I picked this up at Steam the other week while it was on sale. I didn’t get the massive deal many of y’all did (I paid $50 for the Imperial Edition) but with about 90 hours into the game, I’m feeling like I ripped off the devs.
This game is awesome.
It looks fantastic. The graphics are unbelievably detailed and realistic. Oh sure, jumping is kinda weird, but hey, it’s a freaking game. And a beautiful looking game at that.
I have zero experience with any Elder Scrolls stuff, so to me it’s just a bunch of lore. I have no memories, fond or otherwise, of a different type of game or a different control scheme or a look to it or anything and so nothing distracts me from the game I’m actually playing. And the lore is deep. The characters are good. The voice acting is excellent. The questing is actually fun. I like that I make choices, some of which I immediately wish I hadn’t made, that are going to affect my future gameplay.
I’ve barely scraped the surface of PvP but it too seems deep and multifaceted. I can barely follow the zone chat sometimes, but I just keep asking “wtf is going on” and “where should I go”; sometimes people even answer me. Plus, there’s quests in the PvP zone! LOTS of quests! And lots of Sky Shards. And runes. And fishing holes. The zone may be the single largest MMORPG zone I’ve ever seen; it’s freaking huge.
Grouping for dungeons is something I haven’t tried yet, either, although I did queue for one the other day. I had to log off before the queue was up, but at least I figured out how to do it.
Servers are lightning fast for me; i have like 28ms lag is all.
In short, I’m very happy with my purchase and it looks as tho I’ll happily play this game for months now that there’s no monthly fee. Which means there will be plenty to learn, plenty to share with others and plenty to gripe about; hence, this thread.
I really wish that I had the slightest interest in an MMO. I’ve loved all the past Elder Scrolls games. But that in an online context just doesn’t do it for me. Zone chat kills the immersion. And really, the whole point to the game is to be the biggest badass in the world. Online, I’m just some minor badass.
Oh well. At least Fallout 4 is coming!
(Hopefully you don’t take this as threadshitting. Been a couple of hours since you posted. I’m glad you’re enjoying it.)
The game is kind of bittersweet for me- I was the Effects Lead on it for about five and a half years. I designed most of the special effects in the game, or designed the systems for them, or hired the people who made them. It was the game that I’d always wanted to work on, ever since I played Daggerfall (“I want this, but with more people in it!”).
Anyway, six months after it shipped, I got laid off. No shipping bonus, and only one month of severance (and to get that, I had to sign something saying I wouldn’t try to sue them). Had to sell the house I’d bought two years earlier and move halfway across the country to get a new job, leaving all of my friends behind. Luckily, my wife was able to keep her job- she now works remotely.
I’m very proud of the work I did, and I think the game is fun as hell, but I can’t bring myself to play it.
I played the beta, and tried the full version when it went FTP. I didn’t see it as enough of an improvement over Rift, and I was tired of Rift at the time, so it really didn’t compare favorably. I’ve been thinking of giving it another try now that the newb rush is over.
Is crafting important enough in the game that you have to open every single chest you find and gather all the components, or can you just play the game and still get somewhere?
I don’t take it as threadshitting at all; this game is huge and yet hasn’t been getting a lot of press or even WoM coverage, it seems, so there’s gonna be lots of stuff that people don’t know, have questions about, etc.
I helpfully bolded part of your post. Zone chat isn’t a problem. There is no Barrenschat going on anywhere that I’ve seen, mostly because the zone chat window isn’t onscreen by default; you actually have to open it and keep it open by typing. Maybe there are settings where you can make it a permanent part of your UI, but I like it fading out. When I need to ask questions or advice, it’s there; otherwise I never see it (or what people are typing).
In fact, for an MMO, I’m pretty impressed with how much solo activity there is in ESO. For instance, I have a level 36 mage and not once have I ever grouped with another player. There are even solo dungeon instances. And many of the dungeons seem to be open-world, as I’ll be making my down to the quest objective or the boss and I’ll suddenly see someone else coming back my way from having just killed the boss! Woot! That just saved me from having to kill a dozen mobs in my way!
The PvP zone, Cyrodil (I think I got that wrong but I’m not sure how) is constant chatter if you leave the chat window up, because people are coordinating a massive 2 front war effort and all the little battles that entails.
It’s one of the things I really like about ESO is that it’s tailored in many ways for a solo experience. Even the main quest/story line has never forced me into needing a group.
Aye, you should be proud of the work you did; the effects are freaking awesome. And they don’t gum up my video card like WoW used to, either.
