PAX East 2018 (UESP media pass!)

[Alarra]

PAX East is coming up (April 5-8), and several members of the UESP ESO guild, including myself and baratron, are going to be there.

I applied for a press badge on behalf of the UESP and was accepted, so that means I get to go in an hour early on the first day and can schedule appointments with devs. (There's also an almost 8-hour-long ESO/Legends/Quake Champions/Wolfenstein 2 event going on too - which doesn't require a PAX badge to attend, btw, if you're in the Boston area).

So, that said, do you have any questions you'd like me to ask about the main series, ESO, or Legends?

Note that they never answer questions like "When is the next TES game going to be released?" or "Can you add (thing I think is cool)?" - they stick to things that are already announced/released. Fun questions and questions over the reasons for things announced are always great options.

[The SheoDovah]

When will the next TES T-shirt be released? Can you add lootboxes to every TES product via patches?

Ok, I'll be serious.

Skyrim had a bit of a preference for Fetch Quests because of the Radiant system, if Skyrim had another year in development or a few more years, what side quests would they have liked to do? Not fetch quests. E.g. Murder mysteries, Nordic brawls, family honour etc..

Since 2011, the RPG genre has had quite the transformation in terms of gameplay. What elements from any RPG would they love to add if they had unlimited resources and time?

If they could remake any TES game(A full remake, not remaster and not Skyrim), what would it be, what they would change and what would they add?

If they had the chance to, what developers would they love to team up with for a TES Spinoff?

If the Oblivion Crisis was covered as a Netflix show or a AGOT sized one, who would they love to use? What would they do? Etc..

What are their favourite mods?

If they could go back to ESO from the start, what would they like to have patched in?

What parts of the lore would they love to turn into a spin off? E.g. Akaviri invasion, War of the red ring.

If they gave TES to Creative Assembly, what would they love to see as a TES Total War game?

[Unionhack]

- Can we expect to see more focus on companions in future titles? Skyrim was released with such followers as J'zargo and Aela, characters with simple backstories and little beyond that. We saw it expand with Serana's detailed interactions, and worked upon further in Fallout 4's highly detailed companions. Will we be seeing more of that, or will the focus be shifted more towards the single player experience once more?

- What was it like to revisit Morrowind and Vvardenfell when working on the titular ESO expansion? Was there a good deal of nostalgia in writing Vivec, Sotha Sil, Almalexia, and others? Were there any mistakes or things you wished hadn't been done years ago when the original Morrowind was released? How has the team's perception of Morrowind changed after the expansion?

- What is the canon status of C0DA and what is the prospect of its goal; to make Elder Scrolls an open-source world for free contribution?

- How does Todd feel about the memes?

[Imbalance]

If I send you my resume, will you present it and beg them to hire me?

More action figures? Any chance of a table top game based on TES?

[Alarra]

Now that the latest expansions for Legends and ESO have been announced - Houses of Morrowind for Legends and Summerset for ESO - does anyone have anything more specific to this content that they want to know about?

[The SheoDovah]

Yes.

How superior are altmeri? Are they doodyheads? If so, how much of a doodyhead are they?

Ok, super serious questions.

With the implication of the Altmeri PC speaking in the trailer, is she now a defined character or is it just trailer fodder?

(provided this is not explained in game), why are non-elves allowed in Summerset?

Because the Altmer are a mage heavy race, what issues did they face in terms of gameplay? E.g. Powerful magic being expected by most altmeri enemies but would cause issues if every single Altmeri enemy could cast the higher level spells regulary

Do they know the word of Talos? Will they praise him? This is a serious question.

Also, Pelinal Whitestrake. Will he invade?

[Alarra]

Yes.
(provided this is not explained in game), why are non-elves allowed in Summerset?

Do they know the word of Talos? Will they praise him? This is a serious question.

Also, Pelinal Whitestrake. Will he invade?

1) As stated in the gameplay trailer, Queen Ayrenn's opened the borders. She's known to be pretty down-to-earth and friendly to other races (which is why a big part of the Aldmeri Dominion questline in the base game is about a faction of supremacists similar to 4th-era Thalmor opposing her).

2) ESO takes place before Tiber Septim/Talos existed

3) ESO is long after the Alessian rebellion

[Alarra]

So we ended up getting an interview with Matt Firor and Rich Lambert, the game director and lead content designer of ESO.
A transcript of that conversation - featuring several questions from here and from our social media channels - can be found here on the wiki.


I’ve also written two posts about my experience at PAX on the UESP blog, in case you’re interested in what events like this are like or want to read about my more casual conversations with some of the devs:

• Thursday/Friday - covers more of PAX itself, as well as my chat with the Legends game director and my first look at ESO:Summerset
• Saturday - covers the Bethesda Gameplay Day