Which major arcs for new stories/zones would you prefer? (Long with **Spoilers**)

tinythinker

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***Spoilers are right here at the start.***
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The Story So Far
So, the Main Story for levels 1-49 is that by deceiving the claimant to the Imperial Throne, Molag Bal manages to trick mortals into violating the covenant between Nirn and Aetherius made by Akatosh, and in doing so opened the way for the Planemeld. Through the use of Dark Anchors, Nirn is being pulled into Molag Bal's realm, Coldharbor. This story arc also dominates Cyrodiil and the Alliance War, although it is ambiguous enough that both those who have and haven't spoiled the God of Domination's plans can coexist.

In Craglorn, the new major threat comes from the Celestial Serpent, the sentient embodiment of the theme and power of that constellation. The Serpent has caused tricked, trapped, or manipulated the Warrior and the Mage in order to put its plans for Tamriel in motion. It is up to the heroes of Tamriel to venture to the barren, remote region between Hammerfell and Skyrim and thwart the Serpent's schemes.

Future Chapters
Two new adventure zones were announced a while ago, Murkmire (in Black Marsh) and Wrothgar (in High Rock). Others are almost certainly in the planning stages but have yet to be publicly mentioned. So, what would you like to see for the major story arc of a new zone?

Daedric Princes
Presumably Zenimax Online would like this game to last a good while, so throwing out one Daedric Prince after another as the main villain of new Adventure Zones would wear thin quickly and eventually they would have to go into repeats. In the case of Molag Bal, this could be very fun and clever a year or two down the line. Still, not using such a resource at all for story arcs doesn't make sense either. So, if they do decided to use the Princes sparingly, which one(s) would you like to see tapped for duty first?

My own rough impressions are thus, based on some potential basic plot themes:

A Grand and Audacious Conquest of Nirn

Definitely have to go with Molag Bal and Mehrunes Dagon here, except that the former was already used as the primary antagonist in the main story of this game and the latter would be a pre-peat of the plot from the very first Elder Scrolls game, The Elder Scrolls: Arena.

Secretive/Manipulative Plots To Alter the Course of Tamriel

The best candidates for this kind of story arc would be Mephala or Boethiah. A potential example is a single act such as a kidnapping or assassination that sets off a domino reaction and could lead to disaster. A historical parallel is the killing of Archduke Ferdinand in 1914 and the ensuing event known today as World War One. The Empire is already in chaos, but there are other organizations that help defend it and hold its citizens together (like the Mages Guild and Fighters Guild), and there are other nations and empires outside of Tamriel's borders.

A trip to Akavir to help avert another invasion, anyone?

Aiding Mortals Against a Dark Threat

The only candidates here are Meridia and Azura, and the former has already been used in the main plot as the primary opposition to Molag Bal. That leaves Azura, who tends to be in the prophecy business, but who knows what threat she will foresee and attempt to forestall?

A Pandora's Box Event

That is, a mortal is given something (knowledge, abilities,a powerful object) by the gods and uses it in a way that, from the mortal's perspective, unwittingly unleashes disaster on the world. For this, I see Clavicus Vile in the lead, with Sanguine and Sheogorath right behind. All three Princes have more of an impulsive, erratic bent, either delighting in tempting and tricking mortals or just being utterly careless with or oblivious to the effects of their actions. Sheogorath already gets the major story arc of the Mages Guild, so I vote him out. Going with Vile suggestions an intentional effort to trigger some world-altering event for the Prince's amusement. Using Sanguine suggests someone abusing a gifted power, wish, or artifact, and the Prince may actually be guiding or assisting the heroes' efforts to stop the effects of the event from spreading.

Seeking Dark Knowledge

Perhaps there are rumors of a new threat to Tamriel, or a maybe a way to mend the damage already done by the attempted Planemeld. But in order to pursue this knowledge, one has to go to ancient, secret, deadly locations within Tamriel (pick whichever province you like and want to see more of). In the end, you may even have to explore deeply into an as yet unseen plane of Oblivion. The obvious choice here is Hermaeus Mora (we did see a little of his realm, Apocrypha, in the The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim), but Vaermina could work as well, as she reputedly was the one to reveal the knowledge of how to cure vampirism, and her realm, Quagmire, would be a new experience for players. I would love to work Namira in as an option for this one, as shades and dark spirits are in her portfolio, as her realm remains unexplored, and as her realm has a fun name (The Scuttling Void). The last good option here is Peryite, and giving him some kind of relevance would be nice. In that case, he might hold the key to some horrific new disease or affliction.

