Serving you a scoop of Elder Scrolls Online beta details

Serving you a scoop of Elder Scrolls Online beta details

So you know that the beta for The Elder Scrolls Online is coming up, right? Of course you do! But what you don’t know are many details about it. Well, slide on up to the counter here and we’ll give you the scoop — with a cherry on top.

Beta events will begin as smaller, scheduled play sessions (usually on weekends) with a limited play window focusing on something specific. Invitations for the first round of public events will start going out at the end of March, with the tests starting shortly thereafter. Events will become more frequent and last longer as launch approaches, and players can receive separate invites for multiple events.

Testers will be selected based on various criteria and all invites will go to the email players used to sign up for the beta. If you haven’t signed up yet, there’s still time! Just head to the official site to fill out the beta application.

Hands-on with The Elder Scrolls Online

The Elder Scrolls Online

“Turn on your monitors, and for the next four hours, enjoy your hands-on with The Elder Scrolls Online.” Last week, that tantalizing phrase kicked off my visit to ZeniMax Online Studios, but those words must have also conjured some ancient time-bending ritual because those 240 minutes flew by in an instant.

The first thing I did was create a character belonging to the Daggerfall Covenant, which means I was allowed to choose from the Breton, Orc, and Redguard races. There are two other alliances (Aldmeri Dominion and Ebonheart Pact) and six other races that weren’t available for this preview (and the Imperials are NPCs). I had to buck my tendency to spend copious amounts of time customizing the minute details of my character in favor of actually getting to the gameplay. I did, however, take a look at some randomly generated characters of the three available races, and the models looked superb.

During class selection, I was given a choice between Dragonknight, Templar, and Sorcerer. The devs let slip that there will be a fourth class at launch called the Nightblade. In the Elder Scrolls Online, your weapon and armor options aren’t restricted by your class. You can build your Sorcerer around using a mix of heavy and medium armor while wielding a greatsword. Or you can run around as a Dragonknight in light armor sporting a restoration staff if that tickles your fancy (and why wouldn’t it?). While your class will determine some of the abilities you acquire, it doesn’t lock you into a particular playstyle or role.

HandsOn With The Elder Scrolls Online

I decided to break stereotypes and roll an Orc Sorcerer named Vir’chuk Urd, and yes, you can choose a first and last name. The customization options were robust and plentiful containing ample numbers of sliders and colors that will entertain us for hours when ESO launches. I appreciated the age slider that allowed me to instantly transform Vir’chuk into the elderly curmudgeon I imagined him to be. I also felt that he must have a penchant for Tamriel’s famous sweetrolls as I happily increased his gut size to the maximum. I would love to have seen the customization options for one of the more bestial races like the Khajiit or Argonians, but I truly can’t complain about ESO’s character creation.

While we weren’t able to see and experience the initial tutorial area that immediately follows character creation, we were given a summary of the events that take place (jump to the next paragraph if you’d like to avoid spoilers): The Daedric Prince of domination, Molag Bal, takes you captive, has you killed, and steals your soul. It’s kind of a bummer, but a man called the Prophet rescues you and helps you escape the Oblivion plane of Coldharbour. Your soulless body emerges from a portal off the shore of Stros M’Kai, where you’re pulled out of the water by a snarky smuggler named Captain Kaleen.

Stros M’Kai, a tropical island off of the coast of Hammerfell, serves as the introductory zone for players who choose the Daggerfall Covenant as their alliance. A port town that shares the name of the island is home to privateers and scoundrels who offer a variety of quests to get you started on your adventures. On Stros M’Kai, you’ll encounter a variety of enemies including assassin beetles, desert wolves, goblins, dwemer spiders, dwemer spheres, and (of course) mudcrabs.

Though ESO employs a traditional questing system — complete with speaking to NPCs, accepting tasks, and turning them in for rewards — you aren’t put on rails that lead you from quest hub to quest hub. There’s a main storyline that you can direct your attention to immediately, or you can put it on the back burner and occupy yourself with myriad side missions. I wandered around outside of the first area for a few minutes to get acquainted with the controls, and within minutes, my quest log looked completely different from the log of the fellow playing next to me, ZAM’s Scott Hawkes.

HandsOn With The Elder Scrolls Online

Each NPC you encounter is fully voiced, which brings life to what would otherwise be unread quest text. Like other Elder Scrolls titles, your conversations with the denizens of Tamriel involve making dialogue choices that blend clues about quest objectives with bits of lore and flavor. Sometimes these choices have a noticeable impact on the story and your interactions with others.

