The Elder Scrolls Online

[Der Helm]

Some of the characters and story ideas are really good and fun. I'd love to hear more about the backstory of Raz, but because I had to abandon most of the quests (which seems to finish them) I missed most of the back story of why I am now in her majesties intelligence service. But Raz was still awesome.

But some of the stories/quests ...
It seems to me every 2nd village I ran through had the same quest line.
We are getting invaded.
Go find/help/rescue the innocents.
Find at least 1 father/brother/son dead. 15 meters away.
Support the troops.
Oh no, a traitor.
Kill Big(ish) Bad.
Kill/Forgive traitor.
No quest reward because fuck you its a stress test and beta and not even the final build and all will be fixed at release. ITS ONLY BETA!1!1!eleven

[Nevermore]

But no bear asses! 

[Stormwaltz]

It has a lot of problems but, IMO, the graphics and art style isn't one of them.  The graphics are somewhere between Oblivion and Skyrim, which is fine for an MMO.

I used to think the world looked like the next incarnation of LotRO's broadly-realistic, RL biome-based style. But I liked LotRO's environments, and not everyone did.

[WayAbvPar]

I liked the look of LoTRO a lot. The combat was dull as hell though, and WAY too many quests involved running all over hell's half acre. I feel like all I did in that game was run or ride around on expensive horses 95% of the time.

[Tannhauser]

I liked the look as well.  Rivendell, The Shire and the Barrow Downs were especially well done.  I still play it on occasion, hell my friend and his daughter are LOTR geeks as well and still play a lot.  He has to wait, because she reads every single quest.  Every one. 

But yeah,the quest paths were crazy bad for travel.  Combat was pretty bad too, but overall I have very fond memories of grouping with friends and finding the locations from the book.

[Merusk]

I feel like all I did in that game was run or ride around on expensive horses 95% of the time.

So you're saying it captured the books perfectly. 

[Ironwood]

Fucking woeful.

[Morfiend]

I actually had fun this beta. There is a ton wrong with the game, and it feels like most design decisions came from 2004, but really to me the only thing I want from a game is fun. I can't see this as being a huge success as the masses want a more modern game these days, but I think there is enough fun there for me to justify the cost plus sub for a few months.

I really wonder how viable a lot the the builds will be. Flexible system be dammed if most of the non-cookie cutter builds aren't viable.

[Ginaz]

I actually had fun this beta. There is a ton wrong with the game, and it feels like most design decisions came from 2004, but really to me the only thing I want from a game is fun. I can't see this as being a huge success as the masses want a more modern game these days, but I think there is enough fun there for me to justify the cost plus sub for a few months.

I really wonder how viable a lot the the builds will be. Flexible system be dammed if most of the non-cookie cutter builds aren't viable.

Yeah, I think it would be a giant mistake requiring certain abilities or X amount of skill points plugged into skill lines in order to do dungeons, raids and pvp.

[Senses]

I actually had fun this beta. There is a ton wrong with the game, and it feels like most design decisions came from 2004, but really to me the only thing I want from a game is fun. I can't see this as being a huge success as the masses want a more modern game these days, but I think there is enough fun there for me to justify the cost plus sub for a few months.

I really wonder how viable a lot the the builds will be. Flexible system be dammed if most of the non-cookie cutter builds aren't viable.

I use the fun standard too, but I also find games tremendously fun then ditch them 2 weeks later.  If all a game wants to do is make box sales, fun works, but if they want to continue to get subscriptions when the free month is over they have to have some depth and staying power.  Pvpers are such a finicky bunch though.  I can't imagine how the solo RPG'er will do against the average denizen of the nomadic PvP Crowd.

[WayAbvPar]

I feel like all I did in that game was run or ride around on expensive horses 95% of the time.

So you're saying it captured the books perfectly. 

 

I guess I walked right into that one.

[Lakov_Sanite]

One does not simply walk into LoTR jokes.

