Elder Scrolls: Online

[Vintage Paw]

That's interesting. You've clearly read a lot more than I have about it. Where do you get most of your news? I've been sticking to the subreddit so far, but I know there's Tamriel Foundry and so on as well.

And yeah, I read around that guy's crafting articles last night - it sounds great. I stumbled across a couple of completely out of the way crafting stations with strange names, I didn't know that's what they meant. There was one on a little wooden platform sheltering in the rocks just off the beach near the coast on the 2nd Aldmeri island... I can't remember what it was called now.

OH. I also found a ghost ship! The ghost skellybones that were patrolling it were way above my level at the time but I was exploring around the coast, saw some ruined bits of wood, got closer, saw it was a shipwreck, and when I got close enough the entire ship appeared in ghost form and it was freaking massive and amazing. I would have loved to have been able to find out what that was all about. Probably one of my favourite moments from the whole beta. It was great.

 

[Epona]

ATTENTION BETA TESTERS.

Just had a change in the client, looks like they'll be testing the EU server soon. Unfortunately this appears to mean a complete reinstall from fresh for those in the EU. *cries*

It might be a good idea to launch your client now, wait for it to automatically change to EU, and click the INSTALL button to re-download everything so that it's ready.

Bugger bugger bugger, took me 36 hours to download everything last time

 

[Epona]

DON'T DO ANYTHING YET!

Actually it looks as though files from the US beta are still in a separate folder, I'm going to try copying them to the EU folder and see what happens, hopefully I'll get a smaller update.

Will let everyone know what happens.

 

[Vintage Paw]

D:

Gawd, what a pain.

I haven't had another email about a test, have you?

We will, apparently, be able to choose whether we play on the EU or US server. I don't know which to pick, to be honest. Lag hasn't been an issue with any US servers I've been on in the past, and I don't expect it to be with this game either. I've previously chosen US servers a lot of the time because I tend to be a bit of a night owl... I think you know this already since we tend to be replying to each others posts at 3 or 4am most of the time. I'd likely have more of a chance of being able to group with people or be social if I was on the US server.

That said, I tend to hunker down and watch netflix after about 1am these days... so might find myself doing most of my gaming in the afternoons and evenings. I suppose it depends on the guilds too, since they will be server-based.

Gah. It's my biggest dilemma. I have a bunch of friends on flickr who it seems are going to be getting the game too. I''ll see what they're doing. Of the ones I've seen so far, I think 1 is in Europe and 1 is in South America, and I'm not sure about any of the others.

What are your thoughts on this, Epona? It would be most wonderful if we were able to keep in touch in game, maybe group up on occasion.

 

[Epona]

THAT DID THE TRICK.

Instructions for EU Beta Testers.

Open the client, wait for it to update (it will freeze for a few minutes). Now in the 'Games' panel you should see "Elder Scrolls Online EU (Beta)" and your Play button has changed to Install.
Click Install so that a new directory is created. Then pause the download and close the client.
Locate your Zenimax Online folder. Within that there should now be 3 folders - Launcher, Elder Scrolls Online, and Elder Scrolls Online EU.
Open the Elder Scrolls Online folder and copy all the subfolders and files into the Elder Scrolls Online EU folder, overwriting when asked.
Launch the client - it will now be verifying files instead of downloading from scratch, then some smaller updates.

Thank goodness for that!

Looks as though they will be testing the EU servers soon!

 

[Epona]

What are your thoughts on this, Epona? It would be most wonderful if we were able to keep in touch in game, maybe group up on occasion.

I have been wondering. Sometimes I play at night and sometimes during the day, depending upon the unpredictable whims of my sleep patterns and insomnia! I didn't have any issues with latency on the US server in the last beta so that's not an issue for me either way.

I'd certainly like to be on the same server as you so that we can occasionally team up for group content and communicate.

 

[Vintage Paw]

I'm glad it's as simple as just copying the game over. That would have been a nightmare. Not just because of the long download time but I don't particularly want 2 versions of such a huge game on my hard drive.

I've let my flickr friends know as well, since some of them will no doubt stumble across this problem soon.

