As of the update on 13 May 2014, the whole costume and Fed Bills system has changed. The templates available previously in the Fed Bills store are no longer available. The remodeling system is no longer available. The looks are still there, but there is no way to pass them along to new armor. You are stuck with what you have. See previous post.

'Tera: Rising / En Masse Entertainment is celebrating the new TERA Gunner class by giving players who log-in today the 'Beep Bop Boop' bundle for free. The bundle includes the EX-TRM mount, a free character slot, and 'a whole host of consumable items.' The bundle is available for free until May 26. 3rd place - 500 EMP and an assortment of costume accessories. To enter, all you need to do is go to character creation on TERA and make an ugly or funny looking character. You don't have to actually create the character. Just take a screenshot of it when you finish then send it in.

There are some really strange items in the Fed Bills store called things like “Design: 24-Karat Robe” which is described as “Craft a permanent 24-Karat ensemble”. This is a crafting recipe that combines Robe, Sleeves and Shoes to create a “Costume” that will fit in the costume slot.

These Designs come in all the flavors required for Metal, Leather and Cloth armor, and in 24-Karat and Sterling flavors. These allow you to move previous templates to costumes. The 24-Karat and Sterling items do not appear to be available in the EMP store. These designs were available in loot boxes starting in March of 2013. A search today did not reveal any such loot boxes or items in the costuming section of the EMP store. These templates sell of many 1000’s of Gold in the trading post, but not all parts are available.

Let’s Review

So let’s review some of what has happened in Tera regarding costumes and templates:

June 2012 – Remodeling and Dyeing of armor and weapons were introduced. This allowed equipment look to be carried forward to new items indefinitely are new items were obtained.

Over the next months / years, new templates were introduced in the EMP store. Somewhere along the way the Sterling and 24-Karat templates were introduced and removed from the EMP store. Of course with no remodeling, the templates are useless.

March 2014 – The Federation Bills system was introduced including the Santia’s and Quandary Baazar templates.

May 2014 – The entire remodeling system was removed along with the templates from the Fed Bills store. The Designs were added to allow you to turn the Sterling / 24-Karat templates into costumes.

There are dozens of For Pay costumes both from loot boxes and for direct purchase. Loot boxes “Give a chance” of getting the type of item you want. Costumes include what amounts to Sleeves / Robe / Shoes – in other words, all three pieces of armor. There is no way to turn a set of armor into a costume – Except in the case of the 24-Karat / Sterling “Designs”.

Why Betrayal?

I feel betrayed because I now have some very nice looking armor that I can’t carry forward. Why is this a problem? Because I find that the look of my character is quite bound up with my feeling of status and accomplishment in the game.

Ever since I started playing MMOs with 2Moons / Dekaron and then Guild Wars, Jade Dynasty, Ether Saga, Wow, etc etc. There has been one constant factor. The harder and longer you work, the better you look. I didn’t make this up, the games were designed this way. Each tier of armor looks better as you progress in the game to higher levels.

World of Warcraft [Wow] first introduced the idea that you might like to keep an armor look, and created templates that were crafted with their Transmogrification scheme in September 2011.

Tera Costume Slots

Removing armor looks that I like, however they are obtained, and removing the remodeling scheme betrays my sense of accomplishment in the game. It is as if they have come into my room and swept off all the trophies that I got for high school sports and shouted that those no longer matter and all that hard work no longer counts. All that now counts is buying the trophies at the store. I was never attached to swimsuits or evening wear. No status and self worth if they are purchased with $$. But purchased with in-game effort or skill or just logging in for 7 days or 14 days in a row. That’s at least something.

Tera Costume Slot Machine

It took me a while to understand why I was feeling this way. But it’s a feeling that I now understand. It was learned in my playing of these games over many years. I didn’t make it up here and now in this game.

Maybe I’ll continue to play this game. Or maybe not. But I won’t feel the same about it ever again. They broke trust with me by removing my trophies.

Tera Costume Sloth

Update: Apparently a new scheme was released in Korea on 20 Feb that included a token shop. The tokens are acquired by time logged in – up to 300 per day if logged in for 2.5 hours. Permanent armor templates – not sure how many types – are purchased for 5000 tokens. So after 17 days or so at 2.5 hours per day you can receive a fancy costume armor. Apparently these are Costume armors which cover your normal armor and don’t require changes if you upgrade your armor. Unclear when this update will come to the US. The Reaper update went live in Korea on 15 Jan and made it to US on 13 May – 4 Months. If the delay is the same, then we might get the update in June. Some of the updates – documented here – indicate that a new armor piece called Belt has appeared in Korea. Perhaps the Costuming scheme allows the armor to be changed without messing with the Cosmetic Only costume system.

They could have created a system that allowed armor pieces to be combined into a costume to preserve the look of older or discontinued gear. But they apparently didn’t feel, as I do, that the look of older gear was important to folks.

– ww