Elder scrolls online

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Darby
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Elder scrolls online

Post by Darby »

Hi guys. Never played a MMORPG since SWTOR (more than a year now), so I just decided to check if there's anything interesting on the scene. Elder scrolls online kinda looked promising. First, I really like the setting and how deep the lore is for the series. Second, the game is being done by studio led by Matt Firor. Yeah, that same Matt Firor from Mythic/DAoC. It's already 5 years in development, release in spring of 2014, closed beta stage now. Did not bother to look deeply into it at this stage,
just applied for beta for the hell of it. Thought I'd let you guys know, though it's probably old news for you :)


PS.

Raf, nice game you got going there! :) I toyed around with idea of turn-based combat "small scale MMORPG" a few years ago, just to practice C# and 3d mostly. Had client/server messaging done, 3d animated figures moving over the giant chessboard, had even embedded Firefox's engine for XUL based UI. Then I realized that I'm coding 8-10 hours a day at work (Java mostly) and then another 3-4 hours a day for my hobby project (C#), let alone spending precious weekends on it. Just did not work for long :)

Anyway, I'm curious, what language/engine/middleware are you using for your game? If that's not a secret, of course.
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Post by troggs »

Hi Darby!

It's been a while :)

I wasn't following any of the recent MMO announcements or betas lately, as everything I've tried in the past few years invariably turned out to be utter garbage...
May be now is a good time to take another look at the scene - there HAS to be one successful game eventually.

Troggs.
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Re: Elder scrolls online

Post by Raf »

Darby wrote:Elder scrolls online kinda looked promising. Did not bother to look deeply into it at this stage, just applied for beta for the hell of it. Thought I'd let you guys know, though it's probably old news for you :)
I heard about it but I haven't had time to look into it. Let us know what you think if you get an invite to the beta and if it has good RvR like daoc style.
Darby wrote:Raf, nice game you got going there! :) I toyed around with idea of turn-based combat "small scale MMORPG" a few years ago, just to practice C# and 3d mostly. Had client/server messaging done, 3d animated figures moving over the giant chessboard, had even embedded Firefox's engine for XUL based UI. Then I realized that I'm coding 8-10 hours a day at work (Java mostly) and then another 3-4 hours a day for my hobby project (C#), let alone spending precious weekends on it. Just did not work for long :)
Thanks! That's impressive what you did! It's not easy (see impossible) to make a game of any real scope on the side unless you dedicate many many years and even then.
Darby wrote:Anyway, I'm curious, what language/engine/middleware are you using for your game? If that's not a secret, of course.
My game is programmed in C++ with xml binding to script UI and quests. It's our own custom game engine with graphics based on DX9.0c so we're not using middleware except for audiere (audio), theora (video) and tinyXML.

If you ever want to get into making games seriously let me know :)
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Post by Darby »

If you ever want to get into making games seriously let me know Smile
Thanks, Raf :) Not really looking for another hobby, I have way too many :)
And if that was a job offer, not sure you'd need a Java/Servlet/Web programmer with specialization in ticketing/GDS/payment systems integration

I just got into Elder Scrolls Beta this weekend. The game looks like a cross between
Skyrim and DAOC on steroids. Right now it has some horrible problems with moving across zones/loading into the server. I believe it's because of the number of people involved and some bugs that could not be found with lower population started to emerge.

Other than that, it's very good so far. Graphics are top notch, everything is very smooth, there's a lot of content in the starting zones. Quests are better than in most MMORPGs and are on par with Skyrim's quests in complexity/scripting. Crafting is pretty cool at the first look. Mobs are not too dumb even in the beginning. Let's see how it all scales to higher levels, I was only able to get to level 5 so far. (10 is when RVR starts, 50 is max, but there's "veteran" levels). Overall, this surely will be a quality game, the question is, will it be interesting? That remains to be seen. Regarding RVR, it's very DAOCish from description (3 sides, bonuses for keeps/relics- Elder Scrolls, siege weapons, etc) but with some additional perks. For example, if your side captures the Imperial City, the highest RVR ranking player in your alliance becomes Emperor and gets some massive bonuses in RVR combat. I will post more information when I can check it for myself
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Post by troggs »

That's reassuring to hear, as most of the press I've seen so far seems to be pretty negative...

