Yeah, what I would love is no more "which server are we moving to this time" bullshit. Within this community it has been something to turn me off to more than one game. We are so bad at servers. Don't breath a nice sigh of relief too soon though. As far as Cyrodiil (the only PvP) is concerned there WILL be "shards." They are just called campaigns. Cross into Cyrodiil and you are on your assigned campaign. We have no word on how easy it will be to change campaigns. We do know that your guild leader can assign (and presumably) change your campaign for some cost. They might be putting things like that in. I was just referring to how the devs have spoke out against things like racial effectiveness and role bonuses. We can be pretty sure a choice like being Khajiit isn't going to grant you a sneak bonus. They have only really talked about how they are against the idea of players deciding a role and having to go with the race that does that role best.
New Combat info. Would you please explain the soft locking system in detail? For example, how does it interact with dodge? Does it apply to melee attacks, or just ranged? During missile travel time, is it possible for another target to intervene between you and your existing soft lock target to take the attack? – By Matt Feisthammel You must be facing your target to hit it. However, soft locking allows you to pick a target out of a crowd to hit. It is possible that your target could be behind another target. You would hit the target you had soft-locked, provided you were aiming at them. Another target could not step in the way of the soft-locked target to prevent you from hitting your soft-locked target. As for dodging? The target can execute a roll dodge or evasion move to avoid attack. I know left click will be the main attacks ability but will there be "counter attack" abilities you can put on the hotbar that can only be used after a successful block with your shield or weapon? – By Jesse Perry There certainly are attacks which work better when capitalizing on certain opponent states, for example, exploiting your opponent’s vulnerability after an interrupt. However, we don’t have attacks that wouldn’t work without that situation being true. How important will the 'holy trinity' be in PvE endgame/raids? Will dedicated tanks and healers be required, or will lighter armored characters be able to utilize the dodge system well enough to serve as competent tanks? Will healers need to focus entirely on healing, or will a more offensive spellcaster be able to sustain his group via spot heals? – By Lynx Let’s have some fun here. This is what one of our internal testers sent out on Wednesday, February 27th. This email is unedited other than removing the ending of the letter which would sound a little too self-congratulatory of the tester. Yesterday in the lunchtime dungeon test, our group of four (all at level 12) included: 1 Templar with light armor and healing staff, abilities focusing on healing 1 Templar with light armor and dual wield, Templar abilities focusing on healing 1 Dragonknight with light armor and destruction staff 1 Sorcerer with heavy armor and dual wield This was with no real consultation with each other while making characters, other than ensuring there was at least one healer. For the sake of the dungeon we really could have used a true tank (the closest we had was the sorcerer wearing heavy armor and using unstable familiar to get the monster’s attention, with no real “keep myself alive” abilities), but as a group we were (eventually) able to take down the Fungal Grotto bosses. More to the point, with four players making independent choices in abilities and gear, three of the four made builds that defied the standard templates – and yet felt perfectly viable in actual play. The players were each able to build a character to their own taste with class abilities as a supplement, rather than the rigid defining aspect to the character, and have effective characters. So in summation, we’re pretty happy watching the progression system allow people to play the way they want in the groups they want to play in. In the introduction video you say that you can start with PvP at an early level. Will you be able to level up through PvP? – By Jan Schuh Yes, currently you can start leveling via PvP in Cyrodiil at level 10. With so many people fighting in the world alone or with groups what will be done to stop people stealing kills and XP? – By Danny Blades Put simply, there is no reason to steal kills. We grant XP to both people for killing, and we have a looting system which makes it so both parties benefit from kills. I have a question about your targeting system for combat, from what I've heard there will be a soft targeting system. My question is: How does this system work in raids/large PvP groups for healers? Will healers have a hard time finding players, and keeping track of their group’s health? – By Jacob Avila Soft-lock targeting doesn’t really affect healing because you don’t have to find your target to heal them. You don’t target allies. Most of our heals are area-of-effects (AoEs) or cone effects. To be effective, you might want to stay in the middle of your allies for AoEs or face them for cone effects. Healers will need to be aware of their environment of course, and pay attention to the battle. I want to know how the different armor types will be balanced. Why shouldn’t just anyone wear heavy armor? With advantages will a warrior have wearing light armor? – By Oliver Sieger Each armor type has a full progression line associated with it. If you advance down the light armor progression line, you are likely to get bonuses to spells, magicka regeneration, and the like. Medium armor skill lines give you more bonuses to stamina activities such as dodge, sneak, etc. Heavy armor skill lines give bonuses to received healing, bracing, etc. And, of course, armor can have magical properties beyond this, and you may wish to mix and match as you see fit. Will everyone be able to use active dodging via WASD movement, or will that be an ability linked skill? – By Ken Tweddle Everyone with enough stamina will be able to use it. It is linked to movement and is not an ability you slot on your bar though certain passive abilities may augment it. I've always been a high-tier competitive player so the intricacies of the player versus player combat interaction is what interests me the most. From the perspective of one player fighting another, where would you say the skill cap evidences itself (i.e. what part of the combat