Elder Scrolls Online Release Date Announced

[David]

Earlier today (12/11/13), Zenimax announced that Elder Scrolls Online will be released on both the PC and Mac on April 4th, 2014. As expected, the release date for the consoles featuring ESO - the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One - will follow the first release by a few months. Although there has yet to be an announcement specifying the exact date, Zenimax states that console players will be able to purchase ESO sometime in June 2014. 

Get ready to begin your adventures in Tamriel—we’re excited to announce that The Elder Scrolls Online will be available worldwide for PC and Mac on 4.4.2014 and for PS4 and Xbox One in June 2014! We can’t wait to get everyone in-game!

A new official game-play video featuring large-scale PvP battles was also released. 

 

The full announcement by Zenimax, including a message from Game Director Matt Firor, can be viewed on the official ESO site.Click here to view the article

[Blake]

Let's hope they have that audio problem fixed.

[David]

Let's hope they have that audio problem fixed.

 

What are you referring to?

 

The whole siege concept looks to be turning out better than I expected, but obviously you can't gather much from a trailer like this. I will say that, for a trailer, the character models looked terrible. Some of the animations were a bit shoddy as well (ram opening the gate), and there was a really big frame rate / lag issue going on...

 

Trailer gets a C- from me. Hopefully the negatives are just on whoever put the trailer together with HyperCam and an iPhone 4.

[Musclemagic]

I want to know if, despite the difference of release dates; Will PS4 + XB1 users still get same-day patches as PC/Mac? And, also, will accounts be transferable from PC to PS4 or XB1?If accounts are transferable from PC to PS4/XB1, I will definitely not buy this game at all because that means the PS4/XB1 users are absolutely screwed who start fresh on there.

 

If, however, they are not transferable, I will play casually on PC until it comes out on PS4, and then I'll play hard.

 

I am praying/begging/hoping/wishing that they don't make the accounts transferable like they did with D3 from PS3 to PS4--what a sack of garbage that would be for the console-only gamers.

 

I also want to know what that hand crossbow is... Probably Silver Bolts that banished the target? Or, maybe bows/xbows just have the same skill tree..and he was spinning it just for the cinematic.. or maybe even there are no xbows, and all of it was for the cinematic. Hmmm...

[David]

I also want to know what that hand crossbow is... Probably Silver Bolts that banished the target? Or, maybe bows/xbows just have the same skill tree..and he was spinning it just for the cinematic.. or maybe even there are no xbows, and all of it was for the cinematic. Hmmm...

 

This was clarified by a ZOS employee. It's a Fighter's Guild ability - Silver Bullets. There's no actual cross-bow you can equip.

 

I really don't understand why PC/PS4 transfers would be a deal breaker for you. Honestly, that's something that I'd definitely want should I ever get a PS4. If people are willing to buy the game twice, more power to them. It really won't affect anything after the first week anyway.

 

I doubt it's an option though.

[Musclemagic]

This was clarified by a ZOS employee. It's a Fighter's Guild ability - Silver Bullets. There's no actual cross-bow you can equip.

 

I really don't understand why PC/PS4 transfers would be a deal breaker for you. Honestly, that's something that I'd definitely want should I ever get a PS4. If people are willing to buy the game twice, more power to them. It really won't affect anything after the first week anyway.

 

I doubt it's an option though.

 

Ahh, yeah, I was right then. Did they change the name to bullets from bolts?

 

Console-only players will be starting from level 1. PC players converting to consoles will start at level 50. You don't see the problem?

 

EDIT: All the gold, items, supplies, and play-time that they'll manage to get in within 2 months is huge for a PvP game that's almost completely based on time-invested.

[FunkheaD]

Whilst my main desire is to play on PC, I'm a bit disappointed that I won't be able to casually play my same character on the XBone.

 

This will mean that I'm most likely to just play PC and not purchase an Xbox.

 

The trailer looks promising but a bit sketchy and I'm suspecting that the hero engine is potentially going to struggle in sieges.

 

The hype train will drag me along till well after launch when I realise I'm playing the same old!

[David]

Console-only players will be starting from level 1. PC players converting to consoles will start at level 50. You don't see the problem?

