Elder Scrolls Online (MMO)

[Tpek]

If you want a winning argument for F2P over P2P, it's that so far ESO has had severe downtimes due to server problems.
Yesterday I lost an hour (of my extremely limited free time) of gameplay, and today it's been down for hours now and soon I'll pretty much miss an entire day of "pay extra cash for early access".

At least if they'll offer lifetime subs or not require us to pay for each day of not actually playing it would be nice.  :-\

[SgtRock]

This video looks awesome:

Really?

To me the game looks unbalanced, the player just kills mob after mob, like a god mode cheat and I see an awful lot of scenery that looks the same. Gameplay looks more like some one playing a Diablo game VS. an Elder Scrolls game. If you tried to kill Dungeon mobs like that in Guild Wars 2, you'd be dead in 2 seconds.

Any time a player can come up with a build as effective as the one in that video and also have the ability to control his/her character well enough to make it a "killing machine," it impresses the hell out of me because *I* can't come close to doing something similar.  ;)

But I do have to agree with you: it isn't like the Elder Scrolls games that I used to like to play.

That's the point of balance, in Guild Wars 2 there is no Best killing machine, some professions/builds are better at some things than others but, there's no best build!
I have 5 level 80 characters each a different profession and with some of the best gear in the game, yet, die in dungeons. I may get more kills, more loot, last a little longer in but, can still die like everyone else doing world bosses & world events.

[SgtRock]

If you want a winning argument for F2P over P2P, it's that so far ESO has had severe downtimes due to server problems.
Yesterday I lost an hour (of my extremely limited free time) of gameplay, and today it's been down for hours now and soon I'll pretty much miss an entire day of "pay extra cash for early access".

At least if they'll offer lifetime subs or not require us to pay for each day of not actually playing it would be nice.  :-\

All MMO's go through server/network issues early on, just wait until this weekend when the all the (first time players) join in. ;D

[Tpek]

If you want a winning argument for F2P over P2P, it's that so far ESO has had severe downtimes due to server problems.
Yesterday I lost an hour (of my extremely limited free time) of gameplay, and today it's been down for hours now and soon I'll pretty much miss an entire day of "pay extra cash for early access".

At least if they'll offer lifetime subs or not require us to pay for each day of not actually playing it would be nice.  :-\

All MMO's go through server/network issues early on, just wait until this weekend when the all the (first time players) join in. ;D

It's not only the first week.
Thing is, there's the difference between not playing a day you explicitly paid to play on, and not playing a day you didn't pay for anyway.
That's one of the reasons I like lifetime subs with subscription based ones.

[Greybriar]

Nevermind

[Steelgrave]

So I'm starting to feel the pull here.....

My big question: How strong is the PVE element? Is PVP a mandatory element of the game, or can you ignore it and go your own way?

[Yskonyn]

PvP is optional. Cyrodiil is the open PvP province as far as I know and you can engage in a form of battlezones for PvP.
But you do not have to do any PvP if you do not want to.

The PvE element is pretty big. I have more to say on this game in the next few days, so watch for my expansive post of impressions! :)

A few things I really find refreshing about the game:

A) first person view with a proper scale of the gameworld
B) dynamic on-the-move combat with gorgeous effects. No more stale hotbar-press-a-key-and-wait-for-death.
c) The world changes around you depending on the outcome of quests. So no more endlessly looking at other people killing the same boss over and over while you just did it too. No, once you have defeated that boss, he is no longer there in your version of the world. Pretty cool!

[Steelgrave]

^They need to give you a commission, Yskonyn! Your description made me salivate  8) Looking forward to more impressions from you, but I suspect my credit card is about to fly from my wallet momentarily.

[Yskonyn]

Well, well, well...
I never would have thought it, but I am playing TESO.
A friend of mine kept on nagging me about how he thought the game would suit my interests. Then I also watched the mag-ni-fi-cent cinematic movies (3 of them) they released and I just could not resist anymore, which is weird, because cinematics have nothing to do with gameplay at all.
Still, if the company can spend their budget on creating such awesome and high quality cinematics, they must be fair and square behind their product me thinks.
Top that off with an interview with the voice actors (Kate Beckinsale, John Cleese to name a few) and my opinion started to shift;
I always regarded TESO to be one of the countless attempts to forge an MMO out of a well known franchise with the same old same old.
My friend kept on telling me that it plays differently than the standard MMO fare, so after the above I caved.

