# anyone else beta testing Elder scrolls online?



## fritoking (Jul 11, 2013)

Down loading as we speak..will play this weekend. Is anyone else a tester or know much about it? I only signed up on a whim and didnt really think i would be chosen. I have only played skyrim...none of the others.


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## ShiBDiB (Jul 11, 2013)

I didn't get selected 

Gimme yo key! Or I'll cut you!


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## AsRock (Jul 11, 2013)

ShiBDiB said:


> I didn't get selected
> 
> Gimme yo key! Or I'll cut you!



Same here, although i heard it going have monthly charges to it so i be pointless beta testing that lol.

EDIT:

Although a new beta has been started
http://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en/news


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## Novulux (Jul 11, 2013)

Yeah, I've been a tester for a few months, but that's as much as we can say for now.


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## D007 (Jul 11, 2013)

AsRock said:


> Same here, although i heard it going have monthly charges to it so i be pointless beta testing that lol.
> 
> EDIT:
> 
> ...



So one of those guys who won't pay to play? 
Support the F2P model or something?
You know those games always fail right?


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## RCoon (Jul 11, 2013)

D007 said:


> So one of those guys who won't pay to play?
> Support the F2P model or something?
> You know those games always fail right?



Since the f*ckfest of F2P, I'd gladly welcome a subscription based MMO to the market, provided they dont dont implement in game cash shop afterwards. I despise the general F2P model. It seems to actively take something away from games that use it.


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## AsRock (Jul 11, 2013)

D007 said:


> So one of those guys who won't pay to play?
> Support the F2P model or something?
> You know those games always fail right?



More like cannot really afford it. And as for the F2P in most cases it's a game killer although POE seem to be doing it well.

I am more in to how they did Guild Wars were you buy add ons though the years as this leaves option and gives people a chance to pay when they can.

EDIT: I found on there site that they have not decided what they are doing yet.


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## remixedcat (Jul 11, 2013)

Signed up months ago and still no beta key -_-


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## welly31 (Jul 11, 2013)

AsRock said:


> More like cannot really afford it.



Exactly why I like Pay to Play. It keeps away the kids. Parents nowadays will never pay $15 a month for their kids to play a game so the only ones subscribed are mature enough to hold down a job and less likely to be complete trolls.


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## 1Kurgan1 (Jul 11, 2013)

I wish websites for thats that allow sign up for beta access had a way to check if you actually have access (incase you missed something).


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## Wrigleyvillain (Jul 12, 2013)

welly31 said:


> Exactly why I like Pay to Play. It keeps away the kids. Parents nowadays will never pay $15 a month for their kids to play a game so the only ones subscribed are mature enough to hold down a job and less likely to be complete trolls.



Hmm you just pointed out the one thing I could see myself liking about a model I never otherwise did and have never utilized. Though I also generally have never played a MMORPG as it stands today.


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## D007 (Jul 12, 2013)

Wrigleyvillain said:


> Hmm you just pointed out the one thing I could see myself liking about a model I never otherwise did and have never utilized. Though I also generally have never played a MMORPG as it stands today.



That's the main selling point I think lol.. 
Also games like FFXIV ARR, refuse to go to a F2P model, Per the games developer.
Was a big story on it and why SE refuses to use the F2P model.
So Final fantasy keeps my money. 

I know I can rely on steady updates that don't skimp on quality. 

I'm currently beta testing it and it has been pretty sweet imho.
Phase 4 starts in less than a month as it sounds.
Data will be saved from that and ported to the game at release.


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## Wrigleyvillain (Jul 12, 2013)

Makes sense.


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## 1Kurgan1 (Jul 12, 2013)

D007 said:


> That's the main selling point I think lol..
> Also games like FFXIV ARR, refuse to go to a F2P model, Per the games developer.
> Was a big story on it and why SE refuses to use the F2P model.
> So Final fantasy keeps my money.
> ...



That is the upside to the P2P model. The downside to that is, people who play P2P MMO's usually only have time for 1 of them, since they are paying money every single month for it, they devote most of their time into that. Leaving other MMO's by the wayside. Which usually means, top dog gets P2P model, while everyone else gets scraps (F2P). Because if they don't go that route they might not hold enough subs to make the money to put out those steady updates.


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## KainXS (Jul 12, 2013)

lucky u I didn't get in


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## Novulux (Jul 12, 2013)

New beta session starts in a few hours!


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## Octopuss (Jul 13, 2013)

So is the game a typical MMORPG, or is it a Battlefield 3 with swords (exaggerating a little, but that's what I heard)?


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## AsRock (Jul 13, 2013)

Octopuss said:


> So is the game a typical MMORPG, or is it a Battlefield 3 with swords (exaggerating a little, but that's what I heard)?



Well unless you plan to use your gun and a human body as a shield for blocking attacks then you have those pesky archers .


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## newconroer (Jul 14, 2013)

remixedcat said:


> Signed up months ago and still no beta key -_-



Maybe you've been spoiled by Square Enix, literally throwing multiple keys at people to come play FFXIV:ARR, but don't be too alarmed about not hearing from Zenimax.

Some people are accepted whom didn't expect to be, and vice versa.
Looking at Frito's computer specifications, I would wager that's the main reason he was selected

Having said that, I know lots of people whom have registered using multiple DXDiags to indicate they have low, mid and high end quality systems, all submitted under different emails, aliases and IP addresses. Yet some of them were invited, and others not.

Who really knows what the formula is for success in this matter though I wouldn't stress it.



ESO has a short 'BETA' lifespan.. (I put _beta_ in brackets because developers cheat on the use of _beta_ these days to make things sound more appealing), and that means that the majority of what we're seeing now, is how the game will launch - at least in terms of core mechanics and general content - which is a road map that's not uncommon.

This is unfortunate because it means that most of the development has finished and the feedback from players is for 20% of the project, rather than 80% of the project.




Octopuss said:


> So is the game a typical MMORPG, or is it a Battlefield 3 with swords (exaggerating a little, but that's what I heard)?



Yes it's under NDA but I'll say this, it's a typical MMORPG set in the Elder Scrolls universe. It has some of the features you like about Elder Scrolls, but it's NOT Elder Scrolls.
Between you and I, if they'd made Skyrim a lobby type match game with up to four or eight players, I would have supremely preferred that over a full blow regurgitated MMORPG.

Let's just hope that ESO has enough success that it will encourage Bethesda to invest in developing online match making for their next Elder Scrolls game (which frankly I can't see them making another one, not after the story of Skyrim).


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## Kreij (Jul 14, 2013)

D007 said:


> So one of those guys who won't pay to play?
> Support the F2P model or something?
> *You know those games always fail right?*



Like World of Tanks? 
F2P is not a death knell if done right and P2P is no guarantee of success.


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## AsRock (Jul 14, 2013)

newconroer said:


> Maybe you've been spoiled by Square Enix, literally throwing multiple keys at people to come play FFXIV:ARR, but don't be too alarmed about not hearing from Zenimax.
> 
> Some people are accepted whom didn't expect to be, and vice versa.
> Looking at Frito's computer specifications, I would wager that's the main reason he was selected
> ...




Well thats all i wanted a lobby to join get together with a few friends and play the game but it's going turn out just as another MMO.


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## remixedcat (Jul 14, 2013)

Oh I got a super special OS (Server 2012) and a very unique network configuration so you'd think they would choose me as well to make sure it even works on server OSes. Plef -_-


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## Jaffakeik (Aug 10, 2013)

Anyone got maybe CBT key to give away or something I could get into beta?


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## newconroer (Aug 10, 2013)

AsRock said:


> Well thats all i wanted a lobby to join get together with a few friends and play the game but it's going turn out just as another MMO.



The more I consider it,  I believe designing multiplayer for a full blown TES game will be more difficult than rolling out an MMO.

Here's to hoping the next TES has multiplay!



Jaffakeik said:


> Anyone got maybe CBT key to give away or something I could get into beta?



Jaff, my understanding is that ESO keys are like gold at this point, even six months after the BETA started. I don't suspect we'll see many people invited until they start doing open weekends and etc.

If you really want to find one, swing by http://www.epicnpc.com/epic-forums/ and do a search for ESO or Elder Scrolls Online. You'll start to see a pattern of lots of people looking for a key, but only a few selling - with most turning out fake - and they go for about $50-250


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## Deleted member 24505 (Aug 10, 2013)

Is this going to be a typical Bethesda bugfest?


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## newconroer (Aug 10, 2013)

tigger said:


> Is this going to be a typical Bethesda bugfest?



Zenimax is handling it with a custom engine. Most bugs other than graphic related in the TES series are scripting related. Since ESO is nowhere near as in depth or intimate with the character as TES games, then the odds for failure via scripts is lower.


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## Octopuss (Aug 12, 2013)

I am almost always pretty angry about all the people trying to get into betas by illegal ways, because all they want is to play the thing, as incomplete as it may be, while not contributing shit to the testing.


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## caleb (Aug 12, 2013)

Octopuss said:


> I am almost always pretty angry about all the people trying to get into betas by illegal ways, because all they want is to play the thing, as incomplete as it may be, while not contributing shit to the testing.



Playing a beta is contributing to development too. I don't think they collect much data from a user anyway.

Elder scrolls online sounds great. I'm eager to finally quit my BF addiction as its becoming hard on my nerves.


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## lyndonguitar (Aug 12, 2013)

Damn! I haven't received any keys yet and I applied months ago



Octopuss said:


> I am almost always pretty angry about all the people trying to get into betas by illegal ways, because all they want is to play the thing, as incomplete as it may be, while not contributing shit to the testing.



Even if you just play and not actually report bugs, you can still contribute to the testing because you add up to the number of people connecting to the server(stress testing) and they can optimize their server loads and shit based on performances of the players. Not an expert but I think they collect some data from you too (Specs, Game Performance, Driver Softwares, maybe auto sending crash reports, etc)


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## Octopuss (Aug 12, 2013)

That's true, but only up to a point. Betas are typically about testing features of a game, so active feedback is the most important. Of course they also collect various data, but that's not the primary goal. Stress tests only come much later down the line...


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## ogharaei (Aug 15, 2013)

I am also a fan of the subscription model. Most F2P games make far too many essentials part of their cash shop.


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## newconroer (Sep 29, 2013)

I gave my access away some months ago, wonder how things have progressed.

Anyone still testing?


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## Bo$$ (Sep 30, 2013)

Played it at eurogamer.... nothing special. i hate MMORPG in the first place so it's not gonna win anything from me


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## newconroer (Oct 7, 2013)

Bo$$ said:


> Played it at eurogamer.... nothing special. i hate MMORPG in the first place so it's not gonna win anything from me



Bitter sweet then I suppose.

They really should have just rereleased Skyrim with a netcode - that's all people wanted.


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## WhiteNoise (Nov 19, 2013)

Got my beta invite this afternoon. Can't wait to get in and give it a test!!


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## xenocide (Nov 20, 2013)

WhiteNoise said:


> Got my beta invite this afternoon. Can't wait to get in and give it a test!!


 
Huh, I might have to check and see if I got one when I'm out on break.  I am still interested in the game, but haven't heard a ton about it as of recent.


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## remixedcat (Nov 20, 2013)

I finally got one!!!


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## crazyeyesreaper (Nov 20, 2013)

Same I got a code dont really care all that much will be interesting to see performance scaling tho and how they have handled things thus far. That said I am more interested in seeing what bugs I can find as with any Zenimax media / Bethesda title the bugs are usually hilarious


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## xenocide (Nov 20, 2013)

crazyeyesreaper said:


> Same I got a code dont really care all that much will be interesting to see performance scaling tho and how they have handled things thus far. That said I am more interested in seeing what bugs I can find as with any Zenimax media / Bethesda title the bugs are usually hilarious


 
The patch notes for that game are going to be fucking gold.  I can already imagine them...


Fixed a bug that allowed you to fall through the starting zone upon character creation.
Fixed a bug where you could 1 shot all bosses by logging out while in combat.
Fixed a bug that allowed playable characters to fly.
Removed guns from the item database.


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## ShiBDiB (Nov 20, 2013)

I got a key for this weekend.. I hate limited play betas, can't really jack up my schedule to play a game


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## Solaris17 (Nov 20, 2013)

Ya im a tester


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## WhiteNoise (Nov 20, 2013)

ShiBDiB said:


> I got a key for this weekend.. I hate limited play betas, can't really jack up my schedule to play a game


 Agreed. i hate the limited play betas as well. I usually can't do any testing due to my conflicting schedule. I make a point to get into this over the weekend anyway since its a game high on my list.


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## ShiBDiB (Nov 20, 2013)

WhiteNoise said:


> Agreed. i hate the limited play betas as well. I usually can't do any testing due to my conflicting schedule. I make a point to get into this over the weekend anyway since its a game high on my list.



I'll be fiddling with my sleep schedule to get it in


Currently downloading the game, roughly 21GB


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## Darkleoco (Nov 20, 2013)

Anyone else's launcher freezing at "Checking for launcher updates" running windows 7 home premium 64 bit.


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## 1Kurgan1 (Nov 21, 2013)

I also got a key for this weekend. I'm not looking forward to EQ, but I'll see what it's like.


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## ShiBDiB (Nov 22, 2013)

Little less than 4 hours til the weekend beta starts!


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## FX-GMC (Nov 22, 2013)

ShiBDiB said:


> Little less than 4 hours til the weekend beta starts!



I can't wait!


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## WhiteNoise (Nov 22, 2013)

It started but I'm stuck at work. 

I remoted into my home pc and have the game updated and ready to play though.


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## ShiBDiB (Nov 22, 2013)

Not missing anything. No one can login and they already took the server down.


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## remixedcat (Nov 23, 2013)

Oh Poo


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## ShiBDiB (Nov 23, 2013)

Spent about an hour playing. Definitely still alot of work to do. But seems to have potential as a good questing game.

That being said I'm curious how well it's going to work as an mmo.. or if it'll be like swtor


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## newconroer (Nov 23, 2013)

Anyone manage to get SLI working for the beta?
And where is the beta forums?


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## ShiBDiB (Nov 23, 2013)

Meh played some more. I'm holding judgement til the game comes out officially but... meh...


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## RCoon (Jan 7, 2014)

So I got a key today. Is this game still absolutely awful?


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## W1zzard (Jan 7, 2014)

Just got this in my email:


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## ChristTheGreat (Jan 7, 2014)

Lucky!!!!!!!!


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## WhiteNoise (Jan 7, 2014)

Its not that great IMO.


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## DLGenesis (Jan 7, 2014)

jusyt got invite too


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## ShiBDiB (Jan 7, 2014)

WhiteNoise said:


> Its not that great IMO.


qft. Unless they did alot of bug fixing since the last playsession


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## Octopuss (Jan 8, 2014)

Got an invite too.
Is it worth it? I mean, how are the controls and UI? Is it shite and pain in the ass or not? I really like the graphics, and have special love for MMORPGs, but if it's some simplified console-like piece of shit, I'm out.


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## Deleted member 24505 (Jan 8, 2014)

I got a invite today too, dl'ing as we speak.


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## Deleted member 24505 (Jan 8, 2014)

W1zzard said:


> Just got this in my email:



same session as me.


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## Ahhzz (Jan 8, 2014)

W1zzard said:


> Just got this in my email:



Rockin'  this will be my third time in, 1st was a stress, second was a weekend event like this one. they made some serious improvements between the stress and last time, but I expect we'll still see plenty of bugs, places to fall thru and get stuck, etc, etc, etc. Last time, I had a weekend out with my family planned, which screwed my entire beta time, which also occurred this time lol, but only on Saturday. so, at least I'll get Sat night and some Sunday time   Leveling is definitely harder than WoW was (back "in the day"). Not a great deal of encouragement to group early, but I wasn't able to get enough time last time to really progress too far, so I'm hopeful to see a bit more this time out. My recommendation is to start the download NOW, btw. I started my client and came back a while later to 20Gb left to download. Saw several whiners last time out complaining they hadn't thought to download beforehand, and missed out on a night's worth of gaming.


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## EiSFX (Jan 8, 2014)

Both me and my wife got our invites yesterday too.


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## Vario (Jan 8, 2014)

I was worried it was going to kill the entire series but after watching some gameplay footage I am sure it won't be a threat to the single player games, no offense guys.


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## ne6togadno (Jan 8, 2014)

no invite here


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## ShiBDiB (Jan 8, 2014)

I'll be playing to see if it's gotten better. Not in terms of bugs but in actual gameplay. The second playtest just wasn't fun... But it is still a beta, so maybe it got better?


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## Ahhzz (Jan 8, 2014)

ShiBDiB said:


> I'll be playing to see if it's gotten better. Not in terms of bugs but in actual gameplay. The second playtest just wasn't fun... But it is still a beta, so maybe it got better?



I'm afraid I had just that feedback to them last time. 

I beta tested WoW, back when hunters couldn't use guns, and had no talent tree. I remember my first "Holy CRAP!!" moment to this day, seeing the walking tree guardians not too far from the NightElf noob village. I haven't had one of those moments in this one yet.... Maybe it's because the 1st test I was in was the Stress test, so it was "hurry, group up, and see what breaks!!". I dunno, but I've got all the games except Daggerfall (and have that in the Legendary I stole on amazon for $25), and I had really high hopes for this one... just been disappointed so far....


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## WhiteNoise (Jan 8, 2014)

I received another invite a day ago or so but I doubt I'll load it up.


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## 1Kurgan1 (Jan 9, 2014)

I got another invite as well, I didn't have time to play much last time, I always find it hard to dive in for a weekend unless it's something that doesn't take much time, like some rounds of Battlefield. But being forced to intake a decent amount of an MMO in just a few days always makes it hard for me to play it.


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## Darkleoco (Jan 9, 2014)

I got one for the friday sesion as well, anyone know when the ps4 beta will start? I signed up for that weeks ago but figure it has to happen before too long.


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## ShiBDiB (Jan 10, 2014)

This is coming out on console? That explains why it sucks so bad on pc


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## Darkleoco (Jan 10, 2014)

ShiBDiB said:


> This is coming out on console? That explains why it sucks so bad on pc


Yeah it seems if anything the pc is being used to beta test the console version, cant see many pc gamers really hopping on board with something like ESO when they can just spend hours a day modding skyrim or playing better games.


