Elder Scrolls online going F2P

[robvp]

I knew this was coming since beta

 

[zinfamous]

Meaning it's still not F2P. Granted I haven't played SWTOR in a long time, but as a formerly screwed over subscriber of said title, I found out rather quickly that as a non-paying customer SWTOR was rather unplayable in it's F2P incarnation.

LOTRO and STO are the only two F2P games that I have played that have gotten F2P right imho. Well no, can't say that. Marvel Heroes also did F2P right - it actually got me to spend money and enjoy doing so.

SWTOR is F2P.

Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 are probably the icons of the BtP model.... and those are the only 2 MMO that I can think of that retain the same monetary model from their day of release.

Guild Wars 1 had 3 major expansion campaigns that you purchased separately, if you wanted, but that was it. It seems that GW2 has completely abandoned this and decided to release temporary content, which is rarely a single map, but mostly just a new plush hat and backpack every couple of weeks to satiate the furries that have overtaken large parts of that game :\ All those gem/real money purchases are purely cosmetic, and they are very successful. I really lament that GW2 abandoned the idea of releasing new content in the form of campaigns.

 

[asteldian]

Not in the slightest bit surprising, I'd probably recommend a fully F2P model like the one in Rift for anyone who needs an MMO fix, the beta of ESO was not particularly good.

I really couldn't recommend Rift to anyone, prior to F2P it was pretty good, but once it went F2P it went downhill. Ignoring the stuff you can actually buy, the fact that every merchant opens the bloody store is enough to hate their model.

As a sub game ESO had just got to the point where the sub was feeling worthwhile (it has come a long way) though until 1.6 is released I would not have been comfortable recommending the game yet. As a B2P game, I would be happy to recommend it to anyone, especially if they originally bought it and left in the early days.
Course, in 6 months time if the cash shop ends up like most F2P games then my opinion may change again. Here is hoping the Console release is a big success so that they don't need to milk the cash shop for money.

 

[gothamhunter]

1 week left. I'm pumped to jump back into it for a bit.

 

[lupi]

Does registering a retail copy give you anything extra/added benefits once it goes f2p?

 

[MeldarthX]

Hey I picked up for fairly cheap; I've been enjoying the quests so far and one class I'm playing.....like FFIV also they are both different

 

[asteldian]

Does registering a retail copy give you anything extra/added benefits once it goes f2p?

The benefit of registering a retail copy is that you can access the game
The game is going B2P, so you still need to purchase it.

 

[darkewaffle]

Still zero interest in it personally.

 

[Dahak]

Does registering a retail copy give you anything extra/added benefits once it goes B2P FTFY?

As per the FAQ at https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/

Sort of, the current retail copy will give you 30 days game time, but if you purchase a copy now and only register/activate it after the change over you will get crowns for having the game

There are several ways to get crowns:

1) As a new player: New players will be given a one-time gift of 500 crowns for buying the game and creating a game account.

2) As a current subscriber: If you are an active subscriber when The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited launches, you will receive 500 crowns for having a game account, plus 100 crowns for each 30-day period you have been an active subscriber. In addition, you'll be automatically enrolled in ESO Plus for the remainder of your subscription period. You'll receive the full benefits of membership, and 1500 crowns for each 30-day period remaining on your subscription. For example, if you have 30 days or less remaining, you will receive 1500 crowns. If you have between 30 and 60 days remaining, you will receive 3000 crowns. 60 to 90 days, 4500 crowns.

3) As a returning player: If you've previously played The Elder Scrolls Online, but are no longer a subscriber, you'll receive 500 crowns when you log in for having a game account, plus 100 crowns for each 30-day period you were a subscriber.

4) Purchase Crown Packs: PC/Mac players will be able to purchase crown packs from The Elder Scrolls Online store. Console players will be able to purchase crowns via the Xbox Live or PSN stores.

 

[lupi]

So if you buy right now and promptly register you'd get the 1500 crown level?

 

[Dahak]

Yes, That would be the way I read it too

 

[Wardawg1001]

I stopped played a while ago. I bought the game at release along with a 3-month sub. There is a lot to like about this game, but I stopped playing after about 2 months and just let my sub run out.

With all the time they have had to improve things and the impending removal of an on-going subscription fee, I decided to re-download it, get a 1-month sub, and see what kind of progress they have made.

The short answer is very little.

The long answer is that they have addressed quite a number of problems that used to exist - its much less buggy, class balance is improved overall, many underpowered/useless skills have been modified or complete overhauled, skill descriptions are much more informative in terms of what they actually do, and the champion system seems very interesting.

Unfortunately, all of the main reasons that made me stop playing in the first place have either not been addressed at all, have gotten worse, or have simply been replaced by other equally frustrating issues.

