UESPWiki:Podcast/3 03

Flames of Ambition and oh... everything is changing! In this episode of the UESPodcast, your hosts Pylawn and Doc are joined by baratron, guild master of the UESP PC-NA guild and UESP admin extraordinaire, to go over the Elder Scrolls news of the week and continue our discussion of the ESO Blackwood reveal with a breakdown of all the changes coming with Update 29 - Flames of Ambition.

Twitch: VOD • Youtube: VOD • Anchor: Audio

Show Notes

Roster

Host:

• Pylawn

Guests:

• DoctorWhoDat219
• baratron

News

Zenimax:

• Founder and CEO of Zenimax Media, Robert Altman passed away
  • https://bethesda.net/en/article/5H35BxPrxHT6EFePFQNGqA/in-memory-of-robert-a-altman
• A Very nice tribute to him from Mike Finnigan, ESO Lead Encounter Designer: https://twitter.com/thefinninator/status/1357440374902513667
  • We launched ESO in 2014 and it was rough. We were not where we hoped to be and the game was savaged by reviewers. Being an industry veteran, I was fearful of what this could lead to. Often times, you have one shot to prove yourself and a small window of evaluation. MANY big industry publishers would have cut and run at that point, laying off lots of folks and all but mothballing the game. This was a scary time for ZOS.
  • In steps Robert, who goes to Matt and Rich and asks what the plan is.
  • Not because he wanted to cut us off or shutter us but because he believed in the game, the studio AND the people. Matt and Rich outlined a plan to him on how to make ESO the game we knew it could be. This was not a small plan mind you.
  •  This was a multi-year, multi-initiative plan which involved hiring, payment model changes, etc. It was ambitious and a big ask. Robert heard them out and said… Yes. I can’t describe to you what that means as a member of the studio when the CEO of a major publisher, puts his faith in us to execute and do what we do best. It invigorated us and engendered the kind of loyalty you don’t often see to a studio and company.
  • It was also Robert Altman who sent all Zenimax employees home at the start of the pandemic. “He always told us, from the start, that we would return when it was safe according to science, not before. Again, the impact of this on how we all view the company and our senior management and leaders can not be understated. [...] It is an enduring message that at Zenimax, people MATTER.”
    • It’s rather the opposite of recent news stories about how other video game companies have treated staff -- baratron.

• Christopher Plummer, voice actor for Arngeir in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, has passed away.
  • https://deadline.com/2021/02/christopher-plummer-dies-91-sound-of-music-all-the-money-in-the-world-star-1234688379/

• Krzysztof Kowalewski, Polish voice actor of Arngeir (died day after Plummer)

ESO:

• Midyear Mayhem started on Thursday, January 28th and will run until Tuesday 9th February at 10am EST / 3pm GMT.

You can get up to 3 Event Tickets per day.

• 1 is given from Imperial City daily quests.
• 2 are given from either Cyrodiil daily quests (including town ones) or from Battleground Quests.

• The next event will be the Tribunal Celebration later this month.
• PvP Healing Change reversion (Will occur on Monday 8th February, not relevant to Update 29)
  • The next PvP test will remove item set procs in Cyrodiil. Details of the sets affected will be posted on the official forums.
  • BUT abilities which hit an ally will now go to allies outside of your group as well. It will once again be possible to heal players in Cyrodiil outside of your group.

• Lots of nice items in this month’s Crown Store Showcase including:
  • A return of the Music Box, Diamond Melody between now and 9th February, cost 800 Crowns or 680 Crowns for ESO Plus members.
  • A return of the Music Box, That Breezy Night in Bruma between February 11 and February 15. Expected price will also be 800 Crowns or 680 Crowns for ESO Plus members.
  • Return of the Furnishing Pack: Heart's Day Retreat (which includes Dibellan flowers, lovely rugs, and a pair of small plush animals). Expected price 3,500 Crowns with a discount for ESO Plus Members. Also available between February 11 and February 15.
  • Return of the Milady's Cloud Cat, a “milk-white cat dedicated to Dibella” with a pink bow around its neck. Expected price 700 Crowns, will also be available between February 11 and February 15.
  • The Grand Psijic Villa and Hunter’s Glade homes will return to the Crown Store from February 11 to February 25. Furnished and unfurnished versions will be available.
    • Has Grand Psijic Villa ever been for sale outside of the Summerset event?
    • No. It was free for the players who took part in Summerfall -- baratron
  • All limited-time items are removed at 10am EST / 3pm GMT on their end-date.

Legends:

• Singleton Gauntlet: February 5 – February 8
  • The rules of the Singleton Gauntlet are simple: each player’s deck may only contain up to one copy of each included card. Note that the following cards are blacklisted and cannot be used in a Singleton deck:
    • Seht's Masterwork
    • Morokei, the Deathless
    • Siege of Stros M'Kai

Other:

• There is a new Creation Club update, bringing with it a new sale. The current free Creation that is being offered is Alternative Armors - Dwarven Mail. By redeeming it during this period, it will be permanently unlocked to your account, even after the current sale ends. This sale also features the Dwarven Bundle at 20% off, Dawnfang & Duskfang at 20% off, Umbra at 20% off, Wild Horses at 20% off, the Elianora Home Bundle at 20% off, and Pets of Skyrim at 50% off.
  • We anticipate that the current sale will continue until February 18th, and we will update you with more information when it is available.

