Here’s our anniversary blog post with information on the event schedule, Broken Ranks updates and the long awaited beta release date! You’ll also be able to see some anniversary numbers. To make you feel nostalgic and let you have a laugh, we’ve asked one of our long-time players, a pillar of the community and radio journalist, KGB, to give us a list of things he didn’t expect from Taern when it was first released. Read on.

It’s the year 2010. Everyone’s listening to Rihanna, Lady Gaga and K’Naan (anyone still remember this one?), Spain wins the World Cup. While playing on our PS3 and Xbox360 we are amazed by the graphics of Mass Effect 2 and Red Dead Redemption. At the same time, in a small tenement building in Wrocław, a certain group of people is working on a project that will forever change the gaming industry.

Well, maybe I got a little carried away but it has certainly changed the lives of many of us. Some found entertainment for years, others met lifelong friendship, others bought a Ferrari. Dear players, 10 years ago The Pride of Taern was released. If you are reading this, this game must be important for you.

To celebrate this anniversary, here is a blog post with a list of things that no one expected on the release day. Or at least I didn’t expect them because this post is written from the perspective of some who is not a member of the team but has been with the game since day one. And although Taern took away a big part of my life, I’m very glad it did.

Here’s 10 things for Taern’s 10th birthday that we weren’t expecting 10 years ago.

There will be so many level 140 players.

There’s over 1000 players who have reached level 140 on PL servers. According to the ranking there are 47 players on the English server who have achieved this goal but considering the population, it’s no small feat! Of course when you think more about it, it’s not so shocking. There are many more ways to gain experience nowadays and if you play everyday, reaching level 140 is not that big of a deal. Besides, if someone started early, there’d be no need to spend most of their life playing Taern to achieve this. All it takes is logging from time to time and the amount of xp increases slowly but steadily.

But what we take for granted today, 10 years ago must have seemed incredible. When the way from Trentis to the castle took 3 seconds, people who reached level 40 were greatly admired. When the maximum level was 100, the most optimal method to gain xp was Castle Specter. Can you imagine reaching level 100 without Lempo, Valda and ice bosses? Now image how hard it would be to believe that people would be xping for 40 more levels and a 100+ players would be considered late mid-level.

There will be bosses who will take hours (or even years) to kill

Well, hours may be a bit of an exaggeration. After all if you’re failing, any instance can take a day to complete. But if we go back 10 years, taking 2+ hours (excluding preparation time) to kill Tarul may sounds ridiculous. We’re talking about times when killing Garth took a long time. When Castle Specter was added before the official release date, everyone was ecstatic. The instance completely changed the way getting xp worked (there was no other instance with such good xp before) but some people were complaining that no one would want to go for such a long instance. They had life after all. From that perspective, the current high-level dungeon seem unbelievable.

Although there was also Mantis and that instance can be very moody.

And who would have suspected that new bosses would take years to kill? Morana? 5 years. Tarul? 2 years. In the old days, new bosses were killed within minutes by high-levels. I think that if anyone told me back then that there’d be something nobody would be able to kill for several months, I’d ask why implement it then. But it happened and it was a great success.

TaernCon will have hundreds of attendees from all around the world

This is the nicest surprise for me because I’ve been attending TaernCons from the very beginning and I was the MC on every single one of them so I’m getting a bit nostalgic. The first TaernCons were completely different from what we can experience currently. They were more of a spontaneous gatherings of a couple of people throughout the weekend. People whose common passion is a niche, anonymous browser game. Someone brought some sausages, someone lit up a grill, someone came with a couple of beers and everyone debated about the future of The Pride of Taern in an atmosphere of mutual respect. Then TaernCons became less spontaneous and more planned but it’d inaccurate to say they were organized.

Then came the time of true TaernCons. Professional venue, sound, schedule full of competitions and quizes. Since none of us ever organized such a big party (Torgerd had a wedding but his wife did most of the work), we were very proud that we managed to pull it all together.

Now when I go back to those spontaneous meetings, it’s hard for me to believe that soon there will be only a couple o places in Wrocław that’ll be able to fit us all in. I wonder where we’ll have Broken Ranks release party because I’m sure attendance numbers will be off the charts.

There will be no marketplace still

This requires no further comment.

Taern will be available in many languages

Honestly I totally didn’t believe in it but Drygu, Torgerd and Pan Tomek must have expected (or at least hoped) that Taern would cross the border of Poland sooner or later. Don’t get me wrong, I knew the game had a potential but it was extremely hard for me to believe that a game created in such conditions (the developers shared an office with a dentist back then) would be able conquer other markets. And yet here we are. Let’s keep in mind that if we ask anyone outside of Poland about the top3 things Poland is most famous for, they’re not likely to say ‘Lewandowski, The Witcher and Taern’. Taern may not be the prodigy child of the Polish gaming industry but it’s doing fairly well and it’ll be surely doing even better once Broken Ranks is released.