For example, I was given the choice whether to save an evil woman who had been poisoned or to let her die. I chose to save her with some antidote, while Scott thought she should pay the ultimate penalty for her crimes. When we completed the quest, we compared the responses we got from the NPC who poisoned her. Scott was welcomed with open arms, while I was basically called a soft-hearted idiot!

Some choices have an impact that reaches beyond mild sprinklings of flavor text. Captain Kaleen enlists your help in assembling a crew to assist with a major heist she is planning. You’re given the names of three individuals who have special talents that can be useful in such an endeavor. Crafty Larisa wants you to help her rescue some of her captured crewmates in exchange for her assistance. Jakarn needs to be freed from prison before he’ll agree to help you, and Neramo wants you to help him explore an ancient Dwemer ruin.

You can choose to recruit all, some, or none of these characters, and your decision will alter how the heist plays out. Jakarn can steal a key, which makes things a bit easier for you. Neramo can silently deal with a guard who blocks your path, and Crafty Larisa can provide a disguise so you can move around more freely. You can complete the heist on your own, however, giving you the freedom to customize your experience.

The combat system will immediately feel familiar to Elder Scrolls fans. Tapping left click on the mouse will perform a light attack with the weapon you are currently wielding. Holding left-click will charge up a more powerful attack, while right-clicks are used for blocking. As a Sorcerer, I started the game with a destruction staff that spewed spiraling bolts of fire when I attacked with it. During the course of my play session, I also wielded an over-sized greatsword, a one-handed axe, and a slender bow. All of the weapons offered a different style of play, and I thoroughly enjoyed employing them against my enemies.

HandsOn With The Elder Scrolls Online

One bit of feedback that hardcore Elder Scrolls fans have been vocal about is ESO’s lack of hands and weapon animations while the player is zoomed into first-person perspective. Without those animations, these folks say, it wouldn’t feel like an Elder Scrolls game. While I wasn’t able to try it out in my hands-on session, ZeniMax president Matt Firor did tell me that full hand and weapon animations in first-person perspective will be available for launch. We even watched a video in which the feature was demonstrated; it looked incredible.

Since ESO is an MMO, there are some aspects of combat that differ from its single-player predecessors. Double-tapping a direction key will cause your character to dodge and avoid attacks. There’s also an action bar, which is used to slot in various active abilities. The first class ability I selected was Mages’ Fury; it allowed me to call down bolts of lightning from the sky to damage my foes. It was a great finishing move as it did extra damage against enemies with less than 20% health. The second ability I chose was Unstable Familiar in the Daedric Summoning skill line. This allowed me to summon a blue imp pet that was good at scooping up aggro from monsters and making unseemly gurgling noises.

ESO is embracing the more recent MMO trend that pares down your action bar to only a handful of slots. This ability deck-building allows the designers to offer many different skills, so it’s up to the player to determine which ones are actively available. These abilities come from a series of skill lines unlocked by the players as they adventure through Tamriel. I started out with a class, weapon, and armor skill line. Each of those had various trees to select from, and each class has three different tabs in its class skill line.

For my Sorcerer, I could unlock abilities in the Dark Magic, Daedric Summoning, and Storm Calling trees. Armor skills were broken down into light, medium, and heavy paths, while two-handed, hand and shield, dual wield, bow, destruction staff, and restoration staff were the options available to the weapon skill line. I was told that there will be at least 15 different skill lines available in ESO including abilities that are learned for joining either the mage’s or fighter’s guild. The devs also teased that players can unlock a vampire tree in the world skill line, but naturally, they want players to discover how to do this on their own.

I’ll be honest, I’ve played three of the Elder Scrolls games over the years, and while I thoroughly enjoyed them, I was dispassionate when the Elder Scrolls Online was announced. We’ve seen many intellectual properties (from both inside and outside of the gaming world) attempt and fail to make the jump to a compelling MMO offering. It’s become common to regard these projects with a healthy dose of skepticism, but I’m happy to say that for ESO, the proof is in the pudding. I’ve barely scratched the surface of this massive online game world, and I already can’t wait to get my elderly Orcish hands all over it again at PAX East.

 

ZeniMax’s Paul Sage on TESO’s endgame, PvP, and crafting

The Elder Scrolls Online Interview With ZeniMax's Paul Sage

During my hands-on play session with The Elder Scrolls Online at the media event last week, I got a glimpse of the early game experience, and it was delicious. But most MMOs are judged on what awaits players at the max-level endgame, so I sat down with ZeniMax Online Studios creative director Paul Sage to ask about those areas of the game that I didn’t get to see.

