A Brief Overview of ZeniMax's ESOTU Panel

Korozenn · July 2015

At the beginning of the ESOTU panel at Quakecon 2015, we heard from Game Director Matt Frior that new DLC packs (in other words, major content updates like the Imperial City that will be available for purcase on the Crown Store) will be available on a quarterly basis for ESOTU.

The start of this will be with Imperial City, the first DLC pack for ESOTU, which is coming out just in time for Quarter 3 (August 31st). Later this year, Orsinium will also be released (and likely more new information on future updates for 2016 as well, such as the much anticipated Dark Brotherhood).

Hope this helps for those that missed the presentation!

Aside from this, here is the breakdown of the presentation:

Imperial City:
- Tel Var Stone system
- 12 "Roaming" Bosses in IC
- 2 New 4-Player Group Instance Dungeons for PvE in IC
- 1 Expansive Public Dungeon for PvP
- New, repeatable quests
- Imperial City questline
- Details on new item sets
- A new Prism Enchantment for Armor Pieces that apply a Health, Magicka, and Stamina Enchantment

Orsinium:
- Not much new details we already didn't know about
- At least 25 hours of new exploration content
- Coming before end of year
- BEARS
- Price TBD*

* If you do not have an active ESO Plus subscription, that is.

2016:
- Thieves' Guild and Dark Brotherhood will be two separate DLC and both are coming the first half of 2016.
- Q3 and Q4 DLC will be detailed next year.

Quality of Life Updates:
- Looking for Group (LFG): They're working on making it work better and be more intuitive. Players from any alliance will be able to join in a queue for Group Instances after the change is implemented.
- Controller Support: Their plans thus far on this is for the console UI to be seamlessly brought over into this game and that the UI will change from PC to the console UI by the touch of your keybord and mouse or gamepad.
- Removal of the Veteran Ranks: They will just keep Champion Points in place of Veteran Ranks, and you will still get new Skill Points and Attribute Points to spend through this new system. But they made it clear it will take a while to implement as a change of this caliber affects the entirety of end-game as there is a lot of content progression that Veteran Ranks are currently tied to and they're trying to make this transition as smoothly as possible.

Korozenn · July 2015

As a side note, the Imperial City questline has to deal a lot with many major story elements of the game. For this reason, I'd personally reccommend people do the Main Story questline first and finish Coldharbour afterwards before they head into Imperial City to do those quests.

< This space is for the Q&A Session and any new details announced next week during that session. >

Thymos · July 2015

They also said you get a quest and you just go into a sewer entrance into the Imperial City. Nothing about needing keeps.

RDMyers65b14_ESO · July 2015

They said that IC would start as open access, so that means won't need keeps as I understand.

Samadhi · July 2015

Thymos wrote: »

They also said you get a quest and you just go into a sewer entrance into the Imperial City. Nothing about needing keeps.

RDMyers65b14_ESO wrote: »

They said that IC would start as open access, so that means won't need keeps as I understand.

They said that was going to be how it starts on PTS, but they might be testing other options yet.

So get on PTS and give feedback.

Thymos · July 2015

That was directly from Firor's mouth about it, not a post in a forum about it. He didn't say that it was going to be like that on the PTS to test other options, he said that was how it is.

Korozenn · July 2015

@Samadhi is correct as far as I know.

You cannot access the Imperial City itself in the Live game unless you have an active subscription or pay to unlock the content for 2500 Crowns. That much is absolutely certain given what we know about it on the official website's DLC page for the zone. They just said they're exploring the possibilities of how they were going to go about doing this for people on the PTS, and Matt basically confirmed today that people will be able to freely access the Imperial City DLC content on PTS for testing. I doubt that it will be free access on the PTS permanently, though. I'm almost positive it will only be accessible through a paid subscription or proof of purchase eventually when the IC update goes live this August.

That is just what I gathered from all of it. Hmm...

@ZOS_GinaBruno or @ZOS_JessicaFolsom Can you please clarify?

SerDinadan · July 2015

I hope the cross-faction grouping via queuing will extend to premade groups.

Lionxoft · July 2015

Korozenn wrote: »

@Samadhi is correct as far as I know.

You cannot access the Imperial City itself in the Live game unless you have an active subscription or pay to unlock the content for 2500 Crowns. That much is absolutely certain given what we know about it on the official website's DLC page for the zone. They just said they're exploring the possibilities of how they were going to go about doing this for people on the PTS, and Matt basically confirmed today that people will be able to freely access the Imperial City DLC content on PTS for testing. I doubt that it will be free access on the PTS permanently, though. I'm almost positive it will only be accessible through a paid subscription or proof of purchase eventually when the IC update goes live this August.

That is just what I gathered from all of it. Hmm...

