Good advice from ghastley. Here's a couple basic links to help with the game:

UESP: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Online

Official Forums are invitation only and they'll send you an invite once you buy the game. In the meantime you might consider some lurking there: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/

As ghastley mentioned you cannot currently change your class but you can make multiple characters. Your race, name, skills, attributes and (later) champion points can all be changed so don't be afraid to experiment there.

Oh, Lopov has moved to Germany and is working in a hospital there? I wonder if he is near Kaiserslautern and the Landstuhl hospital?

I am excited for him; and can understand if he doesn't have time to get online for a while = but also excited about the possibility of you joining ESO !!!! That is AWESOME !!!!


P.S. You can't mod ESO; but if you get the burning urge to mod something, you can always pull out a different game every now and then and toy with modding it. (I've been getting my modding angst out with Fallout 4 recently, lol).

Joooooin ussssss.

Wow, thanks everyone. Perhaps you'll see me show up one of these days.

And we can't get it from Steam? GOOD. I'd rather not deal with Steam, honestly.

And I also know about the no-modding thing. Am okay with that. It's mostly that nobody plays the older games much anymore, that's what's got me interested.

ghastley: Thanks for the info about classes. My first character will probably be called Jean Yuss (or some such spelling of genius). Because of this name, she'll probably be interested in Intelligence-type stuff, so therefore, she'll be magey. But I don't know how the dynamics work. Do people mostly play as characters in this game, or do they play as "themselves?" I can't play as myself. If I were to play as myself, I'd find a nice hovel to hunker down in, grab a book, and stare at the walls, rarely leaving whatever nicely safe locale I locate.

.... well, Acadian plays as Buffy, so I guess that answers my question.

mALX: Lopov is still in his home country; but he recently got his medical license, so he's a full-fledged doctor by now (I think that's how it works there). He plans on having a second child, learning German so he can work in Austria, and seems to have vowed off gaming. But I think he'll be back. heh heh heh... He always comes back.

Renee, I find that there’s often a mixture of character and player chat when we get together. There are communities of RPers who chat only in-character, though. When I play it’s me riding along with my character just like in the single player games until a player speaks to me instead of Jerric, and then Jerric takes the back seat. I have met a few random people whose characters spoke to Jerric with no player interaction. This is always fun until inevitably he gets invited back to someone’s castle for a feast where it turns out he is supposed to be the main dish. (Lots of vampires in this game.) I cannot count how many times this has happened. Maybe he should put on a shirt.

Also, welcome to ESO!!!


Great news for Lopov, I completely understand why he’s turning off the games for a while. Very best wishes to him and his family. And like you, I’ll be waiting here to welcome him baaaack!

I always liked the idea of spontaneous RP, but I always found that I can't spontaneously go in-character, let alone STAY in character. Especially when my mind vacates the premises most of the time when I play.

Technically, you CAN buy ESO via Steam = just much better to buy it directly from Bethesda/Zenimax than to add a third party into the mix that you are at the mercy of.

Oh, I'm so glad Lopov is trying again, I was so sad to hear of his loss last year. If you talk to him = congrats on graduating; and good luck on a new little Lopov.

This is primarily how it has always been for me in all the games; even single player. I am always with my characters; riding or fighting alongside them. In ESO = in the chatbox (text) if someone talks to me or to my characters = whichever one of us is spoken to will answer in the text chatbox.

If I am on voice chat in TeamSpeak or Discord; I'll always be the one everyone is talking to. (so I don't have to make up different voices for my characters, lol).

Renee, you were asking about playing characters in ESO. As you know, I only play by traveling along with Buffy (one character). But in ESO I ran into a couple problems.

You can't mod skills/abilities, ESO falls guilty to the D&D stereotype that precludes mystic archers, and none of the classes fully suit her. My normal reaction to this would have been to quit the game.

The other problem is that, being a dynamic multiplayer game, character skills and abilities are frequently tweaked/adjusted to promote 'balance'. The problem here is that if Buffy and I get attached to one class and that class takes some heavy 'nerfs', our inclination would, again, be to quit the game.

With those strikes, why choose ESO? The beauty and sheer mass/scale of the game is breathtaking. The game area is perhaps 100 times the scope of Oblivion or Skyrim - and constantly evolving/changing/growing. And the combat system is pretty good. That it is a multiplayer game (and all that comes with that) is a drawback we deal with.

So. . . our solution to the challenges was to create several versions of Buffy that, among them, could suit our needs. They each look identical and have variations on the name Buffy. Buffy views it as changing class on a whim and does so as readily as she changes outfits or how she styles her hair. From her perspective, she grabs a healing staff and goes out as a healer (that REALLY suits her nurturing nature). If she grabs a lightning staff, she goes out as a storm mage which feeds her penchant for magic. Finally, when she grabs a bow, she plays true to her roots as a pure bowgirl.

OMG, I am hooked on this song now! I seriously can't stop listening to it!!! Thanks a lot, Monkey! Like I wasn't fried enough before; now you addict me to a song I can't even sing along with; and it makes me want to dance around my house like this:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vH_bB3UcIE

Acadian: Yes, I was thinking about the Glass Cannon thing your lass has always had going on. Especially with not having Strength or Endurance touched in Oblivion. Interesting that you came up with a solution of several Buffys (Buffies). That must be really fun to have others see her in different outfits throughout the day.

mALX: Our Slovenian comrade's wife had a girl last year, named Eva, and they're trying for another as far as I know. So it's not all bad news there. I did a lot of PM'ing with him over the last 2 years, trying to help him through their loss in 2017.

I think if he comes back, he'll be surprised to see I'm playing an MMO! Heck, maybe he'll join us.

Grits: Okay, so there are full RP "rooms?" Or servers? Or is it just one big party? I'll probably arrive as myself when in safe zones (voice), but once my character is out in the world I'll switch to text because I don't actually speak as I'm gaming much, except to laugh and YARGH!! and make random noises. When I play Oblivion especially, I'm frequently laughing at NPC conversations, but this probably wouldn't always be appropriate when other gamers are present.

