The Elder Scrolls Online

[Miasma]

Depends what you consider the first mainland zone, which is probably different per faction.  Daggerfall people went tutorial prison->desert island->orc island->then, finally daggerfall city in glenumbra.

[Draegan]

No one brought up they stripped out basically all the addon API? Now you can't see your own buffs, debuffs or buffs and debuffs on your target. This means as a healer you can't see your HOTs on you or your group mates. You don't know when to purge.

When you get damage all you see is "X Damage" not X fire/cold/holy damage. No abilities names or anything. I don't think there is even a cast bar any more.

lol

[Miasma]

Yeah I like to hope they didn't understand the side effects of disabling that.  It's pretty stupid.  I can see the argument (but don't agree with it) that you shouldn't be able to see enemy player's stamina, buffs or what they are casting but you absolutely need to be able to see the dots and healing you do to others.

Only significant amount of pvp I've done in the last few years was in WoW where you can see info on everything your enemy is casting so I don't see the big deal.

I mean at the very least player info should only be hidden in cyrodil so that if you're doing a dungeon you know what the hell is going on.

[Draegan]

There's one example I use when pointing out how pants on head retarded this is. Sorcs get a spell called Crystal Fragment. Outside of it's normal damage/effects it gives the player a chance to proc on any spell cast the ability to cast this spell instantly and for 50% less mana. If you get a proc two things used to happen:

1) You get a buff on you for 10 seconds telling you that you can now cast the spell at reduced cost and cast time.
2) Your hands glowed purple.

Now as a new player, you will randomly see your hands glowing purple. How many people will figure out that this is the proc? I don't doubt many will especially since your hands/body get glowly with other effects.

--

The latest change on the PTS now is that if you're a healer, you get no experience in a group. In order to gain experience, you have to have at least damaged the target once. So healers have to tag targets instead of just healing people.

They changed it TO this. This isn't broken, it's just terrible gameplay and design. They're fucking stupid over there.

[Ingmar]

Wasn't there also a THIRD newbie zone?

I don't think so? When I say newbie zone in this instance I mean the prison and then the "I have been shipwrecked on a tiny island until level 3" bit, not the extended first mainland zone.

My Nord went from Prison Place->Nord Island Place->Little Dark Elf Farmland/Town Place, and I was not yet at the 'ok here's the open world finally'. Was still all just linear script land up to that point, zones seemed to be about the same size. I guess the 3rd one was a little bigger, but it definitely wasn't 'ok we've taken the shackles off' yet.

[Morfiend]

I didnt mind the "newbie" island at all. I fucking hate Coldharbor. I think this is the worst game into zone ever. Its everything Elder Scrolls historically is not. Its very confined, and boring and makes no sense.

Fuck that place. I was really excited when they said we could skip the newbie zone, I thought they meant Coldharbor.

[Threash]

You can skip coldharbour after you've done it once, it takes like 10 minutes or less anyways.

[Nevermore]

Yeah, Coldharbor was stupid and terrible.  Just really, really bad.  I didn't mind the newbie island.  If they had time to rework the beginning of the storyline, they would have been much better served to have you start off just being washed up onto the shore of the newbie island and find out what happened to you along the way.

[Nebu]

Who designed newbie island and thought it was a good idea?  It's terrible and suggests that the dev team has a huge disconnect between what they think is fun and what the playerbase thinks is fun.   The story is bad.  The gameplay is bad.  The NPC's are terrible.  The whole flow of it feels dull and dated.  

When I logged onto City of Heros for the first time, I got to run into a group of thugs and lay some smack on them.  I felt like I was a novice hero.  When I could fly, I felt like I was an aspiring hero.  When I got into my 30's, I felt like I was a real hero.  I get absolutely none of that visceral connection with this game.  Sure, I could lay the smack down on some wolves when I hit level 10.... but it felt more like an annoyance than an adventure.  

Elder scrolls, Morrowind, and Skyrim were all good games where I felt like an adventurer in a vast world creating my own destiny.  ESO feels more like I'm a participant in MST3K.  I'm trapped in a shell watching an old B-movie.  

In other words...

[Typhon]

I know that if you don't love it, there is no chance I will like it.  Much like the WoW expansion thread, I am grateful for the burden lifted.  I am free to continue the search.

[Signe]

I'm likely to give it a go but some things (mostly already mentioned) bother me.  Like no AH and going off to do a quest and having to use a lever or something and there's people milling about or using the levers... there's no way to retain immersion with that stuff going on.  It's just weird.  I already played Skyrim and Oblivion and I generally like those sorts of games so I guess I'll just have to see if there's enough of that to keep me interested.

[Nebu]

I know that if you don't love it, there is no chance I will like it. 

I will confess that one of the guys I pvp with absolutely loves ESO.  He played last beta weekend and did nothing but destroy people in pvp.  That may be the only thing that causes me to play this game.  I don't think I could endure the PvE for long.

[Paelos]

I agree that PvP is their only shot to succeed. For better or worse.

