The fantasy MMO The Elder Scrolls Online will not maintain the same pace in 2015 as it did in 2014. According to Game Director Matt Firor, it is time to let TESO breathe.
The Elder Scrolls Online was developed at full steam in 2014. Core systems of the game were completely overhauled, and new features such as the Justice and Champion system were developed. This extreme redesign of The Elder Scrolls Online will now come to an end, according to Game Director Matt Firor in a discussion on Reddit.
The focus is on Tamriel Unlimited and the console port
In the future, the focus will be more on bringing new adventures. The time for major system changes is over for now. So much new content has been brought in a short time that we need to take a breather and ensure everyone is on the same page. Alone with 1.6 comes a complete rebalancing of all abilities – we won’t do that again quickly, for example.
Update 6 will be the last major update before the launch on consoles. Currently, the focus is on bringing Tamriel Unlimited (the Buy2Play version) to PC and then managing the console launch.
The Game Director of The Elder Scrolls Online, Matt Firor, in the original text:
We are not going to keep up our 2014 pace of updates in 2015 – and our future update pace will focus more on new adventures and game experiences than system changes. It’s time to let the game breathe a little – we’ve done so many new features so quickly that we want to make sure everyone is on the same page with us. 1.6 alone has a complete rebalancing of most player abilities – we don’t want to do that again, for example. Our #1 priority right now is getting Tamriel Unlimited launched on PC, and then focusing on a successful console launch. While we do those things, we have other teams already working on DLC and expect to see that start rolling out at some point after console launch settles down.
Imperial City and Spellweaving?
In the same discussion on Reddit, players also ask about the two big ideas that are still missing from the planning. The Imperial City and its redesign of the PvP zone Cyrodiil and the Spellweaving, through which players can generate new abilities.
“Spellweaving” is still planned for the future. There was little concrete information about the “Imperial City” in the question session, likely because the PvP expert, Brian Wheeler, was not present.
After February, not much will likely happen in TESO until the end of the year
My MMO says: This may be the ugly side of the console transition now. In the coming months, not much else is likely to happen once Update 6 is here.
Next week, Update 6 is coming to the test server, it may go live in February, the transition to Buy2Play will occur in March, and the console port will be in June.
This is indeed a lot of work, without much changing for existing players in the world of Tamriel. Then perhaps at Zenimax, we will see that after the summer, in autumn and winter 2015, the first DLCs for The Elder Scrolls Online can be released, with new content, but probably without major changes to the game systems.
One can be curious about how all this will function: Especially since with Update 6 only a “provisional” Champion system and the first phase of the justice system will go live. The further phases of these systems, the Imperial City, and also the Spellweaving must then be planned as a “non-paid” part of DLCs towards the end of the year or for 2016.
These “DLCs” will more or less replace the current updates and have a paid part (new zones, dungeons, quests) and a “free” part that will then bring such “systems for everyone”. Or one can also detach them and then say: PvP with the Imperial City is only for subscribers. These will be exactly the important questions that will be raised in the future. What is premium content and what is part of the basic equipment in The Elder Scrolls Online?
We had predicted the console port in our forecast for September 2015, then there would have been more time to complete the existing plans. Apparently, Zenimax does not have that much time. A lot of work will now go into areas that do not directly and quickly benefit players. One can only hope that for PC players and TESO veterans there will not be a content drought from the end of February (Update 6 arrives) until the first DLC (maybe August/September).
The developer team of The Elder Scrolls Online answered Reddit users in a large question session. For the part that deals with the details of the console port, go here.
