Greedy Goblin

Saturday, April 15, 2017

Weekend minipost: ESO seems like BDO. Am I right?

Elder Scrolls Online was suggested to me and I've read up on it and watched videos and I considered it to be very similar to Black Desert Online. Not just the graphics and combat visuals, but the progression path too: you gather gear, get levels and then Veteran levels and skills and whatnot, but there isn't actual endgame that would require the gear, you just get it for itself. Sure, there are quests and "raids" but nothing that would affect the World anyway. Is that correct? Or can you somehow affect the World for other players?

The guild-based trading system seems interesting, but if there is no point, there is no point.

8 comments:

Magson said...

ESO doesn't really have progression anymore to speak of. If you start a new character and grab some armor it has the exact same armor value as that which an "endgame" character has. The only difference between level 1, level 50, and CP160 armor is secondary stats, and even they aren't really that big.

The difference between level 1 and level 50 is the number of skills you have available to you, and how you've chosen to morph them. It *does* make a difference, but it's not that huge. CP are actually awarded account-wide, so if you level a character up to the point where you earn the CP and then start a new level 1 character it will have the same number of CP as your "endgame" one. And the mobs you fight have a very flat scaling, so fighting a level 1 mob you'll find it has about 22,000 HP, and fighting a CP160 mob you'll find it has about 23,500 HP due to their "1 Tamriel" changes that they recently did.

Most characters are built toward the same ideas, regardless of class. Class only defines 3 skill lines out of a possible 22 (IIRC, haven't really played in 2 years), so class can be somewhat ignored. That said... those 3 skill lines do tend to define the character since they're the small bit of customization that you can do, so most people primarily choose their skills from the class lines.

But even then the current "meta" is to have some class skills, some weapon skills, and then some pvp skills to boot, even for pve play. PVP only happens in the pvp zones, not in the main world areas.

For me, I play games becuz I like the leveling experiences, so with this game now being 1 massive case of horizontal progression instead of vertical.... I just can't get into it anymore.

Gevlon said...

That's not what I've asked. The question is: does my play affects the World (how other people see it)? For example the stone cutter building of LadyValeria affected my play as I could use it. She could set it to private or keep it low level or build a Mage Tower instead and then I couldn't cut stone there.

Magson said...

Oh, sorry, I misread.

The only "affected areas" are the PVP zones, and even there it's more that certain areas/forts/strongholds can be conquered by a different faction, and you'd have to conquer it back before you could use it. But there's nothing in the pvp zones that I've been to that you can't get elsewhere, so there's no point.

That said, I've only played in the big overland zone, I've never participated in the "Imperial City" zone area. I think I remember hearing that certain things could only be obtained there, but... eh. I don't care for pvp, really, so I didn't care to ever check it out. Cyrodil has always been quite empty on the few occasions I have run in there -- only seen enemy players while not at a "conflict site" twice, and there aren't really any monsters except at certain dungeons and towers, so it's really mostly just a big empty zone and rather boring to just run around in it.

Anonymous said...

you should check the DLC packs for the game, last i knew you could not get things like the Thieves Guild in its entirety without spending real cash or grinding for their in game shop cash.
Primary reason i never got into the game, every Elder Scrolls had the guilds open to join and play with their own story arcs, to have to pay xtra money fro that access, meh.

coppertopper said...

No. It's phased so whatever you do for/to the world will never influence anyone. In the PvP zone, keeps can be captured, doors blown away with siege equipment, then repaired, ect...but there is no economy based around pvp either.

Anonymous said...

Don't waste your time on TESO. It is a great mmo if you just want to relax after a long day and kill some stuff. Economy wise, it is not what you are used to.

Cryptography said...

There might be something for you in the crafting area, but its gated behind research which is a real-time sink. To learn to be the best swordcrafter could take months if you research all the available traits - and you have to research each individual item type seperately.

I'm liking the flat levelling experience that other commenters dislike.

ESO base game and gold edition are on special for a few more days, might be worth picking up at least the base game to try it out.

The ESO plus subscription gives you unlocked access to the DLC packs, but more importantly, access to a crafting bag that stores almost all crafting marerials freeing bag/bank space for other stuff. Without it, I very quickly run out of bag space as there are so many different craft materials.

Anonymous said...

The persistent economic/political game you crave simply does not exist and probably never will. Much more profit can be generated from fleecing via power-up/cosmetic dlc, combined with rigged matchmaking. People who pay for costumes just lead to more costume making companies.
Maybe someday, some indie will try a proof of concept on a low budget text or retro graphic. Considering boutique boardgaming, much more satisfying for the soul.