Heimskr’s High Horse – Left, Right, Uppercut!

Welcome back to the second installment of Heimskr’s High Horse. This weekly series is aimed at gathering all of the weeks information from development news to community creations and giving my candid opinion on some of the hottest topics. This past week has been glorious. Sure, it isn’t some fancy schmancy beta announcement like last week, but holy hell Zenimax likes their interviews. I’ve got literally 3 hours of podcast content alone which could have been more if so many of them didn’t suck. Coupled with interviews of Matt Firor and some super-secret information about the Tamriel Foundry community, you might have a hard time reading everything by the next Heimskr’s High Horse!

Development – What you need to know!

3 News – Interview With Matt Firor

This is the first of 3 interviews performed this week by our beloved Matt Firor, Game Director of Elder Scrolls Online. I have no fracking clue how this guy does all these interviews while working on the game at the same time. I’ve been told his beard feeds off the souls of lamenting would-be beta testers, but I could be wrong.

The interview begins with a tease at crafting – apparently it’s going to be very similar to that of Skyrim. Whether you hate it or love it, you won’t know more on that for at least a few months. I’m glad Zenimax isn’t playing the hype machine this far out into development. I promise you someone 6 months from now will be like “No way, I don’t accept this crafting system. You SAID that we could pick flowers, combine them with deadric hearts, and make a 2h destroyer of worlds. LIAR”

Finally, Firor touches on Cyrodiil PvP itself stating that the open-world zone can support up to 2000 players and render 200 players on your screen (on recommended settings). Now this has been a source of many complaints and QQ’s, so let’s set this straight. 200 players on your screen at recommended settings means that you can have more, it all depends on how beefy your computer is. From a computer technology perspective, being able to render 200 players on my screen with smooth FPS is pretty damn impressive as is.

The Guardian (UK) Part 1 – No Pickpocketing??

This is the first of two interviews Matt Firor obliges from The Guardians (UK). There are a lot of interesting topics in the article, but frankly, I only care about 2 of them.

The first one is – No Pickpocketing! Oh my god, grab your pitch forks and rush Zenimax Studios! How dare they stop me from being a complete dick to NPC’s and players! Firor, you better have a good reason for this!

“It leads into design questions that we’re unsure about – basically it’s something that is a lot of fun for you, but not a lot of fun for everyone else.”

Well played good sir, well played. I know a lot of people were looking forward to pickpocketing in ESO, but according to Firor it not only affects the fun of others, but hurts certain aspects of lore in terms of your relationship with your alliance.

The second major point of the article is that level 1-10 takes 15 hours to complete. Now some people profess that I am unto a god in MMO’s, but what the actual f**k. 15 hours for 1-10?! If you are an experience MMO player, you should know levels 1-10 are always the quickest levels up to level cap. Even if we cut that time in half, we’re still looking at 40+ hours of questing from 1-50. If you’re in this game for the story; congratulations. If you’re in this game to compete in PvP/PvE content at level 50, better contact your local Adderall dealer. Even a god would need a few red bulls for this.

The Guardian (UK) Part 2 – Unlimited Power!

In the second interview with Matt Firor, How PvP Allows Players Total Control, Matt drops some serious bomb shells of knowledge.

• Left clicking really fast then right clicking will stun someone
• Double tapping a key will make your character roll
• PvP progression system
• Alliance Points earned through PvP can be spent
• Gain a perk to control pets
• ZOS actively working on spec viability

If you’re like me and got all giddy after reading the first two points, do not be alarmed, you are not alone. There are little in ways of details for each of these points, and some end up asking questions more than answering them. For example, when we gain a perk to control pets, are we talking about combat pets or non-combat pets? Either way, PvP is really looking to be fast paced and active.

Penny Arcade Report with Matt Firor

I promise, this is the last interview with Matt for this week. Penny Arcade in their newest article, Badass Among Badasses, begins by explaining that your personal story arch will be 100% solo and instanced. For those that are unfamiliar, ESO’s primary story arch is based on the Daedric prince Molag Bal stealing your soul and your heroic journey to retrieving it.

