If You Could Redesign ESO...

Sentinel

What would you do?

Ever since this game has been announced, there have been as many conflicting ideals for what ESO could look like as there are people playing the game. The game's original vision was another staple MMO drawn a lot from WoW (which was then gutted in lieu of a much more TES-style approach to worldbuilding, ui, quests, and skills). From the start, many fans were expecting something like Skyrim Online or the like. The design of ESO seems to be derived from the dual approach that ZOS had taken, from the framework of a basic MMO which was given a TES design more to fulfill the fan base's expectations.

Everything from the art style, the world layout, skill choice, animations, and the basics of progression in the game have been as a result of this multi-faceted approach to creating this game. But now, after having nearly three years to play and experience the game, how would you redesign ESO if you could? Would you try to find a more realistic combat system, or perhaps implement more staple MMO features? Perhaps you might think the art style is too cartoonish and could be given some more detailed textures and added grime. Perhaps you'd want to overhaul the whole game itself. I'll post my own vision in the comments below, but I'd like to hear from others as well

Sentinel

One of the things I’ve heard a lot of praise for in the game is the worldbuilding. To me, however, I find that the environment can be somewhat lacking. While I love many areas within the game, a large portion of the environments appear unfinished with little reason to believe there is any sort of ecosystem or “nature” taking its course. Part of this could be due to a lack of diverse flora in some zones, or that the layout of the ground level is too flat. Overall, if I could redesign ESO, I would try to build a sense of realism into the zones by creating more vertical worldbuilding, create true mountains and hills, improve the designs of plants and textures to be more varied, eliminating the fog that prevents you from seeing into the distance, and adjusting the size of buildings and man-made objects relative to the landscape.

For example, if you look at a zone such as Stormhaven, the world feels flat wherever you go. If you’re going up a hill, no matter the slope, the hill doesn’t feel very large in comparison to the environment because the rest of the zone was designed on a single level, rather than multiple levels. In terms of vertical worldbuilding, I would change zones to have meaningful changes in elevation that feel massive, especially if you were to stand on the precipice of a large cliff or canyon. Imagine having a scene like this in ESO:

In fact, you could simply look up “landscape” on google images, and you would see what I mean: there is a great depth and verticality to most landscapes. When you look at something such as this, the mountains in the background feel massive in comparison to the flowers by your side.

One game which I think does realistic landscaping very well is Dragon Age Inquisition:

Even a game like Dark Souls 3 knows how to make a landscape feel massive:


Heck, even Skyrim does this well in some respects:

In comparison, this is how Elder Scrolls Online often does its landscaping:

Any sense of enormity in the landscape is often offset by how small and thin the actual mountains are when you get close to them, as well as how similar all levels of a zone appear. When buildings which are already much larger than one would expect are compared to the rather thin mountains, in addition to a lack of width in hills, the result is an environment that feels small, even if the zones are anything but small. The massive structures of buildings, houses, and keeps are made larger to emphasise the “MMO aspect” of the game, and instead they make the zones feel claustrophobic and tight, quite unlike the massive, open feeling derived from a true landscape. The same can be applied to many of the cities in ESO: their enormity feels fake in comparison to their lack of depth. A city like Wayrest or Daggerfall should be massive, and looking at them overall, they actually are pretty large. However, within the cities, the buildings are all rather large and with a good degree of spacing between them. With no small buildings, tight alleyways, slums, and the like, many cities while feeling massive also feel small and empty, no more than a town with very large buildings.

Now this is not to say that some zones do not do this well. Wrothgar makes up for many of the issues of previous zones by attempting a vertical landscape and it does this rather well. However there are many zones which don’t have very realistic/plausible/massive landscapes. And if I were able to redesign ESO, I would attempt to introduce this sort of plausible enormity into the game’s landscapes.

Taleof2Cities

A similar thread on this topic was started back in September ... which might be a good read:

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/289715/if-you-could-change-only-1-thing-in-eso/p1

Cavarka

Weapon swapping mechanism and the UI for skills. Something akin to ffiv.

TX12001rwb17_ESO

1. Travel would be done much differently, All wayshrines would be replaced with Carriages, Silt Striders and Guild Guides that will Teleport you to other Mage's Guilds for a fee.

2. I would add more classes but make their roles less important, instead of giving class based abilities like we currently have they would instead only determine which of your starting attributes is highest and which is lowest, all existing abilities in ESO would be shared out amongst the schools of magic.