Parochial Concerns

Some Princes are associated with very specific groups, such as Nocturnal (thieves), Malacath (Orcs), and Hircine (the "wild" peoples of northern Tamriel, such as the Wyrd and the Reachmen). Their portfolios are not limited to these groups, but using such a focus could fit zones in particular locations or tied to particular plots very well. I would be surprised if Malacath didn't have a prominent role in the story of the Wrothgar adventure zone, for example.

Other Major Villains
The use of the Celestials in Craglorn is an example of this, but are there other cosmic forces besides Celestials, Aedra, and Daedra to manipulate the affairs of Nirn? What about a mortal individual or group as the lead villain, without any overt support from such cosmic beings? This would work well with the introduction of either the Thieve's Guild or the Dark Brotherhood.

Or perhaps a different kind of twist, such as an unknown or lost Aedric Power (i.e. not one of The Eight) descending to/emerging from within Nirn (this may be possible for non-Eight beings), or perhaps the re-emergence of one of the Ehlnofey (the offspring of weakened Aedra whose descendents are known today as men and mer). It/they may attempt to restore order to Tamriel but become corrupted in the process or unleash unintended/unacceptable consequences...

Your Ideas
What ideas do you have for future story arcs? What would you like to see?

Mandragora

Above of all what I would like see is a compact story - not a bunch of side quests.
I was so sad when they made finally some outcasts in Alikrs desert you could join, but it turns out it was just an idea - the quests with them had minimum numbers.
So all you have written is nice, but I can see how they will plague it with overwhelming number of different kind of mini quests that could be perfect, but with their number it just makes me sick. Evermore in Bangkorai is the worst - bandits next to skeletons with ghosts next to Wyresses /hags problem, next to a scholar mage covering every single piece of land around the city - I mean are they sure the more the better is really the key to success?

tinythinker

Craglorn seemed to have more of what you are wanting. The quests are part of a single larger coherent story even though they were in other ways self-contained, and the groups/people you encountered are local residents dealing with the fallout of a recent event. I've also suggested that they revisit the Alliance Zones for a new, cohesive storyline for level 50 players in each faction.

Mandragora

That is nice - only I think you cannot solo it, but its atleast something.

It seems you have big knowledge about Daedra, so I guess it is a bit hard to follow you for an ordinary fan as me, but I think if Wrothgar was orcish, maybe there could be something with Malacath or even including his fight with Boethiah?

And about the content there: I think there is located destroyed Orsinarium, so something about that. I have read some suggestions where players wanted to see rebuilding of Orsinarium - to be able to help with that. I really like that idea. It could be something different from the content that already is in the game. But Im not sure if it would be lore friendly.

tinythinker

Mandragora wrote: »

That is nice - only I think you cannot solo it, but atleast something.

It seems you have big knowledge about Daedras, so I guess it is a bit hard to follow you for an ordinary fan as me, but I think if Wrothgar was orcish, maybe there could something with Malacath or even including his fight with Boethiah?

And about the content there: I think there is located destroyed Orsinarium, so something about that. I have read some suggestions where players wanted to see rebuilding of Orsinarium - to be able to help with that. I really like that idea. It could be something different from the content that already is in the game. But Im not sure if it would be lore friendly.

Yeah, Malacath needs to be part of Wrothgar. I don't think it would be contra-lore for players to help rebuild Orsinium as it was supposed to have been sacked and rebuilt several times by the start of the Fourth Era.

yiasemi

Just what do sorcerers wear under their dresses?
One of the Daedric Princes must know. I suspect the mad one.

AlexDougherty

yiasemi wrote: »

Just what do sorcerers wear under their dresses?
One of the Daedric Princes must know. I suspect the mad one.

