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[StudioTan]

Am I the only one slightly put off by the whole Veterancy system?

Don't get me wrong - leveling is quite fun. There are many interesting quests, I like that. I'm level 30 now with ~35 hours into the game. I guess I'll hit 50 with ~60 hours.

Now, after that... I'm supposed to go and quest again to get Veteran Ranks? When I heard that Trials will be avaiable for Vet10 players I was pissed. Why? Why delay the traditional endgame? Yes, quests are fun, but after 60 hours, I would LOVE to do something different. And what will I do? Well, quests and harder version of old dungeons.

That's kinda sad.

Someone on Reddit told me that "Well it's obvious! You're wrong! This game is meant to be played 3 times, you have to do all factions quests!"... Well to that I say - if I wanted to, I'd just make a freaking alt... It's delaying the endgame, that's what it is.

Ideal scenario for me: I hit 50, I go to some Vet Dungeons for better gear (let's say it takes about 10 hours to gather good items), and then I'm ready for Trials.

Oh, did I mention that getting from Vet1 to Vet10 takes the same amount of time as getting from 1 to 50...?

I'll never understand people who rush to level cap when an MMO launches and then complain there is nothing to do. Especially with this game which has a large focus on exploration.

I'm at 17 hours and just hit level 10 last night before logging out and my girlfriend has been complaining that I'm always rushing her because I wanted to get to level 10 see what the PVP was like.

 

[docbon]

I am lvl 34 atm and just starting to notice this. It does kinda suck but at the same time I know the layout. So less looking at the map! I am enjoying the game quite a bit. My only gripe is the amount of times I need to re-log to fix a quest of an ore spawn. Driving me nuts!
The PVP has been a lot of fun thou! the battles can get HUGE.

I didn't even know you were playing this. What faction did you roll?

 

[Mr. Luchador]

Just read about an easy to do (and possibly wide spread) way to duplicate any item in game. :\

 

[docbon]

Just read about an easy to do (and possibly wide spread) way to duplicate any item in game. :\

Yeah, saw a stream where a dude was mass duping grand soul gems, and vendoring them for tons of money. I suspect this kind of shit is easily traceable, but lord knows how many people abused it.

 

[Alur]

I'm done with this game.

Bugs galore and it needs balancing badly. I'd go through an area and complete all the quests including the final one that leads you to the next area and I would be at least 5 levels below where I should be.

Huh? 5 levels below? I've never been more than a level or two behind, hell I came into the 4th area almost an entire level above the starting quests. I still had stuff to do in the previous zone as well.

Yeah, I gotta say either you're the best damn PVE leveler I've seen in MMO land, or you're exaggerating a bit out of frustration. There's no way you'd be completing quests at 5 level deficit. It's hard enough just one or two levels behind when you hit a pack of two or three mobs. It'd be impossible to clear most elites that far behind in levels. I keep my gear upgraded as much as possible at 40 and even 42 elites give me a good run.

I'm sure you ran into bugs, but I don't see the balancing issues personally. It's not faceroll easy like the other modern MMOs which is a good thing IMO. With two people it becomes just as trivial as other MMOs are. With one, you need to know your stuff and be appropriately leveled. Apparently you are much more skilled or playing a class capable of fighting at a deficit better than most of us, so I'm not sure why you are bothered by the balance.

Nice to see someone else liked SWTOR's PVP. It's probably my favorite of any MMO. Pretty well balanced, varied map objectives, and just a lot of fun.

Agreed!

It just felt right, and yes it was brilliant fun - I especially liked Huttball for some reason (took me back to my rugby days).

Best part of the game hands down. Huttball is still (IMO, of course) the best battleground/warzone created. I haven't tried the new Quesh version, but the OG one was amazing for an MMO.

I'll never understand people who rush to level cap when an MMO launches and then complain there is nothing to do. Especially with this game which has a large focus on exploration..

I'm with you. I don't quite understand complaining about veteran ranks either way.

