ESO Live - Ask Us Anything!

Balance

The PC version of ESO is currently 32Bit. I can't speak for the windows side but the Mac client has memory issues above Medium settings and is for some, unplayable in Cyrodiil.

I understand that the current push needs to be a smooth release of 1.6 and the console version, but it would be nice to get confirmation that the PC development side will get some support to upgrade the 32Bit client to 64Bit.

Developer feedback has been really frank, open and respectful about the problem. The reality is that there are limited resources, but it would be nice to get some confirmation that Zenimax as an organisation is going to ensure the PC client is optimised sooner rather than later.

Both Windows and OS X are now on an increased major update cadence and moving into 2015 the mac client seems at risk of falling two major releases behind.

Roechacca

I hope you will address PVP tonight . Any plans to help correct faction imbalances ? What is the current state on fixing performance lag on your end ? I'd like to see Brian Wheeler talk on the show .

Sacadon

Balance wrote: »

The PC version of ESO is currently 32Bit. I can't speak for the windows side but the Mac client has memory issues above Medium settings and is for some, unplayable in Cyrodiil.

I understand that the current push needs to be a smooth release of 1.6 and the console version, but it would be nice to get confirmation that the PC development side will get some support to upgrade the 32Bit client to 64Bit.

Developer feedback has been really frank, open and respectful about the problem. The reality is that there are limited resources, but it would be nice to get some confirmation that Zenimax as an organisation is going to ensure the PC client is optimised sooner rather than later.

Both Windows and OS X are now on an increased major update cadence and moving into 2015 the mac client seems at risk of falling two major releases behind.

Wow32 in Windows does a decent job of running 32-bit on x64 for ESO, but would still like to see a 64-bit client. Interesting that Mac would not do so well.

c0rp

roechacca wrote: »

I hope you will address PVP tonight . Any plans to help correct faction imbalances ? What is the current state on fixing performance lag on your end ? I'd like to see Brian Wheeler talk on the show .

inb4..

'Performance in Cyrodiil is an ongoing process that is our #1 priority. We are always working on server side development."

Kerioko

1. How will you bring balance to the game when a dedicated few of us (with no life) set a goal of grinding all 3600 CP in a few months and are successful? Trust me, we will find a way!

2. How will you address the massive imbalance this will bring to PVP, when that dedicated crowd has god mode compared to the casual masses that this game seems to be gearing towards? There will always be that one who gets his jollies off from griefing other just cause he can....Check out the WoW episode of South Park to see what I mean!

Have you thought about changing the way CP is gained, like over a specific time frame, instead of based on a specific amount of XP. Example:

-Player 1 crafts for 5 hours and receives 3 CP (1 for 1st hour under enlightenment, 1 for every 2 following hours of gameplay)
-Player 2 grinds spellscar for 5 hours and receives 3 CP (same as above)
-Player 3 quests and does VDSA for 5 hours and receives 3 CP (same as above)
-Player 4 PVPs and gains a constant rate of AP, recieves 3 CP (same as above)
-Player 5 stands in one spot and only moves every 15 min to keep from getting logged out, receives 0 CP!

While I understand every solution brings its own problems, I feel that a system of earning CP similar to this would help diminish the player gap the champion system is going to create, and would also reward those of us that actually like to play the game as intended and not feel the need to mindlessly grind to stay with the pack!

With that said, I am ready for whatever 1.6 brings as the fastest way to get CP:
- If questing is the fastest way to earn CP, I have 2 VR14's and a VR1 ready to hit up gold, silver, craglorn and all other vet content.
- If grinding is the fastest way, I have my main VR14 with my grind partner and rings or mara!
- And if its PVP, well the PVP community will finally have something going their way!

Flaminir

Should Nords ride Guars?

The Nord Symbiote I won on last ESO Live has just arrived.... I didnt think they should... but he seems quite at home up there!

ZOS_KaiSchober

Here are the questions that we answered during the February 27th episode of ESO Live! Keep them coming.

Why is it possible for people to bypass the home and guest system and jump into any Cyrodiil campaign? – yodased
ESO is a social game, and this is a decision we made with a priority on playing with friends in mind. We didn’t want to block people from playing with friends and guildmates in Cyrodiil because they chose a different home campaign or because their campaign was full.

It would be great if you could see on your character sheet how much Enlightenment you have remaining. Is this something you might add in the future? – Endoc
We don’t have plans to show this on your character sheet, but you can see how much enlightenment you have remaining by looking at your Champion Bar tooltip in the top left of your screen.

