First impressions

Harold_Hedd

JamuThatsWho wrote: »

I'm genuinely curious OP - do you have any prior experience with MMOs? They are quite different beasts compared to single-player games.

Take your time, get used to the mechanics, do some reading/watch some videos for beginner tips. You'll be one of us in no time 😉

No, I do not have any experience with MMO - this is my first attempt.

Harold_Hedd

Today I had fun completing the Partners in crime quest and I got my dosis of sneaking in the shadows - and I realized that I am probably trying too hard and expecting too much from the game.

But I am also wondering how come I do not have any bounty after killing 4 civilians and 2 packmasters and the Iron Wheels soldiers, not even a hint of white in the circle.

And after the Dangerous Weapon prologue, I wayshrined to Haven to craft and sell items - but I landed in some sort of broken questline with soldiers attacking me and noone to speak to. Only a "Help me, please" from one of the defenders. So I wayshrined my behing out of there, quit the game, logged in again and wayshrined back to Haven and it was still the same.

I also found my first Dwarven delve - yeeeessss - and all the old nervousness and alertness from the previous games came back to me - and it was ok. I encountered 4 or 5 Dwarven Spheres, but they are merely a shadow of their formers selves.

So I am still feeling a little disappointed, like a really really good tasty soup that has been watered down and given not the best spices.

I reached level 20 today, turned the graphics settings to Maximum ( that changed the whole experience to the better ), I have the Map Pins mod installed for Skyshard hunting and I am thinking about trying a Xbox controller instead of my magic keyboard.
I still have 170 days left of my ESO+ membership and I will be seeing you out there - it's me in the blue armor with the two-handed axe

AzuraFan

LesserCircle wrote: »

Okay, it's an MMO not Skyrim.

Exactly. You can't compare the gameplay in ESO to any of the single-player games. They're completely different beasts. The only thing they have in common is the same setting and lore. Otherwise, nothing.

SilverIce58

Some cities have to have their questlines finished first before you can utilize their services (Velyn Harbor in Malabal Tor for instance). Just because you're not used to it doesnt mean it's bad. Its an MMO so its an entirely different experience than a single player game. The game is live so there's no saving. If you get stuck, type "/stuck" in the chat to get unstuck. Don't be afraid to talk to other people in zone chat (type /zone to access it) for any help for advice.

Edit: Also not every city has services to use. Zones always have at least 1 major city that you can take care of any and all selling/buying/repairing/crafting. Some zones have a smaller city as well that have some services but not a whole lot. Because its an MMO, there's always something to do, and a lot of cities and places are quest hubs with a main quest for said location, with other side quests that relate to the area as well.

zaria

BahometZ wrote: »

Oh man, new player experiences make for a fantastic read. Absolute innocence meets 8 years of spaghetti layer cake development.
I quit after a month the first time. Can't even remember what pulled me back, but I can't get free now.

All I can say is if you join some guilds of like-minded players you'll have a far better time of it. If you are determined to go it alone, Good luck!!

This, I entered ESO during beta and my first reaction was that it felt a lot like an elder scroll game, knew it would have restrictions of an mmo so you can not kill shopkeepers or have fun exploits.
Now back at the start overland was much harder or more likely none knew how to play
Yes Dorsia was an hard fight but then reaching Coldharbor as an VR1 I had no problem killing harvesters.

Ghanima_Atreides

This may be relevant, if you're interested in playing the story as it's meant to be played chronologically: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/525351/a-clear-step-by-step-guide-to-playing-eso-in-chronological-order/p1

disintegr8

Come back when you've got 18 characters with maxed out horse training that are level 50 in all crafting skill lines.

WiseSky

First you needed to download 100 addons and set them up.
Figure out your own personalized gimping skills and eq playstyle to feel a challenge.
Wrote your Roleplaying background to feel immersed.
Crafted for 2 years on 18 chars to have unlimited gold not to worry about all the crown store stuff.
Then look up all the guides and to follow the story order correctly.
Then Sunk Cost fallacy makes you love the game and enjoy it.

DarcyMardin

Well, for me, the game is absolutely nothing like your description, but I admit I found the OP’s post entertaining.