Is there any truth to the stereotype of "12 year-olds screaming into their mics?" or has ES:O been around for long enough that most of the crowd is mature?

I don't get the song monkey added, but maybe it'll make more sense later.

ESO on PC has no built in voice. Team Speak and Discord are popular programs that many on PC use for voice. Chorrol has a small guild of us who are in Chorrol and we have a discord channel that some of us sometimes use during our monthly guild meetings. You can belong to up to 5 player guilds but don't need to belong to any.

Servers. Playstation and XBox have their own servers. For PC, you need to choose either North America or Europe server (PC NA or PC EU). Chorrol's guild is on PC NA. PC Chorrol players who live in Europe (like hazmick) chose PC NA to be with the majority of us. Only problem with choosing the farther server is slight degradation in connection. Your choice seems obvious then: PC NA server.

So, as a PC player, unless you intentionally join others you know on a specific private or guild discord / team speak channel, all your communication with other players is done via typing into a chat box. You can set differing options for your chat box to screen out as much or little as you want. Ignoring the chatbox and playing just like a single player works just fine.

Really, any level of 'mmo' play works fine from full cooperative big dungeon raids to pure solo just like in Oblivion or Skyrim.

Player vs Player in ESO is totally optional and you never have to fight another player ever if you don't want to so no problem there.

You know the thought just occurred to me that I never encountered anyone in that age group while playing ESO and I’ve been playing for almost two years now. I heard them in the background but most are older players in thei early twenties. Hell I even did a trial with a retired veteran! Most are mature people and the community are always willing to help you out. Time to time you’ll come across unpleasant folks arguing in the group chat but that’s in Eastmarch

I’ve heard more twelve year olds and younger on Fortnite, however.

Same, Khajiit has never encountered anything like that. This one will say again that he has never had an unpleasant experience when having to deal with another player.

Text chat comes with different channels including the whole zone, just the small area around you, your guilds, a temporary channel for your group while you’re in one (which you will know when it happens), and a way to have a one-on-one private conversation with a specific person. You can adjust your chat window to only show certain channels. For example I have a window that only shows the Chorrol guild chat for when I want to tune out everyone else who is playing but still want to see if a Chorrolite needs help or wants to go do something fun. People who are doing a serious RP tend to use a private text chat channel (guild, group, or whisper), go to someone’s house where they won’t be disturbed by random people, or use one of the less busy public channels. This will probably not make sense until you are playing, but it will make perfect sense then.

In the early days of Playstation voice chat I always turned it off as soon as I entered a zone because it was a noisy mess of fools and background noise from open mics. I haven’t played on PS4 in a while, so I don’t know if it’s better. As Acadian said, voice chat is not built in to the PC ESO experience, so you’ll only have to speak out loud and hear people who you’ve chosen to interact with on their Team Speak or Discord (or whatever) channel. And you will not find me trying to imitate Jerric’s voice on there.

Sometimes you will find a bunch of people standing around in an out of the way place, looking like nothing is happening. They are probably setting a private channel on fire with their RP. This happened to Jerric outside a chapel in I think Bangkorai. A guy was standing on the steps in a hands-behind-back commander pose, facing a whole group of people. Jerric had a quest inside the chapel. So he walked up and stood at the edge of the group to see if anyone was going to tell him something. All was quiet, so he walked up around the side of the group and behind the commander to go into the chapel. There was nothing to stop him from running straight through the middle of them except that he is not a jerk. RP in the wild can get disrupted by random people.

There are apparently places that people go for pickup RP, I think one is a tavern in Riften? And lots of guilds who organize events. My Orsimer furniture maker Pog got zone-chat invited to a wedding once, which was fun. The actual vows and whatnot were on a private chat that he couldn’t see, but quite the party broke out in zone chat afterward.

@ Renee - The Inns in ESO at night (especially on Friday or Saturday nights) are a good place to watch an ongoing RP among a group of people going down. They seem to be a standard meeting place for group RP's to take place.

The universal type color for RP is a light purple/violet color; so if you see that color in your chat box it is someone near you RP'ing. Every time I've been in an Inn at night I've seen that light purple text in the chat box. Some of them can get really interesting = like the one Grits saw above! I would be more interested in an RP like that than any of the romantic type ones I've seen.

But if you prefer to just play solo and have your own Roleplay in your game like you did in the single player games; you can do that too. Like Grits said; you can ignore the chat box; or set yourself up a chat box tab that filters out everything but "Whispers" (personal messages from someone that only you and them can see) - or just Chorrolites chat like Grits does; so you can hear what our friends here at Chorrol are saying to each other and friends can still reach you = or if you really want to immerse your self in solo gameplay you can set your character into "Offline" mode so no one can see when you are online.

I've been playing ESO since June 2015 and have not yet done every quest in the vanilla game; or completely finished every questline in all of the storyline DLC's that have dropped = that is how much content this game has!

And you don't have to PvP if you don't want to. There is dueling all over Tamriel; but I've set my "Social" settings to refuse any challenges automatically so I don't even have to answer any challenges. Other than that; the only places you will find PvP is inside Battlegrounds or down in Cyrodiil (both of which you have to actually choose to go to).

Note that Chat and Social settings are kept for each character, so if you roll more than one, don't forget to set them again on the new one. The defaults have you see all the chat, and not automatically decline duels. You won't automatically accept either, but you'll have to hit the "decline" key manually. There's a lot of other per-character settings, but those two have most effect.

If you have friends then you'll see when they log on or off in the chat box. Fellow Guild members are not automatically friends.

