ESO classic

Xarc · November 22

Yes

Gabriel_H wrote: »

What else wouldn't you inlcude?

I mean, this thread is here to get a sense of the community's opinion in November 2025 regarding a potential ESO Classic.
Everything is still up for discussion regarding what should or shouldn't be included.

spartaxoxo · November 22

No

Xarc wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

If it rolled back to Veteran levels, we'd be missing a ton of quality of life improvements and fun systems. The classic version of this game was DOA. It had to have a relaunch. Rolling back to vet levels removes everything in the game from Dark Brotherhood onwards.

This would mean....

No DLC dungeons except Imperial City
No Transmute Station
No Battle Grounds
No Jewelry Crafting
No curated drops
No Armory station
No sticker book
No group finder
No guild store improvements
No marking unknown collectibles
No Warden
No Arcanist
No Antiquities

Etc etc

No, thank you

I never said anything about removing all of that. It's simply about CP, AwA, subclassing, and scribing.
Why are you going off on a paranoid tangent just to scare people?

The only other thing I haven't mentioned, but which could be considered in ESO Classic, is Tamriel Unlimited, meaning that from the start all faction zones are accessible to everyone. Personally, I find this anti-RP and absurd, but never mind, I didn't mention it.
You start with a red character, you can't go to the blue team until you've finished the main quest, just like it was at the game's launch.

It's not a paranoid tangent. What "Classic" means in most MMO spaces is going backwards to an earlier build of the game. It purposefully excludes modern patches.

You mentioned you didn't want CP included because Vet Levels are what you consider to be the classic state of the game. Vet Levels were removed with the introduction of the Dark Brotherhood DLC. So that would be the cutoff patch on a classic server with other games.

If your idea isn't ESO classic, maybe you should restart the thread with a different explanation. Because when many people hear ESO classic, they are thinking about servers that go back to classic patches.

Xarc · November 22

Yes

spartaxoxo wrote: »

You mentioned you didn't want CP included because Vet Levels are what you consider to be the classic state of the game. Vet Levels were removed with the introduction of the Dark Brotherhood DLC. So that would be the cutoff patch on a classic server with other games.

I never mentioned the Veteran system, you must have mistaken me for someone else.
The CP system may be better, but that's no reason to forget that other changes are problematic and that many people don't like them.

spartaxoxo · November 22

No

Xarc wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

You mentioned you didn't want CP included because Vet Levels are what you consider to be the classic state of the game. Vet Levels were removed with the introduction of the Dark Brotherhood DLC. So that would be the cutoff patch on a classic server with other games.

I never mentioned the Veteran system, you must have mistaken me for someone else.
The CP system may be better, but that's no reason to forget that other changes are problematic and that many people don't like them.

Prior to CP, it was Vet Levels. So NO CP = Vet Levels. At least if we're going by classic standards.

What is your vision of the game if you don't want either of those things?

Xarc · November 22

Yes

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Xarc wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

You mentioned you didn't want CP included because Vet Levels are what you consider to be the classic state of the game. Vet Levels were removed with the introduction of the Dark Brotherhood DLC. So that would be the cutoff patch on a classic server with other games.

I never mentioned the Veteran system, you must have mistaken me for someone else.
The CP system may be better, but that's no reason to forget that other changes are problematic and that many people don't like them.

Prior to CP, it was Vet Levels. So NO CP = Vet Levels. At least if we're going by classic standards.

What is your vision of the game if you don't want either of those things?

I think the fundamental difference between ESO and ESO Classic is that ESO Classic is a game experience based on a longer timeframe, with slower progression, an old-school leveling system like it was at the beginning (leveled zones), and the inability to travel everywhere before discovering the zones.

Making players incredibly powerful with 200k DPS doesn't appeal to everyone. I think it only widened the gap between beginners and experienced players.

I don't know if it would be possible to return to the old way combat worked (animated cut, old dodge system, old blocking system, old light/heavy attack system), as well as certain class skills (old Nightblade cloak, old Templar jab, old DK wings, etc. etc etc).

