[Interview] Elder Scrolls Online: Brian Wheeler Talks PvP and 'Darkness Falls'

BillMurphy

We recently caught up with Elder Scrolls Online lead PvP designer Brian Wheeler to discuss all things PvP and Alliance War in ESO, including the possibility of adding a 'Darkness Falls' type space to Cyrodiil.

Read more of Michael Bitton's Elder Scrolls Online: Brian Wheeler Talks PvP and 'Darkness Falls'.

Aoern1

Cant wait for this game. Hope I get a chance to try the beta.

Hengist

Good interview, positive news on the idea of a Darkness Falls style dungeon!

Ilaya

Nice to read that and about DF....man.....when that comes into the Game im soooo LOST

Cougan

It will likely be the Imperial City you can enter as the big dungeon that only your faction can access when you have the surrounding keeps or emperorship maybe...comeon

umcorian

"I don’t want to give away too much, obviously, like you said, but when you come across a vampire or a werewolf, you’ll know it, and you’ll be like, “Oh! I need to become a vampire or werewolf as well!”"

 

So in order to be optimized for PvP... you need to become a vampire or a werewolf? I don't know if that was something he just said in the heat of a live interview and just phrased it wrong, or if that's actually true.

 

If it is true... wow. That's horrible. 

 

 

 

Nithir

Originally posted by umcorian

"I don’t want to give away too much, obviously, like you said, but when you come across a vampire or a werewolf, you’ll know it, and you’ll be like, “Oh! I need to become a vampire or werewolf as well!”"

 

So in order to be optimized for PvP... you need to become a vampire or a werewolf? I don't know if that was something he just said in the heat of a live interview and just phrased it wrong, or if that's actually true.

 

If it is true... wow. That's horrible. 

 

 

 

 That's not how i read it, more like you'll notice its a wampire or a werewolf, and you'll want to be one aswell cus it looks awesome, not cus they are op as he said they aren't.

 

 

umcorian

He said "It’s not overpowering by like having an “I Win” button or anything like that..."

 

That's not exactly giving me the warm and fuzzies. It doesn't have to be an I-Win Button before people start saying: "If you aren't a Vampire or Werewolf, you're doing it wrong." 

 

If it's even a slight edge in any way, *every* serious PVPer is going to be one. 

Keller

@ Mr Bitton, you forgot to ask if Character Collision will be implemented in PvP. 

systemstryker

He said in a previous interview, vamp's and werewolf's have counter skills.

Draemos

Originally posted by umcorian

"I don’t want to give away too much, obviously, like you said, but when you come across a vampire or a werewolf, you’ll know it, and you’ll be like, “Oh! I need to become a vampire or werewolf as well!”"

 

So in order to be optimized for PvP... you need to become a vampire or a werewolf? I don't know if that was something he just said in the heat of a live interview and just phrased it wrong, or if that's actually true.

 

If it is true... wow. That's horrible. 

 

 

 

No.

Werewolves take 50% more damage from poison and lose access to their  normal abilities while transformed.

Vampires take 50% more damage from fire and have a health regen debuff.  Just FYI, there is A LOT of sources of fire damage in this game.

Both of them are HIGHLY vulnerable to Fighters Guild skills, which do extra damage/effects to undead/daedra and werewolves (with a passive).

When he says, "you'll know it", it's because it's obvious by the fact your fighting a giant wolf or because they're using specific abilities, like drain essence/batswarm/mistform.  They are very strong skill trees, but they have extremely  potent weaknesses that are easy to manipulate. 

For instance, as a vampire you are not going to want to tangle with a destruction staff dragonknight unless you want your shit wrecked.  As a werewolf, you really aren't going to be happy if you happen to run into an archer (bows have lots of poison attacks) who's using Silver Bolts ( a fighters guild skill).

It's a self balancing system.  The more Werewolves and Vampires, the more people that will utilize Fire/Poison/Fighters guild skills to counter them.  The more people that use those skills, the less beneficial it becomes to be a Vampire/Werewolf.

Niivag

I want to see Cavalry at some point. Open field pvp in a medieval setting....gotta have that.

Ilaya

Originally posted by umcorian

"I don’t want to give away too much, obviously, like you said, but when you come across a vampire or a werewolf, you’ll know it, and you’ll be like, “Oh! I need to become a vampire or werewolf as well!”"

So in order to be optimized for PvP... you need to become a vampire or a werewolf? I don't know if that was something he just said in the heat of a live interview and just phrased it wrong, or if that's actually true.

