The Elder Scrolls Online Fails – Working as Intended

The Elder Scrolls Online offers players a huge open world, hundreds or even thousands of NPCs and quests, and a plethora of complex systems like Crafting. As with any MMO, you’re bound to encounter a few issues, whether they’re game breaking bugs or just questionable design decisions. Today we’re going to look at a couple of each.

Freefallin’

Pathing and collision glitches aren’t exactly uncommon in games, and TESO is no exception. While you’re out exploring Tamriel, be careful where you step, lest you end up falling through the world and floating in the endless void. Of course, you can always just use the “/stuck” command to ground yourself again, but that doesn’t make the initial plummet any less disconcerting. I just hope they fix this before Oculus Rift support comes into play.

The Blind Leading the Blind
The Prophet is the pillar of the story quests from the moment you break him out of prison in Coldharbour. They make a point of mentioning that he’s blind, so you have to be his guide. This doesn’t stop them from making you follow him during later quests, though.

Of course, when you’re following a blind man, expedience is not really an option. As I mentioned in my review, these unskippable, un-afkable extended animations can be a little frustrating if you’re just trying to get on with the game. This gallery, for example, is just one of the missions where the blind Prophet is guiding you through an area where ghosts are parleying with one another. Where’s the “/follow” command when you need it?

Hive Mind

Naturally, you’re going to have to prove yourself to some NPCs before they trust you. I know that I, for one, never trust anybody that can’t beat my friends in a fight. You’ll encounter a couple of quests where you have to challenge NPCs in a camp to a duel. Simple enough, right?

That is until you realize that they’re part of some kind of collective with shared experiences. You beat one of them in a duel, and suddenly they all think you’ve beaten them. You’ll eventually find enough non-connected folks to duel to complete the quests, but the first time you run into this, you’ll likely end up as confused as I was.

Minecraft Arrows

You remember that whole Scrolls trademark kerfuffle? Mojang was making a digital card game called Scrolls, which didn’t please the Attorney’s Guild of Tamriel. I wonder if Mojang has a case now, given that these arrows are clearly straight out of Minecraft.

For some reason, I don’t think this is a deliberate Minecraft easter egg, or the Fletcher’s Guild’s idea of innovation, so much as an hilarious graphics glitch. but then, I’ve seen weirder things.

You Spin Me Right Round, Baby, Right Round

Many games allow you to rotate your character in Character Selection. What better time to marvel at your character’s crafting handiwork, or check out the aesthetics of your most recent dungeon loot acquisition.

Sometimes you get a little carried away, though. Instead of dutifully examining your armor set, you spin your character like a vinyl record. In TESO, your character might not take kindly to this, and will react if you spin it violently enough. If you haven’t seen it in action you should definitely take it out for a… spin?