Frilly Bloomers :wtf:

Mandragora

Or you can ask here http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/142023/eso-live-ask-us-anything/p1

Muizer

"Rally the people of Tamriel to the noble and righteous cause of eradicating all vampires and werewolfs".

PSLAnimal

yiasemi wrote: »

Just what do sorcerers wear under their dresses?
One of the Daedric Princes must know. I suspect the mad one.

BVDs.

Lord_Kreegan

Each and every story-based MMORPG faces the same problem: it is a BUSTED approach to gaming before it even starts.

Stories must have a beginning, multiple high points, and an ending. Having an ending is the last damn thing in an MMORPG that a developer wants.

After I retired, I started writing novels. With two published, I can say that it isn't as easy as people think. It isn't just having a grand idea and a story to tell... First off, publishers are blankety-blank-blank-blank total and complete ***; let me repeat that in other words: there are no bigger self-serving profit-motivated *** in the world than publishers. Beyond that , however, is the fact that establishing a long term plot that isn't fractured by earlier publications is next to impossible. As an author, you paint yourself into the corner before you even start.

Authors like Robert Jordan (the Wheel of Time series before he died) and George R.R. Martin (Game of Thrones series) have to employ hordes of fact-checkers to ensure that their current writings don't violate the lore of their past writings... and still come up with enthralling story lines (may I be so lucky).

From a MMORPG perspective... a company takes a bunch of "amateur" writers (people paid much less than they are worth) and expects to extend the story into the future ad infinitum?

Fat chance...

IMHO, ZOS would benefit greatly from saying "The stories are done. We're moving on..."

If you've played SW-TOR, you know that stories (BioWare-style) paint you into the corner of "never-return".

[If the above has typo's and stupid thought-processes, note that I've had four double-Scotches and I'm less than coherent...]

hutchinsonhatch

yiasemi wrote: »

Just what do sorcerers wear under their dresses?
One of the Daedric Princes must know. I suspect the mad one.

The way my sorceress moves, she's wearing silk, for sure.

To address the main topic, I'd like to see less "rescue the city/village"-quests, for they wore off too fast.
A complete ESO-version of Mehrunes Dagon's plane of Oblivion with a story involving tough choices would be nice. When I saw ZOS' vision of the different plains, I immediately wanted this.

Mandragora

I still think it could be possible somehow to create no end MMO . If they would be able to create a living world with random encounters.

What I dream about are small dwellings in the way of orinigal Star Wars where everything was think out to all the details - as George Lucas said - that they always imagined how it would work, how all the cratures would live on an alien planet together, everything had to be logic and functional even though it was not visible in a movie. It was what made the Star Wars universe believable.
I saw some of it in early zones of LOTRO - like Shire - some players were able to spent hours there doing nothing really - they loved the functional world of hobbits that much that they had fun just to live there as a hobbit.


And that is something that is missing in ESO - that you cannot be part of its factions,you cannot imagine your character to be something you can see there, something that would take you into another world. I think Elderscrolls have the potential and deep Lore.

Also all the factions would have some relationships between them, they would have artificial intelligence - so random attacks could come, so you would have to defend the village, also some quests that would be near to what a character there would do.

Imagine to live as a nomad in forbidden city - instead 3 a bit strange quests that are available now in ESO - that is the difference.

There would be some quest linies around, but this mini world would be much more important. But the model which is now in ESO seems to me more like a single player game would be made - not bad, but MMO has bigger potential in the living comunity not just players but living NPCs also.

Mandragora

Lord_Kreegan wrote: »

Each and every story-based MMORPG faces the same problem: it is a BUSTED approach to gaming before it even starts.

Stories must have a beginning, multiple high points, and an ending. Having an ending is the last damn thing in an MMORPG that a developer wants.
...

From a MMORPG perspective... a company takes a bunch of "amateur" writers (people paid much less than they are worth) and expects to extend the story into the future ad infinitum?