3. Vampires would be immune to Poison and Disease Effects and would gain a moderate resistance to Frost Effects, instead their would be only 2 vampire stages (Hungry and Sated) instead of 4, While Hungry a vampire will look like a monster and they will not heal, while sated however they would look relatively normal and heal 10% faster then a non-vampire would, they would have all passives regardless of stage but only during night hours, their morphs that most people do not use will also be converted to stamina abilities to match their 10% stamina regeneration increase (Seriously they have a stamina regeneration bonus but no stamina abilities) making them viable for stamina builds, Also feedings would kill the Victim if the animation isn't cancelled.

4. Werewolves would be attacked by Guards when in Beast Form, Wereboar & Werebear Skins would be introduced with suitable sounds and effects of course, these creatures as NPCs would also be present in the game, they would also gain Disease Immunity to compensate.

davey1107

I don't know...I think you're being a little tough on the landscapes. It's a good looking game, although I'm sure they made some sacrifices in order to give us the scale on a streaming game. One sacrifice, for example, is that the game doesn't have elevation, per se. This was discussed in an episode of ESO Live. Zenimax really, really wants to squeeze as many games as possible out of this engine, lol.

I went back and played Skyrim Remastered over the holidays. Being a standalone game, the graphics are amped up a bit over ESO. However, the actual gameplay seems primitive now. Only one attack? No abilities?? Noooooo....

And that's where I think ESO succeeded on a massive scale. The graphics might not have been a leap forward, but the world is a dozen times larger than skyrim, Cyrodiil is a MASSIVE pvp zone for an mmo, the fight engines and leveling were pushed five steps forward, they took the Elder Scrolls crafting systems and enhanced them, and they added more to the story and lore than all previous games combined. And it's social. These are the reasons that I've subscribed for 20-24 months since release, versus the $40 I spent on Skyrim and the $20 I spent on Skyrim Remastered.

Kram8ion

Random flying dragons that attack in both pvp and pve

Sausage

I havent played the game since One Tamriel so I cant say but, I think Id remove the zone-patterns, that each zone is basically a copy of another. When all zones follow that same pattern, it gives that "grind" feel, making it extremely tedious in the long run, as when each zone was slightly diffrerent, it would be exciting to go a new zone.

DigitalShibby

If I could change ESO I would make it so that skills went off key presses and not key releases. Am I the only one who thinks it's weird that it works off release instead of press?

Rohamad_Ali

Original Devs were pretty damn good . I would keep the information that allows third party programs to dupe the system game side . Would not trust the client side at all . That is the main thing I would change . I'm sure that would upset some add ons but oh well , security is more important to me .

TheShadowScout

I do like the ESO landscaping, its pertty nifty, though of course I kinda wish all the zones were bigger... but I suppose that would start to be a bit tough on the hardware limits.
Yeah, some zones are a bit on the flat side. So? Not all th world is mountains, there are quite a few regions flatter then eso stormhaven, all fields and soft hills... and ESO also has nice mountainous regions (I just often sish they had less invisible walls and more terrain blocking peoples wandering ways instead)

