You can’t offer the whole of Tamriel as your gameboard and then refuse to satiate your players’ wanderlust. Zenimax Online know this, and have retained the Skyrim UI compass pop ups that’ll alert you to nearby caves, crypts and hamlets ripe for exploring. But somehow, I can’t imagine trudging off the beaten path while under the hook-in-mouth influence of an excitable group. So can I go it alone?
Alas, say the developers, low level solo experiences will be few and far between.
“The Elder Scrolls Online is set up to be a fluid experience,” wrote developers Zenimax Online in a Q&A. “As you wander the landscape you’ll encounter caves, forts, tombs, dungeons, and etc. Certain rare locales will just be for solo players, and some dungeons are meant for groups made only of people you choose to go in with. Most locales, however, will be accessible by everyone.”
These accessible locales will be playable solo, but only by characters with the requisite strength.
“Some might be too dangerous for you because of your current level, but you can always come back when you are more powerful if you want to complete them solo,” said Zenimax. “We recommend grabbing a friend or grouping up with a stranger if it seems too tough, though, because that’s all part of the fun.”
That said, when dungeons explicitly require groups, the game will point out that fact long beforehand.
“We’ll let you know if a dungeon needs more than just you to complete it through iconography in the world,” explained the developers. “Dungeons that require a group have a unique icon. While we want dungeons to make you a bit nervous, they are supposed to be fun affairs.
“If you’ve never gone through a dungeon with friends, it is definitely one of those things you don’t want to miss.”
Humbug. So long as I can reserve the right to leave my friends for dead in the deep when they start bickering over the loot, eh similarly anti-social readers?
Thanks, VG247.