TESO

[LordWushin]

The first Elder Scroll Online hands-on just happened apparently. Here you can read all about it. My opinion is that it seems to be better and majorly different than the other MMOs out there. What do you all think?

 

P.s. Tamriel Foundry has a better one Here.

[jhardingame]

The first views of ESO that circulated sometime ago weren't promising at all. It really looked like a generic MMO, and even the way it was described just yelled Generic MMO, and just overall looked meh. Looking at these new screens, it seems Zenimax Online (yes, Zenimax Online, Bethesda is NOT making ESO if that's what you're thinking.) listened. The character proportions looks normal now, and the environments look a lot better and a bit more realistic.

 

I'm still on the line on this since it is an MMO, and I don't really play many MMO's, except for Guild Wars, and right now, Guild Wars 2 pretty much has the spotlight. Unless they bring something to the table just makes me go "this looks better than GW2", then I'm probably not going to get it.

Edited October 22, 2012 by jhardingame

[ziitch]

I have to be honest, the environments look much better compared to what Bethesda tries to produce. Sure, the TES world is supposed to be dirty and grimy, but there's a point where dirty and grimy only works in some places.

 

My only gripe right now is how it seems to be pulling too much from previous TES games, leaving no room for itself (take that image of a Dwarven Sphere for instance), and some items and designs end up too clean-looking and spectacular for a timeline that's supposed to take place in the Second Era when compared to what we see in the Third and Fourth Era.

[Vindekarr]

Didn't like it. It's just not as fun or special as most other MMOs, and felt far too generic.

[Vagrant0]

The Argonian heads still look a good deal off. But it's certainly an improvement over the last set of images.

[hector530]

Didn't like it. It's just not as fun or special as most other MMOs, and felt far too generic.

 

how do you know its not fun? also did you read it? the first two points are pretty special in MMOs, real-time combat and one single megaserver.

 

@ Vagrant0 the argonians dont look like lizards, they look flat faced. clearly this game will suck now.

Edited October 23, 2012 by hector530

[LordWushin]

I have high hopes that it will come together nicely. In the articles they say it is still only in pre-alpha production. Lots more to work on. Just reading about the differences it has compared to others like combat and this "mega server" thing sound good and unique. I hope they pull this off.

[Vagrant0]

real-time combat

Actually, a couple MMOs already have this, even though they are more FPS and futuristic style than fantasy. The real question would be how real-time combat is being implemented. If it's going with something along the lines of a collision sphere and momentary checks of what is directly in front of the player while attacking (like Oblivion and Skyrim (where you can swing a weapon that clearly slices through several targets, but only the one directly in front takes any damage)), it really isn't much better than any of the systems which are currently being used by newer MMOs, and might even be a worse combat system compared to those that atleast acknowledge melee splash damage as a mechanic.

 

The megaserver concept in itself isn't really anything new unless it is also paired with an open world design. Many 2nd era MMOs (2000-2005) had groups of areas managed by separate servers, Some zone based MMOs, or those who have hub towns, still use this sort of setup for managing players, and only use separate server groups which are region based (for net speed). The actuality of the concept as described could potentially be a bad thing from this standpoint since you would be paired from people who live in different locations so may often get bad latency when they have good, or vice versa... Which usually ends up being a bad thing once you start getting into party gameplay and too much lag for one member can lead to a whole team wipe. All that stuff behind the scenes may sound great, but at the end of the day what is important is not that stuff about "getting on the same server as friends", but rather how the server setup works in practice towards giving people consistent latency and performance.

 

The other problem becomes dependent on how the actual gameplay is balanced between solo and group play. If most of the enemies are such that they can be defeated single-handedly, even when being mobbed (like Champions Online), then most of the stuff designed around getting people together on the same server kinda becomes moot since you don't have that dependency on other players for assistance in killing at the cost of sharing loot (and since the game has fixed classes, you can't have people who specifically design their characters to complement eachother for maximum effect). If most of the gameplay is based around grouping (with Ultima Online and Everquest being more extreme examples), then any servers for "solo play" would essentially become ghost towns after certain level ranges where equipment alone is not enough to compensate. Regardless, you would still end up getting frequent guild and party requests when on a solo play server simply because people would recognize that players on those servers likely don't have a guild or party yet.

[Vindekarr]

Didn't like it. It's just not as fun or special as most other MMOs, and felt far too generic.

 

how do you know its not fun? also did you read it? the first two points are pretty special in MMOs, real-time combat and one single megaserver.

 

@ Vagrant0 the argonians dont look like lizards, they look flat faced. clearly this game will suck now.

 

Lots of games have those features. Usually they bring a lot of problems each.

[ziitch]

I will say that I'm starting to dislike the hate that TESO continues to receive. They're trying to change things up from their initial design, and still people fuss over the whole ordeal, especially with the growing nostalgia towards Morrowind and how the games feel soulless. At this rate, the worst problem with TES isn't that it is soulless or that the world feels too generic and bland, it's going to be a bloated fanbase that wants too much from the next installment.