Let's start in somewhat chronological order;
Character creation is pretty extensive. You can choose to join 1 of 3 different factions (The big PvP mechanic is between these factions and while the war between these is forced upon the player by the story you do not have to engage in PvP if you don't want to) , which are normally bound by race in the Lore, however I think you can choose any faction for any race.
Then you can choose from 10 different races (9 if you don't have the Imperials), giving you slight advantages for certain builds over others, but aparently this is only really relevant for min/maxers, as you can mix and match anything you like and still have a viable build.
Then you can choose one of 4 classes.

These classes however, form just a baseline. Character progression in the game is very open ended, mening you can unlock almost any stilltree with a character.
Almost, as some are Unique to starting class. Because each class has their own skilltree. I don't think you can unlock other class trees on a single character, but I might be wrong.
So it is wise to have a general direction in mind you want to take your character build in and go from there.
Apart from the class skilltree you have other skilltrees based on your guild (the game one, not the social one), your weapons and the world.
Skills are unlocked by spending skillpoints which you get by levelling up. Using a certain skilltree (by using a skill from that tree actively ) causes a bar to fill. Once its full you get another point to spend. The advancement is cumulative, mening that if you get a new point you can spend it in any tree as long as you pass the requirements to upgrade. (Certain skills require a certain level to be unlocked for example)
Once you develop your skills you will get the option to Morph skills. You spend one skillpoint and rather than buying a new skill you can alter the existing skill. Effects can be varied; from more damage to new secondary effects.
This branching of skills quickly present you with so many ways to build a character that it becomes quite hard to choose! The best thing is that the systeem guides you into branching out, gradually presenting you with more and more options as you level up.

Back to character creation;
The actual appearance options are pretty expansive too, but the devs have made sure you cannot float away from the special looks each race has in the game world; all skintones are restricted to Lore specific tones for the race, as is hair colour, etc.
But within the confines of creating a character from a certain race you have pretty great amount of options and sliders to make sure your character doesn't look too much like 20 others.

After creating your character for the first time you start in the tutorial area (can be skipped on other characters), which starts you off as a prisoner, totally keeping with the Elder Scrolls tradition of starting. :)
I've seen articles mentioning that the tutorial area is beautiful while the next zone is not at all, but I do not agree. I find the graphics pretty consistently atmospheric and nice.
The character models are of higher quality than the world it seems, but the world does have a beautiful atmospheric style IMO.
Lighting is very nicely done and if your PC can handle it you can up the view distance pretty far.
Textures are not as sharp as modern games can have them these days, but I suspect that might be a performance trade off for the MMO structure. Especially with the stress the servers are taking with the clever instancing system, I can imagine.
Overall I find the game to be rather pretty.
Another things people seem to complain about are the items you find all around; in the single player games you can take almost any object, but in TESO you can often only loot them, where the object functions as a container more than the actual object itself.
I find this to be rather clever cause it does add to the feeling that there are lots of objects in the world, but the servers don't have to stress about it.
Of course lots of objects are just static, where in the SP games they were not, but I think its unfair to expect this to be different in an MMO game.
I still remember the first FarCry game where the physics where pretty innovative, but in MP those physics were disabled due to technical reasons.

Still, there are lots of nice details in the world;
People walking around villages, having conversations about all kinds of things. Fishermen tending their nets at the docks. Taverns brimming with customers and a Bard playing a few songs. Its all very nicely done and really given you a feeling that this is an actual world.

Anyway, I have spent about 8 or 10 hours with the game now and I find it a breath of fresh air for three distinct reasons:

1) No more quest hubs and endless 'Kill 10 boars' quests.
The quests are of a decent variety and you always get the impression you are actually doing something relevant for either the world or the NPC. It created a feeling of importance and 'being there', rather than just a means to get experience.