Also, one I learned the hard way = the default settings won't stop you from killing an innocent; so while you are learning the keyboard signals = it is really good to change that setting to "can't harm innocents" so if you accidentally whip out your blade trying to jump around an NPC in your way or blow off a spell in the bank = you don't end up having the guards after you,

(but if you join the Dark Brotherhood; you have to revert that setting back to the default again, lol).

Maybe someone else's memory is better than mine = last year someone tried to download ESO on their PC and couldn't because of the whopping toll it takes on your hard drive space = was that Lopov? (or who?)

Argh, dangit!

Hey thanks for all advice/info folks. I am glad I read it all because it prevents me from committing some sort of roleplaying faux pas. The purple text box thing for instance, I might have glossed over that in whatever online documentation ES: O provides.

ES: O sounds really fun though, like everyone who plays it nowadays is really into it.

I'll be finishing up Skyrim's Main Quest, just because I'm rather goal-oriented, and 2019 is THE YEAR I'm finally going to finish the MQ. After that I'll show up in Tamriel. Maybe I'll just show up though, surprise everyone.

mALX: It's possible he was the one trying to download ES: O on his old laptop (which is from 2010, and he gave it to his mom I think). He got a new Lenovo this past summer though. That one should have been able to run & contain

Oh, okay! Don't worry about the chat box = you can't type in purple by accident; you would have to set it up so your typing showed purple. I just had to look it up because I didn't know:

To turn your chat box type purple for roleplaying you would type /e (e standing for "Emote"). That changes the color of whatever you type to purple.

There are some other type colors that are automatically set up in the system when you load your game that you access using similar commands:

White = talking to anyone in your zone = only people within a short distance of you will see it

Red = yelling to anyone in your zone (only people near you will see it)

Aqua Blue = Whispers (seen only by you and the person you are talking to)

Orange = group chat = only the members you are grouped with can see it

Green = Guild chat = This is the default color for Guild chat; but I changed our Chorrolite Guild chat to pink so it stands out from any other chat colors.

Really light green = Guild Officer chat = You will only see this if you are in a guild and the Guild Master or one of the Officers is sending a message out to the whole guild.

(Yellow is the color of the system. If the system is sending you a message = those messages will always be in yellow).

But you have to tell the chat box to change the color of the text for what you are about to type:

In ESO, the Chat Box is actually your command line (kind of like using the Developer's Console Commands in single player games via the Tilde key)

You type in commands for either the Chat Box itself (telling it how you want to talk in there) or to command your character (tell them to sit, sleep, eat, wave, do jumping jacks, etc) - or to talk to the game maintenance people and let them know you need help.

To do anything in the chat box you type a forward slash and the command like this:

/say = to talk in the chat box in white colored type to just the people near you (in your immediate zone) - this is always good to use if you are in trouble and can't escape a dungeon or something; because the people that see it are already in your vacinity.

/yell = turns the type red so you are yelling at everyone near you

/whisper = to speak to just one certain person

Or to use emotes = whatever you type is what your character will do:

/eat
/drink
/sit
/sleep
/wave
/bow
/nod
/leanback
/laugh
/sweep
/rake
/flirt (I bought a "Personality" that modifies this command so it is really fun)
/dance
/faint (this one is hilarious!)

(etc). There are a ton of emotes built into the game that you can get your character to do; and the list gets bigger all the time; plus you can purchase some using Crowns or in-game gems).


If you are having any problems with your game you can type /bug to put in a "bug report" or if you get stuck between two rocks you can type /stuck and immediately a Dev will send your character to the nearest wayshrine = but charge you for the intervention.

I don't use the "/stuck" because they charge in game gold for it. It is much better (and free) to find the name of someone in either your friend's list or Guild roster and "Travel To" them (or if you own a house or apartment you can travel to it for free too)

But that Chat Box is your way to do all kinds of things in game; not just chatting with others. The first thing I did after leaving the tutorial dungeon was to test out all the emotes and pick favorites out.

I've also got an "Add-on" (like a mod) that works like the "Personality Idles" mod from Oblivion = whenever my characters are idling they will do various idle animations randomly from a list of ones I've chosen.

Before I narrowed the list down; my character was meeting Acadian's character for the first time and she suddenly started acting sick = then puked right on Buffy. That was Acadian's first impression of the game, (I immediately removed THAT emote from the list of emotes she could randomly use, ).

This is a good reason to get one of the free Inn Rooms A.S.A.P. - You can go back there to regroup from absolutely anywhere, whether you're stuck, lost, or just overloaded with junk and don't have a banker or merchant. There's one in the main city of each Alliance. If you create characters for all three Alliances, you can have one of each, and because they're account-wide, use them all. Morrowind chapter (now a DLC) added one in Vivec City, and Summerset added one, too.

As well as travelling to a player, you can also travel to their primary residence. However, leaving that can put you back where you came from.

Agree with this 100%. Those free Alliance rooms are just a little bare hotel room when you get it; but they are priceless when you need to travel out of a situation; (and can always be decorated as you go = not to mention a bunch of fellow Chorrolites who would be more than glad to send you some furnishings! )

Oh yes, furnishings. One of the more annoying things about ESO is that a beginning player can't make much in the furniture line, as the most basic items will require skills you don't have. You'll be able to make a bedroll, and you can easily get a crate for a table, and a stool to sit on.
Unna as a n00b
But then you have nothing to put on the "table" until you get a few more levels, (or a gift).
The same a bit later
That mug requires rank 5 in metalworking if you want to make your own. The least requirement for any drinking vessel is rank 2, so you need some crafting experience before you can do anything. Getting to sleep on a raised bed, rather than on the floor starts around rank 4.

Yes, this is why friends in game can be such a great help! All of us have a bunch of furniture we no longer use that we are trying to find room for; and have turned some of our houses into warehouses to hold it all, lol. I recently bought the Coldharbour Estate just to store a bunch of stuff I don't have a place for, lol.

Nice! Thanks for all info. My gosh, this sounds a little overwhelming! Fun though. I think it'll be fun, right?

