Re: Alternative Currency for ESO?

Today I am going to follow up on a previous article I wrote entitled Alternative Currency for ESO?. If you haven't read it yet, you may want to brush up on the subject, but it isn't required reading. Cliff notes from that article is:

Some MMOs have so much in game money floating around that players start using rare items as currency. Think Stone of Jordan in Diablo 2. So I came up with a short list of the most likely candidates, and discussed the probability as each being the Stone of Jordan for ESO. The short list included certain tier of gear, crafting materials, glyphs, and soul gems.

I am proud to say (and glad I am legally allowed to say) that I have been beta testing ESO on the private test server since late last year. Unfortunately this means I was severely limited in what I was permitted to share, and had to feign ignorance. Just like Kyle and Josh from the Shoddy Cast, and Evarwyn from Elder Scrolls Off The Record (among many other people covering ESO content). But now I get the chance to pass along correct information, with very little speculation.

Now that we are all at least vaguely familiar with the topic, lets re-visit that short list of mine.

Will crafting materials become currency in ESO? I really doubt it. On the PTS server even the highest end and rarest materials barely broke 10k gold on average. While 10k IS a lot of gold, plenty of things cost more. A basic horse costs 17.2k. A higher tier mount costs 42.7k (unless they lowered the prices since I last checked). Basic siege equipment costs 450 gold (that adds up quickly if you're saving up alliance points), and re-speccing can reach over 10k as well. Also, the way the loot tables work for those rare materials (improvement/upgrade materials to be more specific) is that you get them through high level deconstruction and refining. It is tilted in favor of the crafter (on account of refining). And having played a crafter in the beta (and not exploiting certain bugs) I can tell you that they are too rare for a crafter to trade away. More likely scenario: Rare crafting materials will be sold/traded/given to friends and guild-mates, while keeping a healthy reserve for yourself.

So will certain tier of gear, or certain gear in general become currency? Not a chance. Sure people will trade pieces of gear, i.e. Chillbilly's werewolf buffing item for my vampire buffing item. But it won't be a regular and consistent occurrence. Looking at crafted gear, they at most have mid value in terms of best gear right now. The best gear is bought with alliance points, and bind on pickup. So then, can you trade alliance points? Not currently. In fact, alliance points can not (currently*) be bought, sold, nor traded, and buy the best gear in the game. Makes me want to PvP. Likely scenario: Gear will be bought and sold like normal. The better and rarer it is will fetch for more gold, as per usual.

Soul Gems? Nope. Sorry.

Glyphs I am less certain about. The way enchanting stood when last I checked (which wasn't recently), is that the skill was hard to level up (but SO worth it). The veteran ranked glyphs (level 50+) weren't dropping correctly, as in they weren't dropping at all. Even after this has been fixed, the PTS server is soon to be wiped and I simply don't have the time to measure the rarity of VR glyphs until post-launch. As it stands right now, VR glyphs do have the rarity potential to be used as currency, especially if the skill line progression isn't fixed. The main issue with the line progression is the imbalance in materials, and low inspiration (exp) rewards. I realize I'm going off topic, but bear with me, it will all tie together.

Creating glyphs need three types of runes. Aspect, Potency, and Essence. Combined, all three types are equally common to other crafting material gathering nodes. On top of that, Aspect types are slightly less common than the other two. And for good reason. Aspect controls the rarity. Of the three, Aspect runes are highest in demand, since there is the least variation, and they affect the rarity of the produced glyph. In a few of my guild banks, you'll find hundreds of Potency and Essence runes, but you'd be hard pressed to find more than 10 Aspect. My point here not clear? If it is, congrats. If not, let me tell you. With hundreds of unused materials (because they can't be used), there are literally hundreds of tiny little inspiration gains that will not happen, hindering Enchanting skill line progression. This doesn't even factor in people throwing these runes away, or hoarding them. Most likely scenario: Enchanting will be the hardest but most profitable of the crafts.


After everything is said and done, I do not think the players of ESO will adopt any form of alternate currency. There are plenty of gold sinks, including horses, potions, respec, gear, crafting styles, and bank/bag upgrades. On top of that, there is no evidence that there is anything rare and valuable enough to become this currency.

*Alliance points cannot currently be bought, sold, or traded. I predict that if ESO ever opens a pay-to-win style cash shop, you will be able to buy these very precious alliance points. This will open up alliance points becoming an elite currency.

The Floodgates Are Open: ESO

Friday February 14, 2014 marks the day Zenimax lifted the NDA pertaining to content available in the Beta weekends (any additional tests for any other content still have additional NDAs associated with them). And I have to say, even within my own guilds, tons of content has flooded in from beta testers, myself included. In this article, I'm going to quickly cover some aspects about ESO, with as many screenshots as possible.