Zenimax is basically saying the level cap is 60, not 50. There's no real reason to look at it as 50 because there's clearly 10 more (LONG) levels to progress through. You get to see content you haven't experienced and move through it while properly geared and skilled which is far more fun IMO when compared with questing at level 10 with barely enough skills on your hotbar to have a half-assed repertoire. Plus you've got the master dungeons and PVP for the moment. I don't get it.

 

[Mr. Luchador]

Yeah, saw a stream where a dude was mass duping grand soul gems, and vendoring them for tons of money. I suspect this kind of shit is easily traceable, but lord knows how many people abused it.

Something similar happened in Guild Wars 2 and ArenaNet banned all accounts that abused the system. They had 1 central economy, which they controlled very tightly so I can understand why they reacted like they did.

Seemingly the ESO duping bug has been in the game since long into the beta sessions and there's been no action to fix it. This for me will show how much ZENIMAX actually 'care' about the game beyond how much money they can make ASAP before 'cashing out'. I have nothing to back up those thoughts, just the way I feel like this game might go with how poor the actual support network is for the userbase so far.

 

[Lynq]

I'll never understand people who rush to level cap when an MMO launches and then complain there is nothing to do. Especially with this game which has a large focus on exploration.

I'm at 17 hours and just hit level 10 last night before logging out and my girlfriend has been complaining that I'm always rushing her because I wanted to get to level 10 see what the PVP was like.

What? I'm definitely not rushing. I'm just doing quests. No idea how it's possible to spend 17 hours in TESO and only get level 10 to be honest

I don't stand doing nothing and just looking at sky, I don't do crafting, I don't read books. But I'm not rushing. I skip through some text when quests aren't interesting and they are another version of "XXX forces are invading this place".

Besides, I will never understand this argument about rushing... It's an MMO. It should have content for max level players from DAY ONE. What you're saying is everyone should slow down and spend 300 hours before hitting Veterancy, so devs can take their time and finally implement something that should've been in game on April 4th anyway?

And if Zenimax is saying that level "60" is the last level, they should just make it 60, lol. I'm seeing 50 in game as max, so it's last level for me. Veterancy is optional. Well, should be optional. It isn't, since without Vet10 you can't do Trials and probably other things in AZ.

 

[Teletraan1]

What? I'm definitely not rushing. I'm just doing quests. No idea how it's possible to spend 17 hours in TESO and only get level 10 to be honest

I don't stand doing nothing and just looking at sky, I don't do crafting, I don't read books. But I'm not rushing. I skip through some text when quests aren't interesting and they are another version of "XXX forces are invading this place".

Besides, I will never understand this argument about rushing... It's an MMO. It should have content for max level players from DAY ONE. What you're saying is everyone should slow down and spend 300 hours before hitting Veterancy, so devs can take their time and finally implement something that should've been in game on April 4th anyway?

And if Zenimax is saying that level "60" is the last level, they should just make it 60, lol. I'm seeing 50 in game as max, so it's last level for me. Veterancy is optional. Well, should be optional. It isn't, since without Vet10 you can't do Trials and probably other things in AZ.

By level 37 I would say that me reading books as a rule leveled up all my skills by almost 10. I have skills trees I have never touched or slotted at lvl 10 just by reading books and the ones I do use are close to 10 levels higher than my character level. Perhaps that is causing you some issues because even solo I am finding the game not too difficult outside of a few bosses and I am at maximum 1-2 levels behind the quest levels.

 

[Spiritreaver]

The fact that they already have hard mode dungeons at end game is more content than most MMOs care to pay attention to at launch. Wildstar may blow this out of the water, but that's Wildstar's big selling point isn't it?

That all being said. If end game wasn't ready at launch, I'd rather be forced to do hard mode versions of unseen quest than the other option. They could've done what FFXIV/SWTOR did and had little to nothing to do at cap, or they could just make us run the same 5 daily quests to get items that will mean nothing in a month.

Just the nature of the genre really.

