Elder Scrolls Online - Update 4 Released

ZeniMax Online has released Update #4 for Elder Scrolls Online. I also have a new video of the Dragonstar Arena introduced in the new patch.

Update 4 is now available on both the North American and European megaserver, and there’s a ton to see in it! The roads to Upper Craglorn are open, and new quests, delves, and the conclusion of the Celestial storyline are all waiting for your group to explore. Visit Dragonstar and prepare to take on the Scaled Court and their new monstrosities.

A new Trial, Sanctum Ophidia, is open. In it, you’ll take the fight right to the heart of the Scaled Court, battling the deadliest among their ranks, including the Celestial Serpent itself. Vanquish it, and you and your allies will enjoy great renown—and great loot.

Let’s not forget the Dragonstar Arena! This entirely new type of challenge is designed for four Veteran players, and will put your skills to the test. Can you survive waves of dangerous enemies and hazardous conditions to prove yourself a champion? With ten arenas in both Normal and Veteran Mode, there’s plenty of blood sport just waiting for the brave.

Of course, there’s much more in Update 4: a new crafting trait, expanded delves, improvements to grouping during quests, and tons of fixes. Make sure to read the full patch notes, and enjoy the update!

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More information.

Is anyone playing this game? Is the subscription fee worth it?. The only MMO I am currently playing is GW2.

Arahael said:

Is anyone playing this game? Is the subscription fee worth it?. The only MMO I am currently playing is GW2.

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I'm playing it here and there. I'm kinda waiting for some of the more significant updates, like the Justice system. I also don't have the time it takes to really get into it. It's not really a game for small sessions, which I'll explain below.

I can't say if it's worth it to you or not. It seems a lot of people don't like it at all.

It depends on what you want from a game like this.

It's very heavy on quest content - and you'll spend the vast majority of time from 1-50 doing story-heavy quests. I think the writing is very good, actually, but you absolutely need to follow the story, or you'll soon lose motivation to do these quests. They'll seem very grindy and similar if you just click through the dialogue.

But if you take the time to listen and invest, you'll find them surprisingly engaging. Well, I certainly did.

It's not as combat heavy as almost all other MMOs, so if you want something like GW2 which is almost all combat or "fun little tasks" - then this is definitely not for you. That said, you're free to go kill mobs or PvP - but the quests are there to be experienced as the primary content.

It's also quite heavy on exploration, which means you can find a lot of optional content by exploring the areas. That's sort of how they intend for you to play, because you need to do most of the side quests to level up at a proper pace.

The character system is very flexible, and it's significantly more freeform than I would have expected from a mainstream MMO. In fact, it doesn't feel like a mainstream MMO when it comes to character building. You do pick a main class and race, but apart from those skill lines - you'll be completely free to mix and match the various weapon/armor/guild/world/etc. lines. Many skills can also be "morphed" - which means it can change in a significant way - and that makes for even more diversity in the builds. Definitely one of the best parts of the game.

I quite like the combat system, and they keep improving it. It feels very much like Skyrim - and I don't think they could have done a much better job, considering the amount of people running around in close proximity. It's a major task getting combat to feel smooth and "synced" when you're not just firing animated abilities. It's fast and yet not so fast that you lose your way.

As for the bad parts, well, it's down to personal preferences.

I was disappointed with how similar some of the areas look in the Aldmeri Dominion, but then again - how different can woods look. Also, a lot of the smaller non-instanced caves/dungeons are way too similar. The exploration can become somewhat predictable, because it's mostly about finding NPCs handing out a quest or two. Since the caves/dungeons are mostly similar, it's not as exciting as finding someting in Skyrim - where each place had some kind of little story of its own. Well, most places DO have a story in ESO - but the layouts feel almost identical, and the stories aren't varied enough.

It's a hard game to just sit down and enjoy for 30 minutes or whatever, because it's not designed for quick stints. That makes it very hard to leave and come back to, as it's so story oriented. I'd say people who don't enjoy stories in their MMOs will have almost no reason to play this beyond the PvP.