With the consoles being closed platforms and every system has the same specs ie. all PS4's are the same, what advantages are you guys able to make on console with the game? – Hawk269
As we focused on creating our console experience, we looked at how to take advantage of the PS4/XB1 game controllers fully, including implementing rumble support to add weight the game. The UI was redesigned to be familiar to console gamers, and we added voice support to lower the friction of interacting and communicating with other players—most console gamers don’t use keyboards when they play.

Are there more details on voice support? Will we be able to mute annoying players like we are able to ignore people in the chat window? – Hawk269
There will be multiple chat channels that you can switch between including group, guild, and area chat. If you run into someone blaring music in area chat or doing something you want to ignore, you’ll be able to mute that player. In addition to the in-game voice channels, you can also use the PS4 and XB1 party chat features.

Are you looking at doing anything with vampires and werewolves in the future? If so, what? – MornaBaine
For Update 6, we decreased the vampire and werewolf fire and poison vulnerability from 50% to 40%. Overall, we don’t want you to be unable to complete certain content because of your choice to be a vampire or werewolf. One potential solution to this would be to make vampires vulnerable for only a short time after activating Vampire skill line abilities. That way, if you saw a swarm of bats in PvP, you’d know to use fire-based abilities against them. With this approach, we’d keep that cool interaction, but you could slot different abilities for fire-heavy PvE content.

Currently due to the Werewolf bonus 15% stamina regeneration while in human form there is very little reason to be a normal non-vampire, non-werewolf mortal. Will this ever be addressed? – Turelus
We don’t have current plans to change this, but it is something we’d like to address in the future.

With the recent changes to the buff system, some potion effects no longer have the impact they had before Update 6. For example, Magelight already increases your spell damage and the potion effect doesn’t stack. Would you consider changing these buffs to be stackable (and maybe less potent)? – Beyond Infinity
We like the fact that this creates some choices for character builds—you can run buff abilities or run buff potions. That said, this is one of many new features from 1.6 that we will be monitoring.

In Trials and Veteran Dungeons, the recent change to Fiery Grip and its morph often results in being pulled to a temporarily CC-immune target instead of having the target pulled to you. In Dragonstar Arena, this usually results in a swift death. Would you please reconsider this change or allow players to interrupt the pull with a block (as you previously had to do it with spell reflect?) – Beyond Infinity
We don’t have any plans to change the functionality of Fiery Grip and its morphs, but we’re discussing allowing you to block and cancel it.

Will food and drink be stackable after 1.6? – randolphbenoit
No. We significantly buffed the resource regeneration rate of drinks to make them competitive with the increased pool sizes from food. It didn’t make sense to have to use two separate items for the same function of a long term buff. This is a cleaner design and should encourage you to make a decision about which you prefer. In the future, we might consider making a “meal” item that gives both maximum resource and regeneration increases, but at smaller values than what food or drink currently do.

Will we get a disagree button on the official forums in the future? – Ranvara
We are currently discussing adding agree and disagree—or possibly upvote and downvote—options to our official forums.

Are the Striped Senche mounts Khajiit or just beasts? – Gidorick
They are non-sentient cousins of the Khajiit. Technically “Senche” by itself refers to one of the furstocks, or “breeds” of Khajiit; the mounts should always be referred to as “Senche-Tigers” to maintain the distinction.

Will we see any additions to the crown store before June? Is there a schedule for releasing new items in the Crown Store? – heroofnoneb14_ESO
Yes! There is a modest set of products scheduled to be released between the Crown Store launch on March 17th and June.

Will you ever consider adding more bank space, inventory space, or guild bank space to the Crown Store for purchase? – The Noore Guild
It is absolutely being considered. The Collections System should help with inventory space, but we’ve been discussing the best way to allow you to improve and/or expand personal and guild banks as well.

I really like the new Orc and Redguard armors in Update 6. Can we expect more styles to get an overhaul, and if so, which? (Please say Dunmer and Nord) – Faulgor
Thank you! We’re glad you like the changes. We don’t have current plans to revisit any other older armor sets. Right now, we’re continuing to make more awesome armor sets as in-game rewards and loot, and we’re also creating new costumes and cosmetic items for the Crown Store.

How is a VR14 character supposed to earn XP for the Champion System when they’ve completed Cadwell's Silver and Gold already? – LonePirate
There are a number of ways to earn XP in the game other than questing—killing monsters, going through dungeons, finishing Crafting Writs, participating in the Alliance War, etc. There are also repeatable quests, such as those from Cyrodiil and from the Undaunted.

Do you have any plans to raise the XP gain potential in PvP? Compared to doing quests or grinding, you gain so few XP in Cyrodiil. – Starwhite
We did increase the XP gain potential once before in patch 1.5. When it comes to the Alliance War, our data shows some people are very successful in gaining XP in Cyrodiil. PvP is funny, though; not all players are created equal on the battlefield, so XP rates vary wildly in Cyrodiil.