I’m sorry that your experience there ended so poorly, but ISTM that the management side of the company wasn’t as focused and savvy as the tech side, based on the marketing debacle they’ve had with one of the best known and loved non-Mario franchises in gaming history.
I haven’t done much crafting yet, but yeah, basically looting crates and sacks and backpacks is the way to get cooking & brewing mats. Enchanters (like me!) find runestone idols that we pry the runes out of. Not sure about the other crafts yet, but the crafting seems to have enough variety and volume that it will take quite a bit of time to become an Artisan or Expert or whatever they call it when you max out your skills. And the food buffs that I’ve gotten from cooking have been helpful, so I pay attention now to what meats and spices I have on me. Lots of mats I find in crates I don’t even pick up; they aren’t worth any money to vendor, after all.
Once I get my 1st toon to level cap I’ll work on crafting and PvP more; right now it’s fun as hell to just run around doing quests and killing stuff.
Dangerosa and I picked this up in the sale as well, and have put in a few hours both solo and duoing. We’re up to 10 on our duo pair, and I have a solo character at 10 as well. I’m a huge fan of the Elder Scrolls series, and venturing into it with my wife is loads of fun. Sample dialogue:
[QUOTE=Brainiac4]
Oh wow. That’s a Betty Netch. No worries, they’re not hostile. Bull Netches you have to watch out for.
[/QUOTE]
Lightnin’, I hate the way your story ends - you did awesome work and you should be able to be proud of it, not pissed off that poor management laid you off. I hope your new job is awesome.
Edited to add:
Is there a Doper guild for ESO? If not, should we start one? Or pick one to join? There seem to be some decent guild benefits.
I’ve been playing a lot more than I expected, I’m enjoying it, but they made some weird choices.
The main constraint is storage space. With all the different crafting materials there is not a fraction of the storage space you need. It just seems strange that they made a game where storage alts are completely required. I assumed the real bank space was a real money purchase, but no just keep making more alts and try to keep them straight.
About level 20 I started finding lots of pretty cool armor sets. I have found a single piece of about 8 different sets. But what the hell is the point? How are you possible going to stumble across enough pieces to get the bonus before you are beyond the level where the first piece is useless? And with the bank problems there is no way you can store them and try to maybe get a set for an alt some day, for the 3 levels before it is worthless.
Aye, I noticed all this too, especially after I got 4 pieces of an armor set, only to notice by the 4th one that I was now 4 levels above the set.
Both of these things are common to RPGs tho; somehow it never seems to register on the devs even tho millions of players know it is (a shitty design flaw) present in every ddamn game.
Okay, I just started one, but it’s for fighting Dominion side in PvP only, if I read all that correctly. I saw the Ebonheart Pact kicking all kinds of ass in Cyrodill today, tho, so I wanna know if that’s typical or if all 3 factions trade off kicking ass at different times or days or whatever.
Anyway, for now, if y’all wanna fight Dominion, figure out how to send me a tell or mail or something and I’ll invite you to <Straight Dope Dominion>; my character’s name is, of course, Bomage Minimart.
Hehe, I’m as oblivious in game world as I am in real world :smack:
There is a quest I just did where you find a dude who came back from a long journey to find his beloved and her family missing. As you follow the clues you find out that while he was gone she started to feel for a servant girl, Love triangle duh duh duhhhhh!
Hack, hack, Smash, Smash loot, I save the day and rescue the family of course. Afterward the dude comes up and says “Things have changed, I don’t know what I should do” helpfully I tell him that there is a war going on and every body is needed down at the castle.
Then the servant girl comes up and says “Well, he is back I guess it’s going back to normal.” Again quite helpfully I let her know about all the opportunities to make your name in the world these day.
Then I go and finish the quest by talking to the girl. As soon as I am done there is a little scene. Dude and servant walk up together “Hey babe, so sorry, we decided we are going off to the big bad world, check ya later, maybe”
The chick “Both of you are leaving?”
Her Mom “What the hell?”
Me. Ohh yeah the relationship, love triangle thing. I forgot about that when I was giving helpful advice, my bad.
Bethesda does write entertaining quests for sure.
I don’t mean to make light of your experience but i thought this was standard procedure in the MMO industry. You need lots of developers to make the game, but quite a smaller number to keep it going after it’s done.
Work on researching traits in crafting. The crafted sets are worthwhile to make, even at higher levels. This is one of those games where crafting will keep you in great gear. Crafted Sets