Look at this old loading screen for Stormhaven from 2014!

Elvenheart · May 24

I was looking through some old screenshots and came across this. I wish it was still in the game!

TaSheen · May 24

Oh, that's SERIOUSLY gorgeous! Thank you for sharing!

spartaxoxo · May 24

That's so beautiful! 😍 They should add it back.

metheglyn · May 25

Very atmospheric! I wonder why they retired it? But I agree with @spartaxoxo: add it back!

Dojohoda · May 25

That's lovely!

WhiteCoatSyndrome · May 25

Oh very nice!

Auricle · May 25

Aw, I remember that. The splash art on release was actually so gorgeous. I was at uni for fine arts at the time and I remember being hyped on the loading screens. :’)

Lugaldu · May 25

Why did they remove this? Its much better than many of the new loading screens which are just modified screenshots (or at least look like such).

ChaoticWings3 · May 25

I actually prefer this. I was playing in EP at the time so I didn't realize they had a different loading screen background back then. But yeah, the village with a great view of the sky with lightening I think works really well.

xencthlu · May 25

I wish this was a painting furnishing. Perhaps an ESO+ painting.

PDarkBHood · May 25

xencthlu wrote: »

I wish this was a painting furnishing. Perhaps an ESO+ painting.

Yes please!!!!

Sheridan · May 26

They changed alot of base game loading screens at some point. This is what Cyrodiil and Coldharbour looked like.

SilverBride · May 26

The current Stormhaven loading screen has a questionable banner that I find disturbing to see when loading into the zone. (And now that I've seen it, I can't unsee it.) It would be great if they changed it back to the previous beautiful screen.

Syldras · May 26

SilverBride wrote: »

The current Stormhaven loading screen has a questionable banner that I find disturbing to see when loading into the zone.

Now I want to see that questionable banner (I can't remember it).

SilverBride · May 26

I showed it to a friend once, but they didn't see what I did until I traced around the outline of the image. I cringe now every time I see this.

I hesitate to post a screenshot but it's the banner next to the tent at the left bottom of the screen.

Elvenheart · May 26

Sheridan wrote: »

They changed alot of base game loading screens at some point. This is what Cyrodiil and Coldharbour looked like.

These are beautiful! I would love to see these every time I logged into those zones!

ArchangelIsraphel · May 26

Syldras wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

The current Stormhaven loading screen has a questionable banner that I find disturbing to see when loading into the zone.

Now I want to see that questionable banner (I can't remember it).

I think this is the one being referred to:

stormhaven-loading-screen.jpg?resize=1536%2C864&ssl=1

IMO, it's a real stretch of the imagination. I had to really try to see something in the image on the banner, and even then I don't think it looks much like anything at all.

I did like the atmosphere of the old loading screen better though.

EDIT: Spoiler tag to avoid making anyone uncomfortable.

Syldras · May 26

ArchangelIsraphel wrote: »

IMO, it's a real stretch of the imagination. I had to really try to see something in the image on the banner, and even then I don't think it looks much like anything at all.

Ah, so it's a similar case to this one:

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/File:ON-load-Ayleid_01.jpg

SilverBride · May 26

ArchangelIsraphel wrote: »

Syldras wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

The current Stormhaven loading screen has a questionable banner that I find disturbing to see when loading into the zone.

Now I want to see that questionable banner (I can't remember it).

I think this is the one being referred to:

IMO, it's a real stretch of the imagination. I had to really try to see something in the image on the banner, and even then I don't think it looks much like anything at all.

I wish I didn't see it, but one day when traveling to Stormhaven it just stood out to me. Now it's all I can see and I have to turn away when loading into that zone. Just trace around the outside edge of the image inside the banner and it becomes very apparent.

ArchangelIsraphel · May 26

SilverBride wrote: »

ArchangelIsraphel wrote: »

Syldras wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

The current Stormhaven loading screen has a questionable banner that I find disturbing to see when loading into the zone.

Now I want to see that questionable banner (I can't remember it).

I think this is the one being referred to:

IMO, it's a real stretch of the imagination. I had to really try to see something in the image on the banner, and even then I don't think it looks much like anything at all.