 

[Epona]

Although they have said that they won't be doing a formal open beta, they will be inviting everyone who has ever signed up - I assume this is just in preparation to get us lot on the EU server to give it a good thrashing whenever the next beta test will be.

I'm now wondering if they will be moving our beta accounts across to the EU server or if we'll be sent new login details and have to start from scratch... hmmm.

 

[Vintage Paw]

There has been confirmation that roleplayers will be phased with other roleplayers on the megaserver. There will be a series of checkboxes or options you can pick, presumably in settings, and the game will take that into account as it dynamically phases people into different shards depending on server population in any given zone at any given time. That sounds excellent.

Epona - I think I'm going to pick the EU server. I've spoke to some who have said that pvp showed a fair bit of lag for EU people on the US servers the past few betas. Now, that's not to say it will after launch, but lag matters there, even a few milliseconds. I'm not a pvp-er as a rule, but I also don't want to shut that whole part of the game off to me in case it is something I want to try - and I do at least want to try it since it does sound like a lot of good fun.

 

[Epona]

There has been confirmation that roleplayers will be phased with other roleplayers on the megaserver. There will be a series of checkboxes or options you can pick, presumably in settings, and the game will take that into account as it dynamically phases people into different shards depending on server population in any given zone at any given time. That sounds excellent.

When was the info you saw dated and/or where was it? I ask because this is how they WERE planning to do it, but that idea was ditched a while back now. The advice now is that you'll be placed with people in your guilds, on your friends list, and people you've grouped with before. To the best of my knowledge, the questionnaire is no longer happening, sadly.

Epona - I think I'm going to pick the EU server. I've spoke to some who have said that pvp showed a fair bit of lag for EU people on the US servers the past few betas. Now, that's not to say it will after launch, but lag matters there, even a few milliseconds. I'm not a pvp-er as a rule, but I also don't want to shut that whole part of the game off to me in case it is something I want to try - and I do at least want to try it since it does sound like a lot of good fun.

Cool, EU it is. Makes sense, just because I've not had issues on the US server so far, doesn't mean that will still be the case come launch!

 

[Vintage Paw]

They tweeted it earlier today, I saw a picture of the tweet on the subreddit (r/elderscrollsonline - definitely worth watching because they are dredging everything for news).


http://www.reddit.com/r/elderscroll...layers_get_phazed_together_on_the_megaserver/

 

[Epona]

They tweeted it earlier today, I saw a picture of the tweet on the subreddit (r/elderscrollsonline - definitely worth watching because they are dredging everything for news).


http://www.reddit.com/r/elderscroll...layers_get_phazed_together_on_the_megaserver/

Oh excellent! Thanks for that, I knew they said it some time ago, then said they weren't doing it - a lot of people (mostly the RP crowd) were complaining about that, because naturally if you RP you want to be placed with other RPers for the best experience - so that's really good news

 

[Vintage Paw]

THE NDA HAS LIFTED.

I repeat: THE NDA HAS LIFTED.

 

[Vintage Paw]

INCOMING...

A certain daedric place:

Part of the Aldmeri Dominion's starting location:

Pretty water:

Gorgeous lighting (seriously, the light is lovely in the game):

More nice lighting, plus some armour (medium) and my favourite hairstyle:

 

[Vintage Paw]

http://esohead.com/

Skill calculator, crafting simulator, maps, and more.

 

[Epona]

Finally!!!!

I have spent weeks restraining myself, now NDA is lifted I can't think what to say. I'll have a bit of a think about it and post a little beta review tonight or tomorrow (been out all day across the other side of England at niece's birthday party and have just got back so am a bit knackered right now).

 

[Yata]

so how much of the game is instanced?

 

[Yata]

Nice :O

 

[Vintage Paw]

so how much of the game is instanced?

It's one massive megaserver, and you are phased into shards. There have been issues in beta that if you are grouped with others and you enter a public dungeon area sometimes they'll be invisible because the game has phased you all into different shards. I expect this is something they are working hard on to get right.

The - I think - 16 private dungeons are all obviously group instances. There are a few solo instances when it comes to main quest content, but a great deal goes on outside or in public areas. There's currently no mechanism for people you're grouped with to enter your solo instances. And I think they are still trying to balance how many people are phased into the actual public dungeons that are scattered around (the last beta there were too many being let in at once it seems).

http://tamrielfoundry.com/2014/02/eso-isariis-comprehensive-review/ <-- this is the first really comprehensive review I've seen. It covers most things.