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## Octopuss (Jan 10, 2014)

Oh fuck, it's on consoles as well? I won't bother then, useless UI and shit dumb controls are guaranteed 
Fucking hell, WHY!?
MMORPG on consoles, what the actual megafuck!?


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## ne6togadno (Jan 10, 2014)

Octopuss said:


> Oh fuck, it's on consoles as well? I won't bother then, useless UI and shit dumb controls are guaranteed
> Fucking hell, WHY!?
> MMORPG on consoles, what the actual megafuck!?


whould you mind to send me your beta key for this weekend then. i still havnt got invite but i realy want to try the game


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## Octopuss (Jan 10, 2014)

Haha I already created an account when I got my invite, sorry. If only I knew...


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## Deleted member 24505 (Jan 10, 2014)

waiting patiently till 6pm est/11pm gmt tonight


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## Chetkigaming (Jan 10, 2014)

GUYS!!! Got IT! Preparing For Battle, 6 PM EST! I'll go grab some chips etc.!


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## ShiBDiB (Jan 10, 2014)

The last playtest was just that a playtest, I'd say atleast half of the game was broken or placeholders. As far as mechanics went tho... it was a console skyrim


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## erocker (Jan 10, 2014)

I just realized, I got an email! Wheeeeeeeee!!!


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## newconroer (Jan 10, 2014)

Last session was all right. I treated it as a full experience, meaning I had no expectations. I noticed no particular limits (other than being too poor to afford a horse again).
Using a Rumblepad 2 to play it made it a bit more comfortable though as currently it's not very keypad/mouse friendly.

Big gripes are ; ah darn can't talk about them yet, NDA!!!


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## ne6togadno (Jan 10, 2014)

newconroer said:


> Hey brothers,
> 
> I have a few spare keys that I will not need. I prefer to hand them over to some UK/Europe residents so that we can adventure together.
> 
> ...


pm sent


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## Octopuss (Jan 10, 2014)

So I logged in after all.
I am very surprised the game is playable on bloody Intel HD graphics on medium.
Graphics are totally fucking awesome. So is the sound and music.

The UI is a bit weird but not as bad as I thought, but it's still a bit too FPS-like to my taste. It's not horrible though. It would take some time getting used to it. It's also a bit too automatic (I don't like elements of the HUD disappearing without consent).
Combat is weird as hell. I am used to something different, but again, it's not fubar. I COULD get used to it, maybe.

I didn't really play it (just ran around and tried killing stuff) so I cannot comment on anything. These are just my initial thoughts.
This might be ok game if the content is good.


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## newconroer (Jan 10, 2014)

Octopuss said:


> So I logged in after all.
> I am very surprised the game is playable on bloody Intel HD graphics on medium.
> Graphics are totally fucking awesome. So is the sound and music.
> 
> ...



From last test?

I'd say give this weekend a focused play through, you may pick up a few things that expand your views on it.
Holler at me if you want to meet up, I can show you around.


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## Octopuss (Jan 10, 2014)

From ten minutes ago 
This was first time I saw anything TSO related.

I am busy mining litecoin, so probably will only log in again briefly to check how the game looks on ultra high without lag, lol.


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## ne6togadno (Jan 10, 2014)

Octopuss said:


> So I logged in after all.
> I am very surprised the game is playable on bloody Intel HD graphics on medium.
> Graphics are totally fucking awesome. So is the sound and music.
> 
> ...


if it is true that game is made on the same engine like skyrim then UI adjustment wont be problem as soon as game go live.
warhammer online used same engine as skyrim and there was tons of mods for UI, inventory, crafting and almost all other game aspcets


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## Octopuss (Jan 10, 2014)

The engine feels *extremely highly* optimized (even more for a beta). In fact, I have never ever seen a game that would be playable on lousy integrated GPU. And especially a game of such visual (and apparently demanding) quality.

Really curious what will happen in near future.
They might very well screw it up if general key elements of a MMORPG suck (like, crafting, raids etc.)


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## newconroer (Jan 10, 2014)

Login servers are down for me..

Octo, you should read the beta forums to learn a lot about the game.

Unfortunately it's not a TES game online, it's an online game with TES elements.
But, still the only game we can play with others in the Tamriel world.


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## Octopuss (Jan 10, 2014)

The forums are really horrible, I opened them and closed within a minute with loud WTF!!


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## stuartb04 (Jan 10, 2014)

got an invite yesterday.
so far so good
UI is abit confusing at first
graphics are good in places.ok-ish in others

this might just be the first mmo i waste my monees on!!


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## WhiteNoise (Jan 10, 2014)

Octopuss said:


> Graphics are totally fucking awesome.


 
You must be playing a different game than I have...

Did the graphics get a bigger overhaul or something? They are decent but not _totally fucking awesome_ by any means lol


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## Octopuss (Jan 10, 2014)

It might have something to do with me not playing current games at all. Battlefield 4 is probably the only thing up to current visual standards I've played in ten years, so that's your answer right there I guess  Oh, I played BF3 of course but that didn't have that very realistic feeling to it, and I also played LOTRO almost since launch when the graphics were totally stunning, but the game is a bit on the cartoonish side, so it doesn't count either.

Anyway, even on high I really liked very much what I was looking at with TSO.


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## erocker (Jan 10, 2014)

Jeebus! 30 gigs! It better look good!


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## newconroer (Jan 10, 2014)

The graphics are not bad at all  - not because it's a MMO ( I don't accept that excuse anymore for MMORPGs), but rather the finer things like there's no obvious transitions between high and low world geometry or textures. The LODs are not noticeable and there is very little flora flicker or anomalies that cause a distraction.
It's not as smooth as FFXIV ARR, and it's not as clean as TERA, but it's certainly nothing to shake a stick at.

Additionally you can use SweetFX/injectors without it crashing the game, which is a nice plus.

Recommend you disable/turn off Vsync. It makes your 60fps hover around 50-55 on average. Remove it and you get well over 60 consistently - looks like a new bug in this client version.

Anyways, servers are up!


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## WhiteNoise (Jan 10, 2014)

Octopuss said:


> It might have something to do with me not playing current games at all. Battlefield 4 is probably the only thing up to current visual standards I've played in ten years, so that's your answer right there I guess  Oh, I played BF3 of course but that didn't have that very realistic feeling to it, and I also played LOTRO almost since launch when the graphics were totally stunning, but the game is a bit on the cartoonish side, so it doesn't count either.
> 
> Anyway, even on hight I really liked very much what I was looking at with TSO.


 
I see your point!


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## RCoon (Jan 11, 2014)

I don't understand what everyone was complaining about, I'm actually quite enjoying the game  Would like to know if there are ways to remove points that you've put into a skill though. Got my head around the crafting systems (apart from this whole inspiration and research thing), and the skills trees. All in all seems legit, just a few bugs here and there.


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## newconroer (Jan 11, 2014)

RCoon said:


> I don't understand what everyone was complaining about, I'm actually quite enjoying the game  Would like to know if there are ways to remove points that you've put into a skill though. Got my head around the crafting systems (apart from this whole inspiration and research thing), and the skills trees. All in all seems legit, just a few bugs here and there.



Ya, if you can accept that it's not TES online, then it's pretty enjoyable.

I really do wish though they'd make the regular main/offhand attacks more potent, and turn the abilities more into buffs/augments rather than damage dealers. Abilities are really overpowered in comparison.
Also, the attack sounds are weak - I barely hear anything when I strike an enemy - and the physics feel floaty and weightless as if nothing has any gravity on it.


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## Deleted member 24505 (Jan 11, 2014)

Well i am pretty impressed. looks nice, runs sweet, certainly has potential


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## RCoon (Jan 11, 2014)

Chetkigaming said:


> Unfortunately, world of warcraft still the best....



Probably because it's 10 years old and they have almost 2 decades of experience making multiplayer games?


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## f22a4bandit (Jan 11, 2014)

Just played through a 30 minutes session. It's a pretty fun game. The graphics are nice, and the gameplay so far feels smooth. I haven't fun into any serious buginess as yet. If you have an invite I'd recommend checking it out.


----------



## 15th Warlock (Jan 11, 2014)

Been testing for a while, gameplay is OK for an MMO, the combat is fast and fluid, and I find the quests entertaining considering this is a beta 

EDIT: still under NDA 

Bethesda, just release TESVI already...


----------



## W1zzard (Jan 11, 2014)

I played for around 1 hour, very playable, no major bugs. Addiction level is lower than WoW so far.


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## newconroer (Jan 11, 2014)

W1zzard said:


> I played for around 1 hour, very playable, no major bugs. Addiction level is lower than WoW so far.


Gotta take that with a grain of salt - Warcraft was never addicting for some!

Wiz, you coming back on?


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## Octopuss (Jan 11, 2014)

Heh, WoW. The game for (mostly) 11 years old morons who need everything served on silver platter, indirectly responsible for most other games getting fucked up by their developers, because WoW sells and doing things that way brings more players.


----------



## newconroer (Jan 11, 2014)

Anyways, opinions aside, anyone want to join Tigger and I?


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## Octopuss (Jan 11, 2014)

I will probably have another go later today. Gotta learn the controls first though.


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## ShiBDiB (Jan 11, 2014)

How's the actual content compared to the last playthrough? I know I've had nothing good to say but I really need a good mmo. I might be able to get a few hours in this weekend, but between work and the gf wanting to do gf things I dunno


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## Octopuss (Jan 11, 2014)

ShiBDiB said:


> How's the actual content compared to the last playthrough? I know I've had nothing good to say but I really need a good mmo. I might be able to get a few hours in this weekend, but between work and the gf wanting to do gf things I dunno


Ha, that reminded me of something.


----------



## Deleted member 24505 (Jan 11, 2014)

Just got up, will be on soon after my 2 cups of coffee.


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## newconroer (Jan 11, 2014)

Hah, did you mean to PM that? ;o


----------



## W1zzard (Jan 11, 2014)

newconroer said:


> Wiz, you coming back on?


playing right now, level 5


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## Deleted member 24505 (Jan 11, 2014)

It's crashed a couple of times on me.


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## RCoon (Jan 11, 2014)

tigger said:


> It's crashed a couple of times on me.



ingame name is RCoon, or user ID is Kolayhe, me and my brother are having a 3 day LAN session on ESO. Level 10 knight so far


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## Octopuss (Jan 11, 2014)

Anyone can explain the double tap to dodge feature? I don't understand what am I supposed to do and when.


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## newconroer (Jan 11, 2014)

They're not ENB Skyrim that's fore sure, but if you read my post above I point out that the little things like flickering flora, bad quality LOD textures, poor LOD/near texture transitions and etcetc are not a problem in the game - where as with many other online or offline games, they are.
Sure the texture resolution isn't supremely high, but the overall effect is good. There's lots of finer details too, inside buildings and dungeons they've put lots of effort in.



RCoon said:


> ingame name is RCoon, or user ID is Kolayhe, me and my brother are having a 3 day LAN session on ESO. Level 10 knight so far


You're a bit too high for Tigger, Wiz and I then, we're around level 5 and 6.



Octopuss said:


> Anyone can explain the double tap to dodge feature? I don't understand what am I supposed to do and when.



You don't have to double tap to dodge. THe other option is to bind it to a key/mouse function and single press it.

Dodge is simply to avoid certain attacks manually. However I hate the dodge system in this game, looks silly and is unnecessary, I never use it now


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## newconroer (Jan 11, 2014)

Agreed, physics is not so hot - things are a bit floaty a bit papery though that's not necessarily graphics related.


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## Octopuss (Jan 11, 2014)

Any preliminary idea about the amount of skills per class and stuff like that? Just how complex the game is? Anywhere near the usual MMORPG standards, or do you think it's just a FPS shooter with swords and magic, with some levels and skills elements?


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## RCoon (Jan 11, 2014)

Octopuss said:


> Any preliminary idea about the amount of skills per class and stuff like that? Just how complex the game is? Anywhere near the usual MMORPG standards, or do you think it's just a FPS shooter with swords and magic, with some levels and skills elements?



Max level is 50, as far as I can see on the forums at max level you will obtain something like 150 skill points to use. I think the skill elements are knowing when to interupt, block, and dodge, which are all very easy mechanics because the enemies quite blatantly show what they're about to do, with shiny effects and all.
As for the complaints about graphics, I don't think they're half bad. Better than most MMO's, or would you rather every MMO was stuck on WoW/BOI graphical engines? This is to be played on the PS4 and XBone, not just PC. They designed the graphics with those in mind. Also stop complaining, gamplay>graphics... Hence why WoW is so popular. Derp.


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## Octopuss (Jan 11, 2014)

With skills I mean the amount of skills you can possibly learn and use, not player skills. I know with LOTRO I had almost three hotbars full of stuff and I regularly used most of them. That's how I like such game to be.


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## newconroer (Jan 11, 2014)

Octopuss said:


> With skills I mean the amount of skills you can possibly learn and use, not player skills. I know with LOTRO I had almost three hotbars full of stuff and I regularly used most of them. That's how I like such game to be.


You can learn many. Your can have about five active(+1 special).

I was hoping that there would have been no hotbuttoned abilities (since they do not exist in TES games anyways) - though if I have to tolerate some hotbutton gaming, five is better than fifty.


----------



## RCoon (Jan 11, 2014)

newconroer said:


> You can learn many. Your can have about five active(+1 special).
> 
> I was hoping that there would have been no hotbuttoned abilities (since they do not exist in TES games anyways) - though if I have to tolerate some hotbutton gaming, five is better than fifty.



One thing i dislike about WoW (though I still play it) is the fact I have in excess of 20 buttons, all of which have situational, but most are used. I don't want that. I liked Guild Wars 1 because there was 8 skills and they would all be useful and compliment each other. Bar bloat is a pain in the ass, and I like the fact I only have 5 skills, 1 ultimate and a quickslot. Though regrettably I did put 1 skill point into something I don't use anymore.

EDIT: Servers just went down. Top kek.


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## Octopuss (Jan 11, 2014)

Ha, I am on the other side of the coin then. I LOVE cluttered screen with shit ton of stuff 
Just for fun, typical sight of LOTRO raid.


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## newconroer (Jan 11, 2014)

Do not misconstrue, I appreciate the satisfaction of having many tools at your disposal and being really good or a master at knowing when and why to use them to their fullest ability.
However there's always some weird break in the flow of things because of items such as consumables (with their ever redundant cooldowns, or different tiers of quality or really acute situational use) or miscellaneous abilities as you say -situational- which throw off the continuity of things and reduces the enjoyment you have in the gameplay itself.

I'd rather they master a simple system, then semi master a convoluted complex system.

EDIT: Ya servers down again.

Wish ya'll played Fallen Earth or FFXIV!


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## newconroer (Jan 11, 2014)

Servers up.


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## Octopuss (Jan 14, 2014)

Screw online.
This might be awesome.


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## newconroer (Jan 14, 2014)

I appreciate them wanting to modernize Morrowind - which in effect is what Skywind is aiming for.
And for those that don't care about Morrowind, then Skyrim with mods will be sufficient.


The real problem is that it doesn't tackle the interest that TES fans have world wide, for a working multiplayer version of Skyrim (or Morrowind/Oblivion for that matter).
I can't stress it enough - a DLC with net code for Skyrim wouldn't even be pirated, it would sell - people would lose their fu**ing minds.

I applaud them for the effort, and their other project has been successful. It's just a shame that with all the effort and time they've spent on these things, that they may have made some net code.

Anyways, back on topic - - anyone enjoy their ESO weekend?

It's hard to talk about it...NDA and all ;/

Anyone have the forums link for beta ? I lost it.


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## Ahhzz (Jan 23, 2014)

http://www.nextpowerup.com/news/7053/bethesda-trots-out-voice-actors-for-elder-scrolls-online.html

(Partial) Voice Actor listing


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## Disparia (Jan 23, 2014)

Besides a beta key I'm most looking forward to the PvP. It's fizzled out in LOTRO except on a couple of the large servers. Has a lot of potential from what I've read.



Ahhzz said:


> http://www.nextpowerup.com/news/7053/bethesda-trots-out-voice-actors-for-elder-scrolls-online.html
> 
> (Partial) Voice Actor listing



Watched that earlier, my queen is Kate Beckinsale!


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## Kaynar (Jan 23, 2014)

Octopuss said:


> Oh fuck, it's on consoles as well? I won't bother then, useless UI and shit dumb controls are guaranteed
> Fucking hell, WHY!?
> MMORPG on consoles, what the actual megafuck!?



Yeah it is obvious that the game is console-friendly BUT it is very nicely done in my opinion (talking about the UI). Too bad the game itself sucks (in my opinion) and the actually want you to pay for it.


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## Ahhzz (Jan 24, 2014)

Kaynar said:


> Yeah it is obvious that the game is console-friendly BUT it is very nicely done in my opinion *(talking about the UI)*.......


Yeah, that's what they said about Skyrim.... and then you see all the UI mods to "fix" it. Yeah, UI is great. Whatever. 

Game is ok, crafting looks good and bad. We'll just see what modding they allow when it releases... As long as there's a way to keep the console kiddies away from the PC gamers, I might be tempted.


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## Octopuss (Jan 24, 2014)

I uninstalled the beta (which I probably won't be invited into again anyway), and instead downloaded (I will buy it when it shows up on sale) Skyrim. I've spent last 4 days digging into mods, lol. Thing looks super promising.


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## BazookaJoe (Jan 24, 2014)

I would love to sign up - but all it does is ask your Birth Date - then direct you back to the main page - I assume Beta signups are closed 

And yes I did try a number of various dates after the initial 2 or 3 failures all with the same result.


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## ShiBDiB (Jan 26, 2014)

This isnt a skyrim thread... just an fyi if you forgot to read the title.. also spoiler ur wall of images otherwise it's just annoying


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## xenocide (Jan 26, 2014)

ShiBDiB said:


> This isnt a skyrim thread... just an fyi if you forgot to read the title.. also spoiler ur wall of images otherwise it's just annoying


 
I agree, why the hell is every other post about Skyrim--a game which has its own dedicated thread stickied in the forums?

I'm interested in how TESO has developed, I've seen a large shift in opinions online from "game sucks" to "games actually pretty good".  Wondering if anyone shares the same view.


