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Elder Scrolls Online vanilla

sPark101
sPark101
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Was this game originally intended to run without addons?
Edited by ZOS_Icy on 14 March 2023 17:04
  • KalevaLaine
    KalevaLaine
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    Yes, for console players. :D
    i TurNeD inTo A mARtian 👽 // PC EU seit 2020 (3302CP) // PS EU von 2015-2020 (1250CP)
  • wilykcat
    wilykcat
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    Yes. I agree.
  • Dagoth_Rac
    Dagoth_Rac
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    I have been playing since beta and there were addons from the start, and ZOS strongly endorsed and provided tools for making and using addons from the beginning. But you can certainly ignore them. I have friends who play with no addons, even in high-end Trial guilds. They are not required and there is no content that cannot be completed without addons.
  • Bo0137
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    Playing ESO on day one was one of the best experiences I've ever had. Everyone was a noob and no one dressed cool. The world felt SO vast and dangerous. I legit remember my heart racing waiting to get home to log in. With that being said, we can tell the game is obviously way better now. But being lost and clueless was actually fun, when everyone else was at the same situation.
    -On my shoulder, Ms. Ahvine
  • Ragnarok0130
    Ragnarok0130
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    Bo0137 wrote: »
    Playing ESO on day one was one of the best experiences I've ever had. Everyone was a noob and no one dressed cool. The world felt SO vast and dangerous. I legit remember my heart racing waiting to get home to log in. With that being said, we can tell the game is obviously way better now. But being lost and clueless was actually fun, when everyone else was at the same situation.

    I understand your meaning but some of us were in both Betas and knew where to go for early quests as opposed to people who logged in for the first time at launch who looked really lost. I remember thinking I was on a roll when I hit level 20 and then I saw a level 45 and wondered if he slept at all in the couple of days since launch. It was an interesting feeling having the player base being mostly at the same point in knowledge and everyone starting off in the Wailing Prison.

    The world was dangerous and Doshia was an absolute nightmare - albeit heavily nerfed from her worst during the betas.

    But to the OP, as others said addons have been a thing since the beginning.
  • kargen27
    kargen27
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    I do all the overland content first time through without add-ons so I get to find everything for myself. Then 2nd time through I go ahead and use all the add-ons I have installed.
    They aren't needed for vet dungeons and trials but they sure make that content easier to finish.

    Editing to add when I got serious about getting the Master Angler achievement the fish filet add-on was a blessing from the divines!
    Edited by kargen27 on 13 March 2023 21:23
    and then the parrot said, "must be the water mines green too."
  • Danikat
    Danikat
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    I think ZOS planned for some people to have addons since the start, there's always been a modding community for TES games and since at least Morrowind they even including a modding kit when you bought the game on PC so they knew people would want to do the same with ESO. I remember them saying before the game was released it would support addons, but only for the UI, not the ability to create your own quests and objects like in other games.
    PC EU player | She/her/hers | PAWS (Positively Against Wrip-off Stuff) - Say No to Crown Crates!

    "Remember in this game we call life that no one said it's fair"
  • wilykcat
    wilykcat
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    I don't use add-ons. I can play the game just fine 🙂.
  • axi
    axi
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    Originally developers were embracing the idea of clean UI with the option to add desired features through addons which were possible to add to the game files since day 1.
  • Tandor
    Tandor
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    I've never used a single addon with ESO which I've played since launch, albeit I don't run competitive content or participate in trading. The only addon I've ever used in TES was one that gave me an instant house in Skyrim and I hated that and got rid of it.
  • fleetingyouth_ESO
    fleetingyouth_ESO
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    Addons were always going to be part of the game, it is pretty standard for almost all MMO's to have a lot of addon development. But because they wanted to draw on both the existing MMO crowd and TES fans they created a UI that could be customized for both players.

    Specifically during Beta, it was talked about how the UI was designed minimalistic to better be usable by a controller on consols. I remember a lot of beta testers were not a fan of the original UI and felt it was lacking for a major MMO.
  • WiseSky
    WiseSky
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    You can play without addons.

    or you can play with addons, if you like immersion here are some cool ones:
    https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/574549/immersion-addons-and-settings/
    Immersive Quests Addon
    Wish to Quest without Quest Way Markers? ''Talk to the Hooded Figure'' Turns into ''Talk to the Hooded Figure, who is feeding the chickens near the southeastern gate in the city of Daggerfall in Glenumbra.'' If you Wish To write bread crumbs clues for quest for other players to experience come join the team!
    List of Immersion Addons
  • rpa
    rpa
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    I tend to play new games which support addons without addons for a while. Eventually I install something for convenience. Try New World if you want experience without addons. (Maybe your taste is different than mine and you do not find the flaws intolerable.)
  • Danikat
    Danikat
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    rpa wrote: »
    I tend to play new games which support addons without addons for a while. Eventually I install something for convenience. Try New World if you want experience without addons. (Maybe your taste is different than mine and you do not find the flaws intolerable.)

