ESO unlimited.

That's right folks, the buy to play version is here a day early!  For those who have been waiting, start those downloads!  You can play already!

Just a PSA.

My partner didn't download the game because he says the reason we left wasn't fixed :c

I has a sad...

What was the reason for you guys leaving, Kitty?  Mine was performance, mostly, but since its not costing me a monthly fee now, I'm hoping to overlook that.  I just had better performing games to play for $15 a month when I decided to quit.

On the note of downloading... holy crap, this is slow.  Its been 20-30m, only @ 4% and I have a rather large pipe that's supposedly downloading @ 4-7 MB/s... o.O

Our main reason was similar to Melchom's reason.

We had to play solo the main story bosses, quests cannot be shared, if you chose something different you cannot help your friend/partner/guild-buddy, it felt too single player and I already own Skyrim with all the DLCs. It broke my heart when I first noticed this, that you cannot fight bosses in a group, so I had to watch how my partner couldn't get past certain missions and get really frustrated.

I have to agree ESO could use some quality-of-life improvements, and hopefully that's on the teams list of things to do.  :)

It does feel good to be back though and not have to pay for it. xD

Kitty:

It broke my heart when I first noticed this, that you cannot fight bosses in a group, so I had to watch how my partner couldn't get past certain missions and get really frustrated.

 

That is really crummy to have to hear, i wish it were different.  :(

» Edited on: 2015-03-17 05:53:25

Yeah, they really made it so that you can't just play any way you want on those main and guild questlines.  Then they kept nerfing them, because people were upset.  *I wouldn't be surprised if he could beat them now, given how much they reduced some of the pre-vet difficulty with those special quests as a focus.*

"It broke my heart when I first noticed this, that you cannot fight bosses in a group, so I had to watch how my partner couldn't get past certain missions and get really frustrated."

Honestly that was one of the big breaking points for me and my girlfriend as well. There was one I made a joke of, first time you fight manimarco I think, then she got to it and try after try she was just struggling with and I felt like trash not being able to help her. It was a slow downhill slide out of the game for us after that.

Thinking about coming back to the game.  I typically run around solo anyway unless there's some guild events I'm able to make.  

While there are still a few quests that are tied to the character and play like a single player game, most of the world can be enjoyed with others.  From what I understand only the Main quest, Fighters Guild, and Mages guild quests are "solo" instances.  Even then, only certain parts are truly instanced to one single player, this is usually the final boss.

In addition, they have scaled many of these fights and made them much less challenging.  For instance, the main quest in Stonefalls where you fight Balreth (giant bone colossus) is quite a bit easier.  Last time through as a DPS character he didn't even make it across to the opposite lava pool once before I killed him.  In addition, they also have a system in place that will start making the solo instances easier each time you die inside the instance.  Not sure how effective this is and how drastic it is, but it starts taking affect after just your first death.

For those that left because of this concern, and I agree it was a very real and valid concern, I believe ZoS has done a fine job of alleviating this issue.  Of course there still are dynamic areas that will cause problems.  I believe most factions have at least one "town" that is taken over by the undead or enemy forces and needs to be liberated.  Upon liberating the town shops and the likes open.  This is similar to many other MMO's out there, but in the grand scheme the make up a fractionally small part of the total game content.  I very much encourage those of you out there to give it another go.

Hope to see many of my departed friends and family back in Tamriel soon!

Aaaannnddd downloaded

...and still downloading ....  wow this thing is only at 68% and I have been downloading all morning.  Lots of updates, because I was just at 100 so megs, now I am back over 4500 again. 

Downloading.......

Would be a nice consideration to let Unlimited accounts download at faster speeds.  Ya know, as a perk for paying.

The downloader is... not the best piece of programming I have ever seen.  That aside, it works.  Eventually.  *Yeah, not really a fan of this downloader.*

Yeah the downloader/updater can become a bit of a pain in the neck, especially since some of these hefty updates are actually quite frequent.

As TN pointed out, I think you will find the level of difficulty of some bosses has been dramatically reduced. Also, in terms of the solo story lines (harborage etc), ESO has implemented a fix for each failed attempt, the level of difficulty declines.  

In terms of grouping, I cannot say what happens when you make a different outcome choice to that of your questing partner.  But I have noticed after playing with a friend last weekend, a lot of the shared quests we got credit for regardless of who loots the item, kills the target, etc and so on.

Bottom line, ESO is going to require you solo at least a few of your adventures and I doubt they will ever change that.  But for probably 80% of the quests out there you can group.  

Hope to see more of you soon in game!