@ZOS_GinaBruno or @ZOS_JessicaFolsom Can you please clarify?

The next patch isn't just for Imperial City testing. There's also going to be a load event in Cyrodiil to test the new LOS changes that are intended to alleviate server stress. Basically, a bunch of people casting meteor at the same time. Nothing different than live server but hopefully the result will be different.

Averya_Teira · July 2015

[quote="Korozenn;199562"
Quality of Life Updates:
- Looking for Group (LFG): They're working on making it work better and be more intuitive. Players from any alliance will be able to join in a queue for Group Instances after the change is implemented.[/quote]

THANK...YOU...

.... way too late, but better than nothing lol.

Also, do I understand correctly that we will be able to group with any of the other two alliances to do dungeons ? That is fantastic if true, way less queue time !

Korozenn · July 2015

Lionxoft wrote: »

Korozenn wrote: »

@Samadhi is correct as far as I know.

You cannot access the Imperial City itself in the Live game unless you have an active subscription or pay to unlock the content for 2500 Crowns. That much is absolutely certain given what we know about it on the official website's DLC page for the zone. They just said they're exploring the possibilities of how they were going to go about doing this for people on the PTS, and Matt basically confirmed today that people will be able to freely access the Imperial City DLC content on PTS for testing. I doubt that it will be free access on the PTS permanently, though. I'm almost positive it will only be accessible through a paid subscription or proof of purchase eventually when the IC update goes live this August.

That is just what I gathered from all of it. Hmm...

@ZOS_GinaBruno or @ZOS_JessicaFolsom Can you please clarify?

The next patch isn't just for Imperial City testing. There's also going to be a load event in Cyrodiil to test the new LOS changes that are intended to alleviate server stress. Basically, a bunch of people casting meteor at the same time. Nothing different than live server but hopefully the result will be different.

Haha! Hopefully!

Korozenn · July 2015

Averya_Teira wrote: »

[quote="Korozenn;199562"
Quality of Life Updates:
- Looking for Group (LFG): They're working on making it work better and be more intuitive. Players from any alliance will be able to join in a queue for Group Instances after the change is implemented.

THANK...YOU...

.... way too late, but better than nothing lol.

Also, do I understand correctly that we will be able to group with any of the other two alliances to do dungeons ? That is fantastic if true, way less queue time ![/quote]

That's exactly what this Quality of Life update entails!

Slylok · July 2015

I am going to copy / paste this info for future use on other boards if that is ok.

Thymos · July 2015

Should also add to the OP that the Imperial City is to end the Molag Bal story for ESO.

The content storyline is basically his last ditch effort to cause the Planemeld.

Korozenn · July 2015

Thymos wrote: »

Should also add to the OP that the Imperial City is to end the Molag Bal story for ESO.

The content storyline is basically his last ditch effort to cause the Planemeld.

Can't edit the OP, but I didn't want to include too many references to the story as I don't want to spoil anything for people. I'll leave a disclaimer in the post below it that people should probably play the Main Story quests before going into Imperial City, though, if they follow the story of the game as it is a continuation of that storyline.

I know that is what I'll be doing on my characters regardless anyways. :P lol

jcodbf2b14_ESO wrote: »

I am going to copy / paste this info for future use on other boards if that is ok.

Not a problem! Glad it helps! ^_^

Hamfast · July 2015

I wanted to add some of what I felt were disturbing changes for the game, in the name of "Balance"... items that drop will be as good as crafted items, those of us that worked to get our crafting up, to find and learn the traits, to gather what we needed to be able to "Make the best gear in the game" will now only have gear that is the same as the rest.

VR15 and 16 items will be crafted out of materials that can only be gained from deconstructing level VR15 or 16 gear or picked up in heavy sacks around the imperial city or in VR15 or 16 scaled delves... no nodes, so all those gathering skills are not worth much.

I did speak to the guy that did all this balancing, I would have given him a piece of my mind but I don't have much left to give...

I also asked him about the drop rate of the bits for the exp bonus potion (his idea too), his idea was he expected folks to trade bits as they got extras, I told him with 5 characters doing the provisioning writ quest every day (about) I have found 1 bit... he said "there were guilds making them the first day" my reply was "And selling them for great numbers of gold", I informed him that when an item in the game is so rare it sells for 500,000 to 700,000 gold, then you are asking people to use gold sellers. (See "Imperial Motif")

If you don't pvp and you don't group... wait for Orsinium, there is little here for you (or me)

I did get gift certificates for free crowns (I liked the Pig Pet lest year better) and I was promised that they are still working on a barber shop and @ZOS_JasonLeavey 's hair may be a choice for all races both male and female... Jason said he would start the petition himself when the time comes (I have the selfie to prove it, but it's on my phone, so no URL yet...)

