Paul Sage ESO Live Interview on MMORPG.com!
P aul Sage took to the forums at MMORPG.com on Wednesday evening for a live interview with fans. And man, there were a LOT of questions asked. A lot of this information is new so this author was soaking it all in. Naturally, this has earned Mr. Paul Sage the much coveted “Huge G Award” from me.
So here it is guys, the ENTIRE interview for your viewing pleasure. And don’t worry, we will be covering this beast on the show this week. Please note that given its length, it has been split into three separate pages, with a link to the next page at the bottom of each section. Enjoy!
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1. There seems to have been a lot of talk lately about whether ESO is a real MMO prompted by some statements you guys made last month about it being playable as a single player experience. I’ve been following the development of the game closely for several months and I don’t see any changes in the design of the game. Can you explain why the shift in emphasis on how you describe the game?
I think this has to do with how we approach development. We were worried that the term MMO had become synonymous with a certain type of game with an almost exact set of rules. That was definitely a perception we felt, even internally. But we really wanted to be true to our IP first, and still have this amazing social game with thousands of players online. When I started on UO [Ultima Online], MMO was a new term and there weren’t limits on it. We don’t dislike the term or the association, we love it. We just want to make sure people aren’t expecting it to be a clone of certain games.
2. How does the mega server actually work as far as intelligently assigning channels? Do we fill out a preference form, or link our Facebook account? Tell us more about the end game, Cyrodiil, and instanced public dungeons. I just wanted to know what’s in store. Right now, it uses data we already know about you. Your in-game friends, your guild associations, etc. We take that and try to put you in a channel of people you most likely want to be with. We talked about doing a form at one time, and we still might, but that isn’t in right now.
That’s a load of questions. Let’s take end-game:
PVE
Solo end-game = what we have internally been calling 50+. Imagine you can go into any alliance after you complete the zones in your original alliance, but there are no longer levels. Now you can go anywhere you want in that alliance. If you finish that, you go onto the third alliance.
Small group end-game: Master dungeons. You’ll go through dungeons which are more difficult to do progressively. Also we have Adventure Zones where there are large swaths of area just for the smaller group. (4 player)
Large group: Adventure Zone instances. While we aren’t calling them “raids” internally, that’s what you might be safest in imagining.
PVP:
Caters to groups of all sizes. But this is Cyrodiil, a huge land mass where you can just adventure solo doing quests, or looking for resources. Maybe you want a strike group to take out farms or mines. Also you have large objectives like keep sieges. The beauty of Cyrodiil is the size allows for lots of different sizes of group activity down to solo. However, we do pinpoint the hotspot on your map for you, which means if a sizeable fight is going on, you will see it dynamically appear on your map.
3: Can PLAYER created guilds have members from all alliances in it?
Yes.
4. Do you have a system in-game that will allow me to play with friends/guild mates even if their lvl is below mine (I mean in PvE). For example like the Mentoring System in Rift where you can adjust your own lvl to play low lvl dungeons/quests with your friend without becoming to powerful for that content or does the area where your in auto-adjust your lvl like in GW2 [Guild Wars 2]? Sorry for any spelling mistake. Greetz from Germany
We do not have anything like that currently in game. We’ve looked into this, and we have some ideas, but I don’t believe it will be in for ship.
5. Thank you very much for being here. I am dying to know more about how player to player trading works in ESO? How will I buy, sell, or trade with other players?
Currently you are able to trade in two very important ways:
Meeting someone and doing the normal, “Hey, let’s swap items.”
You will be able to trade in your Guild Store. This is a really big thing for us, and part of the reason we allow people to join multiple guilds. We think this is pretty exciting and we’ll have more details on the full system later.
6. Will there be some kind of arena (like that in Oblivion) where I can challenge other players or at least NPCs to a duel, with perhaps the option of staking? Thanks for doing this Paul! And nice name by the way (it’s mine too)
All dueling an PvP activity currently takes place in Cyrodiil. We don’t have an arena for it in the PvE areas.
7. Will I be able to leave the starter zone immediately upon starting a new game, or must I complete certain quests before I will be allowed to leave?
We try to make sure you can leave pretty quickly if you would like, but you will likely have to do some things to get out of starter areas.
8. Can we rejoin an alliance we already beat (if I start in Ebonheart then join the queen, can i rejoin Ebonheart for a more difficult play through?)
Right now, you cannot.
9. [Multi part]
Will our equipt gear forced to be our clothing or will we be able to wear anything we want and have the gears only represent stats. I don’t want to be forced to wear pieces of clothing I don’t want, I want to wear custom oufits of my choosing.
Will clothing be like skyrim where an armor set is created for your whole body or will the clothing be seperate for each body part.
The former is too restricting and hinders character customization immensely. Thank you
Right now, we do have costumes in the game and disguises which can be worn over your gear to give you a different look. We also have options for you to take gear you like (stats) and make it look different.
10. Is healing in TESO limited to two paths? You have stated that the 4 classes are just templates and starting point as there are loads of skill trees to follow and shape a character to fit our playing styles. However as a healer, as far as the information has been released, are there only 2 Healing skill paths at launch, The Templars’ healing path, and the Restoration Staff path. Is this not a very limited choice for healers? Either being forced to pick a Templar, or only having the option of one weapon, the Restoration Staff. Will there be any other healing paths that have not been unannounced? Will the Restoration Staff have different atunements, like the Destruction Staff having Fire, Lightning and Frost? As it currently stands, if I was to play either a Sorcerer, Nightblade or Dragon Knight, is the only option I have to be a viable group healer, the Restoration Staff path?
Well, there are two full ‘healing’ paths, that aren’t just healing, but that is their focus. Also, most “healing” classes usually have other skills or abilities. For us, you can determine what those are. I think the openness of the skill system really will allow you to play a very versatile healer.