Broken Joysticks: I’ve noticed in The Clockwork City there were runes or some kind of designs floating in the sky. I can’t really think of another zone in ESO that has a skybox that is this animated.
ESO Devs: Everything in Clockwork City is created from forged metal or a process called sintering. We made this really amazing landscape and if you look up even the skybox is artificial. We did have to be mindful of the number of objects we were animating as it pertains to fixtures. It’s easy to go overboard and keep adding stuff and [jokingly] cause people’s graphics cards to fry. The scene graph makes really large strides possible making the Clockwork City perform well and look fantastic at the same time.
Broken Joysticks: Work on including the interlocking gears and mechanical art style must have gone beyond buildings. During my play session, I noticed NPCs with a mechanical prosthesis and other technological aids. Can you tell us something about that?
ESO Devs: [Referencing a particular NPC our party was standing in front of] This is a representative of the Clockwork Apostles. They are a combination of Sotha Sil’s priests, scientists and those who run the government in this part of the Clockwork City, known as the Brass Fortress. The Brass Fortress is the only place in the Clockwork City that is safe for people to live. Members of the Clockwork Apostles are very devoted to Sotha Sil even though some of them may not get to see him in their lifetime. Sotha Sil goes into long periods of rest – sometimes decades or even centuries long. His apostles follow his teachings and some even attempt to emulate him by replacing their arms or their eyes with clockwork prosthetics.
Broken Joysticks: Are we getting any new crafting motifs so that some of us who might not want to chase the hardcore veteran level loot mentioned earlier can enjoy the new aesthetic?
ESO Devs: Absolutely! The Clockwork Apostle motif that you can get while doing stuff in Clockwork City – both chapters and full-blown books – is obtainable from world bosses as well as from repeatable content. There is another one associated with another faction, whom I won’t spoil, later on in the story, and you have a chance to get their motif as well.
Broken Joysticks: [As we enter the Clockwork Basilica] So what is going on in this place?
ESO Devs: Even our [building] interiors, we are able to play around with “what is a world where there is no easy access to wood & food like? Paper isn’t too terribly common, and people do bring it in from the outside sometimes, but what do you make a book look like? All of these are metal plates that have been etched on. Sometimes they bind these plates together into large volumes as well.
Broken Joysticks: I couldn’t help but notice the little minion pet that you had following you..
ESO Devs: Yup, that is one of the things that you get when you have the DLC and you walk into The Brass Fortress for the first time. Dovah-fly being the Tamriel equaling of an Earth dragonfly. It is a cute little thing that flies around and is made completely out of clockwork parts.