This game isn't trying to be revolutionary, it's another theme park MMO. It just does a decent job of feeling like an Elder Scrolls game, but at the end of the day it's still a MMO.

Not making excuses here. Just as a MMO gamer it seems satisfying for a launch endgame, but I am not VR10 so I can't really speak to that effect.

Now if Craglorn ends up being next to nothing and the next CU after that isn't months off. Yeah this game is in trouble, but for now things seem to be on the right track contentwise. We'll have to see.

I'm really curious at how much WIldstar ends up raising the bar on launch and post launch content.

EDIT: If you're really into raiding I can see how there not being any raids until Craglorn can feel really disappointing. So there is that, and I agree they should've had at least 1-2 raids at launch. I don't like raiding, so it doesn't bother me as much. Can definitely see how that would put someone off.

 

[Mirk]

I didn't even know you were playing this. What faction did you roll?

Um yellow don't remember the name. lol Only went that because a few friends rolled that. Looks like GAF went red? They are all vet 3 and above though. So I am taking my time and for once in an mmo enjoying the story.

 

[WonkyPanda]

Um yellow don't remember the name. lol Only went that because a few friends rolled that. Looks like GAF went red? They are all vet 3 and above though. So I am taking my time and for once in an mmo enjoying the story.

Jesus, vet 3? I wish I had time for games still

 

[Kintaro]

Now if Craglorn ends up being next to nothing and the next CU after that isn't months off. Yeah this game is in trouble, but for now things seem to be on the right track contentwise. We'll have to see.

I don't think the game would be in trouble for awhile. The console launch is still due and XIV is making a living off 3-4 month breaks between content updates (and what is added isn't too much besides grinds). Plus, this game's PvP seems pretty darn fun so far.

Here is hoping though. I'm still having a good time. The game's flaws haven't exposed themselves to me yet.

 

[Mirk]

Jesus, vet 3? I wish I had time for games still

Haha me too. My first child is due here next week so I am assuming its only going to get worse.

 

[WonkyPanda]

Escapist has a really good review for the first 20 levels:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/art...The-Elder-Scrolls-Online-Review-Levels-1-20.2

As before, The Elder Scrolls Online is a genuinely fun experience, but you shouldn't go into it expecting a traditional single player RPG, nor a traditional MMO. It straddles the line between the two so thoroughly that it's difficult to liken the experience to one or the other specifically.

Bottom Line: The Elder Scrolls Online is a ton of fun in an outside-the-box sort of way. It can't seem to decide whether it wants to be single player or MMO, so be prepared for some in-between weirdness, but nothing that really detracts much from the experience. Between Guilds, crafting, PvP, and dungeons, it has all of the makings of a solid MMO.

Recommendation: Just the first 20 levels is almost worth the box price, but whether the subscription fee is worth committing to is still up in the air. It's not the be all end all of Elder Scrolls by any means, but it's an enjoyable experience with few serious issues. If you like Elder Scrolls or MMOs, take it out for a spin. As long as you can commit a couple hours a day to it, you'll more than get your money's worth in the 30 days that comes with the purchase.

4/5 Stars

 

[Kagoshima_Luke]

Can someone help me decide whether to buy this or not?

Background: I've played every Elder Scrolls game as they came out, as far back as Arena. Sank countless hours into Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim and I absolutely love the series. It's my favorite game series of all time.

However, I don't much care for traditional MMOs. I liked Guild Wars 1 & 2, I absolutely loved The Secret World and Asheron's Call way back in the day, and played a couple months of Star Wars: The Old Republic and had an okay time with it. My biggest hurdle is the subscriptionst, I just hate paying for it and feeling like I have to play to get my money's worth. Some games it's not an issue (The Secret World; totally sucked me in with the setting and story and unique quests). I also don't really care for boring hotbar combat. Also, I really like to be able to explore and kind of go about things my own way and not be trapped into small areas.