The armor in the above screenshot is merely a costume (replaces the textures of your equipped gear). Such costumes are obtained primarily through quests. The costume above was optional in a quest, where my character could choose to use to sneak past enemies without having to fight them. All costumes are bind on pickup (soul bound, account bound, etc), and unfortunately cannot be traded.

Any Gold Goblin (or any goblin for that matter) loves chests. I am no different. Like most MMOs, there are chests or similar containers that spawn in certain locations with loot in them. In ESO, these chests feature a lock picking system, similar to what was implemented in TES IV: Oblivion. The contents contain gold and items ranging from a plain white item (lowest rarity) to multiple items of varying rarity.

The difficulty of the chest doesn't seem to determine the contents. I've unlocked master chests in higher leveled zones and received less impressive loot. This chest only had a simple lock (simple being easiest, master being hardest). At present, chests spawn in set locations on any given map. The same is true for gathering nodes for clothing, enchanting, blacksmithing, and woodworking. This could change at any time. Such is the case with alchemy ingredients.

In my quest to unlock all the alchemy effects, I can tell you that chests and plants to not follow the same re-spawn rules. From what I've seen, chests always re-spawn in the same place. This is not (entirely) true for plants. Alchemy nodes re-spawn when another node has been harvested nearby. The type of ingredient that spawns seems to be random, as long as it meets certain conditions. Nirnroot for example only grows alongside water, and some areas only spawn certain types of plants (mushrooms or flowers for example). As for location, there are more possible locations than there are "spawned" nodes. Again with examples, say there are 10 alchemy nodes spawned at any given time, but there are 20 possible locations they could spawn to. This ensures that multiple people can farm these resources at once, but no one person can abuse this mechanic.

While (loosely) on the subject of crafting, lets talk Racial Styles.

There are a total of 14 motif books in total. Books 1 through 9 are the alliance races. These motif books are the most common, but still fetch a pretty penny. Average market price for these have been around 2k in the beta. Book 10 is Imperial, allegedly the rarest. Considering that I found one, I doubt that. Books 11 through 14 are for the non-playable races of Ancient Elf, Barbaric, Primal, and Daedric. The (beta) average market price for these are somewhat harder to determine. I've seen one person constantly trying to buy them for 10k, but people tend to start a bidding war for them. They've gone for 15k, probably higher. That is almost the price of a horse.

So in short, if you can find a way to farm those books, you really, REALLY should farm them.

In the last article I wrote, we took a look at how crafting actually works. What wasn't mentioned, is that you can craft set items. Yup, set items that are typically the pride of dungeon raiders are also craftable.

There are specific locations (some hidden) where set items can be crafted. The ones that aren't hidden are marked with a flame icon with a hammer underneath. Normal crafting stations are marked with a flame with an anvil underneath. Set items (shockingly) have additional requirements in order to craft them. Set items have tiers, and these tiers are dictated by how many traits must be researched to unlock the item. Ashen Grip for example, needs two traits researched (per item) for that item to be unlocked for crafting. When dealing with set items, whether looted or crafted, keep in mind that the set bonus takes up the enchantment slots of that item. So if the set bonus proves to be useless, then the item is worthless.

Have a question? Want to weigh in about the article? Want to learn about something specific? Just want to say hi? Drop a comment below, we'd love to hear from you.

Americans Are Boring

So this weekend, as many readers are aware, is Elder Scrolls Online's biggest beta weekend yet, with over 500,000 beta keys being given away by Curse.com. After combing through leaked footage, and footage recently released by various media outlets, I have come to the conclusion that Americans are boring and predictable. All of the English speaking videos I've seen depict Questing, PvE, and PvP, with a strong focus on the first hour of gameplay. The only videos I have found depicting crafting come from outside North America, from our Spanish and German speaking friends. Unfortunately the German video I found also has a German UI, so I can't really comment on what is going on in the video. The Spanish video (also embedded below) is using the English UI, so be prepared for my breakdown on the crafting system!

Before I begin on my analysis on the video, I would just like to say sorry in advance if the videos linked are leaked gameplay footage. I respect ZOS, and respect their NDA. With that said, let us listen to some very fast speaking Spanish.

So the first thing you'll notice is that both the Clothing and Blacksmithing stations are located near each other. This is somewhat of a standard in MMOs, to have different crafting stations within close proximity. I for one am glad to see this. I find it a huge time sink to run all over town to work on my different crafts, especially if you need to craft components from one craft to make something in another. If you haven't experienced this, I envy you.

