[Megathread] The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

[Kelimbror]

Banging my head over this one too...

First, Zenimax didn't live up to their word, and second, they are just making it even harder to catch up and play.

Even worse when you consider their future content is supposed to be monetized in some fashion. What if you can't even participate in it because you aren't high enough VR? No point in spending money on more content then.

It's like they're shooting themselves in the foot, then shooting themselves in the other foot, then shooting their kneecaps just to make sure they can't get back up. This is hella dumb.

The base game/world are amazing. They need to be working on ways to include more players in more content, not build unattractive walls everywhere.

[Hellravager]

Even worse when you consider their future content is supposed to be monetized in some fashion. What if you can't even participate in it because you aren't high enough VR? No point in spending money on more content then.

It's like they're shooting themselves in the foot, then shooting themselves in the other foot, then shooting their kneecaps just to make sure they can't get back up. This is hella dumb.

The base game/world are amazing. They need to be working on ways to include more players in more content, not build unattractive walls everywhere.

Yea the game is fun and world looks great but development team sucks ass and is dragging the game down

[Tidezen]

I canceled my sub after this recent news...was having a hard enough time as it is slogging through the VR levels; on alts it's especially painful. I'm not pissed at them, though--reducing the XP for a vet rank by 15%, increasing quest XP by 50%--that's actually really nice. Mathematically that should work out to getting to VR 16 just from completing all the quest content in VR levels. Trouble is, I've got a VR 8 guy and a VR 4 guy, and that quest XP is not retroactive. So they're going to have an even bigger grind if I ever want them to be max level. Mmmm...no thanks.

I maintained my sub since launch, even when I wasn't playing, because I wanted to support this game and Zenimax, for making a beautiful MMO that has loads of quest content and solo options. Which it really did, back when the max was VR10. But the game's been out more than a year now...and in all that time, the only new content added for solo players has been...um...um...crafting writs? Stealing?

Keeping in mind that back in beta, Dark Brotherhood was supposed to be in the first patch after release, with Thieves' Guild questlines assumed to be sometime thereafter. A year ago right now, they talked about spellcrafting. We have yet to see any of that.

If I wanted to play a game where I ran out of quest content at a certain point, and then spent the rest of my time just tooling around all sandboxy-like in the world...that game already exists, and it's called "Skyrim". And at least in that game, I can build a house and decorate it. And then re-decorate it every time I zone into the house and all the stuff I meticulously placed falls off the tables. XD

Fuck, at this point I'd even settle for some dailies, not crafting or PvP dailies, but 2006-era-Burning-Crusade dailies. I can't believe I'm saying that. I'd take fuckin' garrisons at this stage. I'd take a dumbass farm. I'd take pet battles.

Well, nice that it's sub-free now, so I can log in and tool around from time to time.

Sigh. This game, for me, is like meeting that perfect person, the one you want to spend the rest of your life with. Up until the point of getting married, after which she informs you that she'll never have sex with you again unless you invite at least three of your friends over to participate.

It's like that.

[Deleted]

3rd time in a week that PSN is down during prime time in Europe. I wanted to finish Shadowfen but fucking PSN is down AGAIN. Im really regretting that I bought a PS4 instead of a XBone.

Fuck you Sony!! My gaming time is limited to evenings so it pisses me off when PSN is down when I have time. PSN is a fucking backwater service.

[philefluxx]

Being new to the game and still only lvl 11, what is the big issue with the VR thing? I understand that VR is a way of gating content so if you are not high enough VR you cant join friends doing certain things. But does this mean that you cannot do lower VR content with your friends to help level them up? Or is the big concern that you don't get enough XP to make doing lower VR content worth your time?

[Hellravager]

VR rank gates the entire end-game and if you dont have a certain VR rank then your character is pretty much useless in dungeons because of the extra gear that comes with VR along with the fact that champion points increases your abilities even further but its tied deeply to your vr rank, not to mention VR lvling is a major pain in the ass. Someone else probably has a better grasp on it this is just what im guessing and picked up on

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Being new to the game and still only lvl 11, what is the big issue with the VR thing? I understand that VR is a way of gating content so if you are not high enough VR you cant join friends doing certain things. But does this mean that you cannot do lower VR content with your friends to help level them up? Or is the big concern that you don't get enough XP to make doing lower VR content worth your time?

http://massivelyop.com/2015/07/07/ta...-here-to-stay/ explains it.

