[Megathread] Elder Scrolls Online

[Lemmiwink]

OMAIGODD that viedo looks awfull! I buyded this new sistem to plai this game on MAXSETINGS and naow it turns out it SUCKS! How coud thei trick us to beleive it was not crap!!!

On a serious note, and not breaking NDA, just speaking of beta's in general.

The beta is 2 weeks old now, god knows how long they ran in Alpha. A beta usually backtrack to a point where the Alpha was playable to get feedback that wasn't given during the alpha, beta's usually release a new beta build at least once a week. The gameplay you are seeing in the video is most likely based on a late Alpha build and should really not be taken as "the finished product".

Even SWTOR changed quite alot from beta to release, only problem with that beta was they didn't really listen to feedback and treated all of the feedback as whining.

[LCDArcade]

You guys do realize the leaked beta footage was of a novice noob who was playing at lowest game settings right?

[Deleted]

Look at the stiff and horrible animations of the wow beta. And this is even a spruced up blizzard released thing.

Also look how short tauren were then. Things can and do change in beta even models.

This is 10 years old. Compare it only to 10 year old beta footage. These animations and graphics were awesome at the time.

[Nirawen]

This is 10 years old. Compare it only to 10 year old beta footage. These animations and graphics were awesome at the time.

I think his point was that they were changed quite a bit in the months before WoW's open beta and that the same thing could happen with ESO.

[Lemmiwink]

Oh my that video of WoW brings back good memories. You could say WoW had major flaws up until 1.5 at least and that up to that point it felt very beta-ish, but like parlaa points out, it is a 10 year old game if you count beta and it's been improved alot since then. What WoW does to the MMO-market though is increasing peoples expectations to completely unrealistic levels. As long as the latest WoW patch sets the standard for a new MMO, I'm afraid all new MMO's will tank and you will suffer WoW as the only MMO on the market for people wanting to pay a sub instead of cash shops/P2W.

Elder Scrolls will not be the MMO to go above WoW in everything and neither will Wildstar, so most likely they will not be regarded as "big success" and the demographic that wants a sub based MMO without in-game cash shops etc. Are once again forced to play WoW or not play at all. I hope people can lower their expectations a bit and realize an MMO needs at least 8 months from release for us to actually see if this game is going places. I have high hopes for TESO but I do realize it might tank and go F2P very fast, I still hope it won't though.

[Nirawen]

Elder Scrolls will not be the MMO to go above WoW in everything and neither will Wildstar, so most likely they will not be regarded as "big success" and the demographic that wants a sub based MMO without in-game cash shops etc. Are once again forced to play WoW or not play at all. I hope people can lower their expectations a bit and realize an MMO needs at least 8 months from release for us to actually see if this game is going places. I have high hopes for TESO but I do realize it might tank and go F2P very fast, I still hope it won't though.

I think Wildstar has the potential to do well in the long run, there are a lot of variables they need to get right and any combination of failure on those points could result in its ruin but I could see it being #2 after WoW in a year or two after its release. One of it's strong points purely in a 'attracting players' sense is its similarity to WoW (I'm not saying its a similar game as such, but it shares aspects that will make a lot WoW players feel comfortable playing it) so it could retain a fair amount of the WoW players who are a bit tired but haven't found anything they prefer yet.

Not saying if any game is better than another just purely business, and OT business at that .

[Deleted]

The complaints here aren't really down to a single issue (lack of polygons, not enough animations etc.) but due to the sum of all things.

TESO seems like an MMO without the unique visual style that has helped other MMOs succeed. Instead we have this uninspired semi-realistic look that just doesn't go down well.

It's too reminiscent of other failed MMOs like Vanguard: Saga of Heroes and others I don't even remember.

Think about it for a moment. Every reasonably successful MMO (SWTOR, TERA and even Warhammer Online) had a stylized visual appeal...even if they were going for a realistic look. TESO currently lacks such a style which makes it seem incredibly generic and lifeless combined with the combat and environments we've seen.


Btw here are a few more uploads of the footage: -snip-


Do not post content protected by NDA. --Sj

[Zeek Daniels]

Ugh crowe, your not allowed to post NDA'ed footage.

Anyway to me the combat in 3rd person looked exactly like the combat in Skyrim in 3rd person, aside from the staff animations and the difference in fireball animations. I still dont see an issue with the game itself from the video. Graphics are fine, i hope my 7 year old computer can play it although by the time the game is released i will have gotten a new computer finally! Run animation looked a little bad, Spell animations were fine, Dialog was cool, looting was good, even keeping the crafting in terms of alchemy ingredients was cool. Cant wait to get in the beta to make a decision on how the game actually plays but so far so good for me.