Supporters

Patreon:

• DanGothUr
• Darth Rendus
• Jonas

Scholarly Pursuits

I will ask our guests what they have been working on in the world of TES! This can be game play, wiki work, discord things, anything relevant to UESP/TES that you’ve been working on the past couple weeks / when you were last on the show.

• Pylawn
  • Back on PC!!!
    • Reunited and it feels sooo goooood
  • Ran some trials this week
  • LOTS of BGs and PvP
    • Respeced my mag sorc to a stamsorc wolfie boy again
  • Decided we’re going back to level either my necro or nightblade once midyear is over
  • I got some new fans (insert fan puns)
• Doc
  • Lots and lots of Midyear Mayhem! Went through 6 toons (DC and EP--sorry AD)
    • Got tier ones for most of them so am sitting pretty on transmutes(for now)
    • Got my floating sigil stone pet(named her Gladys) and got the first fragment for the morph(gotta now wait for the next two events to get the final two pieces for the skin), and then bought more group repair kits. =D
  • Still working on my Magcro...took a break from Maelstrom and have been focusing on getting keys (still need a light Zaan’s shoulders) and will be using alot of those transmutes on gear for said Magcro!
  • Still waiting and waiting and waiting for Stone Eagle Aerie to become available and watching as my crowns are slowly dwindling…(I totally bought the swashbuckler personality for my Dread Pirate Robertss)
• baratron
  • Lots of Midyear Mayhem - needed to get Rapid Maneuver and Barrier on my Warden Healer on EU. Coincidentally, several people in my EU Guild wanted to become Emperor. Congrats to @Fin1000 and @GaiusMarius from the UESP Guild on PC-EU for their Emperorship.
  • Congrats to @ALittleJamie from the UESP Guild on PC-NA for his Emperorship.

Topic: Global Reveal recap (pt 2 - Update 29?)

• Armour Changes
  • Armour types will have Bonuses and Penalties.
  • Medium armor is the baseline which the other armors have been balanced against.
  • “Rock-Paper-Scissors” between armour types. (Mostly relevant for PvP?)
    • Light Armor is really good against Heavy Armor.
    • Heavy Armor is really good against Medium Armor.
    • And Medium Armor is really good against Light Armor.
  • The Light and Heavy Armor bonuses/penalties are mostly opposite to each other e.g. Light Armor reduces the cost of Bash but also decreases the damage done by Bash.
  • Medium armor has no Penalties but doesn’t have any Offensive Bonuses either.
  • Medium Armor bonuses are more sneak-based.
  • They’ve wanted to have this for the longest time but couldn’t because they didn’t have armor Penalties.
  • Currently some complaints from players about some of the Heavy Armor Penalties in particular - concern from Tanks about the increases to damage taken from Magical attacks and increased cost of Roll Dodge. Obviously it’s the PTS and effects may well be adjusted before Live.
  • All armor passives now scale per piece of Armor equipped, rather than some of them requiring that you wear 5 pieces or more.

• Advanced Stats
  • You can now view additional combat stats about your character by selecting Advanced Stats within the Character menu.
  • VERY COMPLICATED but will be useful for console players. Shows a very large number of bonuses based on equipment, buffs/debuffs, Skill and Champion Point spec.
  • Physical and Spell Penetration have been added to the main stats view.

• Skill Changes
  • The PvP passive Continuous Attack: This passive now grants Major Gallop.
  • Therefore it is once again only necessary for PvE players to do PvP until Rank 1 or 2. (Or the 2 x “Welcome to Cyrodiil” quests.)
    • Not certain from the PTS Patch Notes whether it is Rank 1 or Rank 2, but certainly not more than 10 minutes! -- baratron
  • Rapid Maneuver and its morphs no longer grant Major Gallop on cast since it is no longer necessary, and instead have useful PvP-related effects.

• Housing Changes
  • Houses can now be used as a fast-travel point. Select the “Travel to Outside” option when traveling to a home, and it will take you to just outside the front door without an extra loading screen. Rich Lambert said that 35-40% of players were doing this already so this is a quality of life improvement.
  • You can now preview furnishings from furniture plans in your inventory. (That’s another PC addon which will no longer be needed.)
  • When you preview Houseguests on the Crown Store, you will be able to hear some of their voice lines to get a better idea of their personality.
  • There are 20 new Markarth-style Dwarven furnishing plans which can appear in Markarth Reward Coffers, awarded for completing world boss and delve daily quests in The Reach.
  • Rolis Hlaalu, the Mastercraft Mediator, has 7 new furnishing plans available for purchase with writ vouchers.
  • Faustina Curio, the Master Writ Achievement merchant, has now grouped her furnishing plans into Folios. Opening a Folio will give you a tradable copy of each of the plans. The Folios cost the same as it would have cost to buy all the recipes in that Folio individually. (100 writ vouchers per recipe)
  • The most recent set of furnishing plans are still available individually.
  • New furnishing - Aetherial Well. This fully restores Health, Magicka, Stamina and Ultimate of players who interact with it. Intended for duels or parsing.

