[Megathread] Elder Scrolls Online

[notorious98]

well the point I was trying to make was that a bad launch and impression, and AoC is a poster child for that, can really "kill" the game. AoC nowadays is great (except for the really low population) but it never recovered from its launch.

I'll agree, but at the same time, I don't necessarily believe that ESO will have a bad launch. The difference between AoC and ESO is that AoC was going to appeal to MMO players and not a whole lot more. ESO is still going to have appeal to TES players. And it definitely has a very TES feel. The question is whether or not people who've played Skyrim are going to be interested in the monthly subscription fee.

But I don't think what was meant by "Give it time" was to give the game a few months to figure things out as opposed to give the game itself enough play time before giving it a failing grade.

[corebit]

Even though most of the media impressions were not glowingly positive, I much prefer brutal criticism right off the bat than the massive SWTOR hype that game received. It would be a shame if people bought the game deceived by irresponsible media hype, then get disappointed, and have massive bleed of subscribers like SWTOR did.

We think we have SWTOR to thank, since now the consumer and media are much more critical. As long as Zenimax provides fun and engaging updates at a good pace, they will always have a healthy playerbase.

Remember people, MMOs don't need 7+ million players or "kill WoW" to be successful.

And to the ones throwing around "it will go F2P" as if it implies the game will die or something or the quality is shit. Not it isn't. Some are already committed to another game (like WoW) and don't want another P2P. That's understandable. If the market decides that ESO cannot remain profitable with P2P, then I'm 100% fine with it go F2P. SWTOR did, a bunch of other games did, and they came out more profitable than ever. Even WoW will go F2P when its subscribers dwindle below their acceptable threshold in the future.

[notorious98]

You're a fucking retard.

That's unnecessary.

[Bigbazz]

This needs to stop. People are looking at this game expecting it to be the next step in the ES and it isn't. It's an alternative game, it isn't the next ES singleplayer experience. Every time a new ES game is announced, we always expect it to be the next generation of visuals. We expect it to look ages ahead of its predecessor. Morrowind -> Oblivion. Oblivion - >Skyrim. Yeah each game looks a ton better than the last but we're talking about a MMO here. MMOs have to render dozens to hundreds of players at once. Even so, if the game had next gen graphics, in 5 years it'd look outdated. The game uses stylized graphics. This lets it stay visually relevant without a few years passing and the standard having been raised causing the MMO to look like crap. Stylized graphics preserves the visual quality and allows system performance requirements to be minimal. It doesn't need to look like the next Crysis game!

You don't get it, the game has lower res textures than Oblivion and there is no need for it, if it had decent quality textures it would look fantastic.. Textures... not miracles but textures.. do you know how little effect higher quality textures has? Someone with a high end PC would stand to lose maybe 2-3 fps by upping the texture res by 2-3x, in some situations there would not even be an fps loss at all.

Texture resolution can be scaled down for those with lower end PC's to use what is there now, the game would look so much better. The moving water looks terrible, there is no need or excuse for that and no need for it.. It can be improved without effecting performance.

This isn't about asking for the "next gen" ES game, it's not as good as the last gen game from over 2 years ago. It's pretty close though, if they fixed the moving water and added in proper textures it would look fantastic by any standards.

[Tekkommo]

Perhaps it's just me but I knew it didn't look like GWII. But often in this gaming community I'm a pariah I'm the gamer you deserve!

Well if you're a GW fanboi you would. You would notice it from the UI layout, duh.

I only played GW2 at release, got one level 80, was fun, then boring after that, I never played GW1 for more than 10 mins.

[Jtbrig7390]

Perhaps it's just me but I knew it didn't look like GWII. But often in this gaming community I'm a pariah I'm the gamer you deserve!

Anyone who has played both GW1 and GW2 knows it isn't GW2.

I really didn't get the point of the video post and sorry GW2 looks miles better then both ESO and GW1. Hell I can run ESO a lot better on my computer due to its graphics then I can GW2.

Not saying ESO looks bad because it dose look and feel like a Elder Scrolls game but to say it looks as good as GW2 at max is a outright lie.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Well if you're a GW fanboi you would. You would notice it from the UI layout, duh.

I only played GW2 at release, got one level 80, was fun, then boring after that, I never played GW1 for more than 10 mins.

I'm not a GWII fanboi. I like GWII but it lacks in endgame content. It has it's pros and cons. However I think it's ok to like more then one game. Fuck Wow is my life but I don't criticize GWII super harshly or bash any game with no rime or reason.

[Sharuko]

Even though most of the media impressions were not glowingly positive, I much prefer brutal criticism right off the bat than the massive SWTOR hype that game received. It would be a shame if people bought the game deceived by irresponsible media hype, then get disappointed, and have massive bleed of subscribers like SWTOR did.

