Your favorite forum moderator is back with another edition of Heimskr’s High Horse. Have any of you ever watched the TV series Gold Rush? You know, the guys in the Klondike who always barely manage to cover their overhead and survive another week? Well that’s what it’s like mining for information from Zenimax. Surprisingly enough, this week produced some hefty nuggets you’re sure to enjoy.
Development – What you need to know!
Elder Scrolls Online Support Page LIVE
That’s right; the support page for Elder Scrolls Online is now live on the ESO official website. For those that are unfamiliar, a gaming support page is a place you can submit bug reports, tickets, look up commonly asked questions, and directly contact the support staff of ESO.
I don’t want to come off like this kind of guy… “The point difference between the Ravens and 49ers was 3! Gabe Newell was at the Superbowl! This is a sign for HALF-LIFE 3!!” However, I think there is some logical reasoning to believe beta is closer than any of us think. The addition of the support page means they are laying the foundation for bug reporting tools that could very possibly be used for beta testers. Either way, keep an eye on them inboxes!
No Player Housing EVER
…or perhaps at least not till after launch. Here is a quote taken from a tweet on Tuesday:
#ESO won’t have player housing at release, but it’s a feature we may consider in the future.
You heard it from the horse’s mouth; no player housing at launch. Am I disappointed? Sure. Is this a make or break for me? Hell no. Now that tweet technically allows Zenimax to release a major patch or expansion which will feature player housing at a later date.
I might be crucified for this, but here’s why I think they will never release player housing. Countless MMO’s in the past have said that player housing will not be in at launch, but will manifest sometime after launch. For the vast majority of them, years would go by with no further comment on the topic. This is just one of those features that developers overhype and never deliver on. Let’s keep this in perspective; ZOS has a limited budget and cannot simply add everything that you, I, or they want. The amount of time, money, and man hours required to build either an instanced player housing system or, even less likely, an open world housing system is enormous. To most developers, they would rather take that time and money and invest it into core system development such as combat, PvP, and so forth.
Just a side note, I played SWG for years and I’ve yet to see a development studio produce a housing system as good as theirs. My bar is set very high either way.
Community Round up – It’s alive!
MMORPG with Bill Murphy: Crafting
Bill Murphy is a writer over at MMORPG.com who did a live interview with Paul Sage 2 weeks back. This week, he’s written an article on the crafting community going into detail how he wants to see crafting work in the Elder Scrolls Online. Go over to MMORPG and read it, then come back and read why I think one point he said is fundamentally flawed.
Bill goes into an explanation on how discovering recipes should work. His basic premise is that recipes should be discovered via the Skyrim system of mixing and hoping for the right combination. My problem with this idea is the requirements for recipes will almost certainly be data mined prior to launch and posted on the internet, and even if they are not, a week after launch will produce the same results. I’m sure for players looking for immersion, this is great news. For competitive players though, this system adds a convoluted profession that within a month will be known by everyone. Preparing consumables for a weekly raid or PvP shouldn’t be a game of memory match.
Day/Night Cycle with Digital Times
This is the largest nugget of the week, hands down. Guess what people, the day/night cycle has been confirmed! In the article, Paul Sage confirmed that Zenimax Online is intent on adding the day/night cycle feature before launch. Of course this can change between now and launch, but it’s still inspiring to know they have this feature close to their critical path.
Engage high horse; the author is so far out and idealistic that the curiosity core from GLaDOS would be jealous. Now before I get rude, read a quote from his article directly after he confirms the day/night cycle:
His comments did seem to confirm that time will have an effect though, immediately giving us visions of assassin’s whose stealth skills are bolstered at night, archers who fire more accurately during the day, skills which grant better/farther vision at night, and a host of other possibilities.
Before you think that comment is innocent and undeserving of my acrimonious verbiage, hear me out. First and foremost, Paul Sage did NOT give any comment that could even slightly be confused with the author’s assertion. As any seasoned MMO player will tell you, giving certain classes’ additional powers or bonuses that cannot be countered will result in a bad time. Let’s say you play a mage and you log on at night. You get jumped by an equally geared and skilled rogue and get your shit pushed in cause, well, it’s night time. Unless balance is given to the mage so he can compete on his own, that player may be inclined to simply stop playing out of frustrating. Likewise, offering obscure advantages to everyone will have the same result because there will always be that one ability that’s better than the rest.
Do You Have The Skills?
The fellas over at TESO-RP have announced a Short Story Contest. During the month of February, fans of Elder Scrolls can create a back story of their character and submit it in hopes to winning one of their 3 prizes. If you are interested, go check those guys out! I might have to cancel Heimskr’s High Horse next week so I can get my role-play on…. Ahahahahaha, jokes!
