Elder Scrolls Online

Elder Scrolls combat has never been amazing. Just as long as it isn't as annoying as Morrowind's.

Bumping this to separate TES Online discussion from the Skyrim thread.

Forgot about this thread. Here's what Jesse Cox has to say about it:

I'm still holding my breath, though.

Interesting listen, but in the middle of all the enthusiasm I saw my second least favorite picture from the game thus-far.

Maybe◊... maybe it's the angle, but Jesus, Argonians haven't looked this bad since Arena. They're like ugly little turtle aliens with pinched noses.

I'm actually finding myself cautiously optimistic about this.

edited 27th Oct '12 6:49:57 PM by Benluke

Sounds like World Of Warcraft with a 'Skyrim combat mod' installed, besides the TES lore of course.

The idea of phasing players based on preferred objectives/activities is something that even World Of Warcraft should be doing. Barring abuses such a feature may significantly improve the community.

The major problem I predict is that many of these awesome features will be dropped during subsequent testing phases or the first year or so after release.

The Ebonheart Pact◊ is something that makes absolutely no sense to me. Nords, Dunmer and Argonians, all of whom absolutely hate each other, putting aside their differences and teaming up? That would never happen, no matter what kind of Enemy Mine spin you put on it. This "three factions" bullshit is as forced as it gets. Can't have an MMO without factions, Dark Age Of Camelot had three factions!

edited 29th Oct '12 4:19:31 PM by Vox

I can see Nords and Argonians maybe teaming up if they absolutely had to. They haven't really interacted much, but that also means no real history of conflict to poison an alliance.

There's no way in hell Dunmer would get along with either. Nords raid the Dunmer all the time and Argonians are enslaved by the Dunmer. They'd never work with either side.

And why do Argonians even want Cyrodill? They've never expressed any desire for more power over Tamriel before. They don't need the other races for mutual defense because Black Marsh is a Death World only they can survive in and they're the best guerilla fighters in Tamriel. Why do they even want to become involved in this big war?

edited 29th Oct '12 5:32:26 PM by Millardkillmoore

I take it more as the dominate party ruling the region rather than the entire race themselves.

Remember that this game is slated to be the earliest in the series lore-wise. Perhaps we'll see the reason those races despise each other by the time the current ES series begins. Wiki sez they teamed up to force out Akaviri invaders - i.e. demons and dragons - which would have given them a ton of trouble seeing as each race was a lot weaker in that time period. Lore timeline (outside of ESO) states that Morrowind was also attacked around then and only survived due to apparent divine intervention.

edited 30th Oct '12 12:54:16 PM by Recon5

So the website got updated.

The visual aesthetic is horrid and I'm still wishing they will not botch Cyrodiil this time.

It's still not a rainforest like it should be.

At this point, rainforest isn't a priority anymore.

By now, I just really hope they remember what Romans are.

I'm not sure why people want MMO version of their favourite RPG series considering that MMO aren't good for roleplaying plus play different than their original versions

That's just it. There seems only to be a vocal minority that do want it.

How does the MMO format conflict with the TES 4 and 5 format? What I mean is, in MM Os and Oblivion/Skyrim the dialogue options are fairly sparse (SWTOR not withstanding), the gameworld is static and barely responds to player actions and the quests are linear with very little in the way of multiple approaches and options. If you're playing a TES game to 'roleplay' for those particular reasons (dialogue, choices, multipath questing), rather than just messing around in a huge open world, then you're playing the wrong game.

At times TES 4/5 play like MM Os with better combat and without the social features.

edited 4th Nov '12 9:12:21 AM by ShadowScythe

I don't mind the factions themselves, as I can imagine the Dunmer working with them so long as the Nords don't rule over them.

My problem is how they are designed. The Dominion is ruled by a generic elf. In fact, everything we've seen from the Altmer looks bland. The Ebonheart Pact is Nordic, with a Nord King and a council called the "Great Moot." Why must they have a single leader? You can't enter other faction territories, so I doubt they'd really be important in terms of gameplay.

I can understand Cyrodiil not being good. Oblivion trashed the province, but I can see why they wouldn't give us the good version. People, outside a niche group of fans who know what Cyrodiil is supposed to be, would be confused.

edited 4th Nov '12 6:10:19 PM by SilentColossus

Re: MM Os and roleplay.

Roleplaying thrived in older graphical MM Os, especially in the original EQ and in UO. Even World Of Warcraft still has some pretty dedicated (I'd even say fanatical) roleplayers in its RP and RP-PVP servers. It all boils down to what players do with the limited tools they're given.

Question: Do we consider the Mede Empire to be a fourth empire or simply the third ruled by a different dynasty. The characters refer to the empire as being founded by Tiber Septim, so I'm leaning toward the latter. But I've seen it referred to as a fourth empire in a few articles here.

Continuation. Titus Mede was the equivalent of one of the many Roman emperors who came to power through being generals beforehand. The Empire they ruled was still the same one founded by Augustus.

That's what I thought. I've just seen it referred to as a fourth empire a few times on this site and was wondering if I'd missed something.

Another video:

Basically; Art direction is still terrible, Cyrodiil looks exactly as it did like in Oblivion (IE. it sucks ass)*

Nothing else.

edited 8th Nov '12 7:55:04 AM by ThatOtherGriffin

My biggest fear about this game is that it will almost definitely spoil the provinces we haven't visited yet. Each one deserves an entire single player game to itself, damn it.

Seeing how Summerset Isles already doesn't resemble anything close to the city made of glass and insect wings with hypnotic swirl of ramparts and impossibly high towers, designed to catch the light of the sun and break it to its component colors, which lies draped across its stones until you are thankful for nightfall...

Let's just hope Bethesda won't actually take inspirations from this game.

edited 8th Nov '12 8:32:39 AM by ThatOtherGriffin

Hopefully that style they're showing us ain't Alinor.