Last night, the head of the fantasy MMO The Elder Scrolls Online, Matt Firor, released one of his letters to the fans. In it, he discusses the future and current development of The Elder Scrolls Online.
The approximate timeline of The Elder Scrolls Online extends beyond 2015 and outlines features
The most important thing is mentioned by Firor at the end. He organizes the major features that are planned and announced for the coming months on a rough timeline. He makes it clear that the plans will extend beyond the end of the year.
- “Relatively soon,” says Firor, fans could expect an improvement in group formation and new facial animations. Additionally, issues that currently separate players in a shared group will be addressed.
- “Soon” or “in a while,” the introduction of the Imperial City and the Champion System will be on the agenda.
- “A bit later,” as Firor puts it, players could then engage with the justice system and spell weaving. The justice system, the ability to crouch and then steal or kill, received the biggest applause at Quake-Con.
For the fifth update, there are plans for a revision of the combat system. According to Firor, fights should become more responsive. The first step has already been taken with the new weapon switch. The head of The Elder Scrolls Online does not provide exact dates apart from the change in the combat system.
Let’s think aloud for a moment: Since the Patch 1.4. is already on the test server and addresses some of the group issues, perhaps even the new facial animations could find their way into the game for 1.4. The fix for the “Madame Tussaud” syndrome looked so good at Quake-Con that not much polishing might be needed here.
By the end of the year, there would still be enough room for two more patches. For 1.5., perhaps the Champion System would be appropriate, and for 1.6., by the end of the year, the Imperial City, which might shake up PvP. But these are speculations. Equally sensible would be a thought process like: “1.4. was PvE, so we make 1.5. PvP and bring the Imperial City, and then return to PvE with 1.6.” Or with 1.5. there could be a more casual flavor patch, similar to 1.3, to buy time for significant changes later in the year. The content amount that the team is currently designing every 6 weeks is enormous.
The Elder Scrolls Online rewards loyal souls and resets the leaderboards
In new information, Firor announced that they want to introduce a kind of “loyalty bonus” to reward players who have an uninterrupted subscription. As the first gift, he promises an ice spirit. The loyalty system is set to be further developed. Players should recognize from afar: “A veteran is approaching me.”
Furthermore, they plan to reset the leaderboards for the trials. There have been exploits in the past that they have now identified. In the future, the group will presumably have to defeat all bosses in a trial to make it onto the leaderboard, as stated in Firor’s letter. This aims to exclude certain manipulations by Zenimax.
This was just a summary of part of the letter. We have only filtered out and compiled the new information. You can find the entire letter from Firor, in which he also discusses what has been done so far and what will come in 1.4., on the website of The Elder Scrolls Online.