It’s too bad, though, if newcomers to the game are feeling this way. I’ve been here since it started, and it was a bit overwhelming then, too, but the learning curve was pretty much what I expected from my former MMOs. It has grown and changed a lot since then, and it’s true that the game itself doesn’t give you enough direction early on.

gronoxvx

Seems like you were trapped into thinking eso is "skyrim online" before you started playing. When in reality its an MMO with a Elder Scrolls skin

Ghanima_Atreides

FLR_manden wrote: »

I also found my first Dwarven delve - yeeeessss - and all the old nervousness and alertness from the previous games came back to me - and it was ok. I encountered 4 or 5 Dwarven Spheres, but they are merely a shadow of their formers selves.

In this game, it's not so much the type of enemy that determines difficulty, but where it is found. Overland and delves? Easy. Public dungeon? Larger numbers, and especially the named bosses are more difficult. Group dungeons, trials? Well, those make Skyrim dungeons seem like walks in the park.

That said, I had the same reaction as you when I first started playing in the old days of open beta - nervously heading into a Dwemer dungeon, expecting to get my behind handed to me, and discovering that it's actually not that bad. Ditto for bears, sabrecats, trolls.

Varana

While the OP was entertaining - kudos for that - it's not entirely because ESO is an MMO.
If I wanted, I could write similarly silly observations about the single-player games. And plenty have been written, just not here. They're the quirks of computer RPGs in general, just with an ESO flavour.

As a hint of advice, though - stealth (or even, stealthy archer) is an archetype that doesn't really work in ESO, or only works in a very limited way. The Thieves Guild quests require stealth and are tailored to use it (mostly); the rest, definitely not. Abandoning the Skyrim mindset of sneaking around and backstabbing or sniping everything, is probably a good idea in the long run.

TaSheen

Varana wrote: »

While the OP was entertaining - kudos for that - it's not entirely because ESO is an MMO.
If I wanted, I could write similarly silly observations about the single-player games. And plenty have been written, just not here. They're the quirks of computer RPGs in general, just with an ESO flavour.

As a hint of advice, though - stealth (or even, stealthy archer) is an archetype that doesn't really work in ESO, or only works in a very limited way. The Thieves Guild quests require stealth and are tailored to use it (mostly); the rest, definitely not. Abandoning the Skyrim mindset of sneaking around and backstabbing or sniping everything, is probably a good idea in the long run.

Truth. My first character was supposed to be a stealth archer similar to what I always play in Skyrim (without the OP bow mod of course).

Combined with high ping, didn't work worth beans. Wardens do me now.

danno8

Ghanima_Atreides wrote: »

This may be relevant, if you're interested in playing the story as it's meant to be played chronologically: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/525351/a-clear-step-by-step-guide-to-playing-eso-in-chronological-order/p1

This is still the best one I found:

https://www.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/jb09k5/ever_wondered_whats_the_right_order_of_all_the/

To the OP concern, ESO is probably the worst MMO for newcomers. It drops you into a world with very little direction, NPC's hollering at you in every town pulling you in every direction, and allows you to go anywhere in the world with no restrictions, which may be great if you are trying to do the latest DLC's or playing with friends, but is a nightmare for any solo newcomer who doesn't know what to do.

I don't think it is unreasonable to expect a game the size and scope of an MMO to gently guide you in a chronological order of the content as they were released and I think it is a failing of any game to expect research to be done before starting it in order to have a good experience playing the game.

DP99

Tell us you've never played an MMO wihtout telling us you've never played an MMO!

The only other TES game that I've played fully before this is Skyrim. I expected a similar experience, but also something that was at the same time quite different when going in because I've played other MMOs before too.

It was definitely a huge learning curve, but not really because of the combat, because I knew that I wanted to be be a sneaky sniper type just like in Skyrim, but even then that came later and not exactly at the start of the game. With ESO, it's not even the same mechanics with sneaking and archery, that I learned. It does suck that it's not anywhere near what Skyrim offers with all of the fancy shots and quick kills, but I adapted and it didn't turn me off in the slightest that I can't do those things in ESO. It just is what it is, different game different mechanics.

What was the huge learning curve, was that there's not clear cut direction to take like there is in Skyrim. There's not just one or two choices to go left or right ... there's a hundred different quests from NPCs everywhere! That's the biggest hurdle to get over when just starting out with the game. Getting used to the different combat mechanics is easy, getting used to how to get around and where you need to go without getting overwhelmed is the hard part.