• System Mail Deletion & Organization Changes
  • System Mails will now remain in your inbox for a limited time, after which they will be deleted. This mirrors the current behavior of player-sent mail.
  • (Except it doesn’t, because player-sent mails haven’t deleted since Greymoor -- baratron)
  • When this update launches, all System Mails you currently have in your inbox will be given a timer of 30 days. When that timer gets close to running out, the mail will be highlighted with red text and iconography to indicate it will soon expire.
  • When a System Mail's timer expires, that mail (and any items or gold that might be attached to it) will be deleted. You will need to start actually emptying out Rewards for the Worthy, rewards for getting on Trial Leaderboards, and Guild Trader purchases!
  • In Keyboard/Mouse mode only, headers have been added to separate player-sent mails from System Mails.
  • Some players are very sad about this because we’ve had things like our “Thank you for participating in the beta” mail for the past 68 months and now it will be deleted!!

• CP Changes
  • I moved this to the end because it’s the most complicated -- baratron
  • Champion Points were designed as a way to progress your character past Level 50.
  • However although it is possible to receive up to 3600 Champion Points from play, the current Champion Point system ("CP 1.0") has had to be capped at CP 810 for some time.
  • This is because of power creep. Players with a lot of CP are noticeably stronger than players without CP.
  • The current system has 9 Constellations, categorised under Mage, Warrior and Thief.
  • It’s a very simple system. Each Constellation has 4 or 5 passives which may be invested in. Once you reach a certain number of CP invested, you gain additional passives.
    • This occurs at 10, 30, 75, and 120 CP for that constellation.
  • Brian Wheeler explained on ESO Live that there are two types of progression: horizontal, which allows your characters to learn more skills, and vertical, which gives your character more power.
    • The current CP system (CP 1.0) is very much power-based.
    • The new system (CP 2.0) has been designed more around horizontal progression.
  • First of all, to avoid power creep, all characters will have increases to their stats:
    • Base Health will increase to 16,000, up from 8744
    • Base Magicka and Stamina will increase to 12,000, up from 7958.
    • This is because you will no longer be receiving 20% stat increases from the Champion Point system.
    • Characters will also take 15% reduced damage at base.
    • And will start with 20 Weapon and Spell Damage at level 1 and gain an additional 20 per level, up to 1000 at level 50.
  • The new system has only 3 Constellations instead of 9. The Constellations are now named
    • Red - Fitness
    • Blue - Warfare
    • Green - Craft
  • And instead of being able to invest in any of the CP passives that you like, you can only start with some of them. More become unlocked as you invest CP into the tree.
  • Sometimes you need to invest CP into a passive that you don’t feel you need in order to unlock a passive that you require for your build.
  • CP JUMP POINTS have been replaced with a much clearer system. Now there are Stages - the UI only shows an increase WHEN you get it.

• With Update 29 there will be different colours of Champion Point star:
  • Yellow - passive
  • Same colour as the constellation - slottable on the new Champion Bar
  • Purple - sub-constellations
• With CP 2.0, sub-constellations can be added for future expansion.
• Every constellation CAN have 3 x sub-constellations but currently only Warfare has any.

• The Champion Point cap will be lifted and you will be able to spend all of your CP up to 3600.

• Only 12 buffs can be slotted onto the Champion Bar at a time (4 from each constellation). It's not so much whether you're Magicka or Stamina, but more what sort of content you're playing.
• The reason for this limit is to IMPROVE SERVER PERFORMANCE. Removing buffs means that the number of calculations per combat action will be reduced.
• Examples from the green tree:
  • Cutpurse’s Art - increases the chance to get higher-quality loot when pickpocketing.
  • Infamous - increases the value of fenced items by 15%.
  • Steed’s Blessing - increases your out-of-combat move speed by 1% per stage.
  • Plentiful Harvest - you have a 20% chance to gain double the yield from normal resource nodes per stage.
  • Treasure Hunter - increase the value of items you find in treasure chests.
  • Homemaker - you have a 10% chance to find a second furnishing plan whenever you find a furnishing plan.
  • Reel Technique - decreases the time it takes for a fish to bite by 25%.
  • Angler’s Instincts - increases your chance of catching higher-quality fish by 10%.
  • Liquid Efficiency - whenever you use a potion or poison you have a 10% chance not to consume it.
  • Rationer - adds 10 minutes to the duration of food and drink per stage.
• Your chosen buffs from the red and blue trees will depend on your role in the content you’re playing (Tank, Healer, Damage Dealer) and primary resource (Health, Magicka, Stamina).
• High CP characters won’t be STRONGER but will be MORE FLEXIBLE. You’ll be able to change role by switching out which buffs are slotted on your Champion Bar.

• They’re still planning to have CP and No-CP PvP. (Rich and a lot of the team prefer no-CP PvP).
• No plans to increase the Gear Cap from CP 160.