So as almost with EVERY prior Elder Scrolls title there was a "Complexion" option that allowed you to have a lighter or darker skin tone, the option to pick actual swatches of color instead of adjusting a slider with a dodgy mouse twitching all about is very nice, however, i would LOVE to see the return of Complexions.
This would alleviate many many players looking to make their pale snow white beauties for each race (Addendum: I know not all races have the capacity to be pale.) But Bretons, Wood Elves, and Imperials are among the few that benefit from the lack of sunlight causing them to have beautifully pale complexions, which is among the many things this game is lacking. In my opinion, with the capability of having pale characters quite literally ANYWHERE else (any MMO, seriously) makes for a beginning of a series of corporate self inflicted wounds.
Now the list as stated from across the board:
* COST: Buy in to Play, Pay to Play - Remedied with Free to Play launch still not technically a F2P title if you have to buy in to it.
* CHARACTER LIMIT: Painfully limited character count for any MMO either P2P or F2P.
* ACCOUNT TYPE: No middle ground account type, either Premium or nothing, though only seen with SWTOR (for me) having an elevated account type can offer some incentive to buy something, anything, it's a great way to monetize a resource more than once from players, due to the slightly better incentives than just a Basic Account type.
* PHYSICS: Poor or Misused Havok Physics engine, I see that the gear moves slightly in relation to character animation, but that was there in Skyrim without Havok, and the hair movement is NOT fluid what-so-ever, if you need help understanding what a good use of Havok Engine is, lookup the HDT Physics Extension on NexusMods for Skyrim, now THAT is how Physics should work. Understandably though, the lag would be exponential with so many players running around... but...
* RENDERING DEMAND: Displayed Player Count, one of the GREATEST things i ever seen in only a FEW titles was this option, SWTOR and Jade Dynasty both have "similar" options... there was another that i can't remember... i think it was ArchAge, but i can't remember. This will allow the player to limit or even just outright HIDE other players. One option i loved was to hide players NOT in your Guild/Party I am honestly thinking that was from either Dragon's Prophet or ArchAge... can't remember.
* CONSISTENCY: Now here has to be the biggest oopsie i've ever seen, setting aside the wildly NOT immersive gear dying station's very existence, i do enjoy the ability to change the color of my gear... HOWEVER, it would be freaking awesome if it would actually DYE ALL THE GEAR... this includes weapons too you know.
* QUERY: Daedric Gear, now, i saw that this can be crafted, NICE, and i saw that it can be dyed, NICE again, but... i haven't gotten any yet, or even seen any yet, and this leads me to thinking, since there is not a hierarchy of gears that would mark the Daedric Gear Types the very best and worn by EVERY high level character, does it at least have the animation from Skyrim? Does it have the same dark demonic essence eminating from within its very existence?
* STABILITY: I have read a few threads here and there that the game is still as unstable as Beta on a few machines, and in all honesty, the game will never be "Live" or "Launched" until you have worked out mundane bugs like compatibility for all users. These bugs should have been addressed and fixed. Additionally, if your x64 version causes the audio to cut out to pure static/white noise, again, still in Beta.and shouldn't be available until it is worked out in PTS. PTS is where game instability should end, there should be no question about that. To be so far behind with a 64 bit distribution so deep in the 64 bit era, any longer and this will get embarrassing. There are indie developed games launching full 64 bit titles smoother than this.
* AUDIO COMPATIBILITY: speaking upon the prior "Stability" the audio needs a SERIOUS look, i know that Dolby Pro Logic II isn't the best, but if properly used it can be worth every effort, looking at Diablo III: ROS, i use a cheapy 1000w RCA from Walmart, cuz i live by Jezza's motto "POWER!!!!!" Though, playing Diablo3ROS, i have full true surround over Fiber Optic. I play a 5.1 enabled MP4 or MKV on VLC and i get actual surround... i play ESO? Left becomes Right, Right becomes Center, both Rear L/R become FRONT Left... and what do the rear's become? WHO KNOWS, but it has NOTHING to do with what i'm doing... i think one time one of the speakers was giving me the sounds of my neighbors cat giving birth... not sure though, much is unexplained here. Put on my Corsair Vengeance 2000 headset that EMULATES 7.1 through binaural audio, gets the same jacked up audio arrangement, and it doesn't show up as a digital output in Windows, i can actually tune each speaker as if it were analogue. And again, everywhere else, i get full surround sound immersion! But ESO drops the ball...
* INCORRECT INITIALS: Since the start of all this, since before it even released to the public the invitations for closed Beta (of which i was signed up for as soon as the site was live and never got invited- correction- got invited, never got a key for.) the initials for the game have been horribly incorrect! Look at the history of the franchise, now please tell me where any of them say "Elder Scrolls III," "Elder Scrolls IV," or "Elder Scrolls V" ?? that's right, none, the title of the Franchise is "The Elder Scrolls III, IV, V" so that means this game is either mislabeled, or not at all part of "The Elder Scrolls" since it would be called "The Elder Scrolls: Online" thus more accurately initialed "TES:O" and since i see the Summerset Isle haven't sank yet, could very well be "The Elder Scrolls 0: Online" (I know this is more of a personal opinion, but the evidence is plain and blatant.)
* ALLIANCES: This got confusing for me, with my other titles, Alliances meant a collection of Guilds under one name, now, either i'm still confused by this concept, but it appears as though in this title, Alliances means "PVP Guild" which... yes there are some titles that do that with Alliances, but nearly all have the option to just be an Alliance of guilds ally with each other. Titles include, but are not limited to: Warframe, Star Trek Online, Jade Dynasty. SWTOR recently released new "end game" content that created a "Cross-faction Alliance PVP" system that coincided with their new content, making for an immersive experience AFTER the new expansion.
Thank you for taking the time to read through my review.
The rest of my post will come out in two years after.............