Do people make test characters for online games, or is that not as necessary? Every time I've tried to roll a test in the SP games, I always wind up getting sucked into full roleplays.

You can have multiple characters no problem - up to 8 right out of the box with the ability to buy 'slots' for more if you want to.

A character's class cannot currently be changed so that is the biggest initial decision - and class choice is pretty important.

You can also not change a character's alliance but that is not very important.

Skills, morphs of skills, attributes and (for higher level characters) champion points can all be changed at will for a bit of in game gold.

Race, name, appearance can all be changed for real money.

Test characters aren't really a good idea, because of the amount of grind involved in MMO. You need to invest a lot of time finding out if a character works before you really know. So I have one of each race, two of each class (or more) so I can do things with a better-suited character when appropriate. That does mean doing stuff over again with another character, but daily chores become more efficient after a while, and don't get too tedious. Some get played more, some less, but if they make changes in the game, at least one of mine benefits, and another character may start seeing more play time.

However, the PTS is the place for disposable characters. They periodically wipe everything, or do a fresh copy from the live server (approximately alternating those). So if you have a build that you're not likely to want to keep, do it there. You can create a character at a high level, instead of building them up, and find out quickly if it won't work. That's assuming you can factor out your own lack of practice with the game.

The PTS requires a second install of the game, as the client is synchronized with the server. Only do that if you have space for it.

I am experienced RPG-er. Been choosing classes since the '80s (and sticking with them) in dice-roll games, so I'll be good there. Arena has classes too, it's all fine.

Weird that we have to pay money to change face though. Really weird. Never heard of anything like that before!

What is PTS?

PTS = Public Test Server.

You can download a client for that if you have the regular game. You get to try out the new content for a while before it gets into the main game, as an ongoing beta test. Periodically, the character info from live gets copied across there, so you're often playing with your own familiar characters, but there are alternate periods where everyone has to start from scratch with new ones. For that situation you can create a maxed-out template character and assign their skills and attributes in chargen. Or you can start a zero-level one to try out the new features as a starter character if you prefer.

Elsweyr will be there before it goes live, and if they don't have enough pre-orders, they may invite extra players to check it out. I got an invite for Summerset, and I still don't have that. When it went live, I lost access to the chapter on PTS, too.

To me, ESO is actually as much or more fun than Oblivion; and Oblivion was always my favorite game of all time. The difference is = with ESO, there is no end point where you have done everything and have to start repeating doing the same thing over and over or start a new game again and again (because ESO keeps adding new content every other quarter of the year). I still haven't even done everything there is to do in the vanilla game yet!

As far as Test characters goes = I did this too; so did Acadian (which is how he ended up with numerous versions of Buffy). See, you can read about a Class or Race; but actually playing them might feel different than you expect = it might turn out that you don't connect as well with one Class as you do with another.

Thank goodness the game gives you 8 characters to test out what you want. If you don't like one right now, it is sometimes good to keep them in the bank and have them hold items in their inventory ("Bank Mules") = because later on you might want to try that Class again; and you will have it there.

That happened to me with my Tank, Britta. I really just didn't know how to build or play a Dragon Knight; so I tried to play her like I did my NightBlade characters. That didn't work on her; so I shelved her (I didn't delete her because I needed her extra inventory slots to hold all my hoarded junk, and each character can hold between 60-200 items depending on how big their backpack and horse's saddlebags you've bought them are).

Britta sat in my bank and held items for 3 years until a friend taught me how to play a Tank and told me I needed an Imperial Dragon Knight = that is what she was! I pulled her out and now she is one of my favorite characters!

I am not adept at figuring out the best way to get the most out of a Race or Class; but Acadian is! He has been teaching me how to build and play Sorcerers and Templars; and they are a blast to play and very powerful!

My favorite was always the NightBlade; because they are so much fun to play and kind of a jack of all trades type = they suited my play style very well = but now I also love the Templar; Sorceress; and Dragon Knight too! The Warden is a lot of fun; and I'm really looking forward to trying out the Necromancer!

When you are testing out a character; if you are not really happy with it = feel free to talk it out on here and see if some tips can help. (but also feel free to test out another Class too = find out what best suits YOUR play-style).

Ha!!! Well I still haven't done everything in Oblivion or Skyrim yet, but I'm needing some changes. I like the sound of how we can test things out first. What a great idea.

And ... See it's good I am reading all this before I get in and play. I woulda been so confused ...

Stupid question I guess, but how does one pay for all this in-game content? I assume they just keep a credit card number on file, eh? Kinda scary. Maybe there's an option for pay-per-instance though.

Khajiit puts his credit card info in everytime he buys something. No need to have it saved.

Same here; I just give them my credit card info if I am buying something; but they have to ask for it each time.

My son's game pays nothing. He doesn't have any Plus membership (which costs around 12-15 dollars per month depending on how many months you pay for in advance). He hasn't bought any DLC; doesn't buy anything in the Crown Store = his game is totally free to play. He got 500 Crowns for buying the game (to spend in the Crown Store) = and still has them four years later! He never even spent those! So you can play totally for free if you want (other than the cost of the original game).

** Plus memberships get to play all the DLC for Free; can hold all crafting materials for free; have double the storage space in their banks and houses; get more XP for everything they do while playing; and are given 1650 Crowns to spend in the Crown Store for each month they pay for the Plus membership. Recently they have started to give Plus members presents (like an outfit; a statue to put in their house; or discounts on mounts or pets, etc).

Because he doesn't have that double storage; he has to juggle his inventory more than I do. It takes him longer to level up his characters without that bonus XP; but he can use XP scrolls or potions to increase that. Even without all the DLC; he has never even come close to completing the full vanilla game.

I do pay for a Plus membership on my account; it comes to 85.00 dollars every 6 months (BUT that is including the taxes placed on any entertainment purchases made in the state of TN where I live, so I'm not sure how much lower that would be in a different state. You can check how much it would be in your state).

