The Initial Announcement
Bethedsa Zenimax announced the Elder Scrolls Online back in May, which is also when the first details started to creep out.
The Announcement Trailer
The first ever Elder Scrolls Online trailer arrived a day after the first announcement The voice-over sets the stage for the MMO, but other than that there’s not much info here. Pretty logo, though.
Setting and World
According to Game Informer’s announcement, The Elder Scrolls Online will take place in the second era of Tamriel’s history, and the main quest charts the daedric lord Molag Bal attempts to take over the world.The Elder Scrolls Online’s main story will be a single player affair, you don’t see other players along the way.
Molag Bal is the prince of domination and the enslavement of mortals, so this probably isn't going to end well. His plane of Oblivion is said to be a ruined copy of the world: think Tamriel as we know it, but with lots of terrible graphics, glitched NPCs, and broken quests.
The second era is a fairly open part of TES history. All prior Elder Scrolls games have taken place in the third era, with the exception of Skyrim, which is set in the fourth. The sheer amount of lore in each game means that we already know a fair amount about thousands of years leading up to The Elder Scrolls Online, however.
A few major events could conceivably take place within the lifetime of an MMO beginning at this point. Around the time when the game will take place, Morrowind’s god-king Vivec is due to flood the entire region to kick out the invading Akaviri forces. That’d make for a pretty exciting world event.
It’s also an important period for Tamriel’s guilds. This is when the Dark Brotherhood forms out of the outlawed Morag Tong, and the Mages Guild is only a few hundred years old at this point.
How did the developers take inspiration from Skyrim and Oblivion?
Well they have imported the layout of Cyrodiil from Oblivion to ensure Elder Scrolls fans find things familiar, but Skyrim will be a little different. While major landmarks and cities will remain, this is Skyrim long before the ruined world we know, and there’ll be very different stories to tell.
Introduction to the Basics
Factions & Guilds
The two factions announced so far are the Daggerfall Covenant (Bretons, Redguard, and Orcs) and the Aldmerri Dominion (Aldmer, Bosmer, and Khajiit). Players will choose a faction and race at character creation.
The Aldmerri Dominion is a authoritarian High Elven empire and a precursor to the black-robed villains of the same name in Skyrim. Their objective here is to subdugate all of the other races. They have three territories:
The Summerset Isles are the homeland of the Aldmer, located off the south-western coast of Tamriel.
Valenwood is a massive forest and home to the Bosmer. The wood elves are protective of their natural habitat and don’t build cities, so expect sporadic human settlements instead.
Elsweyr, the Khajiit homeland, has only formally existed for a few hundred years by the middle of the second era. It’s a mixture of desert and jungle, and it hides substantial Dwemer ruins.
Expect the Daggerfall Covenant to be a looser affiliation of races. “There is a lot of historical friction between the redguards and the bretons”, game director Matt Firor told Game Informer. In The Elder Scrolls Online, the Daggerfall Covenant will be composed of the provinces of High Rock and Hammerfell – but it’s worth bearing in mind that at this point in the fiction the areas was made up of dozens of smaller kingdoms.
A few hundred years later, in the event known as the ‘Warp in the West’ – a contrivance on Bethesda’s part to explain all of the competing endings for The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall – those separate kingdoms were magically remade into Daggerfall, Wayrest, Orsinium, and Sentinel. Its in this form that they’re better known, and it’ll be interesting to find out whether Zenimax’s more stable High Rock acknowledges this shift in the fiction.
The Elder Scrolls Online Gameplay
Player Vs. Environment
Unlike the single player Elder Scrolls games, The Elder Scrolls online will use an MMO style hotbar, but with a twist. The UI will be minimal, with players taking their queues from animations and other in world hints instead of a wall of text. Lead gameplay designer Nick Konkle says he wants to “Look at the world, not at my hotbar”.
In our Elder Scrolls Online combat overview we learnt that abilities will work in a similar fashion to Guild Wars 2. You have six abilities, the first two are based on your weapon, the next three on your class and the final one is an ‘ultimate’ ability, extremely powerful, but you can only ever use one at once. Any class can use any weapon, so a Mage can carry a sword, and the more people he stabs, the better he’ll get at it. The idea is to let you craft your own playing style from a wide range of options.
Combat will be built around co-operative ‘synergy’ moves. Player attacks will spark effects that other players can exploit to create a bigger, flashier and more damaging attack.
Despite the MMO trappings, familiar elements from the single player Elder Scrolls games will be present. These include guilds, including the Mages Guild, and birthsigns. Skyrim allows players to switch birthsigns on the fly, and we don’t yet know whether The Elder Scrolls Online will go with this system or opt for the previous, chosen-at-character-creation model for assigning bonuses.
Player Vs. Player
The Elder Scrolls Online’s structure makes a lot more sense when you factor in the influence of Mythic’s 2001 MMO Dark Age of Camelot, which was produced by TES Online director Matt Firor. DAOC had three factions that occupied separate regions of the world, and those three factions clashed for control of territory in a central, neutral region.
In The Elder Scrolls Online’s case, that central region is Cyrodiil – the setting for TES IV: Oblivion. Like DAOC, the focus will be on laying siege to enemy fortresses. If it sounds a little like Guild Wars 2′s World vs. World PvP, that’s not a coincidence: ArenaNet have a few ex-Mythic developers on their team, too.
In our Elder Scrolls Online interview the developers spoke about how important the PVP aspect is. They want everyone to be involved in the great war. Even if you don’t want to fight directly, you can still contribute in lots of ways, such as crafting gear for front line troops.
Free-to-Play or Subscription?