[philefluxx]

VR rank gates the entire end-game and if you dont have a certain VR rank then your character is pretty much useless in dungeons because of the extra gear that comes with VR along with the fact that champion points increases your abilities even further but its tied deeply to your vr rank, not to mention VR lvling is a major pain in the ass. Someone else probably has a better grasp on it this is just what im guessing and picked up on

Gates entire end-game content or gates end-game content designed for different VR levels? I didn't see anything about it gating all end-game, but maybe gating you from jumping right into the higher level VR content your friends might be doing who've been playing longer.

http://massivelyop.com/2015/07/07/ta...-here-to-stay/ explains it.

I read that article and I guess I just don't agree that its as horrible as some say. Granted I am not even VR anything, but it seems to me there are tiers of VR content. Just like there is gear requirements to meet in other games to do certain content, the VR system seems a similar take. Is the issue that TES players are so used to the world scaling around them that they feel like they should not be gated at all?

Not necessarily trying to argue for or against, just trying to grasp why this is such a "game breaker" for many.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I read that article and I guess I just don't agree that its as horrible as some say. Granted I am not even VR anything, but it seems to me there are tiers of VR content. Just like there is gear requirements to meet in other games to do certain content, the VR system seems a similar take. Is the issue that TES players are so used to the world scaling around them that they feel like they should not be gated at all?

Not necessarily trying to argue for or against, just trying to grasp why this is such a "game breaker" for many.

Because a freshly dinged 50 must now spend several dozen hours grinding to 16 just to play with his friends who were there from the beginning, because there is absolutely no reason whatsoever for someone already at cap to go back and do stuff at lower levels other than to be a good friend. Considering the massive time investment that would be required to get your friend to 16 to play with you, it's simply not worth it.

[zito]

Because a freshly dinged 50 must now spend several dozen hours grinding to 16 just to play with his friends who were there from the beginning, because there is absolutely no reason whatsoever for someone already at cap to go back and do stuff at lower levels other than to be a good friend. Considering the massive time investment that would be required to get your friend to 16 to play with you, it's simply not worth it.

It's no different then someone new hitting the cap in WoW and can't play with his friends who are at max raiding and it isn't worth their time to do last weeks dungeons besides being a good friend.

Don't get me wrong I'm not defending either system just defending phile interpretation of it. It's all garbage imo. Outdating your own content you spent months making for whatever the fuck reason.

Def not going to bother with this game now. I'm highly against "Tiers" now a days. It's just backwards development. Poison.

[philefluxx]

Because a freshly dinged 50 must now spend several dozen hours grinding to 16 just to play with his friends who were there from the beginning, because there is absolutely no reason whatsoever for someone already at cap to go back and do stuff at lower levels other than to be a good friend. Considering the massive time investment that would be required to get your friend to 16 to play with you, it's simply not worth it.

OK so it is a matter of higher VR players not getting anything out of helping their friends so its not worth their time. I just wanted to be sure that I understood the problem correctly before taking a stand. I disagree with that being a problem personally. I played many years of FFXI and had help getting leveled and paid it forward. But now that I understand it fully I know, just like in FFXI, I wont be wasting my time helping friends who wont stick around so that my time isn't actually wasted. I do appreciate you taking the time to help me understand the debate.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

It's no different then someone new hitting the cap in WoW and can't play with his friends who are at max raiding and it isn't worth their time to do last weeks dungeons besides being a good friend.

Don't get me wrong I'm not defending either system just defending phile interpretation of it. It's all garbage imo. Outdating your own content you spent months making for whatever the fuck reason.

Def not going to bother with this game now. I'm highly against "Tiers" now a days. It's just backwards development. Poison.

In other MMOs, getting a new toon up to level cap to play with friends didn't take eternity, and in others at least there was an incentive for level cap players to go back anyways. ESO has neither advantage.

And yes, tiers is an anarchic gameplay system in the modern gaming world.

[zito]

In other MMOs, getting a new toon up to level cap to play with friends didn't take eternity, and in others at least there was an incentive for level cap players to go back anyways. ESO has neither advantage.