And yeah, there are some great pvp videos coming out. I've never been a pvper but this - I am absolutely going to be trying this out. Without a doubt.

 

[Epona]

ESO Beta Review - the perspective of a long-time TES fan who has always hated multiplayer - a review for the fans of Single Player TES games. What to expect, and why you should try it (or maybe decide that it's not for you).

I must first explain that I am not an MMO player. Before taking the game out for a spin I was extremely dubious about one of my favourite franchises being given the multiplayer treatment, and thought I would probably not be interested. How wrong I was!

Here is a mini-review, based on my experiences playing the beta for around 80 hours over 2 weekends. I will not go into bugs as it is a beta build (and I have it on good authority that there is a smaller full-time test group who are still under NDA for post-lvl 15 content, playing on a newer build, looking for bugs throughout the game, the stress tests that I am involved in have likely been conducted on a slightly older build as far as I know) so to go into detail about bugs which have likely already been sorted out is not the point here.

Also it is important to note that the build used for stress-testing confines the testers to low level zones and PvP (which is restricted to Cyrodil - I say restricted, but it is of comparable size to the size of the province in Oblivion, so a vast area). I have not yet tried PvP so don't expect a review of that here - even if I had tried it, with no other MMO experience I would not be able to give any useful comparisons or write up beyond the vaguest opinion - although other players who have tried it compare it to DAoC PvP which is not surprising, given that some of the developers of that game are heading development of ESO.

There are some MINOR spoilers here, so I'm putting it in tags. (Edit: had to do it in 4 parts because of forum word limit - my "mini-review" became less "mini" than I expected.)

And yes I am biased - started off hating the idea of the game, not particularly liking the game for the first few hours I played it, got drawn in, now happily budgeting for my £8.99 a month sub. This is not an objective review, and I am not pretending any different. This is a write up of the things I liked and disliked about the game - my viewpoint, entirely subjective.

Part One (Exploration, Questing/Story)

Spoiler

Exploration

First thing to get out of the way, is that the starter area (Coldharbour and "Starter Island" for each alliance) is small and you have to advance the main quest in order to reach the mainland. There is some exploration to be had, crafting materials to be gathered, mobs to be killed, and certainly on one faction starter island that I put some time into, several side quests off the beaten path. However, the start of the game is fairly weak in this regard, especially if you are a TES fan. Worth sticking with however. Yes the game takes place in levelled zones.

Yes, once you're off starter island, you can go wherever the fuck you like within the available alliance areas (once you're out of the starting islands, the only impediment to your exploration is loading screens between zones, and higher level mobs than you can cope with), just expect to get your arse handed to you when you run into something above your level, because there's no level scaling. This is a plus for me -there is nothing stopping you from doing it, but if you are a low level expect it to be difficult and try to avoid enemies.

Other alliance territories are off-limits until you hit level 50 (and I suspect complete the MQ up to a certain point), then you can travel to another alliance area and complete 'veteran' versions of those quests and dungeons and explore to your hearts content. Then you can visit the third alliance territory. So it will be possible to explore the entire of the available territories with one character.

Can I also just say "Treasure Maps"

Questing/Story/NPCs/NPC Guilds

Again, this is weak at the start. The typical TES 'prison escape' intro is present and correct, but failed to grab me (although at this point the game is lacking an opening cinematic, which may help to instil a sense of drama, there is just a placeholder graphic in the build we are testing on). But my initial thoughts were "this doesn't seem very TES" and overall left me feeling a bit dubious about the game.

The start sequence introduces you to the basic mechanics of inventory, journal, map, combat, and levelling, and mercifully can be rushed through in around 10 minutes once you know what you're doing - getting the hang of the controls will not be difficult for TES fans used to mouse controlled camera and movement.

Similarly, Starter Island feels very on the rails in terms of questing with some handholding and a sense of urgency to get through the MQ. As I mentioned, you can go off the beaten track and find a few side quests and interesting things, but the start is a weak point in the game for TES fans.

