The Elder Scrolls Online Catch-All

The PVE looks great but Im rather worried about the alliance battles. Why? Because right now Guild Wars 2 - which arguably has the biggest and best mass PVP on the market - is having all kinds of problems during the first World vs World league event. It's not unusual now to have hour+ queues on many servers plus massive lag in the biggest fights. I'm just not seeing how a mega server with thousands of players is going to work without horrendous lag and long wait times.

jdzappa wrote:

The PVE looks great but Im rather worried about the alliance battles. Why? Because right now Guild Wars 2 - which arguably has the biggest and best mass PVP on the market - is having all kinds of problems during the first World vs World league event. It's not unusual now to have hour+ queues on many servers plus massive lag in the biggest fights. I'm just not seeing how a mega server with thousands of players is going to work without horrendous lag and long wait times.

Because you've not seen other games that do it reasonably well unlike GW2.

In Darkfall you have thousands of people in a single keep battle and at the start of the game there were some issues of lag it got better over time. No queues either.

Not saying it wont happen but it is possible.

Edit: Another thing to remember with GW2 is that a lot of the queuing and everything for WvW is due to people trying to load into another instance separate from the game world. If everyone is already loaded into the game world and there's nothing to transfer into... no need for the extra queues.

jdzappa wrote:

The PVE looks great but Im rather worried about the alliance battles. Why? Because right now Guild Wars 2 - which arguably has the biggest and best mass PVP on the market - is having all kinds of problems during the first World vs World league event. It's not unusual now to have hour+ queues on many servers plus massive lag in the biggest fights. I'm just not seeing how a mega server with thousands of players is going to work without horrendous lag and long wait times.

If they do enough research on server architecture, specifically looking at the specs for Tranquility that CCP has published, then it shouldn't be an issue at all. Peak concurrency on Tranquility is something like 65 or 70k people, with the most people involved in a fight at something like 3k people in a single, non-reinforced node.

AnimeJ wrote:
jdzappa wrote:

The PVE looks great but Im rather worried about the alliance battles. Why? Because right now Guild Wars 2 - which arguably has the biggest and best mass PVP on the market - is having all kinds of problems during the first World vs World league event. It's not unusual now to have hour+ queues on many servers plus massive lag in the biggest fights. I'm just not seeing how a mega server with thousands of players is going to work without horrendous lag and long wait times.

If they do enough research on server architecture, specifically looking at the specs for Tranquility that CCP has published, then it shouldn't be an issue at all. Peak concurrency on Tranquility is something like 65 or 70k people, with the most people involved in a fight at something like 3k people in a single, non-reinforced node.

I've read a lot of about how CCP does things, and one brilliant thing they do is to slow down time in-game to as low as 1/10th normal in order to allow their servers to keep up. Not something that's really acceptable in most games.

StaggerLee wrote:
AnimeJ wrote:
jdzappa wrote:

The PVE looks great but Im rather worried about the alliance battles. Why? Because right now Guild Wars 2 - which arguably has the biggest and best mass PVP on the market - is having all kinds of problems during the first World vs World league event. It's not unusual now to have hour+ queues on many servers plus massive lag in the biggest fights. I'm just not seeing how a mega server with thousands of players is going to work without horrendous lag and long wait times.

If they do enough research on server architecture, specifically looking at the specs for Tranquility that CCP has published, then it shouldn't be an issue at all. Peak concurrency on Tranquility is something like 65 or 70k people, with the most people involved in a fight at something like 3k people in a single, non-reinforced node.

I've read a lot of about how CCP does things, and one brilliant thing they do is to slow down time in-game to as low as 1/10th normal in order to allow their servers to keep up. Not something that's really acceptable in most games.

Yea, TiDi. If you've ever looked at the statistics on Tranquility's hardware, the realization that it's required to get that many people into one area is pretty much the statement that you can only throw so much hardware at a single shard.