2) The world changes after completing a quest. So no more looking at endless named enemies or bossfights by other player while you just defeated it yourself.
Once you have killed the boss, he is gone in your version of the world.
Did you just complete a quest where you saved a settlement from invasion? Then now there are no more raids by enemies and the inhabitants of the village show a state of rebuilding / recuperating. Very cool!

The phasing or instancing in the game is pretty clever, because while running a quest you see other players battling around you, but once the quest is over you only see players who have also finished the quest (or something to that effect).
Point being, that the game has a clever way to keep you immersed in the world, but still present you with all those other players to give it the MMO feel.

3) No more 'I press a hotbar key and wait for the mob to die'-combat.
There still is a hotbar to fire off skills, but the combat is dynamic. Just like in Skyrim and the earlier TES games, you aim with a crosshair.
Left mouse button uses your weapon, right mouse button blocks, then the hotbar is used to use abilities and skills. Usually these can be used while moving.
Mobs have a decent amount of different moves and usually have a 'tell' when they are about to fire off a certain high power attack. You can try to block and interrupt that, or you can dodge out of the area of effect.
It makes combat fun and engaging IMO.
One thing that is awkward at times is the lag. Because its an MMO you sometimes see some rubberbanding or warped animations, which break the flow of combat a little.
Nothing big, but it does detract from the overal fluidness of combat at times.

Another thing that makes the game feel differently is that the First Person mode is perfectly great to use. In a lot of MMO's once you zoom into your character for a First person view, the world often seems out of scale and combat is nearly impossible.
In TESO, however, you have a first person view just like in the SP games. You see your weapon and the scale looks right.
Another things to up the immersiveness.
You can zoom in and out of 1st person and 3rd person view, but I want to note that I only find it comfortable to play with either fully zoomed out or fully zoomed in 1st person.
In 3rd person you still need the crosshair to aim so the camera starts with an awkward over the shoulder view. I find it hard to navigate my character this way. But zoomed out given you a more traditional MMO viewpoint with the character in the middle of the screen.
I prefer 1st person view though. YMMV.

Crafting is also in game, but I haven't spend enough time yet to say anything sensible about it. It does seem to be a good cornerstone of the economy though, and many people find it a fun system too. Just look around the net for more info on that if you're interested.

A quick closure mention about housing in case you wonder; Guild housing is already in the game (no idea how much you can decorate), but Personal housing is not (yet?).

I hope these impressions are of some use. ;)
See you in Tamriel (look me up under @Yskonyn)!

[Tpek]

^Are you playing on the NA or EU server?
Care to "Guild Up"? :P

[Yskonyn]

I am playing on the EU server.
Sure! You can join up to 5 guilds, so a Grogheads one should be no problem! What's your account name?

[Tpek]

I am playing on the EU server.
Sure! You can join up to 5 guilds, so a Grogheads one should be no problem! What's your account name?

Tpek (if I remember right :P).

Thing is, I'm on the NA servers.

Btw, do you know how to find level 10 recipes for provisioning? my inventory is filled to the brim with such materials but I'm still stuck with level 5 recipes.

[Staggerwing]

What's the monthly sub fee? Is the Imperial edition really worth $20 more?

[Yskonyn]

Monthly sub is standard fare; 15 bucks for one month dropping to 10 per month if you pay for 6 months in advance.

The Imperial Edition gives you the Imperial race (and some nice in game items) which enables you to join every faction, whereas all the other races are faction locked unless you pre-ordered and have the Explorer's pack. Then you can join any faction with any race.
But as the pre-order option is expired, you're either locked to a faction depending on the race you choose, or you go for the Imperial edition and play an Imperial character who can join any faction.
The Imperial edition also grants you a mount for only 1 gold at the start of the game (which is rather slow compared to the other mounts, but still).

[Steelgrave]

Great info, Y. I'm going to sign up later today. Playing Skyrim, I used to wish other MMO's looked so good. I'm glad to know TESO didn't blow it  ;D