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## Octopuss (Jan 26, 2014)

xenocide said:


> I agree, why the hell is every other post about Skyrim--a game which has its own dedicated thread stickied in the forums?


Hehe, that's funny, because when I tried to look "skyrim" up I got shit ton of results, and none seemed like a stable generic thread. And there sure as hell isn't a sticky.


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## xenocide (Jan 26, 2014)

Octopuss said:


> Hehe, that's funny, because when I tried to look "skyrim" up I got shit ton of results, and none seemed like a stable generic thread. And there sure as hell isn't a sticky.


 
Here.  It's no longer stickied but I assure you it was, I stopped checking it because honestly Skyrim got old for me fast, but none-the-less it would be nice to hear anyones opinion of TES:O.  I'm intrigued by the progression system but can't be bothered to play and just keep forgetting about the game...


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## ShiBDiB (Jan 26, 2014)

Octopuss said:


> Hehe, that's funny, because when I tried to look "skyrim" up I got shit ton of results, and none seemed like a stable generic thread. And there sure as hell isn't a sticky.



The thread has 241 pages and is called the "The Official Elder Scrolls V : Skyrim Thread"


Just.... no..


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## Octopuss (Jan 26, 2014)

All I am saying is I couldn't find it. Cheers.


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## Durvelle27 (Jan 26, 2014)

Couldn't get it to install


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## Kreij (Jan 26, 2014)

newconroer said:


> I couldn't find a gallery option! Spoilers are handy, we need them for our WP - see it's proof!



Spoiler tags work just fine ...


Spoiler



See?


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## Kreij (Jan 26, 2014)

Chetkigaming, why don't you describe you experience playing in the beta and why you feel it is as you so succinctly describe it. If you don't, your opinion doesn't mean anything to anyone.


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## erocker (Jan 26, 2014)

newconroer said:


> Kreij, that was a hidden joke to Shibdib. It hasn't anything to do with TPU and spoilers.



I guess it makes no sense to post it on TPU then. 

Let's stay on topic please. Thanks!


----------



## Jaffakeik (Jan 29, 2014)

I wonder if this game is good wiuld like to try itbut still no beta key in my email box.maybe i should consider it to buy on ps4 if it will be good


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## BumbleBee (Jan 29, 2014)

is  the game under NDA? how generic is it? is the combat floaty? fetch quests? extra wide streets?


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## Durvelle27 (Jan 29, 2014)

BumbleBee said:


> is  the game under NDA? how generic is it? is the combat floaty? fetch quests? extra wide streets?


Yes it is


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## BumbleBee (Jan 29, 2014)

I won't sell you down the river 

is EVE Online still the best MMO? thank my post lol


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## Ahhzz (Jan 30, 2014)

Don't think I'd seen this trailer


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## Kreij (Jan 30, 2014)

BumbleBee said:


> is EVE Online still the best MMO?



ESO could get 100 million players and EVE Online would still be the best. 

The above cinematic trailer that Ahhzz posted is awesome. Grab some popcorn and watch it.


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## Ahhzz (Jan 30, 2014)

Eve is pretty screaming, altho I left 2 plex in my account when I let it die heheh. I may reactivate one day, but with Star Citizen and Elite coming out, as well as a few lighter-weights, I'll probably have my fill of Space for a while. Baby Sister site has a pretty short synopsis of one of the hugest, most awesomest worstest events to happen in EVE


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## BiggieShady (Jan 30, 2014)

Kreij said:


> The above cinematic trailer that Ahhzz posted is awesome. Grab some popcorn and watch it.



I agree for the most part, but the shaky camera is way overdone in melee sequence, almost barfed the popcorn.


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## ne6togadno (Jan 30, 2014)

pre-order is opened at game's official site


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## BumbleBee (Jan 30, 2014)

EVE Online puts out really nice trailers.










we're all frakin skinjobs!


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## Kreij (Jan 30, 2014)

Ahhzz said:


> Baby Sister site has a pretty short synopsis of one of the hugest, most awesomest worstest events to happen in EVE



I could have gone into a lot more detail on it, but I was trying to avoid TL : DR comments. lol

I would love to play ESO, but the monthly subscription model is a deal breaker for me. I don't need another monthly bill and I can't justify the expense given the amount of time I have to spend gaming. Maybe if they have a free trial period I'll give it look, otherwise I will pass on it.

Also, while a little side chatter on other games is fine, try to keep at least something in your post about the topic of the thread.


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## silentbogo (Jan 30, 2014)

Late for beta test... Have no money to pay for monthly subscription... I'm depressed...
I guess I'll just have to dig up the old copy of Morrowind:GOTY edition and play for a while.


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## ne6togadno (Jan 30, 2014)

Kreij said:


> I would love to play ESO, but the monthly subscription model is a deal breaker for me.



monthly subscriptions is what appeals me most to the game. with current number of retarded ppl in f2p games i strongly hope subscription to become a filter for wide masses of unpleasant persons that only life goal is to brake fun for those around them.


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## Kreij (Jan 30, 2014)

I have no problem whatsoever with the subscription based model. I played the original EQ for years paying monthly.
I just wish they would implement something that gave you limited time in the game per month for a less money (even though it is admittedly stupidly cheap compared to other forms of entertainment that some people pay for).

For $14.99 you get access to the game for over 700 hours a month. I'd like to see something like 70 hours of access (which is still more than I would play) for $1.49 per month.


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## silentbogo (Jan 30, 2014)

ne6togadno said:


> monthly subscriptions is what appeals me most to the game. with current number of retarded ppl in f2p games i strongly hope subscription to become a filter for wide masses of unpleasant persons that only life goal is to brake fun for those around them.


That's a misguided opinion - paid games have the same amount of idiots  at all time. That's why i stopped playing Guild Wars and Aion when they were still in their prime.
In my personal experience the best time to play any MMO is when it is still in stage of closed beta-testing.


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## Kreij (Jan 30, 2014)

There will always be people in games who are just out to spoil the fun for everyone else. Most developers these days who are serious about keeping the reputation of their game intact are dealing with it the best they can. 

I think that Zenimax Online is going to learn that lesson real quick when players start to learn game exploits in ESO, and they will either take a serious stance on the issue or the game will tank.


----------



## newconroer (Jan 30, 2014)

silentbogo said:


> Late for beta test... Have no money to pay for monthly subscription... I'm depressed...
> I guess I'll just have to dig up the old copy of Morrowind:GOTY edition and play for a while.



You'd be doing yourself a favor..no kidding.


Why are we talking about EVE?



Mussels, did you play the beta in the end?


----------



## Ahhzz (Jan 30, 2014)

ne6togadno said:


> pre-order is opened at game's official site


Yeah, got a hit from GamersGate as well  Decent pre-order sweeteners.


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## Deleted member 24505 (Jan 30, 2014)

I played the beta, it was really very good, i will be pre ordering myself asap.

I think they have done a good job. It really does have a kinda skyrim online feel to it, i am very much looking forward to its release.


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## ne6togadno (Jan 30, 2014)

Kreij said:


> I have no problem whatsoever with the subscription based model. I played the original EQ for years paying monthly.
> I just wish they would implement something that gave you limited time in the game per month for a less money (even though it is admittedly stupidly cheap compared to other forms of entertainment that some people pay for).
> 
> For $14.99 you get access to the game for over 700 hours a month. I'd like to see something like 70 hours of access (which is still more than I would play) for $1.49 per month.


that is a great idea. why dont you suggest this to zenimax. i would be interested from something like 350h for 10$ or 200 for 8$



silentbogo said:


> That's a misguided opinion - paid games have the same amount of idiots  at all time. That's why i stopped playing Guild Wars and Aion when they were still in their prime.
> In my personal experience the best time to play any MMO is when it is still in stage of closed beta-testing.


well then somehow i have missed most of the crowd in the sub games i have played. ofc that dont mean it doesnt exist.



Ahhzz said:


> Yeah, got a hit from GamersGate as well  Decent pre-order sweeteners.


yap but most of all i like "any race in any alliance" from emperor edition. and if i dont get it on pre-order i will upgrade later for sure.


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## Ahhzz (Jan 30, 2014)

ne6togadno said:


> yap but most of all i like "any race in any alliance" from emperor edition. and if i dont get it on pre-order i will upgrade later for sure.



I'm not really sure about that. I have no desire to play as the imperials, but I hadn't seen anything that precluded us playing as the other races and alliances. Would like to see some definition about what races are available upon launch, and if you have to pay to open up additional races in a monthly subscription game.... I'm sorry, I'm used to WoW's subscription base (and RIFT, and a few others that followed). If I bought the game, I want to play all the content that is available upon release. That's what my monthly money is for. Expansions, I understand. But normal content?  hmmm......


----------



## newconroer (Jan 30, 2014)

While ESO is not old school EverQuest, it's also not GW2. It doesn't have that flexibility. As far as MMO templates and progression models go, it's really no different than anything that we've experienced before.  ESO is what I call a closed online RPG. You don't play for half an hour and come away having achieved something, something that open (like GW2) online RPGs have accomplished.

Which is why I cam flabbergasted that people are discussing time shared gaming for a title like ESO.


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## ne6togadno (Jan 30, 2014)

Ahhzz said:


> I'm not really sure about that. I have no desire to play as the imperials, but I hadn't seen anything that precluded us playing as the other races and alliances. Would like to see some definition about what races are available upon launch, and if you have to pay to open up additional races in a monthly subscription game.... I'm sorry, I'm used to WoW's subscription base (and RIFT, and a few others that followed). If I bought the game, I want to play all the content that is available upon release. That's what my monthly money is for. Expansions, I understand. But normal content?  hmmm......


if i understood correctly what i have read and from beta session i toke part every alliance is made by 3 races. and if you like to play with curtain race you have to stick to alliance it take part and respectively if you like to play with curtain alliance you can select from 3 raced that take part in it. with emperor edition you take ability to play as imperial (or say it "neutral") and you can pick any race. then later you can join any alliance w/o race restriction to be applied. i guess once alliance is picked you wont be able to switch anymore but this way you wont be alliance restricted when you select class.


----------



## Kreij (Jan 30, 2014)

@newconroer So are you saying that you can't jump into ESO for a short period of time soloing (1/2 hour to an hour) and accomplish anything?


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## newconroer (Jan 30, 2014)

I think in contrast to other games, you might get a little more satisfaction within an hour or two, though I put that down to the fact that ESO is slightly different in some ways, and for a portion of the player base, will be fun for reasons other than simply progression - which is often the only thing left with modern MMOs.

However, the underlying style as I mentioned is still the same and ultimately, the game misses out on few key features of which I want to talk about but...NDA  and all that jazz.

The best I can do to explain it, is reiterating what I've said in the past, which is that ESO is an online game with TES elements, not a TES game with an online mode.
In Skyrim or Morrowind, you would start playing with a plan, say a quest. And this time, yes, you tell yourself THIS TIME, I WILL FINISH IT. And why do you have to talk to yourself and almost have a monologue? Because last time you went completely off track.
So, off you go, to do your quest ..... four hours later, you've explored, adventure, slayed enemies, found loot and coin. You're on the complete opposite end of the world and you didn't do one part of your quest.
And you know what, you don't care! You just enjoyed yourself at your own pace, with no thoughts of other people and concerns for your relative progression.

ESO, is not that game.


----------



## BiggieShady (Jan 30, 2014)

newconroer said:


> ESO is an online game with TES elements, not a TES game with an online mode.



Say no more ...

this was my reaction:



Spoiler


----------



## Ahhzz (Jan 30, 2014)

ne6togadno said:


> if i understood correctly what i have read and from beta session i toke part every alliance is made by 3 races. and if you like to play with curtain race you have to stick to alliance it take part and respectively if you like to play with curtain alliance you can select from 3 raced that take part in it. with emperor edition you take ability to play as imperial (or say it "neutral") and you can pick any race. then later you can join any alliance w/o race restriction to be applied. i guess once alliance is picked you wont be able to switch anymore but this way you wont be alliance restricted when you select class.


Rude!! I'm a ranger/archer/hunter at heart, always have been, so I'm a Bosmer. Getting stuck with the *Aldmeri *STINKS! I just wanted to shoot them all anytime I had to deal with them.. stupid racist, backwards, *grumble*....But I'd almost gotten used to the idea that if I was going to play, I'd just have to do it. Now I've got to consider paying extra?.... This game is starting to annoy me,....


----------



## ne6togadno (Jan 31, 2014)

Ahhzz said:


> Rude!! I'm a ranger/archer/hunter at heart, always have been, so I'm a Bosmer. Getting stuck with the *Aldmeri *STINKS! I just wanted to shoot them all anytime I had to deal with them.. stupid racist, backwards, *grumble*....But I'd almost gotten used to the idea that if I was going to play, I'd just have to do it. Now I've got to consider paying extra?.... This game is starting to annoy me,....


well since in eso "classes" are quite relative and actually you can start with any class and at the end you can have completely different class i think you can give it a try with alliance you like and later to upgrade to imperal editon if you think you enjoy the game and you want to play it. in beta i made redguard dragon knight (or whatever was class named) and dark elf sorcerer and i didnt noticed siginificant impact of the racial perks to gameplay but i leveled to 6-7 lvl.



Kreij said:


> @newconroer So are you saying that you can't jump into ESO for a short period of time soloing (1/2 hour to an hour) and accomplish anything?


depends on what you mean by "accomplish anything". leveling in game is quest driven (at least in 2 starting zones) and considering that killing mobs gives you misserable 5-20xp when you need about 4-5k for lvl4->lvl5 you are actualy encouraged to do quests and explore cause like in skyrim while roaming countryside you can meet quest at any point and that is aside of loot/crafting mats you can find.
picking up quest is quite similar to skyrim. speaking with npc gives you quest goals in brif. if you like to know more you can explore dialog options you have, if you dont want to bother say "i'll be back" and run after compass marker. for half to an hour you can do 2-3 short quests or complite long quest line from start to end if you dont folow side quests. problem is that all quests stories are soo addictive (at least quests i have met) that you actually wont end with only 1/2 to an hour gaming (i wont for sure). if you are talking about lvling then with up to an hour at least at the beginning you will lvl rather slowly cause even quest give more exp then killing mobs they dont give so much xp that you get lvl after turning 2 quests. i havent played long enough to check if power lvling is possible so i cant say how things going when you reach continent (first 2 zones for redguard are on islands).
rcoon has lvl10+ toons may be he can share his impresions.
i havnt tried pvp or dungeoning but from what i have saw yes game is not skyrim but definitely it is TES game. you cant mistake it with wow, gw or other mmo game


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## RCoon (Jan 31, 2014)

So the base game is £50, includes 30 days and then you have to subscribe. This is a joke. But the joke gets worse.
The legendary edition is like £70 or something, gives you a race nobody else gets (lulwut?) and the rings of mara so you level up faster than everyone else.

I'm not paying £50 for the right to play an MMO that is also subscription based. I'm also not paying an additonal £20 to level up faster and have access to something everyone should have access to.

This screams "nobody is going to play our game in 6 months, so let's hope we can make a big pile of cash on preorders and initial game sales".

I intended to play and subscribe to ESO, after this news, I will not.



ne6togadno said:


> rcoon has lvl10+ toons may be he can share his impresions.


I really liked levelling in ESO, the quests are varied and fun, every class feels really nice. Some of the quests are literally EPIC and I was grinning the whole way through beta. I like most of the classes, although 2H dragon knight seems a little bit average, my wizard does twice as much damage at the same level. It is ten times more fun levelling than WoW, you can tell they put a lot of effort into the quests.

Like you said, quest lines are addictive. REALLY addictive. I went off on a wild tangent, ran around volcano, went into the past to discover how a dead guy banished a giant siege flesh golem, and did it myself with the aid of said past dead guy. The scale of quests is just amazing, and the stories are amazing. You'll also notice some of your choices in certain quests *do actually affect the environment*, to the point I caused someone to commit suicide, and a few hours later found her ghost wandering around the planes, somewhat angry I had told her the truth.


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## ne6togadno (Jan 31, 2014)

http://www.amazon.co_uk/dp/B0080V93Q8/?tag=tec053-21
you can get it from continental amazon and save from change rate too.


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## RCoon (Jan 31, 2014)

ne6togadno said:


> http://www.amazon.co_uk/dp/B0080V93Q8/?tag=tec053-21
> you can get it from continental amazon and save from change rate too.


 
Seriously, the game is great fun, i actually WANTED to level loads of characters, but until they revise their pricing strategy I will be boycotting. Not that it will make a difference.


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## ne6togadno (Jan 31, 2014)

how much do you pay for wow. check how much will cost you to get wow+all expansions till pandaria if you start palying it now. for game has 10+ years old graphics and they made burning crusade free just 2 ears ago.
eso sub rate is on pair with any current mmo that require sub and taking account my latest experience with f2p games i'd rader pay to get game with descent quality then i play rushed unfinished piece of shit full of bugs, clipping issues, fail game mechanics etc. etc. game and to wait for months or even years for fixes if they ever come.
restriction race/alliance comes from game story line and is used for reasoning of pvp story. yes it may not fit everyone personal preference for race+allinace combination but is has to be done cause otherwise pvp will be out of space.
eso is open pvp game like war and daoc they cant make game with 9 sides pvp as emperor throne competition would suggest so alliances are must.
havnt tried it myself but i am pretty sure you will be able to group with members of any alliance in pve dungeons and separation between alliances will be only in pvp.
i played wow after i have quited plaing war, i am playing neverwinter (i am asking myself why thou), world of tanks and i can assure you nothing can compare with open pvp in war, even purely pvp oriented game like wot


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## RCoon (Jan 31, 2014)

ne6togadno said:


> check how much will cost you to get wow+all expansions till pandaria if you start palying it now.


 
ESO is a singular base game, WoW and all its expansions is just that. The base game, plus a few years of extra content. Not that I play WoW anymore, too many kids.

I want ESO to be awesome, I'll wait until the base game cost is at a reasonable price before I attempt to play it. This high cost is due to consoles though. If it were PC only it would be £30.