 

EDIT: All the gold, items, supplies, and play-time that they'll manage to get in within 2 months is huge for a PvP game that's almost completely based on time-invested.

 

If they were to hypothetically allow that (and again, I highly doubt it), very few people would take advantage of it because they'd have to buy the game twice and probably pay two monthly fees on top of it. Compared to the whole population of console players, it would be a negligible amount of users. Yes, they might have an easier time in PvP until other players catch up, but any advantage there would disappear extremely fast until it's gone completely. After that point such a function would just be a positive.

 

It would be a dick move at release, but I certainly wouldn't let it dissuade me from the game completely.

[Blake]

What are you referring to?

When I played beta, the voices of a lot of the NPC's sounded like that program on Windows where it turns text to speech. That is no exaggeration. It was horrible. Some of the NPC's even mispronounced words like "Khajiit" or "Skyrim", like it would if you typed them into a text-to-speech software. This may have just been a place holder though.

 

Somebody made the joke "I wonder how much they had to pay Steven Hawking to do the voices for these NPC's". The sad thing is their joke wasn't that far of a stretch.

[Guest Nuke]

So how long would you guys guess it will be before the NDA is lifted?

[irons]

When I played beta, the voices of a lot of the NPC's sounded like that program on Windows where it turns text to speech. That is no exaggeration. It was horrible. Some of the NPC's even mispronounced words like "Khajiit" or "Skyrim", like it would if you typed them into a text-to-speech software. This may have just been a place holder though.

 

Somebody made the joke "I wonder how much they had to pay Steven Hawking to do the voices for these NPC's". The sad thing is their joke wasn't that far of a stretch.

That's not a big deal the auido files are long recorded they just have to implement them in game, that's a relative small task.

[David]

So how long would you guys guess it will be before the NDA is lifted?

 

I imagine they'll lift it whenever there's an open beta. The PS4 is supposed to have an exclusive (or maybe just the first) open beta event, and I imagine that will take place a month or so before the official release.

 

That's just speculation, though; don't quote me.

[Fergal]

Trailer looks decent, the gameplay however is meh. Maybe it's that I just don't like the way sword attacks and such take a fraction of the time they should.

 

Is the game completely subscription-based? Or like RS? If I need to pay that much a month to access the game at all, I'll probably just play it casually off and on, unless of course the game is worth it and completely addictive. Not really sold yet.

[ghost5689]

Very true they need to be giting ideas from runescape because the text in eso is horrible needs to be more elder scrollsy like rs. 

[Musclemagic]

I imagine they'll lift it whenever there's an open beta. The PS4 is supposed to have an exclusive (or maybe just the first) open beta event, and I imagine that will take place a month or so before the official release.

 

That's just speculation, though; don't quote me.

 

I kind of feel like they threw out the PS4 exclusive over XB1, at same time as PC, open beta  at the same time as they threw out the same launch days.

 

If, however, they do launch open-beta for PC and PS4 at same time, I would be so happy! I wouldn't need to buy it on PC, unless accounts were transferable--but I doubt they will be.

[More-Oh-Wind]

I kind of feel like they threw out the PS4 exclusive over XB1, at same time as PC, open beta  at the same time as they threw out the same launch days.

 

If, however, they do launch open-beta for PC and PS4 at same time, I would be so happy! I wouldn't need to buy it on PC, unless accounts were transferable--but I doubt they will be.

 

 

Meh, either way we have 2 months for the PC kids to play the release version, and us Ps4 kiddies will get the month 1 and 2 patches on release (hopefully it would be silly to have to play through the same glitches that they fixed in the months prior release.

[Musclemagic]

Meh, either way we have 2 months for the PC kids to play the release version, and us Ps4 kiddies will get the month 1 and 2 patches on release (hopefully it would be silly to have to play through the same glitches that they fixed in the months prior release.

 

EDIT: If I just learn that the PC accounts will not be transferable to PS4, I will be comfortable just waiting until PS4's release. But, until this is verified, I plan on having to buy both in order not to lose an edge on PS4.

[Terhix]

When I played beta, the voices of a lot of the NPC's sounded like that program on Windows where it turns text to speech. That is no exaggeration. It was horrible. Some of the NPC's even mispronounced words like "Khajiit" or "Skyrim", like it would if you typed them into a text-to-speech software. This may have just been a place holder though. Somebody made the joke "I wonder how much they had to pay Steven Hawking to do the voices for these NPC's". The sad thing is their joke wasn't that far of a stretch.