Today, everything is geared towards getting everyone to the top as quickly as possible, with an abundance of XP scrolls and everything else. I think the game was much more satisfying when it was more challenging, when leveling up took longer, and when obtaining rare components was something worthwhile.

Obviously, I might be talking about a time that many players didn't experience, but I know that many people are nostalgic for all of that.

In other words, while I did suggest four options in the survey, I think that if ESO Classic were ever to be released, they would really need to consider a completely different game, one that has already existed in the past. It wouldn't just be the same game with fewer features; otherwise, put that way, it's not very interesting.

Pepegrillos · November 22

Yes

I think there are enough people out there who aren't playing ESO anymore that would come back to play a separate Classic version of ESO.

DestroyerPewnack · November 22

Yes

Came here to start a similar thread. Although my version of it would also remove skill/set hybridization, but keep champion points in.
The game used to be so fun. I don't recognize it anymore. :c

I went from playing it for an unhealthy amount of hours every single day, almost since a year after release, to not having played it for almost a year now. Haven't found a game to replace it yet, and I'm feeling kind of homeless. </3

Also, I don't understand the people voting no? How would other players getting a modded server of the game affect your life? It's not a zero-sum game.

liliub17_ESO · November 22

The game is barely managed now, what number of fresh tribulations would having two for the devs to track create?

- CP is fine.

- AWA - have a toggle for players who want to turn it off but not remove altogether it for others who do use it. I sincerely dislike AWA, others' opinions and play styles differ.

- Sub-classing/multi-classing - balance it, though I (as a non-coder) have no idea how. Several have mentioned a damage penalty for each class line added which sounds reasonable and seems to be feasible. That's similar to how such things are handled in other games including table top.

- Scribing - meh. It's ok but to be honest doesn't really add a whole lot for me. For others, it may contribute quite a bit.

ESO_player123 · November 22

No

DestroyerPewnack wrote: »

Came here to start a similar thread. Although my version of it would also remove skill/set hybridization, but keep champion points in.
The game used to be so fun. I don't recognize it anymore. :c

I went from playing it for an unhealthy amount of hours every single day, almost since a year after release, to not having played it for almost a year now. Haven't found a game to replace it yet, and I'm feeling kind of homeless. </3

Also, I don't understand the people voting no? How would other players getting a modded server of the game affect your life? It's not a zero-sum game.

The question of this poll was "Would you be interested...". So, I voted accordingly. No, I would not be interested. As for being unaffected, the resources would be spent on this separate server which could be otherwise spent on developing content for the existing ones.

valenwood_vegan · November 22

No

DestroyerPewnack wrote: »

Also, I don't understand the people voting no? How would other players getting a modded server of the game affect your life? It's not a zero-sum game.

Thing is, the poll question wasn't "would it affect your life if eso classic was released." It was "would you be interested in...". So people who are not interested would generally... vote no in response to such a question.

And I mean beyond that, people tend to have different opinions and tend to favor development time and resources being put toward features and changes to the game that are of interest to them, rather than things that are not.

Juju_beans · November 23

Yes

Another big MMO created a classic version of itself and was and still is a smashing success

Anilahation · November 23

Yes

Renato90085 wrote: »

The game doesn't have enough players can to split.
it not one of other successful MMOs

Guild wards is getting Guild wars Reforged, Rift Prime and etc... other smaller MMOs have done it. I honestly would love to go back and play Veteran Rank ESO.

Gabriel_H · November 23

No

Juju_beans wrote: »

Another big MMO created a classic version of itself and was and still is a smashing success

That was because one of their expansions literally changed the entire game world. That same MMO then released the same expansion for their Classic version and it did not go down well.

Danikat · November 23

Having a second version of the game running would have an impact on the main game and therefore affect people who don't want to play classic because unless they get enough funding to set up a seperate team to run it ZOS staff will need to split their time and attention between the two.

Maybe it would only be the server admins, juggling updates to two sets of servers, but that would still impact changes to the existing game. But I assume even people who want to return to a genuine earlier version of the game would still want the bugs that were in that version to get fixed, as well as any new bugs which emerge. If the OP gets their way and instead of classic mode it's some weird hybrid of some, but not all, changes (but presumably all the current zones, quests etc.) that will introduce entirely new bugs that would need to be fixed.