What i would do with redesigning ESO, was making the world more interactive...
- climbing a rope shouldn't work "fadeout-fadein at new location", but with an vertical move along the rope and a climbing animation instead. And there should be lots of things that can be climbed (like Quen in the TG storyline does on occasion, add a touch of "Assassins Creed" to the world)
- underwater swimming should be possible, adding a entirely new depth (heh!) to exploration when you get to dive into ponds and rivers to find what may have dropped to the bottom, or swim through sewers to get into some evil citadel.
- furniture should be more then decoration, but I hear they are working on refitting thast wth homesteads to some extent, so we'll see. Bonus points if they think to add "personal" stuff like bathtubs and outhouses, just to make the world come more "alive"...
- enemies should not be mindless killfodder, but have a better AI. Like... three bandits jumping out of the woodworks to attack the murderous berzerker nord veteran of a throusand battles? They wouldn't realistically do that, anyone with half a brain could realize it will only end up with them being new bloodstains on his axe... so a morale sysatem as to when NPCs will attack, and when they will try to run away if a battle goes against them would be a nifty addition to such games.
- and more interactivity with clothes. Like in the above manetioned case, outfit should make a difference. If you walk down bandit road in full armnor, they should think twice of picking a fioght, if you walk through it in your best noble ball gown, holdups should be certain. Likewise, if you walk through town in full bloodstained armor, the guard will keep an close eye on you (and likely some crossbows as well), but if you wear your ball gown there, the people may give you better deals in hopes of snatching a noble regular customer...
- also weather interactivity with clothes. Like... wearing too little in skyrim giving you a "freezing" effect, while wearing too heavy clothes in Alik'r giving you a "darn heat" stamina debuff...
- and more interactivity with characters in general. Like... the game often should take your race, gender and alliance into account during questing. A dunmer coming to an argonian village might have to do some extra steps in questing to prove they are not like the "other slavers", while an fellow argonian would be welcomed with open arms and trust. And along those lines, there ought to be more racist, sexist, and otherwise intolerant NPCs throughout tamriel - and show that in interaction with characters rather then merely some meaningless dialouge. Some characters might get better rewards then others, some characters might get shortcuts depending on their race, not dialouge options, while other characters might get some extra hoops to jump torugh, some characters might get additional options (clan shatul was nifty in that regard). Some characters might even get "exclusive quests" here, while other characters get their own special quests there.
- Definitely more of that concerning vampires and werewolves. They are supposed to feel like monsters hiding among mortals, not just players with an extra skill line... have the guard be on the lookout for such monsters, and attack when one dares reveal themselves in town. Also, add the classics, werewolves being affected by the moon(s), vampires having trouble with daytime, running water and food... but with a few also classic resistances (disease comes to mind) to balance...
- also, a lot more random activities. I never liked it that you get a nice lockpicking minigame, but disarming traps was mere click, and disarming magic was only storyline stuff. I'd want "disarm trap" minigames, and "dispell magic" miniganes as well... I want more secret doors in dungeons, and more treasure chests with a surprise for looters, be it the classic poison needle at the lock, or something else... but I also would want other minigames. Like... inn activity minigames. Both against NPCs, and against players... dart games, card games, board games, arm wrestling, drinking contests, whatever.

And of course if I redesigned anything, I would push to the very limits of the "M" rating. Get some good old fashioned ultraviolence in there (in addition nto maybe a milk bar or two), and not shy away from other adult themes as well. A nice, realistic mix to make thew world come more alive... bot not overdoing it either... Games of Thrones did it quite well, finding the right balance.

And then... the skill system. I mean, classes are fine, and right for the current system, but I personally would have preferred less "flashy" skills, and a free skill selection and classless system instead, with choices in opposing skill lines making the classiness and diversity. Like... elemental magic, where you had to choose between picking fire or water based magic, and once you choose one, you cannot learn the other. Same principle for many magical skills. And of course progressing skill trees, so if you want the good stuff, you would have to specialize one way or another... But of course more free skill avialability that would have meant less skill effect to avoid too imbalancing combination possibilities...

The combat system is actually pretty nifty for MMOs, much better then the usual "stare at a dozend cooldown timers while you click your 'perfect rotation' to fight" - I realy like the dynamic eso attack with limited skills, block, bash, dodge approach. Though of course it could use a lot more weapon skills... and mounted combat! Though who knows, that could possibly be refitted some day. I really want to see knights charging with lances someday in ESO...

Another redesign I would go for was an improved athletics system. As in, jumping and swimming having a stamina cost, and skills around these activities, as well as limitations. Aka, "sinking like a stone" if you try to swim in heavy armor...

...and all that is just off the top of my head. There's tond more I could rant about, from additional races to more detailed crafting... nut I think I'll stop now

Cpt_Teemo

We can add chuck norris in a Teemo outfit !

Nickernator

I would instantly create a "Restyling" or transmog option so motifs will have a more useful purpose, were you can change the style of your equipment.

I want to run in full Imperial heavy armour, but can't because of the monster helmets, I want to transmog those to imperial style!

@ZOS_GinaBruno we want this, since April 2014..

Narvuntien

Crafting

1. The restyling transmog the guy above said obviously in.

2. I would make a strong distinction between crafted and dropped sets.

Crafted sets = stats.
Droped sets = effects.

If crafted sets are always raw stats they are always going to be useful and important. Whille there is still going to be a ton of effects people are going to want and use as they do now that dropped sets will give you.

Sets like Spinners and Spriggans would be crafted sets under my system.

This is also more immersive I feel and good crafter can give you a better weapon but can they imbue it with magic (without enchanting it)

However i still like sets like clever alchemist because it is basically stats that are very easily controlled.

3. Jewellery crafting, would be its own crafting line.

World skill lines
1. I would add a lot more World skill lines and I would interact them better with the world and NPC behavoirs. All NPCs ignoring vamps and WWs is really takes you out of the game. You could have special ways to complete or interact with certain quests. Vamps will be encouraged to feed, because right now its best not to. WWs can't turn in the middle of towns.

