[Megathread] Elder Scrolls Online

[Zanag]

The last few invite waves they sent out were actually labeled as "stress tests" and were short-timed events over the weekend ... the "real" closed beta is still running alongside those stress tests.

It would be - obviously - extremely stupid to do all the game testing in 4 or 5 weekend events with tens of thousands of random people who most likely signed up via the "new" application form.

I know about the stress test invites, but that doesn't mean they are ONLY testing on the weekends. Just because they haven't announced anymore invites doesn't mean they have stopped testing.

[RoninaThorstone]

I know about the stress test invites, but that doesn't mean they are ONLY testing on the weekends. Just because they haven't announced anymore invites doesn't mean they have stopped testing.

That's what Grantji said.

the "real" closed beta is still running alongside those stress tests.

[iggie]

dude, what?
I'm pretty certain I remenber raiding on Cata beta with my guild.

Betas for new games don't typically have pre made characters, and I doubt your guild would of leveled from 1-85 just for beta raiding.

[Lusitan]

You seem to be implying that AoC and swtor had a similar launch and development trajectory.

That's insane.

AoC wasn't even finished at launch. They only had questing to level 40ish... of 70 levels.

Swtor's servers worked. AoCs did not.

Swtor managed to get game breaking bugs out of their game in beta (with the exception of the nivdia card problem, and that may have been nividias doing). AoC took 6 months to stabilize.

I am not bashing AoC. I love my bearshaman and HoX and I love the AoC universe and I loved the personal story. I loved AoC.
But it is in a league of it's own when it comes to first year MMO problems.

I'm Implying that both of those games, the companies behind it Funcom and Bioware, didnt showed us anything until about 2/1 months before launch, except pre-rendered videos or CGI videos.

Sounds VERY FAMILIAR Trajectory

cant compare launches cause TESO isnt out. but to defend AoC, the EU fury server as pretty good, i didn't got a single DC and got to 80 in 4.5days played, there was some server instability especially in field of the dead, and ofc in Kesh where all the mass ganking was happening

[Tackhisis]

the "real" closed beta is still running alongside those stress tests.

We've been fed with those 'secret beta testers' stories for several recent games and each time they were released with such bugs that they were showing their absence.

[Archangel Tyrael]

Betas for new games don't typically have pre made characters, and I doubt your guild would of leveled from 1-85 just for beta raiding.

I'll repeat.

"I'm pretty certain I remenber raiding on Cata beta with my guild."

[Noorri]

dude, what?
I'm pretty certain I remenber raiding on Cata beta with my guild.

I'll repeat.

"I'm pretty certain I remenber raiding on Cata beta with my guild."

If I remember correctly the only thing that wasn't tested in the Cataclysm beta was Sinestra. She was so bugged that when the first raiding guilds got there the developers fixed bugs and changed the encounter between pulls, so they were essentially beta testing after release.

[ruinshin]

We've been fed with those 'secret beta testers' stories for several recent games and each time they were released with such bugs that they were showing their absence.

It's not so secret.

Anyway, games release with bugs. This isn't news. ALL games release with bugs. Period.

Hell, just look at pokemon x and y. You can bet it was tested to death, and it's got a standardized tech platform. Yet a massive game breaking bug that took weeks to fix got through.

[Jainzar]

I think it's really time that they step up and invite more players to the beta and start the european beta aswell. I mean if they want to release the game in spring 2014, there's really not that much time left anymore to do this. Think about what they wanted to test before that and what they have to test:

* Large Scale PvP tests with thousands of players (Matt Firor announced this several times, saying that they're planning this for Fall 2013)
* MegaServer Technology
* European Beta
* Open Beta

Open Beta is usually 2 Months before release, could be one month aswell, wouldn't make that much sense though, because that's not enough time to react to feedback from that.

Spring 2014 could be anywhere from February to May 2014. So if they plan to release the game in May 2014, they would have to start the open beta in January - February and it's not much time anymore until then, so the closed beta should really pick up by now. And that's the latest possible release date for "Spring 2014". If it's earlier, say February / March, the Open Beta should begin in December or January, which there's absolutely no sign of happening right now.

But somehow it isn't. They aren't releasing any new info at all, they are not inviting any new players to the beta at all, there's simply nothing. No "Large scale PvP tests", which, according to Firor, they planned for Fall 2013 (now), no european beta, nothing. All we get is some fan created art submissions or "developer questions of the week", which, to be honest, I couldn't care less about.

This really has me worried that they are pushing the game back even further, the slowness of new info and beta invites indicates a late 2014 release rather than "spring 2014" ...

[Deleted]

If they actually release it in spring 2014 I expect it to be a release similar to SWTOR. A lot of bugs, a lot of announced features non present on release or very unpolished. I find this scenario very likely from past experiences with games published by Zenimax. I mean I doubt the developers at Bethesda Game Studios or Obsidian are negligent or incapable of properly testing games, yet all the Elder scrolls and Fallout games have been very buggy on release and I suspect it was because the publisher forced an early release, so I can see this pattern repeating with ESO. This was a relatively minor issue with single player games, but as we all know in a MMO it can have very severe repercussions.

