Bethesda have announced The Elder Scrolls Online‘s first big update: an entirely new Adventure Zone, “Craglorn”. Creative Director for TESO, Paul Sage, explains in a video blog how the new region is aimed at veteran level 10 players in parties of four to twelve – with twelve-player groups benefiting the most from Craglorn’s “special content”. Craglorn introduces challenging dungeons, a roster of daily side quests and large group PvE Trials which can potentially reward high-ranking guilds. There is – unsurprisingly – a story tying this all together.
“When you first enter Craglorn there’s going to be a mystery that’s set up,” Sage explains, “The constellations are missing from the sky and you’re going to hear rumour of these being called ‘celestials’, and they are The Warrior, The Mage, The Serpent and The Thief. How they’re impacting Craglorn and what’s going on is going to be what your group discovers.”
Craglorn has a hub of civilisation; a great city where players can expect to find the usual accoutrements and be able to band together to take on the regions various challenges. These challenges include the mini-dungeons known as “Delves”, which will all contain a Sky Shard and a minor boss fight. The keyword in this announcement seems to be ‘challenge’. Zenimax Online want guilds to exist for more than friendly cooperation, which is probably why they’ve set up the 12-player Trials.
“Designed specifically for groups of twelve, Trials are really for the best of the best,” says Sage, “Once you begin you’ll have to overcome a lot of challenges, such as environmental hazards. There’s a lot of different monsters we throw at you and, of course, there are boss monsters that use interesting tactics that you haven’t encountered anywhere in the game before.”
“You have a timer that you’re up against and you also have a limited number of resurrections that your group is allowed. As you go through the trials, we’re going to be tracking your time – and those resurrections? They count against that time. If your group turns in one of the best times, you’re going to make it to the leaderboards. And if you make it to the top of those leaderboards you’re going to get rewards. It’s the ultimate challenge in The Elder Scolls Online.”
Gamers everywhere are asking whether or not that £8.99 ($14.99) subscription fee is worth it. Well, chaps, we want to hear from you if you’re an Elder Scrolls Online player. What are your thoughts on this new content? Does it measure up to the kind of experiences you wanted from this MMORPG?