What I have done all along is wait for the 1 year anniversary of the big DLC and purchased them for my game at their anniversary sale when the price was 50-75% off the regular price.

(I didn't have to buy them because I got to play them free with the Plus membership; but just in case one day I couldn't keep the Plus membership I wanted to own them).

DLC is bought using Crowns. You get free Crowns with your Plus membership; or you can purchase Crowns. The normal prices for Crowns around 100-140 crowns per dollar = the more Crowns you are buying at one time means more crowns you get per dollar). I also wait till the Crowns are on sale to buy them; so I can get a much higher amount of Crowns per dollar than even that.

The game itself (and any new "Chapters") can only be bought using real world money (credit card) = BUT: Chapters eventually become DLC; which CAN be purchased for Crowns; and are Free to play if you have a Plus membership!

Example: Morrowind was the first Chapter. I think you could get it for 38.00 dollars if you pre-ordered it; or 50 if you pre-ordered the Collector's Edition. But = if you waited a few months after its launch; they put it on sale; so if you waited; you get it for less. Then after one year they turned Morrowind into a DLC; so it was now free to play for Plus memberships and could also be bought for Crowns in the Crown Store.

Summerset was the second "Chapter," and it has gone on sale 3-4 times since it launched around June 2018. This last time it was only around 17 dollars. When the next Chapter launches this June; Summerset will become a DLC and be able to be bought with Crowns or played free for Plus members.

Also: ALL DLC prices are cut on their Anniversary of their Launch or for certain Special Events; so if you wait for those sales you can buy all the DLC for 50-75% off their regular price!

And: Crowns go on sale several times per year; so you can choose to buy on the sales and keep a supply of Crowns to cover any DLC you want to buy throughout the year.

So you have a lot of control over how much the game costs you and when your credit card is used if ever.

Okay that's good to know we can pay per instance, and also watch for special times of year, then spend Crowns. I'll probably get a whole bunch of content right up front, then be overwhelmed for about 6 to 8 months, or a year, or four years ha ha.


I wonder if this due to the fact that Zenimax makes this game? While Beth has spread themselves too thin with FOUR games recently (Fallout 4, Fallout 76, Starfield, and ES6) Zenimax Online is just coasting along, adding content even after 4+ years have gone by.

Khajiit feels it’s more due to the nature of MMOs versus single player games. MMOs are a fairly major time commitment as it takes a good bit of time to build your character and understanding of a given character’s function in group content. Given how long people can play this type of games, it makes sense to continuously add content to keep interest in the game going. Keep in mind also that many players will buy extras like the + subscription and crowns which are big money makers, so by adding content they keep these players interested who in turn spend more money.

You can just buy (pre-purchase) the new version coming out in June (Elsweyr) because it comes with the base ESO game; Morrowind; and Summerset installed in it. You won't get to play the Elsweyr part until May 20 no matter what; but if you purchase the Standard Edition or Collectors Edition in Digital form = you will get to play the base game, Morrowind, and Summerset now. (If you get the collectors edition now you will get all the mounts and pets now for all three Chapters).

Whichever Edition you buy; if you do get the Elsweyr as a pre-order; you will also get all of the "Pre-order rewards."


Then if you pay for any length of Plus membership you choose; you will have access to ALL the DLC the game has; and plus a stash of Crowns to spend in the Crown store equal to 1650 times the number of months Plus membership you purchased!

Here is a page that tells what all you can get with either version and how much they cost:

** Of course, you have to buy the one that includes the base game; not either of the ones that say "Upgrade."


https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/55537


And here are the pre-purchase prices:


https://account.elderscrollsonline.com/stor...5500.1434973647



59.99 for the Standard Edition; 79.99 for the Collectors Edition; but if that is too high you can scan down the page to the older Editions; which are much lower. At the bottom of the page you can click on the Plus Membership to see how much it will be and what it offers, and also check out the Crown prices.




Don't forget Bethesda also launched a crapload of first person shooter and sports games; plus the free Fallout Vault game for phones and Elder Scrolls Legends card game during that same period too; not just the games you mentioned.

But a lot of those working on ESO were long time lovers of Elder Scrolls games from way back. It has the feel of the early Elder Scrolls games; but is like all of them put together. You can explore all of Tamriel in one game instead of having to change games to see the different Provinces.

Oh okay. See, i didn't know this. Makes sense though, looking at the way initial versions of WoW and Evercrack Everquest were around for many years.




Oh I hope to have ES: O before then. I can't wait that long!

I think I'll spend a lot of initial time in Cyrodiil, since that is where I am most comfortable. I've got this idea that my first character will be very stealthy too. Shy, and not so overtly combat-oriented, unless she's playing some sort of background role. Hmm...


OH wool, did not know this! I keep learning new things every day from you all.

How do people sound when they use their mics? I do have a pretty nice Logitech gaming headset, but I was talking into its mic the other day and my voice sounds rather broken-up. Unless I hold the mic right in front of my lips, that is. Or speak RATHER LOUDLY. Whenever I hear people speak in YouTube vids, they always sound much more clear. Maybe they are using actual microphones though, like professional ones.

Word of warning: Cyrodiil is a massive PvP area. The Alliance War frontlines are in Cyrodiil so you have to always worry about being attacked by other players. The Gold Coast zone which contains the cities of Anvil and Kvatch is a PvE zone so you could spend your time there. It is DLC content though (Dark Brotherhood), so you will need to get that DLC or an ESO+ subscription to go there.

What I meant by that above is = Elsweyr won't launch until May 20 for those who purchased it early = but if you purchase it early; you will still be able to play the base game; Morrowind; and Summerset Isles right away.

Also, you have to be at least level 10 to go down to Cyrodiil; they don't let anyone under level 10 in there. I'm not sure about the Battlegrounds; but Cyrodiil stays locked right up till you reach level 10; then they send you a letter inviting you to come down.

