3163

if you have an unused code for a monthly sub from a retail box, does it get you anything?

3164

That code is for the game, so yeah, it’s the same as paying $60 for the newer release now.

I suggest purchasing all those 10 quid boxes at the grocery and reselling them, you could make some real money.

3165

Sweet, buying a plane ticket to the UK now! ;-)

Or maybe I will just check my local Target and Microcenter… Also Ebay appears to still have many copies for $20-$40 new.

3166

I just checked and I don’t see anything on eBay below the Kinguin price of $43. The market is efficient, I’m sure someone bought up all the cheaper copies already.

Short of finding old copies at a brick and mortar store (and remember they pulled all of them several months ago, right before they announced B2P) I suggest using Kinguin if you want to play.

3167

Got lucky and picked up a sealed Walmart Exclusive retail copy of ESO that includes cloth map and Explorer’s Pack bonus content from Ebay for $32 shipped. It arrived today, I redeemed the codes successfully and am installing/updating now. $30 was my no-brainer price point for the new unlimited version of the game, so I’m a happy Tamriel camper now.

3168

Is the ‘Tamriel Unlimited’ more of an aspirational title, or do they really have that huge land area in the game already? Do they really have all of Skyrim and Morrowind and all those other land masses within the game?

3169

No, it is not all there–yet.

When you call up the map there are several areas that are not available or filled in, pretty clearly being held for future content.

The Tamriel Unlimited moniker refers to the fact that you get the full game for the purchase and the in game store is used for vanity items / mounts / consumables.

3170

It’s a bit of an apples and oranges comparison. Skyrim is in the game, yes, and it consists of a pair of zones that makes up the L30-45ish content for just one of the three factions. Cyrodiil is also in the game and it makes up the large war area where the AvA battles play out. That being said, it is not nearly so fleshed out and detailed as what you would find in Skyrim, as I’m sure you can imagine.

3171

I’m really enjoying playing this again and just going at my own pace without feeling like I’m not making good use of my sub. One of the biggest changes for me is being able to play on an Euro server (I quit before one was introduced), it’s a pretty dramatic difference in responsiveness and combat fluidity which makes the game a lot more fun. It also seems like pve got a bit easier, I’m now VR2 and I can solo the heroic quests and dolmens of my own lvl, playing a 2h medium armor NB.

3172

My wife and I are really enjoying the game too. This is or first foray into it (we now have 2 characters approaching level 10). So there is an element of shiny and new.

But the combat is engaging, the sparse interface allows us to get immersed in the pretty world and the quests have been easy but different enough to be interesting. Especially when you are asked to make a decision.

We’re playing on the US server because our usual guildies are there (though few currently play) and lag/latency haven’t been an issue. But I wonder how different it would be on an EU server. Is it easy to switch between the 2?

We have lifetime/founder accounts in LOTRO, TSW and no sub GW2. But ESO has got our attention right now.

Wendelius

3173

Well I am about to hit level 15, playing most days, levelling doesnt seem too fast and I am still well under levelled for my quests but i thought i had done everything in the starter zone and only just moved to Grahtwood. Means I have quests for level 19/20 and am only 14 so die alot.

May have to backtrack and see if I have missed something.

For servers you have to install the game for both meaning lots of downloads and space usage. One thing i am enjoying on the euro server is there are people on there at teh same time as me which is nice.

3174

You can check your Achievements tab to see hints on where to find Skyshards. If you’re missing a good chunk, there’s likely content you’ve missed (delves, quests, champion monsters or whatever they’re called, etc). I found ESO rewards exploration a lot more than a typical MMO. You aren’t led from quest hub to quest hub via breadcrumb quests as much as usual.

In my experience, I was never underleveled for the content I was doing, but I really like exploring.

3175

I’ve found that there are a lot of quests that you simply won’t find just doing the main path stuff. You really do have to explore, and if you think you’ve exhausted a region you probably haven’t. One thing to check is if you’ve received the explorer achievement for that zone, and if you haven’t, you’ve missed some area or areas where there might be things to do. Also, just wandering around is really nifty, as sometimes daedra drop from the sky, you find chests of loot, and of course there is lore scattered everywhere. Best MMO ever for just wandering around.