I wish I didn't see it, but one day when traveling to Stormhaven it just stood out to me. Now it's all I can see and I have to turn away when loading into that zone. Just trace around the image inside the banner and it becomes very apparent.

I catch the drift of what you're saying without tracing around it, I just really have to bend my mind in that direction to see it. Shapes like that can occur accidentally in art sometimes, so I'm not really bothered by it.

Even so, I wouldn't mind it if the old loading screen were returned, I thought it captured the feeling of the zone much better. I find the market scene a little bit boring compared to the other art we had.

SilverBride · May 26

I would love to see the older screen brought back too!

Syldras · May 26

Did all the old loading screens look darker and more dramatic?

Maybe that shows they generally want to get into a different direction art- and mood-wise now with the game? I mean, the newest screens do show social situations and focus on groups of individual characters quite often.

Elvenheart · May 26

Syldras wrote: »

Did all the old loading screens look darker and more dramatic?

Maybe that shows they generally want to get into a different direction art- and mood-wise now with the game? I mean, the newest screens do show social situations and focus on groups of individual characters quite often.

When I captured that screenshot in 2014, something must’ve stood out about that picture for Stormhaven that made me really like it at the time since it was the only screen capture of a loading screen I have from that time.

After seeing the other two someone posted in this thread, I love them too, I bet I just took most of the loading screens for granted.

I don’t recall what year they changed all the loading screens, but we’ve had the current ones so long that I had forgotten that we ever had different ones until I found this picture. I’m sure at the time they changed we all liked the new ones because they were new and different, but now comparing some of them I really see the beauty of the older ones.

Sordidfairytale · May 26

I grabbed a screenshot of that loading screen too, because of the face in the mountain. I wanted to compare the screenshot with the face in game.

ArchangelIsraphel · May 26

Elvenheart wrote: »

Syldras wrote: »

Did all the old loading screens look darker and more dramatic?

Maybe that shows they generally want to get into a different direction art- and mood-wise now with the game? I mean, the newest screens do show social situations and focus on groups of individual characters quite often.

I don’t recall what year they changed all the loading screens, but we’ve had the current ones so long that I had forgotten that we ever had different ones until I found this picture. I’m sure at the time they changed we all liked the new ones because they were new and different, but now comparing some of them I really see the beauty of the older ones.

I think what resonates with me about a lot of the older loading screens is that they were clearly drawn, and there's a deliberate crafting of atmosphere in them. Where as some of the newer ones (not all of them, but some) look like screenshots that have had some tweaks/painted over/photoshop filters used on them to make them look like paintings. Which is a legitimate technique (not sure if I'm even right) but somehow those particular ones feel a little lifeless.

Heren · May 26

Syldras wrote: »

Did all the old loading screens look darker and more dramatic?

Maybe that shows they generally want to get into a different direction art- and mood-wise now with the game? I mean, the newest screens do show social situations and focus on groups of individual characters quite often.

There is a bit of where do you draw the line, between older and newer screenshots, here.

From some stream, I recall that Greymoor and possibly Blackwood were intented as darker chapters ( with Greymoor specifically being called gothic ), and High Isle after them was to be more sunny. And after that, loading screens seem to be more scenics than anything else, rather neutral; not especially dark, that's for sure ( at least for the region ones ), but that's about it, and I don't know if there is a need to have something dark for Telvanni Peninsula or Colovia - for Apocrypha, it would have made sense, the current one is just 'another greeny foggy day in some weird land'.

Comparing the three ones here to there actual counterparts, I'm a bit sceptical. The older Stormhaven one is beautiful, way more than the actual one, but darker, I won't say that, and I would add that giving the trading background of the region, the actual one also fit Stormhaven, even if I prefer the older one.

The older Cyrodiil one certainly show more action than the actual one, even if I find it rather confuse in it's depiction, and not very appealing - why is this orc just standing here with a shield and a banner ? What are these ugly swords ? Also funny argonian going stabby axe from behind. But the actual one - it feels a bit blank for the loading screen of a massive battleground. I like it, the scenery in the foreground is nice and quiet, and the Dark Anchor upon IC is quite ominous, but it feel more like being the loading screen of some pve region. As for the darker side of them, I'd say they both have some dark vibes, the older one by showing a battle, the new one by showing more proeminently the threat of the Dark Anchor ( sure, there's like nothing else to see, but still ).