Why don’t NPCs take fall damage? I’ve used Uppercut on bridges and ledges, and they don’t take fall damage. – The Noore Guild
We wanted the world have as many cool vistas and cliffs as it does, but with fall damage on NPCs we knew it would quickly become apparent that the best way to defeat many difficult encounters would be to drag enemies to the nearest ledge and knock them off. Over and over. This behavior, while it’d probably be fun the first few times, would result in making encounters trivial and uninteresting in the long run, so we opted to disable the fall damage.

Will we ever get the ability to send hirelings out on longer missions for better items? I'd love to add points to that if it allows me to get a higher chance to score Gold-level items to craft with. – Inco
We know how much everyone wants to interact more with their hirelings, and we love the idea. It’s something we’re looking into, but we don’t have any solid plans at this time.

Do you have an update on a fix for the “You can’t ride while in combat” issue in Cyrodiil that prevents summoning your mount even if you aren’t in combat? – Der_Geronimo
We haven’t seen this issue pop up since we implemented the fix for Cyrodiil guards being able to detect you from very far away. If you run into this after Update 6 goes live, please use /bug to report it with as many details as possible.

Since the Collection System has pretty much fixed/improved the way players own and use their mounts, does this mean we can still expect horse racing sometime in the near future? – Nutronic
Horse racing is something we’re interested in doing and frequently discuss internally. We’re prototyping horse racing, but otherwise not actively working on it.

Turelus

I'm famous now! \o/

Flaminir

Turelus wrote: »

I'm famous now! \o/

You were famous anyway tarvy... or is that Infamous

randolphbenoit

Will food and drink be stackable after 1.6? – randolphbenoit
No. We significantly buffed the resource regeneration rate of drinks to make them competitive with the increased pool sizes from food. It didn’t make sense to have to use two separate items for the same function of a long term buff. This is a cleaner design and should encourage you to make a decision about which you prefer. In the future, we might consider making a “meal” item that gives both maximum resource and regeneration increases, but at smaller values than what food or drink currently do.

Thx for the answer.

Faulgor

Thank you! We’re glad you like the changes. We don’t have current plans to revisit any other older armor sets. Right now, we’re continuing to make more awesome armor sets as in-game rewards and loot, and we’re also creating new costumes and cosmetic items for the Crown Store.

Aww.
I'm really looking foward to the new styles, and the ones I have seen in previews so far look great, but I also hoped to see a more consistent polish for the basic styles after the Redguard/Orc overhaul. It would be great if you kept that on the table, even if there's nothing planned right now.

AshTal

Nice set of questions. Pity about no plans to make normal morals (non werewolves / Vampires) have an advantage as right now it feels like I am playing in VtM where most of the population are super natural.

Turelus

AshTal wrote: »

Nice set of questions. Pity about no plans to make normal morals (non werewolves / Vampires) have an advantage as right now it feels like I am playing in VtM where most of the population are super natural.

No, this doesn't have enough pshhhhh to be VtM Online. (if you're not someone who read that article about CCP I just look like a moron now).

As someone who is kind of a min/max player and also loves RP I kind of feel meh in the fact I ended up picking up WW for the buff. It's an amazing free bonus which costs me nothing, but at the same time I can't be a good vanilla mortal and proud.

Aerius_Sygale

Turelus wrote: »

AshTal wrote: »

Nice set of questions. Pity about no plans to make normal morals (non werewolves / Vampires) have an advantage as right now it feels like I am playing in VtM where most of the population are super natural.

No, this doesn't have enough pshhhhh to be VtM Online. (if you're not someone who read that article about CCP I just look like a moron now).

As someone who is kind of a min/max player and also loves RP I kind of feel meh in the fact I ended up picking up WW for the buff. It's an amazing free bonus which costs me nothing, but at the same time I can't be a good vanilla mortal and proud.

Hey, Werewolves are awesome. ;D I just had to become one, loooong ago was the first time. :P I just wish they had fur dye, or at least would make "Werewolf Berserker" have black fur, like the icon suggests...

Gyudan

Will food and drink be stackable after 1.6? – randolphbenoit
No. We significantly buffed the resource regeneration rate of drinks to make them competitive with the increased pool sizes from food. It didn’t make sense to have to use two separate items for the same function of a long term buff. This is a cleaner design and should encourage you to make a decision about which you prefer. In the future, we might consider making a “meal” item that gives both maximum resource and regeneration increases, but at smaller values than what food or drink currently do.

