ESO News April 2015

So, it has been almost a month since the release of Tamriel Unlimited and the conversion to B2P (Buy-To-Play). The Crown Store is up and running and players are getting used to the Champion System, Justice System and the new abilities and mechanics. It’s time for some news about the future! This information comes from ESO Live Episode 14 and the Ask Us Anything session included.

Patch 2.0.5

The next patch is due for release on Monday 13 April and will contain numerous bug fixes and internal fixes. The Fire Trebuchet is also having its damage changed.

Veteran Ranks

This is a topic that a lot of players ask about – the removal of Veteran Ranks. On ESO Live 14 ZOS confirmed that Veteran Ranks will indeed be removed at some point however no date has been set for this.

Imperial City

Similar to Veteran Ranks this is still planned and being worked on at the moment. It will be released when it is ready but no date has been set.

Future Content and Fixes

A bunch of new content including Murkmire, Orsinium, the Dark Brotherhood, the Thieves Guild and the Clockwork City are starting to be worked on once again however these things are likely to take a while and won’t see release for quite some time. It is good to hear that these things are at least being worked on once again! In the Ask Us Anything segment they also mentioned that new styles and shield dyeing will be coming in the future.

New Crown Store Items

ZOS has confirmed that it is looking for more items to stock the Crown Store with such as hair changes, name changes and possibly race changes. These have no release date yet. Some more pets are on the way and a couple of different Guar mounts are also getting ready for release in the future.

Console Beta

The beta emails are starting to be sent to those eligible to participate in the highly anticipated console beta. At this time no dates are set.

Controller Support

PC will be getting controller support in the future but this won’t be implemented until after the console release.

Lag, Stability

They are working hard of identifying and fixing all of the various lag and stability problems, especially with Cyrodiil, and these fixes will be applied in incremental patches over time.

Focused Charge, Eclipse

The ESO Live 14 episode included an Ask Us Anything segment and one of the questions concerned the bugged abilities Focused Change and Eclipse. ZOS is aware of the issues with these abilities and is working on fixing them.

Ask Us Anything

A copy of the Ask Us Anything questions and answers is below.

Ask Us Anything for ESO Live: 4/10

Any chance we could get idle animations with our weapons drawn (as well as the current combat stance)? So with a 2 Hand you may have it slung over your shoulder or 1H/S have the shield balanced on the floor, etc.

Definitely agree it would be a nice touch to add idle animations and fidget animations into normal idle poses, as well as combat idle poses. Right now we don’t have a fidget system that would support that, and creating the animations for every weapon set would take time (plus creating the transition animations). It’s something that would certainly add more personality to the characters, and certainly worthwhile to discuss and investigate.

Can we get a toggle for whether a dye is metallic or not? I’m tired of having a shiny butt with VR14 Bosmer Leather. Can you fix the issue with some armor dying incorrectly?

Thank you for the feedback. There are some technical reasons for the issues you mentioned above. But our team is looking to see where we can make improvements based on that feedback.

Are you guys aware of and working on the bugs in Templars Eclipse as well as Focused Charge?

Yes! We’re actively working on addressing issue with Focused Charge and Eclipse. We’ll work to get those issues resolved as soon as we can.

Ever consider combat pets for ALL CLASSES, not just Sorcerers?

It’s a fun idea, but we also want classes to remain unique and different. The Nightblade has Shadow Image which is special because it can’t be attacked. Summoned pets that last until killed is a cool mechanic that only Sorcerers have access to. If we did add pets for other classes it would probably be something everyone had access to, and we would want their game play to be distinct from Sorcerer and Nightblade pets.

Why can’t we separate the dodge mechanics from an “endurance” bar? It is a strong penalty for all endurance based builds.

