Tera
Tera is an open-world, action MMORPG. Tera’s game mechanics include: looking around, running, jumping, using skills, and performing a situational action (talk, pick up item, etc.). The first three, looking around, running, and jumping clearly have real-time control. The game delivers responses to those actions in less than 100 ms, and there is a sustained correction cycle during them.
Situational actions are all triggered by the same button (default “F”), but pressing that button produces different results depending on what is around the player character. For example, if there is a Non Player Character (NPC) nearby, the situational action mechanic will begin dialog with the NPC, or if there is an item on the ground nearby, the situational action mechanic will pick up the item. Situational actions also happen in less than 100 ms after input, but some of them, such as mining ore or collecting herbs, take a few seconds to complete. However, while performing such actions, the player is able to cancel the action by delivering any input besides “perform situational action”. At such a time, the player character will immediately perform any action that the player input, so the continuous feedback loop is not broken. The situational action mechanic has real-time control.
The “skill” mechanics, at first glance, seem to have interrupted continuity. When a player presses a hotkey to use a skill, an animation is played out according to the skill during which the player is unable to perform general actions. Most of these animations are very short and do not break the continuous feedback loop, but a few of them are over one second long, which does break continuous feedback. However, some skills have the property that they can interrupt skill animations. For example, the Archer class has a skill called “Final Salvo”, that can be used to break out of long skill animations. Like all skills, “Final Salvo” has a short cool down after using it that prevents repeated use, however, since skills with long animations are rather scarce, a player could conceivably play without ever experiencing a perceived break in continuity if they fully utilized skills like “Final Salvo”. The skill mechanic has real-time control.
Tera has simulated space. The player character makes contact with the ground and other objects and the player actively experiences these interactions. There is some polish in the animations of actions like jumping that emphasize these interactions.
Tera has game-feel, despite some questionable areas. Skills have the potential to break real-time control, but the player can maintain continuous control by fully utilizing animation-canceling skills.
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