3704

I’m fine with whatever ES6 turns out to be taking a long time. ESO is awesome anyways.

3705

I suspect they’ve hit on a good revenue stream with the Crown Store in ESO, and I also suspect that the massive popularity of Skyrim didn’t necessarily translate directly into huge megabucks for Bethesda/Zenimax, given discounting and the like. Also, massive single player games that are sustained by free mods for years don’t generate long-term revenue like even a F2P MMO with mostly cosmetic cash transactions, I’m betting.

That being said, I too would love a Skyrim sequel, of course. I also am loving ESO, but yeah, it’s not quite the same thing, particularly in the loot/upgrade realm, where I find a lot of fun in single-player games. In a single-player Elder Scrolls game, half the fun is becoming nigh-on godlike and crafting the uberest of uberest stuff. In ESO, you can kinda-sorta do that on your own, but the hivemind-regarded best stuff is only really available via Cyrodil (PvP) or group content. And even then, to get the really cool looking stuff you have to be or pay a crafter who has ground out all the traits and collected all the motifs you want. Similar to how you’d do it in the single-player realm, but a hell of a lot more time consuming, and thus in some ways less interesting.

And of course the story in a single player game is, if not exactly high literature, often interesting enough and coherent enough to keep one ear and eye on. In ESO, it’s fairly disposable and after you start your umpteenth character in the different factions, totally repetitive and of course, being an MMO, on rails towards the same Groundhog Day denouement in general. But that in turn sort of allows you more freedom to just explore and do stuff your own way, just as you could ignore the main quest pretty much in Skyrim, though the latter had the inestimable benefit of not having the freakin’ old geezer creepy stalker Prophet at least.

I am curious how One Tamriel will affect ESO, though. Interalliance grouping will be great for PvE, but what will it do to Cyrodil, I wonder, as I’m pretty sure you will still be alliance-restricted there. Seems it will be an odd dynamic. And others have raised issues about being able to move around the world at will and its effects on PvE questing, harvesting, and of course the economy. I’m sure it’ll be interesting though.

But a single-player experience set in, oh, Breton High Rock or Redguard Alik’r…that would be interesting.

3706

Update 12 is getting set to hit the PTS in a week or two. It doesn’t look like it actually has a purchasable DLC but instead is a huge base game enhancement. 17 new monster mask sets and 30 new zone specific sets PLUS One Tamriel. dueling too. Interesting times in Tamriel.

3707

This is the one MMO I’m actually tempted to give another shot. If I remember right as long as I pick a different faction I get different starting quests, right?

3708

Yes, each faction has a unique quest line but they all end up with you taking on Molag Bal in the end.The guild quests are all the same. With the upcoming One Tamriel you won’t really be gated off from any faction/zone quests. You will probably have to finish your own faction quest line to get to Molag Ball/Coldharbour but instead of having Silver and Gold Caldwells you can just go to those zones anytime you want. At least that’s my guess. Concrete details are still to be released.

3709

I didn’t make it too far in my first attempt. I’m guessing I was less than level 10. I think last time I joined whatever faction people said was the one most people join. Is any particular faction ore fun than the others?

3710

Honestly there isn’t a whole lot of difference. I chose Ebonheart pact because I liked Morrowind so much back in the day. The landscapes do differ though. Ebonheart pact starts out with Stonefalls which has a little volcanic activity and those fun giant toadstools. Aldemari Dominion is more pastoral and has a sexy Queen voiced by Kate Beckinsale :) Daggerfall Alliance has a nice desert zone called Alki’r and I thought Rivenspire was pretty cool.

The biggest factor is for pvp as it locks you into one of the sides. All I have to say about that is “Blood For The Pact!”

3711

All new characters get the choice of going through the tutorial bit in Coldharbor, that sets up the main story line. It’s worth doing, if only because you can loot tons of stuff that is either useful (you can start and work on different armor and weapon skill lines, for instance, or use to craft with later) or lucrative (minor gold gains from selling), and you get a feel for combat if you’re rusty. When you leave Coldharbor, or if you skip it, you start on what is in effect a newbie island, with some basic gear, a couple of levels, and a few skill points to spend.

