The Elder Scrolls Online, the MMO based in fictional Tamriel, is making the free to play transition on Tuesday while changing its name to Tamriel Unlimited . The video above is featured on YouTube and takes us through the various changes and improvements Zenimax has in store for players of the MMO.
Six major content updates are cited, including “Veteran Dungeons,” which continues the story, “Craglorn,” a veteran adventure Zone, “Dragonstar Arena,” a 4-player survival event, “Trials,” featuring 12-player veteran challenges, “Cyrodil,” with improved campaigns & rule sets, and “Thieves & Champions,” featuring the justice system that went live in Update 6 along with new paths of Veteran character growth.
Players with Veteran characters will be able to become a thief and murderer of the various NPC’s that, up until now, have been safe from the ill intentions of the real life players. However, players who elect to indulge their darker side will be hunted by the guards and if caught, will suffer the consequences. With most of the citizens of Tamriel susceptible to attack and theft from their inventory, the possibilities of the system bring a unique interaction to the MMO. The higher your bounty level, the harder it will be to even walk into a town as the highest level will have shoot on sight orders for the guards. A complete breakdown of the Justice system can be found on the ESO Update 6 notes .
Other improvements include a new “dye” system for customizing your character’s outfit, improved facial animations, better spam filtering and bot detection, and new animations designed to provide more “impact” during battle. A bevy of other improvements are featured in the above video.
The Elder Scrolls Online itself has not been the runaway success Zenimax was hoping for. Skyrim , the single-player RPG, sold over 20 million copies whereas ESO has boasted only a million subscribers. Critics, like Polygon , gave the game average scores with a common feeling of indifference as it did not offer enough for the single player fans of Oblivion and Skyrim and nothing particularly enticing for MMO fans. In January it was revealed that ESO would be rebranded as Tamriel Unlimited and the game would go free to play for Windows and Mac as well as the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The transition takes place on March 17, 2015.
[Image Source: ESO ]
