language and whatnot. Bioware is Canadian as I recall.

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    3. Ok, in my early years I played on a C64 and Germany produced many, many games. Though some were probably shareware, or published on cheap compilation disks, as an addition to computer magazines etc... If that had translated to the PC I would expect quite a couple of oddities (like Sword of Glass) On the other hand, if I recall correctly, the PC was more US-centric. And back then, the PC had a reputation as something to do work with, not playing. So maybe I am overestimating the amount of games.

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  9. A little bit late, but i'm so happy. I've find another person who played this game \o/

    About the store, in my memory, first you select the companion (A->D, you can't have more than 4 companion) and then select the weapon

    Drink can be used when one companion is poisoned (k-contrepoison) or with elixir to get some stamina

    About Invoke, you need to find some information in some dungeon (yeah, i was very young and my memory is not perfect) and then go in a pyramid, invoke the name found in dungeon and kill the monster.

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    Replies
    1. Make sure you keep checking back. I'm going to give this game another try in 2 or 3 months, and I'm sure I'll be able to use the help of anyone who's played it.

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  10. Hello,
    Very happy to find someone who played Tera !!
    I played it about 25 or 30 years ago. I loved it, but could'n finish the game !
    I tried again a few days ago (thanks to Dosbox). But I'm stuck in "la cité des crânes" : I know there are several levels. And I have to find the scale to go down on lower level.
    But after looking in each room of first level, several times (I found the map and was able to verify this), I couldn't find any scale ! :-(

    ==> Can anyone help me please ?

    NB 1 : sorry for my bad english, I'm french, like Tera ;-)

    NB 2 : Game and (french !) manual are downloadable here :
    http://www.abandonware-france.org/ltf_abandon/ltf_jeu.php?id=1300&fic=liens

    NB 3 : Source code (Turbo Pascal) can be found here : http://www.abandonware-forums.org/showthread.php?33310-tera-la-cit%E9-des-cranes/page2

    NB 4 : The game's goals are (in french, sorry) :
    - Invoquer un nom précis sur Meduz (et pour aller sur Meduz il font encore monter en haut de la pyramide et y invoquer quelqu'un d'autre)
    - Obtenir l'appui des Médias (ça consiste à explorer un base sur Alfol pour trouver le bureau des Médias, et leur donner 1000 ducats)
    - Tuer Arioch (bien sur en étant assez costaud pour ça, et puis après lui avoir mis la main dessus)
    - Tuer un copain d'Arioch (après avoir découvert son nom, et l'avoir invoqué devant l'autel des ténèbres)

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    Replies
    1. Hang in there. I'm going to play it again in a few weeks.

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    2. Thanks for your reply CRPG.
      Today, I have a good and a bad news :

      - the good : I have an answer to my question. In the first level of "la Cité des crânes", ve have to find a special door decorated with a deer symbol. It isn't a scale as I was thinking. BUT, this door is visible ONLY if we come from the right direction, that is to say arriving in front of it.

      - the bad new : I searched this door for a while... but I didn't find it ! :-(

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    3. Quick translating of the goals :
      - Summon one particular name on MEDUZ (And to go on MEDUZ you need to climb the Pyramid, and there summon someone else). (Note: IIRC the game world was generated, so probably the name to summon is random).
      - Get support from the media (which means exploring a base on Alfol, find the media office and give them 1,000 ducats)
      - Kill Arioch ('course you'll need to beef up, and also find him)
      - kill a friend of Arioch ( after discovering his name, and summoning him before the altar of darkness).

      Hope this helps, I'll be checking if you finally crack this one open.

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  11. I'm playing Tera atm i'm in Meduz 3 challenges done (i'm french) and you need to draw your dungeon maps, really, La cité des cranes (City of the Skulls) have 8 floors (1 for the "overworld" 7 "sublevel") all of them are a 10*10 grid (all the maps are 10*10) so print somes excel-like grid and your good to go.
    Personally i draw them ol'school pencil and paper.
    You need to find some clues to summon(invoquer) the demon princes (Princes Demon) one is in the Seth temple.
    Some easy way to level up is to farm the npc like in "abbaye de roches aux goules" (not the other companions)
    when you go to the capital : (E)ntrer then (V)endre to sell and see the differents weapon tiers for the skill (L)utter,(P)lasmodier,(A)ttaque mental,(T)irer,(D)issiper...(J)eter un sort don't have catalyst.
    That all i think..you should train with all the companions or just select (minmax ftw) the usefull one.

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