I do find that the balance of leveling, quests, and rewards is often off, but this is not unique to TESO. I usually have my quests yellow, which means the mobs are often just above my level but generally easily dispatched, but the rewards are often one level above me, so it’s a bit frustrating. If the quest is green, the rewards are generally not useful. Some yellow quests have enemies ten levels above me, and even though I can take them, usually with the help of the NPCs that seem to tag along for these sorts of quests, the rewards and especially the drops are, well, ten levels above me. Sort of odd. OTOH, the quests are actually interesting most of the time.

Leveling speed still feels slow, which is not necessarily bad I guess. I’m 30, on my highest character, and progress seems if not sluggish at least quite leisurely. I’m in no hurry, really, but the game is certainly on the slower end of the leveling curve spectrum it seems. I’m enjoying it a lot, though keeping supplied with level-appropriate gear can be challenging, largely because I, um, have never done a single group delve or dungeon or whatever…

3176

I should have tried this instead of Guild Wars 2 I think!

3177

Maybe so! While it’s still a modern MMO, which to me translates to a bland experience at times, I do think that ESO stands out from the pack a bit. It’s a little hard to describe, but it just has a different feel to it. It doesn’t have the themepark feel that most post-WoW MMOs do, I don’t feel like I’m on a slightly camouflaged track that the developers have laid down.

It’s not Skyrim by any stretch, but it’s one of the few MMOs that I can approach in a similar manner, i.e. just roaming around and exploring and taking adventure as it comes. I quite like it, overall.

3178

…and 12 hours later it was ready to play. Seriously. I spent a good hour or so loading the 30GB from the 4 DVDs that shipped with my retail box, then had to let the updater run all night to download the additional 18GB of updated data. I started installing at around 8:30PM last night, and it was finally ready to play at 8:00AM this morning. Killed 40 minutes or so before work creating a character and poking around the starting scenario (Cold Harbor). So far it’s pretty cool, though the lack of a manual or anything that explains why I would want to pick a particular faction, race or class is pretty glaring. Those are three decisions that will be with you for the rest of the game, you’d think they should probably be informed decisions instead of blind ones. I went with Redguard Dragonknight of the Daggerfall faction since I already knew I wanted to play a Redguard, Dragonknight seemed the most warrior-like faction available to me, and I just picked Daggerfall faction at random because I know nothing about any of the factions.

So I’m Slainte Mhath in game. Don’t know what server as it never asked me, so I assume that is handled once I am done with the Cold Harbor intro area? I’ve been popping open all the crates, urns and sacks I can find and looting all the little things inside as I wander around. I killed the sentinel eye, and ended up logging out in front of the warded gate leading to the guy I am supposed to save. Anything in Cold Harbor I should absolutely not miss in terms of loot or side quests?

3179

Nope. Elder Scrolls Online has a really cool Megaserver tech that makes it hard for me to go back to traditional server-based MMO setups. Everyone plays on the same server. Each zone of the game is seamlessly instanced out or merged together based on current population levels.

3180

That was my first impression of a fresh character. Since them I have played my main.

I like the thief system. Its not a whole new game but add something I have always missed from MMO games. The ability to steal stuff from vendors.
Is just fun for me to walk around vendors in the shadows and steal random stuff, or (with luck) some locked chest behind them.

The risk reward is correctly configured, and is sufficient fun… it fits with the game so perfectly that make me wonder why all these other MMO games don’t have this system.

What I don’t like is that theres a limit to how much you can steal in a single day, but I guest it exist to stop botters, perhaps, so maybe is a necessary evil.

3181

You can increase that cap as well, if you spend points on it (as I’m sure you’re already aware of). I think the cap is pretty generous, I haven’t come close to hitting it yet. Of course, I’m not thieving full time either! You can make some good coin off of some of those items.

3182

So many Khajiit alts. This one thinks the limit is often unfortunate …