Hello all,

Just created the acount, and sent in a beta for the ps4. I have had ESO at the back of my mind but havn't been following it too intently, I am been playing FFXIV. No this isn't some praise thread concerning it, I have been playing for a couple months, and find myself bored to tears. Now hear me out, I am the first one to agree that an mmo is a growing experience, and one should stick it out. Changes don't happen over night and things do grow hopefully into a full fledged mature gaming experience. However, after the first major patch, along with lack of support, add in some recent comments from leads within the game. I don't feel the game will be heading into a direction that would be interesting to me. I will keep an eye on it, but right now I am hoping to experience ESO in hopes that it will capture me. I am not a person looking through rose tinted glasses trying to capture my first mmo experience. i want the mmo to capture me and want me to play even with flaws, because I feel those flaws will be addressed and changed for the better.

One of the things I wish Skyrim had was a co-op or something that allowed a few people to come in and join in the experience. Having played an mmo most of my life, I enjoyed the social experiences. However, with modding and such I don't think co-op would be possible. The social aspect is a large reason i am interested in ESO. i do have questions and concerns and hope someone could point me in the right direction to answer them, as well as, answer some of them themselves.

1. PVE - Elder Scrolls with its' rich lore and chapters upon chapters of history is something I would love to delve into. However, there hasn't been much discussion concerning this aspect. I like PVP but my focus has always been PVE. The world and the lore is what will keep me, while experiencing those with others.

2. PS4 vs PC vs MS1 - Now I don't mean to say there should be this rift, but being primarily console player now the seperation seems like it will not help any platform. Now with MS1 always wanting to be on its own I don't care. But why was ps4 kept out of the megaservers with the pc? I don't see the ps4 population being that big, and what it is actually kind of tiny, would they ever consider bringing in ps4 and pc into a megaserver? What happens if they become deadzones, this is basically my worry, a large open mmo world and a Skyrim experience.

3. Controller vs kb/mouse - Now one thing I have to give mad props to Square Enix, is how well they made the console work for an mmo, to be honest, I prefer the controller over kb/mouse. I have played both and was at first against it. But if any of you have played, I feel more in control with a controller than I do with the kb/mouse. With the filters targeting enemies/partymembers/players is a snap, I have never had an issue. Have they discussed the controls and how they will be implemented. Seriously I hope they took the extra months they pushed the game back to look at FFXIVARR console mmo controls they are top notch.

4. Mods - I read somewhere that the only mods that will be allowed will be ones that affect UI only. This was a major concern to me because I can see this making the playing field between platforms uneven. My opinion is that if the platforms become un even as a result of mods then the game designer has failed. Mods in FFXIV are really not there and so far they have done well to implement the things that the community needs for the basic mmo experience. Have they discussed this? Will there be threat that needs to be managed by the tank class, dps class, healer class..etc. Also, seeing as this will be on the ps4 would these mods be able to be transferred over if something is nice and asthetically pleasing on the pc for example would that mod be translatable to the ps4?

5. Megaservers - From what I have read it is almost like there will be multilevels to each megaserver so that one can group with people with the same ideals or focuses. But won't this make the playerbase even smaller, which will be especially noticable for consoles? I mean you will have seperate platform megaservers, and within those megaservers they will be further isolate/grouped with others that want to group with people of the same mindset. How easy can one switch between levels of the megaserver, are stuck in one level like you are a server?

6. Character customization - One thing I loved about Elder Scrolls is that you can actually make what you want. For people like me who loved diablo and how much a difference a +1 to a skill can make for a character build, I love making and trying out new specs. How easy can one switch between skills? I don't want it to be something that can be done on a whim, but something you can earn a change. Because I for one want to try out different things, even quirky things, just to see how well they may work together. having to create a new character everytime on Skyrim to try something out was tedious.

7. Weapon/skill swapping - Now I was watching a video and had a question and a bit of a concern. Now I realize they don't want the holy trinity fully, but wants to allow for it. However, the in battle switching makes me wonder. How is this goign to play out, will people be shirking their duties they originally came in with, how will there be any control over lets say a healer going with a party and mid fight saying "Screw this" and swapping to a dps bar and weapons?

I guess that is it for now, have work soon, and typing this up made my brain hurt. Hopefully ESO draws me and and offers me a genuinly unique experience and not a instance queue dungeon hub grind from town ala FFXIV ARR.

Aeno

Welcome Aeno,

I'll try to provide my opinion:

1.) I cannot find a question in there, but beside the Warcraft Lore (not only talking about WoW itself) and the Lore from Tyria (Guild Wars) I cannot see another fatasy MMO with more popular lore as The Elder Scrolls. Lord of the Rings (Online) out of discussion. So, this will meet your expectations, PvE will be nice. That's my assumption as I'm not new in ES series. Do you know the lore of AION? Or the lore of Tera? Or [insert random MMO]? Only if you are a great fan. Also I don't want to mix up Star Wars here (different setting). Wildstar Lore? Seriously, who cares about Nexus?