That said, TiDi is really only required when you clear 500v500 fleets from what I've seen, so if the guys making TESO are willing to put up the money, you can easily have a 60k concurrent user server and something like 300v300 battles with no slow down.

ranalin wrote:

Also SWTOR has this if you go dark. The effects of how the dark side effects you changes your appearance over time.

As did the KotOR games and Fable games. San Andreas does things like make you fat if you eat too much fast food, and alters your body shape based on cardio and strength training, too.

wordsmythe wrote:
ranalin wrote:

Also SWTOR has this if you go dark. The effects of how the dark side effects you changes your appearance over time.

As did the KotOR games and Fable games. San Andreas does things like make you fat if you eat too much fast food, and alters your body shape based on cardio and strength training, too.

no lesson on the differences between affected effects?

I assumed we both knew that your sentence was a train wreck.

(For the record, I generally don't bust out the Grammar Police badge unless someone's being a jerk. When you're coming off as a jerk, you best come grammatically correct.)

wordsmythe wrote:

I assumed we both knew that your sentence was a train wreck.

(For the record, I generally don't bust out the Grammar Police badge unless someone's being a jerk. When you're coming off as a jerk, you best come grammatically correct.)

Yea I never notice while I'm actually typing them.

To get us away from my bad grammar:

How do you intend to make each Alliance War campaign feel persistent? Will campaigns last forever, or will they change from time to time, and will the enemies rotate?

Campaigns last for three months at a time, so you’ll find yourself running into familiar faces during them. Also note that you won’t get rotated out or switched to other campaigns unless you choose to; you’ll be able to stay in the same campaign for the entire time your character exists if you want! When a campaign ends, the only things that reset are its leaderboards and the score. Keeps, Scroll ownership, emperor status, and where you are in the world don’t get reset. It gives a great sense of persistence when only the scoring mechanics “reset.”

Do you intend for skills to "morph" many times to encourage differentiation between player builds?

Right now, skills morph once.

I like the idea of being able to train/feed your horse to differentiate its talents. Are there any plans in the works for high-end items that can gain XP/levels?

Not right now. Part of the game is looking for new gear. If gear can grow with you or grow in power, that tends to shut down the desire to keep looking for new gear. Getting surprised and rewarded is a really good thing. Since character progression is more predictable, we leave the surprise to finding item drops.

Getting back to actions in the game affecting character appearance, what about earning battle scars? I don't mean those marks you put on your Orc warrior's face during character generation, but face/body scars and disfigurements earned during epic battles with boss monsters.

They wouldn't have any effect on the player's stats, but would help personalize each character and be a nice spark for swapping war stories.

So instead of running around with a title of Dragon Slayer hovering over your head you'd have a giant scar on the side of your face from the battle? Interesting. I can only imagine some of the hardcore raiders would be running around with missing limbs. One Leg Larry would be the most respected tank on the server. And heaven help some of the female characters who favor skimpy armor. Disemboweled Dana, the healer.

Kehama wrote:

. And heaven help some of the female characters who favor skimpy armor. Disemboweled Dana, the healer.

Dana knew the risks when she wore a dental floss bikini as a meat shield.

Running Man wrote:
Kehama wrote:

. And heaven help some of the female characters who favor skimpy armor. Disemboweled Dana, the healer.

Dana knew the risks when she wore a dental floss bikini as a meat shield.

With the right feats, her skin may be harder than the soft leather her casting class limits her too. More likely to turn a blade too. For defensive purposes she really should go in naked, but modesty prevails.

Running Man wrote:

Getting back to actions in the game affecting character appearance, what about earning battle scars? I don't mean those marks you put on your Orc warrior's face during character generation, but face/body scars and disfigurements earned during epic battles with boss monsters.

They wouldn't have any effect on the player's stats, but would help personalize each character and be a nice spark for swapping war stories.

By the time you hit max level everyone's body will be completely covered with scars!

Well yeah if you made displaying all of them non-optional. For Groo the barbarian, displaying all of the scars wouldn't be a big deal, but I could see Polly Prettypants the sorceress not wanting to show off a facial disfigurement.