One option might be to say classic mode is the entire package - returning to the original version of the game also means it requires a subscription to play and only the money from those subscriptions is used to maintain it. But considering that wasn't a viable business model when it was the only version of ESO I doubt it would attract enough people to keep it running.

Anilahation wrote: »

Renato90085 wrote: »

The game doesn't have enough players can to split.
it not one of other successful MMOs

Guild wards is getting Guild wars Reforged, Rift Prime and etc... other smaller MMOs have done it. I honestly would love to go back and play Veteran Rank ESO.

Guild Wars Reforged isn't 'classic mode' it's an update to the existing game which will be played on the same servers, with all the existing content and systems. It's like Tamriel Unlimited where they gave a tagline to an update to highlight the changes.

Or in this case simply highlight that they're making changes. It's an update to Guild Wars 1 - the original game, which has been in maintenance mode since 2012. (Actual maintenance mode where it only gets essential updates to stay online, not "I don't like this expansion so clearly the devs have abandoned the game" "maintenance mode".) It's had maybe 1-2 updates a year, just enough to keep it running, and now they're actually doing something with it, although so far only controller support and graphics updates.

Gabriel_H wrote: »

Juju_beans wrote: »

Another big MMO created a classic version of itself and was and still is a smashing success

That was because one of their expansions literally changed the entire game world. That same MMO then released the same expansion for their Classic version and it did not go down well.

I wondered about that when WoW Classic was first announced and they said they'd gradually add updates into it. I've never played WoW but I heard a big part of the appeal of Classic was that one expansion completely changed large parts of the world so entire zones and towns were gone or redesigned and whole storylines were no longer playable and Classic was a way to go back and play all that removed content. I assumed they'd stop updating it before that point, or maybe set up a 3rd version. I'm not surprised that pushing the same update into Classic mode (and therefore removing a big part of it's appeal) hasn't gone over well.

Gabriel_H · November 23

No

Danikat wrote: »

I wondered about that when WoW Classic was first announced and they said they'd gradually add updates into it. I've never played WoW but I heard a big part of the appeal of Classic was that one expansion completely changed large parts of the world so entire zones and towns were gone or redesigned and whole storylines were no longer playable and Classic was a way to go back and play all that removed content. I assumed they'd stop updating it before that point, or maybe set up a 3rd version. I'm not surprised that pushing the same update into Classic mode (and therefore removing a big part of it's appeal) hasn't gone over well.

That was why players had been crying for years for Classic. The whole point was to not have a raised level cap or that expansion. Maybe they will now release Classic Classic and try to squeeze players some more.

loosej · November 23

Depends. If you mean an older version that also removes the (admittedly limited) bugfixes and qol improvements that happened past that version, no. If you mean a current version of the game with CP, awa, scribing and slopclassing removed, yes.

Zodiarkslayer · November 23

No

The cat is out of the bag.

There is no point in hoping everything one doesn't like magically goes away.

tom6143346 · November 23

No

Good god no thanks

Snaggel · 6:40AM

No

I do not wish to split my time between two version of ESO. Subclasssing was always a fun little mind experiment to me until the day it actually happened. That being said, I do like the increased pvp/pve support role variety that subclassing allows, even if everyone and their mother is now running Streak in pvp.

LunaFlora · 7:24AM

No

i love ESO and especially love Subclassing, Scribing, Account Wide Achievements, and Champion Points.

but also if people want ESO Classic like World of Warcraft Classic, should that not simply be how ESO launched in 2014 and nothing else?
Why choose only 4 dlc/systems to exclude

Xarc · 10:04AM

Yes

LunaFlora wrote: »

but also if people want ESO Classic like World of Warcraft Classic, should that not simply be how ESO launched in 2014 and nothing else?
Why choose only 4 dlc/systems to exclude

As I said "This is already a starting point, although it could be supplemented by other things."

So,

Xarc wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Xarc wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

You mentioned you didn't want CP included because Vet Levels are what you consider to be the classic state of the game. Vet Levels were removed with the introduction of the Dark Brotherhood DLC. So that would be the cutoff patch on a classic server with other games.