2.) PC, due to controls, would have a huge advantage against console. That was also the statement from devs if I remember correctly.

3.) I've a different opinion, but that's ok. I would prefer a PC design which must not in one single point consider console designt, but unfortunately this time is over, so I see more games having lists instead of grids and lines instead of tiles and whatever strange stuff making things more inconvenient on PC, as kb/mouse is be able to do more.

4.) I don't know whether mods are supported on/for consoles, but as PC (only) gamer I have to say clearly something egoistic at this point: I don't care and I'm glad to get UI mods and I would not accept that PC gamers should have a decrease in quality, freedom and comfort due to consoles. There are several advantages to use a PC and probably (although not for me) there are advantages to use a console instead of a PC. I don't see the need for a harmonization.

5.) I guess it will be like in AION (for instance), so with districts or channels. You will join a channel automatically after log-in, perhaps a channel with majority of your a. guilds or b. friend-list or c, due to other preferences (playing style, ...) filled out before. But you also will be in a position (I believe) to change the channel (this really should be in, otherwise no chance to get together if wrongly dispatched before).

6.) You can switch your 6 skills in two ways: One way is to switch the skills "out of combat", so just like in Diablo 3. Replace whatever you think with one of your already gained skills from skill points (drag&drop it to the hotbar probably). The second way to "switch" skills is due to the feature "weapon swap" which you will get at level 15. This will change weapon and hotbar (so the 5+1 skills), so you can play with 6x2 skills during combat. The weapon swap has obviously no restriction, perhaps some small CD or GCD. Resource pool (health, magicka, stamina) will stay the same during swap, if I remember correctly (but perhaps there will be skills which reg resources a bit after swap, because this will provide a benefit to very dynamic players). Moreover you will have the chance to respec (for gold, with increase the more often you respec and the higher your level is maybe), which also encourages you to try out new builds. So, to sum it up: The character progression system sounds very good in theory, and I can compare this with several other MMOs I've played.

1. Do not know, they say there will be much PvE content, but not much details

2. Megaserver will keep zones crowded, the story ends when there is only one zone, but it is not possible

3. there is soft lock targeting, but not sure what you are in demand

4. do not know about mods if possible on consoles, regarding threat meter - threat will be very dynamic in this game so I do not expect it's usefull, also not sure if threat is sent to player computer

5. there is no isolation per se, megaserver just groups people together, but population is kept on stable level

6. I think it will be very easy to reset your skill points

7. Just for the case you ask, when healer does it then there might be two cases: he does it because all are healthy and he simply finishes things faster, but also other case he does it so there is no healing, so all die and do not take him for next round.

1. There HAS been a lot of discussion about it, 50+/50++, Adventure zones, dungeons are ALL PVE endgame things, they do not seem to lack in that department

2 and 3. Because Keyboard is better than controller hands down, there would be a rift where people would prefer PC players than a console players, it was kept seperate for fairness. I bet you FF14 will have a similar issues.

4. as said there will be no cross-platforming, so this question is invalid since consoles and PC are separate. though, it think it is possible UI mods will be allowed on the consoles possibly

5. teh MEga-server just acts like a normal server does, except 1000x bigger and made to accomodate everyone. Games with normal servers also have the instancing/channel thing as well, just not as prominent. as you can swtch channels at anytime, the point is moot anyway. the mega server is used so people are not separated by servers, saying it will make the playerbase smaller is stupid and the exact opposite of what will happen.

6. depends on what you mean, when you choose one of the 4 classes you will have 3 magic-based skill lines ONLY that class can use, you are locked out of the other 9 skill lines. BUT, you can choose and put skill points into ANY of the other skill. On the other hand, once you put points into certain trees and you have level up that skill, etc it is highly unlikely you will be to just go into a completely different tactics. For example, you level your character as a Robes mage who uses a destruction staff, and the sorcerer skill trees, it is doubtful you will be able to just switch from that into a heavily armored warrior using a warhammer very easily, if at all. BUT, you will get more than enough skill points to be able to likely put into extra things, for example, you might have some extra skill points that you can put into the heavy armor and become sort of a battle mage/TES sorc, or you might be able to put it in the two-handed after leveling that up a bit, and maybe become a spellsword.

7. as you only have 6 skill on each weapon bar, one on each being an ultimate, it is doubtful you will be able to be a full hybrid (as in go from main tank, to main healer with just a switch of a weapon) but it allows for small hybrids (have your warrior have a resto staff and heal himself and allies as a secondary healer possibly)