The older Coldharbour one is like the one for Stormhaven, really beautiful, even if the new one is also nice, and I feel it's really the one that looks darker than it's actual counterpart. I won't say the new one is bright and sunny, but when you know the story of the zone, you know it is showing the one bastion of hope in Coldharbour, the one thing that stand against Molag Bal in it's own realm, and so - it's not really that dark. While the older one is quite ominous, maybe a bit over-dramatic with all the lightning, but otherwise rather dark indeed.

As for the second part of your message, I would say it's a bit more complexe. I do agree that today ESO heavily advertise on friendliness, homeliness, and stuff like that - recent advertising is telling, it was something like come make yourself at home in ESO, with the current login screen showing three buddies hanging out somewhere in the world, petting a dog; honestly it feels boring for me. I think that you also thought about the one from Gold Road, the extended one showing the three buddies looking over Skingrad from a nearby hill, and there I would disagree a bit, as it feel more like the promise of adventures - set, indeed, in a sunny place rather than a dark, gloomy one, but adventures nontheless, a feeling reinforcer at least for me by the ayleids ruins you could see, and if there is something that Oblivion taught me, it's that ayleid ruins are dark, even when they are lit with varla stones.

While indeed newer loading screens are generaly less darker, reflecting newer zones being also less darker ( but honestly regions like Summerset, Elseweyr, even Morrowind, weren't particularly dark ), it's only the login screens that depict more 'social situations' - in even then, a lot of them that I can remember, while showing more than one character, generally showed them looking at something, sometime ominous, sometime just a scenery, and not really just hanging around like the current one, petting dog, drifting on horseback, that kind of stuff.

But anyway, I think we both agree, gobaly at least, about the current mood of ESO. But I think they can still, and they still do, some darker art, and some darker places. Well it was the case in Gold Road at least, and I don't think I will check on Solstice anytime soon, so... I might well be wrong here !

More on topic - bring back more older loading screens ! I'm really interested to see more of them.

Freelancer_ESO · May 26

If you like that style of art you can see similar images in The Improved Emperor's Guide to Tamriel

They sold physical copies of it in the past and they later gave permission for a site to scan the content so you can see the full content on the below site.

https://www.imperial-library.info/content/the-illustrated-improved-emperors-guide-to-tamriel

Soarora · May 26

SilverBride wrote: »

ArchangelIsraphel wrote: »

Syldras wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

The current Stormhaven loading screen has a questionable banner that I find disturbing to see when loading into the zone.

Now I want to see that questionable banner (I can't remember it).

I think this is the one being referred to:

IMO, it's a real stretch of the imagination. I had to really try to see something in the image on the banner, and even then I don't think it looks much like anything at all.

I wish I didn't see it, but one day when traveling to Stormhaven it just stood out to me. Now it's all I can see and I have to turn away when loading into that zone. Just trace around the outside edge of the image inside the banner and it becomes very apparent.

It's a leather helmet on top of a leather gorget. It's not unique to the loading screen, it's the leatherworker banner. If I was in your situation, I'd go look at one of the leatherworker banners to see what the banner actually looks like since the one in the loading screen is partially shaded. It might help your discomfort if you can rewire your brain into knowing what it actually is. Or maybe it won't, I'm not you.

In other news, Summerset has a cloud with a happy face on it. It's my favorite loading screen because of the happy face

. But those old loading screens do look amazing.

ElderOfTamriel · May 27

Oh wow that loading screen is seriously very cool indeed =D Thank you for sharing

Heren · May 27

Freelancer_ESO wrote: »

If you like that style of art you can see similar images in The Improved Emperor's Guide to Tamriel

They sold physical copies of it in the past and they later gave permission for a site to scan the content so you can see the full content on the below site.

https://www.imperial-library.info/content/the-illustrated-improved-emperors-guide-to-tamriel

Thanks for the link !