I actually think all the negative criticism is a good thing, most MMOs go in with glowing reviews and what happens to them? Don't meet peoples overblown expectations even if the game is good.

[Tekkommo]

You don't get it, the game has lower res textures than Oblivion

You're probably talking about a fully modded game here.

ESO looks better than Skyrim unmodded (I admit trees look super crap close up, but that is also the same for Skyrim).

[Valeron]

surely has to be a better topic than the graphics

I mean as was mentioned, in almost all of the media impressions the graphics have been the high point

[Sharuko]

Not saying ESO looks bad because it dose look and feel like a Elder Scrolls game but to say it looks as good as GW2 at max is a outright lie.

It isn't a lie, it is a person's taste. I am sure many people think WildStar looks better than both ESO and GW2 and I couldn't say they were lying.

[corebit]

surely has to be a better topic than the graphics

I mean as was mentioned, in almost all of the media impressions the graphics have been the high point

It's a valid concern nonetheless. Games are after all a visual experience. Graphics are very important for that reason.
However we all know that longevity and replay value is what makes or breaks MMOs, but gaming media doesn't (and to a certain extent they can't) focus on this part because as media they can't dwell on a single game for too long. They make their impression/reviews and move on to the next game. That's their nature.

[Jtbrig7390]

My problem with the game besides the CE/Pre-Order stuff is the $15 a both. Its skyrim with multiplayer and I don't feel its worth $15 a month. Now I have played it I do have a higher interest in it but $15 a month is keeping me from wanting to buy it.

The Combat/Graphics I don't mind because....Its Elder Scrolls. Take that as you well weather it be bad or good.

If it was B2p I would drop the $60 in a heart beat.

Also to those saying "Its beta things will be fixed" No they won't. They will fix some bugs but good change how the game is now is how it will be at release even more so with the Open Beta coming up.

[Tierbook]

What I have got from a certain forum:

There is no minimap;
There are no subtitles;
The chat rejects everything outside some subset of Latin-1, you cannot even type šžðþ, leave aside Greek and Cyrillic.

The game is officially junk.

The 1st complaint is pointless with the M button, they have stated that quest text will appear unless you are complaining about player responses in which case just look at the chat and to your 3rd point only jerks put Cyrillic or Greek lettering in their name on the US realms

[Aeluron Lightsong]

My problem with the game besides the CE/Pre-Order stuff is the $15 a both. Its skyrim with multiplayer and I don't feel its worth $15 a month. Now I have played it I do have a higher interest in it but $15 a month is keeping me from wanting to buy it.

The Combat/Graphics I don't mind because....Its Elder Scrolls. Take that as you well weather it be bad or good.

If it was B2p I would drop the $60 in a heart beat.

Also to those saying "Its beta things will be fixed" No they won't. They will fix some bugs but good change how the game is now is how it will be at release even more so with the Open Beta coming up.

They apparently aren't going to have an Open Beta.

[Jtbrig7390]

It isn't a lie, it is a person's taste. I am sure many people think WildStar looks better than both ESO and GW2 and I couldn't say they were lying.

Yes and No.

I can get the personally taste but take the water effects of GW2 at Max settings and compare it to ESO at max settings and you can tell there is a clear difference. But with that said the water feels like elder scrolls but in graphic quailty GW2 wins.

[Bigbazz]

You're probably talking about a fully modded game here.

ESO looks better than Skyrim unmodded (I admit trees look super crap close up).

There are 3 areas where even Vanilla Skyrim beats ESO

1. Texture resolution. It was an issue in Skyrim but they are still higher res than those in ESO.
2. Particles and ambient lighting (though ESO is pretty good at the lighting)
3. Water (specifically moving water, waterfalls)

ESO has better texture filtering, meaning the textures look better at a distance, it also has a comparable or better way of doing draw distance, meaning the game looks cleaner at a distance. If they had higher resolution textures or allowed modders to fix the textures then TESO would look great graphically.

Can't get over how bad those waterfalls look though, which is a shame because running around the in the shallow static water areas with vegetation and it looks really great. The potential is there for Elder Scrolls Online to be a fantastic looking game graphically.

Moving water and texture resolution... It would make worlds of difference.

[Jtbrig7390]

They apparently aren't going to have an Open Beta.

I'm just going to say it. If there is no open beta the game will be f2p or b2p within a year.

Its current state is the state it will release in unless we are running on a real old beta build and they should have learned from all other Online Release's about server problems.

Everything feels right now like how it did with SWTOR and we seen how that turned out.

[Luko]

Still going on about visuals, jeez.

Bottom line is that I'd play an MMO with awesome and addicting gameplay features and satisfying combat that looked absolutely horrible, however I wouldn't touch a game that looked amazing but played like absolute shit. Graphics are very bottom rung on the list of priorities here, not sure why we're flooding the thread about them.

[Sharuko]

Everyone that signs up for beta will get it, it is essentially an open beta.