We can also get a glean into the crafting skill lines. They are: Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Clothing, Enchanting, Provisioning, and Woodworking. In the video we see some of the Blacksmithing skill line. Metalworking lets unlock new materials to craft higher tier items. Keen Eye: Ore makes it easier to spot ore gathering nodes (probably some sort of graphic appears on screen). The Miner Hireling will send you crafting materials and possibly "other items" everyday (I suspect these are additives, tempers, or style materials).

Now let us take a look at the crafting interface. On the Creation tab we see Type, Material, Style, and Trait. Also note that there are check boxes for 'Have Items' and 'Have Knowledge'. These will let us filter out what we can't craft, and help us plan how to progress in our crafting skills. The Type and Material toggles are pretty standard for MMOs, so we'll all feel at home with those. As would be expected (espcially if you've played past TES games) the material used affects the look of the item. But here is where it gets interesting with Style. We can craft items in the different racial styles (Dunmer, Altmer, Orc, Nord, etc), which also affect the appearance of the item. Spoiler: Ancient Elf, Reach, Primitive, Daedric and Imperial are also craftable styles. We've already been introduced to the (easiest) way to unlock Imperial. The rest however are not playable races, so there is probably a lot of grinding and opening sacks involved in finding these racial styles. Rest assured, there will be money to be made if you can craft Ancient Elf or Daedric armor. Moving along then, Traits. Traits as we can see are the "additive" ingredients we have long heard about, but never seen. They add effects to crafted items such as Precise which increases weapon and spell critical values, and Defending which increases total armor and spell resistance. We don't get to see all the traits in this video, but I would bet you a sweetroll some traits that are more useful than others. So keep an eye out for Traits.

The next tab we see is Improvement. Pretty straight forward. Select item, toggle quantity value, press Improve. Moving on. Extraction is another common theme in MMOs that we should all be comfortable with. Select item, press Extract, get crafting materials. Moving on.

Research. From what we see here each piece of gear needs each trait to be researched. if we flip back to 0:58 in the video, we see a skill called Metallurgy. I'll bet you TWO sweetrolls this skill has something to do with research. If you're in the beta and have an interest in crafting, I encourage you to check out that skill to learn more.

At 3:18 in the video we get a look at Alchemy, one of the three consumable types of crafting (the others being Provisioner and Enchanting). The interface here is much different than Blacksmithing, which I suspect is why they are showing it. After selecting a Solvent (base liquid, Natural Water in this case) you can select two Reagents. Sadly they didn't have any Reagents to show us in this video. Reagents are things like Mountain Flowers, Imp Stool, Nirn Root, etc. These are harvestable flowers and plants you can find in game.

We also get a look at a blacksmith vendor, where you can buy Style materials. I can't say I'm a fan of this. One of the (what should be rare) materials needed for crafting can be bought from an npc for 21 gold, including the ones for the rare styles (Ancient Elf, Reach, etc). This will severely reduce the value of crafted gear.

Now that you've watched the Spanish video, and understand what they are showing you, I recommend watching the German video. They played a higher level character and better show the Extraction and Improvement process.

Another Wasted Day

I think that part of waiting for a highly anticipated game, is the shear boredom of things. I have sunk low in troubled times such as these. There are only so many ways a gamer can keep himself or herself occupied before a big game release. Let's list a few shall we?

• Play another game.

Sometimes this one helps. It keeps your mind off the fact, you are still waiting for your MMO or new game to arrive. Picking another game similar to the one you are preparing to play is the best idea. It allows you to up your skills before release. More or less, it keeps you occupied in gaming and nothing else. Including keeping you away from unnecessary things like cleaning your room / house, doing laundry, or replacing the weather stripping on your back door because the rainwater from the no gutter system off your poorly built house is leaking in and destroying your door and floor.

• Endurance training

Old people, like myself and a few others that fancy themselves readers of blogs such as this one, prefer endurance training. We aren't young anymore, and quite frankly, we cannot stay up past 12am. For that matter I pulled a muscle this morning putting on a sock. So we must train ourselves to be able to keep up with you young whippersnappers. It's not exactly the easiest thing to do considering games don't captivate us as well as they used to. We have to find a totally addictive game or an activity that keeps us staying up past our pill / bed time.

• Character Creation

Before we launch full steam ahead, a good majority of us, will begin to create our characters in our minds. We will even have names picked out, so that we aren't searching randomly for a named item on our desks at launch time. (I literally have a character on WoW named Aqualibrium for that very reason.) We will make sure we have made a final decision on whether our characters will be Female or Male. We will decide if we want to start as Argonians or Redguards. We will write long roleplaying stories on our characters. We will be prepared.