I guess, I'd like to get impressions on whether you might think I'd enjoy this game based on my love of the other Elder Scrolls titles mixed with my tepidness of traditional MMOs. Not sure if anyone can really answer that for me, but I've read so many mixed articles on this game. Massively's articles praise the game, Rock, Paper, Shotgun seem to think it's not very good and I don't know what to think.

WHAT DO?

Based on everything above, I'm pretty sure you'd like the game. Definitely be worth playing through to end level for one of the factions, just for the lore and chance to see areas in the ES universe never available before.

 

[KePoW]

Escapist has a really good review for the first 20 levels:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/art...The-Elder-Scrolls-Online-Review-Levels-1-20.2

I think they summed it up perfectly for me. It definitely runs the line between SP and MMO.

Bottom line is this game is *FUN*. And that's the most important thing. I've played over 30 hours total and my highest character is level 14.

 

[KePoW]

Can someone help me decide whether to buy this or not?

Background: I've played every Elder Scrolls game as they came out, as far back as Arena. Sank countless hours into Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim and I absolutely love the series. It's my favorite game series of all time.

However, I don't much care for traditional MMOs. I liked Guild Wars 1 & 2, I absolutely loved The Secret World and Asheron's Call way back in the day, and played a couple months of Star Wars: The Old Republic and had an okay time with it. My biggest hurdle is the subscriptionst, I just hate paying for it and feeling like I have to play to get my money's worth. Some games it's not an issue (The Secret World; totally sucked me in with the setting and story and unique quests). I also don't really care for boring hotbar combat. Also, I really like to be able to explore and kind of go about things my own way and not be trapped into small areas.

I guess, I'd like to get impressions on whether you might think I'd enjoy this game based on my love of the other Elder Scrolls titles mixed with my tepidness of traditional MMOs. Not sure if anyone can really answer that for me, but I've read so many mixed articles on this game. Massively's articles praise the game, Rock, Paper, Shotgun seem to think it's not very good and I don't know what to think.

WHAT DO?

Based on all your info, I say there's a very high probability you will like ESO. Possibly even love it.

You can pretty much play most of the game as a SP RPG.

Think of it as a full SP game that you will enjoy for $60. The only issue is if it takes you longer than one month to finish the story, then the subscription fee comes into play.

 

[WonkyPanda]

I think they summed it up perfectly for me. It definitely runs the line between SP and MMO.

Bottom line is this game is *FUN*. And that's the most important thing. I've played over 30 hours total and my highest character is level 14.

That got me thinking: more reviewers really should score an MMO based on level blocs and then give an aggregate. I can't say enough how some MMOs will be amazing the first 20 levels and then the shit comes through (sorry, SWTOR).

 

[Spiritreaver]

The fact that I can play an AOE nuker and tank at the same time....

This game. <3

 

[HowZatOZ]

Latest patch fixed the duping, and I haven't seen any adverse effects from the supposedly billions of gold now floating around. This may be due to having no centralised auction house to game, but everyone is plotting along selling motifs for 2k and legendary alloys for 2.5k as per the usual.

 

[NeededSleep]

Something similar happened in Guild Wars 2 and ArenaNet banned all accounts that abused the system. They had 1 central economy, which they controlled very tightly so I can understand why they reacted like they did.

Seemingly the ESO duping bug has been in the game since long into the beta sessions and there's been no action to fix it. This for me will show how much ZENIMAX actually 'care' about the game beyond how much money they can make ASAP before 'cashing out'. I have nothing to back up those thoughts, just the way I feel like this game might go with how poor the actual support network is for the userbase so far.

Chris save me. I almost feel like playing this.



I need a mmo but nothing looks interesting, this is peaking my interest. But everything ive seen almost looks like quests are single player oriented.

 

[docbon]

Zenimax response to the item dupe bug.

Hi folks,

We're trying to get the word out about the action we took today, in regards to this issue. Here's what we've posted in a few other threads:

Yesterday, we identified an item duping bug in ESO that some players chose to exploit. We acted quickly, and have since fixed the issue. We have banned the game account(s) for those who abused the exploit.