This story should not be confused with filler quests that do not follow the critical path. The vast majority of quests that are not part of the critical path will be in the open world and other players can join you without being in a group. For those of you that played SWTOR, this should be a very familiar questing system.

Community Round up – It’s alive!

ESO Cast Episode #3: Adventure Zone

Jesse and Force are back this week with a highly opinionated piece on adventure zones. Adventure zones are one of the pillars of PvE content in the Elder Scroll Games. They offer those players who are max level who still haven’t quenched their bloodlust on ice bear to solo new quest content or group up with friends to take on much more challenging content. Adventure zones should not be confused with raids themselves.

TESOcast Episode #0: The Pilot

Are any of you familiar with TOROcast, the longest running SWTOR podcast ever? Well I am. It’s actually sad, but I probably spent more time listening to their podcast then playing the game. Anyways, go check out Samm Money and his co-host Tom in their premier episode, The Pilot. This is preliminary podcast so it’s a bit rough around the edges, but I promise you that this is a great show to tune into every week.

Off The Record #53: Doo

In the 53rd episode of Elder Scrolls Off The Record, the hosts discuss a whole range of items including the ever popular Matt Firor articles, the upcoming Skyrim DLC Dragonborn, and theorycrafting on the removal of pickpocketing. I’ll be frank, I think they’re a little too idealistic in their pickpocketing desires. You know that when pickpocketing is this large of a debate, Zenimax really needs to give its fan base more information!

Troll Scroll Episode #11: Beta

Troll Scroll is back from a month long hiatus, and this time, they have a new host named Sophie. With their powers combined, they tackle a few major issues including the ideal raid size, non-traditional beta testing methods, and a breakdown of the recent CG trailer. I’m sure I, like many of you, are looking forward to the continued efforts of the Troll Scroll team.

The Cogwheels of Tamriel Foundry – After Hours

Tamriel Foundry Statistics

This week, the intrepid @Atropos gave me some highly sensitive material regarding the community of TF. Guess what I’m going to do with it? Post it on the internet of course. Below are a few interesting statistics of TF that really show how much the community has grown in the past few months:

• Over 3,000 members
• Over 30,0000 forum posts
• Over 1,500 Facebook likes
• 1,200 Youtube subs

After Hours Club

The After Hours Club is a special section in Heimskr’s High Horse to look over the most popular, the most controversial, and the most insightful community topics of the week. This week we have three threads that are sure to satisfy your curiosity or feed the fires of internet barbarism.

1. The popular thread of the week goes to @Baba-Yaga who caught our interest with the thread on naming restrictions. Do you think certain races should have specific names, or can I name my Khajiit Tigger?
2. This week’s insightful post of the week goes to @CharlesJT and his post on crafting professions in ESO. This thread looks at the possibilities of having more than just smithing, alchemy, and enchanting, but other fantasy professions such as tailoring, jewelry, and cooking.
3. The infamous controversial post of the week goes to @TripleB with his Reallocating Skills & Attributes thread. Do you think ESO should offer character respecs? Should your character choices matter? Go check it out!

Round-up

If you read nothing from this article, here are the two most important exerts from the development news:

• Left clicking really fast then right clicking will stun someone
  
• Double tapping a key will make your character roll

We haven’t been privy to very much gameplay from ZOS, so hearing anything at all on combat is exciting. That isn’t to say that I’m a $2 town bicycle, no, that information is top notch! Unlike in previous TES games where we can only block, attack, and power attack, we can use different mouse combinations to preform unique attacks. Likewise, you will see a very GW2-esque rolling system that will give for some dynamic PvE and fast paced PvP.

I hope you enjoyed Heimskr’s High Horse. Next week already has some great information waiting to be posted, so come back, stay awhile, and listen.