Crafting is a mixed bag. The best part about it is that you can craft the very best items in the game, and that's wonderful - as I hate the loot treadmill after years of WoW. But unfortunately, I think the process is too grindy - and for some stupid reason, they've decided to have a zillion crafting items that take up space in your inventory. You're going to spend a LOT of time moving things between the bank and various crafting alts. That's beyond horrible and inexcusable in this day and age, but there it is. That's one of the few things I really appreciated about GW2, that they were so generous with inventory space. Of course, GW2 had a zillion ZILLION silly little green/red/blue gifts and stupid shit - so you needed all the space you could get.

Anyway, it's by no means a perfect game. But it's very different, which I find refreshing - and if you enjoy well-told stories, flexible character building and a significant exploration aspect, you should check it out.

That said, it ain't cheap

Thanks for the reply.
I love the lore of TES, I read every book in Morrowind, Oblivion an Skyrim.
But if this game you enjoy it mostly because of the story and exploration and not for the end game content then it would be better to wait until it eventually goes F2P.

Well, I'd rather pay for a good experience than try to circumvent whatever obstacles they put in place to maximise profit with a F2P model. Besides, I wouldn't count on it going F2P just yet, as they're still planning to launch on consoles. Until we know how that goes, there's no way to know.

Then again, I'm generally more interested in having fun with games I want to play, than saving a few bucks and putting it off.

Right now, I'm subscribing to support the game - because I want it to succeed as a subscription game. I've yet to see a game improve because of F2P, and I hate to see good games with great potential fail because they're trying something new and interesting.

I'm sick to death of the standard mainstream MMO.

DArtagnan said:

I'm sick to death of the standard mainstream MMO.

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Me too expect that I think ESO is also an standard mainstream MMO

Arahael, whether you like ESO depends on what you are after in a MMO. If you are a casual player who solo mostly and like to mess about on your own then you will like ESO. If you are interested in the social/community apsets of a MMO then you will be disappointed.

Do you have to PVP ever? Basically, I'm very antisocial and I don't want to interact with anyone, either in combat or otherwise. Can you mute chat or put everyone and everything on ignore?

P.S. I totally realize that I'm the antithesis of an MMO player, but TES is TES and I'd love to play it for a few months.

crpgnut said:

Do you have to PVP ever? Basically, I'm very antisocial and I don't want to interact with anyone, either in combat or otherwise. Can you mute chat or put everyone and everything on ignore?

P.S. I totally realize that I'm the antithesis of an MMO player, but TES is TES and I'd love to play it for a few months.

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Don't expect TES from an MMO, that would be foolish.

But it's reasonably close to a true TES game CONSIDERING it's an MMO.

As for PvP and socialising, no, you don't have to socialise in any way whatsoever - and PvP is optional.

crpgnut said:

Do you have to PVP ever? Basically, I'm very antisocial and I don't want to interact with anyone, either in combat or otherwise. Can you mute chat or put everyone and everything on ignore?

P.S. I totally realize that I'm the antithesis of an MMO player, but TES is TES and I'd love to play it for a few months.

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I mostly play it alone and I am doing fine (although I am in some trading guilds but just to sell my loot and other stuff, not to interact with the members). My mainchar is only level 37 though, so I can't say anything about endgame content. You can hide chat and as other players don't have a name or sign above their heads like in most other MMOs you often can't tell if it's an NPC or player (except when they are dancing naked in the streets or doing other weird stuff, but that doesn't happen very often ).

I got into Skyrim late because I just never got hooked on previous ES games, and I really enjoyed Skyrim and still go back and revisit (with tons of mods to spice it up but vanilla is pretty amazing itself). Maybe ESO is better further in but to me you just can't replicate what makes Skyrim (and ES in general) amazing in any MMORPG. As much as I love MMORPGs, some things just don't need to be made into MMORPGs, and ES was one of them. I would have much prefered to see the next installment taking things even further than Skyrim with maybe small-scale hosted/local co-op so you could share the amazing with a couple of friends while retaining the immersion, game changing decision making, depth, and intimacy - all things you lose the moment you have 1000 screaming morons named LegolasTwo swarming around you or you're waiting for repops in a public area, etc.