But, once you have it all down, the game is very fun and intriguing and makes even the most mundane things something to find a level of enjoyment in,

LannStone

Sounds like OP was trying to stealth without the stealth passives that come much later from the thieves guild line and the stealth gear that comes from looting in the right zones - can't really stealth past enemies without those
It's true, you need google to find out how to stealth - but Skyrim was no different, i spent lots of times googling to find out how to do things there too
So yes, both games allow you to try things and totally fail unless you ask other players through chat or google for advice
Biggest takeaway here - you need advice from other players if you don't want to stumble around, that's just the way it is

Harold_Hedd

Thanks again to you all, it is really wonderful to read your comments and advices and i am surprised by the interest showing me in helping out. That is a big thing for me.

And I am slowly getting there. I have switced from FPP to TPP and gained a lot more maneuverability and overview, I have now only the focused quest in the compass bar and I have the Map Pins mod installed. Those 3 changes together with the graphics turned to Maximum, have given a completey different game experience.

And I have also had my encounters with the skull and bones bosses that totally wipes me out in 4 seconds. Also the blue halo Daedras are tough. I managed to kill 2 of them, only to get 2 more instantly respawned - I fought heroically :-)

And I like the puzzle element, both in solving quests but also the figure out how to get to a skyshard. That is a nice thing.

And as I am slowly learning the game mechanics, I can either practise weapons skill, if the looting is okay, by being in the same area or be a coward and wait for other players if the npc is a little overwhelming for my abillties. Sorry guys, I do try to help out.

Unfortunately it did not wotk out with the Xbox controller. The controller pairs with my mac fine, and all the buttons works fine, but in the game there is no response when pressing A, B, X, Y and the D-pad. I do like the controller feeling, but it gets a bit amputated with so much not working. I'll look for a mechanical mini keyboard.

Well, I am off to Deshaan, Mournhold, for some exciting news and skillpoint collecting quests.

DP99

FLR_manden wrote: »

Thanks again to you all, it is really wonderful to read your comments and advices and i am surprised by the interest showing me in helping out. That is a big thing for me.

And I am slowly getting there. I have switced from FPP to TPP and gained a lot more maneuverability and overview, I have now only the focused quest in the compass bar and I have the Map Pins mod installed. Those 3 changes together with the graphics turned to Maximum, have given a completey different game experience.

And I have also had my encounters with the skull and bones bosses that totally wipes me out in 4 seconds. Also the blue halo Daedras are tough. I managed to kill 2 of them, only to get 2 more instantly respawned - I fought heroically :-)

And I like the puzzle element, both in solving quests but also the figure out how to get to a skyshard. That is a nice thing.

And as I am slowly learning the game mechanics, I can either practise weapons skill, if the looting is okay, by being in the same area or be a coward and wait for other players if the npc is a little overwhelming for my abillties. Sorry guys, I do try to help out.

Unfortunately it did not wotk out with the Xbox controller. The controller pairs with my mac fine, and all the buttons works fine, but in the game there is no response when pressing A, B, X, Y and the D-pad. I do like the controller feeling, but it gets a bit amputated with so much not working. I'll look for a mechanical mini keyboard.

Well, I am off to Deshaan, Mournhold, for some exciting news and skillpoint collecting quests.

You can play on PC with an Xbox controller. That's how I play. You need to set it up to controller mode in the game options. Once you do that it will play perfectly.

danno8

DP99 wrote: »

FLR_manden wrote: »

Thanks again to you all, it is really wonderful to read your comments and advices and i am surprised by the interest showing me in helping out. That is a big thing for me.

And I am slowly getting there. I have switced from FPP to TPP and gained a lot more maneuverability and overview, I have now only the focused quest in the compass bar and I have the Map Pins mod installed. Those 3 changes together with the graphics turned to Maximum, have given a completey different game experience.

And I have also had my encounters with the skull and bones bosses that totally wipes me out in 4 seconds. Also the blue halo Daedras are tough. I managed to kill 2 of them, only to get 2 more instantly respawned - I fought heroically :-)

And I like the puzzle element, both in solving quests but also the figure out how to get to a skyshard. That is a nice thing.