[RoninaThorstone]

If they actually release it in spring 2014 I expect it to be a release similar to SWTOR. A lot of bugs, a lot of announced features non present on release or very unpolished. I find this scenario very likely from past experiences with games published by Zenimax. I mean I doubt the developers at Bethesda Game Studios or Obsidian are negligent or incapable of properly testing games, yet all the Elder scrolls and Fallout games have been very buggy on release and I suspect it was because the publisher forced an early release, so I can see this pattern repeating with ESO. This was a relatively minor issue with single player games, but as we all know in a MMO it can have very severe repercussions.

No, bethesda can't test games... At all.

[Zanag]

I think it's really time that they step up and invite more players to the beta and start the european beta aswell. I mean if they want to release the game in spring 2014, there's really not that much time left anymore to do this. Think about what they wanted to test before that and what they have to test:

* Large Scale PvP tests with thousands of players (Matt Firor announced this several times, saying that they're planning this for Fall 2013)
* MegaServer Technology
* European Beta
* Open Beta

Open Beta is usually 2 Months before release, could be one month aswell, wouldn't make that much sense though, because that's not enough time to react to feedback from that.

Spring 2014 could be anywhere from February to May 2014. So if they plan to release the game in May 2014, they would have to start the open beta in January - February and it's not much time anymore until then, so the closed beta should really pick up by now. And that's the latest possible release date for "Spring 2014". If it's earlier, say February / March, the Open Beta should begin in December or January, which there's absolutely no sign of happening right now.

But somehow it isn't. They aren't releasing any new info at all, they are not inviting any new players to the beta at all, there's simply nothing. No "Large scale PvP tests", which, according to Firor, they planned for Fall 2013 (now), no european beta, nothing. All we get is some fan created art submissions or "developer questions of the week", which, to be honest, I couldn't care less about.

This really has me worried that they are pushing the game back even further, the slowness of new info and beta invites indicates a late 2014 release rather than "spring 2014" ...

I've said this multiple times in this thread and on the BGS forums, just because they haven't invited new people to test the game doesn't mean they don't have enough to test things in the game. Say they have a pool of 30,000 testers right now. You don't think that's not enough to get PvP testing done? We know each Campaign can only hold just over 2000 people in them. So I don't really see what you are complaining about that they can't do "Large Scale PvP" when in fact they can since they have more than enough beta testers to actually do it.

[Ashnazg]

* Large Scale PvP tests with thousands of players (Matt Firor announced this several times, saying that they're planning this for Fall 2013)

Matt Firor of Camelot fame? Wow, I am slow, I just now realized Zenimax has ex Mythic employees on the team.

[Jainzar]

Matt Firor of Camelot fame? Wow, I am slow, I just now realized Zenimax has ex Mythic employees on the team.

Matt Firor who has worked on Dark Age of Camelot and DAoC: Shrouded Isles, yep! One of the main reasons I'm pumped for this game, because DAoC Classic and DAoC SI were the best games I have ever played. Especially the PvP

[Zanag]

Creating ESO: Werewolves was released today. A bit of information on werewolves and how they look. No video on this one, but still some information on how werewolves will be in the game.

[Pantelija]

* snip *

I fear ESO might develop SWTOR syndrome and crash few months after launch because of its flawed beta testing policy

SWTOR's closed beta was damn horrible and cherry picked testers did more harm than good and even damaged the game in the long run, some even deceived the community by making false claims and "leaking" wrong informations on purpose.

Some stuff i have seen from ESO beta is great but some other gameplay features makes me wonder what are devs doing in the first place to begin with. I am keeping my enthusiasm for ESO at low levels because i dont want to repeat the same mistake with SWTOR where my friends and i got hyped up for the game only to be dissapointed few months later because closed beta hid alot of flaws and didnt show the game in true light BEFORE the release.

If those mistakes/flaws were brought to public via forums they could have been fixed before release and game quality would have been much better. Also i am not worried about devs pushing the game back a few months for polishing or adding new content/features, i am more worried if devs arent doing their job properly and are just wasting time during development(ala Bioware style).

[JudgePayne]

This, I want my elder scrolls to be a singleplayer, please don't turn one of the few decent singleplayer rpgs we have left into another mmo =(

Looks like everyone will be going back to fallout as the singleplayer rpg game

[Prancing Minstrel]

New Q&A:
http://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en...ariety-pack-10

Account-wide banks, woo!

[Deleted]

New Q&A:
http://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en...ariety-pack-10

Account-wide banks, woo!

huzzah! I reaaaally hope they do extra crafting material tabs (like GW2) ...

[Tabbycat]

Another New Q & A http://teso.junkiesnation.com/2013/1...rolled-org-qa/