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Greymoor and The Dark Heart of Skyrim

Tags: #ESO  #Skyrim  #Greymoor  #The Dark Heart of Skyrim 
  • Member
    January 20, 2020

    What we know so far:

    The Chapter is named for Greymoor Keep, a Vampire Lord's castle somewhere in the depths of Blackreach.

    The Chapter takes place in Western Skyrim and we'll get to see Solitude and Morthal amongst other places.

    Western Skyrim is ruled by High King Svargrim and is not part of the Ebonheart Pact. There are tensions between East and West.

    Blackreach is bigger than we have ever seen it and will play a huge role in the story as the Dark Heart of Skyrim. It will have diverse biomes within it.

    The Vampire skillline has been overhauled in order to deliver a deeper vampire experience. Players will now get stronger the more they feed rather than becoming stronger through starvation.

    A new skill and gameplay feature called Antiquities will be available and the quests can be started at Solitude's House of Antiquities.

    One of the pre-order bonuses is the Swordthane Outfit Style. Afaik, this marks the first use of the term in an official product.

    The Dark Heart of Skyrim is the name of the year-long story, and that will kick off with two dungeons and a prologue quest in roughly five weeks time with the Harrowstorm update.

    The two dungeons released in Harrowstorm will be called Unhallowed Grave and Icereach:

    "What lies buried beneath the sands of Bangkorai? Delve into this ancient tomb and confront the merciless graverobbers who have cut a bloody path to its dark heart, seeking lost secrets and forbidden powers."

    "The cruel and mysterious Icereach Coven prepare an ancient, unholy ritual from their island home, hidden within the Sea of Ghosts. Skyrim needs heroes to travel to this frigid rock and investigate a deadly storm of supernatural power that emanates from it."

    Icereach expands upon the lore introduced with Eastmarch's Direfrost Keep dungeon.

    What have I missed? What are you excited to see?

    Click on the image above for more news and info from elderscrollsonline.com

  • Member
    January 21, 2020

    The Vampire skillline has been overhauled in order to deliver a deeper vampire experience. Players will now get stronger the more they feed rather than becoming stronger through starvation.

    That one change is really interesting to me, it will mean that it's harder to get some of the bonuses than what it is right now. Using the passive perk Undeath as an example, as it is right now I can do nothing for several hours and all of a sudden I gain 33% reduced damage when my vampire character falls below 50% health. With this change I actually have to work for that bonus, either by going out and finding 3 people to feed on or just drinking that same number of one of the Bloody Mara varients. Speaking of which they'll probably have to be changed slightly to make sense with this. 

    Also, more Skyrim :D

  • Member
    January 21, 2020

    Golden Fool said:

    The Vampire skillline has been overhauled in order to deliver a deeper vampire experience. Players will now get stronger the more they feed rather than becoming stronger through starvation.

    That one change is really interesting to me, it will mean that it's harder to get some of the bonuses than what it is right now. Using the passive perk Undeath as an example, as it is right now I can do nothing for several hours and all of a sudden I gain 33% reduced damage when my vampire character falls below 50% health. With this change I actually have to work for that bonus, either by going out and finding 3 people to feed on or just drinking that same number of one of the Bloody Mara varients. Speaking of which they'll probably have to be changed slightly to make sense with this. 

    Also, more Skyrim :D

    That's definitely a good change. I mean, the closest I've come to actually wanting to be a vampire in this game was during the Witches Fest - and that was only because I looked at the passive and thought how helpful it'd be in PVP. For there now to be something more substantial and have us actually enjoy the skills and experience of being a vampire is a good, good thing.

    To be honest, though, I'm more excited about the impact on lore. I mean, there was lots of talk in the livestream about how Blackreach, Falmer, and everything was shrouded in myth and legend. Before TES V Skyrim, all we knew of clan Volkihar came from Immortal Blood and a couple of sentences:

    I told him about the most powerful tribe, the Volkihar, paranoid and cruel, whose very breath could freeze their victims' blood in the veins. I explained to him how they lived beneath the ice of remote and haunted lakes, never venturing into the world of men except to feed...

    ..."Your advice helped me very much," he said. "But you should know that the Volkihar have an additional ability you didn't mention. They can reach through the ice of their lakes without breaking it. It was quite a nasty surprise, being grabbed from below without any warning."

    Yet in the game with the Dawnguard dlc, there wasn't much to explain the origin of this little bit of knowledge. It seems like now is the perfect opportunity to explore that. Like, what if the only thing we hear about the Volkihar is a whispered warning that they come up through the lakes at night? You know, just using the whole idea of Blackreach and the monsters within to create the atmosphere the devs were inferring.

    Anyway, it took all morning but the PTS update finally finished downloading. I'm really chuffed to see we can get ourselves a proper Orcish Longhouse. From the Patch Notes:

    Forgemaster Falls: Thunderous waterfalls, an imposing smithy, and a magnificent view of the Great Bay make this brisk coastal village the perfect refuge for adventurers seeking a rugged Orcish lifestyle.

    It looks really cool!

    Any thoughts on Antiquities?

