The Future of The Elder Scrolls Online’s Looks Bright - Part 1
Originally Published on the Official Blast Away the Game Review Facebook Page
Written by Dustin Murphy
To many of us, The Elder Scrolls is a series that resonates a very alive setting. A world that churns with each fleeting moment, like a finely greased wheel, in a giant machine. However, how does this work out in something so big that has taken a spin into the MMO world? At QuakeCon 2014, we got to see a vast set of changes that will be taking place in the very near future. These changes include mechanics, scenery, enemies, spell, combat, animation, and activity, but this also means vast improvements that will take place, over time. With the vast amount of changes we saw, we’d love to be able to just split it up into multiple sections, but it will be hard to break it down in small parts. For those of you wondering, we do not have press images at this time, and will hopefully see them in the very near future.
As we know, and Brian Wheeler the PVP Designer emphasized, Cyrodiil has been a place where a devastating amount of combat has taken place and the war has begun to cause the Daedra to begin assaulting the area while Molag Bal’s Planemeld begins. This means a few things, players must kill tons of bosses, and mini bosses, this means hours and hours of fun, and lets not forget, players must clear out enemy players. How do you do this? Capture and hold different districts of the Imperial City, and this is done by clearing out the sewers. Seem familiar? It should, it’s a nod to the highly successful The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Now we know you’ll want to know something regarding the captured districts and what this means, and we have answers. When clearing out the cities, players will get rewards, can respawn in those districts, obtain repeatable quests that feature high gold and XP rewards.
One of these new additions to the Imperial City portion is the Imperial Daedric Armors. We’ve also got a bit of detail regarding each of the new zones, which is something we know you want. For those of you wondering, one of the first places is the Arena District. Daedra have taken over this area, the scene is very grim. Cyrodil changes from the market being controlled by Daedra to Imperial as the area is cleared and un-phased over time. Graphics display blue portals, broken houses, statues, and an overall, from what we saw, inhumane place to be. A place, within the game, that’s truly noteworthy, is that the Imperial City has gone under siege and is very dangerous. Within seconds the screen begins to flash, as we are given a display of an area, which looks much like the previous, the only difference? It’s the Temple District and it has seen a massive amount of damage dealt to it due to Molag Bal’s devastation having began to take its place. As the panel begins to move one, the creatures of the area begin to phase in and we see the Daedra, in their place, as they begin to channel their spells, in order to help Molag Bal’s devastation take place. As the screen moves on through this area, we find out that they will get to take it over, phase out the enemies and of course allow their factions to take over there. With this games graphical capabilities we are witness to something that was set to as a standard, thanks to titles such as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. As the graphics begin to render more, we are witness to the next zone: The Daggerfall Entry. In this panel, the renderings and concept art let us see an area that is dreary, having apparently seen a downfall of its own, to the point that water is dripping from the features, near the edges of the walk ways. Sewage canals seem plentiful as we see rogue-like figures hiding along the walls underneath the areas, which are patrolled by guards. We also are informed that these areas also let both factions find themselves entering forth from different places.
This is known as the “Crossroads”, which is a sewer level. This one allows players to fight against Mo’lag Ball’s legions of evil and claim it for their own people. Within the Crossroads Sewer Level, they were able to display the given area where the forces of evil have taken over and large creatures, which will definitely present a heavy fight, have taken over. Some being easy to fight for more advanced players, others will seem to give the rest a very terrifying fight for them to experience. The most intricate part we saw was how the Imperial City can be taken over by opposing factions in each district, and allow the opposing factions between players to take over, control, and of course obtain quests and items there. This will we something we are interested in seeing as players will be flagged the moment they enter those zones, which will also in themselves, feature new sets of armor!
As the screen moves on we are introduced to Richard Lambert, Lead Content Designer. As he does, we are witness to the fact the game will see new grouping updates, which is something many players have been wanting to see get updated. In his session we learned that they will be focusing on multiple aspects, and most importantly: grouping. This is because many players have taken to the official forums, reddit, and even social media to voice their opinions about how hard it is to group due to players being out of sync within the content. In his panel, Richard notified us of how they are working with shared quest advancement, the ability to group with a leader so that players will sync with them when grouped, and of course, my favorite part, allow players to see what content has been completed for future referencing. The concern here I’ve come to conclude? What will happen if we complete content ahead of the rest of our storyline that we have accessed? Will we be capable of going back and still doing it? This is a question we do not have an answer to at this time, but know we will see something come up soon. We however did learn that there will be a quest tracker to show what common quests players have as they progress through the games campaign itself. This feature will also allow for quest sharing and notification of the acceptance or declining of it when the occasion arises.
In Richards’ speech, we learn that the City of Ash will be making a return for players who wanted to see it once more in Veteran Mode. What does this mean? Players who want a higher rise will get it. The problem? The village elder still has not arisen and a Daedric portal has opened within this Bosmer village once the Daedra have laid siege to the area. After having completed the village to where most are used to, the dungeon will now take them to them into the Deadlands. Within this new area within the instance, we’ve learned that players will go in, find out what’s going on, and of course disembark whatever enemy has caused this, and end their terror. This instance will not be available till the release it is scheduled for with Update 5.
We know many of you have been tired of how fast dungeons have leveled up so that you can’t go into them. With the team having listened, Richard has stated that there is a new solution to this such as what I will mention next. Dungeons will now scale to the group leader, this includes monsters, items, XP, and last, but not least - gold. They’ve also taken note from those who play, that the solo instance difficulty was too high, and this will cause high amounts of frustration. What do I mean by this? The punch the screen time. In turn they have decided to scale it to the player so that you, the player, do not feel as if you are being put through a grinder and tossed up in the air and put back through it. This earned a heavy applause from the crowd at QuakeCon 2014. What else have they listened to? Dungeon repeatability, which is something the players have wanted as they progress through the game. This will cause players who want to return to dungeons more than once, to do a daily run. This will allow for Undaunted Armor types, new passive skills, daily rewards, and of course normal as well as the feeling of success. We also learn that Craglorn will get a Third Chapter, which allows for improved itemization, a new crafting trait that can be obtained and of course a new twelve player trial that will focusing on the Serpent. With this we can only tell you there is so much more for us to bring to you and that is something we will do soon with Part 2 of our editorial relating to the panels from QuakeCon 2014.
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