And yes, tiers is an anarchic gameplay system in the modern gaming world.

Like I said I was defending the interpretation not the practice.

[Kelimbror]

The whole point is that ESO is a heavily intensive, very long leveling experience already. Doing one faction's zones gets you to level cap. To reach the 'true' cap, you then have to level 2 more times. It would be like WoW requiring you to level to 100, then asking you to do it two more times before you could queue for dungeons or do any of their new patches.

It's way larger of a problem than just not being able to play with your friends. It puts redundant leveling gates on all content just to play on your own. It's idiocy.

[Greevir]

Well. This news kinda blows. I was thinking of coming back when they got rid of the VR system. My toons are stuck at VR 10 cause I can't do Craglorn stuff. Oh well, been enjoying Final Fantasy XIV anyways.

[Ulfhedinn]

Not worried about this stuff yet because my wife and I like exploring and questing so it will be a long time before run into issues. We also don't like alts so we wont be forced to do the same crap over and over which is really painful.

[WarpedAcorn]

So basically for dinking around, ESO is pretty rad, but if you want to hunker down on it then it might not be so cool?

[Kelimbror]

So basically for dinking around, ESO is pretty rad, but if you want to hunker down on it then it might not be so cool?

Well without a subscription, the game is now on par with a great TES experience. While not as immersive visually, it provides a higher level of narrative and content unique to MMOs. So in reality, it is still a monumental success as another TES game to play but this VR fiasco is causing it to fail as an MMO which provides you a solid and accessible end game.

So I still wouldn't change my stance on playing it as a single player RPG and for the one time purchase that's a steal, but to try and continue to play past seeing all the stories...I just don't know. The VR gate really ruins endgame. I have no desire to play beyond the initial level cap because of it.

[Tidezen]

Well without a subscription, the game is now on par with a great TES experience. While not as immersive visually, it provides a higher level of narrative and content unique to MMOs. So in reality, it is still a monumental success as another TES game to play but this VR fiasco is causing it to fail as an MMO which provides you a solid and accessible end game.

So I still wouldn't change my stance on playing it as a single player RPG and for the one time purchase that's a steal, but to try and continue to play past seeing all the stories...I just don't know. The VR gate really ruins endgame. I have no desire to play beyond the initial level cap because of it.

^Pretty much this. It ranks among the very best in MMOs when it comes to story. The world is gorgeous and immersive. The combat can be hit-or-miss depending on what you like/are used to. For me it's very fun, a great combination of actiony and standard-MMO. The character building is great, with a few caveats (I'd prefer 8 ability slots per bar rather than 6, and hybrid builds are pretty much dead--need to be all stamina or all magicka).

The main story alone is worth the price of purchase. After that, well...I don't want to repeat what I said earlier. This is a game that's basically now "on hold" for me. I'll keep checking in, and maybe someday they'll add new content for my type of play, and maybe they won't.

I should also say, if you like PvP, you've got something to stick around for, it's quite enjoyable (even for me, a usual non-PvPer). If you like trading, this is actually a really cool take on it, more shop-oriented, no global auction house. If you like progression raiding, eh, not so much in this game. If you like dungeon-hopping, it's about on par with most other MMOs. LFG tool still sucks though, so make friends/guild.


Edit: I forgot to mention the community. The community is superb, absolutely the best I've seen since vanilla WoW. Strangers help each other out all the time, friends are easy to come by, and there's very little harrassment/trolling in gen chat. If you're looking for a good social experience, try this game. It's really that good.

[Ulfhedinn]

So far I like this game far more than Skyrim... I like the combat here a lot more. The PvP is also pretty fun from what I have seen but much of that is probably because cookie cutter builds are really hard to do in this game. I would say it is worth it for anyone that is a fan of TES universe to play one character through the game even if you are not into MMOs.

Still early for an MMO as well... WoW at this point still had nasty server problems, no class balance at all, and terrible end game. FFXI a year in was had very little content outside of leveling and leveling took forever. FFXIV was a giant failure... There is potential here for something really great but if nothing happens here it will keep me busy until Battlefront. Just have to hope DICE doesn't screw that one up.