If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck. I can bet money that these voices were actually made with synthesizers, recording all the required voices may take some time but is by no means required to push milestones forward. It's a pretty smart way to make content testable while still missing some assets. I can understand complaining about things like the "painted on" armor, since that's a result of a design decision they made, and it's clearly too late to do anything about it, but jokes about things that are clearly bugs or unfinished content in a beta 4 months prior to release just shows some general lack of understanding. Sorry if that sounded too harsh .For the trailer itself, it's visually less appealing than the progression or character creation ones, but it still looks good enough for my tastes, and it did deliver at showing the scale of world PvP. Also 10 points for showing DC as the protagonists of the trailer, seems they realize that it may end up being the underdog and want to promote it a bit.

[Musclemagic]

If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck. I can bet money that these voices were actually made with synthesizers, recording all the required voices may take some time but is by no means required to push milestones forward. It's a pretty smart way to make content testable while still missing some assets. I can understand complaining about things like the "painted on" armor, since that's a result of a design decision they made, and it's clearly too late to do anything about it, but jokes about things that are clearly bugs or unfinished content in a beta 4 months prior to release just shows some general lack of understanding. Sorry if that sounded too harsh . For the trailer itself, it's visually less appealing than the progression or character creation ones, but it still looks good enough for my tastes, and it did deliver at showing the scale of world PvP. Also 10 points for showing DC as the protagonists of the trailer, seems they realize that it may end up being the underdog and want to promote it a bit.

 

If DC's going to be the underdog... Maybe that's why they gave them such epic racials. XD

[Terhix]

If DC's going to be the underdog... Maybe that's why they gave them such epic racials. XD

 

I'd agree that DC ended up having the most balanced racials (balanced in the sense that all of the 3 races have their own well defined niches), but the other 2 factions aren't in a bad position at all.

 

EP: Nords will arguably make better tanks than Orcs, and Dunmers are pretty awesome if you consider there is an entire class based on fire damage (both when it comes to being a Dunmer playing with fire, or being a Dunmer and fighting against a dragonknight).

 

AD: High Elves - AAA. Khajiit - carnage is absolutely amazing, they will likely make the best assassin Nightblades in PvP.

 

That leaves you with Wood Elves and Argonians who are 'meh'.

[Musclemagic]

I'd agree that DC ended up having the most balanced racials (balanced in the sense that all of the 3 races have their own well defined niches), but the other 2 factions aren't in a bad position at all.

 

EP: Nords will arguably make better tanks than Orcs, and Dunmers are pretty awesome if you consider there is an entire class based on fire damage (both when it comes to being a Dunmer playing with fire, or being a Dunmer and fighting against a dragonknight).

 

AD: High Elves - AAA. Khajiit - carnage is absolutely amazing, they will likely make the best assassin Nightblades in PvP.

 

That leaves you with Wood Elves and Argonians who are 'meh'.

 

DC has the most interest in DKs and Templars (by a pretty huge difference) and the least interest in NB. Also the least interest in Sorces, which is a bummer, but I firmly believe that the more DKs and Templars there are in both PVE and PVP...yeah, the battles are already decided IMO. DC > all just based off the class-interest #'s, let alone the racials or anything else.

[Terhix]

According to TF, it's EP that has highest % of dragonknights. Not like classes mean much. Mass PvP is won by healing, ranged dps and control, on all 3 of those accounts AD has the highest % in the TF breakdown.

[Musclemagic]

According to TF, it's EP that has highest % of dragonknights. Not like classes mean much. Mass PvP is won by healing, ranged dps and control, on all 3 of those accounts AD has the highest % in the TF breakdown.

 

The way I see it, this is how the average of these classes will be played:

DK = Control

Temp = Healing

Sorce = Ranged DPS

NB = Melee-Ranged DPS

 

So, I agree what you said about healing, ranged DPS, and control being the most important.. but I don't see how that makes AD good?

