Resources needed to enjoy all areas of the game?

tinythinker

This isn't a praise or complain about The Elder Scrolls Online post; though, being the ESO forums, no doubt such things will end up in some of the comments

For someone with a solid year round school or work load, what do you think is necessary to complete/enjoy all aspects of the game:

• story mode PvE
• exploration (including fishing, etc.)
• regular to veteran hardmode DLC dungeons
• group and solo arenas
• zone-wide PvP (Cyrodiil and Imperial City)
• normal Craglorn trials through hard mode Chapter trials
• housing, crafting, roleplaying, etc.
• achievement hunting in all of the above

By resources, I mean things like (but not necessarily limited to):

• the right guild(s) - and what would one look for or need from them or be able to contribute to them?
• the right friend - same as for guilds
• hand-eye coordination - to what extent are twitchy reflexes necessary for example versus muscle memory?
• quality of platform device and internet speed
• emotional/social maturity
• time - how many hours per week and month
• money - to what extent do Crown Store convenience items and ESO Plus matter?

In your honest assessment if a returning, new, or potential player (who wanted to eventually get into everything) asked, which resources are needed, which are the most essential, and why? Where do you see the biggest roadblocks or obstacles?

VaranisArano

Time
The ability to play a DD, Tank, or Healer according to the level of difficulty of PVE group content.
The ability to persevere and put in the practice time at PVP to get better.
The internet/hardware to let you actually play the game.
Money for the base game and new chapters if you want them.


You can manage most of the rest of it if you have time. Time to practice, time to level crafting, time to acquire gold that lets you get into housing or buy DLC without throwing crowns at it, time to play with good guilds who will make your group content experience more enjoyable.

You can get things quicker if you throw real money at it, but time is the main investment you'll make in an MMO.

SipofMaim

That's a good list. If you have a lot of luck in one area it can offset a lack in another - great reflexes but lousy ping and great ping but slow reflexes are almost the same situation. Lots of time can offset the need for more money. Etc. I wouldn't recommend it at all without decent hardware.

It sounds like some paternalistic ******** but the key resource might be enough confidence to try things and fail at them (and then reassess and try again) without it being some kind of anxiety nightmare. And good reading comprehension, which is getting so rare it's like having a super power. Playing this game by intuition alone is a bad idea. Ideally they'd want resources to read/watch AND guild/discord/friends to explain and help with things.

Jaimeh

The right guild(s) - and what would one look for or need from them or be able to contribute to them?
Not necessary, depends on what you want to do in the game, but if you like company, luckily, there are guilds for many things: group content, PvP, RP, fishing, housing, trading, etc. Even if you are a solo player only interested in overland PvE, you might need a guild for hrlp in running public dungeons, and if you want to do group dungeons, there are specialized guilds, for example, that allow people time to read the dialogue and go on a slow pace.

The right friend
Same as for guilds - depends, if you like to do overland content with company rather than solo, ideally your friend will have a character with a similar level, and be at the same part of the story as you. Having game friends is also great for fishing, levelling, farming, grinding, and so on, besides, the social part of it.

Hand-eye coordination - to what extent are twitchy reflexes necessary for example versus muscle memory?
In my experience, twitchy reflexes are not necessary except for PvP and end-game PvE, to a lesser extent. Muscle memory is needed if you want to establish a rotation to your skill casting, as well as performing movements like roll-dodging, blocking, bashing etc.

Quality of platform device and internet speed
The higher the better, but this game lags even on the best machines, according to general consensus. Performance is generally better on PC (and apparently on the NA server). Also, the game looks beautiful on higher settings, but in Cyrodiil or in trials, the performance definitely suffers, so most people lower them in those cases.

Emotional/social maturity
Yes to both, for appreciating some of the stories in the game, and also being part of groups if you want to play group content. Also, I would say thick skin as well, to weather unsavoury behaviours you might encounter (or starter zone chats ), but for the most part, the community is helpful anf friendly.

Time - how many hours per week and month
For PvE qusting, it depends on the pace you like to go through stories - the more immersive, the slower. Then gaining CP, levelling skill lines, maximizing crafting, researching traits etc., are all factors to consider, but it depends on what your enjoyment of the game revolves around. If you do want to reach end-game (and I don't mean just veteran content, but things like housing and fashion as well) you need to put hours in the game.

Money - to what extent do Crown Store convenience items and ESO Plus matter?
You can play without ESO+, even if you have multiple alt characters, it just means inventory management needs to be more creative, and will take a chunk of your time. You can also buy the DLCs with gold for crowns via crown gifting. Having said that, if you play the game regularly and devote a big part of your free time to it, ESO+ is really convenient to have for the problems the craft bag alone solves. You also get crowns to spend on the store, which is a bonus. They recently added skill points and skill lines to the store, but the majority is still just cosmetic items.


