Official Discussion Thread for "Elsweyr’s Trailer from The Game Awards & Future Sneak Peek"

ZOS_JessicaFolsom

This is the official discussion thread for the "Check Out Elsweyr’s Trailer from The Game Awards & Get a Sneak Peek into ESO’s Future" blog article.

We were thrilled to be able to share the final Elsweyr cinematic trailer during The Game Awards. If you missed it, don’t worry, you can check out the extended version in this article!

TonyRockaroni

For those who don't know...in the Fourth Era, shortly before the events of TESV, an event known as the Great Collapse occurred. Decimating the eastern coastline of northern Skyrim, causing almost all of the city of Winterhold to fall into the Sea of Ghosts (apart from the College of Winterhold, which miraculously remained standing). Before this, Winterhold was Skyrim's largest city AND capital. But in TESV, this is all that's left of it...



ESO takes place during the SECOND Era...therefore...Winterhold is not only still standing, but is still Skyrim's capital. So what I'm predicting AND hoping for is to finally see Winterhold in its former glory. Especially since, unless they go back n time n a different game, this is the only way we'd be able to even SEE Winterhold in its former glory outside of Skyrim mods.

Veesk

Loved the trailer and cannot wait for all the new content next year! Whenever a cinematic trailer drops like this it leaves me wishing for full eso movie honestly. Really beautiful work.

Anotherone773

I love skyrim( the area) myself. I hope they dont rush it or make most of it so you cant explore it. I wonder if it will have dragonborn.

HelathAndrethi

Some predictions:
The prologue quest could take us to climb the 7000 steps again from the entrance at the Rift (already in game) to High Hrothgar.
The Chapter zone will likely include Riverwood (teased in a crown store item), Whiterun (main hub) and a Helgen not in ruins: Places that Skyrim players feel nostalgic the most. We'll likely get a skill line next year, so the Companions is a natural choice, with mostly stamina-based abilities like Fighter's Guild as opposed to Mage's Guild and Psijic Order. (I'm not optimistic about a Thu'um skill line, since lorewise it should take a very long time to learn even one shout, and it's difficult to balance three-word shouts as a new gameplay mechanism. I'm happy to be surprised though)
The DLC zone will be the Pale and Winterhold.

Tommy_The_Gun

So when is server & game performance update trailer ?

WhiteCoatSyndrome

Great, I can skip the entirety of next year and just play the single player game instead.

bluebird

I'm a little confused as to why you release the 'Elsweyr trailer' in 3 installments, especially months after it's been released.

Seeing the Halls of the Colossus trailer where dragons are released BEFORE Elsweyr made sense, and it revealed the next Chapter's theme well and introduced the main antagonists and major characters, generating excitement.

The second part where the main characters actually fight a dragon made some sense too, it was a taste of the battles players would experience as they would face off against the dragons that ravaged the land during the Chapter.

But this last part is literally the conclusion to Elsweyr's (and Dragonhold's) story, several weeks after we're already past Dragonhold. It's not a trailer, and if it's the third part of the trailer then it should never have been included. It's the literal ingame finale in cinematic form. So it's an absolutely wasted cinematic to make - existing players literally did the same thing weeks ago ingame so it doesn't generate any excitement, and for new players it ruins the whole experience because they now saw the whole conclusion of the story before they even start.

That's not how you make a trailer, imo. Release trailers and introductory cinematics before the content is released, and you can even continue to release promotional teasers afterwards to excite new players. But don't recreate the whole ending that players literally play through ingame and release that. It does nothing for old players who are already past the DLC storyline (a 5 second snippet of this face-off would have hyped up Kalgrontiid in a good way before Dragonhold was released), and it ruins the whole experience for new players who are now spoiled and only get 'Would you like to enact literally this same fight that you just saw with literally the same conclusion ingame, but a lot worse since it won't be an epic cinematic?' I think your cinematic budget would be better spent on dedicating cinematics to your new content (the Skyrim tease was a good example) rather than straight up recapping ingame fights.

VaranisArano

Hello, Nord Trailer Guy.
I imagine him looking at that green light and thinking "I got out of Coldharbor and now this. Can I not catch a break?!"

svartorn

TonyRockaroni wrote: »

For those who don't know...in the Fourth Era, shortly before the events of TESV, an event known as the Great Collapse occurred. Decimating the eastern coastline of northern Skyrim, causing almost all of the city of Winterhold to fall into the Sea of Ghosts (apart from the College of Winterhold, which miraculously remained standing). Before this, Winterhold was Skyrim's largest city AND capital. But in TESV, this is all that's left of it...