Specifically, I asked Sage to describe ZeniMax’s strategy for keeping players occupied once they hit the level cap at 50. His reply included four main activities: questing in enemy alliance zones, four-player dungeons, adventure zones, and the PvP alliance war in Cyrodiil. Read on for all of the details I gleaned from the interview!

In ESO, you choose one of three alliances, each with different zones, quests, and stories to explore. Once you hit level 50, you can choose to journey to another alliance’s territory and experience a more difficult (and rewarding) version of those areas. After you complete the story within in the second alliance, you can travel to the third faction and complete the content there.

According to Sage, this content is the endgame for a solo player or someone who plays with just a friend or two. Since the Elder Scrolls franchise has been a single-player affair up until this point, it’s wise to include scads of content for that audience. It’s also ideal for the player who wants to soak up all of the lore and learn the history of Tamriel 1000 years before the events of Skyrim. With each alliance area containing 120-150 hours of content, there’s a lot of exploring to do.

The endgame for a small group of friends can be the instanced dungeons found in the world. There is a four-player dungeon in each of the game’s 16 zones; most dungeons boast a second level 50 version with a different storyline. Small groups of friends can spend countless hours refining strategies and accruing rewards in the nearly 30 different dungeon experiences ESO will have at launch.

When I asked Sage about raiding, he said that ESO’s adventure zones are designed for larger groups of PvE players. You can actually go into the adventure zones with a small group and accomplish some goals, but there are large areas in these maps dedicated to larger group experiences. There will be some warning when you’re about to trigger one of these encounters (and they may even end up instanced), so a small group won’t suddenly find itself face to face with a Daedric Prince!

The last pillar in ESO’s endgame is the Alliance War, which is designed with the PvP player in mind. Players of all three factions will meet in Cyrodiil (a zone roughly nine times the size of a normal map) to wrestle over keeps, resources, and bragging rights.

The Elder Scrolls Online Interview With ZeniMax's Paul Sage

Obviously, PvP hasn’t been encountered in an Elder Scrolls title before. Sage commented on that by saying, “There’s a real desire in the community to have PvP. It’s just one aspect of taking a game online because it’s great to cooperate and to see how you stack up against other people. Plus it’s not just the rumor of war; it’s actually getting to participate in active battles in that war.”

It’s hard to argue with that logic. I was able to witness a live demonstration of a keep assault in Cyrodiil, and it looked incredible. Trebuchets launched huge boulders at the fortress while defenders scurried along its walls in an attempt to pour boiling oil down upon the manned battering rams. The Q&A team was engaged in a 30v30 skirmish that ran with smooth frame rates, and we got to see the carnage that ensues once a keep wall is breached.

While keep sieges can involve hundreds of players, Sage stressed that there were also activities in the Alliance War geared toward small groups or even solo players. Smaller parties can snipe any enemies that lag behind or wander too far from larger battles. There are also small goals like overtaking enemy farms and mines to secure resources for your alliance.

Since the Elder Scrolls Online employs a megaserver technology that allows the entire population to play together, there was a danger of players encountering unending queues to participate in the three-faction war. ZeniMax’s solution is to split Cyrodiil into persistent instances called campaigns that new characters are assigned to. Campaigns allow the developers to maintain some level of control over the populations engaged in the Alliance War as well as combat faction imbalances.

Sage explained that if the Ebonheart Pact on one particular campaign was struggling a bit, the devs could assign an influx of new characters to that faction to even things out. It’s not a perfect solution as those players may not choose to engage in PvP, but if one side gets too strong, the other two factions can work together to beat it back.

You’ll have some limited ability to transfer to a different campaign, but the details on how that works aren’t yet available. The status of the war in a particular campaign will persist anywhere between three and six months to ensure that hard-fought accomplishments stick around for a while. When I asked Sage whether there will be perks offered to guilds that maintain control of a keep — such as access to vendors, banks, and other conveniences — he merely smiled and teased, “There are reasons to hold a keep for your guild; we’ll reveal more of that as the system gets more robust.”

The Elder Scrolls Online Interview With ZeniMax's Paul Sage

Guild Wars 2 also offers large-scale three-faction PvP with its world vs. world feature, but it’s been plagued since launch by an issue known as culling. Culling causes a delay in when enemy models render on your screen in order to curtail major performance issues when massive numbers of players are on the screen. Guild Wars 2 hopes to remedy this issue in the March game update, but I was curious how this issue is being tackled in ESO.