Running Man wrote:

Getting back to actions in the game affecting character appearance, what about earning battle scars? I don't mean those marks you put on your Orc warrior's face during character generation, but face/body scars and disfigurements earned during epic battles with boss monsters.

They wouldn't have any effect on the player's stats, but would help personalize each character and be a nice spark for swapping war stories.

I feel like the Fable series did this, too. If you got really hurt (could have been if you got "killed"), you'd gain a scar.

It's been years since I played Fable but that does ring a familiar bell.

Scars were almost a thing during Fable 3. The ended up toning it way down though. In testing players would reset their console rather than "die" and get a scar. In Fable 1 you just get old, which people went through great lengths to reverse (which was only possible due to an exploit in a particular quest). I think Fable 2 characters were actually less malleable than the Fable 1 characters were, but I'd have a hard time backing that up off the top of my head.

IMAGE(http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4135/4813813299_f5b199f064_z.jpg)

http://elderscrollsonline.com/en/new...

How does the lockpicking in ESO work, exactly? Please elaborate. - Toni Ćelić

When trying to pick locks in ESO, you’ll see a set of tumblers. Using lockpicks that you carry in your backpack, you’ll need force them down into the correct position. If you pay close attention, the game will give you visual and audio hints as to where the right position for each tumbler is. But you’ll also have to fight against the clock and open the lock within a given time. And then there’s the hostile environment you might be in (see above). For a quick glimpse at lockpicking watch the "Exploration and Gathering" video at 1:15 min.

http://elderscrollsonline.com/en/new...

How does the lockpicking in ESO work, exactly? Please elaborate. - Toni Ćelić

When trying to pick locks in ESO, you’ll see a set of tumblers. Using lockpicks that you carry in your backpack, you’ll need force them down into the correct position. If you pay close attention, the game will give you visual and audio hints as to where the right position for each tumbler is. But you’ll also have to fight against the clock and open the lock within a given time. And then there’s the hostile environment you might be in (see above). For a quick glimpse at lockpicking watch the "Exploration and Gathering" video at 1:15 min.

Apart from being the emperor (for a short time) are there any other ranks one can gain in PvP? For example, can I become a Captain or General of my alliance or get recognition for the amount of enemies I have slain? Will friends and enemy players be able to see how successful I have been in PvP? – Jenny Sart

You can gain many military-themed titles from the PvP ranking system. There are also lots of achievements to earn and leaderboards that show how many Alliance Points you’ve earned in a campaign. The leaderboards update every 10 minutes or so and are filterable by class, alliance, and overall rankings.

So I just got a beta invite, but only for this weekend until Sunday at midnight. I'll probably check it out, but I'm not sure how much time I'll be able to put in this weekend. I'm not sure how I feel about the time limitation, but I understand that it's probably a stress test.

I was already down on this because of the subscription. Maybe this will change my mind...?

PaladinTom wrote:

So I just got a beta invite, but only for this weekend until Sunday at midnight. I'll probably check it out, but I'm not sure how much time I'll be able to put in this weekend. I'm not sure how I feel about the time limitation, but I understand that it's probably a stress test.

I was already down on this because of the subscription. Maybe this will change my mind...?

Wow, so they do exist.
Did you have to look through your spam to find it?
Was it buried under some old socks?
Was it wearing camo paint?

they seem to be hard to find.

PaladinTom wrote:

So I just got a beta invite, but only for this weekend until Sunday at midnight. I'll probably check it out, but I'm not sure how much time I'll be able to put in this weekend. I'm not sure how I feel about the time limitation, but I understand that it's probably a stress test.

I was already down on this because of the subscription. Maybe this will change my mind...?

Likewise for the beta; doubt it'll run decently on my PC; I'll probably just try it on my wife's.

No beta invite for me. With my new rig, it would run like butter...
I give up.

Holy sh*t, I got an invite! I thought it would never happen...

Rallick wrote:

Holy sh*t, I got an invite! I thought it would never happen...

Dear Penthouse Magazine...

Got an invite as well.

Welp, that's three of us. As for difficulty finding it, it was chillin in my inbox.