I never mentioned the Veteran system, you must have mistaken me for someone else.
The CP system may be better, but that's no reason to forget that other changes are problematic and that many people don't like them.

Prior to CP, it was Vet Levels. So NO CP = Vet Levels. At least if we're going by classic standards.

What is your vision of the game if you don't want either of those things?

I think the fundamental difference between ESO and ESO Classic is that ESO Classic is a game experience based on a longer timeframe, with slower progression, an old-school leveling system like it was at the beginning (leveled zones), and the inability to travel everywhere before discovering the zones.

Making players incredibly powerful with 200k DPS doesn't appeal to everyone. I think it only widened the gap between beginners and experienced players.

I don't know if it would be possible to return to the old way combat worked (animated cut, old dodge system, old blocking system, old light/heavy attack system), as well as certain class skills (old Nightblade cloak, old Templar jab, old DK wings, etc. etc etc).

Today, everything is geared towards getting everyone to the top as quickly as possible, with an abundance of XP scrolls and everything else. I think the game was much more satisfying when it was more challenging, when leveling up took longer, and when obtaining rare components was something worthwhile.

Obviously, I might be talking about a time that many players didn't experience, but I know that many people are nostalgic for all of that.

In other words, while I did suggest four options in the survey, I think that if ESO Classic were ever to be released, they would really need to consider a completely different game, one that has already existed in the past. It wouldn't just be the same game with fewer features; otherwise, put that way, it's not very interesting.

moderatelyfatman · 1:48PM

Yes

Juju_beans wrote: »

Another big MMO created a classic version of itself and was and still is a smashing success

This other MMO has a large enough population to sustain a second version of the game.

JaxontheUnfortunate · 2:12PM

No

It would further subdivide the limited population. ESO is just not a popular enough game to support this at the numbers required.

Gabriel_H · 4:18PM

No

moderatelyfatman wrote: »

Juju_beans wrote: »

Another big MMO created a classic version of itself and was and still is a smashing success

This other MMO has a large enough population to sustain a second version of the game.

Ish. It would be more accurate to say that the other MMO devs wrecked the game for many by releasing an expansion that completely altered the game world. Then 5 years after releasing Classic they released the same expansion again and annoyed the heck out of everyone again.

Xarc · 7:31PM

Yes

JaxontheUnfortunate wrote: »

It would further subdivide the limited population. ESO is just not a popular enough game to support this at the numbers required.

So you prefere to play with frustrated people (who arent playing with you either, are they?)

People should be allowed to play what they want if they prefer to be happy elsewhere; you can't hold people back "just because you want there to be people" here;,
and you can't forbid another version from existing just because " ESO is just not popular enough "

if people leave to a classic version, the thing is, they didn't want to stay there to do what, in the end? Connect online? Talk to their friends (if they still have any, given that many veterans have left because the game no longer suited them), do some daily crafting, and leave? What was the point?

Now imagine that thousands of players who left ESO are waiting for one thing: the release of the classic version. These are players who aren't on the current version anyway, so there's nothing for anyone to lose.

Gabriel_H wrote: »

moderatelyfatman wrote: »

Juju_beans wrote: »

Another big MMO created a classic version of itself and was and still is a smashing success

This other MMO has a large enough population to sustain a second version of the game.

Ish. It would be more accurate to say that the other MMO devs wrecked the game for many by releasing an expansion that completely altered the game world. Then 5 years after releasing Classic they released the same expansion again and annoyed the heck out of everyone again.

That's another problem; I don't see the point of making a "classic" version if it's just going to revert to what it's become... the reason people left in the first place. It makes no sense.

This isn't the case for all games that have had a "classic" version.

BardokRedSnow · 7:48PM

No

Ive played since beta but didn't "seriously" play until 2017, Morrowind chapter. That for me is when the game started being worth committing more time to besides the questing or pvp. I wouldn't honestly want to go back even though playing DK was more fun the further back you go.

All they need to do is incentivize playing a pure class so that its viable along with subclassing, so that it truly is "play how you want" vs play how you want but suck if you do.