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## BumbleBee (Jan 31, 2014)

the reason I brought up EVE is because it's considered the most hardcore MMO out there. it has a steep learning curve but rewards players who are patient. it's a game for the intellectual.. the average age is 30 or 35. you can't win because there is no level cap. the developers allow players to pay subscription with in-game currency instead of real money and the expansions are free. you will get a rush from PvP because when you lose a ship it's gone forever. it's a true sandbox experience with risk, scamming, player driven market and other things (see below). EVE Online has outlived every MMO because it doesn't chase World of Warcraft.

if you want to see what the other side of the coin looks like.. check it out.


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## ne6togadno (Jan 31, 2014)

RCoon said:


> ESO is a singular base game, WoW and all its expansions is just that. The base game, plus a few years of extra content. Not that I play WoW anymore, too many kids.
> 
> I want ESO to be awesome, I'll wait until the base game cost is at a reasonable price before I attempt to play it. This high cost is due to consoles though. If it were PC only it would be £30.


if i remember well blizz asked about 30-40euro for pandaria when expansion came out and it wasnt including 30days free. 2 years back i got my wow copy free from bnet promo and i remember i had to pay about 40+ euro to get expansions till cata which at that time was 3-4 months old.
yes it it was pc only it would be cheaper but truth is console players are wider audience and if we want to play it longer (and beth to get $$$ longer) it has to be available for consoles too (or if we have to be correct pc players pay more so they can get console game ported to pc).
other option is to wait 2-3 months initial hype to pass and then to get it when price drop to 30 as you pointed in edit which i didnt read


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## newconroer (Jan 31, 2014)

ne6togadno said:


> well since in eso "classes" are quite relative and actually you can start with any class and at the end you can have completely different class i think you can give it a try with alliance you like and later to upgrade to imperal editon if you think you enjoy the game and you want to play it. in beta i made redguard dragon knight (or whatever was class named) and dark elf sorcerer and i didnt noticed siginificant impact of the racial perks to gameplay but i leveled to 6-7 lvl.
> 
> 
> depends on what you mean by "accomplish anything". leveling in game is quest driven (at least in 2 starting zones) and considering that killing mobs gives you misserable 5-20xp when you need about 4-5k for lvl4->lvl5 you are actualy encouraged to do quests and explore cause like in skyrim while roaming countryside you can meet quest at any point and that is aside of loot/crafting mats you can find.
> ...




Since you already let it slip - low experience from mob kills -  is one aspect that absolutely kills ESO's chance at really solidifying itself as a contender.
They may spread out the quests, and throw in some random locations for them (instead of the obvious outpost quest hubbing we've become accustomed to), but it's still the same style of progression.
I can't think of the last MMO that had good experience per mob kills, which would then provide you a completely alternative option to how you progress.

Though the real transcending issue is that ESO is still using a numerical progression based system (that's no secret). This is one thing they copied from TES, that they shouldn't have.

Anyways, I'll spill morsels as I release more update articles on Overlord gaming, but until then, it's an ok game, just not what it could be.


EDIT: Bumble, while EVE is awesome, I don't think you're going to get any converts here.


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## Kreij (Jan 31, 2014)

newconroer said:


> Since you already let it slip - low experience from mob kills - is one aspect that absolutely kills ESO's chance at really solidifying itself as a contender.



It seems to me that low XP for generic mob kills would redirect the game from a typical grind to a more quest oriented nature to give people more incentive to experience the content through questing instead of just doing mindless  mob killing.  I could be wrong, but that sounds better to me, not worse.


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## Ahhzz (Jan 31, 2014)

Kreij said:


> It seems to me that low XP for generic mob kills would redirect the game from a typical grind to a more quest oriented nature to give people more incentive to experience the content through questing instead of just doing mindless  mob killing.  I could be wrong, but that sounds better to me, not worse.



Gotta agree here. That's one thing I was pleased with right off, that I didn't make it to level 10 in 4 hours, which was the longest it took in WoW "back in the old days", even with playing around. I enjoyed that even with all the time I did have the last weekend, I barely cleared 10.


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## newconroer (Jan 31, 2014)

Kreij said:


> It seems to me that low XP for generic mob kills would redirect the game from a typical grind to a more quest oriented nature to give people more incentive to experience the content through questing instead of just doing mindless  mob killing.  I could be wrong, but that sounds better to me, not worse.





Ahhzz said:


> Gotta agree here. That's one thing I was pleased with right off, that I didn't make it to level 10 in 4 hours, which was the longest it took in WoW "back in the old days", even with playing around. I enjoyed that even with all the time I did have the last weekend, I barely cleared 10.



I understand where you are coming from, though hear this out.


Let's consider some facts:

A) You mighty call it mindless, some people call it fun. If the combat and the interaction (or simply the game itself) is enjoyable, then why would you trade one aspect for another? Why not have a mixture?

B) You may be working under a false premise or faulty logic. The level at which you progress, is a mathematical formula that a developer decides upon and can structure around whatever game style they choose. If your argument was that 'back in the old days,' you leveled too quickly because of mob experience being high-er, than that's simply how they intended it - or in the case of really old games, possibly a mechanics imbalance.

Ultimately, they could easily make quest gains massive, and you would be level ten in one hour - no matter the method.


C)Warcraft began this quest progression style in the early 2000s. Unfortunately it went way overboard and became the default style for MMORPGs.


Often we mistake mob grind as some archaic mechanic, yet in reality, it had a shorter lifespan than quest grinding has. Effectively quest grinding is more outdated than mob grinding.

If you think about it, questing is like adventuring. You don't always go looking for it, sometimes it finds you. It can be random, unforseen and unpredictable.
Where as you could view mob grinding as practicing both literally (as you the player physically plays the game and gets better) and metaphorically, as your in-game character gains better skills/levels up.


To me that sounds more believable and realistic, than the other way around - the common MMO style - that you would go out into a world intentionally seeking adventure and find it readily available (npcs with exclamation marks), only to then run back and forth simultaneously doing these shallow 'quests,' and only killing (practicing) the bare minimum amount of enemies. You then return to a 'quest giver' and magically, with a click of a button you are suddenly and instantaneously closer to becoming more proficient, stronger and skilled.

MMORPGS are not supposed to be the Matrix. You don't just plugin and upload the knowledge.

So under that premise, they had it right to begin with all those years ago. Quests are long and winding and deep. They do not always pan out, and they don't give instant gratification. While you quest, that's when you get the experience, as you move from place to place, foe to foe. Echoing what I said above, "practicing both literally (as you the player physically plays the game and gets better) and metaphorically, as your in-game character gains better skills/levels up."


Moving onto something practical and possibly familiar to you. When is the last time you heard someone say 'well if it isn't social, it isn't an MMO'  ?  We hear it all the time now days. There are games being ridiculed as 'too solo oriented,' or not 'social friendly.'
Let me be clear, I dislike many people on the internet, or internet culture, however, there is some merit to what these people say (even if they believe it for the wrong reasons).

You can't expect people to interact when they don't need to, and when there's no encouragement to do so, then everyone finds themselves playing alone.
In these environments, you only interact when you have to and when you need to. 
Think about group finders and automated systems that remove many elements of the act and the art of playing MMOs with other people, they are implemented as a means and a metric to support the quest grind system(s) as it inevitably results in a overtly solo oriented gaming experience. 

However a game that is setup properly for monster experience grind, indirectly sends people on a collision course with one another and therefore they do interact. Whatever they do, they do it together. They meet, they greet, they communicate, they decide, they travel, they adventure, they win, they lose, they try again, they succeed, they fall, they quit, they reform, they leave, they return, they bid farewell, they send friend requests and they then repeat this cycle with their new friends, allies and like minded individuals - whom they would have not done any of the aforementioned things. because in other games, there's no need to interact that kind of level - and in some, they have cross server these activities with strangers, whom you will never see ever again!


EverQuest Online Adventures might have gotten the closest. It was primarily around mob grinding yet the quests could net significant and relative (key word) experience gains from time to time. As mentioned above, you went out looking to hone your skills (mob slaying) and along the way you quested, you adventured. It was a secondary, not a primary.


The thing to take away from it is that a good developer can make both systems work together and in some ways,

That's what we need again, and sadly ESO doesn't take that risk.


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## Kreij (Feb 1, 2014)

@newconroer 

While many people, myself included, enjoy mindless mob killing, it's still mindless. It does not take a whole lot of wherewithal to figure out your characters optimum configuration/tactics for fighting mobs. I would never want to see an MMO remove the ability for a player to just go out and kill stuff if they wish, it just should not, IMO, result in the same or better rewards than for questing.

I agree with you in that there has to be a balance to both. For instance, if you get a new weapon and want to become more proficient at it, you go out and use it. This, however, should definitely have diminishing returns. That brings up the age old argument as to whether characters in a game should have levels at all, as opposed to just becoming more proficient at their chosen abilities over time. By removing levels, you in effect remove the "magical quest completion" component of making a character better.

This also brings up the issue with repeating quests, "quest grinding" if you will. The result of quest completion should reward the player with something that is specific to the quest (ie. The Super Awesome Ultra Mega Sword of Doom). Once completed, a player should be able to redo the quest with others, but should not receive anything other than some gold and any proficiency gained by using abilities. Again, this is this my opinion.

As for the social aspect of MMOs, they are without a doubt a social mechanism to get people to play together. I don't think that this should exclude a player from venturing out on their own if they so choose. As an old school dice rolling D&D player, one of the things that made the games fun was that no matter what you tried to do, there was always a "chance" (however slim) you might succeed. Most of the games fail in this manner in that it is simply impossible to take on something that is considerable higher level than you, whether a mob or another player in PvP, if you are not part of a group. Should it be easy? Not at all. Should it be possible? Yes.

I also am not so sure I agree with your statement that just a player "can" do something alone that they will opt to do it that way, or vice versa. When you read about EVE Online you are presented quite bluntly with the fact that if you like soloing it was not the game you want to play. I soloed exclusively and loved it, which goes back to the comment that players should be given a choice on their preferred play style, even if it's not the most effective means to accomplish things.

I think that like every other MMO on the planet, over time the developers of ESO will adjust game balance, implement changes to the way things work, and eventually find a good balance for what people want in the game. While you cannot cater to one side or the other, I think that given the game is still in Beta and that it might possibly takes years of content addition and adjustment, it's a little too early to say what ESO will turn out to be like, or if they will ever "take the risk".

Thanks for the discussion !!!


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## newconroer (Feb 1, 2014)

Kreij said:


> While many people, myself included, enjoy mindless mob killing, it's still mindless. It does not take a whole lot of wherewithal to figure out your characters optimum configuration/tactics for fighting mobs. I would never want to see an MMO remove the ability for a player to just go out and kill stuff if they wish, it just should not, IMO, result in the same or better rewards than for questing.



I would question then the game itself, not the method. Inevitably, questing or quest grinding involves these same mobs that we are discussing. The question then becomes how much interaction with them, or how much slaying results in it become 'mindless' or not enjoyable?
If you consider that - at least in group scenarios akin to the old EQ and FFXI days - there was more to it than simply bashing a monster and being successful in mere seconds. While the act and the animations may have been simple or simplistic, the entire process at times was quite complex. Once you became good at said activities, it netted more of a return than just loot or coin, but also a sense of achievement. Group building, travelling, camp placement, monster pulling, resource management(health/mana), speed and efficiency, adaptiveness, awareness, reflex, communication - it's a all part of the overall requirements. And in a way it's a form of management or micro management, which is really really popular to people.

You are correct, we would never want mobs to simply disappear - that would possibly remove the need for 'open world' locations. We might as well simply dungeon crawl from a lobby menu like Diablo type games.
Though if you want to look at a game that embodies the downfall of MMORPGS in regards to quest oriented progression, than look no further than FFXIV:ARR. The open world mobs are mere back drops and fillers, until they become part of a quest.

Interestingly, ESO in fact has gone so head first into this method, that rather than balance it by making mobs have more experience reward, they've done the opposite and tried to support this system by making quests have stories in them that you may get attached to. Which in itself is a super welcome addition, yet not at the expense of never having the need or the advantage to simply go out and hunt at your own discretion. As eluded to before, they have dressed it up fairly well by spreading things out.


Kreij said:


> I agree with you in that there has to be a balance to both. For instance, if you get a new weapon and want to become more proficient at it, you go out and use it. This, however, should definitely have diminishing returns. That brings up the age old argument as to whether characters in a game should have levels at all, as opposed to just becoming more proficient at their chosen abilities over time. By removing levels, you in effect remove the "magical quest completion" component of making a character better.



We are on the same page mostly here. Though the only correlation I see between 'skilling' progression and numerical level progression is in whether they can make them mutually exclusive - and I believe it can be done(in some games it sorta has already).
The question of 'magical quest completion' is or can be treated as a separate issue. It's only a sub component of the transcending progression system, whatever that may be.



Kreij said:


> This also brings up the issue with repeating quests, "quest grinding" if you will. The result of quest completion should reward the player with something that is specific to the quest (ie. The Super Awesome Ultra Mega Sword of Doom). Once completed, a player should be able to redo the quest with others, but should not receive anything other than some gold and any proficiency gained by using abilities. Again, this is this my opinion.



I'm pretty old school in that I do not expect any reward from a quest, especially not initially. You remember EverQuest, some things took MONTHS, and they had several stages where you received nothing but more items to carry on the journey - which is what it became.
However if we had to meet in the middle and provide a bit more instant gratification, than at least remove experience from some quests and/or reduce them so they have less impact and are therefore not seen as primary source of progression. This of course though only works if there's alternative methods, such as monster experience!

I've tried to do as much dungeon play as possible in ESO without boring myself, and for a while you can rack up fair experience gain from the monsters, however it's not a steady rate and I cannot determine the variables to the equation(metaphorically speaking). I need more time, however it's fair to say, they do not intend for you to dungeon crawl all the time - which is a shame really, because at times there's some real brilliance in the action when you play with others. You would think that developers would try to find that moment of clarity and capture like a Kodak moment, then reproduce it wherever possible.



Kreij said:


> As for the social aspect of MMOs, they are without a doubt a social mechanism to get people to play together. I don't think that this should exclude a player from venturing out on their own if they so choose. As an old school dice rolling D&D player, one of the things that made the games fun was that no matter what you tried to do, there was always a "chance" (however slim) you might succeed. Most of the games fail in this manner in that it is simply impossible to take on something that is considerable higher level than you, whether a mob or another player in PvP, if you are not part of a group. Should it be easy? Not at all. Should it be possible? Yes.



It may have been Smedley, or McQuaid whom once said that they never intended EverQuest to be a place where you were *forced* to interact with others, or relied on others to succeed at all aspects of the game. Unfortunately, any misplaced intolerance towards solo play, was more down to mechanics and how they were going into something a bit blind, unchartered territories so to speak. They still respected those who wanted a challenge alone.

And I have always believed and agreed that adventuring with others is a bonus, a boon, and a part of the questing experience itself - it's "random, unforseen and unpredictable."
When you force people to do something, whether alone or together, you will not win their hearts and minds the same as if you inspire or encourage them to do it.

It's odd to think that we've been forced into quest progression and games that cater to the solo play, and yet we still try to shout down the idea of concepts like monster grinding. I often wonder if people understand fully what they are saying.

As for the challenge aspect, yes, there's a significant satisfaction in being able to succeed alone, where others require assistance. Fallen Earth is great modern online game for that, and I often reference it as an example of how you can make a successful online game that's solo oriented, but not apologetic about it.
I am actually looking forward to whether ESO's world mobs will get a bit of an AI tweak and balance, so that we get more of them, but downgraded slightly so they can be solo or double teamed, rather than having to wait on thirty random strangers to come to a 'dynamic event' and then spam abilities until all the spell particles stop exploding a.k.a. the fight is over.




Kreij said:


> I also am not so sure I agree with your statement that just a player "can" do something alone that they will opt to do it that way, or vice versa. When you read about EVE Online you are presented quite bluntly with the fact that if you like soloing it was not the game you want to play. I soloed exclusively and loved it, which goes back to the comment that players should be given a choice on their preferred play style, even if it's not the most effective means to accomplish things.



Unfortunately it seems to be a growing trend. When you do not need to communicate or interact, and you know you can do things alone, you often end up heading down that path. We could call it lazy, selfish, paranoid, anti-social - it doesn't matter how we describe it, it does happen and I can understand why.
Alternatively you do not want to force people together as previously mentioned, as that can have even worse side effects.



Kreij said:


> I think that like every other MMO on the planet, over time the developers of ESO will adjust game balance, implement changes to the way things work, and eventually find a good balance for what people want in the game. While you cannot cater to one side or the other, I think that given the game is still in Beta and that it might possibly takes years of content addition and adjustment, it's a little too early to say what ESO will turn out to be like, or if they will ever "take the risk".



I'd also like to believe that ESO will eventually band people together a bit more through subtle means and if the game play gets better, there will be more people out in the open world engaging monsters for the simple play enjoyment and therefore cross paths.




The conclusion here though is that nothing about these views dictate whether or not quest progression as a concept or a template, is better than monster grinding - or maybe more importantly, why developers cannot give more credence and focus on both types of foundations.


I knew ESO might become a let down, when I started to notice various aspects that were a-typical of modern MMORPGs, and of course I realized they must only be implemented because the transcending game style and it's progression method is quest driven. And sure enough I was exactly right.
And while most of ESO's failures as a break through game are a direct result of quest progression, there's a whole host of other little things it does very very wrong, that make even the most optimistic of it's players, wish they'd never even tried the game to begin with.

It's like idolizing someone for a long time, and then when you finally get to meet them, you wish you hadn't.




Kreij said:


> Thanks for the discussion !!!



Of course, likewise.


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## Deleted member 24505 (Feb 1, 2014)

Kreij said:


> @newconroer
> 
> While many people, myself included, enjoy mindless mob killing, it's still mindless. It does not take a whole lot of wherewithal to figure out your characters optimum configuration/tactics for fighting mobs. I would never want to see an MMO remove the ability for a player to just go out and kill stuff if they wish, it just should not, IMO, result in the same or better rewards than for questing.
> 
> ...






newconroer said:


> I would question then the game itself, not the method. Inevitably, questing or quest grinding involves these same mobs that we are discussing. The question then becomes how much interaction with them, or how much slaying results in it become 'mindless' or not enjoyable?
> If you consider that - at least in group scenarios akin to the old EQ and FFXI days - there was more to it than simply bashing a monster and being successful in mere seconds. While the act and the animations may have been simple or simplistic, the entire process at times was quite complex. Once you became good at said activities, it netted more of a return than just loot or coin, but also a sense of achievement. Group building, travelling, camp placement, monster pulling, resource management(health/mana), speed and efficiency, adaptiveness, awareness, reflex, communication - it's a all part of the overall requirements. And in a way it's a form of management or micro management, which is really really popular to people.
> 
> You are correct, we would never want mobs to simply disappear - that would possibly remove the need for 'open world' locations. We might as well simply dungeon crawl from a lobby menu like Diablo type games.
> ...