And as I am slowly learning the game mechanics, I can either practise weapons skill, if the looting is okay, by being in the same area or be a coward and wait for other players if the npc is a little overwhelming for my abillties. Sorry guys, I do try to help out.

Unfortunately it did not wotk out with the Xbox controller. The controller pairs with my mac fine, and all the buttons works fine, but in the game there is no response when pressing A, B, X, Y and the D-pad. I do like the controller feeling, but it gets a bit amputated with so much not working. I'll look for a mechanical mini keyboard.

Well, I am off to Deshaan, Mournhold, for some exciting news and skillpoint collecting quests.

You can play on PC with an Xbox controller. That's how I play. You need to set it up to controller mode in the game options. Once you do that it will play perfectly.

Also, make sure Steam isn't running in the background while playing ESO, as the custom controller configurations can actually mess up the ESO controller configurations.

LannStone

"I have switced from FPP to TPP and gained a lot more maneuverability and overview"

Oh, wow, especially that!
I also started with first-person view for more immersion and kept getting slaughtered, saw a video from third-person view, switched to third person and big difference!

Harold_Hedd

You can play on PC with an Xbox controller. That's how I play. You need to set it up to controller mode in the game options. Once you do that it will play perfectly.

Well, I am not sure when I am on a Mac - and for now I have returned the controller and bought a mechanical mini keyboard.

Also I bought the game from elderscrollsonline.com and I do no have a Steam account.

But if somnebody has a step by step guide, or even a video tutorial, for setting up on a Mac it will be highlyw appreciated.

Varana

danno8 wrote: »

To the OP concern, ESO is probably the worst MMO for newcomers. It drops you into a world with very little direction, NPC's hollering at you in every town pulling you in every direction, and allows you to go anywhere in the world with no restrictions, which may be great if you are trying to do the latest DLC's or playing with friends, but is a nightmare for any solo newcomer who doesn't know what to do.

OTOH, this is what I would want from an Elder Scrolls game - a free world to explore freely. Not knowing what to do is a feature - just go somewhere. Even Skyrim, which is probably the one that holds your hands most, has a somewhat guided experience that leads you to Whiterun - but you're actually free to leave that path at any time.
In Oblivion, you go through the sewers and then look at the open landscape - go wherever you want. (Including overly aggressive level scaling to ensure you can go wherever you want.) They consciously didn't drop you into the Imperial City, or a "starter town". They made you look into the other direction so your first view is not the IC but the open landscape, with a fort, a ruin, a tower, and a few houses in sight, and the mountains in the background.
In Morrowind, you're given somewhat vague directions to go to Balmora - where you're explicitly told to just run around the world and do whatever you like. I knew someone who started a game of TES3 by throwing the package for Cosades into the sea at Seyda Neen, severing any tie to any guided main quest.
That is the spirit that the single-player games tried to get across. It is your responsibility, as a player, to make your own story. The game just provides the means to do that.

ESO is great for that kind of experience, and an order of magnitude more massive than any of the single player games. It has its own quirks - like the world being populated by an absolutely ridiculous amount of random non-important enemies, or the other players running around one-shotting everything in the way. But as an open-world RPG, it's still amazing if you know what to selectively ignore.

What is confusing is the ability to jump into any regional story segment from anywhere, without doing the preceding quests first. That works sometimes (in later chapter zones better than in the original ones), but it also often doesn't. Clearly the main quests could be more gated to make sure you don't do the middle before the beginning because in your exploration, you happen to stumble across it earlier.

But that is still on brand. If you randomly port into, let's say, the city of Velyn Harbour in Malabal Tor, you're quite lost who all these people are and why they hate you and what's going on. But there will be an NPC nearby to give you a quest to solve Haven's issues. You might even understand a bit what's going on. How you deal with that situation, is your choice.

Amottica

FYI, in MMORPGs your game is automatically saved. There are no previous save points like in solo games.

Much of what I read in the OP concerns geeky early experiences in the game vs what a player will experience long term after they see more and learn more about the game.

Keep exploring. Find. A good active guild and players to run with. You’ll likely enjoy the game much more.