Having tested and played this thing almost every do I could since May of 2013 here is my take on the changes.

1) Solo instanced stuff scales to level, but is way better balanced than it was.  Your chance of NEVER getting that solo stuff done is not going to happen.  Sure some will kill you depending on your build and play style, but even some of the really funky things I'v tried, I managed to figure out how to win.

2) There are still quests where you need to coordinate with your partner to stay on the same path, but I think they are not the norm, but still watch for them.  Most of the quests don't have major choices and some that do actually do not always cause an instance issue.  There are at least one or two areas that tend to have instanced issues per zone based on if you completed the area or not.  Instancing is more based on whether you completed the area or did not, which is not an issue when working together.  Again, when working with a partner or team, just take your time on quest choices just to be sure everyone stays on the same page.  It's not that hard to do and will probaly only need to even be a concern 10% of the time.

3) Some quests let groups gain completion credits together.  One person does something and everyone gets credit.  This really helps when you have to pick up or do a certain number of things.  This not always the case, but this change did help immensely in some of the worse areas.

4) On the note of looting - NO ONE can loot what you looted.  The treasure chests cannot be looted by someone else if you looted it.  They had that fixed in beta, if I remember correct, because I don't recall the issue ever in live and if it was in live it didn't last past the first month for sure.  All crates, dressers, barrels, trunks, etc are yours and yours alone.  Okay, you still have to fight over harvesting nodes, but the lootables are based on if you had looted it or not and someone else can't come empty it out on ya.  This all was changed really really early in the game.

Don't expect massive group things to go well in the game, but we can group up better for them Map Romps (map clears of dolmens, world bosses, delves and the public dungeon).  They made it so if at least one person in your four man group within a larger group hits enough the whole group gets credit for the boss.  This helped immensely though I personally would still prefer a group of no more than 12 just for spacing in some places and being sure everyone actually gets to do things rather than managing credit for running along behind.

Sure this game has issues that turn people off, but every game has that.  You just need to try for yourself to see if it is worth it or not.  In the end you will only be losing time if things are not fixed enough for you - download update time and play time to see what you think.

I am on Cox Cable 100mb plan and it took like maybe 30-45 minutes to download??  Maybe a bit less.

Hello. I decided to try the game now that it's Free To Play with purchase of the game. My main is Longmeadow (Greylocke was taken). Please add me ingame!

My wife had never played a first person computer game before ESO. The WSAD keys were completely foreign to her. Timed jumps were an adventure. She could not keep her view angle to see the monsters. Yet, she persevered.  We played Beta together and it took me 10 tries to kill Gutripper (mages guild first quest). She must have tried over a hundred times. I tried to help by looking over her shoulder and gently giving suggestions. That lasted until she gave me the ISD (Icy Stare of Death). Eventually, I just played her character through. She got better with a lot of practice and I only needed to help her a few times after that.

When the game went live, I made sure she had decent gear and she crushed Gutripper. I recently ran a level 9 alt through that quest. The alt is primarily used for crafting so he only has a total of 4 skill points to use. He is wearing junk armor and has no potions or food. Gutripper died in seconds without ever getting off of the platform. I would say that they have made the solo quests too easy. But I understand why. 

BTW, my wife now pickpockets Guards and steals everything not nailed down. I am amazed at how far she has come. 

Indeed the "solo" and normal questing aspect of ESO is pretty straight forward and easy.  Even Dolmens aren't terribly hard and most classes can solo them with the right build.  The same goes for World Bosses and public dungeons as well.  Of course Dolmens and Public dungeons are always more fun with friends.

Now it terms of challenging game play there is plenty.  Veteran Dungeons and even regular dungeons scaled up are quite challenging.  In addition to the normal 4 man dungeons, you also have Dragonstar Arena, both normal and Vet version, that is even more challenging for a 4 man.  In fact, Vet Dragonstar Arena is currently the most challenging 4 man content and some of the most challenging PvE content overall.  You also have the 12 man trials which are quite challenging.

ESO was challenged with trying to blend the single player Elder Scrolls experience with the generic MMO experience.  The result is a "single player" type leveling experience (1-50 and even up to VR14), and group focused end-game content.  Overall this is very similar to most modern MMO's in that you can achieve max level with little or no outside help.  Gone are the days of classic games like Everquest in which a group was in fact needed just to level.

Now, while I say that the leveling process is "single player," this does not in any way mean that you cannot enjoy it with a leveling partner, or even an entire group like the map clear events.  In fact it will just make things more enjoyable and a little quicker is all.