1. The campaigns are still utterly boring. More often than not everyone is just playing 'musical-keeps', with zergs from each side running around capturing whichever keep is undefended at the moment, and because it is so easy to take keeps, there is rarely enough time to rally even a small defensive force before the keep is conquered. On top of that, there is still no real strategic value to holding a keep besides its utility as a spawn point, and there is literally nothing to do inside or anywhere near the general vicinity of a keep for players to do, which is the primary reason that most keeps are completely undefended at all times except when they are being used as the spawn point for your zerg to attack another keep. This leads to two major issues - first, most keep assaults are essentially PvE engagements, while your zerg mercilessly slaughters the slow trickle of defenders running in from other nearby keeps. BORING. Second, because there is no reason to ever be at or around a keep that is not your spawn point, even a small well organized enemy group can conquer a keep in less time than it takes for you to re-spawn at the nearest friendly keep and run to it.

2. The lag and FPS issues. It's ever so slightly better than when I stopped playing months ago, but its still very much there and it still make fights of even 20v20 completely chaotic and unplayable. The delay between activating a skill and it actually going off is often in the 2-3 second range. In small scale pvp this can be dealt with on some level, but when you get hit with a stun and it takes 3 seconds for you 'break free' to activate, by the time it actually activates you've been hit by 7 different spells and you are already dead.

3. It seems they've finally managed to fix the perma-invis and invulerability bugs surrounding the vampire batswarm ultimate (an issue that plagued the game from release and was never fixed during my 2 or so months of playing), but these game breaking imbalances have just been replaced by others. There seems to be a bug now that literally lets you insta-kill just about anyone with a specific bow ability. For those unfamiliar with the stealth mechanics in ESO, any attack from stealth has a 100% chance to be a critical hit. There is a bow ability (it also happens to have the longest range of any ability in the game, and also is one of the highest single target damage abilities in the game) that hits for 10-15k damage when it crits. There is a bug that allows you to cast this ability twice at the same time, giving both attacks the benefit of a 100% crit chance, resulting in an instant 20-30k damage hit from a player you did not even know was there. For most players, this is instant death. The attacker then immediately re-stealths, and can repeat ad-nauseum. Often players roam in groups of 3-4 with these builds, allowing them to basically insta-kill anything and everything they come across with absolutely zero chance for their opponents to respond. The soul magic ultimate still has not been balanced - its a long range 3-second channeled ability that also applies a 70% slow on your target and can do upwards of 15k damage. If you're under 50% health, its basically a death sentence.

4. Actual keep battles where there are two opposing sides of semi-equal numbers are still just snoozefests. 45% of the battle is manning siege weapons (on both sides) for the outer walls, followed by a brief scuffle in the outer section of the keep which consists mostly of chasing down anyone who was foolish enough not to retreat into the inner keep. Then the next 45% of the battle is manning siege weapons in the inner section of the keep. Siege weapons are boring. Its boring buying them, its boring to man them, its boring to deal with constantly running around dodging their massive aoe damage. The final 10% of the battle is an actual battle between players in the inner keep - you know, the thing you actually want to be doing in a pvp game.

5. This relates back to point 1 - there is absolutely no sense of accomplishment for anything. I'll share my recent experience since re-downloading as an example. I logged in to my character yesterday, who was still in Cyrodiil. I noticed my side had managed to attain an recently Emperor (you get this when you simultaneously control all 6 of the inner keeps). We also had both of our Elder Scrolls and one of our enemies scrolls, but we were clearly starting to lose ground, and had lost control of all but 2 of the inner keeps. I played for a couple hours, helped to defend one of our keeps, and participated in a failed attempt to capture an enemy keep. About 80% of this time was spent just trying to get to the main battles, as I was constantly being killed by 2-3 man stealth groups who can easily unload 50k+ damage on you before you even realize they are there. The other 20% of the time was primarily sitting around shooting siege engines at or from on top of walls. But I digress. The next morning I log in, no more than 6-7 hours later, and my faction has lost ALL of our scrolls, and controls only one of our base keeps. Now that our enemies had taken everything we had, we spent the next two hours conquering empty keeps because the enemy had absolutely no reason to hold on to them, and thus no reason to defend them. This evening I log in, and we have managed to take back both of our scrolls and another enemy scroll. This is no different than the Cyrodiil experience back during launch.

The pvp in this game is fun and interesting (when its not lagged to high hell, and when you can avoid the players abusing game-breaking bugs), but pvp for the sake of pvp gets old eventually, especially when 80% of the time you spend 'pvping' consists of running around empty landscapes and is really just pve in disguise. There is no permanence or persistence of any kind in the Cryodiil landscape. You spend 8 hours coordinating your alliance to conquer all of the inner keeps and crown an emperor, go to sleep, and the next morning the entire landscape has changed. Everything you accomplished meant nothing, it was wiped out in a matter of hours while you weren't even around. Is this necessarily a bad thing? Not entirely. It means theres always something to fight over. But when the amount of pvp you actually get to do is about 20% of the time you spend in the game, and most of that time is ruined by game-breaking balance issues and mind-numbingly boring shooting siege weapons at walls, it all becomes very monotonous very quickly.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Thanks for the detailed update, that sounds very non-fun. Are there PVE-only servers for carebears like me?