[Cadaverine]

I wanted to try the pvp, but I couldn't even be bothered to slog my way to level 10.

[squirrel]

Yeah I bought it cause some of the people I know raved about the PvP. So. I really doubt the PvP game will get the focus to be the next big thing but I can afford a month to check it out.

[Simond]

There's one example I use when pointing out how pants on head retarded this is. Sorcs get a spell called Crystal Fragment. Outside of it's normal damage/effects it gives the player a chance to proc on any spell cast the ability to cast this spell instantly and for 50% less mana. If you get a proc two things used to happen:

1) You get a buff on you for 10 seconds telling you that you can now cast the spell at reduced cost and cast time.
2) Your hands glowed purple.

Now as a new player, you will randomly see your hands glowing purple. How many people will figure out that this is the proc? I don't doubt many will especially since your hands/body get glowly with other effects.

--

The latest change on the PTS now is that if you're a healer, you get no experience in a group. In order to gain experience, you have to have at least damaged the target once. So healers have to tag targets instead of just healing people.

They changed it TO this. This isn't broken, it's just terrible gameplay and design. They're fucking stupid over there.

Well, at least the "bring back vanilla EQ!" grognards should feel at home now. 
Also: Next time anyone bitches about about a dev team doing something dumb we've got a new "At least they didn't do X" contender.

[Merusk]

Well, at least the "bring back vanilla EQ!" grognards should feel at home now. 
Also: Next time anyone bitches about about a dev team doing something dumb we've got a new "At least they didn't do X" contender.

I'd wiped that out of my memory until you reminded me.  Oh how I remember the clerics bitching their 1hb skill wasn't high enough to damage the mobs they were in group for, so they'd have to spend hours later killing low-levels and self healing.  Something about not enough spell slots to keep smite on the bar.

[Tannhauser]

There's one example I use when pointing out how pants on head retarded this is. Sorcs get a spell called Crystal Fragment. Outside of it's normal damage/effects it gives the player a chance to proc on any spell cast the ability to cast this spell instantly and for 50% less mana. If you get a proc two things used to happen:

1) You get a buff on you for 10 seconds telling you that you can now cast the spell at reduced cost and cast time.
2) Your hands glowed purple.

Now as a new player, you will randomly see your hands glowing purple. How many people will figure out that this is the proc? I don't doubt many will especially since your hands/body get glowly with other effects.

--

The latest change on the PTS now is that if you're a healer, you get no experience in a group. In order to gain experience, you have to have at least damaged the target once. So healers have to tag targets instead of just healing people.

They changed it TO this. This isn't broken, it's just terrible gameplay and design. They're fucking stupid over there.

Well, at least the "bring back vanilla EQ!" grognards should feel at home now. 
Also: Next time anyone bitches about about a dev team doing something dumb we've got a new "At least they didn't do X" contender.

What year is it? Lol This is going to be a glorious train wreck.  Off to invest in popcorn futures!

[Sobelius]

Early Access info:

(from https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4839)

WHEN WILL EARLY ACCESS BEGIN?

Updated 03/22/2014 12:53 AM             Published 01/28/2014 06:51 AM
The 5-day early access bonus that comes with pre-purchasing the digital Imperial and Standard Edition as well as the pre-order of the Physical Imperial Edition of The Elder Scrolls Online will begin on March 30, 2014. The 3-day early access bonus that comes with pre-ordering the Physical Standard Edition of The Elder Scrolls Online will begin on April 1, 2014.

More specifically, the following locations, dates, and times for the 5-day early access are:

North America (East): 7:00 AM EDT, Sunday March 30th
UK/IE: 12:00 PM WEST, Sunday March 30th
Central Europe: 1:00 PM CEST, Sunday March 30th
Sydney, Australia: 10:00 PM AEDT, Sunday March 30th
Singapore: 7:00 PM SGT, Sunday March 30th

The following locations, dates, and times for the 3-day early access are:

North America (East): 7:00 AM EDT, Tuesday April 1st
UK/IE: 12:00 PM WEST, Tuesday April 1st
Central Europe: 1:00 PM CEST, Tuesday April 1st
Sydney, Australia: 10:00 PM AEDT, Tuesday April 1st
Singapore: 7:00 PM SGT, Tuesday April 1st

[Sobelius]

ESO veteran content post:
http://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en/news/post/2014/03/26/esos-veteran-content?em_cmp=patch2us

Perhaps the typical marketing hype?  Perhaps some new ideas?

Nice to see someone thought about level 50+ content. Horse racing -- might be fun.

(SWTOR has a shit ton of people riding speeder bikes of all sorts and I keep wondering why there is no racing game? Instead we get a housing ( ) expansion in SWTOR. Nothing says cash shop money sink like housing doo-dads.)

[ajax34i]

Because the speeders are all equal speed (based on level). 

I suppose they could implement variable speed capabilities for the speeders, but then the player base will expect them to be available outside the racing track so they can go faster from point A to point B.  Which may be ok to allow, because who cares about 3 seconds faster travel time.