When you come down there, someone will meet you when you land with the Quest arrow over their head = take that quest, it is good for a handful of skill points to spend leveling your skills up. They will train you to use the siege weapons and offer you Missions in the Alliance War.

You don't have to accept the Missions if you don't want to.

If I'm playing a young character I usually take the "Scouting" Missions (to spy on the enemy Forts). I also usually take one that says something like "Kill 20 Enemy Players." I don't go out looking for fights; but if someone attacks you and you are holding that (you get bonus rewards).

But when I go down to Cyrodiil; it is usually to explore and nab "Skyshards" = because there are SO many Skyshards down there.

(Every three Skyshards you find gives you a skill point to spend leveling up whichever skill you want to train up). Cyrodiil and the Imperial City Sewers are loaded with Skyshards; ; but it is harder to get them due to it being a PvP zone.




In game there is no voice chat; but if you want to hear people talking to you and them hear you = especially when you are playing with them (instead of all that typing in a chat box) you can use TeamSpeak or Discord. Our group from Chorrol has both available for use right now.

I don't know how Discord sets up the voice chat; but TeamSpeak has a pretty thorough voice testing function where you can actually hear what everyone else hears when you talk. (It is quite shocking, lol).

Does your headset have a USB connector? Because those load their own drivers into the PC every time you plug them up; making them SO much easier to use than the more expensive models.

If it doesn't have the USB connector; you can try updating the drivers; check to make sure the mike connection is working on your PC by trying using a different headset; etc. (The usual troubleshooting things you would do).

Also; when you put on your headset, are you lowering the mike wand down to your face? Because if the mike wand is up along the earpiece; it will do exactly what you described = (crackling, muted sound, etc). The mike wand should be close to your mouth; but to the side of your mouth (not in front of your mouth, so your "P" sounds don't pop people's eardrums). If you play with your mike or it brushes against your shirt/hair/etc = that will also cause it to crackle.

Here is something you might think about if you still have trouble after you troubleshoot the problem = I hate to EVER recommend them; but Walmart has a USB Headset that is hell of cheap to buy; but works Awesomely. It is a Logitech too; but one that will only last about two years before you'll have to pitch it and buy another. I bought two this last time so I'd have a spare when this one quits working.

(same with their keyboards = best and cheapest Razer gaming keyboard you will own for two years, then overnight suddenly turns to crap and you need to hurry to Walmart and replace it).

When you add up how little it costs to replace them every two years; you still come out ahead against buying a decent more expensive set. (everything Walmart sells has a two year lifespan on it anyway; except their meat which has so many preservatives and tenderizers that it will still be there in 20 years (and taste the same).

Anyway using any USB mike will eliminate ALL your connection issues. You plug it in, it loads the drivers and software and is ready to go without any "tweaking."

It's good to be back playing ESO, but one thing I did not miss is just how much is tied to the game being multiplayer. Obviously, it's to be expected that a lot of it would be given it is an MMO, and it is nice to have activities that you can play with friends and other people, but it would still be nice to have the multiplayer be less influential. There isn't going to be a perfect balance that suits everyone, though, so I get it to an extent.

But in this case, I'm not referring to the game mechanics. I'm talking quests and story (even exploring other provinces outside of your alliance). The Alliance War affects so much in this regard that it can really hamper role-playing, and I'm not even a strict role-player. For explicitly Alliance War questlines, this obviously makes sense, even if it is a real stretch how they justify in-game the way you can experience the other two alliances (in my case, Covenant and Dominion). But still, some quests that don't necessarily need to be affected by it are still affected by it. And sometimes, it doesn't even need to be a wholesale change, but even a change of dialogue to acknowledge certain things would be nice.

Then again, I suppose there is only so much that Zenimax can do about this. With how much the game has to try to juggle, code, implement, etc., there are some concerns that just can't be assuaged. Only so much can be coded and implemented in a game like this.

I tried ESO for the first time yesterday. I bought the game - Tamriel Unlimited - in 2016 but my laptop back then couldn't handle it, my current one handles it with ease. I haven't yet seriously approached the game, I only created a test character and played through the Wailing Prison. I've never played any multiplayer games before, so I'm a n00b in this regard, but my first impressions are quite positive - it runs smoothly, the combat is fluid and interesting, the dialogue system seems okay too.

I have a few issues / questions, however, and what better place to ask than here.

1 - I can't play the game on the EU server. I don't have problems playing it on the NA, so looks like I'll stick to that one. The game runs smoothly and loading times are short. Whenever I tried running it on the EU server, I got a message that my computer isn't authorized to play this game and I got an access code on mail. Even when submitting this code I got the same message and a new code. I submitted it many times but not once did it work. Then I switched to the NA server and I could log in automatically, no need for any codes whatsoever. Still if anyone knows a possible reason, I'd prefer playing on the EU server because apparently loading times are even shorter.

2 - I can't take screenies - the notification appears but they don't save in the screenshots folder. I googled the issue up, and it seems related to my first name (my real name, not in-game name), because it has a non-English letter (Ž), because screenies are stored in a subfolder of the folder, which contains my name (hard-coded into my computer, difficult to change), don't store at all. I found some solutions online, the first one is to "trick" the game to save screenies to another folder, it has pretty detailed instructions, so I'll try it later when I'm home. The second solution is to press PrintScr, then save the screenie manually in Paint, it works, I tested it, but it's tedious.

3 - I read earlier in this thread that it's possible to turn off being attacked by other players. Nobody attacked me in the Wailing Prison, but I'd like to know where to turn this option off, I can't seem to find it. Also, it's possible to turn off being interacted with from other players. For now I'd like this turned off as well.