 

[asteldian]

The PvP aspect are 'campaigns' within the server. So yes, the whole server is PvE, with the option to enter a PvP zone (Cyrodil) if you choose.
I only dabble in PvP so thankfully it is fun for me, but I couldn't imagine spending most my time there. In reality, time has been spent on the PvE aspect of the game to sort out the major issues there, I think it is undeniable that PvP has been left unloved so far.

 

[shortylickens]

I'll play it for free. But I'm still waiting on a new single player title from Bethesda.

 

[lupi]

Just skimmed last night, but looks like most places still selling it at full price.

 

[cronos]

Just skimmed last night, but looks like most places still selling it at full price.

Are you expecting that the price will be discounted when this BTP hits?

 

[Craig234]

This is not a surpise. Was "known" a month or so ago when sites started talking about it after they pulled down the long term subscription offers.

So, if you bought one the month before...

I'd think lifetime subs might be getting hard to sell with mostly every MMO except WoW and Eve going F2P/B2P.
'
I remember when those - with prices like $300 - could seem like a good idea.

 

[Genx87]

EVE is going F2P? Veeeery interesting!

 

[Craig234]

I really couldn't recommend Rift to anyone, prior to F2P it was pretty good, but once it went F2P it went downhill. Ignoring the stuff you can actually buy, the fact that every merchant opens the bloody store is enough to hate their model.

I don't know what you're talking about.

I think Rift is easy to recommend to most. I'd summarize it as 'World of Warcraft as F2P, without the same quality of the gameworld - somewhat more generic - but all kinds of improvements as well, where they seem to try to improve on features of WoW, and add other things'. It has a lot more going on as in-game activities than I remember with WoW.

I think they're both very good games. Rift did weaken its PvP last expansion, removing PvP gear from the game, but PvE is fine.

The latest expansion won an 'MMO expansion of the year' award.

The game gives a lot for free - all zones, all raids, etc. You have to spend $5 one time (on anything) to use the auction. Most class builds are free, a fraction are for sell.

It has the typical limitations - fewer storage slots etc. - but offers a lot of game for free.

When you open a merchant in Rift, it does not open the store - but the store isn't something obnoxious, it's actually a very nice feature.

Wherever you are in the game, you can open the store, and buy things without having to travel to in-game merchants.

It sells both 'cash items' and in-game items, but it doesn't really cause any problem.

What got a little dodgy with the latest expansion is that you need to get the expansion package for some gear - the new earring slots and some gear requiring it.

But even those things, you can get for in-game currency. You have to pay 'credits' that cost money, but it's easy to buy those credits from other players for in-game money.

And even if you buy the basic expansion, it's $25, not too bad.

I think Rift is worth looking at for people who want an MMO. It has its own nice things.

I like the 'artifact' system, though there's something to be said for how it used to work - look carefully in hidden places to find them - instead of the new 'tracking' system where you see them on the mini-map, if you bought the subscription. But it's still a nice addition to gameplay.

The dimension system seems quite good for people who like to build player-instanced areas.

Just this week they almost lost a lot of my support by demanding that three of my four characters that have been there for four years have to change their names, but I sent them a note and they changed that to one character. It seems quite possible to play the game for free if someone wants to, though I'd say the $5 for auction is a good idea.

It's not perfect - while it claims to be very much 'build any skills you like' - there are still a few 'best picks' you pretty much need to get guides for and follow at the high end.

One feature some like is called 'instant adventures', where you are placed in a random location with other people with quests to do, one after another, as long as you like.

Another is how the game lets you benefit from other activities by letting you change your level and get the rewards for whatever. Feel like playing that old zone? Sure, no problem.

 

[lupi]

It doesn't sound like they sold nearly as many copies as they thought they would, so wouldn't have been surprised to see retailers mark it down. Plus I haven't seen any mmo keep a release at full price for an extended period of time.

 

[Wardawg1001]

Thanks for the detailed update, that sounds very non-fun. Are there PVE-only servers for carebears like me?

As someone else mentioned, the campaigns I was speaking of are a strictly separate area of the game for PvP only (and entirely optional - if you have no interest in pvp, there is no reason to ever go there). The rest of the world is 100% pve. If you're looking for a good pve experience, I'd certainly give ESO a try. Even at release it was pretty good. I haven't actually played any of the pve part of the game since probably my 3rd week in, but every time I read patch notes they are about 90% dedicated to fixing pve related bugs and what not, so I would imagine its in a very good state right now. No need to worry about things like lag or fps issues either, those are strictly limited to the large scale pvp battles in campaigns. I run a smooth 90+ fps at 1920x1080 with all settings maxed in pve zones.

 

[Dahak]

I had enjoyed it enough initial at release but did not feel like it was enough to hold my attention to warranty a monthly fee.

I will be giving it another shot once it goes B2P and the justice and the new champion systems seem decent, hard to say what it will be like until I play it

 

[StinkyPinky]

I enjoyed it. I played it entirely solo and had fun, although I did do some PvP in Cyrodil which had its fun moments but also waaay too much downtime. I will take another look.

 

[BurnItDwn]

Meh, I was kinda interested in checking it out, though Id much rather just pay a monthly set fee and not have to deal with all their adds or microtransaction scam type garbage.