[Megathread] Elder Scrolls Online

[Deleted]

Yes but wouldn't you still want to hinder them as much as possible? And why are people so steadfast on having less content on in this game, this would add variety and there has been a huge amount of suggestion on how this would be done well with little effect to the players of the faction you are trying to hinder.

I'm not sure I understand your "less content" part, could you elaborate?

And yeah, I know there's been loads of suggestions, I've made several myself =P

[ddsad2212]

I'm not sure I understand your "less content" part, could you elaborate?

And yeah, I know there's been loads of suggestions, I've made several myself =P

My point is that if they added in missions allowing you to in some way invade other factions that would obviously lead to an increase in the current amount of content planned for the game, increasing what we can do within the game.

[Valeron]

Yea I agree, Tera isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination - but its the closest similar style mmo control wise (from what we know so far).

Actually I'd say the closest mmo combat to Elder Scrolls would be Vindictus. I would be thrilled if they had Vindictus combat here.

[Deleted]

My point is that if they added in missions allowing you to in some way invade other factions that would obviously lead to an increase in the current amount of content planned for the game, increasing what we can do within the game.

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.

[indoordinosaur]

Bolded part seems to be among the MOST common misconceptions going on. You're at war with the IMPERIALS at the IMPERIAL city. You're RIVALLING other factions but they're not your primary enemy unless they beat you to it or you're holding them off from taking it. It's not a game of "Invade their land" it's a game of thrones (Hurr hurr) to keep Cyrodil in your power. Who holds Cyrodil holds the might of Tamriel untill they're weak enough to shake off.

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.

[Pachycrocuta]

I don't know if they would be considered your enemy. Rival, maybe. But not outright enemy.

[Deleted]

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 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 ----------

I don't know if they would be considered your enemy. Rival, maybe. But not outright enemy.

Exactly the same was I see it as said in my post above =)

[Throren]

All the factions are at war, the ebon heart starter zone is an island of fof skyrim being raided bu the DC.

[indoordinosaur]

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.

[Nirawen]

I really worry that their whole motivation for faction-locked territories was financial or the result of executive meddling rather than it being good MMO design. Forcing you to level up three characters in order to see all parts of the map is a great way for them to keep you subbed for an extra couple months. As skeptical as I am I do still intend on giving the game a chance once it releases, who knows, it might not be that bad.

DAoC had faction-locked zones and it was never considered an issue. The only difference I would say there is between DAoC's system and ESO would be that DAoC had faction specific classes which was an added incentive to roll other factions.

[Tabbycat]

DAoC had faction-locked zones and it was never considered an issue. The only difference I would say there is between DAoC's system and ESO would be that DAoC had faction specific classes which was an added incentive to roll other factions.

We don't know if ESO will have faction specific classes or not. All we know is there are about 5 classes that have been confirmed for the Ebonheart Pact. We haven't been told what classes the other two factions will have. Or if they will share the same classes as EP.

[Nirawen]

We don't know if ESO will have faction specific classes or not. All we know is there are about 5 classes that have been confirmed for the Ebonheart Pact. We haven't been told what classes the other two factions will have. Or if they will share the same classes as EP.

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.

[Flaks]

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.

As long as there was no animation lock, I'd be cool with tera type combat

That's my biggest beef with Tera and if they can make a game without it I'd be in love.

DAoC had faction-locked zones and it was never considered an issue. The only difference I would say there is between DAoC's system and ESO would be that DAoC had faction specific classes which was an added incentive to roll other factions.

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.

If they really lock the zones like that, then it means the already most likely hectic faction imbalance to the Ebonheart Pact will just get all that more hectic, as people are going to want to see Morrowind (and to a lesser extent, Skyrim.)

I'm personally completely down with rolling Redguard or Khajiit before any Ebonhart race.

God can they just announce when the beta is coming out. I don't mind if they say it is in 3 months time I just want a date to look forward to. But obviously the sooner the better

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.

[vizzle]

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.

You haven't been looking around enough then. A lot of people are calling this DAoC 2, whether as a compliment or an insult.

[ddsad2212]

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.

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

[Tabbycat]

You haven't been looking around enough then. A lot of people are calling this DAoC 2, whether as a compliment or an insult.

Yeah instead of calling it a WoW clone, some people have taken to calling it DAoC 2 in a TES skin. Is that better or worse?

I don't really care though. As long as it feels like TES when I'm playing it, I will be happy.

[Deleted]

Yes, combat will be similar to Skyrim but with a hotbar also because you can't pause mid fight to swap skills. But yeah the whole left click attack, right click block. You have Health, Magicka and Stamina, Mundus stones for birthsign bonuses just like Skyrim. They are adding in an active dodge ability so that is different. Mouse moves your camera, wasd moves you around ( I am sure there is an auto run key somewhere so you can just use it and your mouse to move around). You have the whole cross-hairs thing for targeting although there is a soft tab target so you can pick out a target in a mob).

So, if you hated the game play of skyrim, you will not enjoy the game play of ESO.

Thats what i was afraid of. Oh well... guess ill comeback here and offer my beta to someone more appropriate then if i get into the beta that is

[Tabbycat]

Thats what i was afraid of. Oh well... guess ill comeback here and offer my beta to someone more appropriate then if i get into the beta that is

I don't think beta invites are transferable like that especially since you signed an NDA when signing up for the beta so if you said you got in and were giving it away, you'd immediately get kicked out for breaking the NDA.

[Deleted]

I don't think beta invites are transferable like that especially since you signed an NDA when signing up for the beta so if you said you got in and were giving it away, you'd immediately get kicked out for breaking the NDA.

And how do you suppose they will find out that someone else logs into my beta-account other than me?

I shared my beta for almost all MMOs since wow and ive never gotten any problems with that.

[Tabbycat]

And how do you suppose they will find out that someone else logs into my beta-account other than me?

I shared my beta for almost all MMOs since wow and ive never gotten any problems with that.

IP address...

They may also require proof of age/identity such as a driver's license. If it's different than the name submitted on the app...