Brace yourselves for the Crown Store Meal...

How is a VR14 character supposed to earn XP for the Champion System when they’ve completed Cadwell's Silver and Gold already? – LonePirate
There are a number of ways to earn XP in the game other than questing—killing monsters, going through dungeons, finishing Crafting Writs, participating in the Alliance War, etc. There are also repeatable quests, such as those from Cyrodiil and from the Undaunted.

@LonePirate must be very glad to learn about all those fancy ways to get XP. Killing monsters grants XP? Wow I learned something new today.

With the possible addition of bank space in the crown store, the werewolf's lack of disadvantage in human form and vampires even considered to lose their weakness when not using vamp skills, this was a very disappointing Q&A imo. I'm glad the "you can't ride while in combat" bug is "fixed" though.

*rides away*
Oh wait, I'm still in combat for some reason.

Turelus

Question: Will any of the pets and ingame items which are currently only available via buying physical toys and items be moved over to the Crown Store? Many of us would like the chance to have the pets like the Scrib but don't have the money/want for the large physical items required for purchase.

Iago

Which Daedra do I need to make an offering to, so that I may recieve a pet Durzog?

Islyn

c0rp wrote: »

Can a STAMINA sorc buy some sorc skills please? The single stam morph we have is terrible...we have NOTHING.

No. You are a SORCERER. Look it up.
(why would you even play that? My toaster would be a better stam build)

wraith808

Islyn wrote: »

c0rp wrote: »

Can a STAMINA sorc buy some sorc skills please? The single stam morph we have is terrible...we have NOTHING.

No. You are a SORCERER. Look it up.
(why would you even play that? My toaster would be a better stam build)

Play the way you want to. Perhaps as a sword mage. And hybrid builds are definitely gimped. I see both sides of the argument, and there's not an easy lore friendly solution. But there should be a compromise between the two extremes.

Arki

wraith808 wrote: »

Islyn wrote: »

c0rp wrote: »

Can a STAMINA sorc buy some sorc skills please? The single stam morph we have is terrible...we have NOTHING.

No. You are a SORCERER. Look it up.
(why would you even play that? My toaster would be a better stam build)

Play the way you want to. Perhaps as a sword mage. And hybrid builds are definitely gimped. I see both sides of the argument, and there's not an easy lore friendly solution. But there should be a compromise between the two extremes.

A sorcerer in Elder Scrolls has never been a pure clothie caster. Thats the Mage archetype from previous games. The sorcerer was allways more of a hybrid, with mostly heavy armor and spell absorbtion.

Here is a sorcerer in Oblivion:

"Besting the most well-equipped fighters, Sorcerers rely on the spells of the mystic arts. Unique to these mages is the bodily stamina to be armed with the thickest armor. Sorcerers also possess the unique ability to absorb spell points from spells targeted at them, serving in essence as magical "batteries", and possess more spell points than any other mage class.
Sorcerers are adept at the use of a wide variety of weapons and armor, but typically do not utilize shields, preferring to keep their hands free for defensive spellcasting instead, their specialty."

See the bolded parts. Stamina sorc is in no way lore-breaking, in fact it could be argued that a pure skirt and stick sorc would be more lore-breaking. But then again ES lore has allways been about diversity and not forced archetypes.

LonePirate

Gyudan wrote: »

How is a VR14 character supposed to earn XP for the Champion System when they’ve completed Cadwell's Silver and Gold already? – LonePirate
There are a number of ways to earn XP in the game other than questing—killing monsters, going through dungeons, finishing Crafting Writs, participating in the Alliance War, etc. There are also repeatable quests, such as those from Cyrodiil and from the Undaunted.

@LonePirate must be very glad to learn about all those fancy ways to get XP. Killing monsters grants XP? Wow I learned something new today.

@Gyudan

They completely dodged the question or they missed the point of it entirely. Maybe I should be less subtle next time when I inquire as to why we have no content to earn CPs.

Ommamar

Will there ever be a "hunter" guild implemented? I was doing a quest earlier where I had to track an injured troll when I crouched the path the troll had followed was highlighted using bushes and tracks on the ground. In EQ the rangers had a track skill where they could choose from a list of mobs and then given hints about where they where located. I would love to see that idea combined with the quest idea of an actual highlighted path! So besides the mentioned Dark Brotherhood and Thieves guild will there ever be other guilds implemented?

wraith808

Arki wrote: »

See the bolded parts. Stamina sorc is in no way lore-breaking, in fact it could be argued that a pure skirt and stick sorc would be more lore-breaking. But then again ES lore has allways been about diversity and not forced archetypes.

Lore breaking as far as the abilities as given.