ESO takes place during the SECOND Era...therefore...Winterhold is not only still standing, but is still Skyrim's capital. So what I'm predicting AND hoping for is to finally see Winterhold in its former glory. Especially since, unless they go back n time n a different game, this is the only way we'd be able to even SEE Winterhold in its former glory outside of Skyrim mods.

Yep, all of this is reason to look forward to the content. It won't be a rehash of Skyrim outside of the city names and some of the scenery. Everything inside it will be different.

As I said in another thread, I just hope the server performance upgrades work.

svartorn

Tommy_The_Gun wrote: »

So when is server & game performance update trailer ?

This. So much this.

Elsonso

Really liked that trailer. Poor Abner. @Casual_Ranger must be in tears.

If we are going to Skyrim, I find myself hoping that they do it right. Skyrim is a big place, and lately, I have been feeling like we are getting a little short on content. Maybe if they spend two years and release 2 zones and 2 chapters they can cover it all?

gepe87

Releasing the zone name so soon? Higher the hype, double the disappointment.

Summerset was in March...

VaranisArano

gepe87 wrote: »

Releasing the zone name so soon? Higher the hype, double the disappointment.

Summerset was in March...

ZOS is moving to the year-long story method of DLCs&Chapter in large part because they've said new players came for Summerset and then were like "Huh, Murkmire and Argonians? That's different."

So they figured a cohesive marketing approach spanning a whole year was better.

ArchMikem

Khamira tearing up over losing Tharn is ripping my heart out.

ESTyll13

Just downloded The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Special Edition [v 1.5.97.0.8 + DLCs] will have fun again
but if they rush whit it and make it only to save the game they will be cursed game maker list ...

1. like REALY FIX server & game performance or don't waste time make Skyrim for TESO
2. make it like it makes every TANK to cry and remember how good Skyrim V was
3. MAKE IT SOOOOOO BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIG so you have to play it 24/7

I wish you great success and hope you can to it well !!!

Elsonso

gepe87 wrote: »

Releasing the zone name so soon? Higher the hype, double the disappointment.

Summerset was in March...

They are doing a "Year of Frostbite" and I figure that the first DLC in that parade will be hitting PTS in the last half of January and released close to the start of March. If they are going to make this a "thing" they need to do it in January before that first DLC hits PTS.

Faulgor

TonyRockaroni wrote: »

For those who don't know...in the Fourth Era, shortly before the events of TESV, an event known as the Great Collapse occurred. Decimating the eastern coastline of northern Skyrim, causing almost all of the city of Winterhold to fall into the Sea of Ghosts (apart from the College of Winterhold, which miraculously remained standing). Before this, Winterhold was Skyrim's largest city AND capital. But in TESV, this is all that's left of it...



ESO takes place during the SECOND Era...therefore...Winterhold is not only still standing, but is still Skyrim's capital. So what I'm predicting AND hoping for is to finally see Winterhold in its former glory. Especially since, unless they go back n time n a different game, this is the only way we'd be able to even SEE Winterhold in its former glory outside of Skyrim mods.

At the time of ESO, there is no unified Skyrim. The Reach is ruled by Reachmen, and Western (Haafingar, Hjaalmarch, Whiterun and Falkreath) and Eastern (The Pale, WInterhold, Eastmarch and the Rift) Skyrim split in 2E431. Since then, Solitude is the capital of the west and Windhelm the capital of the east. Winterhold absolutely used to be the capital at some point before then, but I don't think we have a solid timeframe.

Nevertheless, I have my fingers crossed for the chapter being set in The Pale and Winterhold. Dawnstar and Winterhold are my favourite cities in Skyrim, and they were done dirty by TESV.

TonyRockaroni

svartorn wrote: »

TonyRockaroni wrote: »

For those who don't know...in the Fourth Era, shortly before the events of TESV, an event known as the Great Collapse occurred. Decimating the eastern coastline of northern Skyrim, causing almost all of the city of Winterhold to fall into the Sea of Ghosts (apart from the College of Winterhold, which miraculously remained standing). Before this, Winterhold was Skyrim's largest city AND capital. But in TESV, this is all that's left of it...



ESO takes place during the SECOND Era...therefore...Winterhold is not only still standing, but is still Skyrim's capital. So what I'm predicting AND hoping for is to finally see Winterhold in its former glory. Especially since, unless they go back n time n a different game, this is the only way we'd be able to even SEE Winterhold in its former glory outside of Skyrim mods.

