The game and crowns definitely go on sale on the ESO site. There was a crown sale back in the earlier part of the month, just in time for the PC TG release (the 7th to the 14th). I don't think crown sales are all that frequent, but they do happen.
Unfortunately, I can't actually answer any of your questions about the Steam version. I run the non-Steam version since I had to buy a physical copy of the game to get around my small monthly data cap. I've launched the game with Steam a few times, but that's the extent of my experience. Personally, the only possible benefit I see of the Steam version is being able to access the extra Steam features (chatting with friends, streaming, or whatever else they provide nowadays), and that can be done, as you said, by adding the game as a non-Steam game.
Achievements on Steam wouldn't really be that important anyway, since the game itself has a ton of achievements built in. Sure, nobody'll see them unless you share a specific one in chat, or use a site like eso-database, but they're there.
And as far as the Workshop goes, it's not really needed, since there's esoui, which has Minion to help install/manage adddons.
So... Basically, I see no benefit to buying the game on Steam. Unless there's a sale, but I don't know how often ESO goes on sale on Steam. The last one that I could see (by scrolling through the Facebook page) was on February 5th, and the game was also on sale on the official ESO site, not just Steam.
There is actually another sale going on until the 26th, but it's only for the standard edition, and only at your "local retailer," as they put it. It isn't on sale on the site, but it is on sale at a place like Amazon.
|
