First of all, thanks to Dulfy.net for this great summary. The original article can be found here and you should go there and support the site because its awesome. They did a great job with the summary. Without further adieu:
A summary and transcript of the ESO Reddit AMA hosted by the Matt Firor, Paul Sage, and Nick Jonkle on March 20, 2014.
Participants
- Paul Sage ESO Creative Director
- Matt Firor ESO Game Director
- Nick Konkle ESO Lead Gameplay Designer
- Brain Wheeler ESO Lead PvP Designer
Summary of Important info
Launch
- 5 days early access starts on 7:00 AM EDT, Sunday March 30th
- Characters will be wiped for early access/launch, you will be using the same login info/client as beta so don’t uninstall the game.
- EU megaserver will be hosted on US initially and then moved to its permanent home in EU
Cashshop/Subscription
- Cashshop will just have a name change server and some vanity pets in the future. No plans for anything else after that.
- Playing any race in any alliance is a pre-order perk and we have no plans to offer this bonus in any other way.
- Discount for buying multi-month subscriptions
Starter Islands
- Decision to make starter island optional was due to feedback about the game being too much on rails. The quest NPCs that leads to them will be much easier to find on live.
- The next update puts a questgiver right outside the front door the house/boat you appear in after leaving coldharbour. This questgiver will explicitly show you how to get to the island, should you want to go there
- We also are tweaking the tutorial to offer more explicit weapon types to choose from. Our goal is that through weapon drops, lootable chests, and this choice you should be able to find any weapon you want by the time you exit Coldharbour.
Post Launch Plans/Future Content
- Development post launch will be on Craglorn, our first adventure zone. More info on that very soon.
- No plans for speech bubbles
- Expansion in the future, no concrete plans
- Good sized content expansions at a regular cadence
- Looking at adding in more options in the future for player customization.
- No cloaks in the near future
- More likely to see new skill lines in the near future than expanding existing skill lines but both (new and expanding) are attractive options
- No plans to increase terrain draw distance anytime soon due to tech restrictions
- More info on console release after PC/mac launch
Abilities & Traits
- We are leveling out cost reduction enchants in veteran rank
- Partial charged stealth attacks dealing more damage than fully charged ones is a bug that will be fixed soon.
- Dunmer fire talent passive is having some bugs cleaned up, and going to +2%/4%/6% fire damage. The Altmer elemental talent is going to +2%/3%/4% damage with all elements.
- We are actively looking at balancing the racial abilities,
- Armor and spell penetration are not working properly on traits at the moment. The desired effect is that when I have 10% armor penetration, I ignore 10% of the target’s armor value. Fix should be with either launch or shortly after.
- Racial passives will work with the enchantments on jewelry. There is a cool down on procs, or a rate of proc if you prefer. Individual proc rate (cooldown.)
- Looking into Templar and their magicka regeneration after changes to Restoring Spirit
- We are currently building several new skills for release in future patches, and while I can’t confirm the specifics, many new healing and support spells will be included.
- No plans for unarmed skill line
- Over 300 skill points are available to obtain
- More skills to be added to vampires/werewolves, but won’t come immediately after launch
- Khajiit passive Carnage doesn’t work with Bow/Ranged attacks is bug that should be fixed for launch