Yep, all of this is reason to look forward to the content. It won't be a rehash of Skyrim outside of the city names and some of the scenery. Everything inside it will be different.

As I said in another thread, I just hope the server performance upgrades work.

Whenever we do get Winterhold, my biggest concern is if they release it as a dungeon (like they did to Falkreath), public dungeon (like they did to Sunhold), or trial (like they did to Cloudrest). After wondering for 8 years what Winterhold was like in its former glory, I don't want it to just be a location where you kill a bunch of stuff and then leave. I want Winterhold as an actual CITY.

bluebird

VaranisArano wrote: »

gepe87 wrote: »

Releasing the zone name so soon? Higher the hype, double the disappointment.

Summerset was in March...

ZOS is moving to the year-long story method of DLCs&Chapter in large part because they've said new players came for Summerset and then were like "Huh, Murkmire and Argonians? That's different."

So they figured a cohesive marketing approach spanning a whole year was better.

I remember that panel too, and that comment always struck me as incredibly silly. .

1) New players didn't even start in Murkmire, they still started in Summerset (if they had that Chapter, if not then in Wailing Prison or Morrowind). So getting confused about lizards instead of Summerset is a silly excuse, when Summerset didn't go anywhere - it was still there, and the only way you could end up in Murkmire is if you owned the DLC and actively went there. And due to the level scaling world of ESO, Summerset wasn't outdated content so it's not like everybody was in Murkmire and new players felt lost.

2) Progress is always a part of MMOs, it's perfectly natural to have an expansion release and then have the next patches be something new. People don't expect MMOs to stagnate for a whole year on their original expansion theme, they expect a steady stream of new content. Nazjatar for example was a much-anticipated part of WoW even though it had nothing to do with the Battle for Azeroth expansion trolls-humans-faction-war pitch - the same way CWC was a great addition to ESO and we would all have been poorer for it if we stuck to Vvardenfell for a whole year.

3) People may have been confused about Murkmire because there was 0 promotional material for Murkmire. Did Murkmire get a cinematic trailer? No. Elsweyr got 3. So players knowing about Elsweyr throughout the year has nothing to do with how much people like year-long-stories, it's just about how well ESO promotes their new content. Would Orsinium or the Dark Brotherhood be worse received than Dragonhold, if those DLCs also got their epic orc-war-in-the-snow and secret-assassination-and-chase-across-a-city cinematics? Hell no. Arguably it would have hyped up even more players than seeing three 'trailers' about the same people facing the same enemy.

So I've always been quite sceptical about the 'reasons' ZOS gave us for their 'year-long-story' (aka: recycle locations and assets without adding anything new to the Q4 DLC even though previous years had new schematics, trials/arenas, and architecture). And this 'people were confused about lizards' excuse also doesn't hold up . So I just really hope that Skyrim's year will have less repetitiveness and higher content quality than what we ended up with Elsweyr's year.

Zypheran

Small thing, but announce is a verb. The noun is announcement

ESTyll13

Let's see what they will make up this time

Thannazzar

NB -, Minor Dragonhold Spoilers

Doubt we will see more dragons in the numbers from Elsweyr, however given the dragons are awake we may see dragonpriest cult activity, that could be the plot hook to head north.

Since ESO takes place around 582-590 in the 2nd Era:

1. The dark heart reference its probably Blackreach, the time period is about right for the Crimson Nirnroot discovery. Given Blackreach is below Winterhold, thats likely to be the hub location.

a) Winterhold College did not outlaw necromancy so their should be no issues for Necromancer Players in the city (if the
location based illegality coding can be done successfully).
b) Winterhold College and city was founded by Shalidor so expect a cameo at least.
c) Given the nordic association with runes I'd expect the historically data-mined Weapon & Rune Skill Line.
d) Lyris is likely to make an appearance given the references to Si Sahan visiting Snow-Lily in Dragon Holds conclusion.
e) Crimson Nirnroot can be used to amplify health & stamina damage as well as granting resistance to magic & invisibility.

2. Id expect to see Falmer and Charnus incursion events to replace the dolmen/geyser/dragon timed spawns.

3. Whilst the chapter is probably not set in Whiterun, the skyforge is around in this period, so skyforged steel weapons an armor are a possibility.

4, We are before the time of Kamil Long-nose's leadership of the Companions and their widespread Lycanthropy, so unlikely to have any overt companion/werewolf themes.

5. Unfortunately we are 300 years before the birth of Tiber Septim/Talos and the waking of the Dagoth Ur and the ash vampires, both of which would have been interesting events