Thanks to both of you, interesting read.

I personally enjoyed ESO and probably will be buying it.


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## Kreij (Feb 1, 2014)

newconroer said:


> The question then becomes how much interaction with them, or how much slaying results in it become 'mindless' or not enjoyable?



I forgot to clarify that I in no way associate "mindless" with "not enjoyable". 
Mindless entertainment is sometimes exactly what I want to relax.


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## Octopuss (Feb 1, 2014)

Anyone questioning low XP from mobs should be forced to play the original Anarchy Online with just the first expansion. You ONLY levelled up by killing mobs. I virtually spent weeks killing the same mobs over and over with random groups for up to 16 hours a day to get to the cap. There was no other way to level up.
Give me a break.


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## newconroer (Feb 1, 2014)

Kreij said:


> I forgot to clarify that I in no way associate "mindless" with "not enjoyable".
> Mindless entertainment is sometimes exactly what I want to relax.




Exactly. And some of the most effective systems start from a simplistic foundation.


Anyways, Pantheon might just be the savior for the MMO genre. I can't really plug it here, but the kickstarter is already under way, so get to it MMO veterans, donate!


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## Kreij (Feb 2, 2014)

@newconroer You can always start a thread to discuss _Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen_ if you would like.


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## Ahhzz (Feb 3, 2014)

Octopuss said:


> Anyone questioning low XP from mobs should be forced to play the original Anarchy Online with just the first expansion. You ONLY levelled up by killing mobs. I virtually spent weeks killing the same mobs over and over with random groups for up to 16 hours a day to get to the cap. There was no other way to level up.
> Give me a break.


OMG I'd completely forgotten this... thanks SO much for bringing that sour egg back up from lunch...


Thanks SpecialK and Newcon  Nice discussion. I'll not add any more wall of text to it, but simply say I didn't have an explosive "OMG WOW" moment in ESO yet, which kept me from stealing the pre-order the other day, but I'll probably slide in a little later on a deal of the day somewhere, and be hopeful. Sometimes, the mindless grinding is enjoyable, but the thing I enjoyed most about TES games was getting so far off my quest path I forgot what I was supposed to be doing


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## Disparia (Feb 3, 2014)

Already paying $10/month for LOTRO in 3 month increments and ESO will most likely have a similar multi-month discount. I know LOTRO doesn't make you buy the game, but considering I went 128hrs into Skyrim before defeating Alduin, I think I could get $60 worth of enjoyment out ESO even if it fizzles out within a year. Hopefully not of course as ESO has so much promise, especially in terms of PvP. There's enough PvMPers left in LOTRO to probably fill 3-4 servers, except we're spread out over 29 servers and transfers cost $25 USD per character. In contrast, campaign transfers in ESO cost in-game points or gold. It's also a huge frickin' domination map!


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## RCoon (Feb 3, 2014)

Ahhzz said:


> was getting so far off my quest path I forgot what I was supposed to be doing



That's happened far too many times. Especially when it comes to iron ore.
The Flesh Golem was probably my WOW moment though, even though it was a controlled single player boss encounter, it rustled me in all the right places.


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## Ahhzz (Feb 3, 2014)

RCoon said:


> That's happened far too many times. Especially when it comes to iron ore.
> The Flesh Golem was probably my WOW moment though, even though it was a controlled single player boss encounter, it rustled me in all the right places.


didn't make it that far (had a delayed Christmas with my Mom and family that weekend), but I'll check with my beta guild and see if anyone made it there  

I know I got more than my $12 monthly from WoW for the first 3 years or so, anyway, but I think I may have lost money the last couple of years I played lol. I could have been in Eve!! Eh, I've got several games I'm playing right now, altho Neverwinter is slowly falling behind to the wayside. I don't know that I'll have time to add ESO to the immediate ranks, especially since I'll need to save up some gaming brownie points for Star Citizen and Elite (and the associated gaming costs  ).


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## RCoon (Feb 3, 2014)

Ahhzz said:


> didn't make it that far (had a delayed Christmas with my Mom and family that weekend), but I'll check with my beta guild and see if anyone made it there
> 
> I know I got more than my $12 monthly from WoW for the first 3 years or so, anyway, but I think I may have lost money the last couple of years I played lol. I could have been in Eve!! Eh, I've got several games I'm playing right now, altho Neverwinter is slowly falling behind to the wayside. I don't know that I'll have time to add ESO to the immediate ranks, especially since I'll need to save up some gaming brownie points for Star Citizen and Elite (and the associated gaming costs  ).



I've flat out given up on all the multiplayer games I used to play. Started playing Loadout which is fun, and got back into XCOM. Only things I care about are Elite and Star Citizen like everybody else. Other games just got boring/dont interest me anymore. ESO would have been nice I guess, I just dislike these extras they give for preorders, I don't like preordering games. I learned my lesson with Diablo 3. ESO is on my limbo pile, which is entirely empty at this point.


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## ne6togadno (Feb 4, 2014)

RCoon said:


> I've flat out given up on all the multiplayer games I used to play. Started playing Loadout which is fun, and got back into XCOM. Only things I care about are Elite and Star Citizen like everybody else. Other games just got boring/dont interest me anymore. ESO would have been nice I guess, I just dislike these extras they give for preorders, I don't like preordering games. I learned my lesson with Diablo 3. ESO is on my limbo pile, which is entirely empty at this point.


the only thing that eso pre-order give is 5 days early access. shinny things come with imperial version and since there will be upgrade to imperial i bet this upgrade will be best seller in their shop


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## Jaffakeik (Feb 5, 2014)

Ggoott into wweekends stress test.atleast will have some idea of game what it feels like.go get my final decision buy or not buy


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## RCoon (Feb 5, 2014)

Jaffakeik said:


> Ggoott into wweekends stress test.atleast will have some idea of game what it feels like.go get my final decision buy or not buy


 
Sadly I'll be sleeping at the gf's house this weekend, if anything awesome happens do tell me, and I can regret not being single for a while.


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## ne6togadno (Feb 5, 2014)

RCoon said:


> Sadly I'll be sleeping at the gf's house this weekend, if anything awesome happens do tell me, and I can regret not being single for a while.


you have small case very easy to carry around ^^


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## Deleted member 24505 (Feb 5, 2014)

Got another beta key


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## Ahhzz (Feb 5, 2014)

Yup, got dental surgery tomorrow, out for the week, will spend my recovery Friday sitting in front of the screen


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## ne6togadno (Feb 5, 2014)

Ahhzz said:


> will spend my recovery Friday sitting in front of the screen


saying it this way almost makes me wish i had dental surgery too.


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## brandonwh64 (Feb 5, 2014)

I just got the beta invite for this anyone have videos of the gameplay?


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## ne6togadno (Feb 5, 2014)

elderscrollsonline.com
in news section there was video devs fighting world boss. it was from last week if i remember well


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## Ahhzz (Feb 5, 2014)

lol since my last two beta invites have been disrupted by other obligations, it's almost pleasant to have one not so much   Looks like we start with last Beta's characters intact, which is nice, except now I really have to find something to do with all that crap in my bags 


*edit*
Course, I've just been told my 89-year old grandfather probably only has a few days to live, so I may be out of town this weekend anyway. Apparently, I am not destined to play this game.


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## Urlyin (Feb 6, 2014)

I'll be playing this weekend with a beta key for the first time... I'm actually looking forward to it. Don't kill me Bro ... lol


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## DarkOCean (Feb 6, 2014)

anyone want a beta key? just pm me

Edit: 
BiggieShady got one, have one more.


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## DarkOCean (Feb 6, 2014)

bumping myself. sorry for dp


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## catnipkiller (Feb 6, 2014)

I got another beta invite cant wait to see what they added.


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## erocker (Feb 6, 2014)

They opened up Cyrodill! That's where I'm heading.


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## stinger608 (Feb 7, 2014)

I finally got my first invite yesterday!!! Holy crap, almost 22 gig download! Can't wait until tomorrow for this.


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## Jaffakeik (Feb 7, 2014)

Will start download today evening thru night hopefully will be ready and playable when servers open


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## ShiBDiB (Feb 7, 2014)

I think I'll actually have some time to get to enjoy this one.. I completely missed the last weekend and I have a feeling there won't be many more before going gold.


What I REALLLLY want is like a 2 week long beta stress test before release.... fingers crossed


----------



## RCoon (Feb 7, 2014)

I am slightly depressed I won't get the chance to hit the level cap on all my characters this weekend... I bought a bottle of King Cobra last night to console myself.


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## rooivalk (Feb 7, 2014)

What can you do in this beta weekend? except for leveling or exploring ofc.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to it. There's no other MMOs that keep me glued to my PC since WoW days. 
EVE looks incredible but probably isn't my genre.


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## newconroer (Feb 7, 2014)

Hey all,

*Contact TPU admin if you want to advertise a giveaway on your website. Doing it on the forum is not acceptable.



rooivalk said:


> What can you do in this beta weekend? except for leveling or exploring ofc.
> 
> Anyway, I'm looking forward to it. There's no other MMOs that keep me glued to my PC since WoW days.
> EVE looks incredible but probably isn't my genre.



That's all you end up doing in any of the sessions, unless you are actually trying every aspect you can with the intent to submit bugs and feedback.

If you haven't already, a few dungeon runs may be of interest.


If you liked WoW from the way back, when it was actually some what challenging, maybe old EQ on P99 would be enjoyable.


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## RCoon (Feb 7, 2014)

rooivalk said:


> What can you do in this beta weekend?





rooivalk said:


> except for leveling





rooivalk said:


> leveling





rooivalk said:


> leveling





rooivalk said:


> leveling


 
It may be considered autistic, but my entire goal through the BETA was to get everything to max possible level and have a damn good blast in all the quests while I did it!

You could always make a fat mage?

EDIT: 





RCoon said:


> have a damn good blast


 
I've been living in Britain too long, I need to wash the british off soon.


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## Ahhzz (Feb 7, 2014)

What could/should you do? Everything you can   The "stress test" part comes in on Saturday at noon EST, other than that, do what you think might break something. Try to sell and drop something at the same time. Try to sell an equipped item and de-equip it. Try to add more things to your bank than it holds. Try to find the hidden pixels on a building and get to the top, ala WoW AH style.


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## Deleted member 24505 (Feb 7, 2014)

Ahhzz said:


> What could/should you do? Everything you can   The "stress test" part comes in on Saturday at noon EST, other than that, do what you think might break something. Try to sell and drop something at the same time. Try to sell an equipped item and de-equip it. Try to add more things to your bank than it holds. Try to find the hidden pixels on a building and get to the top, ala WoW AH style.




Just to add to your post, 

Basically try to break it.


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## RCoon (Feb 7, 2014)

Ahhzz said:


> What could/should you do? Everything you can   The "stress test" part comes in on Saturday at noon EST, other than that, do what you think might break something. Try to sell and drop something at the same time. Try to sell an equipped item and de-equip it. Try to add more things to your bank than it holds. Try to find the hidden pixels on a building and get to the top, ala WoW AH style.


 
Try to marry your sister, Balgruf


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## rtwjunkie (Feb 7, 2014)

Just wondering, although it now appears to be too late, exactly how did invites to beta test come about?  In other words, was there a process to follow to get the invite?


----------



## newconroer (Feb 7, 2014)

rtwjunkie said:


> Just wondering, although it now appears to be too late, exactly how did invites to beta test come about?  In other words, was there a process to follow to get the invite?



The process was to sign up on their website and then wait. They then send them out in waves once every few months or so.

If you're looking for one still, see post #214 above.


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## rtwjunkie (Feb 7, 2014)

Yeah, lol, I must have missed the first part..."sign up on their website".  I appreciate the info on getting an invite!


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## catnipkiller (Feb 7, 2014)

If anyone is playing this weekend add catnipkiller or dirty old mage. I will be on for most of the weekend.


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## erocker (Feb 7, 2014)

So.. I'm waiting in queue and more time is being added to the queue. Great.


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## newconroer (Feb 7, 2014)

erocker said:


> So.. I'm waiting in queue and more time is being added to the queue. Great.



Just seen that.

Even more interesting is on another computer, we have it still updating a 4gb patch in the launcher that I was unaware existed, and yet simultaneously, the client is open and has put us in a que.


Hmm....


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## catnipkiller (Feb 7, 2014)

40 min que it looks like the mega server works great.


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## erocker (Feb 7, 2014)

I started at 28 minutes.. Now I'm at 42 minutes. I don't think Bethesda knows what a queue means.


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## newconroer (Feb 7, 2014)

Every Friday of each test there's something ailing the servers, so, by morning it clears up.

Waiting the in que is somewhat pointless. After it adds time, it eventually kicks you and when you rejoin it shows your real time, which is more.

First time I have seen a que for ESO though; think it may be down to them throttling because of connection issues.



erocker said:


> I started at 28 minutes.. Now I'm at 42 minutes. I don't think Bethesda knows what a queue means.



Aye


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## erocker (Feb 7, 2014)

Wait.. Now it's going back down. lol.


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## newconroer (Feb 7, 2014)

And they've managed to get music playing simultaneously - wow this is cutting edge.


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## erocker (Feb 7, 2014)

I would be on the edge of my seat.. but it would roll out from under me and I'd probably hit my jaw on the desk.

Sub 20 minutes now.

IT'S HAPPENING!!!


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## newconroer (Feb 7, 2014)

Right?

Ok got in, but the performance /frame rate is trashed. 7.2fps  not good


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## catnipkiller (Feb 7, 2014)

Im in the game now it crashed and let me back in with no que time thank god.


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## DarkOCean (Feb 7, 2014)

requesting character load.....


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## newconroer (Feb 7, 2014)

Fu!! SLI is broken - total performance death.


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## Ahhzz (Feb 7, 2014)

tigger said:


> Just to add to your post,
> 
> Basically try to break it.


I kinda said that  heheh


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## Kreij (Feb 7, 2014)

DarkOCean said:


> requesting character load.....



That's what I was getting too. Figured I would try later.


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## newconroer (Feb 7, 2014)

That happens occasionally. Here's some pointers from my OG thread 


Do not mouse click on the LOGIN button, use the enter key instead
Don't give up, sometimes can take twenty attempts, though not often that many
You'll know the login process is working, as the animated ESO logo hiccups twice, before loading the next screen
If you get to character select, hurry up and make your character within three to five minutes. Sometimes you will get randomly kicked and have to start over again
At character screens, logging in can sometimes have you staring at yourself(requesting character load) or a black screen for several minutes. If you see a artistic painting next, then you're about to login to the game world
Last session /client had a problem with Vsync and it caused noticeable performance loss. It's better to have it on, though not until it's fixed


Also, what name you under Kreij?


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## Deleted member 24505 (Feb 8, 2014)

Played the beta a few weeks ago, it was fun, this time was a buggy piece of shit, I thought later betas were supposed to be better as they fix stuff.


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## Kreij (Feb 8, 2014)

newconroer said:


> Also, what name you under Kreij?



I haven't been able to get in with a character yet, so I don't have one if that's what you are asking. I'm not even sure how the game works at this point. lol


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## newconroer (Feb 8, 2014)

Hmm, well try some of my tips above. But yes was asking your player or account name.

Also if you come by Raid Call, I can help you  more


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## BiggieShady (Feb 8, 2014)

Played yesterday, leveled my sneaky dark elf to level 5, left the starting area, had a blast and realized that everyone in this game has characters with silvery white hair ... and while it's "requesting character load" I have enough time to write a post here ...


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## newconroer (Feb 8, 2014)

BiggieShady said:


> Played yesterday, leveled my sneaky dark elf to level 5, left the starting area, had a blast and realized that everyone in this game has characters with silvery white hair ... and while it's "requesting character load" I have enough time to write a post here ...


;/

For the times I have been in, I managed to be mostly alone for inside dungeon related quests. The game becomes enjoyable then, as you get to explore and not feel interrupted, or have no monsters to slay cause they're already dead or etc.
As much as I enjoy playing with others in dungeon runs or some outdoor dynamic events, the shared instances really kills this game.

In EQOA it was awesome, here, it's awful. I can't explain it other than that the more I play ESO the more I just want to play Skyrim.


----------



## rooivalk (Feb 8, 2014)

Just create a templar and it's been 15m at the loading area.

What's the most fun class at the moment? 
Melee fighter (templar) doesn't feel that great, the blow doesn't feel connected. How about bow or dagger?
On the other hand, watching prophet heals me seems okay to me (managing/keeping your friends alive), should I become some kind of healer? Is there any dual talent specialization like in WoW so I can use offensive talent for solo and healing talent if needed?



			
				newconroer said:
			
		

> As much as I enjoy playing with others in dungeon runs or some outdoor dynamic events, the shared instances really kills this game.


Whoa, the instances are shared? only leveling/exploring ones not the end game, right?


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## newconroer (Feb 8, 2014)

rooivalk said:


> Just create a templar and it's been 15m at the loading area.
> 
> What's the most fun class at the moment?
> Melee fighter (templar) doesn't feel that great, the blow doesn't feel connected. How about bow or dagger?
> ...



Pretty much all of them. And with the way things are going I'd rather have it the other way around any ways. ESO is meant to be about a journey/adventure/explore - not rush to 'end game' and 'raid.'
You never get any peace and quiet - ever where you go is a cluster fu** of random and immersion breaking activity - even your 'solo' epic quests are shared with others but not as a group effort, simply you all exist in the same game space.

It's one big whackamole fest.


Melee combat with some weapons may feel better than others, but a slight hint of lag makes it clunky no matter the weapon type. Which is a shame because it makes you want to use the hot button abilities more, rather than swing your own weapon.

Most fun class is considered a Dark Knight with a staff of fire and using their class skill line to boost fire damage.