Big issue, though, is that just like the SF sub-game doesn't support joystick, the racing game wouldn't support a steering wheel.  Mouse control is meh.

Though I suppose it just never occurred to them.  Maybe you should suggest it in the suggestions forum.

[tmp]

Because the speeders are all equal speed (based on level). 

LotRO had horse racing event thing with all mounts having equal speed. The winner was whoever could lead their mount on the most optimal path and best dodge the obstacles. Though I know, rewarding player's skill and not gear advantage in a MMO seems crazy

[Lantyssa]

They can nick the racing game from Clone Wars Adventures.

[Signe]

Because the speeders are all equal speed (based on level). 

LotRO had horse racing event thing with all mounts having equal speed. The winner was whoever could lead their mount on the most optimal path and best dodge the obstacles. Though I know, rewarding player's skill and not gear advantage in a MMO seems crazy

Surprisingly, no, no... AMAZINGLY... I was good at this!

[Ingmar]

(SWTOR has a shit ton of people riding speeder bikes of all sorts and I keep wondering why there is no racing game? Instead we get a housing ( ) expansion in SWTOR. Nothing says cash shop money sink like housing doo-dads.)

Those crazy devs, giving people what they've been asking for since release.

[Miasma]

I kind of doubt there will be an official bat country guild given most f13ers dislike of the game but if anyone wants to hang around a bunch of other mature, cynical MMO players I'm in a small family guild that's been around since original everquest and it should suit you.  We will be playing in the Daggerfall Covenant so that's a consideration.  While you can join guilds cross faction there isn't much point since you can't PvP or even PvE with eachother.  So long as you preordered you can play any race, otherwise Daggerfall is Breton/Orc/Redguard.

Just send a tell to @Stopgap for an invite, I should be on tomorrow at seven in the morning eastern with the other headstart people.

[Morfiend]

Some friends and I are doing a guild on Aldmeri Dominion. Also a small guild, probably 15 to 20 members. Mostly ex mmo players who are now over 30 and have lives and such but still enjoy gaming. If any one is interested, can PM me or go to dreadguard.com.

[Tannhauser]

Not going to buy this right away.  It's fun to me, but there are things about the game that bug me.
-Looks like an xp grind to 50.
-Crafting is a real grind as well.
-Some of the mobs are tuned poorly for the level.
-Hard to find mats out in the world except ore.  Even with the glowing mat perk.
-The UI is TOO sparse.  I'd like some information on what I'm doing, not a lot mind you.
-The paywall locked Imperial is total bullshit.
-Guild Wars 2 does everything this game does for $10 less box and no sub.

I've grown tired of WoW keyboard combat, so here's a game that breaks the mold mostly and I pass on it.   

I will almost definitely pick this up in a couple of months, once it has its inevitable player implosion and the devs throw sparkly mud crab vanity pets at us and drop the sub.   

[Falconeer]

After so many insults, there's something that deserves to be said about this game: it's the first MMOPRG in a while that doesn't throw all its content at you right away. In the "new" starting areas there's already plenty of quests and zones that you are completely going to miss if you just follow the quest-hub dotted line, and that's gonna be your loss.

[Nebu]

In the "new" starting areas there's already plenty of quests and zones that you are completely going to miss if you just follow the quest-hub dotted line, and that's gonna be your loss.

Our loss how?  Is exploring rewarded in any way?

[Nevermore]

Our loss how?  Is exploring rewarded in any way?

By letting you find more stuff to do?

[Nebu]

By letting you find more stuff to do?

In a single player game, that's awesome.  In an MMO, I want more to do at level cap.  Doing tired old level 5 quests when I'm level 10 doesn't make much sense unless I REALLY love the game world or I'm a completionist.  I see only one reason to PvE in ESO and that's to get gear/cash/abilities to PvP better.

[Signe]

I'm finding this game troublesome.  I wandered around, started some quests and suddenly everyone is cheering at me and I've somehow saved the day.  I don't even know what I did to save the day!  From what I've been able to figure out, I happened to walk into the same room as another player when he completed a quest we both had accepted even though I hadn't done anything yet.  I'm still in my prison clothes, ffs!  Also, watching the chat a bit and noticing a lot of people commenting about various quests being bugged.  I've also had to turn on player health lines because I can't tell the difference between players and npcs a lot of the time.  Except for the ones with arrows over their heads.  I don't think I've ever had that problem before.  I'm getting a little frustrated because I seriously don't know what's going on around me half the time.  Having said that, it runs fine and very quick even on the highest settings and resolution. 

[Falconeer]

The game rewards exploration in a moltitude of ways <<SO FAR>>, from more XP, more rewards, more money, more resources. At many points it tells you "if you want to move to the next area/quest, it's fine by me. Although there's probably a lot more you could have done around here...". That could be your thing or not, but sure there's many games which do it the other way, and very few (none?) that do it this way.

Also, again too soon to tell, but the crafting system seems very interesting.

[Nevermore]

The biggest problem with the crafting system was having to invest the same skill points you use on all your combat abilities into improving the crafting skills.  They should really be separate systems.