4 - there are some areas where you're together with other players and some that you're alone, right? For instance, in the Wailing Prison, where you need to destroy the eye sentinels, there were plenty of other real gamers around, while when fighting the boss, I was alone. My question is - if in an area with other gamers - can they loot chests / corpses before me? Also, some other gamer and me were fighting a skeleton archer, when it died, I looted it and took a sword from its body. Does this mean that the other gamer couldn't pick it up?

5 - I suck at picking locks, I follow the instructions, but I must be doing something wrong, because I constantly seem to break lockpicks. Don't bother with this, I'll become better with time.

6 - is there any way to use different colors for facial / body markings? Are there any DLCs / updates that add even more customization options?

7 - as I said above, I have the Tamriel Unlimited Edition. Are there any DLCs / updates you'd recommend I'd install from the very start?

That'd be all for now, thanks.

Yay, welcome!! I will go into the game and see if I can figure out the answers to some of your questions. In the meantime:

3. Other players can’t attack you unless you are in Cyrodiil or the Battlegrounds. You will know that you are going there if you do, you can’t just wander in accidentally. Other players can request to duel you anywhere, but they can’t damage you unless you agree to the duel. There is a setting to automatically decline duels so you won’t be bothered. I’ll check where to find that setting.

4. Yes, some areas are solo instances where you will be alone. There is often a notice when you enter that you’re going into a solo instance, for example when you’re doing the quests in the main questline. In shared instances such as the Wailing Prison, some loot is shared and some is just for you. Everyone gets their own loot from corpses, but the locked chests are shared. The containers such as barrels, crates, sacks, and backpacks are instanced to you, so taking things from them does not remove anything for the other players. Crafting resource nodes such as alchemy plants, wood, and ore are shared.

7. The Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood are connected to DLC, so those would be good for thieves and murderers. Orsinium is a big zone with lots to do. I’d suggest playing for a little while and then deciding if you want to pay for an ESO Plus membership. That gives you access to all of the DLC as well as some other benefits.

I am delighted that you’re trying this game! I have found it to be a vast and beautiful world to explore.

1. Welcome to PC NA! That is actually a good thing since our Chorrol player guild is only on PC NA.

2. Never tried the game screenshot function. I still have Fraps installed and that works perfectly for my ESO screenshots.

4. Players who influence the death of a foe (even by healing the fighting players) get to loot the corpse. Resource nodes like chests, heavy sacks, flowers, ore, wood, etc are first come first serve.

5. Locks. I have a little better luck focusing on the bottom of the pin and watching for it to wiggle as it goes down. You're right that it takes practice.

6. No in game (or add on) color changers for face/body markings. Later in the game, you can buy/earn new markings and many of them come in differing colors.

7. I'd stay with Tam Unlimited for now. Play the game for a week or two and make sure you really like it. If you do, I'd recommend subscribing to ESO+. That will get you all the DLC and a bunch of perks that really do make life in Tamriel much more enjoyable and convenient. An unlimited crafting bag, the ability to dye costumes, even a stipend of game store currency (crowns) to help recoup some of the cost of ESO+.

I agree with everything already said. I'd just point out for (7) that the DLC add content, but don't change anything in the base game. Those changes were made when the DLC was released, but apply to everyone.

There are a few semi-exceptions, all relating to chapters. You could only get certified in Jewel Crafting by visiting Alinor. You could craft jewels, but couldn't do the writs. Psijic portals are only visible to those who have done the first quest of that line, so although they are all over Tamriel, you need Summerset to even know they exist.

This didn't happen with Morrowind to the same extent. Just like Elsweyr, a class was tied to the chapter, and you could only make a character of that class if you bought the chapter. Now Morrowind is a DLC, the Warden class is in the Crown Store separately. Necromancer may follow that pattern. Battlegrounds existed only on Vvardenfell initially, but are now all over Tamriel, and anyone can go there.

Other than that, it's just dungeons that won't be on your map without the DLC, and Wrothgar, Vvardenfell, Summerset, Murkmire and Elsweyr zones. You'll spend at least two years just exploring the rest. You can make equipment of the crafted sets from those zones at the Guild Hall, as we already copied the stations. You can buy the dropped sets anywhere, (at a price!), including at The Golden in Cyrodiil.

However, ESO+ is a major benefit (if only for the craft bag), and would give you DLC access.

Thanks all for warm welcome and answers.

1) Regarding the server - I forgot that most of you are on the NA server, no reason for me to try to play on the EU one anymore.

2) Regarding taking screenies - I solved the issue. Pressing the Windows button + PrintScr saves them in the default Windows folder.

3) Regarding chests and looting - do chests respawn in this game? Just curious, if someone "snatches" all the stuff right in front of my nose from some locked chest, does it ever respawn? I don't mean necessarily with the same loot, but if it respawns at all?

4) Regarding areas - are there many places, where there are other games like the Wailing Prison or are you mostly solo? Just curious, it doesn't bother me if there are others around, as long as they can't attack me, as you explained me.



This made me laugh! Based on my limited time for gaming, it'll take me four years. Which means it'll probably take Renee twenty years.

Two more questions:

Which class would be the closest to the spellsword? That's what I intend to do for my first playthrough. Dragonknight/Nightblade?

Why were some gamers in the Wailing Prison wearing what seemed to be very advanced armor and weapons? Can you come back to that place any time?

3. Shared loot like locked chests and crafting nodes respawn on a timer, so yes, eventually a new chest will just appear where the looted one was. Instanced loot such as barrels, wardrobes, and backpacks respawn when you re-enter the zone (like through a loading screen).

I checked where to auto-decline duels and immediately forgot what menu it’s in. Sigh. I think it was under Options->Social.

4. There are lots of areas where other players can go and not as many that are solo.

There will be some high-level players in the Wailing Prison because you can start that questline (the main questline) any time. If you own the later Chapters your tutorial doesn’t start in the Wailing Prison, it starts on a ship for Morrowind or… I’ve actually forgotten how my own game starts. It’s something about waking up in a Khajiiti school. Anyway if I started a new character they wouldn’t go to the Wailing Prison until they accepted the quest that takes them there, at which point they could be in some fancy gear. There are also Costumes and Outfits that show on your character instead of the actual gear they’re wearing, so you could be seeing a new character in a costume that the player already has in their account.