As for multi talents, yes, you have a limited amount of slots and that's it. Everything else is open to you as long as your class supports it.


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## Phobia9651 (Feb 8, 2014)

newconroer said:


> As for multi talents, yes, you have a limited amount of slots and that's it. Everything else is open to you as long as your class supports it.



Thanks for clearing a few things up, but what exactly do you mean by that?
I think Rooivalk meant whether you have the ability to store multiple skill/talent builds, or is that what you mean with slots?

Looked into it for half an hour or more, but so far the only thing good seems to be the voice-acting and soundtrack, maybe I should lower my expectation level a bit.


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## brandonwh64 (Feb 8, 2014)

I played for around and hour and the GFX is ok but not skyrim quality. Another thing I thought was goofy was that everyone is doing the same missions and it looks unorganized cause you can see what they are doing but it is not playing along with what you are doing and they look like useless people jumping around.


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## newconroer (Feb 8, 2014)

urza26 said:


> Thanks for clearing a few things up, but what exactly do you mean by that?
> I think Rooivalk meant whether you have the ability to store multiple skill/talent builds, or is that what you mean with slots?
> 
> Looked into it for half an hour or more, but so far the only thing good seems to be the voice-acting and soundtrack, maybe I should lower my expectation level a bit.



There's only one set of active hotbuttons/bank. There's no secondary or tertiary to swap to. If you want to change, you have to change them one by one.

However, you can switch weapons at a certain level. Each set of active weapons has it's own hot bar of six abilities. Thus when you switch weapons in combat, you are effectively switching to a second hot bank/build.


As for lower expectations, the best thing you can do is remember that it's an online game with TES elements, not a TES game you can play online.
**The majority of people who will really enjoy it are either A) Not veteran TES players (or never appreciated TES) B) Have not experienced Skyrim with good mods  C) Massive TES lore fans, who want anything and everything TES they can get their hands on.

**Exceptions to the rule do exist, yes yes we know.




brandonwh64 said:


> ...Another thing I thought was goofy was that everyone is doing the same missions and it looks unorganized cause you can see what they are doing but it is not playing along with what you are doing and they look like useless people jumping around.



Exactly.

While there's much more to it then that, you've summed it up quite well.
The way people interact with the npcs and each other, as well as the combat speed and ease of mobs.... it feels like a F2P game. There's plenty of opportunity to do things together, though few people do because it's not a requirement and the benefits of joining others, is out weighed by the fact you can do it alone, just as quickly and without any of the hassle.

I can guarantee if the tagging system for the mobs, was a bit more old school (or had the option to toggle on and off whether others could attack your mobs), the whole landscape and attitude would change. People would intentionally be grouping together, and those that didn't wouldn't be interfered upon by others.

Thing is, the game is ok  - it's fairly fun to play, there's some real moments of brilliance and enjoyment. This is why I said it was awesome when I had moments to myself, because I was exploring. Yet without fail, inevitably a train of random people come brawling through what is meant to be some dark sacred ruins. They then proceed one shot everything in sight and now I no longer have anything to fight, anything to worry about dying from and my whole EPIC story mission is me going from one end of a dungeon(which comes complete with a full map and quest icons.... ..)to the end of the dungeon and simply clicking on the lever that opens the door to some objective bla bla blah.

Games like this are a perfect example of why my idea for a fully instanced world where you can private or public any zone at your discretion, is something we really need in a game.
Developers always talk about 'choice' as if it's some holy grail, but in the end it's a PR term because they do not actually offer choice - such as the choice to play alone or with others when I choose to do so.

The difference with old open /shared games like EQOA, was that you had several purposes to be in a place. You either were questing, farming or mob xp grinding. Areas had their own social ecosystem, and others knew what others were there for and managed to for the most part, not intrude upon others' goals. But quest progression games that are the way of MMOs now, including ESO, mean that all you do is go from one place to another knocking out quests

Anyways, I'm almost to my bug testing phase now so if anyone wants to group up, let me know soon.


----------



## flmatter (Feb 8, 2014)

sign up on curse.com for beta key to ESO


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## BiggieShady (Feb 8, 2014)

Useful link for whenever you're wondering what's going on.

https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/app/answers/detail2/a_id/4320


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## newconroer (Feb 8, 2014)

BiggieShady said:


> Useful link for whenever you're wondering what's going on.
> 
> https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/app/answers/detail2/a_id/4320



Well that's more original than 'cause it's BETA'


----------



## 1Kurgan1 (Feb 9, 2014)

Just played for an hour or two with the wife. Game seems fine, the last MMO I tried was Guild Wars 2 and it was horrible. I'm still planning on playing EQ Next, but I don't think I'll have a problem with ESO holding me over. The Khajit starting area was pretty good looking, fun to roam around in and found myself running to a few locations just because they looked cool, when a game has me doing that I usually find it decently enjoyable because the world was crafted well.


----------



## Jaffakeik (Feb 9, 2014)

My first impressions was Pretty much skyrim so its a good point.World is looking good.Combat is good, playing sorcerer.Finished 1st area,but it seems game actions like trying to talk or trade it just takes ages to open dialog screen.probably because overwhelming beta players or connection to server. But in all game seems fine.But still don't know if I will buy it.Will see where my money will go.But definitely will keep eye on this game progress


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## newconroer (Feb 9, 2014)

1Kurgan1 said:


> ... The Khajit starting area was pretty good looking, fun to roam around in and found myself running to a few locations just because they looked cool, when a game has me doing that I usually find it decently enjoyable because the world was crafted well.



Boy are you in for a surprise !  

I have many many gripes with the game itself,


Spoiler



though the dodge mechanic is simply awful not only in concept but practice as well.


There's no dodge in TES games
There's already a dodge oriented game on the market, and it actually works.
The dodge itself is clunky, and doesn't have any weight or physics to it(then again neither does the game overall)
It looks retarded
Takes significant stamina, yet sprinting takes little and jumping takes none

Now here comes the exacerbating and damning part. Final bosses in dungeons are effectively roll avoidance.  AoE's generally expand rather than show a fixed circumference, if the mob moves while the AoE expands, you have to make a guesstimate as to where it will end. They've made it so you HAVE to play in third person with the camera zoomed out just to make sure you don't get one shotted by 'dynamic' AoE.


In tight areas, you run out of room to maneuver
If you do not use the dodge command you can sometimes still be hit by an AoE. Yes, I've physically run away from it's coverage area and got hit. Yet when I rolled away the same distance, I did not
Combined with stamina loss from dodging, you have very little stamina left to use abilities and fight as a melee class
Mob(s) end up all over the place rather being held still so you can actually fight ( did I mention that mobs have horrific spacing issues. Apparently a huge spider's backside does not count as a hit box. You have to be at the front of it smacking it in the face... ... ... what year is this again?)
Can you see where this is going?


I thought it may be more about resource management than pure chaos theory, but after enough attempts at various dungeons, it really is chaos - from the trash mobs to the mini bosses to the end bosses.
Fights look like an ego contest between 80s action stars to see whom can dodge the most. We have Bruce, Sly, Arnold and Seagal.

The dodge feature itself is proof they are trying to appeal to a mass audience. Everything revolves around that roll mechanic and it ruins the group combat.


----------



## BiggieShady (Feb 9, 2014)

newconroer said:


> Can you see where this is going?



I was unsuccessfully trying to strafe out of the way of fireballs coming my way ... are you saying it would actually work if I was double tapping for dodge? That sucks considering how much stamina dodge sucks ... and I need my stamina.


----------



## 1Kurgan1 (Feb 9, 2014)

newconroer said:


> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> ...



We'll see how dodge functions and dungeon mechanics are when I get to that point. I've played almost all MMO's on the market, I like to know whats out there. So I'm sure I've encountered games with just as big off issues. Either way, these all sound like tweakable things that don't require a game rebuild. And thats if these issues aren't being over exaggerated (everyone has their own opinion on what is good or bad). 

Adjusting ability resource usage is something that is patched, especially after a games release (or even in the final stages of beta which this is). I'm much more worried about content being there than content that needs some tweaking. In Age of Conan I hit level 50 and ran out of quests, still was enjoying the game and didn't want to grind, so I rerolled a new char and hit level 58 and then ran out of quests. That to me is much more frustrating than anything. I was enjoying that game, but had to quit because I didn't enjoy grinding that much. 

We'll have to see where they gone with the dodge mechanic, to be honest I'm just trying to look at the game as a whole, and your whole post you really are only hitting the nail on the dodge head and nothing else. And thats a facet that can be tweaked (making blocking more viable, adjusting stamina uses, etc.). So reading that doesn't have me truly worried. Either way I'm not really looking for an MMO to sink a massive amount of time into anyways like I did with WoW. I'm just looking for something to hold me over till EQN, and it seems like it should be able to fit that bill.


----------



## Deleted member 24505 (Feb 9, 2014)

Just tried to log in, 1H 30min wait, feck that, will try later tonight.


----------



## 1Kurgan1 (Feb 9, 2014)

tigger said:


> Just tried to log in, 1H 30min wait, feck that, will try later tonight.



Looks like 18min right now.


----------



## TheHunter (Feb 9, 2014)

Bad, bugged combat doesnt register always, queue bs, 30gb wasted.. Deleted. 

Next!


----------



## rooivalk (Feb 10, 2014)

Only managed to 5th level so far, but I feel what some of you said.

I think it feels like elder scrolls more or less with bunch of people run around. 
Quest is nice but rather short, shallow and reward isn't exciting. Veteran gears (in the character creation menu) look dull. I know some people don't like fancy equipment, but for me,  if it doesn't have something shiny to pursue, it isn't worth the time investment and money, this is an MMO after all. Combat / Healing also doesn't feel connected, kinda spray and pray but with sword and staff. Apparently there is no raiding too. I like WoW style raiding, it's like choreography. Maybe I should go back to WoW.

On the other side, the game is smooth (except for loading time but this is beta) and graphically very good for an MMO (you can't expect Skyrim level with so many people around). Environment is also rather beautiful (although it has so much open terrain, I don't feel like to explore).
I think this game has so much potential, but as for now it's dull.


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## Disparia (Feb 10, 2014)

Made L10 so I headed off to Cyrodiil. Fought in several 100v100 battles and made rank 3. Like Big Battles in LOTRO x 1000 + PvP so I'm sold and will be pre-ordering.


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## ne6togadno (Feb 10, 2014)

BiggieShady said:


> I was unsuccessfully trying to strafe out of the way of fireballs coming my way ... are you saying it would actually work if I was double tapping for dodge? That sucks considering how much stamina dodge sucks ... and I need my stamina.


stamina is not an issue in this game. it regenarate fast. if self regen is not enough you have potions, talismans and consumables for give you better stamina regen.
i have dragon knight with one-handed&shild and quite often i use first skill from one handed tree (cant remeber the name sry) which consumes stamina. i run out of magika more often then i run ot of stamina (havent been in dungeons so far so cant say about bosses). also dont forget you can increase stamina when lvling up or with enchants for armor&wapons. you have 3 type of enchants for armor, for weapon and for jewelery. armor echants give you +XX on stamina as fixed amount. you can add em on evry piece of armor so you have 6x +XX on stamina. jewelery enchants add on stamina regen you can have 3 of them (can be applied to blue or higher quality item) so 3x +Y to stamina regen. weapon enchants are like drain W magika and return Z stamina (1x or 2x depends on weapons) so as you see you have planty of opptions to adjust your stats.
as kurgan said this is question of game tweaking and adjusting play style to game mechanics.


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## BiggieShady (Feb 10, 2014)

ne6togadno said:


> stamina is not an issue in this game. it regenarate fast. if self regen is not enough you have potions, talismans and consumables for give you better stamina regen.
> i have dragon knight with one-handed&shild and quite often i use first skill from one handed tree (cant remeber the name sry) which consumes stamina. i run out of magika more often then i run ot of stamina (havent been in dungeons so far so cant say about bosses). also dont forget you can increase stamina when lvling up or with enchants for armor&wapons. you have 3 type of enchants for armor, for weapon and for jewelery. armor echants give you +XX on stamina as fixed amount. you can add em on evry piece of armor so you have 6x +XX on stamina. jewelery enchants add on stamina regen you can have 3 of them (can be applied to blue or higher quality item) so 3x +Y to stamina regen. weapon enchants are like drain W magika and return Z stamina (1x or 2x depends on weapons) so as you see you have planty of opptions to adjust your stats.
> as kurgan said this is question of game tweaking and adjusting play style to game mechanics.



Yeah, I will have to max out stamina in every possible way because I use bow from distance, shadow abilities when mobs reach me while leeching/siphoning all the time to make some use of my magicka. If I have to dodge all the time or sprint, I have to do more siphoning and normal bow shots.


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## Ahhzz (Feb 10, 2014)

BiggieShady said:


> Yeah, I will have to max out stamina in every possible way because I use bow from distance, shadow abilities when mobs reach me while leeching/siphoning all the time to make some use of my magicka. If I have to dodge all the time or sprint, I have to do more siphoning and normal bow shots.



I also "hunt", and have found that making glyphs with stamina restoration can assist greatly, as well as the leeching skills. I've not been using the "dodge" mechanic, mainly because I prefer not to play that way, which might cause some issues in higher levels. It's definitely cost me some deaths so far.

I'm also annoyed at  being so badly limited on ability access. Not quite to 15, so I'm not sure how well the mechanics of swapping bows to a different skill set works, but I just don't see it happily. I don't like it in Neverwinter, and don't like it in ESO. I guess I'm a spoiled old-school WoW-er, and I want 6 toolbars on my screen, and everything available depending on my situation. I want *sigh*..... too many things I don't like, and detailing would break NDA.

Honestly, at this point, ignoring the obvious "It's a BETA!!!" problems, the game just really doesn't do it for me. I'm a big TES fanboi, have The Arena in it's box on my shelf, and everything since except daggerfail, and I REALLY wanted to want this game... but it's not there. I guess I fall in a category of wanting a multiplayer Skyrim (or other TES), and got a different WoW/Rift/Neverwinter experience. I've got Rift, play NW, never going back to WoW, and would rather play PoE. Maybe when it falls to f2p. I guess I'll just break out Skyrim again, mod it up, and enjoy.


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## brandonwh64 (Feb 10, 2014)

After playing about 2 hours of the beta I have came to the conclusion that this game is not for me let alone pay a monthly subscription for it.


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## BiggieShady (Feb 10, 2014)

Ahhzz said:


> I guess I'm a spoiled old-school WoW-er, and I want 6 toolbars on my screen, and everything available depending on my situation.



It seems it's a MMO trend nowdays, having a huge number of synergistic abilities but limited number of slots on a toolbar. Players get different "builds" on the fly by picking compatible abilities for the toolbar.


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## Ahhzz (Feb 10, 2014)

BiggieShady said:


> It seems it's a MMO trend nowdays, having a huge number of synergistic abilities but limited number of slots on a toolbar. Players get different "builds" on the fly by picking compatible abilities for the toolbar.


Eh, Rift has multiple toolbars, and I enjoyed it (altho to be fair, it really was WoW with random portals...). PoE limits you, not quite as much, but it makes up for it with that HUGE-ASS freaking Talent-Forest. Plus, once you get higher end, you've dropped those 8 skills you've been leveling and you're running 4 skills with multiple support gems for them instead. Like I said: spoiled ex-WoW. I don't like picking a skill simply because I have to get it to get to a higher tier (ala Neverwinter), and I don't like the other end of having several viable skills, highly functional, some situational, that I can't access all the time. First thing I looked for in Skyrim was a way to expand hotkeys, and saw they were going to baby the console users, and limit it. More hotkeys and Hotkeys plus plus work just great, thanks


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## newconroer (Feb 10, 2014)

1Kurgan1 said:


> ntent that needs some tweaking. In Age of Conan I hit level 50 and ran out of quests, still was enjoying the game and didn't want to grind, so I rerolled a new char and hit level 58 and then ran out of quests. That to me is much more frustrating than anything. I was enjoying that game, but had to quit because I didn't enjoy grinding that much.
> 
> We'll have to see where they gone with the dodge mechanic, to be honest I'm just trying to look at the game as a whole, and your whole post you really are only hitting the nail on the dodge head and nothing else. And thats a facet that can be tweaked (making blocking more viable, adjusting stamina uses, etc.). So reading that doesn't have me truly worried. Either way I'm not really looking for an MMO to sink a massive amount of time into anyways like I did with WoW. I'm just looking for something to hold me over till EQN, and it seems like it should be able to fit that bill.





Spoiler



Let us put it in these terms :

The game's solo and small group aspect is pretty good and can be worth you while. When you get time or areas to yourself or hook up with a few others to have your own adventures, those moments help the game shine. Yet they are far and few between due to the nature of every thing being shared. And as previously discussed here and other places, it fails to be good at being open world. There's no social ecosystem, everything is a free for all (sans a few dungeons) and encourages people to aimlessly engage without thought.

The grouping aspect is as stated, hinges on one particular mechanic, which is the dodge function. Another example, would be the fairly large groups of trash mobs. We're talking twenty mobs to your group of four players.  They send everything and the sun down around you. You're stuck in yet another dodge required situation, which is even more chaotic than a boss fight. Every time you dodge with enmity, they chase you, then you go back the other way, run over there, run over here. The majority of times, the 'strategy' to these is to simply rush in, burn down the healers and the wizards if possible, then hang on until you all die, rinse and repeat till the mobs are dead. I wish there was some other way, yet crowd control is fairly limited, and we're not talking three minute Enchanter mesmerizing here, you're looking at best five to ten seconds IF you're close enough to hit  a mob with that ability.  All that talk where they promised strategy would be key..has turned out to be more PR noise - unless of course they think strategy means regurgitating old game mechanics.


As for EverQuest Next, let's be fair, all we've really seen is A) Landmark, which seems more like a mini-game with the potential to influence structures in the final game itself and B) Some very archaic and repetitive 'class' designs clearly hodgepodged from others games.

Additionally, they've made it quite clear that EQ Next is not some next generation version of old EQ, but 'better.'
I'm still waiting to see what it is they think is going to "blow us away..."


You may be better supporting Pantheon, which aims to give us back all the good things about old MMORPGs, and limit all trash that keeps coming out.
Additionally, a smaller development team means head cases like Smedley, aren't involved.








ne6togadno said:


> stamina is not an issue in this game. it regenarate fast. if self regen is not enough you have potions, talismans and consumables for give you better stamina regen.