 

If TF numbers are at all accurate, AD will only have ~10% DK and ~18% Temp. There's no way they'll progress in content as quickly, meaning their majority will lack gear. Not only that, but I firmly believe that DK and Sorc are crucial and NB are near worthless for PvP campaigns when actually trying to capture or hold a keep (like you said, mass pvp). On top of this, the more Temp healers -- the merrier.

AD has almost 50% of their predicted population as NB. They have the most Sorc, but with that low of DK/Templar that population still won't be able to do much because they'll die too quickly to the over-abundance of NBs that can kill them without DK and Temps there to support the Sorces.

 

Yes, EP might have a tiny bit more DK (~2% more according to their numbers) but they have a lot less Temps than DC, so they'll still fall in comparison to DC...especially considering how many more NB they have and how many less Temp.

I think EP will be a fairly close 2nd in PVP, but they too will suffer from slower dungeon progression.

 

DC might have a lower amount of Sorces, but not a huge difference--it's still balanced enough (and low enough in NBs) to be the obvious winner in my eyes.

[Terhix]

I'm sorry Muscle, but you make so many assumptions there I don't even know where to start. Why do you insist on putting arbitrary labels on classes, when there is a clear breakdown on what roles people actually want to play? Melee nightblades might be a burden (no less so than most melee DKs or Templars), but archer nightblades are anything but, and since people have two weapon sets... yeah.In the end, I don't think TF is the best oracle of how the game is going to look like. There is more to MMO players than people that register on forums, and a lot of the people that pick up the game might not be as lore aware as an average person on TF is, thus will make different decisions.

[Musclemagic]

I'm sorry Muscle, but you make so many assumptions there I don't even know where to start. Why do you insist on putting arbitrary labels on classes, when there is a clear breakdown on what roles people actually want to play? Melee nightblades might be a burden (no less so than most melee DKs or Templars), but archer nightblades are anything but, and since people have two weapon sets... yeah.In the end, I don't think TF is the best oracle of how the game is going to look like. There is more to MMO players than people that register on forums, and a lot of the people that pick up the game might not be as lore aware as an average person on TF is, thus will make different decisions.

 

You were the one who put labels on the classes first by saying that AD would have the most control, range dps, and heals. I was trying to figure out where you were putting those labels... because if you put those 3 labels on the 3 classes that make the most sense for them, you'd be completely wrong and I wanted to point that out.

 

There are 18 different abilities for each class, 5 from each weapon, 1 from an armor--and the ability to put 2 or 3 at a time from armors if you take multiple armor types. Considering how predictable all the armor skills are, and how similar all the weapons are except for Resto, it's easy to predict how each class will be different from the other classes.

 

NB with a bow is no different. They're very good single-target killers, but NB doesn't have enough multi-unit control, escape, defense, or ranged aoe to be considered good in large group PVP. Sure, they can sit back and snipe, but it's low DPS--especially if you're back so far you don't have white hits. And, if they get close they will simply die faster than anyone else when there's big AOE damage going on.

 

Maybe I should clarify, by large group PVP I mean tight knit groups of 20-30 who know what they're doing. If there's closer to 15 people, and they're spread out all over a keep, I think NB is going to be amazeballs.

 

If you look at the class skill trees it's clear what their roles will usually be... I don't see how this is making any assumptions, or how it's arbitrary. We have the information, and it's clear as day.

 

With a sample size that small, TF #'s don't matter that much, true. There's nothing else to go off of though when starting our initial characters. Look at WoW, even different realms (even really populated ones) have hugely different class %'s...so yeah, TF probably doesn't matter...so instead of using TF #'s, let's use racial abilities only (since that's the only difference between the alliances.)

 

If we're going off racials, then DC still has the most well rounded team...and that right there, being well-rounded, is probably the most important factor in AVA where there are more than two sides.

 

Hmm... either that, or whoever is best at killing NBs wins..since NB is definitely going to be the most popular class (welllll, probably at least at the start). It would give an edge to the team who can kill them easiest.

 

idk mate, it's too early to say until we see the size of everything. How it is in my head right now, NB isn't good because I picture bigger squads in tight groups being the big influence of the battle...which might not be the case at all, so you're right--I guess I am making at least one really big assumption. XD

 

 

Edit: This convo should be moved to the Cyrodill PVP Thread