Stamina based characters have advantages and disadvantages. A bigger stamina pool means you can activate roll dodge more frequently, however doing so reduces your offensive capabilities. Magicka based characters don’t have this option of trading some of their damage for more survivability. Additionally,this means stamina based characters heavy attacks will restore stamina, which gives them the ability to activate more defensive abilities. To balance this we also made Stamina based attacks cheaper than Magicka with passives in the weapon skill lines that reduce cost by 20%. Managing the versatility is complicated, but also rewarding for players who spend these resources in the right way.

Will we be able to use emotes on the console? I can’t live without my /leanbackcoin.

Yes, just like in the PC version of ESO:TU, players will be able to use emotes in the console version using a new interface designed with the game pad in mind.

When will we be getting more motifs? I would really like more styles that can be turned into competitive armor rather than more stat-less clothes or costumes where it is impossible to swap out individual sections and dye.

We are absolutely committed to adding more styles for the foreseeable future. Where and when is still being determined, but we can say we have multiple in the pipeline.

Still no SHIELD DYES?

We know you’re “dyeing” for shield dyeing. This is on our short-term backlog and we hope to get it into the game in a near future update.

Are there any plans to be able to research food? That way there is another way to get a recipe other than finding them? It can be pretty hard to find ingredients that you can’t use because you can never find the recipe to make the food.

There are no plans for adding research to provisioning, but we are exploring adding more culturally influenced foods with unique and offbeat ingredients. In addition to finding recipes in containers, you also receive a recipe every time you complete a provisioning crafting writ.

Will Thieves Guild armor set be craftable and available soon?

This is not something we have planned for the near future, but as we continue to expand and add new content, there may be an ideal opportunity for us to integrate something like this.

In the future, will there be flying mounts?

Never say never, but we currently have no plans for flying mounts.

Will there be more polymorph costumes in the Crown Store next month? When will new store content be released?

We definitely have more content on the way to the Crown Store, including more polymorphs, although this isn’t planned for next month. We are regularly adding new content to the Crown Store as part of our planned monthly updates. We’re also monitoring feedback from players, and reacting as quickly as we can.

Are there any future plans for allowing players to buy “gifts” for other players through the Crown Store? Such as buying a wedding dress for a significant other, or a pretty horse for a dowry?

We are actively looking at ways that players can purchase items and share the benefit with their friends. At this time, we do not expect to have gifting in the way that is described here in the short term. But we do know that this is something players want and revisit this request on a regular basis.

Could it be possible to get the Senche Tiger mount for console users in the future. Since we didn’t have a chance to play for a year like PC users did.

Possible, but it’s not probable.

Why is there a limit on the number of daily quests a player can complete each day? How do we go about removing that limit which has been around long before Update 6 arrived?

This is due to a combination of the increased rewards provided from daily quests with wanting to keep players with limited playtime from falling immediately and hopelessly behind.

Does the ZOS staff ever jump on their own characters and go into PvP to knock around the rest of us in PvP? If not you should it would be great stress relief I’d imagine.

While we won’t acknowledge that we’re part of the ZOS team, we are constantly in the game playing with you all!

Would you consider adding a “graveyard” wayshrine like in the PvE zones’ delves to the Cyrodiil delves? Currently if you get killed by an enemy you are sent back to the border gate if you have no soul gems. This would only apply to PvE deaths within the respective delve; PvP deaths would give you the option of respawning at a keep as usual.

We have thought about putting respawn wayshrines in the Cyrodiil delves, however this eliminated one of the more exciting portions of going into a cave and fighting the enemy, forcing them to respawn elsewhere.

Is it proper to drink in a “Temple of the 7 Gods” or is it considered as a desecration, or a very disrespectful behavior?

Lady Cinnabar of Taneth says: “Context is everything! Drinking in a temple can be completely respectable, especially if part of the drink is poured off as a libation for the Divines. However, drunken misbehavior, unless called for in a specific ritual, should be avoided, lest it give offense to the pious, who may demand that the inebriates be punished for their disrespect.”

ESO Live Episode 14

You can watch ESO Live Episode 14 here.