By the time you leave a faction’s newbie land, you’ll be around level seven or so, give or take. That’s when you end up in Stonefalls, Glenumbra, or Auridon, depending on your faction, and begin the real trek towards putting Molag Bal in his place.

I like each of the story lines, really, for what they are. It gets confusing because if you have the Adventurer Pack or whatever the pre-order/buy in the store thing is called, if allows you to be any race in any alliance, while the story presupposes fixed racial/alliance groupings to some extent. So you’ll here your race disparaged by your allies because, technically, you’re supposed to be on the other side. Minor stuff of no real import to seasoned MMO players, but RPers might be annoyed.

Be advised that, until One Tamriel arrives at least, you can only group with people in your own alliance for most non-trial/pledge type content.

3712

I fully intend to play the least appropriate race for every pact. Just to be contrary.

3713

I ended up doing pretty much that by accident. Sadly, the game really doesn’t take any notice of it.

3714

I thought they did an decent job of recognizing your character and your past actions. For example, as a redguard in Alikir, they add a line to the effect of “you may be redguard, but you’re not from around here…” I can also think of a few instances where if you do quests out of turn, characters you should have met earlier would say “You don’t know me, but I’ve heard of you, I’m…” It’s about as much as I can expect from an MMO.

Of course, I expect One Tamriel will break their flowcharts into a million pieces. Speaking of which, One Tamriel’s going live on PTS next week. Having come from The Secret World as my only other MMO, I’m constantly amazed at how quickly they are able to push content out.

3715

Oh, yeah, there are flashes of coolness, if not brilliance. Each acknowledgement of your heroism is balanced, though, by a generic bark about the guard’s job being suspicion or telling you to watch it. I agree, it’s about as much as we can expect.

3716

Update 12 is going to be a huge base game addition. I’m wondering if there is a DLC associated with it that they have been keeping under wraps?

3717

Probably the long awaited horse armor.

3718

They probably hope to make money this update with the new gamble boxes. I don’t really care as long as it’s just cosmetics/non-optimal consumables though.

3719

I’ve been spending quite a bit of time in Azura’s Star lately. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in PvP.

  1. There’s zero lag.
  2. Without CP, it’s harder to be ganked in one salvo, also you don’t run into those ridiculous fights that go on forever.
  3. There’s zero lag.

Which campaign do you play on, @Vic_Davis?

3720

Yeah, I doubt it’ll have much game impact, if it’s just stuff that’s already in the store anyhow.

3721

I play for EP on Trueflame NA PC. I’m hesitant to give my character name because a lot of people don’t like me. Well I used to really be hated but since my playtime has dropped off a bit this last year probably not as much. But better safe than sorry. :)

Man, the number of new sets for this next update is amazing. I am going to have to spend some time thinking about what sets I want to try and combine and then go grind a bit to get them. So far it doesn’t look that bad since they pretty much tell you where each piece type drops and which zones to got to.

3722

Heh, you’re that notorious of a ganker eh? :) How do you find your magblade these days? Ever tempted to switch to stam? ;)

I glanced through the new sets, none of the new 5 pieces really caught my attention (too many of the "buff one stat/one damage type variety), but some of the new monster helms look neat. The one that automatically pulls ranged attackers in particular.

Anyone else plays PvP on Qt3?

3723

Hehe, not a kerviz level of hate and I think I’m more annoying than hated but the lines blur :)

I still play my magblade the exact same way as I did my pre 1.6 character…basically melee from stealth which nowadays means prep with crippling grasp, invis + concealed for the stun, soul harvest, animation cancel concealed with light attacks if I think I can finish off the target.

I’ve tried other styles and even tried stam for a while but I am such a creature of imprinted habits that it’s been useless to try and vary my basic attack and defense patterns…I suck at stand up fights.

Well suck is probably too strong a word now since I have played so much. More like I’m just semi competent. The only time I stand up fight is if somebody marks me and I don’t have purge or it’s hopeless because I’m marked and in the middle of a zerg. Otherwise, I try and perma invis and evade.

I am really excited to get my hands on Stygian again. I want to run 5 Julianos, 5 Stygian + 2 Valkyn Skoria in 5L, 1M,1H. They have buffed up skoria and in the past it was really fun to get crippling, lotus fan and agony ticking away to call in the meteor.