Leaked Details Of The Elder Scrolls Online Emerge

Only hours after the first announcement of the Elder Scrolls Online coming from Gameinformer, the full feature has been leaked to the internet.

The 19 page PDF looks to be pulled from the digital issue for the June issue of Gameinformer, and includes screenshots, artwork, and a plethora of information.

Creative Director Paul Sage explains that it is important to capture the essence of previous Elder Scrolls games, namely weighty combat, richly interactive environments and a world reactive to players actions, albeit “this does not translate easily to the MMO genre”.

“We’ve really got to create a compelling game first,” Sage explains.

“It needs to be comfortable for people who are coming in from a typical massively multiplayer game that has the same control mechanisms, but it also has to appeal to Skyrim players. You want to hit those touchstones, but more important than that, you’ve got to create an experience that’s unique and fun.”

Creating an open world, tied in with random events and quests being taken on by various individuals, allows for a richer experience, as players take on their own adventures and interact with others along the way. This feeling is explored in a werewolf quest the article runs through in fine detail, where decisions play a key part. The Elder Scrolls Online also plans to “bring back” the public dungeon, allowing for more organic group building instead of entering instances. Heroic modes will also be available for small-group instanced dungeons, as well as raids.

According to the document, players can join every guild in the game, with the Fighters, Thieves and Mages Guild mentioned specifically, and will be able to learn a “far broader” set of skills than ever before. Reaching the level cap is said to take about 120 hours.

The MMO is said to feature a levelling and quest system similar to single-player Elder Scrolls games, with a strong emphasis on small events, like the random encounters with bandits and villagers in the wilds of Skyrim. Zenimax Online is aiming for a “hubless” design, so players don’t have to be constantly running back to one or two towns for quests. One quest was detailed, involving an army of werewolves and a trip back into the past, in which a player can wipe out an entire family with the result that NPCs disappear from the game’s present.