Sage emphasized that ZeniMax built ESO with the goal to have 200 players on the screen at once without performance issues or culling. He told me that testing on minimum spec machines has proven that it can be done and that ZeniMax is extremely focused on metrics and getting this right. Given studio head Matt Firor’s Dark Age of Camelot pedigree, it’s easy to see the source of that confidence.

Lastly, on the PvP front, I asked what sort of progression system there will be for players who participate in alliance battles. Besides being able to level from 10 to 50 by engaging in PvP in Cyrodiil, players will earn alliance points by completing various objectives. You can spend alliance points on different things, such as gear, and there will be a running total of lifetime alliance points earned, which can be used to show off on leaderboards.

While a three-alliance system works perfectly for ZeniMax’s PvP plans, I was skeptical about its impact on other areas of the game. Part of the reason the megaserver technology was designed is to eliminate issues that always creep up during MMO launches with groups of friends ending up on different servers. Having three separate alliances (each with three different races) shifts the problem from needing to coordinate server choice to which faction are your friends going to be.

I was curious to hear Sage’s take on the impact of three-way PvP, and he agreed that the studio had to make some concessions in order for players to feel a certain allegiance to their faction. We were told during an open Q&A session that communication across factions won’t be permitted. At this point, I started to get nervous about a possible design misstep because splitting your playerbase into thirds can be detrimental when you’re trying to get a group together for any cooperative activity, such as a dungeon run.

The Elder Scrolls Online Interview With ZeniMax's Paul Sage

Sage assuaged most of my fears, however, when he mentioned that once you hit level 50 and decide to play in another alliance’s areas, you’ll be able to play with friends in that faction. So at the endgame, things begin to open up and you can group up, chat, and run dungeons with players of other factions. The one area where things remain separate is, of course, the Alliance War in Cyrodiil.

I wonder, however, whether it’s necessary to segregate the population at all provided folks are in the non-PvP areas. I understand ZeniMax’s desire for players to feel attached to their chosen alliance, but it seems clunky to allow people to cooperate only after they’ve reached max level. Furthermore, the way it sounds, the ability to group up and communicate with other factions is enabled only once you trigger some mechanism that allows you to experience one of the other faction’s stories. Do you need to play through two full alliance stories in order to unlock communication with the third faction’s players? I sure hope that is not the case.

Switching gears, I spoke to Sage about one of the most important aspects of an MMO: the loot! He said the studio is looking at having five different quality levels for items up until level 50, with legendary being the best. He did confirm that there will be gear progression at the endgame in ESO, stating, “The game is going to get more difficult, and the gear is going to get better to match that.”

He then explained that crafting would remain viable at endgame because it’s used to enhance any of the items you find in the world. This approach will certainly make crafting fanatics happy as they throw themselves into the five professions that ESO has to offer: provisioner (cooking), weaponsmith, armorsmith, alchemy, and enchanting. Players will have a limited number of points to use toward crafting disciplines, so they will have to choose whether they will master one trade or become decent in all of them.

To wrap up, I asked Sage the most important question of the entire interview, courtesy of Massively streamteamer Jasmine Hruschak: “How big are the shoulder pads and exactly how many particle effects are coming off of them?” After Sage stopped laughing, he offered up this insightful reply:

“I would say they are just big enough so you don’t take too much damage! The great thing about this is, [players] talk about particle effects quite often, and Elder Scrolls does tend to be a more muted world in a lot of ways. So even we have to look and say, ‘Oh wow, that’s over the top and a little too much. Let’s rein that back in.’ I think the solutions we come up with allow players to stand out and get cool gear, but it’s not all particle effects.”

At the conclusion of the interview, I found myself even more impressed with what the Elder Scrolls Online could bring to the industry. ZeniMax has the delicate task of appealing to both MMO and Elder Scrolls fans, but from what I’ve seen, it’s up for the challenge.

Want to hear more about my experiences at the media event? I also got some hands-on time with an Orc Sorcerer.Heaven forbid this becoming the next WoW people including my self are sick of WoW so if ESO becomes the next WoW then I’m giving up on gaming all together. People don’t want WoW we want Individuality not OMG there’s WoW clone #148. I get that time is money but I really hope they take their time with development and don’t produce a 1/2 finished product that sucks. And as for housing I would love to see it added after they get the core of their game 100% finished and 95% of the bugs ironed out.