We want to thank everyone who reported this issue to us. In the future, should you identify what you think could be an exploitable bug, please send it to us in-game via /help or in our help center

 

[Pumpkin King]

Banhammering cheaters and exploiters is a good thing. Now, get rid of all the bots...

 

[user237]

I managed to complete my motif collection after buying a few from guild stores for 500 or less. I even got a Breton motif for 250. Soon everyone that wants the motifs will have them, so the prices will plummet even more.

 

[owlbeak]

Based on all your info, I say there's a very high probability you will like ESO. Possibly even love it.

You can pretty much play most of the game as a SP RPG.

Think of it as a full SP game that you will enjoy for $60. The only issue is if it takes you longer than one month to finish the story, then the subscription fee comes into play.

Thanks to you and Kagoshima_Luke

I'll mull it over a couple days and probably will end up getting it. :]

 

[Island]

Can I get an invite to the NA guild? @Iedun

Thanks!

 

[Alibubble]

I know everyone is still getting the hang of things, but as you go on, please share any tips you have! Specifically, I'm trying to figure out the best means of generating income within the game's economic system. The overall market is not nearly as efficient as other MMOs, given the lack of a central AH.

 

[WonkyPanda]

This game right now during my finals:

 

[Anbokr]

So we ran into some roleplayers and decided to have some fun...

 

[Rootbeer]

Gotta love it... they'll take a dupe bug seriously (like they should), but gold farmers? STILL going strong. Why are there no MMOs out there where the issue exists that have conquered this?

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Gotta love it... they'll take a dupe bug seriously (like they should), but gold farmers? STILL going strong. Why are there no MMOs out there where the issue exists that have conquered this?

Because there's no point in just banning gold spammers when they are found. You have to find the people actually farming the gold and ban those accounts in order to remove farmed gold from the economy of an MMO. You have to watch who responds to gold spammers and which accounts they interact with to get their bought gold delivered and then ban the mule and the buyer.

Most importantly, it's best for the company if they wait until the gold farmer renews their sub and then drops the banhammer right after, so they get sub money before the ban. This is why bot accounts belonging to gold farmers are allowed to farm for what seems like weeks on end in many MMOs.

 

[Mr. Luchador]

Chris save me. I almost feel like playing this.



I need a mmo but nothing looks interesting, this is peaking my interest. But everything ive seen almost looks like quests are single player oriented.

Well I'm still low level, so at the moment a lot of the quests I've experienced have been single player orientated. I've been playing with a friend and had a good time, but I can't see myself playing this long term. I'm mainly enjoying just playing the game as a Coop Elder Scrolls with a friend at this point.

It's not as terrible as everyone seems to make it out to be, but there are issues (which game doesn't have issues?) that might distract from the overall experience; such as the wonky controls, and 'incomplete' elements you stumble across now and again.
I'm also not sure now how you can steal everything without any punishment. I know this isn't really a new thing in MMOs or RPGs as it's the norm, but in Elder Scrolls you had to be a sneaky bastard to loot other people's stuff... however in ESO you can just take what you want.

 

[HolyCheck]

Chris save me. I almost feel like playing this.



I need a mmo but nothing looks interesting, this is peaking my interest. But everything ive seen almost looks like quests are single player oriented.

might be worth having a look into wildstar, due out in june too if you're not sure.

looks refreshing

 

[Currygan]

one issue I have with this game is the colour palette. Don't you think it feels a bit drab at times? One one hand it adds to the atmosphere, but on the other it's just a tad depressing


still, good fun. Finally upgraded my shoes, i was running in crappy sandals until level 17

and one 'a my hirelings came back with a Tempering Alloy. Feels good mer

 

[Dunlop]

I have never seen an MMO that punished you for rerunning dungeons lol

Out of curiosity I tried EH a second time
- Got exactly the same loot drops
- pretty sure my XP did not move (marginally)
- at the end I couldn't click on the portal to leave (assuming because I did not have the quest) so I died. I rezzed and made my way back to the entrance and all the mobs at the enterance (up the waterfall)had re spawned so I died again

 

[Echelon079]

one issue I have with this game is the colour palette. Don't you think it feels a bit drab at times? One one hand it adds to the atmosphere, but on the other it's just a tad depressing


still, good fun. Finally upgraded my shoes, i was running in crappy sandals until level 17

and one 'a my hirelings came back with a Tempering Alloy. Feels good mer

Too Much Brown&#8482; ?