DirtySmeegs33 · July 2015

I like how prismatic enchants "encourage hybrid builds" according to wrobel, by buffing all 3 attributes but everything else about the game discourages hybrids (champion system and soft cap removal). I hope this is a slow move back towards hybrids. I miss those days when you could actually make unique characters that used both stamina and magicka for damage.

Will anyone use these enchants?

EQBallzz · July 2015

I like how Matt Firor was saying how important it was for them to put into IC content for everyone regardless of your preference and then mentioned crafting and questing. Really? If you want to craft you will need to PvP or get bent over a barrel by those that do for mats. Questing? Didn't sound like there was much questing at all and again..would require PvP to work on (aside from the 4 man dungeon one time quest I suppose). It would have been more accurate to say if you like these things *and* like PvP or really enjoy being gank fodder..this DLC is for you.

I guess it's good that they are committing to a quarterly content release schedule but then again we all know how good ZOS commitments are. Considering their last commitment of content every 4-6 weeks turned into once per year I'll believe it when I see it.

Akavir_Sentinel · July 2015

How about throwing crafters a bone? Remember when they said over a year ago that crafted items were going to be the best in the game? Well, I guess they went back on their word on that as well. Crafted armor and weapons have always had slightly better stats than dropped armor and weapons. Now they are making them have the same stats whether it's crafted or dropped. Gee, thanks.

xaraan · July 2015

SerDinadan wrote: »

I hope the cross-faction grouping via queuing will extend to premade groups.

They said they were looking at cross faction grouping, not that it was a sure thing or on the way.

Samadhi · July 2015

Thymos wrote: »

That was directly from Firor's mouth about it, not a post in a forum about it. He didn't say that it was going to be like that on the PTS to test other options, he said that was how it is.

Through the course of the Twitch stream,

@ZOS_RichLambert mentioned there would be a quest to enter the sewers in the home campaign.
He then later went on to mention that the update would be on PTS next week.

When @ZOS_BrianWheeler was talking about access to the Imperial City (and the alliance-agnostic sewer doors) he mentioned that accessing Imperial City was going to be "tested thoroughly" on PTS, but that when it first goes up it will be open access for all alliances.

There was no mention that it would certainly be changed, but free access does not yet seem set in stone.

They'll want everyone having free access in the first weeks at least, in order to adequately test the inside systems.

Personally think it is the best method of access for Imperial City, and will likely give my support for such once it lands on PTS.

Things do still change sometimes before making it from PTS to live though; and if they have been doing internal testing with other methods of access they likely have a fairly easy way to try alternate access rule sets.

Korozenn · July 2015

Samadhi wrote: »

Thymos wrote: »

That was directly from Firor's mouth about it, not a post in a forum about it. He didn't say that it was going to be like that on the PTS to test other options, he said that was how it is.

Through the course of the Twitch stream,

@ZOS_RichLambert mentioned there would be a quest to enter the sewers in the home campaign.
He then later went on to mention that the update would be on PTS next week.

When @ZOS_BrianWheeler was talking about access to the Imperial City (and the alliance-agnostic sewer doors) he mentioned that accessing Imperial City was going to be "tested thoroughly" on PTS, but that when it first goes up it will be open access for all alliances.

There was no mention that it would certainly be changed, but free access does not yet seem set in stone.

They'll want everyone having free access in the first weeks at least, in order to adequately test the inside systems.

Yeah, I remember Wheebler mentioning that they were looking into different ways for people to access the Imperial City on ESO Live last week as well.

This would seem like the ideal option. It gives everyone a chance to participate in a stress test of sorts and see how things go from there in Cyrodiil, so looking forward to the hope that there aren't as many issues with Cyrodiil lag. lol

Rosveen · July 2015

Hamfast wrote: »

I also asked him about the drop rate of the bits for the exp bonus potion (his idea too), his idea was he expected folks to trade bits as they got extras, I told him with 5 characters doing the provisioning writ quest every day (about) I have found 1 bit... he said "there were guilds making them the first day" my reply was "And selling them for great numbers of gold", I informed him that when an item in the game is so rare it sells for 500,000 to 700,000 gold, then you are asking people to use gold sellers. (See "Imperial Motif")

Of course it was insanely expensive the day it was implemented, what did you expect? But the price started dropping almost immediately and it will keep dropping, at least for fragments. I sold my duplicates for 50k each this week, a far cry from their initial price. I completed the recipe just by trading what I got with my 3 max level provisioners. I know others had worse luck with RNG, but still, it's been a month. Did you expect to get the recipe in a week without spending 1g? It's rare, it's supposed to take some effort, whether in form of time or money. My only problem with this system is how heavily it punishes people playing only one vet character, few as they may be.

Thymos · July 2015

So, how are we accessing the imperial city on the test server?