With patch 1.6 finally on the PTS and our review of its major changes being out, I think it’s time I sit down and have a one sided discussion with Zenimax. I’ve sat idly by enjoying all the fantastic content and changes that ZOS has been doing to the game but there are areas of The Elder Scrolls Online that haven’t seen any love since the launch of the game almost a year ago and they need to be addressed.
Content Updates
While ZOS has managed to adhere to a pretty regular schedule for content updates, it’s been stated by Matt Firor and Paul Sage that we won’t be seeing anything new until after the console release has settled down. Now consoles aren’t slated to release until June, 4 months from the time of this article. If we’re waiting for it to settle down add another two months to that. Six months from now is when we’ll see our next major update to the game. Of course between now and then we’ll still have our incremental updates which will fix bug patches but nothing new in terms of content. I’ve discussed this very thing in a previous column, so I’ll try not to rehash that even though it is extremely important.
In an interview by ESO Off The Record, Paul Sage was asked about Enforcers, the justice part of the newly implemented justice system in patch 1.6
Q: Will enforcer’s tabards be available anytime soon?
A: We need the enforcers system first before we put out the tabards, but it’s on our development backlog. But it won’t be till after console release.
So we won’t be seeing the completion of the justice system until sometime after console release. I know that ZOS wants to ensure that patch 1.6 is completely polished so they can release it on consoles and have as little hiccups as possible, but because of this the PC players have to suffer with doing the same content that we’ve been doing since November. I don’t know about you, but I’ve pretty much completed all that content.
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With consoles being released in June, we all suspected that they’d be releasing it without the Veteran Rank system, why would they release a game on a new platform with the premise that a major part of it is going to be removed sometime after? Why would you release a game for new players to spend countless hours grinding their way to VR14 only to have all that progress and time investment removed shortly after?
Let’s not forget about the character copy that some players will be able to do. Not only does this mean there could be instant VR14 characters in PvP, but all those new players will be at a major disadvantage when it comes to PvP.
Implementing the removal of Veteran Ranks prior to the consoles release is the logical choice. If they do this it will have players wanting to buy the game sooner instead of waiting for the removal to happen, but it’ll place those new players on a much more equal playing field in PvP, making it a more enjoyable experience for everyone. Even with the cyrodiil boost, new players will be as powerful as any Level 50 minus their champion points. This will of course give that player an advantage but nothing compared to the advantage a VR14 player has now over a cyrodiil boosted player.
Cyrodiil
This is an aspect of the game that hasn’t seen a single update with the exception of lag performance updates since the game launched back in April. We’ve heard so much about upcoming changes they have planned for Cyrodiil but we’ve never seen anything actually get implemented into the game. What ever happened to Imperial City? When I had the pleasure of going to the Guild Summit back in October I got to see the Imperial City. I saw the dungeons, the mechanics they had planned for it, while we provided the development team with some serious feedback on it, it felt like this was a large aspect of the game they were working on and planning to implement soon. However, that does not feel like the case anymore. Anytime this topic is brought up it is usually pushed aside with the comment “We’re looking heavily into PvP right now”.