If it is true... wow. That's horrible. 

Sometimes a Cigar is just a Cigar.

umcorian

Originally posted by Draemos

Originally posted by umcorian

"I don’t want to give away too much, obviously, like you said, but when you come across a vampire or a werewolf, you’ll know it, and you’ll be like, “Oh! I need to become a vampire or werewolf as well!”"

 

So in order to be optimized for PvP... you need to become a vampire or a werewolf? I don't know if that was something he just said in the heat of a live interview and just phrased it wrong, or if that's actually true.

 

If it is true... wow. That's horrible. 

 

 

 

No.

Werewolves take 50% more damage from poison and lose access to their class abilities while transformed.

Vampires take 50% more damage from fire and have a health regen debuff.

Both of them are HIGHLY vulnerable to Fighters Guild skills, which do extra damage/effects to undead/daedra and werewolves (with a passive).

When he says, "you'll know it", it's because it's obvious by the fact your fighting a giant wolf or because they're using specific abilities, like drain essence.  They are very strong skill trees, but they have extremely prevelant weaknesses that are easy to manipulate. 

For instance, as a vampire you are not going to want to tangle with a destruction staff dragonknight unless you want your shit wrecked.  As a werewolf, you really aren't going to be happy if you happen to run into an archer (bows have lots of poison attacks) who's using Silver Bolts ( a fighters guild skill).

It's a self balancing system.  The more Werewolves and Vampires, the more people that will utilize Fire/Poison/Fighters guild skills to counter them.  The more people that use those skills, the less benefitial it becomes to be a Vampire/Werewolf.

Ahhh okay. Thanks for the clarification. 

 

elcrist

Originally posted by Keller
@ Mr Bitton, you forgot to ask if Character Collision will be implemented in PvP. 

^that. Seriously Zenimax, keep assault/defense w/o collision detection? What the hell...?

Nemesis7884

Originally posted by umcorian

"I don’t want to give away too much, obviously, like you said, but when you come across a vampire or a werewolf, you’ll know it, and you’ll be like, “Oh! I need to become a vampire or werewolf as well!”"

 

So in order to be optimized for PvP... you need to become a vampire or a werewolf? I don't know if that was something he just said in the heat of a live interview and just phrased it wrong, or if that's actually true.

 

If it is true... wow. That's horrible. 

 

 

 

vampires get pretty severe drawbacks afaik - their health regen drops the longer they go without feeding and they are very sensitive to fire...besides, they are considered undead and the fighters guild skills all do significantly more damage to undead - honestly, i think it might rather be a drawback in pvp to be a vampire cause as soon as other people realise it, you will get nailed by silver bolts... not sure about ww tough

 

Telondariel

I'm willing to wager their version of Darkness Falls will be the focus of the first expansion.  It will sell like hotcakes.

 

 

dontadow

I think flipping keeps will always be a problem if there is nothing to do in the keep while you wait to be attacked.

Wouldn't it be cool if you capture a keep, and then you could develop a small village in that keep earning beneits, places to sell wears, rare items etc. maybe even rare and licrative dungeons underneath them.

iseldiera

Thank you for this wonderful interview. The design where the attention is diverted from keep flipping and certain mechanics are being placed to prevent kill trading are welcome news. The old school shadowbane or daoc PvP centered around small to medium groups's actions which created content for players. You did not need to create 4 dungeons every 2 months to keep your playerbase, their meaningful interaction as well as the bonds as the friends and the enemy created the incentive to play. Kill a person at night, brag about it / taunt him next day on ign boards. That's why daoc was so much fun and successful and I am also hoping they are trying to find ways to encourage this kind of community formation among players.

 

Regarding the dev's statement "a single PvE space that only one alliance has access to at a time" on Darkness Falls, it has to be noted that the "catch" was being able to log off inside DF even after when your realm lost control to it, and if you were the stealther type that knew what he/she was doing, you could take on a dangerous journey to get to the current realm's starting zone in the dungeon and hunt down newbies that were pve ing there. This created an amazing opportunity for the skilled, and was a perfect implementation of the "higher risk higher reward" for them lowbies coming to pve in the dungeon. Without this mechanic, just opening the doors to the realm that controls it, is not enough.

 

I am also EXTREMELY happy to hear they are addressing the bow impact issue, especially problematic when you are defending a keep or doing a mass scale pvp. The impact of melee hits also is a serious immersion issue and I am hoping these will be fixed soon.

 

Since 2004, I have not been excited about any game. Thank you guys.