TESO’s gameplay and mechanics

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Can’t get enough coverage of The Elder Scrolls Online? Did yesterday’s hands-on and interview with Paul Sage leave you craving more? We’ve got you covered with some in-game video footage and a dash of extra details — narrated by me! — from my recent trip to ZeniMax Online Studios.

Learn about the design philosophy behind ESO as well as some details about synergies, finesse, and character progression. There are also tiny bits of information regarding mounts and vampire skills. Is your curiosity sufficiently piqued? Let me tell you all about it after the break!

Players have to distribute a limited number of points (which they can respec) between health, stamina and magicka. Plus you can only have 2 weapons at a time you can switch between and 5 abilities set with each. Plus you have a limited number of slots for passive abilities. Plus there’s a limited number of equipment slots and equipment can be enchanted with different effects.

You can’t be an uber mage/tank/archer all at the same time. Since you can eventually max everything you can do it at different times by changing your stats, equipment and passives.

Hands-on with TESO, round two

Screenshot -- The Elder Scrolls Online

Last October, I paid a visit to the ZeniMax Online studios in Maryland in order to get some hands-on time with the studio’s upcoming MMO, The Elder Scrolls Online. Well, today at PAX East I got to pay the lands of Tamriel a second visit to see how far the team has come since my first look at the game. Honestly, I was initially dreading writing this because I was sure that I wouldn’t have anything to say that I hadn’t said in my previous review, but thankfully, I was worried for nothing.

The game was hardly recognizable to me because of the sheer amount of attention that’s been given to it since I first played it in its alpha stage last fall. Gone was the functional-but-barebones UI with which I was familiar; it’s been replaced with a sleek, polished interface leaps and bounds above the (notoriously awful) interfaces seen in the single-player entries of the series. On top of that, I got my grubby paws on a different faction, swapping my Dunmer of the Ebonheart Pact for a Breton of the Daggerfall Covenant. After character creation (which, by the way, is insanely detailed with dozens of appearance sliders and customization options), I was dropped into Stros M’Kai, the starting zone for members of the Daggerfall Covenant. From there I was let loose to roam, explore, quest, and fight for a solid two hours.

Let me start by saying that everything I said about the game’s combat system in my previous hands-on still applies. It’s still crisp, responsive, and most of all, fun, which is more than I can say for combat in the single-player TES titles. You won’t find any of Oblivion or Skyrim’s swing, backpedal, swing, backpedal combat here. You have to be on your toes, especially in fights against multiple enemies, unless you want to get your face well-acquainted with the ground. Blocking power-attacks, dodging AoEs, and interrupting enemy abilities are all integral aspects of the game’s combat system, and frankly it just works.

My analysis of the game’s progression and character development system, however, is now null and void. The devs have completely overhauled the previous progression system, and I happen to enjoy the new version exponentially more. In the system’s previous iteration, investing points into the core attributes (Health, Magicka, and Stamina) would unlock a variety of bonuses such as increased run speed and the like. That’s been nixed, and while you still get one point per level to invest in your core attributes, they’re no longer tied to any bonus abilities.

Screenshot -- The Elder Scrolls Online

Here’s how it works: Upon each level up, you’re granted a single attribute point and a single skill-point (skill points can also be earned by completing certain tasks within the game and not just via level-up). The attribute point, as previously mentioned, can be used to boost health, magicka, or stamina. The skill point, however, can be invested into any number of skills that you’ve unlocked. In turn, skills are unlocked through a skill-based progression system. If you want to unlock new two-hander abilities, you simply have to use a two-handed weapon, which will slowly increase your skill level with said weapon (ditto for armor and class-based abilities).

For example, during my demo time, I played as a Breton Sorcerer, and thus I began the game with a destruction staff as my weapon. As I played and began to amass more weaponry, though, I decided I wanted to try for a battlemage style of build, so I swapped out my staff for a big honkin’ two-handed sword. Since my Sorcerer had never used two-handers before, he began with a two-handed skill level of 1. After a few quick fights, his skill increased to level 2, unlocking the cleave ability for purchase. Likewise, you increase your skill level in light/medium/heavy armor by wearing armor of that type. The system provides a great deal of flexibility, and by the time my two hours were up, my Sorcerer had gone from a fireball-shooting, robe-wearing finger-wiggler to a heavily armored battlemage who could interweave powerful arcane magic with devastating sword strikes.

