An overview of ZeniMax's in development MMO from a Q&A held for a select few at the company's studios

The Alliance War

TESO's PvP is centered on the three faction battle across the land of Cyrodiil, each faction begins at a different edge of the total map — opposing factions can't enter those areas — and as they level, they work toward the central battle area where PVP occurs.

Brian Wheeler, PvP designer, spoke of the importance of Cyrodiil, "It’s a space that people are familiar with from Oblivion; it has tons of lore. If you look at the timeline it's noted that this is a period of civil war so the Imperial city is up for grabs; there is no emperor yet."

There are capturable forts, which Wheeler explained would have significance as "The more keeps that you own the more powerful you become and if you own the right buildings you can crown someone Emperor."

The Emperor would most likely be decided by the person atop a leader board which would be in the game to rate your performance in the war. The senior devs agreed that guilds would be vying to make sure it was one of their members that gained the accolade for bragging rights — Firor also suggesting a possible outfit being available to the player for the time he or she was Emperor along with the title to add to the prestige.

The game's website will proclaim which player will be Emperor so all can respectfully, bow down beneath his or her glory — or plot how to quickly cut off the crown.

Cyrodiil would also hold PvE content such as gathering for tradeskills, public dungeons and so on. The sheer size of the area — stated as being almost the same scale of Oblivion — would deter having too large a concentration of players in one space, with incentives to explore different parts of the map and engage in PvP across its expanse, including the need to capture various points.

A video of a very impressive looking large scale battle was shown, including the destruction of keep walls with trebuchets, where separate clumps of brickwork were blown out in levels until the wall was down, rather than a visual damage meter.

Players can access the PvP area at level 10 with up-ranking available to level the field somewhat, although not totally, with a level 50 with full trees.

The importance of actual PvP combat was emphasized. The devs want people hunting each other down rather than completely focusing on objectives, so players will earn more Alliance points for killing players than taking keeps.

Cyrodiil is the destination for TESO's endgame, but that doesn't mean it is simply about PvP.  The PvE content previously mentioned should provide a variety of chances to group up and run around with friends — as well as people you can't stand but who know how to play.

The Alliance War PvP is one facet of endgame, but it also appears there will be plenty of different small group dungeons — public and heroic — as well as forms of raiding. There will be large Adventure Zones, only available to high level characters, and within these areas will be a variety of content aimed at single, small group and large raiding party approaches.

There will also be the chance to join various guilds, something very familiar to fans of the previous Elder Scrolls games, with each guild expecting you to do different things to impress them, the Fighter's Guild gives ranks based on destroying the Dark Anchors that have been cast down by the game's overarching villain and killing Daedra. The Mage's Guild is attempting to find out more about Molag Bal, and the dark magics he uses, so collecting tomes of knowledge from around the world will have you rising up the ranks.

It was mentioned that although other guilds like the Thieves Guild were not in the current build, their addition was in the works.

The team was very focused on giving information rather than fluff and there were a lot of things to digest, which is encouraging considering we were told there is still a lot yet to be revealed.

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Scott "Jarimor" Hawkes, Editor in Chief