Elder Scrolls Online

[imready86k]

Topic Discussion: How should "The Elder Scrolls Online" be designed?

 

First off, I've been on here downloading mods for 5+ years (I think?), not too involved with the forums. I need to properly introduce myself. "Imready86k" stands for "I'm ready to crash the game into Oblivion" as I was so excited to download mods years back.

 

Why am I still playing it? Onto the Discussion:

 

I'm worried that the game company (cannot spell name right, Beseda?) will destroy Elder Scrolls Online. It's more of a "Were making a Jurassic Park 3?" Thing. I just can't wrap my head around how they plan to do it, multiplayer.

 

The path the company is going:

-Mirrowwind was unleveled. I loved it for its time. No complaints.

-Oblivion was great except it was level scaling all my enemies. And it still is. I can't seem to find a mod with lots of content, and unleveled, 100%.

-Fallout 3 introduced many cool things. Love it, Own it. I had personal issues with the perks system, and VATS, feeling like they broke immersion. I needed mods to fix them. I didnt enjoy autoaim either. Thanks to modders!

 

-Skyrim. Never played it. Read much about it. I'm not excited. Perks sticking around, cannot enter buildings, something about becoming a super hero, more focus on the main quest? From reveiws, I hear this most often, "awesome graphics". Also from comparison, less weapon variety than Mirrowwind or Oblivion. I'll wait till there are enough mods out there to make it worth it xd. But I like the dragons?

 

I feel that some of the more simple enjoyment in games is being taken out. This goes across the board to most gaming companies. Pvp, E-sports, Competition, seems to drive new motives in game design. I'm worried that playing Elder Scrolls Online will mean no more breaking and entering, killing guards, a perks board flaps in your face on level up, low drop rates, less content, more emphasis on graphics, deteriorated storylines, less quality on side quests..

 

I'm just worried. I've been playing online games and single player games for a while, since Mario Brothers. I watched games go from Play for Fun, to Play to Win.

[Nephenee13]

ESO isn't made by Bethesda, its made by Zenimax Online.

[imready86k]

I found an interview on it, it looks like WOW. What interested me was how they show screen shots but no gameplay. Also when gameplay is described, someone mentions / or questions "Kill X amount of creatures quest", and the infamous glowing question mark over quest npcs.

 

Sad day 4 me.

[Tigersong]

Not that Skyrim doesn't have its share of such quests... It's just they're the "Fetch this many of this item" type.

[Halororor]

Most of Skyrim's quests devolve into Kill this/fetch that.

[hector530]

there's buildings you cant enter in skyrim?

 

edit: it also sounds like you have no clue what an mmo is or how they play. all them have skill trees. all them have some kind of action bar. next what so bad about perks? you know oblivion had them too by they were called skill bonuses or something like that. i enjoy perks and skill trees in video games.

 

all mmos have "Kill X amount of creatures quest" but its all about how well the hide the "grind" i.e. make leveling enjoyable. also TES is has always been about quests but MMO are all about "endgame" once you reach cap you chose PVP (player vs player) or PvE (dungeons and raids) people dont care about quests at endgame and generally avoid questing altogether.

Edited August 31, 2012 by hector530

[androidmaster]

Never found a building I couldn't get into in Skyrim. You might find a couple of whole dungeons that are locked so you dont break a later quest, but I can only think of two examples, and they aren't likely to be stumbled upon until you're in the quest they pertain to. Other than that, the rest of the locked doors are openable when you find the key or do the quest, and are usually pretty hidden away. And the perk system isn't what you think. You have a level cap of 81, and that means that out of 250 or so vanilla perks, you can only get 81 of them. Some have multiple tiers, as well. They have to be unlocked by reaching certain levels in the skill they are for and get the perks that lead up to them, and you have to spend each perk point you get when you level up to actually get them. It's not that game breaking.... I personally use several overhaul mods that add and replace perks, so I have around 3 or 4 hundred available perks, total, and I have a level uncapper, allowing me to theoretically reach level 10,000. But I have put several hundred hours into my character, and have only gotten to 40 something. The game is SOOOO easy at first, aside from a chance encounter with a mammoth or something at level one (tip- RUN LIKE HELL), but depending on your mods, the moment you hit 35, things heat up. Mine was at level 32, and the mods I have imposed a soft level cap as well from then on. Instead of 10 skill increases, it now takes 15, I think. Or maybe its 20. I dont know. Vanilla, that doesn't happen until level 52. Also, dual wielding increases immersion dramatically. Holding a spell with one hand, a sword in the other, and having Fus Ro Dah on the tip of your tongue make for very fast pace gameplay. There is no RIGHT way to play tho. Mages have a fighting chance for once, although mages do tend to become less powerful when they level up in relation to other types of players, but mods fix it. Stealth characters actually have a hard time trying to fight with battle axes. Warriors have much less of an ability to run in and smash everything to death by going nuts with the mouse. You are pushed to specialize in a set of skills, and trying to master all skills makes the game much harder as you start to have trouble keeping up with enemies. Once you level enough, the levels dont matter anymore. You dont go "I wanna level up!" like you would in most games. You are pushed to strategically choose what skills you want to level up, or you'll have your @#$ handed to you by a draugr deathlord or a dragon priest. Dragons suck tho. Hard at first, easy once you get to level 25 or so. Deadly Dragons fixes that. The dragons are given huge health bonuses and damage multipliers (you can set it to normal, tough, and hardcore, or just set your own values), and you have a real challenge when you try to smack that giant lizard with your puny piece of steel (or more likely, glass or orichalcum). Point is, Skyrim IS a very easy game if you plan on playing through the main quest and that's it. You MIGHT hit level 30 if you take your time. But if you play through one of the many side quests (Im guildmaster of the thieves guild and the archmage of the college of winterhold, and I still havent finished the first quest in the main questline), you can easily get lost in the game. I play on expert, and the game has been thoroughly enjoying. I am by no means a casual gamer, and I find Skyrim much more intriguing than Cyrodil. There are a plethora of creatures, and a ton of lore. The OOOOHHHH's and AAAHHHH's of the graphics are something you occupy yourself with at the beginning, as well as running around seeing everything, but by the time youre done finding the main cities (unless you did straight runs from one to the other, no stopping), you've already gotten tangled up in 30 different questlines and you're feeling pressured to decide what type of character you want to make. Then, you'll take your time mapping out your path, skill-wise, and you will start exploring and finishing interesting side quests. Afterwards, you'll decide you want to find out what this "college" or you want to track down the thieves guild. You get pulled along by the quests and you enjoy the plot twists in each story as you find that enemies are starting to be a bit difficult to take on. Then, you finish out the questline and feel pride as you reap the rewards. You then get wrapped up in yet another quest, or maybe you just wanna dungeon troll. You start getting some useful loot, and you realize you REALLY need somewhere to call home. So you try to track one down, and you end up doing 20 more quests by the time you have an opportunity to buy one. Then, LO AND BEHOLD! you have a companion available! You have to decide whether you want to continue the solo act or let them tag along, which brings both pros and cons. Sooner or later you will end up having to think pretty hard about what youre going to take with you when you go somewhere, and who you might want with you. Trust me, this game is much deeper than Oblivion, once you start sinking into it. Edited September 2, 2012 by androidmaster