I do have one gripe, though, and it’s that I feel the game’s progression is a bit too slow. Even the gap from first to second level seemed to be a bit tedious, made moreso by the fact that you begin the game with absolutely no abilities, so you’re stuck with basic attacks until you unlock your first skill point at level 2. I don’t think that progression should be fast, necessarily, but as it stands, it takes four or five levels for the game to really pick up steam. For reference, at the end of my two hours I was somewhere in the neighborhood of level 7 or so. I think not starting characters off with a couple of basic skills is a poor decision, and it’s really hard to appreciate just how fun the combat really is when you’ve got only basic attacks and maybe a skill or two at your disposal.

Screenshot -- The Elder Scrolls Online

Another thing that I noticed during this playthrough that somehow didn’t register with me before is just how beautiful the game is. Each new zone brings with it a new and varied aesthetic, and there were more than a few occasions when I simply had to stop and admire the scenery. From
strange, curved Orcish longhouses to massive, towering Redguard fortresses and mysterious ancient ruins, the art style of the game remains true to the source material and brings environments last seen in the old-school Elder Scrolls games (in this case, Daggerfall) to life. The animations, likewise, are fluid and lovely, and overall the game is simply gorgeous. It may not employ the same ultra-realistic style seen in, say, Skyrim, but the balance between stylistic and realistic art is well struck.

As Massively’s Richie noted in his hands-on with the game last week, TESO features certain quests that, if completed (or not completed), will alter your gameplay in the future. For example, the opening questline for Stros M’Kai involved recruiting crewmen for a pirate captain who recently lost her crew to mutiny. You’re given a list of potential candidates, and you have the choice of recruiting one, two, or all of them as you so desire. Depending on how many of them (and which ones) you choose to recruit, there will be some kind of effect in the future. I went through the trouble of recruiting a particularly cheeky rogueish character whom I was sure I would never see again after I got out of the starter zone, but as I was meandering about the second zone, whom do I come across but said cheeky rogue. He proceeded to provide me with a bit of advice and some assistance in my quest, which was very much welcome. I was later informed that if I hadn’t recruited him during my opening questline, he would never have shown up in the second zone. Initially, I thought ths was a brilliant idea, and I guess it still is, but the more I thought about it the more I realized how meaningless it really is (oh, the existentialism).

Look at it this way: TESO is, at its core, a themepark MMO. Sure, it’s set up in such a way that makes the questing feel more organic than rigidly structured, but when it comes right down to it, it still follows the formula of finding a (usually static) questgiver, accepting a quest, completing a quest, turning a quest in. So what does it matter that he wouldn’t show up if I didn’t recruit him? Who wouldn’t? That’s how themepark MMOs work, especially if you’re a completionist (as I am). You follow the questline through the zone until all the quests are done and then you move on to the next area, so there’s really no reason not to recruit said characters, and therefore there’s nothing super special or interesting about the fact that they show up later down the line other than that initial reaction of “Oh, neat.” I think this would be a much more interesting feature if it were tied to some kind of special, out-of-the-way event rather than the main questline that everyone ever is going to complete, but maybe I’m just nitpicking.

Very few games prolong the mmo journey these days.  Instead its a rush to ‘end game’.  It is a hard concept to pull off these days since most people will simply complain the game is a grind because they’re levelling too slow.

I’d love to see some middle ground where there is something meaningful and fun to play at different levels of progression.

Overall, I still think TESO is shaping up to be a solid game that will please fans of The Elder Scrolls’ setting and run-of-the-mill MMO junkies alike. I’m not ready to say that it’s “innovative” or “revolutionary” or anything of the sort, but it seems that ZeniMax is putting enough of a twist on the traditional MMO formula to make the game worth a try whether you’re a fan of the series or not. Now, if we could just get that beta test going…

 

TESO answers more fan questions about combat

Lizard-dogs don't care about game mechanics.  They just like snacking on your face.

How do you keep character skills interesting and relevant when you’ve only got six slots to equip them? According to the latest series of community answers for The Elder Scrolls Online, the key is what kind of abilities are relevant. The skills on those slots are meant to serve as utility rather than raw damage, with your main attacks serving as your primary means of doing damage. Although a few skills will have added damage under certain circumstances, that’s not the overall goal.