Once on the mainland, how it all changes for the better! Side quests all over the place, NPCs become more interesting and you start to become invested in them and the stories they present, the quests become more interesting and varied with different ways to complete (using a disguise to infiltrate vs. all out combat; enslave an undead army or free them from their torment) and quest choices that meaningfully affect the world. Even the sidequests made me feel invested, at no point did I find myself on any "collect 10 bear pelts" without any real good story reason type of collection/kill quest.

The writing is really good and the quests are interesting, up there with the best quests that TES has to offer, and IMO often surpassing them.

 

[Epona]

Part Two (Lore, Skills, Classes)

Spoiler

Lore

THIS IS TES. Yes I was disappointed when it was announced that Cyrodil was not going to be a jungle (and I'd have had far more respect for the devs if they'd just said "look, a jungle is not going to work for the type of PvP we have planned, so we're doing it as it was in Oblivion for Gameplay Reasons" rather than trying to fluff it by a dubious retcon. Same with fractal crystalline Altmer buildings.) And the alliances didn't seem to make much sense.

HOWEVER I take it all back - rather than riding roughshod over lore, we have a world utterly dripping with TES Lore, strongly permeating every byte and pixel of the game, the alliances and their quests are full of tension within the alliances (in one quest for the Ebonheart Pact I attempted to deal with a Dunmer who refused to allow an Argonian whom he considered a slave-race to heal the townsfolk, and later on there are quests involving Dres slavers who refuse to support the alliance. In the Daggerfall Covenant there were quests involving tensions and choices to make between Orsimer, Redguard, and Breton. And yes, it is your choice how to deal with these issues.) So do not think that these alliances are accepted without issue - tensions form a major part of the game and it is really well thought-out and implemented into everything from NPC chatter, to quests, to new written lore appropriate to the period and setting.

Which bring us to books - what good would a game in a TES setting be without books to read? Plenty available, from old classics that pre-date the era of the game, to new writings, missives, documents, all very well thought out and adding a ton of that old TES lore magic.

Even in terms of food recipes, there are local ingredients and recipes that are lore-correct or fit in neatly with existing lore - including plenty of options for Bosmer who probably have the most restrictive diet of any TES race, I was very happy to find myself making brews of fermented meat and cooking up insects to enhance my combat stats. Rotmeth FTW!

Skills

Skills work differently than in TES games, in order to make a balanced MMO experience. This is probably the biggest area of difference, although some TES mechanics (skill increase with use) have been included. Certainly if you are used to skill increases from TES, and XP-based levelling and spending skill points on abilities in other types of RPG games, this won't seem too alien, it's neither one nor the other but a mesh of the two styles.

Basically, whenever you complete a quest, find a new location through exploration, or kill a mob, you gain XP. You gain levels and 1 skillpoint per level by accruing XP. You also increase the level of the skills you use regularly. You can then use your skillpoints to buy new abilities on your skill trees, or to morph existing ones into something better. You can also gain additional skill points as quest rewards or by finding Skyshards which are hidden around Tamriel.

So it's a fairly sensible mix of TES-style "increase by use" skill progression, and other RPG style "gain XP and spend points to increase attributes and buy skills and abilities". IMO, it works rather well.

There are also skill trees that you can gain and level by joining Fighters Guild/Mages Guild/Undaunted (and although I don't think they will be in for launch, Thieves guild and Dark Brotherhood will be added later.) And vampire and werewolf skill trees too.

Classes

Following on from skills, it is natural to talk about classes in the game. Classes are of course not a new thing to TES, but in games pre-Skyrim were determined by either preset or custom Major/Minor skills which would level quicker than other skills. Zenimax have strongly hinted that they included classes to provide comfort and a frame of reference for the MMO crowd. In practice, they are extremely flexible. You choose a class at the start but it doesn't limit you to a certain playstyle. Each class has 3 skill trees (which given the number of skills in the game is fairly minor) and has a set of skills that cover all sorts of abilities.

However, any class can pretty much do anything, just some can do certain things a little bit better than others, or in a slightly different way. View it as a set of additional abilities on top of the base, rather than a restriction, and you're thinking along the right lines.