• Guilds

For the more nerdy of people, we will find other people to align with. This is a tricky one. Since there is no current game to play, boredom runs rampant. I have seen only a few guilds this go around that have not 100% went to the dark side. I joined a guild before the launch of SWTOR and they were hardcore. As memory serves, they kicked me out, because I said if SWTOR releases on Thanksgiving day, I would spend my free time watching football.  I guess I got kicked out for having a life? No idea..

• Forums

Joining Forums is the greatest thing you can do. Forums often times have a lot of news and like-minded people talking about the game you are about to play. They even have some developers come in and do private interviews which is kind of cool. As long as the information doesn't violate the NDA, most websites, including this one, will discuss things from videos and other official sources. Forums are a great source of information, and should never be overlooked. I like Enjin's forum over others because its straight and to the point. You don't have to wade through a trough of useless garbage to read what you want to read.

• Writing

Sometimes you just feel like writing. I like writing because it is a form of stress relief. With a generous amount of time, you can have a plethora of information waiting for you at launch. Dust off that old Microsoft Word program you got back when you were flunking out of college, playing video games instead of going to class, and write something useful. Or don't and spend your time playing internet spades with a guy that never covers your nils! Either way, enjoy yourself before launch. Be sure to friend me on Enjin, and we shall play, oh yes. We shall.

(Original Version on ElderScrollsForum.com)
Thanks
-CB

Alternative Currency for ESO?

As we all know, The Elder Scrolls Online uses a megaserver. I don’t know the technical jargon behind this, but the end result will be every pc and mac user being able to interact and trade with each other. In other MMOs with such a large player base, gold sometimes becomes a useless currency for high tier items. This is primarily due to the lack of ways for gold to leave the game economy. In these instances, the new currency (such as Chaos Orb in Path of Exile) is valued equally to each player.  Other games such as Guild Wars 2, have had almost no inflation, and players haven’t adopted an alternative currency. With Guild Wars 2, there is a tax on certain player transactions, removing gold from the game’s economy. It also doesn’t hurt to have economists on staff to help maintain the game’s economic balance.

I don’t think Zenimax Online Studios has, or is currently looking for any economists unfortunately. After an extensive search, I found a few LinkedIn profiles, dozens of job postings, even Matt Firor’s phone number (don’t worry Matt, I won’t be prank calling you). But not a peep on if they have anyone qualified to monitor and manage ESO’s economy.

If ESO does end up having a ton of worthless gold, what items should you look out for? From what we’ve heard so far, and provided that the in-game items and crafting system is similar to past Elder Scrolls games, speculation is possible.

Certain tier of gear? Possibly. Without hands on experience in deconstructing equipment, we have no way of knowing the nature of the items you can acquire this way, their abilities, nor their rarity.

Crafting material? Possibly. Additives are these mysterious items that are an optional ingredient to craft gear with, but we effectively know nothing about them. There have been interviews with Nick Konkle and Paul Sage talking about them in the past, but no updates on how they might have changed, or the specifics on the items themselves.

Other crafting materials? Not a chance. The normal ingredients such as ore, or alchemy ingredients are going to be those things you trip over every ten feet. They’re also the kind of item gold farmers will find a way to exploit and sell for gold, and then sell for money.

Glyphs? Not likely. In case you’re not up to speed on what glyphs are, glyphs are the items crafted in the Enchanting skill line. They are items with an enchantment on them, and when used, transfers the enchantment onto a piece of equipment. While glyphs are a crafted item, giving them potential to become a currency, enchantments can be recharged (at least in past TES games) using a soul gem. With that in mind, soul gems are much more likely to become a currency item.

Soul gems? Likely. If soul gems are indeed used to restore charges onto enchantments, they gain value since everyone will desire them. With the exception of glyphs, everything else listed do not have equal value between each player. Soul gems in past TES games such as Skyrim also have a very high gold to weight ratio, making them highly valued as loot.

I thought about adding horse feed to the list, but decided not to. When Matt Firor talked about horses, and feeding them at E3 2013, he made it sound like there are only have two or three different types of food to feed your horse. It is possible, even probable, that there will be different rarities for these items with increased effects, yet I am not convinced there is a chance they could become a currency in ESO.

That brings my speculation on the subject of alternative currency to an end. If you’d like to weigh in on this topic, please post in the comments below.

I’ll leave you gold goblins for now, with a quote to ponder:
"The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends."

- Friedrich Nietzsche