One Month To Console Release
By SunMan2
May 9th is one month before Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited goes to console on XBox One and PS4. The release of ESO on console is likely to generate significant hype as players, some of which have been waiting for over a year, will finally get to log into ESO on their favorite console.
ZOS have released a new trailer in anticipation of next months launch titled This is ESO:TU – Freedom and Choice which aims to show players the freedom with which to create their characters and explore the world. This aspect of the game is loved by many ESO fans and is a widely touted as the best feature of many Elder Scrolls series games. There are people which suggest that ESO should do more to cater for freedom and choice and some that say the locked in story line doesn’t give much choice at all. The counter argument normally centers of quest choices, build customization, appearance customization and exploration as examples of freedom which might not be found in other MMO games. Some new features planned for the future such as Spellcrafting, the PVP aspect of the Justice System and player housing will do a lot to give a a feeling of freedom when / if they are released.
In case you don’t already know ESO is now buy-to-play and after you make a one time purchase of the game, either digital, through Steam or a retail copy, you can continue to log in and player ESO. There is the Crown Store, which is getting stocked each month with new customization and cosmetic items like costumes and pets, which uses real world currency. There is also a VIP subscription option, ESO Plus, which offers 10% more XP gain, 10% more gold dropped from enemies, a monthly allotment of 1500 Crowns and access to all DLC expansions.
So far there hasn’t been any DLC released, unless you count the Imperial Edition which is now available in the Crown Store. After the console release it will be interesting to see where ESO goes in terms of future updates and expansions. The last zone to be added was Upper Craglorn way back in Updated 4. There is still plenty of content for the likes of me, only a Veteran Rank 9 who has yet to explore some of the higher level content such as Trials and Dragonstar Arena, however other players who have completed these things over and over are looking forward to the next zone or expansion.
The next expansion looks set to be the Imperial City, although no official word has been released concerning details. Imperial City is in the center of Cyrodiil and will be a combined PVP and PVE area with a bunch of things to get up to inside.
According to data mining efforts examining the ESO game files the Imperial City will be divided into six sections – The Arena, Market, Arboretum, Temple, Noble and Elven Gardens districts.
The Market, Noble and Arboretum districts can be captured and owned by one of the three Alliances or even by the daedra themselves. Owning a section of the Imperial City entitles members of that Alliance to spawn there, grants a buff which increases XP for kills in Cyrodiil and access to an armory which has a new Item Set which is different in each of the districts.
The other districts will be used for other purposes.
All of this information is subject to change and some it may not have been finalized. Some of the game files may simply be there for testing and be left over even though the developers have moved on, so treat these things as working ideas from the game files and not as a final product.
There is also the possibility of the new solo-able zone, Wrothgar, being the first thing paid DLC to be released after console launch, however this is also unconfirmed. In fact ZOS have stated that these expansions, while they are still planned for the future, are not planned or scheduled. There is the real possibility that no new large content expansions will be released until late in 2015 or early in 2016. We all hope that ZOS have something up their sleeves, however.
Anyway that is getting a bit ahead of ourselves. The console release is only one month away and that is surley going to be taking a lot of the developers time and effort. There are bound to be bugs, unintended effects and consequences. ESO is going from a two server (NA,EU), two platform (PC, Mac) game to a six server, four platform game – so it is a bug jump indeed. I’m sure we all wish them the best!
Let me know what you think about console launch, future updates and more in the comments below.