DArtagnan said:

I'm sick to death of the standard mainstream MMO.

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So am I but the answer for me isn't Skyrim or yet more solo crap. If I want to solo, I play single player games. I don't need public chat in an MMORPG for my social retard fix - our world isn't lacking for social avenues and my gang tends to hang out or at least touch base in VOIP whether we're doing MMORPG, co-op, or each doing our own thing (single player games).

I used to be an MMORPG addict and always had an MMORPG I was playing and never thought that would change but MMORPG developers (moreso the corporations that must turn everything into being all about max profit, and they own the developers) have cured me of my MMORPG addiction by churning out nothing but glorified online single players games called MMORPGs that get more and more dumb and streamlined and less and less desireable to play.

FFXIV was the first "premium" MMORPG where I didn't even last the free month and didn't sub. I think it's a terrible game. Too much console, too many loading screens, too simplistic in every way, 20 levels of tutorial is an insult, early endgame content (let's speed run a raid) is pathetic, the whole fate grind (xp welfare for the truly stupid) is pathetic. I was max level, had alts, and was well into endgame before the first month was out and nothing about the game was compelling or all that fun. My friends kept playing for a few weeks longer but we all bailed out quick.

With WildStar I thought the game was ok but it's still just a highly polished turd of more of the same crap, but I got a refund on it before launch because I just don't want to play a game that's selling gold for cash (CREDD) and basically facilitating the biggest losers in MMORPGs. I hate that crap in F2P, where it's bad enough, but in a $60 game with a sub, a so-called premium game, no effin' way. Plus WildStar is just a generic WoW clone that's well done and polished.

I miss the days when MMORPGs were all about grouping, challenge, and danger - something that's become entirely optional and rare in today's MMORPGs that are more about corporate profits, seeing how many players you can acquire, and how much money you can squeeze from them, and as a result the gameplay is dumbed down, streamlined, more solo-oriented, and more about small bursts of near zero challenge with instant gratification.

I don't need an MMORPG to be everything for me. I have amazing single player games for when I want to "solo." There are WAY better games for PvP than the unbalanced garbage that passes for PvP minigames in MMORPGs. I've never really been into barbies or doll houses so I don't need housing in my MMORPG. I have minecraft and about 20 other builder/simulation games if I want to build stuff, and they're all considerably more compelling than even the best housing systems in any MMORPG. And so on.

What I want from an MMORPG is GROUPING. Cooperative/coordinated RPG style grouping with challenges. THAT is something I can't get anywhere else. THAT is what drew me into MMORPGs in the first place (when I was younger I played a ton of pnp RPGs, a ton of D&D, and for me EverQuest was like an extension of that, an easy way to do group RPG style content endlessly). I never used to solo in D&D or any other pnp RPG, nor did we ever PvP. We grouped. Always. And that's what I miss the most about older MMORPGs. The grouping all the time.

It doesn't matter to me if "my" MMO has 250k subscribers or 12 million - as long as the game is afloat, tended, and getting new content (ie, as long as the game is successful). Why should any player care about these numbers? The only people that real care are the corporate bean counters, who don't give a shit about players, and who only care about profit margins, and who push development towards design that is best for profit, not best for players or quality of game.

Good MMORPGs in the past were successful, it's just that good MMORPGs were rare and bad MMORPGs couldn't keep going. It was ok if the populations were smaller and the genre was more niche (and IMO it was better that way, before it became like TV - a zero challenge genre for idiots). These days even bad MMORPGs an keep rolling with lower upkeep costs and F2P.

What's most sad about MMORPGs today is the fact that so many players will readily buy their way thru games, buying data via cash shop or worse, buying game currency for cash.

ESO doesn't sell gold for cash itself but its had plenty of bot and gold spammer problems, something other games like WildStar, EVE, and anything Trion get around by selling the gold themselves. The ultimate in sleaze. Not only condone cheating but provide for it yourself so a 3rd party doesn't make that money. But the sad part is there's so much demand for it - meaning there are tons of players who can't be bothered to play the games and would rather buy their way thru with gold.