I finally got my new laptop, that I am going to have to send back, but another story another time, and got a chance to spend a couple hours last night. All in all, I am really enjoying the game but I can put my finger on the reason why. I am playing a 2 handed templar right now, and unlike most ES games I am actually like the weight and impact with the weapons. I is not a far cry from others, but for some reason it just feels a little better. Character choices seem pretty good, but I really almost wish there was a second "spec" option. I noticed that at a higher level you get the option to switch weapons on the fly, so maybe that will change things somewhat.

Animations are something that I still think need work on this, and most, ES games. When you are first starting out this makes for a really bad disconnect if you ask me. I just finished Bleakrock last night, and I liked the exploration for the most part. I do no not like that some of the legends don't tell you what they are on the map, like the eye that represents sights in that area which I only found out because I ended up with an achievement for getting them all. And treasure maps? LOVE the idea, although I couldn't help myself but to just google the location of the two that I had..

Question about itemization and the economy though: I had just about finished that section and had about 900 gold. I hadn't found any decent weapons as drops in that area, and all the quest rewards I had gotten were for weapon types I wasn't going to use much, if at all. So I spent about 700 gold at the blacksmith for those containers with the random green items. I got some decent stuff, but I noticed in general that 2 hand weapons only seem to be a fraction of the damage higher than 1 hand, is this something that is normal throughout the game? Also, how is gold acquisition? I see people saying that things sell for 1l-2k gold, is that a lot?

 

[LiLSnorpSnorp]

Has there been any information at all about the console versions?

 

[pelican]

Has there been any information at all about the console versions?

MMOs on consoles = bad idea for several reasons.

Pick up the PC version.

 

[Kintaro]

MMOs on consoles = bad idea for several reasons.

Pick up the PC version.

I don't know. This game seems pretty tailor made for consoles. It's more set up for a controller than FFXIV is.

 

[Plasmid]

Got to level 15 last week and haven't touched it since. I really do enjoy the game but after a while it starts feeling REALLY repetitive.

 

[veloxStrix]

MMOs on consoles = bad idea for several reasons.

Pick up the PC version.

FFXIV would like a word with you..

 

[NeededSleep]

might be worth having a look into wildstar, due out in june too if you're not sure.

looks refreshing

Tried alpa/beta wasnt impressed housing system was the best part imo.


Looking for something more challanging with penalties. Like old ff11 had, but not rip off your face EVE style.

 

[Spiritreaver]

How did I go almost 40 levels without knowing how to break CC? Was it in the tutorial?

Wow I'm an idiot.

 

[pelican]

FFXIV would like a word with you..

As would the lack of add ons and mods on the console versions of mmos ;p

 

[Vlodril]

Eu server died or something? Got stuck loading out of an instance and now i cannot log in.

 

[ZombieSupaStar]

Is this the whole map of Tamriel, can I go to like Morrowind, and Skyrim etc? Or are their parts locked off for now?

 

[Hurley]

WHY IS MY INVENTORY ALWAYS FULL

I guess I need to keep track of it better, pretty terrible at item management but it seems like as soon as I make room it immediately fills up again, lost track of the amount of times I've had to throw something away just to complete a quest lol.

Really enjoying the game though. Currently ranking my blacksmithing up!

 

[shigsy]

Eu server died or something? Got stuck loading out of an instance and now i cannot log in.

Yeh I got the same :/

 

[Baskcm]

dammit eu server must be down

 

[demonkaze]

Yep, the EU server has just gone down, would've been nice if they would tell us this.