The Elder Scrolls Online “Ask Us Anything” 7-11

We have fallen a bit behind with our coverage of The Elder Scrolls Online’s community-driven “Ask Us Anything” Q&As, so we rounded up the latest five chapters, divided into variety (1, 2 and 3) and combat (1 and 2). A few choice quotes:

Will each alliance focus on its own specific roles (classes)? For example, Aldmeri Dominion is mostly mages and Daggerfall Covenant – warriors? By Максим Карпович

We feel strongly that you should develop your own role, regardless of which alliance you choose.

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Are we going to see known types of weapons (e.g. Steel, Silver, Glass, .)? By Nicolai Spatz

Yes, you are definitely going to see many of the weapon and armor materials you’ve seen in other Elder Scrolls games.

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I’m a total neat freak when it comes to my inventory in games. Will the inventory system in ESO be easily organized? Also, will I be able to quickly remove unwanted items? By Justin Griffin

The inventory is based on slots, but has a list style much like the inventory in Oblivion or Skyrim. It has tabs that allow you to view all your items or just items in specific categories, such as weapons or armor. More sorting criteria will also be available; for example, you’ll be able to sort by value or how recently you picked an item up. Removing items will be very simple. So, to answer the question directly, you can definitely maintain your neat freak ways!

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Will we be able to equip the left and right hand individually as in Skyrim (e.g. a spell in the right hand and a melee weapon in the left)? If that’s the case, is there a way to quickly switch between different weapons? By Dennis Schopp

You can put one handed weapons in both hands and dual wield. You can put a shield and a one handed sword in each hand and sword / board. Or you can use a two handed weapon or staff. Additional abilities (these aren’t always spells) can be fired from the ability bar. And yes, you can have different weapon loadouts and switch between them.

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How much emphasis do you put into designing quests that pop up dynamically or require you to decipher their hints, rather than being tied to any specific NPC quest giver? Will we be able to initiate quests through a variety of natural triggers (like entering an area or killing a given mob), or will most quests be centralized to NPCs handing them out? By Ronnie Solbakken

This is a good question. Our quests are designed with purpose in mind, or (context,) if you prefer. We feel very strongly as a team that quests need to make sense and quest granting should be done in a way that is grounded in the world. While we do have various methods for granting quests, most are given by various NPCs. There are still many that are done in other ways, such as finding books, notes, corpses, etc.

It’s also important to keep in mind that there are many activities that aren’t quests. We feel it is just as important to explore, craft, and do various other activities.

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I want to know how the different armor types will be balanced. Why shouldn’t just anyone wear heavy armor? With advantages will a warrior have wearing light armor? By Oliver Sieger

Each armor type has a full progression line associated with it. If you advance down the light armor progression line, you are likely to get bonuses to spells, magicka regeneration, and the like. Medium armor skill lines give you more bonuses to stamina activities such as dodge, sneak, etc. Heavy armor skill lines give bonuses to received healing, bracing, etc. And, of course, armor can have magical properties beyond this, and you may wish to mix and match as you see fit.

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If we use a weapon which needs projectiles, we will need to get more projectiles or are they unlimited? By David BR

As of now, there is no ammo. You have unlimited projectiles.