[WayAbvPar]

Should I have said 'epic journeyed'? 

[apocrypha]

It has a lot of problems but, IMO, the graphics and art style isn't one of them.  The graphics are somewhere between Oblivion and Skyrim, which is fine for an MMO.

Yeah I think opinions about the graphics are the definition of subjective, I'm sure not everyone will share my feelings.

Also, I've never made it out of the starter island in either of the beta weekends I've participated in yet, so I also totally accept that the visual style may improve greatly in the rest of the game world.

[Threash]

I didn't like the graphics as much as i like GW2 but they were better than the skittles vomit of Wildstar.

[Teleku]

See, I hated the art style of GW2.  It seems nice at first but quickly becomes bland as hell.  One of the factors that made the game so boring to me.

[murdoc]

See, I hated the art style of GW2.  It seems nice at first but quickly becomes bland as hell.  One of the factors that made the game so boring to me.

Just goes to show how subjective art style is. I love the style of GW2, but could not stand the bland look of ESO. I never once made a character I was happy with the look of.

[Nevermore]

The argument between the look of ESO vs GW2 is like the argument between classic cinematography and orange/teal over saturated cinematography.  ESO only feels washed out and bland because WoW, GW2 and Wildstar are..  let's just say abundantly colorful.  I actually thought the look of ESO was its strongest point.

The other noteworthy thing that I liked was just how large Cyrodiil (the PvP map) was.  It looked like it'd be harder to just blitz a keep since there's a siege limit and I believe there's a siege spacing requirement as well when building them.  There are supply lines for moving around, making for some other interesting tactics.  I like the idea of the forward bases but they might undermine the supply line tactics.  All in all, that part looks much better than GW2 WvW.

Unfortunately, the PvP *combat* is ass.  It really highlights how bad the animations are in this game.  Characters just feel 'floaty', especially the jumping animation where you literally do kind of float.  There are few if any visual clues to when you're being hit so unless your eyes are glued to your health bar you can find yourself suddenly dead with no warning, even though you've been hit multiple times.  Oh, and since chat system is rudimentary, there's no combat log (that I could find at least) to see exactly what happened.  But hey, at least chat works so it's got a leg up on AC2! 

All in all, the game feels like it would have been a fine sequel to DAoC if it had been released back in 2003 or so.  WoW would still eat its lunch in 2004, though.  Aside from the graphics, which I thought were well done and run very well on even my old machine, ESO just feels very amateurish and incomplete.  Even though I liked that I got to play a sneaky archer for the first time since DAoC, ESO is just not worth a box purchase plus a sub fee.

[satael]

The argument between the look of ESO vs GW2 is like the argument between classic cinematography and orange/teal over saturated cinematography.  ESO only feels washed out and bland because WoW, GW2 and Wildstar are..  let's just say abundantly colorful.  I actually thought the look of ESO was its strongest point.

The other noteworthy thing that I liked was just how large Cyrodiil (the PvP map) was.  It looked like it'd be harder to just blitz a keep since there's a siege limit and I believe there's a siege spacing requirement as well when building them.  There are supply lines for moving around, making for some other interesting tactics.  I like the idea of the forward bases but they might undermine the supply line tactics.  All in all, that part looks much better than GW2 WvW.

Unfortunately, the PvP *combat* is ass.  It really highlights how bad the animations are in this game.  Characters just feel 'floaty', especially the jumping animation where you literally do kind of float.  There are few if any visual clues to when you're being hit so unless your eyes are glued to your health bar you can find yourself suddenly dead with no warning, even though you've been hit multiple times.  Oh, and since chat system is rudimentary, there's no combat log (that I could find at least) to see exactly what happened.  But hey, at least chat works so it's got a leg up on AC2! 