Elder Scrolls Off The Record #54 – Dragonborn Mage Challenge
Who else already bought Dragonborn?! I know I can tell you the hosts of Elder Scrolls Off The Record did! This week’s episode dives into the newest DLC for Skyrim and the experiences from the hosts. You know I don’t typically laugh at mad lib comedy, but the part in their podcast about ‘finishing the story’ was hilarious.
The guys at Elder Scrolls Off The Record brought up a really good point for any of you that have yet to purchased Dragonborn. It comes with a new HD texture update that does contain certain system requirements. Before you download it, make sure your system is up to par and then get your Dragonborn on.
Troll Scroll #12 – Pimp My Mount
The gentlemen and lady of Troll Scroll bring some great theorycrafting this week on a few different topics, mainly crafting. Will crafting be useful in the long run, or just end up like every other modern MMO and disappear when raid gear enters the picture? The hosts at Troll Scroll have varying opinions, so go check them out.
ESO Cast #4 – Crafting Realistic First Person Visuals
Jesse and Force are back in their 4th installment of ESO Cast. This week, they go over the ever controversial Penny Arcade article which confirms the lack of true first person support in ESO. What this means is that while you can go into first person view in ESO, you won’t be able to see your hands, weapons, or feet. There really isn’t much information out there to explain why ZOS has chosen to move away from first person, but I’m sure we’ll hear more about it in the future. Go check out the new ESO Case to get their opinions on the topic!
The Cogwheels of Tamriel Foundry - After Hours
Zenimax Loves Them Some Tamriel Foundry
This past week, Zenimax Online featured Tamriel Foundry on Facebook praising our top of the line guild creation system and community. Their goal was to provide visibility to players who are either looking to join a guild or create a guild. If you are interested, head over to our Groups and Guilds page and/or Guild Recruitment forums!
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.
- The popular thread of the week goes to @Zeventis who authored the thread Your Epic Plan. For any of your hardcore fans who plan on splurging the hell out of ESO when it comes out, go check out this thread. The discussion is about your plan for when ESO comes out and how you will handle things like play-time and general nutrition.
- This week’s insightful post of the week goes to @Ashadelo. This thread caught my eye because it’s interesting to see what other players did in older TES games compared to what I did. Go check out Your Elder Scrolls History!
- The infamous controversial post of the week goes to @XxOblivion with his thread – TES, Switching From Single Player to MMO. In this thread, you can discuss what you think the developers are doing right (and wrong) and what you see as foundational changes between the singleplayer TES games and ESO.
Round-up
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.
Journeyman
Ebonheart Pact
Total Posts: 93
I’m not so much worried about individual player housing personally. I know a ton of ES fans want to be able to build their house like in Skyrim, but all that does is tax the devs logistically. I’m more worried about the Thieve’s Guild and Dark Brotherhood. I would much rather the development team focus on getting these two traditionally major parts of the ES experience 100% right without making them game breaking than I am about being able to decorate my fake house.
As someone who will be playing a stealth/assassin type I’m looking forward to seeing how zenimax handles crafting, and even the use of poisons…are they going to be a 1 use/ 1 attack like in Skyrim or are they going to be more of an application with a countdown timer like in many other MMOs? Since I won’t be able to pull up my favorites, pausing the game mid battle to apply another nightshade poison to my daggers I would expect them to be timed with a few charges per vial to reapply when the timer runs out. Make me have to manage my poisons but not to where I have to have my bags full of stacks of poison.
Beta can’t get here quick enough. Thanks for the article.
This state of silent, shadowed war, of secret poisons and sleeping men strangled in their beds, of the sudden arrow and the artful dagger, has no end that I can see. No possibility for peace.
Hail Sithis
Apprentice
Total Posts: 41
What? There’s no player house. I’m disappointed too much, really it’s not a good news for starting a day.
I used to be adventurer like you but then ı noticed my world is too little cause of locked borders.
Moderator
Aldmeri Dominion
Total Posts: 242
I feel like no player housing will be one of the most focused topics in this article, but there’s some other good stuff in here! The support site is up – a not-so-subtle addition that some might have missed, and Tamriel Foundry is growing more and more every day!
But yeah, back to the no player housing. We’ll still probably have banks and things to store our stuff in, so a house is not essential. Truthfully, I think this is something I’ll forget about completely once the game launches and I have a multitude of other features to play with. And if the developers are going to put time into player housing post-launch, I would rather them focus on guild housing instead.
Great article, as always, @Byronyk!