Troggs.
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Post by Raf »

Good to hear, haven't had any time to look into it. My Game launched on Feb 6th, have been super busy with everything. It's starting to return to some sort of norm slowly.. Keep us updated!
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Post by Darby »

I've got one beta invite available if anyone is interested.
The next beta session will be Friday, February 28th at 12:00PM EST until Sunday, March 2nd at 11:59PM EST
This beta account will be valid for all the following beta sessions as well
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Post by Darby »

I tried some RvR in this beta weekend. Basically it's DAoC's concept with modern technology.
If you liked DAoC's RvR you will definitely like this. There's still some bugs and unfinished stuff, but the game is very playable and even massive RvR is running pretty smooth. I was running around the big zerg and trying to take out enemy stragglers, had a bit of success with that, my kill count was at 12 when I finally got killed by enemy zerg. Besides that, we managed to take a couple of keeps and some keep resources (farms, mines, etc). I learned that if you don't rush into the heat, pick your targets wisely and retreat in time, you can stay alive without being in any group. You are still being healed, since most heals are area and not just group heals, but heal any ally in the area, you still can use synergies with allies. You also get full credit for keep/resource taking. Although being in a good group is probably even more fun.

Anyway, I decided to give this game a try and preordered. If anyone is interested, I would recommend preordering a digital version at the game's official site. Preorders done there have 5 days of early access and some other bonuses, most important of those might be ability to join any alliance with any race.

PS. Early access starts at March, 31 or so it seems.
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Post by troggs »

Darby wrote:Anyway, I decided to give this game a try and preordered. If anyone is interested, I would recommend preordering a digital version at the game's official site. Preorders done there have 5 days of early access and some other bonuses, most important of those might be ability to join any alliance with any race.
PS. Early access starts at March, 31 or so it seems.
Hmm!!!! Even more tempted to give a go now :)

Did you figure out how their server system works? I was a bit confused by the 'mega-server' news - is there just 1 server and we don't need to worry about creating characters on the same server?
And what about EU vs US servers? Would be a shame if they lock us to different regions...
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Post by Darby »

Basically there's 2 Megaservers, US and EU.
Initially both will be hosted in USA datacenter, but EU servers will be moved to Europe later.

You can't jump from one to another, as far as I know.

Megaserver is just a lot of servers sharing the same global "database", so yes you don't have to worry about server selection once you picked either US or EU one. Each individual server inside the megaserver serves some specific zone with a limited number of people simultaneously inside.

Say, there's 1000 people in a given zone and one server can serve 500 people without performance drop, then 2 servers will be allocated on the fly and 500 people will be allocated to each (numbers here are just for example, of course). When population drops to 500, all players will be transferred to the same server and extra server will be deallocated for later use. They call this zone/server instance a "phase". There's some more or less smart rules to make sure friends and guildies all end up in the same phase.

For Cyrodiil's PvP there's a different mechanic, called "campaigns" - I guess each "campaign" is a separate server. You have 1 "home" campaign that you can change once in 90 days and you also can join other campaigns as a guest. When a certain number of players is reached for the given realm, the campaign is locked for that realm and you can't join it anymore. I think that's where "home" vs "guest" comes into play, "home" players can always join their selected campaign. That way they ensure the even spread of the realms' population.

PS. Names are unique on each Megaserver, but can consist of several words, so it's pretty easy to come up with something.
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Post by Raf »

I'm very much tempted, if I can set some play time for it, looks exactly like what we were hoping for.. So is it full-out released now? And what's the payment model?
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Post by Darby »

Yep, it's released. Plays well after a couple of post-release patches. I've been in some very large scale PvP battles (~100 vs 100) already and it's pretty smooth and lag free

It's subscription based, 15$/month, some minor discounts for 3/6 months.
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Post by Raf »

Darby, I am still hoping I can find some time to play. How are you faring? For the RvR is there a level based (like daoc battlegrounds) beside the end 'frontiers'? XP from pk?

Are you on the US or EU megaserver? And how is the leveling, I assume there are already level 50s?

Troggs going to play?
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Post by Darby »

Hi Raf. I'm playing a couple hours a day on average, wish I had more free time, since the game is quite fun. I am playing my main char on US server, have an alt on EU. Both are hosted in US and it will likely be that way for a while.

I got to level 28 so far, not really pushing hard to endgame. I could be 40-50 by now if I really wanted to, but there's no point to rush it and miss on the content. From what I hear, levelling up to 50 is really easy w/o any kind of grind, the levelling curve is pretty straightforward up until that moment.

But then there's veteran ranks and they are very slow and content gets harder. There is already a lot of players who are at the highest veteran rank, but they likely used questionable tactics to get there.

http://www.shoddycast.com/2014/04/22/a- ... ls-online/

Regarding PvP, there's no battlegrounds, nor they are really needed. There's "battle levelling" system that allows low levels to be almost as efficient as level 50s, perhaps starting with level 15 (that's when weapon switching is unlocked, so you get 2 skill bars instead of one). You can level just by doing PvP, but a bit slower and you're also missing some great content. There's also a lot of PvE content in PvP zone. Basically you are forced into Cyrodiil even if you're not going to PvP and that's a good thing.
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Post by Raf »

Thanks for the info. Which faction/alliance did you choose?

Found this nice link for beginner info: LINK
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