Elder Scrolls Online’s devs sat for a lengthy ask-me-anything thread on Reddit this week – feels almost old-school now, doesn’t it? – and the ZeniMax devs answered a truckton of questions for players. Here are a few of the highlights, just be warned that the AMA was specifically limited to Gold Road and its associated update, so questions that strayed far from that path weren’t addressed.
- The studio acknowledged the ongoing server performance problems; some is from DDOS attacks, but not all of it.
- ZOS is considering a log book for furnishing recipes and plans.
- The team is working on updating Necro class abilities.
- ZOS isn’t happy with treasure maps and surveys and their associated timesinks. It’s on the list.
- Ithelia herself uses all-new rigs and tech to accommodate her wings and so forth. Yes, they know you want her hair as a hairdo.
- No, the ZOS team is not directly involved in the single-player TES VI title’s development and lore, but they do take it into account.
- They know we want more quests for old companions, but they are constrained by time limits and would rather add new stuff. Similarly, the companions this year were pushed off to Q4 for polish reasons.
- Inventory QOL perks are “on the backlog” but not for update 42.
- ZOS is devoting serious time to fixing the stuck-in-combat bug.
- Scribing is not really meant to replace class skills.
- Like all the other chapters, Gold Road can be played on a brand-new character, but ZOS suggests that for storytelling purposes, it might be better to at least go through the Necrom zone story first. Not required, though.
- The team is “actively discussing” players wanting to change their scribed skills in Cyrodiil.
- In response to a question about the bifurcating of overland content (basic zone content is super easy, but events and bosses are harder with each chapter), ZOS says it’s “constantly evaluating” zone content, especially in light of the companion system. “We are reluctant to go back and increase the difficulty of older zones but newer zones it is one of the things we take into account.”
- The team wouldn’t talk about the Q4 PvP update but says it will do so “closer to PTS time.”
- HDR support for PC was pulled from update 42 “because of some stability issues” and will be implemented when it’s “ready for prime time.”
In response to a question about casual players and scribing, combat designer ZOS Alec Verish says,
“Our focus with Scribing was to try and help more players gain access to more skills that felt like their own abilities, rather than trying to upend the existing meta of the game. Largely the system aims at helping builds gain access to abilities to plug holes in their kit or access to more diversity with personalized damage types, healing, etc to help you make your own build without the same restrictions as your class abilities may place you in. This also reinforces another large pillar the system was designed for, which is role play. Before if you wanted to lean into a specific vision or goal with your character, you needed to make a lot of choices early on that gave access to abilities to fit into that vision – with Scribing we wanted to help improve the flexibility of access to abilities you can make and use the way you want.”
Finally, here’s a quick run-down of how new zones are developed.
