ZAM asks Patrick Sun about the new Corsairs' Stronghold battleground

Corsairs’ Stronghold arrives today to herald the addition of siege battles to TERA: Rising’s PvP. The battleground will allow 20-on-20 clashes with each side taking turns to attack and defend a castle using vehicles and siege weaponry.

To find out more, I asked Patrick Sun, producer on TERA, some questions; to which he obligingly answered.

Corsairs’ Stronghold is adding a variety of new elements into TERA: Rising’s PvP. The new elements promise more tactical and strategic combat. What are the main choices that players will have to make in the midst of battle?

There will be a ton of new strategies that a team can employ on both offense and defense in Corsairs’ Stronghold.  Tactics from both previous battlegrounds such as Fraywind Canyon or Champions’ Skyring will come into play as well as new ones taking advantage of the interactive environment and some cool vehicles. On offense, do you try and sneak over the opponents’ head using an airship? Maybe you want to tackle it with brute force using tanks to blow down their main gates. On defense, how will you try and cripple your opponent? Is your team coordinated enough to defend multiple points at once? There will be a ton of different strategies to try out, but I think organized teams will ultimately prevail in Corsairs’ Stronghold. 

TERA’s action combat is such a strong element of its appeal to players. Was it difficult making sure Stronghold didn’t become too focused on vehicles and static weapons?

In talking with our developers and playing Corsairs’ Stronghold, you do see that this was thoroughly thought through.  The tanks and cannons, while powerful, can easily be destroyed and are accessible by both offense and defense.  The penalty for being destroyed in them is also death.  Strong reward requires strong risk, and it’s apparent that the balance of these elements is something the development team put a lot of thought into for this battleground.

Gear is being normalized for players to level the playing field and make skill the deciding factor. Was it also necessary to balance the gear in regard to the weaponry and vehicles in the battleground?

The weaponry and vehicles had to be balanced with the gear that the players were being normalized to.  It made the job easier once the gear was normalized as opposed to dealing with multiple levels of gear. Ultimately, this means that Corsairs’ Stronghold will be a true test of your skills and not an easy win cause of the awesome sword you got from your friend to pwn some noobs.

Why did you go for the Attacker vs. Defender format of the battleground? What gameplay advantages do you think it brings in comparison to other options?

In Fraywind Canyon, we offer a domination style of play that one can describe as a rolling deathmatch. In Champions’ Skyring, we offer a team deathmatch style of play with no frills about it.  For both these modes, you are both attacking and defending at the same time.  For Corsairs’ Stronghold, we offer something more similar to a castle siege, and there’s really no way to go about castle sieges than to have a force attacking, and another defending. You have one job as a team, and it’ll be interesting to see what type of tactics play out.

Though the Stronghold is the most eye-catching aspect of the patch, it also lays the groundwork for the Alliance system. What do you think it will bring to the game for players?

The Stronghold patch brings a ton of changes to players, perhaps the biggest set of any patch to date.  It contains a lot of class balances players have been asking for as well as some changes to leveling and dungeons.  The Alliance system will come into play in an update later this summer, and it’s really going to evolve the political system in an awesome way.  Your objectives as a player will change, even if you’re not in a dungeon or battleground.  It’ll give you something to fight for and defend at all times, and I think the players will dig it.

Will we see some of the vehicles and siege mechanics introduced in Corsairs’ Stronghold utilized in the new raid dungeons later this summer?

There will be all new mechanics in the raid dungeons coming out later, and it is very possible that vehicle and siege mechanics will also be used.  It’s still a teeny bit away, so I can’t say too much now but excited to talk about it as soon as I can!

I’d like to thank Patrick for taking the time out to answer our queries and I’d ask you to stay tuned to ZAM for your daily helping of MMO news, views and interviews.

Scott "Jarimor" Hawkes, Editor in Chief