Ghanima_Atreides

Varana wrote: »

danno8 wrote: »

To the OP concern, ESO is probably the worst MMO for newcomers. It drops you into a world with very little direction, NPC's hollering at you in every town pulling you in every direction, and allows you to go anywhere in the world with no restrictions, which may be great if you are trying to do the latest DLC's or playing with friends, but is a nightmare for any solo newcomer who doesn't know what to do.

OTOH, this is what I would want from an Elder Scrolls game - a free world to explore freely. Not knowing what to do is a feature - just go somewhere. Even Skyrim, which is probably the one that holds your hands most, has a somewhat guided experience that leads you to Whiterun - but you're actually free to leave that path at any time.
.

The difference is that the single player games made it pretty easy to follow the main quest - sure, you could ignore it, but you were never confused about where to go and what to do (idk about Morrowind, since I only played it very briefly). The side quests could be done more or less in any order (although level scaling still sort of steered you in a certain direction) but they were largely self-contained, and there was no "zone arc" that you had to follow in a certain direction, let alone multiple zones/chapters that followed logically from one to the next.

ESO though? New players would be hard pressed to realize there WAS a main quest, let alone where to pick it up (not to mention, One Tamriel has completely spoiled the pacing for that no matter what you do). Then there are the alliance zones, the chapters, DLC...sure, you can technically do them in any order and the story will mostly make sense, but there's no denying that you get a much more streamlined, coherent experience if you do them in the order they were released. Otherwise, you get into the situation where you meet an NPC in a later DLC that you're assumed to have already met, then you play some older content and 9 times out of 10 they won't remember you, their personalities will feel different because they are earlier versions of themselves, etc. Or, certain events won't make sense after you've experienced the "sequel". For example, you may wonder why Lyris Titanborn is both in Western Skyrim and trapped in Coldharbour, or why certain NPCs talk about you lacking a soul when your soul is just fine etc.

The freedom is good for experienced players, but there really ought to be a "guided/immersive mode" for those new to the game who want to experience everything in order at least once. I mean, a better one than what we already have.

Northwold

Ghanima_Atreides wrote: »

ESO though? New players would be hard pressed to realize there WAS a main quest, let alone where to pick it up (not to mention, One Tamriel has completely spoiled the pacing for that no matter what you do). Then there are the alliance zones, the chapters, DLC...sure, you can technically do them in any order and the story will mostly make sense, but there's no denying that you get a much more streamlined, coherent experience if you do them in the order they were released. Otherwise, you get into the situation where you meet an NPC in a later DLC that you're assumed to have already met, then you play some older content and 9 times out of 10 they won't remember you, their personalities will feel different because they are earlier versions of themselves, etc. Or, certain events won't make sense after you've experienced the "sequel". For example, you may wonder why Lyris Titanborn is both in Western Skyrim and trapped in Coldharbour, or why certain NPCs talk about you lacking a soul when your soul is just fine etc.

Absolutely this. When I played they hadn't even introduced the zone quest / main quest symbol, so every main quest, zone quest, random one-off quest had the same arrow, although today's experience isn't actually much better.

And it was a COMPLETE mess where I'd married off the Silvenar before I'd had my first meeting with him, I'd killed the big bad of Glenumbra on arrival in Glenumbra without even *starting* the zone quest ("why do you people care, HE IS ALREADY DEAD"), chunks of the main quest just stopped with no indication where to go next because I'd already done chunks from the future without realising it, Darien was the very opposite of hot because I joined him at the "bedding ladies" stage rather than the beginning, etc.

And your reward for completing the main quest (Cadwells Silver / Gold) is effectively nothing, because it has been completely redundant since One Tamriel, and actively doesn't make sense to the point it hurts your brain. You mean I can travel from alliance to alliance? Oh, wow! Was I being naughty doing that before?

Even without playing it out of order, there are points in the main quest / of the zone quests that form part of it where the game just drops the quest from your active objectives and you're expected to work out where to pick it up again. I think it's in Daggerfall that you're told, in essence, to walk out the gate to find the next thing and are met by a sea of arrows. That can't have played well even at the time of release.

It's a total shambles, frankly, and I'm surprised so many new players stick with it.