All in all, the game feels like it would have been a fine sequel to DAoC if it had been released back in 2003 or so.  WoW would still eat its lunch in 2004, though.  Aside from the graphics, which I thought were well done and run very well on even my old machine, ESO just feels very amateurish and incomplete.  Even though I liked that I got to play a sneaky archer for the first time since DAoC, ESO is just not worth a box purchase plus a sub fee.

I think the visual clue thing is solved with add-ons like Foundry Tactical Combat (ESO supports LUA addons)

[Nevermore]

I was using FTC on the last day and it still didn't help much.  Some, but not enough.  The problem is the character models don't really react to being hit.

[Draegan]

There is a pretty good combat log if you download the add-on for it. The combat txt add on solve alot of the targeting issue as well.

[tmp]

The argument between the look of ESO vs GW2 is like the argument between classic cinematography and orange/teal over saturated cinematography.  ESO only feels washed out and bland because WoW, GW2 and Wildstar are..  let's just say abundantly colorful.  I actually thought the look of ESO was its strongest point.

I don't think it's just that, as even within ESO itself you experience noticeable jump in how much colour there is in the environments when you move from the newbie zone to the next island (and both are step ups from the prison dungeon sequence in that regard). The early zones are washed out and bland quite objectively, without making comparisons to any other games. Unfortunately for the devs the player is going to experience these extremely drab areas first, and who knows how many will bother to move past them.

[Morfiend]

Apparently the latest patch is adding the option to skip the tutorial and newbie island and go straight to a major city.

Edit for the link

[Spiff]

I think the visual clue thing is solved with add-ons like Foundry Tactical Combat (ESO supports LUA addons)

There is a pretty good combat log if you download the add-on for it. The combat txt add on solve alot of the targeting issue as well.

There's already add-ons to fix the game?
It might turn into a real Elder Scrolls game after all!   

[WayAbvPar]

When are they adding cliff racers?

[Miasma]

When are they adding cliff racers?

When it goes free to play and you can afford the nostalgia.

[tazelbain]

Hmm, and they can sell racer repellant in the cash store,. Brilliant.

[Samprimary]

St. Jiub's Racer Repellant, now in the Daedric Store for 200 Molag Bucks

[apocrypha]

If they put a cash shop in as well as a $60 box cost and monthly sub then they'll alienate even more pissed off gamers.

[Paelos]

Who cares about alienation? This isn't a game. This is a cash grab before they are forced to admit defeat, and I believe that's been the plan for months. They know this thing sucks internally. They are downright admitting it by letting you skip the part that's supposed to hook you into the game.

[Lantyssa]

Apparently the latest patch is adding the option to skip the tutorial and newbie island and go straight to a major city.

I decided to skip to the end and go straight to a different game.

That really says something when they cut out that much of the beginning content.

[WayAbvPar]

If they put a cash shop in as well as a $60 box cost and monthly sub then they'll alienate even more pissed off gamers.

I honestly don't think they can piss off anyone who buys it. They are already deep into the Kool-Aid.

[Der Helm]

Apparently the latest patch is adding the option to skip the tutorial and newbie island and go straight to a major city.

I decided to skip to the end and go straight to a different game.

That really says something when they cut out that much of the beginning content.

I did not find the beginning that bad. What really distracted me was the lack of instancing. Having dozens of people standing around in the same hidden cave, secret basement, or whatever really was immersion breaking.

What I found decent was the way they handled "phasing". The stuff I think WoW introduced during WotLK ? That worked very well for me.

[Hawkbit]

Apparently the latest patch is adding the option to skip the tutorial and newbie island and go straight to a major city.

I decided to skip to the end and go straight to a different game.

TESO is essentially Global Thermonuclear War.  I like it.

[Ingmar]

Who cares about alienation? This isn't a game. This is a cash grab before they are forced to admit defeat, and I believe that's been the plan for months. They know this thing sucks internally. They are downright admitting it by letting you skip the part that's supposed to hook you into the game.

Meh, that's a massive overstatement. There's a game here, it will have players. I don't really like it but there's been plenty of work put in and they will have a player base.