  • Member
    January 21, 2020

    Hopefully it doesn't suffer from the same problems as the Psychic Order quests; that would stop me from doing them. I can seee the armour, weapons and jewelry being fun to play around with just based on the couple of effects that they mentioned. More free furnishings and collectables/appearance items is always nice.

  • Member
    January 21, 2020

    I wonder how the vampire's appearance changes will work now. In the current version the hungrier you get the more your vampirism shows, so will a stage 1 vampire start out looking like a current stage 4? Or will it be changed to where your vampirism shows more the more you have fed?

  • Member
    January 21, 2020

    I hope they don't make vampires take sun damage while outside. That'd break vamp easily.

  • Member
    January 22, 2020

    Golden Fool said:

    Hopefully it doesn't suffer from the same problems as the Psychic Order quests; that would stop me from doing them. I can seee the armour, weapons and jewelry being fun to play around with just based on the couple of effects that they mentioned. More free furnishings and collectables/appearance items is always nice.

    I hear that! Let's hope it's a fun thing rather than a grind.

    Golden Fool said:

    I wonder how the vampire's appearance changes will work now. In the current version the hungrier you get the more your vampirism shows, so will a stage 1 vampire start out looking like a current stage 4? Or will it be changed to where your vampirism shows more the more you have fed?

    Which would be better? I've never played a vamp but often read complaints from people who want to be able to hide the changes vampirism causes to their character. So maybe that would be good to introduce as another incentive to keep their character well-fed. Like, stage 4 being pretty close to normal while stage 1 looks like a starving, gaunt monster.

    Ebonslayer said:

    I hope they don't make vampires take sun damage while outside. That'd break vamp easily.

    That'd be daring! I reckon we'll see more people calling for a toggleable night/day setting in player housing so they can at least live the vampire fantasy in their own homes even if they can't in the open world.

  • Member
    January 22, 2020

    Paws said:

    Which would be better? I've never played a vamp but often read complaints from people who want to be able to hide the changes vampirism causes to their character. So maybe that would be good to introduce as another incentive to keep their character well-fed. Like, stage 4 being pretty close to normal while stage 1 looks like a starving, gaunt monster.

    The logic they've applied so far in TES games is that feeding allows the Vampire to blend into mortal society with greater ease; because they have greater control of themselves and don't look like horrible monsters. I hope they don't change that. With the current system I've been using the Blackmarrow Necromancer skin to hide the visual changes on my only vampire, which should tell you where I stand on the matter.

    As for the sun damage that Ebonslayer mentioned, I can't see that being added. ZOS may have made some questionable balancing choices in the past, but they want people to enjoy playing as a vampire and that would turn most players away from it. Sun damage is a mechanic that could really only work in a single player game where you have ways to mitigate it; like advancing time which you can't do in a multiplayer game.

     

  • Member
    January 22, 2020

    Golden Fool said:

    Paws said:

    Which would be better? I've never played a vamp but often read complaints from people who want to be able to hide the changes vampirism causes to their character. So maybe that would be good to introduce as another incentive to keep their character well-fed. Like, stage 4 being pretty close to normal while stage 1 looks like a starving, gaunt monster.

    The logic they've applied so far in TES games is that feeding allows the Vampire to blend into mortal society with greater ease; because they have greater control of themselves and don't look like horrible monsters. I hope they don't change that. With the current system I've been using the Blackmarrow Necromancer skin to hide the visual changes on my only vampire, which should tell you where I stand on the matter.

    As for the sun damage that Ebonslayer mentioned, I can't see that being added. ZOS may have made some questionable balancing choices in the past, but they want people to enjoy playing as a vampire and that would turn most players away from it. Sun damage is a mechanic that could really only work in a single player game where you have ways to mitigate it; like advancing time which you can't do in a multiplayer game.

     

    It's a bit surprising that we're getting an overhaul on vampires at all. I mean, they're quite a niche thing and not something that appeals to everybody. So I think this change should include making them more appealing, however they do it, and that would mean greater customisation and making it easier to hide the physical changes. That said, I am sort of in two minds regarding that as part of the vampire fantasy (I guess) is wanting to look like a vampire... So yeah, definitely curious and looking forward to seeing how they do it.

    The sun damage thing is sort of related to that. I get that it's not ideal in an MMO but it does leave a slight frown on my face. TES isn't like Twilight in which vampires become sparkly-glowy in the sun. It's much more traditional and more like proper vampires, so for there to be no sun damage is like an immediate hurdle for the suspension of disbelief. It would be interesting if there was some kind of optional toggle feature so as to leave the choice to the players. Like, those who want a complete vampire experience could toggle sun damage on and off... Nah, that wouldn't work that well either. But I definitely think a day/night toggle is viable in player housing so that a player's home can be an eternal night for that vampire experience.

  • Member
    January 22, 2020

    In a way there is Sun "Damage" in the game, just in the form of reduced health regen. Yes that is active at all times but mmo, balancing something that changes based on the in-game time would just be harder than it is worth. It ESO's version of the Sun Damage in Skyrim where your resources didn't regenerate during the day. Actually having your character's health constantly drained would make that character terrible outside of content where there was a healer present to negate it. As for the day/night toggle in houses, YES.