Beyond that, the answers also address the issue of charging attacks and moving, which is both allowed and encouraged. Crowd control can be reliably broken out of with Stamina, but if your Stamina bar is low you can be caught and held for a while. You can also rest easy knowing that there will be no ammunition in the game, freeing archers from the tedious process of acquiring arrows at the worst possible time. Check out all of these answers and more in the full rundown.

graphics/sound and prod value will probably be very very good. i hope animations and jumping and camera are ok too. (again, neverwinter is SO bad at this, i would need at least GW2 level, which is not that great, especially on the camera and sometimes jumping on invisible platforms, to be satisfied)

The Elder Scrolls Online answers all your questions

Here's your lore.  There are giant spiders.  Kill them.  What else is relevant?

We’re not kidding about that title. The latest set of answers for The Elder Scrolls Online’s Ask Me Anything is full of lore. Spilling over with lore. Its lore cup runneth over. Do you want to know how old an elf has to be before he’s actually old? 200-300 years is old. Want to know if there will be any Dragonborn running around a la Skyrim? Nope, and shouts are a thing of legend. It’s all the lore you’ve wanted and were clearly not afraid to ask about.

There are some other answers in the mix as well. Players will have to guess about the abilities of their opponents in PvP to some extent, since the armor system will not allow you to guess at abilities by appearance. Players can also expect to find puzzles in the game rather than pure combat encounters, although no details are given. So while you’ll find the most meat if you’re looking for lore, even more system-focused players will find some relevant answers in the full set.

Why cry about it? Seriously, they didn’t have to do anything. But they thought for once that maybe they would do an AUA that was related to lore. Wait for E3 to come out in about a month and then you’ll find more valuable info. If anything, this aua was done for fun, and to appeal to the many TES roleplayers. Yet the fact that they did it, doesn’t effect you in any way…

 

Fictional loyalty in Elder Scrolls Online

Tamriel Infinium Fictional loyalty

On many occasions, my guild members have talked about different aspects of MMOs, MMO culture, and of course, what makes our guild work as well as it does. The simple answer to the last question boils down to common bonds and shared interests, just as with any group of friends, I’d imagine. And when we seriously decided to take this guild we made beyond the borders of just one game, we discovered new hurdles to overcome. Although the roots of my guild extend far beyond one MMO, it kicked off seriously only in Star Wars: The Old Republic and has since extended to Guild Wars 2 and Neverwinter.

Many of my friends have expressed more than a fleeting interest in The Elder Scrolls Online, but faction selection could pose a problem for us. I always liked Imperials in the other Elder Scrolls games. One member wants to relive his Skyrim adventures and play a Nord. And of course, we have that hold-out who will play nothing but elves (or the closest approximation) in whatever game she’s playing. Although I very much want these players to play whichever race they will have the most fun playing, it places the guild as a whole in an interesting position: With so many conflicting loyalties, which direction does the guild head?

The Elder Scrolls Online created a solution within its guilding system. Does the ESO system encourage loyalty to a faction or is factional loyalty just fictional loyalty?

Tamriel Infinium Fictional loyalty

In a recent interview with Buffed.de, Creative Director Paul Sage gave two pieces of seemingly conflicting information. Near the beginning of the interview, he explained that factional loyalty is important to the design of ESO. The game will cut off communication between the three factions, even when level 50 players visit the other realms to experience the quest in an opposing faction area. It has also been explained that a player will be able to create a second (or more) character of an opposing faction from the first. If factional loyalty is important to the feel of the game, then why did he later say that guilds are account-wide and are not limited by faction?

Mind you, I am in favor of accounts being bound to the guild and not individual characters. Although I can’t say that I’ve always been in favor this style of guild creation, I have come to appreciate that guilds are an out-of-character bond between players and not something built on some loose in-character lore or storyline. He mentioned that each account will be able to join up to five different guilds. I’m reminded of the Guild Wars 2 system; I can only assume that in ESO you will be able to represent a given guild at will.

However, if guilds are not bound by faction, then why is communication? Perhaps a player will be able to communicate to his guild no matter which faction he’s currently playing. (If not, then this game has other issues.) Basically, I will be able to visit the territory of The Aldmeri Dominion, but my guildie who is playing a Bosmer will not be able to assist me in any way. What’s the point of the guild being cross faction? I am confused. Maybe you can help me figure it out.

Tamriel Infinium Fictional loyalty

The Imperial Library houses extensive Tamriel lore. Just about anything you’d like to know about the lore of the Elder Scrolls can be found there. This week, the cartography sections caught my eye. The creators of this site have gathered nearly every map imaginable. Above all the others, I was extremely interested in the zone that will be a PvP zone in ESO: Cyrodiil itself.