As an example, the Nightblade skill lines are additional abilities that can be used to improve stealth (Shadow), damage enemies whilst restoring yourself (Siphoning), and fast DPS type attacks (Assassin). But these are on top of the basic weapons and armour skills (and everyone can do stealth, just that there are improvements to it in the Nightblade class), so you can mix it up with light armour and a flame (or other destruction) staff/restoration staff to be a stealth mage, medium armour with dual daggers (or any other dual 1 hand weapon combo) and a bow to be a more typical rogue, or heavy armour and sword/shield to be more of an evasion tank. Or pretty much any other combination you can think of. There is no class restriction on the weapons or armour you can use.

This extremely flexible class system is immense and allows for some unusual combinations of skills, and some of the headaches it is causing to Min/Max hardcore MMO gamers is somewhat amusing to watch, as they attempt to pick a 'best tank build' or 'best healer build' from amongst the vast mix. I think for some, the flexibility is going to cause a rethink on their usual play style. For TES players it may seem more restrictive on paper, but it's just "a small bit of extra stuff that different classes can do" rather than being tied into a particular role from start to end. I like it.

 

[Epona]

Part Three (Combat, Loot, Grouping/Instances)

Spoiler

Combat

Combat at the start of the game is not particularly interesting or diverse (it can be said that in most aspects the first few hours of the game are fairly flat, Zenimax fell flat on their face with getting you quickly into the heart and soul of the game in pretty much every regard) - run around, kill a few wolves, kill a few hostile NPCs, use the one ability that you spent your first skillpoint on.

My god it gets really good. A few skill levels and skillpoints later and you're meeting mobs that use similar skills and work together with really pretty good AI to rip your head off. There are definite difficulty spikes - standard mobs become easier to deal with as it should be, then you'll run into something that makes you wonder what the fuck you are doing wrong. Can I just say "Gutstripper". Some of the boss encounters are enough to raise your adrenalin to levels you haven't seen in gaming for a while and make you really think and strategise about what abilities to slot on your hotbar, what buffs you need for preparation - which is absolutely superb if you get bored with easy games and little challenge. Sure overground most mobs of an appropriate level won't impede your exploration (which is important) but then you'll really have to think about tackling some nasties.

About the hotbars and combat mechanics - combat skills are light/fast attack (LMB), strong/slow attack (Hold LMB), block (RMB), interrupt (LMB+RMB), dodge (double tap direction key). Q button is for a potion, then 1-5 for active abilities from your skill trees, and R for an "ultimate" skill. At level 15 you unlock weapon swap which gives another bar of 1-5 plus Ultimate. Yes there has been plenty of whining from MMO players that want 150 skills on their hotbar at all times and are used to playing Rachmaninov on their keyboard during boss fights. ESO doesn't work like that, and it ain't going to change. Select a few skills that you want active at any one time, swap them out for other things if need arises. Switch weapons (weapon 2 can be the same type as weapon 1) in combat - it's pretty much instant - to access the second hotbar.

As in single player TES games, your resources are Health, Stamina, and Magicka - different attacks and combat moves draw on either stamina or magicka, there's no cooldown or anything, but you are unlikely to be able to spam an attack or have a fixed rotation of attacks, because you're going to run out of resources. The intention is that every character, every class, should be involved in combat when in a group, and that every character should be at least partly responsible for their own survival.

Note to TES players: There is no collision detection between player characters, or between players and NPCs/mobs. This is to enable up to 200 players on screen at a time without affecting performance, and to prevent complete bastards from blocking a doorway to a quest objective for shits and giggles. It takes a little adjustment to get used to but makes sense for the reasons given. Also combat at the moment feels a little unimpactful, this can easily be remedied by the implementation of small 'on hit' animations and vocal sound effects - good news, the devs in their latest "Ask Us Anything" say that they have noted feedback on this aspect of combat and will do something to improve it.

