Like every quarter (more or less), I had the opportunity to spend an hour with The Elder Scrolls Online developers to discover the next update. This walk was with Jeremy Sera (Lead Content Designer) and Jason Barnes (Zone Lead), both working for ZeniMax Online Studios. We left to discover the new area of Galen, added with the DLC Firesong. The DLC game pack releases today, Tuesday, November 1 on PC/Mac. It will have to wait until November 15 if you play on Xbox and PlayStation.
By way of introduction, the developers remind me of some rather incredible figures about the game. Indeed, with these thousands of quests, the 200 lines of text per language have just been exceeded. That makes them words to translate! TESO is also the holder of a record since its launch in 000: the number of NPCs in a game. A number that is only growing, and which would have more than doubled (exceeding 2014). The big advantage of ESO lies in the possibility of playing with your friends, regardless of their progress. All content additions are accessible, regardless of level, or content already played. But that doesn't mean the world can't adapt to player actions. Thus, the characters tend to remember having already crossed paths with the player.
Firesong takes place on Galen, one of the four islands of the Systres Archipelago. On the program, fifteen hours of play, with its external bosses, its celestial shards, its quests, its set elements, its legendary objects... Closing a chapter which will have been made up of two story packs and two dungeon packs. Until now, the scenario led to interest in noble houses, with many political twists. It focuses this time on the druids, with the aim of revealing more about the way they live, their beliefs, what they worship, and why.
We start our tour in Vastyr, a town which is not a holiday resort like the towns of High Isle. Its inhabitants are firmly anchored in reality, with merchants, workers, captains of ships. Living in dwellings with druidic inspirations.
Civilized, the south of the island is very similar to what we have seen previously on High Isle. Walking north, we go up a sacred path of the Druids, which weaves between huge rocks, the Chemin d'Yffre. I didn't have time to linger, but the tranquility of the place was disturbed. A quest, given by the elder Pitof, leads to investigate the strange behavior of animals whose behavior has become erratic.
Further, we pass in front of an old fortress squatted by sea elves, pirates who are usually rather disorganized. For once, they have a very specific goal, instilled by the mysterious Captain Siravaën.
My favorite place is just after, Brillelac, an open city where peaceful druids live.
The north becomes wild, a jungle where the druids of the Firesinger tribe (or, in English, Firesong, which gives its name to the DLC) live. Their goal is to bring the tribes together... no matter the means. The forest is much denser than anything seen in other areas so far, with lush vegetation and huge flowers. A nature that tries to kill everything that passes between its leaves. It is best to stay as much as possible on the trails... when they exist!
This is where we find sentient and aggressive trees. A quest will lead to understanding how these creatures, which are reminiscent of Tolkien's Ents, were created.
The area retains its volcanic appearance, as in all the islands of the archipelago, but here with natural, chaotic, organic lava. By the way, watch out for the toes, the lava now inflicts significant damage. It is better not to slip in it. Fire, it burns. By the way, speaking of fire...remember that menacing volcano that's been swirling since the start of the High Isle quests? It could be that an eruption is preparing... Perhaps this title, which can be translated as song of fire, does not represent only the name of one of the druidic tribes. Note that this background is dynamic and will adapt to each player's progress in the main quest.
An NPC well known to regular players accosts us: Razum-dar, a Khajiit, member of the Queen's Eyes, Queen Ayrenn's spy network, which was introduced in Summerset. But also Quen, who makes his second appearance here in ESO, the first having been in Thieves Guild. She won't belong to the Thieves Guild if the player hasn't helped her get into it yet, Firesong quests will be a way for her to get noticed. Unlike players who have already completed the Thieves Guild campaign.
I stop for a few moments to discover new atypical creatures. Kinds of chimeras, with TESO sauce. Pretty phoenix butterflies. It seems that monkeys are walking in the branches of the trees, but I didn't have the chance to see one. And, of course, there's a frog! A little inside joke, related to the area designer who now has a reputation for adding frogs to every area he designs. For Galen, let me introduce you to the Magma Horned Frog:
And, above all, these interactive animals, with a dog (Rufus) and a horse (Charme de l'Aube)! Not all animals are interactive yet, far from it. But the designers are working to add new interactions. A success is present in game to successfully discover all the interactive animals in the area.
The card game, Tales of Glory, is not neglected either, with the addition of a new Mentor: the king of the druids. Fragments can be found by completing quests, killing outside bosses, or completing achievements. I'll let you read the official blog post if you want to learn more about it. In a few words, the objective is to offer new types of strategies, with new combos. Sure, the meta is changed, but the whole thing shouldn't be too unbalanced. This feature will continue to be updated in the future as feedback has been positive from players. Some have even become very competitive.
Improvements are also applied to the base game with update 36: icons that can be displayed above the heads of group members or NPCs (very useful in raids), an option to hide other players nearby (this which can facilitate the use of crafting stations in capital cities for example), a shareable link in the chat to invite to visit a house, and the transcription of text into speech.
This concludes the presentation of this new area on which the team has been working for a year, more exactly five to six months for the team, around ten months for the leads... which therefore means that my interlocutors are already working on content that they won't reveal to us for six months! You can roam the lands of Galen today on PC, and on the 15th on consoles.