By the way, some of you may not know that in one language versions of Taern you can… buy rares in shops. It’s a redefinition of the term Pay2Win. To justify this, I must tell you that this wasn’t the decision of the developers but of the publishers in that country. They said that it’d work better for their target audience so whatcha gonna do?

Bear will be farmed mercilessly

It’s hard to image now, I have trouble remembering it myself, that Bear wasn’t always a psychoXP factory but a normal boss fought in a 5-men party, including a druid, and required a lot of preparation. Moreover, Yeroshky and Ostolbyn were very precious rares for that level range. Half of the players wanted the former while the other half wanted the latter. When one of them dropped, champagne bottles were opened. Well, if you dropped Irkamalas, champagne had to stay in the fridge. They were always vendor trash.

Bear fell harder than Nate Robinson – the boss is still popular but nobody treats it seriously. It’s only task is to provide psychoXP. If it drops anything, that’s fine – essence is always welcome. If it doesn’t, it’s no big deal. Meat is used on an industrial scale and Bear is killed hundreds of times a day. Rares are worth less than the electricity we we used up when acquiring them. The fights requires two preset strategies at most, one click to enter, one click to place the meat and we can go back to watching our favorite shows.

No other boss in the entire game has been so degraded by the addition of psychorares. Although you could also say that it’s become the most popular boss (I would bet anything that it’s the most frequently killed one). Years go by and Bear’s Den is always full of parties. But for a different reason.

Taern will unite people until death do them part

Taern has increased the chance of passing on their genes for many people. I know about at least a couple of people who started by slaying specters, dragons and ended up marrying each other.
Taern is no exception of course. Any online game has the potential to connect people but let’s go back 10 years again. Taern was very niche back then and nothing indicated that it’d have the same effect as Tinder.
Of course if you’re trying to find your soulmate, you probably have better options – clubs, parks or even a library. However, since clubs and parks are closed due to the pandemic and strolling in the park is harder due to the weather, you might as well try in Taern.

Taern will be available outside of the browser

When Taern was released, the world of games looked somewhat different. Browser games were very popular back then. Millions of people from all around the world were watering their virtual plants, solving crimes or… killing bosses. Flash games were mostly out of fashion already but Taern wasn’t your everyday Flash game. Nothing indicated that it’d one day get away from its comfy browser environment. There was some talk about a client in those time but nobody treated it seriously. However, it seems that the marriage of Taern and browsers is now over.

Still, the browser shortcut to my favorite game is like messages from my ex – difficult to get rid of.

Taern will be in 3D…

Every player who started playing Taern 10 years ago (or even earlier) probably has their own reasons for continuing to play but for me the three most important things were:

• Combat system that kinda (by only kinda) reminded me of the HoMM series and classic RPGs from the 90s.
• Plot which may not matter in the long run but I liked that it’s not just go, kill, rinse and repeat. There’s a real storyline behind what we do.
• Graphics that reminded me very much of classic games. To be honest, this was the thing that I liked the most. Taern was simply pretty.

And this is the exact reason, this return to the classic games, why I never thought Taern would abandon its warm 2D look and embrace the predatory world of 3D to repeat the success of The Witcher or the Assassin’s Creed series (well, not literally repeat it). Of course I know this is not a revolution but a thorough lifting – it’s still the same game with the same mechanics. Nevertheless, it is a change that none of us could imagine 10 years ago and I don’t think it was ever on our wishlist (unlike the marketplace).

…and still won’t be in 3D

And when we opened our minds to the possibility of 3D Taern, we thought it’s just a year or two away. Well, if they were just transferring the content that was available in 2010, maybe we would be now running our beautiful, shiny Trentis and killing the Cross-Spider and Chieftain just to see them die. But it turns out there’s more to Taern than that so we are still waiting more or less patiently with our thirst being quenched from time to time with videos of Broken Ranks.

I am disappointed same as you that it is not out yet and we are still have to wait but my consolation is that it’s worth waiting for. Many browser games, as ambitious or even more ambitious than Taern, that debuted in more or less the same timeframe, are either completely gone or are just surviving without any hope of better times. In the meantime, Taern’s move to the next level may be delayed but it is doing fine. It has expanded to a large extent and there’s no doubt it’ll continue to expand.

It feels good to have been a part of this for the last ten years.

Anniversary events schedule

We would like to give you some opportunities to have more fun, get richer and, for some of you, provide a big dose of nostalgia.

Thursday – 10.12.2020

• • Chance to drop epics will be significantly increased between 2PM to 11PM server time.
  • A short anniversary video showing the changes Taern went through during all these years will be published on to the Whitemoon Youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsqQPOd8pl3-eqJm1RZyZfQ).
  • you will also be able to download a high-resolution wallpaper to make your phones or desktops more Taern-like. A link to it will be published in the news section at the same time as the video.

