Correct me if I am still misunderstanding you, but are you implying that you believe the following;
A game which is still in production, which has not been released and which quest concept is still speculatory, is evident of not providing enough content based on intuition?
I mean, I could be wrong - and I most likely am! - I am just trying to see if I get you right. You're nerveous that the game won't provide enough stuff to do in your own zone without having the option of invading other zones? If so, I'm pretty sure that's among the easiest design decitions to overcome. "We need more content in each zone, Jim" "Alright, Ralph, then get the quest development team going, make the writers figure something out and ask the zone developers where there's room for more and we'll meet back friday" - Or something like that.
The clever way of parting the zones and tailoring for relevance of faction is, it's incredibly easy to add 'enough' content (enough being an individual determination and not a concrete meassurement) which fits with the specific players. Things won't get rough untill you have to allow others to do the same stuff and still make sense. Even less if you have to tailor specifically to several factions in the same zone and still avoid cross influence.
Yes but wouldn't that still make the other factions your enemy? It sounds like a classic territorial dispute between nations, except that there are three nations instead of the usual two. When there is a territorial dispute between two countries its not just the disputed territory that will get invaded. The Canadians/British marched into Washington D.C. and burned down the White House even though their goal wasn't to reclaim that territory. Britain, the USA etc invaded Germany even though they had no intention of keeping the land for themselves. I'm not a history buff but i'm sure there are a ton of examples of this. And I'm not saying world PvP outside of Cyrodiil needs to be a major feature. As long as there is some semi-realistic implementation of cross faction travel I'd be happy. Putting up a wall between faction zones will make the whole war thing feel unrealistic.
Anyways, sorry I'm constantly complaining about this issue. The only reason I care so much is because almost everything I've seen about the game looks awesome and I'm super excited for this to be best MMO in years. I'm just worried that faction locking and perhaps a bad implementation of this so-called "megaserver" could cripple what would be an otherwise awesome experience.
I don't know if they would be considered your enemy. Rival, maybe. But not outright enemy.
I understand entirely where you're comming from. As I mentioned earlier and hinted even earlier than that, I saw it as a concern aswell before I kinda got an idea of the possibilities it provides over the negatives. I got nothing really to add as I've said what I could to debate the subject and I am sure you have aswell and we're not very likely to rock eachothers points of view on this untill we're actualy in the game itself and can see how it works and what the up and downsides are. Even further, we might still not agree, but it was a nice debate and I thank you for being constructive and providing an interresting view =D
Who knows. Maybe ZeniMax Online will figure a compromise that works for everyone without damaging anything for either side. Would be cool if they did ;D
---------- Post added 2013-02-04 at 03:14 AM ----------
Exactly the same was I see it as said in my post above =)
All the factions are at war, the ebon heart starter zone is an island of fof skyrim being raided bu the DC.
Is the faction-locked thing official? Everyone seems so sure its going to happen but I haven't heard anything about it from the guys at Zenimax in any of the interviews or and previews I've heard/read. Can anyone link me to a source where a developer actually confirms this?
Oh and to change the topic slightly is anyone else extremely curious to see how the 'mega-server' is going to work? At first when I heard that term I got excited, imagining a world of truly epic scale... but then I realized this would be impossible to make. I'm worried that instead of a megaserver it'll feel more like a thousand mini-servers that players freely move between, with each zone being separate instance. I could see this causing two problems:
1. Too much instancing in an MMO causes it to lose its 'MMO feel' and start to feel more like a lobby-based action RPG. Instanced dungeons are fine but if you're instancing whole zones you won't feel like you're in a persistent world anymore. Guild Wars 2 has some beautiful content but it lacks the epic expansiveness of a typical MMO because you're constantly switching instances as you explore the world.
2. Not being tied down to a server will hurt the in-game community. When you play on a server with the same people, you get to know those people, you make friends, you find out who you shouldn't group with, you see familiar guilds and they can build a reputation on your server, etc... If people are constantly coming and going off of a mini-server you're unlikely to recognize any of the players or guilds you see. One feature in WoW that I'm not sure I completely like is the LFD/LFR. While I appreciate the convenience it provides, it has really changed the way PUGs feel. In Vanilla you had to make some friends and put some effort into creating a group, this forced people to socialize and you had to be a good player to get invited back. If you were an asshole people would remember you so everyone had better manners. Nowadays you can spam trade with immature nonsense and still have no problem getting geared out. In fact, you don't really have to talk to anyone at all anymore if you don't want to.
Last edited by indoordinosaur; 2013-02-04 at 03:46 AM.
Possibly one less difference then, makes sense with Matt Firor being a significant force in the development.
*edit* Thinking about it, I'm suprised I haven't heard anyone herald it as DAoC's spiritual successor considering how similar they are on paper. I know people have discussed the features but there's usually that guy who jumps at the chance, I guess the strength of the IP keeps it safe.
Last edited by Nirawen; 2013-02-04 at 04:41 AM.
I just thought of the faction lock in another way. The first part has already been discussed: by locking territories for factions, they've made sure they can tailor specific storylines to that faction/the respective races without outside interferences such as dead npc's.
The second and more important aspect is that Cyrodiil sounds like what we've been asking for with things like Skyrim or Oblivion online. It's a territory that, while it has it's own story, has that story shaped and evolved by the players.
That's my biggest beef with Tera and if they can make a game without it I'd be in love.
I know I'll get hate for this but WoW is just such a huge monster that there's no way we or the developers can overlook features present in it. DAoC was out at a time when there wasn't this behemoth of a game overshadowing everything else in the genre.
Or maybe they can and it's actually the fact that the recent MMO's have been trying to keep up with WoW that they've been failing.
I'm personally completely down with rolling Redguard or Khajiit before any Ebonhart race.
I'm in the same boat...for the next two days. Then I'll get Dragonborn and forget that there's even such a thing as Elder Scrolls Online.
Last edited by Flaks; 2013-02-04 at 05:29 AM.
Originally Posted by High Overlord Saurfangi7-6700 @2.8GHz | Nvidia GTX 960M | 16GB DDR4-2400MHz | 1 TB Toshiba SSD| Dell XPS 15
Why am I back here, I don't even play these games anymore
The problem with the internet is parallel to its greatest achievement: it has given the little man an outlet where he can be heard. Most of the time however, the little man is a little man because he is not worth hearing.
Ya I just realized what I was saying was a bit retarded, kind of drunk at the time of writing. Anyway the point I should have been trying to make is that it would add variety to the game, and more then that I think the game shouldn't be separating the world into places where you can and can't go. I just don't see a reason why a war would stop people sneaking around. If they did nothing more then allow you the freedom to go there then I'd be fairly happen. It just feels restrictive. Ofc that is speculation and I won't have any clue how it "feels" until I play it