system will we use to distinguish ourselves and surpass opponent's in combat)? – By Martin Schelasin There is a huge amount of skill in how you have built your character: What abilities you have on your shortcut bar What consumables you have at your disposal How you allocated your health, magicka, and stamina points What armor and weapons you’re using Where you place your skill points Once you are in combat, the big skill differentiators are: Using your spells at the right time so you don’t waste magicka Dodging or blocking at the right moment so you make your opponent waste his magicka Coordinating your healing and crowd control with your teammates Fighting near cover Recognizing when you need to swap to your alternate weapon Using area denial spells to defend choke points and break up formations …and more A small, coordinated group can definitely take down a larger group with the right tactics, character builds, and execution. How will the bow and arrow system work? Will it just be auto-aim and auto-shoot kind of thing or what? – By Gabriel Bera Like any of our combat, you must aim at your target to hit them. Bows will have a charged attack, meaning they hit harder if you hold down the left mouse button longer. You've stated that any class can use any weapon, but will different weapons have different abilities? For example, I plan to be a healing Templar character; will I have the same healing abilities with a greatsword than with a staff? – By Zalkar/Braeden Weibel Yes, each weapon has a unique set of abilities that can be unlocked as your skill increases. For example, if you become an expert with Restoration Staff, you can use the ability “Grand Healing.” If you equip your greatsword, you would not be able to use that ability. Your Templar healing spell, however, can be used regardless of what type of weapon you have equipped. Finally, you can equip a back-up weapon and swap between the two in combat. So you can have one loadout with a restoration staff and healing abilities, and then swap mid-combat to a greatsword with damage abilities.
They've released a few classes but I can't find any solid info on them. Templar can be healing based that's all I've figured out.
At least we stayed in one place in Aion... I don't recall any games other than GW2 which had serious leadership failures over server hopping. I figure in ESO we'd pick one thing and stick to it. Though that said I'm not even sure what XoO would be doing there. We seem well-suited to Planetside, but all the other MMOs over the last several years have failed because we kept regressing into a loose-knit PvE guild. This doesn't look fundamentally different to any of those for XoO's purposes, so the same thing is going to happen again.
I imagine those who were into GW2 will be drawn to this... and maybe leave just the same way. The game offers less PvP variety in comparison, launching with only Cyrodiil, so we just have to wonder how different the mechanics in its tri-faction siege system will be. Of course that is all PS2 is as well, to play devil's advocate. I could definitely see anything happening here. The following being small or perhaps larger and dying out... or it just holding a lot of us. I think a lot of it might depend on it's payment model too. Templar has been compared to a paladin in it's playstyle. Dragonknight being closer to a warrior with it's class abilities having bit more damage and a flame effect here and there. Wardens are the more specialized healers and likely more magicka focused then Templars. Sorcerers, business as usual. That is 4/6 so it is reasonable to assume the last two are something suited more towards medium armor. Close-up thief or acher perhaps.
Definitely archer and thief type for the Stealth mechanic. Or same "class" just specialize differently. I know ill be going healer based though.
Foot Soldiers and Fire Mages are two classes. The Aesthetics seem to be improved from previous gameplay we've seen before. The Races look more like their iconic forms from the previous games in the series.
yay something new to watch. got some extra links myself. We might have spoken too soon about faction lock territories. Also, looks like first person hand animations will make it in by launch. http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/03/19/the-elder-scrolls-online-interview-paul-sage/ http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/03/19/hands-on-with-the-elder-scrolls-online/
Lots of fancy words and promises. The usual marketing spiel. I remain skeptical and reserve judgement until open beta/launch.
Same here, but since the only 2 MMOs coming out that I'm interested in is this and FF14 I'm going to stay positive.
Confirmed that you can change your faction ("alliance"). Contradicted their contradiction about first person. They are again planning to allow you to play in first-person, with models for your hands and everything.
She was talking about NPCs, how fire mage and footsolder mobs might work together. The actual player classes are looking to be Dragon Knight, Templar, Sorcerer and Nightblade. It is looking like they knocked it down to 4 classes (RIP Warden). How strong a role class will have on your play is still in the air but there is some insight on classes, their skill lines, and skill lines not tied to classes in a video I'll link at the end. Eeeeeeeeh not really "changing" your alliance. The faction lock on territories is being taken away and now your faction will have access to the PvE content in the other maps. Like the First Person hand animation situation, it seems the dev team is working to change things that the TES fanbase is being vocal about disliking, this time on not being allowed to see all of the game on one character. The video at the end also has additional info on this. You stay your alliance as do friendlies there with you so how this will fit with the story I'm unsure. Maybe you are undercover, maybe you will have different but similar quests from different NPCs. If they don't do it right in a way that makes sense to the story they will piss of the people they are trying to appease with this change. As for your linked interview, I am pretty happy I saw this one. Sneak is something I was really worried about as someone who wants to use that playstyle. The idea of the stamina draining while sneaking made me cringe so my favorite part of that interview is how he says "if you are resting if you are hidden, your stamina will grow back." Stamina drain only on movement will make sneaking nicer. Nick Konkle, Gameplay Lead