 

 

 

Sovrath

Originally posted by dontadow

I think flipping keeps will always be a problem if there is nothing to do in the keep while you wait to be attacked.

Wouldn't it be cool if you capture a keep, and then you could develop a small village in that keep earning beneits, places to sell wears, rare items etc. maybe even rare and licrative dungeons underneath them.

I agree. I was hoping a group could hold on to the property longer, perhaps generating tax revenue or something.

In lineage 2 you would have access to a specific dungeon for your clan/alliance once you held certain castles. You could also get money and benefits.

Having said that, I do love sieges the best so perhaps that will be fun in and of itself over the long term.

LisaFlexy22

Good that they are working on a few of the combat issues people have been complaining about and not just writing it off as not a big deal.

Hrotha

Originally posted by Aoern1
Cant wait for this game. Hope I get a chance to try the beta.

Just apply on the official site and in the next Beta, March, you will be in.

Arndush

Originally posted by umcorian

Originally posted by Draemos

Originally posted by umcorian

"I don’t want to give away too much, obviously, like you said, but when you come across a vampire or a werewolf, you’ll know it, and you’ll be like, “Oh! I need to become a vampire or werewolf as well!”"

 

So in order to be optimized for PvP... you need to become a vampire or a werewolf? I don't know if that was something he just said in the heat of a live interview and just phrased it wrong, or if that's actually true.

 

If it is true... wow. That's horrible. 

 

 

 

No.

Werewolves take 50% more damage from poison and lose access to their class abilities while transformed.

Vampires take 50% more damage from fire and have a health regen debuff.

Both of them are HIGHLY vulnerable to Fighters Guild skills, which do extra damage/effects to undead/daedra and werewolves (with a passive).

When he says, "you'll know it", it's because it's obvious by the fact your fighting a giant wolf or because they're using specific abilities, like drain essence.  They are very strong skill trees, but they have extremely prevelant weaknesses that are easy to manipulate. 

For instance, as a vampire you are not going to want to tangle with a destruction staff dragonknight unless you want your shit wrecked.  As a werewolf, you really aren't going to be happy if you happen to run into an archer (bows have lots of poison attacks) who's using Silver Bolts ( a fighters guild skill).

It's a self balancing system.  The more Werewolves and Vampires, the more people that will utilize Fire/Poison/Fighters guild skills to counter them.  The more people that use those skills, the less benefitial it becomes to be a Vampire/Werewolf.

Ahhh okay. Thanks for the clarification. 

 

One more thing, if you go up the Fighter's Guild skill line you get a whole bunch of attacks specifically designed to after Werewolves and Vampires.

Swids2010

Ive got a comment in that video of siege gameplay you can quite clearly tell there is impact when a guy hit the other with his mace you clearly hear it ding of armour and another bit you see blood splatter after a sword slashes someone.

I keep seeing people talk about how there is no visible impact so are they talking crap or is it just in this vid to make it look better

Arndush

Originally posted by Swids2010

Ive got a comment in that video of siege gameplay you can quite clearly tell there is impact when a guy hit the other with his mace you clearly hear it ding of armour and another bit you see blood splatter after a sword slashes someone.

I keep seeing people talk about how there is no visible impact so are they talking crap or is it just in this vid to make it look better

There is some feedback and it's good enough for PVE content, but I think it needs to be a little clearer for PVP. Especially when using a bow. I've had some friends voice concerns over the bow in PVP. However, all the feedback I've heard from Zenimax says they are aware of the concerns and are looking into ways to fix it. So, that's somewhat comforting.

Talemire

"MMORPG:  One thing that stood out to me in AvA is that I sometimes had trouble telling if I was hitting someone with my bow. Do you have any plans for a sort of hit indicator or something like that?

Brian Wheeler: Yeah, there’s actually some things we’re looking at internally right now, where we’re trying to give hitting both players and NPCs a little bit more impact. We have in there right now, if you show the health bars, it’ll do a little bit of a flash when you hit a target, but feedback has been asking for some more of that, especially for melee impact, so we’re looking at that right now. For the time being, if you turn on health bars, it’ll do a small little flash when you hit them to help out. It is tough to tell when you’re dealing with 40 or 50 people in front of you that are all enemies, but like I said, we’re trying to figure out some things for that now."

 

Well folks, there you have it. They've heard you and they're making improvements! I personally haven't yet experienced it, but what I can absolutely agree with is the importance of combat in a game, as it's something we will be doing all the time. It has to aesthetically feel good! Definitely glad they're not turning a deaf ear to certain aspects of the game like many other companies do.