In your honest assessment if a returning, new, or potential player (who wanted to eventually get into everything) asked, which resources are needed, which are the most essential, and why? Where do you see the biggest roadblocks or obstaclesx
For a new player: firstly, the fact that the game doesn't have proper tutorials to explain combat, and things relative to it, like weapons, armour, enchantments... and secondly, the fact that you can start questing anywhere, and the content is so massive nowdays. There have been helpful additions, like the zone map guides, to assist new players with the order of the stories, and there are great resources online, but it's still overwhelming for a new player. I think a casual attitude at first, without being anxious to reach end-game, is less likely to get you overwhelmed and dropping the game. For a returning player, the right guilds/friends and time, because a returning player will probably want to catch up on CP, achievements, and gear farming.

Nestor

A good rotation with light attack weaving and animation Canceling is key to hard mode Vet DLC Dungeons and Trials if your DPS.

If you remove Vet DLC Dungeons and Trials, just show up and enjoy the content.

StrandedMonkey

Yea I honestly think you're going to need a ton of magicka because this game screws over anything stamina based.

FierceSam

The game is enormous and multi-faceted, so you can genuinely just play the game you want.

You will benefit massively from having friends in the game. While it's perfectly enjoyable playing the entire time solo, I've found playing with friends/making friends/joining guilds is a very rewarding part of the game and is a real joy.

You will need patience and resilience. There is, at best, negligible training and tutorials provided in game. Everything, including the simplest solo questing relies on a ridiculous 'learn by dying' mechanic, with absolutely no attempts to inform or improve your playstyle. There are no spaces to get in-game tips, training or to improve your technique in any coherent fashion. This is a disgrace and ZOS should be ashamed of it. To improve you will need to either look for 3rd party content or be prepared to take a load of negativity from some other players who should know better.

You will need a thick skin. The learning/abuse curves for both dungeons and especially PvP are aggressive. And there is sometimes little tolerance for newer players. You will very occasionally come into contact with other players who have zero manners and no thought for others, which can vary from deeply unpleasant to sexist, racist and worse. Zone chat is a bit of a lottery and can be either really fun or thoroughly toxic. Again, having friends and/or guilds to play with goes a long way to avoiding this.

It's a long, fun journey. And there is no point in rushing it. You won't really know what you like until you've tried it and there's a load of stuff to try. You will get better at all aspects of the game as you progress. There are lots of people out there who will be happy to help you and enjoy the game with you.

Have fun.

buttaface

It's a video game that requires similar time and effort to play that other video games require generally. What possible purpose is served in speculating further about how much and what types of specific "resources" are required to play it?

It's a video game.

ShellaSunshine

buttaface wrote: »

It's a video game that requires similar time and effort to play that other video games require generally. What possible purpose is served in speculating further about how much and what types of specific "resources" are required to play it?

It's a video game.

+1

tinythinker

buttaface wrote: »

It's a video game that requires similar time and effort to play that other video games require generally. What possible purpose is served in speculating further about how much and what types of specific "resources" are required to play it?

It's a video game.

Yeah, it's the same as Donkey Kong.

Shantu

A solid, mature, and dependable combat system with dev team behind it that doesn't feel the need to reinvent the wheel every 3 months.

Resource nodes that are instance based. Farming resources is far too often a race between 6 people competing for the same nodes. What could be a fun and relaxing activity becomes tense and competitive.

Stop sending players to PVP for gear and/or skills for PVE. And vice versa, I guess. The two should be entirely different games instead of the current mess.

Reduce the grind. Like PVE questing for instance. Leveling characters and doing the same quest for the nth time begins to feel like a waste of life. Yeah, I know it's an MMO, but whoever came up with the idea that grinding will keep people engaged in a video game was an idiot. For new players, a level of grind should be expected to advance. But after a certain level of achievement, it just becomes toxic.

max_only

The main factors are time and your rig/connection. Everything else will fall into place.

A good guild is also beneficial but not as critical. I played until cp 500 without a guild or anyone in the friends list.

tinythinker

Good answers.

The more experience I've gained in MMOs (mostly through ESO), the more I realize how important people are.

Yeah, you can read or watch a guide.

Yeah, you can experiment and do trial and error.

But, when you get some people who are helpful, patient, and experienced to be mentors, you learn soooooo much more and faster too. A good mentor (or more than one if you are lucky) doesn't just give generic advice, they watch and see how you think and react, where you are weak and strong, and can give advice and encouragement tailored to where you are and what you need at that moment.

Anyway, just wanted to add a little something to the pile

(And to encourage players to be mentors, I guess )