ZeniMax Online is continuing to improve the accessibility features found in The Elder Scrolls Online in next month’s free Update 37, as well as offering a highly-requested cosmetic feature, and more.
The Scribes of Fate DLC pack arrives on March 13th for The Elder Scrolls Online, and to coincide with the new premium content, all players will receive a free base-game update for one of the best Xbox MMO games, which looks to add Screen Narration, the ability to hide shoulder cosmetics, and more.
The Elder Scrolls Online Update 37 details
As revealed on the official Elder Scrolls Online website, Update 37 improves on the game’s accessibility options by offering users a Screen Narration tool. The feature allows the “majority of the game’s menus” to be narrated for you and is automatically enabled when you put the game in Accessibility Mode via the in-game settings. You’ll also be given the choice between masculine and feminine voices, as well as the ability to control the speed and volume of the narration, much like you can with the Chat Narration added in Update 36. While ZeniMax does plan on improving the feature in the future, the following disclaimer is given on the site:
Note that some menus and UI elements are not supported by Screen Narration at this time, including Scrying, Excavating, Tales of Tribute, lockpicking, and certain fishing and Champion Point screens. In addition, some gameplay elements, such as combat, in-world navigation, and interactable objects are not narrated in addition to interactions with NPCs and character dialogue (to ensure it does not conflict with the voice acting).
Arriving alongside the Screen Narration is the ability to hide your character’s shoulder cosmetics, which is a feature the developer says has been requested a lot. Interestingly, though, while you’ll be able to hide them via the Outfit Station, you’ll first need to purchase the skill from the Impressario with Event Tickets. It’s certainly a surprising design choice, that’s for sure, but ZeniMax says that the next in-game event is “a silly one,” so there might just be some other oddities available.
On top of those larger additions, we can also expect to see a few quality-of-life improvements to the housing system. Much of it is aimed towards ease of access to your items, such as new filters in the Housing Editor’s placement and retrieval tabs, the ability to reset training dummies when you’re using them, and improvements to the management screen when seeing who’s currently in your home.
These are apparently just the highlights, and there are other features coming with the update as well, so we’ll keep our eyes peeled. Some of the additional features could be general improvements and bug fixes creative director Rich Lambert told us about in our exclusive Elder Scrolls Online interview. Either way, we’ll find out next month!
