Well I got into this last beta and was on the European megaserver.
I didn't play my mage but started a Nord-Templar since they asked for new character experiences. First thing was the fact that I can't really see that much different about the start where you get a sword as opposed to pick your weapon of choice. The battle before the engine was somewhat more interesting I guess but I otherwise don't think that the tutorial is better or worse. I looted a lot more from it though.
I did have a problem with my Nord and that was for no reason I understood I was surrounded by cats and elves when I left coldharbor. I went to the starting island feeling confused but the Cat I spoke with seemed to be expecting me...and I got to lvl 6 before I suddenly realized that I had accidently selected "Dominion" as alligence and "Nord" as race...I only spotted this when I created a High Elf character and found myself in the identical start. This being the case I decided to skip the starter island and plunge into the main Island quests and see what the difference was. The difference is immense. If you go to the starter islands you find stuff, you get you feet wet and you pick up gear. Starting on the main Island I was using from arrival to lvl 8 the same weapon...a lvl 1 dagger and a green lvl 4 hand axe. I had partial armour (as in no full set) and that was a mix and match affair. I got to lvl 6 then found myself doing a lvl 8 quest since the adventure path sends you out of the main city at lvl 5 but when you get where it tells you to go suddenly the level is 8. I died several times trying to do the last battle and gave up and spent a lot of time hunting down scraps of leather. Oh...I was a high elf nightblade using axe and dagger. I died a lot...probably close to 750 gold in repair bills lots. I found either things worked great...target died in 1-3 hits from the rear or else I was up the creek. In stand up fights I got clobbered, which I think is probably my fault but it is hard to sort out the combat system as things happen fairly quickly. I pretty much need to learn to block more often I suspect. Still as opposed to my mage I was dieing both with my Nord twohanded sword wielder or with my axe-dagger wielding nightblade far more often. Part of the problem is your health is pretty minimal...and that means things go from bad to worse and it is hard to figure out why. It is frustrating though when you have to get the steath hit in to survive the fight and the starting condition doesn't allow it.
So the difficulty seems turned up. With collision I found myself trapped a few times, and that is bad. The biggest issue is that it is often very hard to sort out what is killing you. No log file and so on.
What I am noticing though is a few "quality of life" issues. Pack capacity is absolutely necessary and exceptionally expensive. Also all character share the same bank. This isn't my idea of a good time. My characters are seperate individuals so why do they share a bank? But the real issue is crafting stuff...it takes a huge amount of storage space. You have Jute/cloth, scraps/rawhide, ore/iron, rought/sanded maple, then water plus a dozen types of flowers, then add in 3 kinds of runes each of which comes in several flavors. Then food requires 2 ingrediants per recipe so you have say 6 raw ingrediant piles and 3 finished ones, plus say 6 or more potions and another 4 glyphs. Add that us and you get say 30 things in your pack at a minimum. Add in fish, bait, gems for crafting, misc items and gear you pick up and I was often even with a pack capacity of 60 completely full.
Dungeons...I tried a few out. Uhm...they are a zerg fest. And I hate zergs. I died often enough in these things to realize you go into them with a party or stay away. Unless you like running around in a zerg of course.
I did a few dark anchors. Uhm another Zeg fest. Chaos and more Chaos. Not enough to say if they were fun or not. Then I was in a few of those things where a mini-engine would deposite some beasts...alone you die... But I took on these with PUGs and that was fun...but didn't lead to any interaction. In fact that is my main issue with the game...no one talking in local.
I hit another bugged reset on a quest (aide the northern priestes) and no matter how often I said "please leave the area and let it reset" in yell people didn't. I gave up and logged out and when I logged in early the next morning there was only one person there and dove in and we did it without a problem...it even reset. So I helped the next group. I hit the same thing with the guild quest "aide Alisa" she was also not reseting but that was at the end of my play time. I really have to say that they need to instance the main story more because it destroys immersion when you have a dozen people doing the same "secret" mission.
World exploring both in Skyrim (with my recreated Pack Nord...Halldor Hildirson) was interesting. But I spent most of my time with my Altmer nightblade...surrounded by cats, half naked savages er bosmer, and other les.. er less well known races pol...er populating our busy port island. We are all friends and allies...yes? At last I know where the wolves hide for hides...I was about ready to kill people who just can't seem to not kill things as they walk around and then just rush off...I was stalking that wolf for a purpose dingbat!
I also found a special crafting station but I don't know if I can get it to work...I'll have to go back next time, if there is a next time and see. I got to lvl 9.
I have to say I can't fathom how they expect to get the game to work with a subscription fee. My guess is that with 3 sets of players PC/MAC, XBox, and PS they will have around 1 m people total. I'd guess 3-5 m will try the game for between 1-3 months. I don't see them retaining more than 10-15% of the people who try. They should use the system in the next ES game though it is a lot better than the current on they have in my view.
But thinking on what the head of it said..."it is the elder scrolls" and "it is online." Well it is the elder scrolls, I have had a blast exploring the various islands and reading the books and stuff...but it is online which means about half the time the people are anoying, a quarter the time or less they are useful, and the other part of the time they are just ignorable.
I'm waiting to see what happens...which should be obvious by june or july. I've purchased SWTOR, STO, CoH/V, and AoC so buying the client doesn't faze me...but I'm dubious they will stay subscription for long. Equally so I know "Free to Play" is "Free to Pay" as that just means they nickle and dime the money out of you. Both LoTRO and NW are that way. Since PvP is supposed to be important to the game I'm a bit dubious how well FtP works...it was the reason WAR never could do that change over, as Free to Play become "Pay to Win." But they have to give people a pretty big incentive to compete for subscription money.