Yes, there is regeneration though reduced in combat and padding it via stats is not easily done, nor can you stack foods.




ne6togadno said:


> i have dragon knight with one-handed&shild and quite often i use first skill from one handed tree (cant remeber the name sry) which consumes stamina. i run out of magika more often then i run ot of stamina (havent been in dungeons so far so cant say about bosses).





Spoiler



Then with all due respect, saying you do not use a lot of stamina and suggesting it's easy to manage, is a moot point since you have not engaged in the activities we're discussing, where resources become an issue.

Furthermore, I don't want yet ANOTHER MMO where I have to potion and consumable manage just to get by because developers can't be creative and use actual strategy.
ESO already does something awfully annoying that irked me with LOTRO, and that is tiered consumables. They have varying qualities and effect strength, yet are only a few levels apart. You find these in the same adventuring areas, ending up with bags full of potions that you MAY need, but don't necessarily need. So you hold onto them, because as you say, "stamina is not an issue in this game. it regenarate fast. if self regen is not enough you have potions, talismans and consumables for give you better stamina regen."

Why on Earth, can't someone make a good itemization system that lets you stack and extract (hell that could be the tag line!), in order to save space. Or just stop making so many damn unnecessary potions.





Ahhzz said:


> I also "hunt", and have found that making glyphs with stamina restoration can assist greatly, as well as the leeching skills. I've not been using the "dodge" mechanic, mainly because I prefer not to play that way, which might cause some issues in higher levels. It's definitely cost me some deaths so far.





Spoiler



Good for you, I don't use it either if I can help it. It's so ghetto watching archer class run around circle straffing a melee mob that clearly hits them no matter where they are, and dodge rolling back and forth while still in melee range and getting hit, all the while you wonder why they are firing a bow and arrow one foot from a monster's face, instead of using blades.

And then you think 'Zenimax, you fu**ing morons, why did you put this stuff in the game that encourages ADHD behavior!?"





Ahhzz said:


> I'm also annoyed at  being so badly limited on ability access. Not quite to 15, so I'm not sure how well the mechanics of swapping bows to a different skill set works, but I just don't see it happily. I don't like it in Neverwinter, and don't like it in ESO. I guess I'm a spoiled old-school WoW-er, and I want 6 toolbars on my screen, and everything available depending on my situation. I want *sigh*..... too many things I don't like, and detailing would break NDA.





Spoiler



We had this discussion once before, and if done well, a lot of abilities can be enjoyable as it requires strong micro management skills. My gripe with ESO combat is that instead of taking TES combat, which is simplistic and then evolving it in a clever and creative way, they've used the basic combat to lure people in by saying 'it's like TES!' Yet then they added hot button abilities(which is NOT TES), that automate things for you, so they could appeal to the expectations of the general MMO player base. To finish it off, and to save some face value, they limited the abilities to a low number such as five or six, as to not alienate the 'veterans.' I guess two hundred million dollars, means you hire good bullshitters to your marketing team.





Ahhzz said:


> I guess I fall in a category of wanting a multiplayer Skyrim (or other TES), and got a different WoW/Rift/Neverwinter experience. I've got Rift, play NW, never going back to WoW, and would rather play PoE. Maybe when it falls to f2p. I guess I'll just break out Skyrim again, mod it up, and enjoy.



Don't forget to check out my Skyrim evolved article on Overlord!

Ultimtaely, you sound like you want one or the other, not a mix and I'm in agreement. This is not a TES game, and all it does is make me want to play TES games more, and ignore ESO entirely.


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## Phobia9651 (Feb 11, 2014)

1Kurgan1 said:


> Just played for an hour or two with the wife. Game seems fine, the last MMO I tried was Guild Wars 2 and it was horrible. I'm still planning on playing EQ Next, but I don't think I'll have a problem with ESO holding me over. The Khajit starting area was pretty good looking, fun to roam around in and found myself running to a few locations just because they looked cool, when a game has me doing that I usually find it decently enjoyable because the world was crafted well.



Haha, for me it was kind of the otherway around. I quite liked GW2 (eventhough it is not perfect), it definitely is a more action focussed game compared to WoW and Rift which I played before that. It was quite a bold move to ditch the holy trinity, but it worked out seemingly fine, though aggro acts kind of wonky.


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## newconroer (Feb 11, 2014)

urza26 said:


> Haha, for me it was kind of the otherway around. I quite liked GW2 (eventhough it is not perfect), it definitely is a more action focussed game compared to WoW and Rift which I played before that. It was quite a bold move to ditch the holy trinity, but it worked out seemingly fine, though aggro acts kind of wonky.


I think we're finding that the move away from holy trinity is actually a bad idea and certainly not something all games should go after as it becomes a gimmick.
Additionally if not done very well, as you say, aggro and enmity becomes wonky.

Another thing to consider is that much like in real life, we look upon certain personalities and physical body types to be best suited for certain scenarios and tasks. And this is no different in the games. People choose avatars and roles based on their own personality - it's an extension. It's fair to say then that having several of the same types of players(personality, attitude etc.) competing over their purpose, and inevitably virtually butting heads, is a bad idea.

Holy trinity provides a clear avenue and allows people to naturally gravitate towards what suits them best.

What it would be more interesting, is continuing to embrace the holy trinity, yet expand it or shrink it based on the requirements. In old EQ you needed crowd control as much as you needed healing, tanking and damage. Additionally you often needed evaccers or taxis. Certain zones were death traps and when shit hit the fan you had to get out fast. An ideal EQ group consisted of at least four or five classes that were pretty much a requirement and the 'random' slots could be filled by any other class which always brought something to the table.


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## Phobia9651 (Feb 12, 2014)

newconroer said:


> I think we're finding that the move away from holy trinity is actually a bad idea and certainly not something all games should go after as it becomes a gimmick.
> Additionally if not done very well, as you say, aggro and enmity becomes wonky.
> 
> Another thing to consider is that much like in real life, we look upon certain personalities and physical body types to be best suited for certain scenarios and tasks. And this is no different in the games. People choose avatars and roles based on their own personality - it's an extension. It's fair to say then that having several of the same types of players(personality, attitude etc.) competing over their purpose, and inevitably virtually butting heads, is a bad idea.
> ...



Well the EQ scenario isn't very favorable either. I think the Rift (and upcoming WildStar) set up is pretty solid where every class can fill at least 2 roles, since pure DPS classes are a bummer for groupforming (like in WoW). I'm definitely not against the holy trinity, though the lack of options/roles can make it quite frustrating for someone really liking a certain class which happens to be pure DPS and not the fotm.  Ie. people should be able to play the class they like most, not the class that every group wants.


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## Ahhzz (Feb 12, 2014)

urza26 said:


> Well the EQ scenario isn't very favorable either. I think the Rift (and upcoming WildStar) set up is pretty solid where every class can fill at least 2 roles, since pure DPS classes are a bummer for groupforming (like in WoW). I'm definitely not against the holy trinity, though the lack of options/roles can make it quite frustrating for someone really liking a certain class which happens to be pure DPS and not the fotm.  Ie. people should be able to play the class they like most, not the class that every group wants.


It's been so long since I hit Rift, I'd forgotten that was one of the big reasons I actually played for over a year initially: multi-purpose roles. I am (again) a hunter. Always. Other classes are for the guild needs, and mules. Being able to change it up a bit in my role was really a lot of fun, and made it so I did get into groups more often.


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## 1Kurgan1 (Feb 14, 2014)

newconroer said:


> Let us put it in these terms :
> The game's solo and small group aspect is pretty good and can be worth you while. When you get time or areas to yourself or hook up with a few others to have your own adventures, those moments help the game shine. Yet they are far and few between due to the nature of every thing being shared. And as previously discussed here and other places, it fails to be good at being open world. There's no social ecosystem, everything is a free for all (sans a few dungeons) and encourages people to aimlessly engage without thought.
> 
> The grouping aspect is as stated, hinges on one particular mechanic, which is the dodge function. Another example, would be the fairly large groups of trash mobs. We're talking twenty mobs to your group of four players.  They send everything and the sun down around you. You're stuck in yet another dodge required situation, which is even more chaotic than a boss fight. Every time you dodge with enmity, they chase you, then you go back the other way, run over there, run over here. The majority of times, the 'strategy' to these is to simply rush in, burn down the healers and the wizards if possible, then hang on until you all die, rinse and repeat till the mobs are dead. I wish there was some other way, yet crowd control is fairly limited, and we're not talking three minute Enchanter mesmerizing here, you're looking at best five to ten seconds IF you're close enough to hit  a mob with that ability.  All that talk where they promised strategy would be key..has turned out to be more PR noise - unless of course they think strategy means regurgitating old game mechanics.
> ...



We'll see how it is. Really I'm just looking for something to tie up a bit of time and to mess around with. And it seems it can fit that bill for a while. Even if I only get 40 - 50 hours out of it, thats more than enough for me to feel fine with the purchase, this isn't something I'm banking on playing for years. But if they work at it, it's a possibility I guess, just not very probable.

As far as EQ Next, agreed on Landmark, in my mind it's just a taste and something to mess around on. But the class design you speak of I'm not all that sure. There might be more current news than I have seen. But class discussion the last I had looked wasn't very detailed. Basically just something about picking a class and mixing and matching with classes in the world through quests/objectives that synergize with your class/alignment. Overall, I haven't really played an MMO with that type of class system. But like I said, I'm not super current on news, so you might have some info I don't here.

As far as something to blow us away, I thought that was suppose to be the multi-tiered world that allowed each server to be unique allowing each server to have it's own open world events specific to whatevers going on on that server. Thats what has me drawn and I figured that was the thing that was intended to blow everyone away. EQ was an open world game, modern MMO's are so instanced. Some of my favorite times were World Bosses in WoW (only issue here is you had to be in the top 2 - 3 guilds of a server to have access to doing this content). And since the Gates of AQ opened I haven't ever really seen a world event in an MMO that impressed me all that much. So thats what I'm hoping to see again, but hopefully at a more accessible level since I don't think I will be raiding in top tier guilds like I did back when I played WoW since I don't want to maintain something like an 85 - 90% raid attendance for 4 nights a week of raiding.




newconroer said:


> I think we're finding that the move away from holy trinity is actually a bad idea and certainly not something all games should go after as it becomes a gimmick.
> Additionally if not done very well, as you say, aggro and enmity becomes wonky.
> 
> Another thing to consider is that much like in real life, we look upon certain personalities and physical body types to be best suited for certain scenarios and tasks. And this is no different in the games. People choose avatars and roles based on their own personality - it's an extension. It's fair to say then that having several of the same types of players(personality, attitude etc.) competing over their purpose, and inevitably virtually butting heads, is a bad idea.
> ...



I haven't been a supporter of moving away from the Holy Trinity since that became the rage. I like the Trinity. I like having a role, and I like having Hybrid Classes that can do a bit of two roles. I'm getting really sick of new MMO's where everyone does everything, just boring, everything feels the same. No ones tanking, no ones damage, no ones the healer, you all are everything, just got to run around and avoid things. Doesn't feel like team work to me, I enjoy downing raid bosses as a team, and knowing I full filled my role. So I agree completely, Trinity should stay, thought it was stupid when MMO's used the removal of it as a selling point, as you said, we have specialties in life, our differences is what makes us us, why make everything the same in a game?



urza26 said:


> Haha, for me it was kind of the otherway around. I quite liked GW2 (eventhough it is not perfect), it definitely is a more action focussed game compared to WoW and Rift which I played before that. It was quite a bold move to ditch the holy trinity, but it worked out seemingly fine, though aggro acts kind of wonky.



That was one of the MMO's I stopped playing the quickest. The move away from the Trinity in that game was especially crap. I'm not sure if it has changed, but that "awesome" PvP map they had in mind was just every class raining down ranged AoE crap. I like playing melee, I do it in most games, it's the role I enjoy. When I pick a Warrior it's for a reason. When I'm told to equip a gun as a main weapon thats utter crap, I'm a freaking Warrior. I don't mind using a gun to pull something or to kill a runner or something. But as my main weapon? Not a chance.


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## Disparia (Feb 14, 2014)

Turbine said to hell with the trinity during the last expansion. We all have 2 DPS lines and a role line. And if your role was DPS before, you probably have 3 DPS lines now. It doesn't matter anymore who joins a group now, any class in any spec and you're going to win 98% of the time. That 2% is for the remaining content that requires some sort of coordination and class makeup.

Haven't played it, but at least on paper I like how Final Fantasy XIV is setup with classes and jobs. Easy/landscape content can be done in your style, with skills learned from various classes. When you get to the harder raids you flip into your specific job/role. Like I said, haven't played it, but sounds like a good setup if implemented properly. Everyone probably learns some Conjurer heals for solo play, but when you get into a dungeon, better have someone who can be a dedicated White Mage.


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## Darkleoco (Feb 14, 2014)

Played quite a few hours and i just dont see this going far as a P2P beyond the first months of hype.


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## newconroer (Feb 14, 2014)

1Kurgan1 said:


> We'll see how it is. Really I'm just looking for something to tie up a bit of time and to mess around with. And it seems it can fit that bill for a while. Even if I only get 40 - 50 hours out of it, thats more than enough for me to feel fine with the purchase, this isn't something I'm banking on playing for years. But if they work at it, it's a possibility I guess, just not very probable.



Agreed. ESO might just be something extra to fill in the gap - as so many games end up doing.


1Kurgan1 said:


> As far as EQ Next, agreed on Landmark, in my mind it's just a taste and something to mess around on. But the class design you speak of I'm not all that sure. There might be more current news than I have seen. But class discussion the last I had looked wasn't very detailed. Basically just something about picking a class and mixing and matching with classes in the world through quests/objectives that synergize with your class/alignment. Overall, I haven't really played an MMO with that type of class system. But like I said, I'm not super current on news, so you might have some info I don't here.



I believe you're ahead of me on news. I just remember them claiming a class system that reinvented the wheel. But from what they showed us, I don't believe it.



1Kurgan1 said:


> As far as something to blow us away, I thought that was suppose to be the multi-tiered world that allowed each server to be unique allowing each server to have it's own open world events specific to whatevers going on on that server. Thats what has me drawn and I figured that was the thing that was intended to blow everyone away. EQ was an open world game, modern MMO's are so instanced. Some of my favorite times were World Bosses in WoW (only issue here is you had to be in the top 2 - 3 guilds of a server to have access to doing this content). And since the Gates of AQ opened I haven't ever really seen a world event in an MMO that impressed me all that much. So thats what I'm hoping to see again, but hopefully at a more accessible level since I don't think I will be raiding in top tier guilds like I did back when I played WoW since I don't want to maintain something like an 85 - 90% raid attendance for 4 nights a week of raiding.


Yes open world and world renown is very important. I don't care so much for the latter, but I understand why people like it. The key difference is that you are renowned for what you do in the game, and on the server - not what you say in the forums or on a Facebook. It means ultimately that you're playing the game, not just socializing in it.
As for multi-tiered world, that's not too far off my idea of controllable instances for private or public play. S

McQuaid and the guys at Visionary Realms have already stated that they realize most EQ fans are grown up now, and have lives that don't allow for eighteen hour gaming sessions.



Jizzler said:


> Turbine said to hell with the trinity during the last expansion. We all have 2 DPS lines and a role line. And if your role was DPS before, you probably have 3 DPS lines now. It doesn't matter anymore who joins a group now, any class in any spec and you're going to win 98% of the time. That 2% is for the remaining content that requires some sort of coordination and class makeup.
> 
> Haven't played it, but at least on paper I like how Final Fantasy XIV is setup with classes and jobs. Easy/landscape content can be done in your style, with skills learned from various classes. When you get to the harder raids you flip into your specific job/role. Like I said, haven't played it, but sounds like a good setup if implemented properly. Everyone probably learns some Conjurer heals for solo play, but when you get into a dungeon, better have someone who can be a dedicated White Mage.



Some classes are still ok solo; and frankly that's how I like LOTRO now. The days of group content die with Moria.


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## Ahhzz (Feb 14, 2014)

newconroer said:


> ~~snip~~
> 
> Some classes are still ok solo; and frankly that's how I like LOTRO now. The days of group content die with Moria.



I've ignored LOTRO, as I have PoE to keep me company, and had hopes for ESO (now dashed, altho I do like the world renown you mentioned). Me being Me, I would play a ranged class. Do those do relatively well in LOTRO, and are they completely overwhelmed with "L3G0L@S!!" characters?


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## newconroer (Feb 14, 2014)

Hunter is LOTRO's ranged class and it was in fact one of the best. It's still one of the best. The great thing about LOTRO - despite whatever else you may like or dislike - was that it has a remnant of old school MMORPG, where you can head out in one direction and get side tracked for a good hour or two and still come away having some measure of progression and fun. There's still those wonderful adventures to be had, on your own or with a small group meandering across the unknown landscape, finding things to do together. I loved the Hunter because it was really self sufficient and I could travel/explore immensely. Since LOTRO has an extremely large landmass and great attention to detail, you want to see everything, and there's a lot to see.

The changes from the recent expansion were big, and mostly negative as far as the majority of players were concerned. Though I feel the disruption only happens at the end game. Up until that point there is a whole world to be had.

I am pretty hard on MMOs, however after seeing what Turbine accomplished in the past six years, it's probably the most in-depth and detailed/layered game of it's type to date. They managed to expand upon the LOTR universe in ways people would not have imagined, and they did a great job of making you feel a part of it. I would rate it in the top 5 of all time.

As for the 'l3gol@s' some..but not as much as you would think. I find those people more in OTHER games, than LOTRO itself.


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## Ahhzz (Feb 15, 2014)

Thanks. One last post, and will head back to ESO: signed up, got the $10 Sam pack for the extra bag space (I know I'm a packrat, therefore will plan ahead), and see how it goes. I played DDO for a ferw months, so I know their "premiere" package crap.... not sure how pleased I am with that, but I'll pay $10 to give it a whirl. 