Islyn

Arki wrote: »

wraith808 wrote: »

Islyn wrote: »

c0rp wrote: »

Can a STAMINA sorc buy some sorc skills please? The single stam morph we have is terrible...we have NOTHING.

No. You are a SORCERER. Look it up.
(why would you even play that? My toaster would be a better stam build)

Play the way you want to. Perhaps as a sword mage. And hybrid builds are definitely gimped. I see both sides of the argument, and there's not an easy lore friendly solution. But there should be a compromise between the two extremes.

A sorcerer in Elder Scrolls has never been a pure clothie caster. Thats the Mage archetype from previous games. The sorcerer was allways more of a hybrid, with mostly heavy armor and spell absorbtion.

Here is a sorcerer in Oblivion:

"Besting the most well-equipped fighters, Sorcerers rely on the spells of the mystic arts. Unique to these mages is the bodily stamina to be armed with the thickest armor. Sorcerers also possess the unique ability to absorb spell points from spells targeted at them, serving in essence as magical "batteries", and possess more spell points than any other mage class.
Sorcerers are adept at the use of a wide variety of weapons and armor, but typically do not utilize shields, preferring to keep their hands free for defensive spellcasting instead, their specialty."

See the bolded parts. Stamina sorc is in no way lore-breaking, in fact it could be argued that a pure skirt and stick sorc would be more lore-breaking. But then again ES lore has allways been about diversity and not forced archetypes.

I have never seen one do flurry or steel tornado though! LOL!

I mean fair enough - but - these are people who suddenly want the DPS of a stam build without lvling a character build for it.

I am not talking about lore - I am talking about Sorcs in ESO were just never made for it.

Iago

Why are sorcerers limited to lightning for elemental attacks? Surely they could add some other elemental abilities for sorcerers to use. Make someone decide if they are a fire mage, a storm mage, and earth mage, or an air mage. Then give them an ability tree to match their selection to replace storm calling.

They could also give other classes optional trees to choose from.

AshTal

Hello

My questions:
1) When will racial abilities be balanced. Currently some racials are much much better than others and this will only be more obvious when the soft cap is removed.
2) Will we ever see more choice and control of outcomes and a better way to explain why my loyal Pact solider is now helping the other alliances as its the only sensible way to get to vet 11 rather than it being a dream if we had escaped cold harbour to another island.
3) Will PvP ever be more balanced I really like the non vet campaign because 3 elites can't take a keep in under 10 minutes. Where as in the normal campaign the entire map changes colour in the space of a few hours. Also I could actually damage the other team not hit them with everything and do next to nothing.
4) Will sorcs ever be able to change the appearance of their pets

Tandor

Given the regular and extensive criticism of many aspects of the present guild trading system, including the restriction of selling to those comparatively few players who belong to the right guild at the right time, the inadequate search facility for buyers coupled with the need to tour the world to discover what's on offer, and the inadequate notification of successful transactions to sellers, is consideration being given to the improvement of the trading system whether by the introduction of some form of global or factional auction house, major enhancements to the guild kiosk system including providing some NPC merchant trading services for non-guild players, or the introduction of some other form of trading system in order to strengthen the player-based economy?

Inco

Jewelry? When can we craft our own set bonus based Jewelry?

Lots of folks asking for this and should have IMHO been part of original launch.

Islyn

Iago wrote: »

Why are sorcerers limited to lightning for elemental attacks? Surely they could add some other elemental abilities for sorcerers to use. Make someone decide if they are a fire mage, a storm mage, and earth mage, or an air mage. Then give them an ability tree to match their selection to replace storm calling.

They could also give other classes optional trees to choose from.

Because ESO.

Enodoc

Aldmera wrote: »

With the inclusion of Experience Boost Potions in the Crown Store being mentioned, as well as the ESO Plus Experience Boost that is a bonus for being a subscriber, I just wanted to ask where/when I will be able to select the Experience Disable option?

All your players do NOT want to get from 1- VR14 (whatever it will be when the champ system is implemented fully) as quickly as possible. There are those of us who fully enjoy the work that you have put into the stories behind quests and the designs of the different regions/dungeons and NPCs, that we would rather not be rushed out of them by the game itself, the areas/quests becoming too easy and wanting to get back some difficulty.

(Also when I level up too quickly (out-leveling my enemies but still wanting to finish the areas quests even though they are gray) I don't get the chance to fully understand my skill's mechanics in on-level gameplay, and thus, become a button masher...)

Just wanted to throw in my agreement/support for disabling the experience boost. I'd like to subscribe to ESO Plus, but the XP boost is one of the main reasons I may not, considering how much I over-level the 1-50 content already.