Some information about so-called Free to Play model
Free to Play model means that all players can play the game for free without paying regular fee. But F2P MMORPGs are not absolutely free. You must understand that any game is made just because developers want to make some money. It is business and if the game exists it must generate revenue. That’s why high level F2P games can not be absolutely free. For example players will have to buy updates with new content. Now you know that so-called “Free to Play” model is not absolutely free. FTP and Subscription-based games both require money. They just use different ways of doing it.
Can Elder Scrolls Online be free to play?
It is a serious question. If we assume that TES MMORPG will be a huge and long term project the answer is “No”. Elder Scrolls Online will hardly use F2P model. There are several reasons:
Subscription-based games can generate more revenue in long term but such projects must also be huge and interesting. Only interesting game can stimulate players to pay regular fee. Players have to feel that it worth paying. Elder Scrolls Online will be a huge long term project. There is no doubt that the game will also be interesting. If it is true the game will not be F2P.
F2P model is often used because it is easier to attract new players using F2P. It is obvious that FTP model is a little bit more attractive for players. But we do not think that TES Online will have problems with new subscribers. TES is popular and many people around the world will buy a subscription. Popularity is one of the main reasons for using Subscription model in TES MMO.
If Elder Scrolls Online uses subscription-based model we will see quality updates and interesting content. Developers will be able to create high quality updates because subscription-based games generate more revenue. More revenue means better content and updates. The MMO leader, World of Warcraft, is not free to play. That’s why new WOW updates are usually great.
Final overview
Elder Scrolls will most likely use Subscription method because it generates more revenue and allows to maintain and develop high quality game. But Bethesda and ZeniMax will have to do all their best to stimulate players to pay regular fee. What is your opinion?
Misc. Info
- ~ There will be three distinct leveling paths. Members of the Ebonheart Pact will experience a different leveling experience than members of the Aldmeri, and so forth. Whether these “different” paths are copies remains to be seen, but on the map at least each Alliance has a different corner of Tamriel to roam about.
- ~ Soul Gems are back, and will take a significant role in the form of crafting and enhancing items. They were usable in our build, but we were told they were still very much Work in Progress.
- ~ The Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guilds come after launch. The Fighters Guild and Mages Guild quest lines are both in for launch, but the other two more “shadowy” guilds will be added soon after the game goes live.
- ~ There will be mounts and a travel system, but neither is ready to show the public yet. (This is rumored.)
- ~ Classes are in, but they can be “free-formed”. Classes might throw off some TES purists, but the developers are taking care to make sure that each class can be played entirely to the specifications of each player. Part of this relies on the ability of any class to wear any armor and use any weapon, and level up those skills accordingly.
- ~ Along those lines, the Trinity is in ESO, but how the class system and the open nature of forming characters fit into this remains to be seen. From what we could gather, your role in group play will changed based on your chosen gear set and what skills you place on your hotbar. It makes sense then that changing both can and will effectively change your roll within a class. The developers told us more info on how it will all work will come soon.
- ~ Crafting materials are everywhere and you’ll find them in barrels, shelves, boxes, and so forth just as you would in any TES game. You can steal from homes, and possibly even NPCs. Which leads us to…
- ~ The “Morality” system is targeted for launch, but might come after with the “Thieves Guild”.
- ~ Combat is very much akin to recent TES games (Oblivion, Morrowind). There are normal and power attacks, blocking, and you will need to aim at your target to hit them.
- ~ The Hotbar. The hotbar can have six skills at any one time, leading players to tweak and change builds based on the situation. This can only be done out of combat.
- ~ Each class has unique “Ultimate” skills. These skills are equipped to the “six” slot, and charge up through excelling at combat. They are much more powerful than the normal skills/spells.
- ~ There is also one consumable slot on the hotbar, assigned to the letter “R” on your keyboard. You can put potions and other consumable items here, leading us to believe that potions will be a key part of survival, as they were in other TES games
- ~ You can assign your stats during leveling. While it’s not quite like say, Diablo, you will get a point to put in Health, Magic, or Stamina each level. Each point increases the stat by an additional amount per level. So players looking to be excellent mages will obviously want to focus on Magic. Each stat pool has its own bonuses for spending points in it as well.
- ~ Cyrodiil will boost players to max level. Beginning at level 10, players can start fighting for their Alliance in the massive open PVP region of Cyrodiil. They won’t have the gear or skills of higher level players, but everyone who enters Cyrodiil will be scaled to level 50 so they can contribute.
- ~ Gear and weapon skills level up, and give bonuses. Every time you use a weapon, or every monster you fight while equipped with a type of armor, you gain experience for that item. Even beyond level 50, you’ll be able to continue working on your weapon and armor skill paths. Every type of weapon and armor has its own leveling path complete with perks and skills for getting better at using them.
- ~ Skill Leveling On that same note, every class skill or spell has its own leveling path too, and gets better with use. At a certain point you can choose between two “morphs” of that skill, effectively changing what it does. And when you want to switch to the other form of a skill, you can as long as you’re out of combat.
- ~ Housing coming post-launch. It won’t make the release day, but the devs were sure to remind us that it will come after launch and is a priority of theirs.
- ~ It’s PVP may be more “sandbox”. With a massive section of the game map (the entirety of Cyrodiil) being devoted to PVP with capture-able keeps, destructible walls, and towers, siege weapons, and so forth… the Alliance vs. Alliance system is more “sandbox”. Players can even become Emperor, though perks for ruling are yet to be revealed.
Release Date
No official release date as of this posting. All that is said is that 2013 will be the year of release. Within that time I will guess that ESO will BETA test between March-May and release between June-August. September at the latest.