Loot

This is possibly one of the hardest concessions to multiplayer for TES fans to get to grips with. You cannot kill an enemy and get his/her complete armour/weapons kit for yourself. You will likely get at most a small gold reward, and for around 10% of kills, a single weapon or piece of armour if you're lucky.
It's quite simple to explain, and that is the player economy. Unlike a single player game you cannot be allowed to become the wealthiest person in the world with every daedric artefact in your personal arsenal, because there are other players around. There is an economy and there is trade. There is crafting (which we will come to later), and it's easy enough to craft your own basic kit, but there will be players who get their main fun from putting a load of time into crafting and selling their high-end gear to other players.

So - if you kill an enemy NPC, you will not get all his/her amour and weapons. If you see a weapon rack, or a weapon on a table, it is probably just for decoration. Having said that, the game is very rich in lootable containers - barrels, crates, urns, pickable locked chests etc. But don't expect tons of armour or weapons (they are supposed to be rare and it's therefore exciting when you find something good!) but there is plenty of stuff to loot.

Lockpicking is a mini-game that is not hard, but is on a timer. Enemy loot and XP is instanced so there's no such thing as kill-stealing - if you join in a fight and do a significant amount of damage to an enemy you will get your own loot and XP.

Grouping/Instancing

The MQ is designed to be solo-able. Some parts of the MQ you can do with friends who are on the same stage of the quest as you, if not you will be phased into different instances to complete different stages of the quest. If you are on the same stage, you will each have to perform each part of the quest and individually speak to quest givers. Some parts of the MQ you are in a solo instance. This is because the MQ is designed to be done solo. Although it won't be in at launch, the devs have stated that they intend to introduce a mentoring system so that you can go back and redo previous completed quest content with friends.

There are some questlines (such as the NPC guild "The Undaunted") completely designed around 4 player dungeons. Some quests you can share. There are public dungeons. There are overland boss encounters designed for groups. There are Dark Anchors which are designed to be tackled by multiple players at a time.

There is little detail about endgame content at this point, but 12 person 'adventure zone' dungeons have been mentioned.

But yeah if you want to solo there is plenty of solo content (although much of the time there will be other players visible and helping each other out even if not formally grouped), if you want to group there is plenty of group content, but sometimes on the MQ you won't be able to group.

 

[Epona]

Part Four (Crafting, Graphics & Art, Summary)

Spoiler

Crafting

I think I already talked about crafting earlier, because I fucking LOVE it. 6 professions -Blacksmith, Woodworking, Clothier, Alchemy, Enchanting, Provisioning (cooking).

Really in-depth and well thought out, everyone will be able to craft their own basic kit but later in the game dedicated crafters are going to find that their skills are in demand, because to become really good you have to put in a ton of time and effort and spend some skill points on it - it's a really good balance of "everyone will want to give it a go and find it useful, but not everyone will want to concentrate on it".

Special set crafting areas FTW. Just one example of how exploration IS rewarded, and rewarded well in this game.

Graphics & Art

There's little to say about this that can't be said with a screenshot or 20, unfortunately I have not yet taken any screenshots. Vintage Paw posted some earlier in the thread, and expect more from both of us after the next beta (or even better, sign up for beta yourself and experience the game - just remember when you start that the first few hours are not a good advert for the rest of the game).

It's not modded Skyrim, nor can we expect it to be to allow so many players on screen at a time and to accommodate older PCs. But it is pretty - the lighting is lovely, the water is lovely, the spell effects are lovely, etc etc. It's just a really nice looking game, and really well optimised to run on older kit even whilst still in Beta.

In terms of art style it is very true to TES - there's nothing cartoony here and no "anime swords". In fact in terms of art style, it reminds me most of Morrowind (with better graphics). It's not as oversaturated as Oblivion, and not as desaturated as Skyrim. It's not photo-realistic, but it's not cartoony. It just looks really nice and atmospheric, and very very TES.

I should also mention that the music is great - very evocative, and very TES.

Brief summary

There is something about the game that (at least in terms of atmosphere and lore) reminds me more of Morrowind than any other TES game. There are some obvious concessions to multiplayer - in terms of allowing a large number of players on screen at the same time, game economy, areas designed for certain levels (although mostly you can try to explore them regardless, on your own head be it) and balance - but if as a TES player you can live with a few changes for a persistent multiplayer world, then you might find something you really like. I certainly did.

The beginning is weak for TES players, but if you persist beyond the first few hours you will be rewarded.

