The Elder Scrolls Online: Greymoor Coming to Google Stadia

Now that the Greymoor expansion for The Elder Scrolls Online is up and running, the developers can focus on bringing their MMORPG to Google Stadia. The Stadia version is currently set to go live on June 16, 2020, and if you’d like to learn more about it, you should check out this WCCFTech interview with Zenimax Online’s Eric Buhlman. A couple of sample questions:

Good to know. I understand that Elder Scrolls Online Stadia will include the Morrowind chapter, correct?

Right. Yep, our base game is going to include the Morrowind chapter which is really good for new players, just because it has a refined tutorial. So we felt that that was important to include.

Do you think that there may be some balancing issues with PC cross-play given that PC players have access to add-ons and stuff like that? Or do you think it’s not going to be an issue?

I think it’s something that – we’re always going to pay attention to player feedback on things like that. It’s not been a major concern for us though.

Anything else that you want to add about specifically about Elder Scrolls Online Stadia?

I think what’s really neat about the integration with Stadia is the fact that Elder Scrolls Online is all about player choice. Getting into the game, if you’re a new player, I would say don’t be intimidated by the MMO tag on it, you can get in there and play it like an Elder Scrolls game for the story content. When you’re ready for some of the more advanced MMO aspects of gameplay, you can jump into those if you want to. I think the fact that the game is made more portable with Stadia tech just fits really well with that mantra of player choice for us, so it’s just a really good match and I think we’re just all super excited to see what players do with it, new players and existing players with the cross-play stuff.

And if you’d like to know what to expect from the expansion itself, this PC Gamer article talks about the game’s new Antiquities system, while this one goes over the new vampire abilities. Here’s an excerpt from the latter:

The other big kicker for bloodthirsty players is the new Blood Scion ultimate ability that transforms you into a lord of the night. As a true master vampire, I grow some height, horns, and some serious abs. I instantly heal, get a boost to my maximum health, magika, and stamina, and heal for 15% of all damage I deal. Also I can see enemies through walls. Blood works in mysterious ways.

There is a downside to Zenimax’s rework, if you were previously a casual bloodsucker—the new design pretty much requires you to go all-in on vampirism. As you feed and your power level increases, the magicka and stamina costs for your vampiric abilities eventually drop by a whole 24 percent. To offset that, all non-vampire abilities cost 12 percent more once you hit the fourth power level. Oh, and you’ll get no automatic health recovery whatsoever at the top level of vampirism, so bring some normal snacks to heal up on too.

I’m no combat analyst, but it seems like a steep cost. If you get overzealous on your feeding, you’ll be stuck with no health regeneration and an increased cost to all your non-vampire skills for the hours it takes to drop to a lower vampire rank. For players like me, that will probably mean keeping a full bar of blood-sucking skills, a constant fourth rank vampire status, and benching all their non-vamp abilities.