If the game design works the way it’s been explained, Cyrodiil stands to be the only place you can meet your cross-faction guildies to show off your latest outfit. I can see it now: I’m showing off my latest Nord viking-like look to my Bosmer guildie, who is also showing off the leafy wood elf fashion, then we are suddenly attacked by a group from the Daggerfall Covenant. But we just wanted to compare clothing!

At any rate, beyond the maps, The Imperial Library details each of the major cities in Cyrodiil from the Imperial City to Leyawiin. Each city description is complete with screenshots and descriptions of what you will find where. “Above ground, the gleaming Imperial City is clearly seen from miles. The city is walled in circle shape. Inside the city there are seven districts, Green Emperor Way or the Palace District, Market District, Arena, Arboretum, Talos Plaza, Elven Gardens and Temple District. There are two other smaller walled districts outside the city, Arcane University in the southeast and the Imperial Legion in the northeast. The last district is the harbor, the Imperial Waterfront, in the southwest.” As I read through descriptions like that, I can’t help but wonder how things will be different when it’s a war-torn area. What are your thoughts?

Tamriel Infinium Fictional loyalty

Last week, I asked who will be attracted to the action-style combat that ESO will have. Personally, I enjoy this style. I like Neverwinter for this reason, and those who have followed me for a while know that I love DC Universe Online. Reader Coreymj78 enjoys that type of combat for the same reasons I do. He compared ESO’s combat to Neverwinter’s, saying, “It is truly fun dodging, sprinting, flipping, blocking, teleporting, and also being able to slot certain abilities for specific types of fights. You have many abilities, but can only slot 8 at a time, including your two dailies.”

I agree that getting an immediate, visceral reaction to my mouse clicks and keyboard mashing has its appeal. But at the same time, I can’t discount the other side of the coin. Another reader, Murzerker, wrote last week, “I think in a lite action based game it is fine. However, I do feel that (for me) it is detrimental to my ability to suspend reality. I can’t help but feel like I am playing a game. So for a real MMORPG, I feel that action combat is truly out of place, plus for me it’s exhausting. I feel worn out after playing for an afternoon, yet I can’t remember anything truly exciting about anything I’d done.”

Reader Madrox30 asked a couple of interesting questions regarding a combination of the two systems. “Is there no middle ground to be had? Or is managing a rotation, being mindful of situational CDs, positioning, and dodge mechanics just too much to ask from the skillful PvPer? Just as there was such a thing as too much, there can also be too little, and I fear the industry has too readily embraced the latter.” Maybe he’s right. Why does everything have to be to one extreme or the other? Good food for thought.

This week, I want to know your thoughts about the guild system in ESO. Do you think this will create conflicted loyalties? Maybe communication between factions isn’t necessary because of how your guild plays MMOs. Is this going to be an issue for you and your guild?

This has been a problem I’ve been concerned about. I don’t mind having my characters in two different factions, but I want to be able to group with friends from other factions when in a PvE environment. I don’t see why we have to be cut off from each other.

There has to be a way for them to make it lore friendly and convenient for the players to play as they want. The IP has always been about what the player wants to do without lore stopping them, else my Argonian in Morrowind would be some dunmer’s slave or kept impoverished.

 

The Elder Scrolls Online introduces the scamp

TESO introduces the scamp

The world of Elder Scrolls is filled with colorful, fantastical creatures, and The Elder Scrolls Online is no exception. In the latest edition of Creating ESO, the team at ZeniMax Online details the mischievous and dangerous scamp, a small Daedra who will be familiar to players of Morrowind and Oblivion.

Scamps can cast fire-based spells and have their own special language. And despite their small size, they are menacing foes for Tamriel explorers caught with their defenses down. You can see the scamp in action after the break.

 

The Elder Scrolls Online at Gamescom 2013

The Elder Scrolls Online will be playable on the show floor this year, so read on to get all the details and plan your visit to our booth.

From August 22nd through August 25th, more than 300,000 gaming enthusiasts will travel to Cologne, Germany for Gamescom, and we wouldn’t miss it for the world! We’re bringing dozens of gaming stations to our booth at the show this year, which will be open to all players ages 12 and up.

Our booth will be located in Hall 9.1, Stand A031 B030, and we can’t wait to meet you. If you’re going to stop by, let us know on Twitter—we’d love to hear from you.

Can’t make it out to Gamescom this year? We’ll be sharing the fun on Facebook and Twitter with photos and more from the show floor, and you can expect to see some new interviews and articles from the press. We’ll post a recap on our site after the event, so stay tuned even if you can’t stop by.