There won't be a formal open beta, but Zenimax have said they will have a few more large-scale closed betas where everyone who has signed up will be invited, and they will have large giveaways of beta keys - so if you want to try it out, there is no excuse not to.

 

[Vintage Paw]

Great review Epona - your experiences gel pretty much with my own. I've played MMOs before so wasn't quite coming at it from the absolute TES fan point of view that I've seen a lot of people having some issues with, and I didn't expect it to be like Skryim or other TES titles at all, really. I don't think I had any preconceptions at all, which stood me in good stead.

I agree absolutely about the first few hours. It's definitely the weakest part of the game, and might do them some real damage in terms of box sales and subs. I'd hope, however, that if someone has gone as far as to buy the game they'll give it a few more hours than those first 6 levels or so to see how it pans out.

I hadn't heard about their plans for mentoring. I'm very, very pleased to hear that, and interested to see how it will work. It's one thing I was worried about in the long term for the game. The way their phasing works on the megaserver means that once you've completed a quest you're stuck in a shard where that quest has been completed, so there's no going back to help out someone who hasn't done it yet. On the one hand, it works really, really nicely for individuals being immersed. There's one quest where I stumbled into a village that was under the rule of some dodgy military types, being razed to the ground, etc. I had to help save the village and drive the soldiers out. After I had done so, the village changed, now under the control of Dominion soldiers and with the villagers rebuilding it. There's no way I could go back to its earlier state to help someone else put down the invasion. For me, the world was permanently changed because of my intervention - amazing for immersion, worrying for cooperative play. I worry about what it will be like in some areas a few months down the line when people have spread out more. If you start a new character, there's a decent possibility you'll be the only one in an area because others are more advanced than you and while they are still in the same area they are phased to a more advanced part of the quests/island/area. They'll have to address that, because it could break the game for new players in particular, and an MMO depends on a steady trickle of new players to supplement and replace fatigued players down the line.

And yes, Gutsplitter. I only died the once, but if I hadn't had my siphoning skill I'm sure I would have died again. (Although I'm eyeing up a bow-wielding Breton templar for one character, which I think would be pretty sweet - plus heals... heals... lots of heals). Also, the quest with Veil in the title - I can't remember it's full name. A solo dungeon instance, 3 evil bosses at the end. 2 of them come at you at once. Oh. Dear. Lord. Again, I only died the once, but I only survived the second time by running the fuck away and regenning a bit of health and magicka and stamina in the process.

 

[Vintage Paw]

Are you going to be venturing into pvp, epona? This is the first game where I'm going to. It looks brilliant.

Anyone else here thinking about getting the game?

 

[Buddy Bradley]

Anyone else here thinking about getting the game?

I wasn't, since I burned out on WoW (and subsequently Warhammer, LotRO, Eve Online, Defiance, plus a few others) but Epona's review now has me thinking I might give it a go. Dammit. Still waiting for the ESO Mac beta, since Bootcamp OS switching is one thing that puts me off buying Skyrim on PC.

 

[ffsear]

INCOMING...

A certain daedric place:

Part of the Aldmeri Dominion's starting location:

Pretty water:

Gorgeous lighting (seriously, the light is lovely in the game):

More nice lighting, plus some armour (medium) and my favourite hairstyle:

what are your system stats?

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

I'm still torn. Still don't know if I can justify a subscription.

 

[Vintage Paw]

I wasn't, since I burned out on WoW (and subsequently Warhammer, LotRO, Eve Online, Defiance, plus a few others) but Epona's review now has me thinking I might give it a go. Dammit. Still waiting for the ESO Mac beta, since Bootcamp OS switching is one thing that puts me off buying Skyrim on PC.

People have been playing the Mac beta already, it's releasing at the same time as the PC version. Response seems to be good, it's not a wine port or anything like that, it's native, and apparently runs like a dream.

This may be of use to you:

http://www.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/1y1v9b/mac_players_megathread/

 

[Buddy Bradley]

People have been playing the Mac beta already, it's releasing at the same time as the PC version. Response seems to be good, it's not a wine port or anything like that, it's native, and apparently runs like a dream.

Cool - I registered for the Mac beta, guess I wasn't interesting enough for them to include.