I have to clarify that I dont have problem with quests themself, they are funny and everything. It is just frustrating that they are too short except the main quest for the zone - as you said - no beginning, 1-2 high points and no ending. So you cannot immerse yourself into the world.
That seems to be the reason why they needed more plots so the zone wouldnt look empty. If they would take fewer quests with longer lines, it wouldnt look so strange and sometimes even chaotic.
Also it seems more of the small quests around Evermore was part of the main quest there, so it wasnt that bad after all, and the mage there seems like left there from mage guild quests that were canceled, so maybe the graduation of the main quest didnt fit to me, I dont know.

So it seems actually I love the plots and quests too much

And I think removing quests for mage quild was a mistake.

Mandragora

I just realised it could be easily tested in the 2 new zones - Murkmire and Wrothgar to see if artificial intelligence would work. Because I think its wilderness with a lot of tribes around hostile to each other, so it sounds perfect.

They could be programmed like this:

there would be 3 types of NPCs in a tribe - as you can see already in ESO:
- hunter, warrior and villager

Hunter would scan his surrounding for animals while walking in circles and hunt them whole day, warrior would scan for enemies including scouts and a villager would walk around their village in circles too scanning for materials. That would be new - if it would find any, he would bring them to village and use them to repair what is broken and also to build walls or something like that.

What would be for players new is possibility to join the tribe. In that moment the same features would be open for them too - to do hunting, gathering/repairing and also the other tribe would became hostile to them. But not only the tribe - whoever would join the opposite hostile tribe would became attackable by the player.

and now the plot:

The tribe would have also implemented timing for hunger, lack of materials or alarm for enemy attack.
all of it would cause them to walk in larger circles. They would be close to each other just that much that the conflict would occure once in a while - when they would meet the other hostile tribe, they would attack and if a player would be present, he could decide who would win, if more player would be present on both sides, it would became a small pvp skirmish - but anyone who wouldnt join any of the 2 tribes wouldnt be attackable.

If 1 of the tribes would be eliminated, the victorious one would just return to its headquarters where they would have celebration with possibility for players to join their feast and the loosing one would repop after some time in the original position for them and the circle of death and war would start again

LonePirate

Anything that opens up in the southern half of Tamriel would be fine by me. Murkmire is a start but they need to convert it from a group zone to a solo zone if they have not done so already.

MornaBaine

I love your ideas. But I'd also like to see just some good old fashioned human/mer villainy in action as well. Invading armies/raiders/evil wizards and their minions... all of that is good stuff as well and feels a bit more "real" to me. I REALLY don't want to get sucked into anyone else's dreams and/or past again!

Mandragora

I have more ideas about the hostile fighting groups:

If it would be more of them- like 4-5, then more players would be able to work with them and it could be more tactical even: in the middle of a village would be chief and shaman with an altar and fireplace with seats around. you could became advisor of their chief and choose if they would gather more meat or plants. If they would gather more meat - they would have stronger attacks, if they would gather more plants, they would get better defence. The longer time for gathering - the stronger tribe you would get. I would remove the rebuilding - nothing to rebuild in a village really. So It would be better to wait a bit before attacking the hostile tribe. If there would be no player to advice, they would get random results.

Mandragora

Im sorry for the spam, I have another ideas about the tribes:

what would happen with the victorious one? If it would just reset, it wouldnt be that big fun, because there would be no longer progress. If it would be just stronger it would be quite annoying after some time to fight with them. So I would just add 1 more random member for every winning fight. Lets say they have peaceful times to be able to grow in numbers. But after some time it would be too much - but then some other closest tribe would see they are too strong and join the fight against them, if they would still win against 2 tribes, it would continue, but with another critical amount of members of the tribe, another tribe would join against them - so in the end - they would have to fight all the tribes at once and win. They could get some kind of permanent trophy of their victory on their totem/altar, also if some player would help them with that he could get achievement. that would be the top. If they would be killed after that - they would repop with small numbers again, but still with the trophy.

So their starting numbers could be really small - like 6 (2 fighters, 1/1 hunter/villager and chieftain and shaman), they would grow till 10 - then another tribe join the fight, then 15 and 20, that would be the top - Im not sure if it would be possible for the server to manage it.

Also if some player would join he could get their costume - every tribe would have different.