Harold_Hedd

Aaaarrggggghhhh - I was hoping that I finally had cracked the code to the game. I mean, I found my choice of weapon, I have some good skills in the bar and a Damage Shield, I have studied a lot of videos on character building and have had some good and fun quests. I can be calm and relaxed in delves and kill the boss alone, and do some crafting.

BUT then I made the stupid mistake of going to Malabal Tor in search of Light Armor, and man - what a trip.

I began hunting for Sjkyshards and was immediately met with 3 zombies, then 10 feet later 2 wraiths, then 3 zombies, then 3 zombies, then 2 wraiths, then 3 zombies...... I mean it took me forever to get anywhere. Then I tried avoiding the roads, but that is not internded since it is pretty much non accessable mountains. So back to trhe roads and now it was scavengers and raiders on a continious line till I finally gave up, quitted the game, made a cup og coffee and is now releasing my frustrations here.

I will never accept a quest in this region, that's for sure.

On top of all that I am regularily being dropped from the server due to spamming. This has been happening since the last update on the EU server a week ago.

And it may be because of all the combat key pressing - slot 1, slot 2, slot 3, slot 5 then some left clicking then, slot 2, slot 3, slot 5 then more left clicking and so on, almost constantly when running into enemies on such short distance.

This is killing me, and I can not see who the targeted audience may be, for such a tedious way of travelling a road. It simply takes all the fun and focus away when doing a quest and makes it really really hard to be a positive explorer of the fine world of Tamreil.

And I do not know if it is because of my arnor choice, my skills choice, my active quest choice or if it is because it is another faction zone.

Man, I wish there were a hybrid out there without all the random hack/slash in places that has no correlation to the storyline.

Castagere

redlink1979 wrote: »

Your "mistake" is to come to ESO thinking this is a single player game like the other Elder Scrolls games.
This is an MMO.

I was going to post this. He probably was thinking of Skyrim Online.

Varana

Harold_Hedd wrote: »

I began hunting for Sjkyshards and was immediately met with 3 zombies, then 10 feet later 2 wraiths, then 3 zombies, then 3 zombies, then 2 wraiths, then 3 zombies...... I mean it took me forever to get anywhere. Then I tried avoiding the roads, but that is not internded since it is pretty much non accessable mountains. So back to trhe roads and now it was scavengers and raiders on a continious line till I finally gave up, quitted the game, made a cup og coffee and is now releasing my frustrations here.

I will never accept a quest in this region, that's for sure.

On top of all that I am regularily being dropped from the server due to spamming. This has been happening since the last update on the EU server a week ago.

And it may be because of all the combat key pressing - slot 1, slot 2, slot 3, slot 5 then some left clicking then, slot 2, slot 3, slot 5 then more left clicking and so on, almost constantly when running into enemies on such short distance.

I'm not sure where this is in Malabal Tor (I don't particularly like the region and rarely visit), but generally, travelling on the roads is reasonably safe - if you see enemies next to the road, you can usually avoid them. The main exceptions are roads through quest-related areas or side paths away from the main connections.

Getting booted from the server is certainly not due to pressing too many buttons too quickly. The game expects you to left-click & skill once every second*, plus movement. Do you use any addons?

* You can use a skill (i.e. the slots on your bar) once every second, but you can spam one single skill as often as you have stamina/magicka for it. There's no real need to cycle through skills unless it's for fun / variety, or unless the skills do something different.

Harold_Hedd

I went to a wayshrine in the upper right corner and began moving to the west. The roads were not that big, but they were the only ones on the map.

I do have different skills in my bar - damage shield, self healing, long term damage for one and long term damage for multiple npcs and ultimate.

I can see in other posts that the EU server is generally lagging, so it could be dependent on how many other players are online.

And it is really strange, because after the Malabal Tor experience, I went back to the main quest and it is like it is a totally different game. Perhaps there is some connection between the quest line and the regions you are send to, because now I can explore freely without constant attacks and it feels very much like the single player games.

I will definately keep on doing quests and not just explore whatever I feel like.

SilverIce58

Malabal Tor is the 4th quest zone in a string of Aldmeri Dominion focused quests (5th if you count Khenarthi's), so if you feel confused on the story there you should probably work your way up to there starting with Khenarthi's Roost if you havent done so already, then Auridon, Grahtwood, Greenshade, then Malabal Tor, and ending AD with Reaper's March.