[RoninaThorstone]

The complaints here aren't really down to a single issue (lack of polygons, not enough animations etc.) but due to the sum of all things.

TESO seems like an MMO without the unique visual style that has helped other MMOs succeed. Instead we have this uninspired semi-realistic look that just doesn't go down well.

It's too reminiscent of other failed MMOs like Vanguard: Saga of Heroes and others I don't even remember.

Think about it for a moment. Every reasonably successful MMO (SWTOR, TERA and even Warhammer Online) had a stylized visual appeal...even if they were going for a realistic look. TESO currently lacks such a style which makes it seem incredibly generic and lifeless combined with the combat and environments we've seen.

But that's what the TES franchise is. If you don't like the graphics TES uses, you won't like it in the TES MMO.

[Treeskee]

Yeah I don't mind it really and even so like others I'm sure it'll be a lot better by open beta (if they have one) let alone release. Also if everything is improved to a point where, as unlikely as it is, all people are satisfied.... Well that'll teach you guys to take stuff that breaks NDA to heart. :P

[vizzle]

You know watching the video a second time, it really isn't that bad. It feels very TES and I'm happy with that. Especially if the graphics are just like Skyrim (or similar) when it's on my own computer, playing, then I have no issue with the graphics/look/style.

[Deleted]

So, all in all this video didn't have offer any more information other then there are palms, there are mudcrabs and it's not smart to just go running randomly around without any clue about what you have to do.

The only thing that really didn't feet the elder scroll atmosphere for me were the names above the characters and npcs (but I guess they are a necessary evil in MMOs) and the lack of "physics" compared to the the newer elder scrolls game.

EDIT: The graphics are fine, they lack a lot of details and effects to make them better, but that could be because of low setting or the ppl in charge of modeling the characters and environments haven't polished them yet. (personally even if the graphics stay as they are I wouldn't mind it at all).

[RoninaThorstone]

The only thing that really didn't feet the elder scroll atmosphere for me were the names above the characters and npcs (but I guess they are a necessary evil in MMOs) and the lack of "physics" compared to the the newer elder scrolls game.

The name tags are optional. He activated them at the start of the video.

Also, are you talking about the physics where you could touch a cart and it would go flying 500 yards? Because if so, I agree. That was hilarious in skyrim.

[vizzle]

So, all in all this video didn't have offer any more information other then there are palms, there are mudcrabs and it's not smart to just go running randomly around without any clue about what you have to do.

The only thing that really didn't feet the elder scroll atmosphere for me were the names above the characters and npcs (but I guess they are a necessary evil in MMOs) and the lack of "physics" compared to the the newer elder scrolls game.

I'm sure you'll be able to turn the nameplates off anyway; you can do that in most games.

[Sj]

This is 10 years old. Compare it only to 10 year old beta footage. These animations and graphics were awesome at the time.

It's very common to use placeholder models as well.

[Dorfadin]

Watched the above video, dam them max setting graphics look good if it was 2004 lol

[RoninaThorstone]

Watched the above video, dam them max setting graphics look good if it was 2004 lol

And if I put skyrim at the lowest settings, turned off dynamic lighting and antialiasing it would look about the same as the video.

[Deleted]

It does look like max settings were disabled for the initial beta build, even if the options menu was still there.

People who played it at Pax said it looked great, and there is an off-screen tutorial video floating around the internet where it does look good graphically. Combat actually looked interesting at that level too.

My main issues with the beta footage leak are a) the combat looks too floaty, and not gritty enough and b) there is too much silence, I'm wondering if they haven't finished all the music or there was a glitch that stopped one of the tracks from playing. The sound effects are impressive, but the soundtrack (one of the most important features for an ES game) is not developed enough. Sure, the animations need some work too, but the devs have said they are still tweaking with them.

In terms of the art direction, I think the world design looks great- the building designs are interesting and the palm trees look good. Although I would say the armour looks uninteresting.. but who knows, maybe in the tutorial mission before Stros M'kai you pick up new, less bland weapons and armour, during the character creation where we got a preview of the 'veteran armour' the design did look fine later on. The levelling system does sound really interesting from what I've heard too.

[Valeron]

Most mmo betas have their top graphics disabled until release. So out of all of the concerns, that should be the least of them.

[Lemmiwink]

I'm not worried about graphics or physics, it will use the Havok physics engine and the graphics will probably be very good for people with capable hardware. I would like to see a newer build before I make any comment on the game tbh. That build looks like it's very early and that is one of the reasons betas have an NDA at all, so that people won't make premature assumptions based on ver early beta footage. According to people that has played a much newer build, the combat, graphics and all are very good and the game looks promising. I will stick with that for now, there will be plenty of time to judge the game closer to release.