So if you haven't heard, Zenimax / Bethesda has recently announced their first MMO. Apparently, the game has been in development since 2007 so it should be very polished and set for close beta within the next few months as the release date is sometime in 2013 (PC/Mac).
Set in the world of Elder Scrolls, The Elder Scrolls Online will allow players to venture forth into all the realms present in Elder Scrolls universe. Of course all realms won't be opened initially (probably expansions will unlock more locations) but places like Windhelm, Daggerfall, Sentinel, Mournhold and so on will be open for exploration.
An MMO built on such a rich universe and lore, the game will surely stand out from most current MMOs. To get us drooling for more, here are some of the available information about the game that is known:
(great wall of text coming up)
- Players can form teams of up to 250 Person
- Fully voice acted
- Third person perspective (probably has an option)
- Utilizes a hotbar to activate skills like other traditional MMOs
- You have a limited number of skills you can use at any given time, and can change them whenever you're out of combat
- The number of skills is equal to (paraphrase) "a light and heavy attack with your current weapon that take up the first two slots, a few more spells related to your class, and an ultimate in the last slot".
- The ultimate is used once you gain enough finesse, which is earned by doing well in combat
- Sorry, you can't be a werewolf or vampire :(
- Crafting, alchemy, and soul stones will exist in an unrevealed form
- Daedric Princes, Molag Bal will be the primary antagonist
- Constellations will be in the game a la Mundus stones (which work like guardian stones) and also give the answer to things like block puzzles where you step on the blocks in a certain order
- Tons of towns ranging from Imperial City, Windhelm, Daggerfall, Sentinel, Mournhold, Ebonheart, Elden Root, Shornhelm, Evermore, Riften, and a lot more
- There will be mounts, but no flying mounts
- Fast travel exists in the game in the form of wayshrines, which are also your resurrection point, and you can teleport from one wayshrine to any other wayshrine you have already visited
- There most likely won't be dragons (maybe in future expansions)
- Sneaking will be in the game, but how it is implemented is undecided
- No player housing (for now?)
- No NPC romances or marriage (but maybe with players?)
- Features most of Tamriel including Skyrim, Morrowind, Summerset Isle, and Elseweyr.
- Three player factions are confirmed:
- Ebonheart Pact: Nords, Dunmer, and Argoninans
- Aldmeri Dominion: Altmer, Bosmer, and Khajit
- Daggerfall Covenant: Bretons, Redguard, and Orcs
- Game uses a hubless design
- For example, you don't necessarily pick up a quest to do the following, but if you kill all the necromancers in an undead barrow, a shade you free at the end will reward you.
- However, to help you find these events, various NPCs you talk to will tell you where they are happening and put a marker pointing them on your map, which is obviously totally different than receiving a quest.
- Not all quests will have NPCs that indicate where they are
- The game uses MMORPG genre standards such as classes, experience points, and other traditional MMORPG progression mechanics, but they try to present it "around the core fantasy presented by traditiona Elder Scrolls games" such as traveling around and righting wrongs or seeking riches
- The game world is very large relative to Skyrim
- You can explore almost anything you can see
- Game is set 1000 years in the past
- You can't master every discipline
- *Semi Plot Spoiler* The imperials are an enemy to all three factions, lead by the noble Tharn family and the King of Worms, Mannimarco, and are hatching a plot to take over all of Tamriel
- *Semi Plot Spoiler* But BEHOLD, Mannicmarco is scheming with Daedric prince Molag Bal to take over the world behind the Tharn's back
- Also, your soul has already been stolen by Molag Bal, which is the reason you can come back from death over and over again, and the starting plot is that you're fighting Molag Bal to get your soul back from him
- Hitting the level cap takes about 120 hours
- Each faction has their own leveling content
- The game features three faction PvP where you fight to take over keeps and use trebuchets and other siege weapons to help do it. At the high end, you can have 100 v 100 battles. There are also farms and mines you can try to take over. Most of this happens in Cyrodiil where your goal is to take over and hold the Imperial City to get faction wide bonuses for it. If you have played Dark Age of Camelot, this probably sounds familiar. For those who haven't, essentially the entire zone is a giant PvP area will all sorts of points of interest. (as a PvP fan, I am totally dying to test this)
- The most accomplished PvP player on your faction becomes emperor whenever you take over the capital
- When you take over Cyrodiil, you will be able to adventure in it as a hostile city a la Kvatch
- The game will have raids and heroic modes for its dungeons as end game content in addition to faction PvP
- There is also balanced PvP for people who prefer eSports
- The game will also have high end public dungeons
- Public dungeons are essentially instances that aren't actually instanced, so anyone can be in them, so imagine a World of Warcraft dungeon that featured everyone on the server in the area instead of just your party (finally, another MMO that has public dungeons. Instances are so boringly carebear-ish)
- There are standard instanced dungeons as well
- You also get a bonus loot chest if you're soloing and max your finesse, and you can also build finesse by combining with other players
- For example, a rogue can put oil on the ground that a mage can set on fire
- A fighter can also spin in the firestorm a mage puts down, which sends out fireballs
- You can't combo with the abilities of enemy players though, so if an enemy faction player drops an oil slick, you can't set it on fire
- The Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood will be presented, but in what form isn't detailed as their content is hard to recreate in an MMO setting
- NPCs will try to work together and use player like behavior when fighting you, and (at least to my understanding) have stamina as well
- They want the AI to be good, so instead of enemies in a dungeon sitting around and waiting to be pulled, you will be attacked by the entire room and they will try to react to how you are playing
- You destroy dark anchors to gain reputation with the Fighter's Guild. They are large hooks that fall from the sky pseudorandomly and have Daedric guardians next to them. They are easier to kill with a group, and once destroyed, everyone who participated gets a reputation boost with the Fighter's Guild, and eventually nets you rewards like new skills and abilities. (something like Rift here...)
- The combat model will not be real time due to latency (huh?)
- The combat is based around a stamina bar which you can use to sprint, block, interrupt, and break incapacitating effects
- Blocking is the primary focus of these abilities, and can do things like stopping the secondary effects of attacks such as an ice spell slowing you
- Stamina also applies to PvP, so stamina management (and wearing down your enemy's stamina) is important, as your crowd control abilities might be on a long cooldown, and if you use them before the enemy player runs out of stamina, they will probably just block the effect
- Healing is still a big part of the game
- There is also no aggro mechanic in the game, which is part of the reason stamina blocking and healing exist
Finally... that was a lot of information. Next is to hopefully get some more screenshots, trailers etc. You surely don't need anymore reasons to be anticipating for this awesome game.
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