The game does not do a good job of supporting a spellsword. It is stuck in the antiquated concept that mages use staves and magic and non-mages use swords/bows. More specifically, staff and spell damage/effectiveness is driven by your magicka pool and spell damage stat whereas melee weaponry and bow damage is driven by your stamina pool and weapon damage stat. So. . . generally, mages put all their attribute points into magicka and use enchantments/gear that enhances their spell damage. Conversely, non-mages put all their attribute points into stamina and use enchantments/gear that enhances their weapon damage.

Hybrid characters who do use sword and spell suffer from mediocre damage compared to those who focus on either magicka/spells or stamina/melee-bow.

That said, each and every class can build for stamina or magicka and do well. A stamina based bow sorceress is just as viable as a magicka based staff-using sorceresss for example.

One consideration of the game being online is that it is alive and changes (yes, skills too) over time as the game evolves via patches and updates. That is why many players eventually have multiple characters (or multiple variants of Buffy in my case) that are differing classes. When one does not fare well due to the nerf/buff/patch cycle, you have others that probably have fared better. The frequent changes to skills can be a source of frustration. Buffy has 'adapted' by embracing the approach of have multiple variants of herself and logging in on differing classes with no more concern than she gives to which hair style to wear that session. That also helps combat a desire to use bow and magic (which are not compatible in ESO as explained above) by having both pure mage and pure archer variants to play.

The classes in ESO basically define your available spells, as their abilities are all magicka-based (with a few exceptions), and you get all the stamina-based abilities from the weapon skill lines.

You can tank wearing cloth, and be a mage in a tin can. However, you can't viably become a hybrid using both magic and weapons, as you'll not be able to sustain both pools.

1. Oh, I hope you stay on the NA server! For one reason: We all play on the NA server; and you can use our Guild Hall for all your crafting needs! The second reason is that the EU Server has had a lot of issues with some functions.


2. You actually can change your Account name if that is the reason you can't save your screenshots; especially if they are keeping you from getting your screenshots I'm sure they will let you.


If you set your screen to "Windowed" you can stretch the game window to fill the screen and still have access to your desktop activity bar at the bottom; making the "Paint" function more easily accessed.


3. To turn off PvP duel invites:

* Click on your "Escape" key to access your "Game Settings"

* Go down the list to: Social

* At the top of that screen you will see "Automatically refuse duel requests" = click on that.



4. Yes, other Players can beat you to a chest; they can beat you to plants and other loot too. However; crates, backpacks, dressers, etcetera = some may be empty when you look, and some may have items in them (but every Player who looks in them will have the same chance to get something in them as you do = it is random just like in the other Elder Scrolls games).

Looting the bodies of any enemy you have helped kill:

Not all bodies will be lootable; but the ones that are will give loot to everyone who contributed to the kill.



5. Lockpicking: Press down the tumblers slowly. When you feel the tumbler start to shake and make a rattling sound = release the pressure on the tumbler right away and it should lock into place. (if you hold it after it shakes or press it down further, it breaks the lockpick).



6. Look in the Crown Store for different markings; and also look in the "Crown Crates" section where you can buy items for "Gems." Different tattoos are offered every month or so in those two places.



7. If you get the "Plus" membership you can play all the DLC included in your membership; and decide which ones you want to keep. That is the best way to test them out.

The Plus membership can be purchased for just one month to test things out that you want to try; or you can pay for a longer period if you want all the benefits of it. (it has A LOT of benefits).


Some of the DLC are just two VERY hard dungeons; we get them once or twice per year. I always ignored those; you can never do those dungeons alone, and they are for very elite Players. (highest skilled in dungeon combat). I do not recommend buying any of them unless you join one of the elite Guilds that will train you to be at their level. (not many want you in their guild until you can do X amount of damage to dungeons bosses).

(So don't buy: Shadows of the Hist; Horns of the Reach; Dragonbones; Wolfhunter; Wrathstone; Scalecaller:



The ones that I always buy are the ones with new lands and new quests:

"The Dark Brotherhood" DLC gives you the area of Cyrodiil around Anvil, Kvatch = you get to visit all the same caves and Ayleid ruins from Oblivion's Anvil region!


"The Thieves Guild" gives you a section of the Redguard area of Hammerfell. ("Hews Bane")


"Orsinium" Gives you the Orc kingdom East of High Rock ("Wrothgar")


"Morrowind" Gives you the island of Vvardenfell. Vivec City, etc. = it is all there just like in the old Elder Scrolls game! (including Vivec himself!) Adds a new Class: "Wardens"


"Clockwork City" is Sotha Sil's area of fabrications = everything there is man-made beasts; like fabrications of mud crabs or daedra made of metal; kind of like the Dwemer enemies were. I think it is in Nocturnal's realm.

"Summerset" is Summerset Isles = the land of the Altmer. Adds the "Psijic" Skill line.


"Murkmire" is the Black Marsh region east of Cyrodiil. Argonian homeland.


"Elsweyr" will become a DLC next year around June. It is the Khajiit area due south of Skingrad (past the border below Cyrodiil). That DLC is Northern Elsweyr; and they are about to give us Southern Elsweyr next month. This DLC adds the "Necromancer" Class.

"Dragonhold" = is not out yet. It is coming out in November; and will be Southern Elsweyr.



ONLY if you like PvP = "Imperial City" = this is the Imperial City and the Imperial Sewers. It IS a PvP zone; so you WILL be attacked by other Players even if you have duels turned off = because they aren't dueling you, they are there just to kill you and the Daedra that have taken over the Imperial City.

"Imperial City" is a PvP zone, you don't go there unless you are ready to fight Players.