Now back to your regularly scheduled ESO Fanbois and Bashing


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## Disparia (Feb 15, 2014)

Ahhzz said:


> I've ignored LOTRO, as I have PoE to keep me company, and had hopes for ESO (now dashed, altho I do like the world renown you mentioned). Me being Me, I would play a ranged class. Do those do relatively well in LOTRO, and are they completely overwhelmed with "L3G0L@S!!" characters?



I agree with newconroer, go ahead and try it out! Someone new to the game will find it very enjoyable. My complaints come from how the game was 3 years ago and what it is now. Every year Turbine does something that alienates their long-term customers from the game and this year it's my turn, lol. To be fair, I'm just stopping my subscription. When new content arrives I'll pop in for a week or so to play it. Gotta see Gondor!


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## 15th Warlock (Feb 15, 2014)

Octopuss said:


> Oh fuck, it's on consoles as well? I won't bother then, useless UI and shit dumb controls are guaranteed
> Fucking hell, WHY!?
> MMORPG on consoles, what the actual megafuck!?



The most recent Elder Scrolls games have been notorious for being released for consoles at the same time as PC, Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim sold more units on consoles than on PC, I doubt Bethesda would let go of such a big market by making this game PC exclusive, modders have always found ways to work around the UI, I hope this release will be the same.

FFXI, one of the most successful MMORPGs of all time was released for PC and PS2, it actually worked well on that console but you had to purchase the HDD add on to play.

You would be surprised about what consoles can do, specially now that they're nothing more than what equals to an average PC in terms of hardware and architecture 

As for the UI you can always count on the awesome TES modding community to fix any issues for the PC release


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## 1Kurgan1 (Feb 16, 2014)

Well the PvP sounds awesome, just was reading about it here.
http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/01/06/you-can-be-emperor-in-the-elder-scrolls-online


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## BiggieShady (Feb 16, 2014)

I have to say that game has impressive world and good looking character models but the animations (especially the movement) are not up to that quality standard IMO


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## newconroer (Feb 16, 2014)

BiggieShady said:


> I have to say that game has impressive world and good looking character models but the animations (especially the movement) are not up to that quality standard IMO



Not in agreement on the models. There's no particular art or style to them and they look outdated and cheap with bad proportions.

Animations are fairly simple but what exacerbates the issue, is the speed of movement. A)There's little physics, so nothing has momentum, acceleration or weight. B) Overall movement speed is like three times normal TES.


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## Ahhzz (Feb 25, 2014)

So, new invites/re-invites are out, looks to be a Beta weekend, starting at Noon Friday, EST-US, until Sunday at Midnight. For at least some of us, it comes with a perk: bring a friend. So, anyone interested in playing that hasn't had a shot yet, PM me, and I would assume that several of the others in here will put up their beta invite as well, so keep an eye out.

_This weekend, we’re inviting millions to test The Elder Scrolls Online!_

_Today, we’re sending out more beta invites for an ESO scale test. If you receive an invite, there will be an extra beta code included that you can give to a friend to join you in Tamriel!  








For this beta, you are no longer required to follow a Nondisclosure Agreement (NDA). We invite you to post your best screenshots, videos, and impressions this weekend, and livestream your adventures for everyone to see.  Be sure to use #esobeta to share your favorite moments with the world! Participants this weekend will also unlock an exclusive monkey vanity pet for PC/Mac that you can have at launch.

Thanks for your continued enthusiasm and support as we march toward launch.  We look forward to seeing you in Tamriel this weekend!
_
The monkey pic is an exclusive vanity pet gained if you play the game once it goes live for participating this weekend.

Sorry, just to be clear, and so there's no hard feelings, if your "join date" has a "2014" in it, please don't ask. Any requests from members newer than Oct or so of 2013 will need to be very active in that time.


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## Disparia (Feb 26, 2014)

Nice. I will always keep my monkey out.


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## Ahhzz (Feb 26, 2014)

"Pardon me, Sir, but may I pet your monkey?"


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## rtwjunkie (Feb 27, 2014)

Finally! I got my invite.  For this weekend.  But I'll be out of town Saturday and half of Sunday.  I'll have to see what I can do on Friday night and Sunday afternoon.


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## BiggieShady (Feb 27, 2014)

Nice ... and there is also newly patched Diablo 3 to play until ESO beta continues.

EDIT:

Went back to ESO, continued with my dark elf and got another quest to find guars and send them home, after half an hour again got another quest basically the same with different method of sending guars home. Amazing creativity right there, I mean if you are focused mainly in all the different ways you can prod the poor animal. I expect by level 12, I'll be levitating missing guars home in yet another creative 'lost guars' quest.


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## Disparia (Mar 3, 2014)

Played a lot on Friday and Saturday, nearly entirely in Cyrodiil as it was another stress test. The lag is 100x improved from the last beta weekend.

The word on the street is there will be one last beta weekend coming up shortly with an updated client. This will be a big one as it'll better represent the game at launch.


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## BiggieShady (Mar 3, 2014)

I have been seeing different live streams from elder scrolls online today on twitch, it seems that private test server is working although beta weekend has ended.
I enabled the option in the launcher and it showed the PTS but also wanted to do whole new install with 20 GB download so I canceled.
Probably special keys and all ... did anyone else test this?


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## Ahhzz (Mar 3, 2014)

I passed this weekend. Had a birthday party with my nieces, time with my daughter, and the game just wasn't that much for me. Maybe the last beta weekend, I'll try again, but right now, I'm expecting to just pass it by completely. Anyone seriously change their impression of the game this weekend?


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## silentbogo (Mar 5, 2014)

Finally got my hands on ESO. Initially it looked very promising, but ended up being really disappointing...
I know, you guys warned me, but my curiosity took over and I've decided to give it a try anyway.

So, here's my five cents to sharing impressions.
Not counting exceptional graphics ESO is a complete failure in my opinion:

Gameplay sucks
Role playing system is a bare resemblance of TES5, way oversimplified
Crafting system reminds me too much of SquarEnix MMOs. Mainstream is not what i expected from Bethesda Softworks
Storyline is so dull, it feels like playing DnD with retarded fifth-grader
End result: I barely had enough patience to play for couple of hours. Deleted ESO immediately.


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## Jaffakeik (Mar 12, 2014)

GOt beta weekend key anyone who want take it 6HLNTDXHFTGYYP3GYCT7


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## Jaffakeik (Mar 12, 2014)

silentbogo said:


> Finally got my hands on ESO. Initially it looked very promising, but ended up being really disappointing...
> I know, you guys warned me, but my curiosity took over and I've decided to give it a try anyway.
> 
> So, here's my five cents to sharing impressions.
> ...



I guess itss because still in development,I played it myselft too,couldnt get into it,because its just no my type of game.But any game deserves a credit.NOt so much mmo games out there what was good from the start


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## silentbogo (Mar 13, 2014)

Tabula Rasa was good from the start. Squarenix made a big mistake with changing their game distribution model, which brought the project down.


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## Jaffakeik (Mar 13, 2014)

One more code HRXWEXRPCC65RT9HD6PR


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## 64K (Mar 13, 2014)

This is off topic but I'm wondering why the system requirements say 60 GB space on the HD. All the other requirements are pretty low. Any of you beta testers got any idea why the final game might take 60 GB? Also, is the cash shop open in the beta? I don't know what to think about $60 for game, $15 monthly sub and a cash shop.


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## WhiteNoise (Mar 13, 2014)

I don't mind cash shops when its for fluff items. But anything other than fluff on top of a monthly fee and a game that costs $59.99 plus tx is a big "hell no" in my book.


I'm waiting for Everquest Next.


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## Disparia (Mar 13, 2014)

Client version is now eso.live.1

I'll decide for sure after this weekend. It has a couple things going for it, which are it's better than what I'm playing now and I would get in at the start. The AvA is great, though in the future I hope smaller scale PvP systems are implemented in addition like arenas or a smaller map devoted to PvP, i.e. A map designed to hold ~100 per alliance and no large objectives (keeps).

If it doesn't completely win me over I'll go back to trying out Neverwinter and Rift. Like WhiteNoise, I'm also waiting to see more about Everquest Next and could use something to hold me over.



64K said:


> This is off topic but I'm wondering why the system requirements say 60 GB space on the HD. All the other requirements are pretty low. Any of you beta testers got any idea why the final game might take 60 GB? Also, is the cash shop open in the beta? I don't know what to think about $60 for game, $15 monthly sub and a cash shop.



At the moment my install is 29.9GB. But data unique to areas not released in the beta may not be installed. Only the first couple zones per alliance and all of Cyrodiil has been open in beta so far.


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## BiggieShady (Mar 14, 2014)

Jizzler said:


> Only the first couple zones per alliance and all of Cyrodiil has been open in beta so far.



I have seen Ebonheart pact starting zone, first zone in Morrowind and Elswyr starting zone so far with dunmer nightblade and khajiit templar ... I have one orc knight character but I only got him out to the starting area. I have a feeling I won't have enough time to test the imperials and that orc and to push at least one of my chars over level 10 to try pvp in Cyrodiil.


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## Vario (Mar 15, 2014)

stumbled on this 3 month old article,

http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertc...st-disaster-of-2014-the-elder-scrolls-online/


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## BiggieShady (Mar 16, 2014)

It's hard not to be disappointed when you realize there are no proper cities in this game (Ebonheart is made out of 4 huge buildings and couple of argonian huts) and also when you look your horse in his creepy lifeless eyes (reminds me of a chess piece).


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## Vario (Mar 16, 2014)

BiggieShady said:


> It's hard not to be disappointed when you realize there are no proper cities in this game (Ebonheart is made out of 4 huge buildings and couple of argonian huts) and also when you look your horse in his creepy lifeless eyes (reminds me of a chess piece).


Seriously? Wow.  The cities in Morrowind were awesome, especially Vivec.  One of the things I thought they would get right might be the cities.  Would be cool to own housing etc.


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## Ahhzz (Mar 16, 2014)

I'm afraid this game is full of fail. There were posts everywhere asking for Multiplayer Morrow/Obliv/Skyrim, but not this. And when they tried to do this, it's Fail. There are many many playing the beta, because it's free. But come time to fork over $15 a month, they're going away. The game just doesn't have enough pull. 
my not so humble opin.


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## BiggieShady (Mar 17, 2014)

Vario said:


> Seriously? Wow.  The cities in Morrowind were awesome, especially Vivec.  One of the things I thought they would get right might be the cities.  Would be cool to own housing etc.



Don't get me wrong, area that Ebonheart takes on the map is huge, they just failed to create the feeling of a "living" city ... you never get the feeling that people live there. 
For me, the main "thing" of the elder scrolls series was it's immersiveness in a way that every NPC had a job to do, place to live and a bed to sleep at night. Until now. 
They had more than enough space to make it happen - instead we got typical MMO style monumental staircases that take a lot of space and consume lot of time when you move about.


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## Disparia (Mar 18, 2014)

I liked a lot of things about this game but ultimately the wife and I decided not to go with it. Rather spend more time in Rift when action in LOTRO is slow while waiting for Everquest Next beta access.

We had actually started a couple Rift toons before learning about ESO and getting in on the beta. Glad I re-installed it as it's pretty fun.


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## Ahhzz (Apr 1, 2014)

For anyone still interested in this after the beta, Newegg has a $10 card back for pre-orders...


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## ne6togadno (Apr 1, 2014)

5 day ahead already started.
i have 1 lvl7 and 2 lvl4 chars


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## Jeffredo (Apr 2, 2014)

I've put several thousand hours into Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim, but I just can't do this right now.  I've got a lifetime sub to LotRO and invested five years into WoW.  Just can't get behind another MMO and I really don't want to see the single player series I love go that route.


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## WhiteNoise (Apr 2, 2014)

I have to agree with others. This was a let down for me. Though the one thing I do like is the fighting which feels very much like the past elder scroll games. This they did pretty good but the world doesn't feel like an ES game. Visually it's a mixed bag.

I'll say it again but EQ Next is the game to look forward to.


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## Chetkigaming (Apr 2, 2014)

after Skyrim this game is not even worth a shot.


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## Jeffredo (Apr 2, 2014)

Yeah, I was all excited to find out what happens with the Empire and the Aldmeri Dominion (with maybe ES VI set in the Summerset Isles), but who knows when/if that'll happen.  I know its two different Zenimax studios, but I'd wager it'll be all hands on deck if ES Online takes off (a la Blizzard and WoW - kept them tied up for a decade).


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## WhiteNoise (Apr 14, 2014)

Well I caved in! So far I'm glad I did too. I was in beta but I only played the first beta weekend and then ignored all the rest. Going from the first beta weekend to this finished product is night and day. Visually this game look hella better than it did back then and I really like the combat system. Game is kinda fresh since I have not been into any MMO's the past year except for a short stint in final fantasy.

This game reminds me of Lotro but much better looking. Lotro is one of my all time favorite MMO's ever. Right next to EQ2.

So I will play this for awhile and see what happens. Right now I'm pleasantly pleased.


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## Chetkigaming (Apr 14, 2014)

Summertime


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## catnipkiller (Apr 14, 2014)

Add Bluffin with my muffin if you play nord!


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## Vario (Apr 18, 2014)

http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertc...e-hit-with-first-major-bug-the-infinite-dupe/

Kind of hilarious actually


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## Ahhzz (Apr 18, 2014)

Vario said:


> http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertc...e-hit-with-first-major-bug-the-infinite-dupe/
> 
> Kind of hilarious actually


That would have been enough for me to cancel my subscription... the last thing I want when playing a TES game is to be playing D2. damn.....altho, the first thing I would have done? Abuse the shite out of it. I know many of us in the beta had a lot of issues that Zeni pretty much ignored, or didn't respond to, and honestly, I didn't like the game. So, as wrong as it is, I would have enjoyed this chance to smack them in the nose a little, even if it did ban my account.


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## catnipkiller (Apr 19, 2014)

I got a full refund for this broken game. I hit lvl 10 just to watch loading screen for hours. WPvP is so laggy this mega server does bot work. Games still in beta and will be free to play in one years time.


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## Vario (Apr 20, 2014)

catnipkiller said:


> I got a full refund for this broken game. I hit lvl 10 just to watch loading screen for hours. WPvP is so laggy this mega server does bot work. Games still in beta and will be free to play in one years time.


Well its cool they gave you a refund, I would have expected them to take the money and run


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## Mussels (Apr 20, 2014)

Chetkigaming said:


> after Skyrim this game is not even worth a shot.


 my thoughts too. i hated the static world, super linear design and the way quest characters just become invisible to everyone not at that stage of the quest :/

played the beta, came here to see if others hated it too.


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## WhiteNoise (Apr 21, 2014)

So far so good. I'm enjoying the game. Might be the only one though lol.


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## Disparia (Apr 21, 2014)

After saying that wouldn't buy it... I bought it. A friend of mine was like, gotta buy it, I already did and need someone play with, etc. So I picked up the Standard Edition for 20% off which was the most I think is acceptable to charge for this game.

Not going to renew, just playing while I still have free play time in case a handful of updates later it's a better game. Currently at Level 31 with an Alliance Rank of 9 (Auriels Bow).

Today's patch claims to have fixed the loading screen bug, will see if that's true shortly.


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## Flibolito (Apr 21, 2014)

I have been playing casually. I have 1 lvl15 and 3 toons below 10. It still feels like a Beta to date, I play with a buddy of mine and the mega-server is always making us relog as we end up in different instances all the time while questing. I like the graphics/art style. The combat is floaty but decent. Questing when not buggy is fun if you take your time and immerse yourself. To me this is almost not a MMORPG and rather a Elder Scrolls game with tons of people. I going to keep playing a little long as I am having some fun. I do agree this is on a fast track to Free to Play just like SWTOR. Companies are starting to lose their ass on making games like this or is there something I don't see.


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## newconroer (Apr 14, 2017)

Because I can...







I am looking to start playing Elder Scrolls Online more regularly now as I have jumped back into it this past few weeks. I would like any TPU or TPU friends to come along for the fun. To start it would be on the EU region servers, however there is no region lock and you are allowed characters on both regions simultaneously (they cannot cross play though).

*What is in it for you?*


First and foremost, more exposure to awesome Tech Power Up members! And if we get enough players(ten to start) we can setup a guild bank and then at fifty we can secure a trading route/guild merchant.

A streamlined and appealing, easy to jump into title with a lot more to do and a lot of flexibility to your play style.
The game has changed quite a bit these past two years, due to large adjustments and changes, including an overhaul of some fundamental mechanics. For new players or those whom tried it previously, here is a concise and useful video that details those changes as well as  may address some of you previous concerns or highlight things you may find appealing :​

Now is the time to buy/play! Currently on sale (Steam) via both the base model "Tamriel Unlimited" and the "Gold Pack**" http://store.steampowered.com/app/306130/
Even if you prefer non Steam, the base game is very affordable***

**For anyone curious about the pack and it's included DLCs or how they work please ask
*** Game is buy to play one time, however subscription is optional and has some useful benefits I can detail is well if interested​
MORROWIND!!! Can you think of any other one word that strikes so much passion, emotion and nostalgia in TES and RPG fans? Well it's coming...
http://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-gb/morrowind
http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/The_Elder_Scrolls_Online:_Morrowind​


In summary, give ESO a try if you are looking for something that's not tab targeting based, has good story/lore, familiar RPG elements, The Elder Scrolls IP influence, an active community, a varied game play spectrum, a strong mod community and easy to use mod system, is inexpensive/good value for money and may be a chance to play with other TPU members. Furthermore consider jumping on board now, particularly while it's on further sale.

And lastly to add one more highlight to convince you, there is a free week/weekend on right now if you'd like to try it out before purchasing.


*What to do next?*

Has my used car salesman pitch done in a Jimmy McGill voice worked on you? Are you sold? If so, state your interest and leave your Steam name (or other preferred contact method) here as well as PM me the same including any other relevant details you feel are helpful. We'll try to get you added to the TPU Steam group.

If you need advisement about the purchasing methods/options or any other queries you can post here or PM me.


@RCoon
Ideally this could be made into it's own thread A) To be new and more lively/generate more interest  B ) Because it's no longer a beta game.


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## newconroer (Apr 15, 2017)

Game discounted also now on their official website (so that's the non-steam purchase), to match Steam prices. I suppose this is in advance of the expansion release.


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## ShiBDiB (Apr 18, 2017)

Pretty sure this game is on its last leg.


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