ESO – First Patch

Still enjoying ESO. I was pleased with the first patch yesterday. It addressed almost every problem I had encountered. Finally I could capture Balreth’s soul and continue the main storyline, which, as I expected, unlocked a whole string of other quests in the zone.

Based on just this one patch, I feel like Zenimax is going to release larger patches farther apart, rather than push out small patches frequently. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad. Their patch notes were not terrible, but I feel like they weren’t 100% complete either. (I am completely spoiled by Square Enix patch notes, though.)

Maybe I’m just burned out on grouping with people, but I’m finding that ESO lends itself more to playing by yourself. I just want to do my own thing at my own pace. Perhaps I am unconsciously afraid of reaching the max level too fast, for fear that there really is nothing to do but PvP.

Consequentially I keep finding excuses not to do Fungal Grotto, the first dungeon in my zone. Excuses like, “Oh, it’ll probably take too long.” Or, “Oh, I don’t want to hear people complain about my build.” Or, “Oh, I don’t understand how this grouping tool works.” Or, “Oh, I don’t really need any new gear.” Or, “Oh, I don’t want to out-level this zone.”

I need to watch my wallet more. I keep turning around to find that all my gold is gone. I’m so used to teleporting around in other games that I didn’t even realize how much it costs in ESO (a lot, if you teleport more than once within a fixed time period). And repair bills can be quite costly, too. At least, I’m assuming that’s what it is. I don’t think it’s possible to steal gold from other players.

I’m already running into a lack of inventory and bank space, which is one of the most annoying things to deal with in any MMO. If you like to gather everything you see like I do, you’re going to have problems. I had to make a couple of alts to hold materials that wouldn’t fit in the bank, and I’ve started to make a conscious choice to avoid picking up alchemy or enchanting materials. (Oh, the bank is shared among all characters, if you didn’t know, which is awesome.)

Another factor in the lack of inventory space is trait research. You research traits by breaking down items with the traits you want. Unfortunately it takes six hours of real time to research the first trait, and twelves hours for the second trait. (Presumably even more for the third and subsequent traits.) Which means you have to hang onto the researchable items for six hours or twelve hours or more until you’re ready to do new research. And you can probably imagine that you accumulate items at a much, much faster rate than one every six hours.

You can buy more bank space for 1000 gold, but it’s only 10 more slots and I’m guessing the cost only goes up. (That’s when I discovered it cost a lot of gold to travel and repair gear. I went to buy more bank space and discovered I didn’t have enough gold.)

I’m not quite sure how to make money, though. There is no auction house. I can craft things to sell, but do you really think I’m going to stand in town and spam, “wts awesome greatsword pst?” (I’m not, if the answer isn’t obvious.) There is a thing called a “guild store” but obviously you have to join a guild to explore that, and that runs counter to the hermit-like experience I’m favoring so far. (I made a 1-person guild but neither the guild bank or guild store is unlocked with only 1 person.)

Anyway, soon I’ll be moving out of the first zone and into the second, a place that is totally new to me.