    With ESO I started without addons (of course) and then as and when something bothered me enough that I wanted to find a solution I'd go looking for an addon that could help with it. I think the first one I got was a mini map, then Azura so I could move the default UI out the way (shrinking the notification text and moving it to above the chat box instead of the middle of the screen was a big help). Several of the older ones I got have now been incorporated into the base game, like inventory sub categories, showing buffs and debuffs on screen, and subtitles.

    Most of my current addons are for menus, doing things like hiding the always-available green scrying leads in the main list, hiding unowned houses and other clutter on the world map, adding favourites tabs to collectibles to make them easier to find, automatically saving and copying settings across characters etc.

    For me it varies a lot between games. Most I never mod at all, and at the other extreme there's games like Creatures 3 where I have hundreds of mods and could easily have nothing on screen that's part of the base game except some of the UI. But those games encouraged modding at least as much as TES did and have been kept going for years (decades at this point) purely by the modding community.
    PC EU player | She/her/hers | PAWS (Positively Against Wrip-off Stuff) - Say No to Crown Crates!

    "Remember in this game we call life that no one said it's fair"
  • licenturion
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    My game is insanely buffed with addons.

    Only started playing about 2 years ago. But without addons I wouldn't still be playing.

    For me these are mandatory:

    - Massive use of ReShade, NVidea control panel, sharpening, film grain, vibrance, bloom and oversaturation to make the game look more like Sea Of Thieves/New World. Others find this terrible and garish, but I don't like the muted grey vanilla look of the game.
    - Map pins, mage book pins, delve boss pins, shard pins for easier collecting
    - Trade centre to buy cheap and sell at reasonable prices
    - Ingame Tamriel clock, because I prefer daylight and do dungeons at night
    Edited by licenturion on 14 March 2023 14:31
  • Ye_Olde_Crowe
    Ye_Olde_Crowe
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    I prefer to play my games vanilla, so I never used an add-on for ESO.

    I used some visual-enhancing addons for one of my later playthroughs of Morrowind, but the game felt so un-Morrowindish that I uninstalled them quickly. I used an add-on for Oblivion that fixed severe localization errors, and I once installed an Oblivion add-on that added extremely beautiful horse skins, but that‘s about it (unless you count Nvidia‘s RTX texture packs for Minecraft 😝.

    I found ESO quite playable without add-ons from the start, but I‘m not really a competitive player, anyway (with roughly 7500 hours under my belt).
    PC EU.

    =primarily PvH (Player vs. House)=
  • endgamesmug
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    I spent from 2015 for 5 years on xbox with no addons, mages guild/skyshards on 18 plus characters, survey locations later on psygic it all gets memorised once youve done it enough times. Master angler before water type indications and all the rest of quality of life, again once known from websites and such wasnt a big deal. Successful achievement runs in challenging dungeons no addons, half the population during that time didnt even have mics 😆, still got it done. I came to pc tried some addons some were ok for me some werent in the end i kept 3 and been that way for the last few years 😁. Strictly no combat addons though, i wanna learn mechanics not be ushered through 😆
  • tohopka_eso
    tohopka_eso
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    I play on PC also and don't use add-ons. Think it has to do with an older game I use to play. Use to have add-ons there but got hacked. So I get a bit jumpy on any 3rd party stuff.
  • DMuehlhausen
    DMuehlhausen
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    sPark101 wrote: »
    Was this game originally intended to run without addons?

    Yes, at first you couldn't mod the game and it was overall better
  • Holycannoli
    Holycannoli
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    Bo0137 wrote: »
    Playing ESO on day one was one of the best experiences I've ever had. Everyone was a noob and no one dressed cool. The world felt SO vast and dangerous. I legit remember my heart racing waiting to get home to log in. With that being said, we can tell the game is obviously way better now. But being lost and clueless was actually fun, when everyone else was at the same situation.

    People were buying and selling racial motifs then. Imperial motif was coveted.

    I do miss those days when the motif you chose mattered.
  • ZOS_Icy
    ZOS_Icy
    mod
    Greetings,

    After further review we have decided to move this thread to a category we think is more appropriate for this topic.

    Thank you for your understanding.
    Staff Post
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