Founder, Adept
Ebonheart Pact
Total Posts: 114
no player housing. ahwell. tes still be online so thats not a big issue for me. if crafting dissepear when gear comes out from raid and stuff then no point in even bringing it in. but then again if everyone could get their smiting maxed and just craft the gear then it is going to be very easy to get gear and a hella way to make profit in the teso market. on the other hand i think plans should drop from bosses so that wont be a big problem. since it been noted. pvp and pve gear can be used for both sides. or great idea is you get a end gear. and you somehow dissemble it so u can learn the plan and make the same item in further use. otherwise you would have to be going to the dungeon all over if you lost your chest by accident.
Nother point which brought my concern up is…. since every class can wield every weapon and gear. how does the loot system works? will it be like GW2. random drop for everyone? so no need or greed is needed or just as the same mmo. if thats so then there will be a problem.
and yes, when i read support page is life. it popped to my head beta is coming.. no doubt about that. might be real close
(double checking my mail)
in War, Victory. In Peace, Vigilance. In Death, Sacrifice.
|| It started with blood, it will end the same way.||
Moderator
Aldmeri Dominion
Total Posts: 1454
atrex said on February 10, 2013:
What? There’s no player house. I’m disappointed too much, really it’s not a good news for starting a day.
At launch. Nothing to say it won’t get put in later in an update or an expansion.
Adept
Daggerfall Covenant
Total Posts: 146
enjoyed the reading as usual, good job!
”It’s the details that makes the whole image”
”A lie is a lie no matter how you paint it, a white ferrari is still a ferrari”
”Time flows like the wind, you can feel it, but not catch it. So is this war. Everyone fighing over an object, a symbol of power. Yet who can really carry such a burden? Only time will tell as it passes them all by…” – Nailena
¤ I am a sister of the Broken Blades, I will serve my brothers with honor and integrity and will always uphold the code of the Broken Blade ¤
Scamp
Ebonheart Pact
Total Posts: 9
Nice article, Byronyk. I find the mater-of-fact overview of the most important stuff from the past several days quite useful since I do hate to jump from site to site in the search of “nuggets” as you call them. Appreciate it, really.
Now it’s really to early to take anything for certain, but you made a good point about the housing. It probably won’t be included in ESO – ever. Whether they never planed for it, or they keep it as a could-add feature, which of course in 99% of the cases is a never-enough-money-to-add feature. Sad, really, since one of the cool(er) aspects of the Elders Scrolls have always been the personal house. I simply like trophies, that’s that. Having a place to display them all and admire them is such an ego-booster. Oh, well…
Going over the other major nuggets from above, crafting is still a big X, so no big point worrying about it. I am one of these maniacs that DO like to craft, refine and enchant every single item in their TES experience, but I’m pretty sure I’ll have to settle for one or mostly two professions. I do however hope that they make something more interesting that plain old material based have-and-craft system (Vanguard, I am so looking at you now).
I didn’t quite get the part with the Day/Night cycles, mostly because I’ve not been following this for some time. What’s so huge about it anyway? If the dear developers do try to make this reflect on skills (which as you said is extremely unlikely, but then again remember Age of Conan and stealth), I assume we are to expect a lot of trouble post launch.
Anyway, back to work now
)
Founder, Grandmaster
Aldmeri Dominion
Total Posts: 2633
Most excellent article once again, @Byronyk!
”What is better? To be born good, or to overcome your evil nature through great effort?” ~ Paarthurnax
Novice
Aldmeri Dominion
Total Posts: 11
Personally not too hung up on lack of player housing. If they add it later and it is implemented well, cool. If not then no skin off my back.
Scamp
Total Posts: 1
What a huge disappointment! NO PLAYER HOUSING! At least at start up.
Ok I knew from a past interview that there was to be no player housing at startup but they said they would add it later if the players wanted it. That is what I was expecting….Their word to be kept. However their new statement”#ESO won’t have player housing at release, but it’s a feature we MAY consider in the future.” MAY still means what they said before(whew!) Many have already said they wanted housing so I am expecting that they do it. Its not a game breaking feature but the WORD of the devs IS a game breaking feature for me. Why stick around because of pretty words only not to see those words happen? I’ve seen this many times in the past from other games why is this game going to be any different? Prove me wrong!
In my opinion if they have a fan base of nearly one million people they need to cater to the million people that are going to be paying subscribers. Period. If they are using the name THE ELDER SCROLLS they need to make it what it has always been. Anything less is NOT The Elder Scrolls. Its simply like any other game out there. Why should I leave one game to arrive at another that is just like the other? There is no point.
One of their claims is that they want this game to be different and stand out. They made the claim which imo is a VERY TALL order but they said it…… now do it. Don’t do less.
A famous little green guy once said…. Do or do not. There is no try.
They wanted to use the ELDER SCROLLS name. Now give it to us.