• There will be 3h of triple XP and 2.5x psychoXP between 7PM and 10PM server time.
• During the extra XP time, I’ll be doing a lottery. The winners will get a special anniversary armor skin. Its name is 10th Anniversary Armor and you can see it here:

Saturday and Sunday – 12-13.12.2020

• We will place portals in Trentis that will take you to the oldest areas of Taern (e.g. old Khold Forest, old Alaril) where you will face various mobs, some of them with a chance to drop items! Active portals will glow blue. The portals will be located in Trentis and near respawn locations.
• We will also enable double XP and 1.5x psychoXP in the evening (3.5h on Saturday and 3.5h on Sunday). The extra XP will be active between 6:30PM to 10PM server time.

Anniversary numbers

10 years is a long time… That’s why here we would like to highlight some characters/account with distinct achievements 😉 Some of our players are really persistent – some account created 10 years ago are still active in the world of Taern. Thank you for staying with us!

First Epics

Epic:	Dropped by:	Owned by:
Gorthdar	Mahone	Kanne
Gorthdar	Ikaku	Tirio
Wurm	Shewolf	Ikaku
Gorthdar	Ikaku	Iceblanc
Lantern of Life	Crazyjade	Shewolf
Attawa	Honeynut	Abraxas
Glow	ForsakenX	Willusmax
Glow	Rzuffi	TryThis
Wurm	Duman	-
Glow	Alluro	Alluro
Allenor	CosmicHippo	Crazyjade
Wurm	Willusmax	Nuky
Kaishi	Anet	Aris
Allenor	Ayanami	Morena
Attawa	Wulfrym	Vixinity
Wurm	Emberglow	Pyromaniac
Wurm	Greaperfm	Greaperfm
Glow	Wonderman	Garionsli

TOP 10 - Active accounts created in 2012-2013

Account creation:	Main character:	Level:
2012-08-07	Bolodaffy	126
2012-07-27	MikeSmith	135
2013-01-02	Killy	129
2012-06-27	Aris	140
2012-08-07	ForsakenX	123
2012-09-15	Krazyk	140
2012-10-01	Tricky	126
2013-03-28	Havok	125
2013-02-10	RedCards	140
2013-01-14	Neqqs	140

There are even more old accounts that are still active. Here’s a full list:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1kkTLn4-yvAVy5dHiKczOY7vzDxegdJq128FGjB3nveo/edit?usp=sharing

Broken Ranks

Here’s a quick rundown of what we’ve been working on during the last month:

1. Corrections and updates for mobs and NPCs, adding NPCs to quests.
2. Shop illustrations Zohar.
3. Guild headquarters: levels 1 and 7 (the highest one) are done, we’re working on level 2.
4. Guild buildings: finished render of cages (models, textures), we’re working on FX.
5. Redesigns, concept arts and renders for: slavers ship – deck, crew quarters, cargo bay (the old versions, needed for the main storyline, proved too small and archaic)



6. New interior: Trentis hospital



7. Quest caves from around the Garrison (reserved list locations)
8. Concept arts of all the corrections needed for the final render of the prologue city.
9. NPC portraits for most of Alaril together with testing the spine technology (animated portraits)
10. We’ve started working on improving the appearance of the effects of skills to make them clearer. Concept arts and corrections for Fire Mage skills to be precise.
11. We’ve started working on finalizing the game interface. At the moment we are working on: gathering, map entrances (you’ll see the name of the map you’re entering), visual indicators of equipment capacity (the system currently implemented in BR didn’t work out), marking quest and task NPCs (NPC icons), improving combat UI
12. Map implementation: corrections, adding FX, water shaders, setting up respawn points (various maps up to Garrison)
13. Transferring quests (main story – episode 1, sidequests in Alaril, Khod Mountains, Khold Forest, Orc Forest)
14. Translating transferred and new quests
15. Expanded toolbox for the dev team to make their work more efficient
16. We’ve started working on sound effects and music
17. Preparation for Taern’s birthday
18. Working on Broken Ranks website

Attention, attention…

December and Taern’s 10th birthday are a great time for some recaps. Especially that it’s the last post of 2020. That’s why, instead of yearly summary, we would like to give you something we’ve been dodging as much as we could. Something you’ve been waiting for impatiently for a long time 🙂

We’ve been informing you about or progress, tests, things we still have to do. It might seem like there’s so much work left and it’ll never end. That’s true, it’s a lot of work. But it’s not endless. The work on Broken Ranks is so advanced that we can more or less precisely estimate the…

DATES!

1. Pre alpha tests are complete. We’re currently playing the Closed Alpha version and finalizing all the content to be able to start Betatesting.
2. Closed Beta stage will begin in March 2021. It’ll consist of several stages. First we’ll invite the veterans Then we’ll invite newer players with a fresh eyes. This is because we want Broken Ranks to reconcile the expectations of both types of players.