2. Necromancy would be a world skill line not a class.

3. I would have Daedric world lines and perhaps Aedric ones as well with special passives but... you could only have one at any one time.

Enslaved

what would I change asap

• bar swap delay
• remove lag
• add mechanism that slows down ppl running in zergs
• completely redo questline in DC areas
• add stash space to housing and make new utility NPC for managing it (something like summonable banker we have now)
• remove 15m wait when kicked from dungeon and make it 5 minutes.

what would I change over time

• PvP balancing
• skills in PvP would work slightly differen compared to PvE
• sets in PvP would work different than in PvE
• introduce system against perma blocking builds ( every consecutive block costs 5% more than previous or something)
• disable the possibility of a single account having multiple chars from all alliances in a single campaign. So if you want Trueflame as AD, you can have just AD chars during the duration of that campaign in it.

menedhyn

Some very minor tweaks to start off with;

• Enable the appearance of lower level weapons and armour to be used throughout the game. I really don't like the look or style of the majority of end game gear. To me, that Argonian maple staff is a thing of beauty and simplicity.
• More lootable clothing to be found throughout the game world. Make it race-specific.
• A greater variety of motif styles. Something that looks less like high-fantasy armour.
• Bring back race-specific food and drink items. Rotmeth and Jagga?
• Allow matte finishes to glossy (shiny) armour or clothing, and allow all parts of a costume to be dyeable

More 'interesting' changes;

• Unarmed combat, or the ability to play as a melee fighter. Lore suggests that some races are uncomfortable using magicka. Despite this, it is very, very hard (if not impossible) to play through the game without relying on some sort of casting of spells (sic). That said, how that might work without upsetting everything else is beyond me.
• Spellcasting, for those races that embrace such a thing. Utility-type spells, such as Calm Animal, or more practical spells to aid with roleplay.
• More interaction with in-game objects, combined with using emotes when sitting or walking (I want to wander around Tamriel at night holding a porch, even though it's not particularly dark).
• Bring cities, towns and villages alive with mini-games held in taverns or stalls in the market place. See plays performed, see jugglers or entertainers, create an atmosphere as befitting a settlement. Give players something to do other than rushing to crafting stations. Help players to enjoy their surroundings before moving on.

As for the points about landscape... I really do like what I see. I think Tamriel is an incredibly beautiful and quite diverse world, so much so that I genuinely enjoy spending my time in the game. That said, there are occasions when I crave something a bit more dramatic, a bit more rugged, some place that leaves me awe-struck. This is perhaps not the best example, but I remember when I wandered into The Reach for the first time playing ES: V and was pretty staggered at what I saw. Jagged mountains, brooding skies, strange sunsets, and an atmosphere that really made me wonder where I was or how to get to places. The use of the terrain and the clever use of paths made the place feel much bigger than it was. I got lost several times (I still do), but to me The Reach became my absolute favourite place because of that incredible sense of remoteness. ESO does pretty well in some areas, and the developers have done an incredible job with trying to create that sense of scale and mass.

Ilmarthethief

1. Get rid of public dungeons - make them instanced, add them to dungeon finder and so on. Now they are completely useless (well, you can get skillpoint there). It's a shame to see these design masterpieces abandoned. For zerg rush delves and overland bosses are more than enough.
2. Change crafting sets stations - all alliances now have the same crafting stations. It made sense later, but with one tamriel it is ridiculous.
3. Remove levels completely. Just one more step left to make it happen, I guess it is in ZOS todo list already, but still.

Tabbycat

I would make it so that all the NPC's in the game randomly move around all over the place. Just so other people have to hunt them down.

However, I would give myself an NPC tracker so I would have them all marked on my map. Like GPS. And I could click on them and move right to their location without paying a fee.

Yes, I will know where they all are but you won't. Bwahahaha.

Seriously though, the game needs children and babies.

Cadbury

I'd work on fixing the servers. Then I'd make 1T open world PvP. And finally buff 2handed.

Karacule_Fairystar

cooler game engine and game architecture like Vulkan and/or DX12.

johu31

I'd get rid of the forums.

Rev Rielle

Some things immediately come to mind:
I'd scale most enemies to the number of players around (e.g. like Guild Wars 2)
I would make all quests repeatable with various length time cool-downs (e.g. like The Secret World)
I'd try to implement cosmetic tabs for appearance (e.g. like Lord of the Rings Online)
I would try and have more dynamic content in zones (e.g. like Rift)
I'd try an introduce robust yearly - lore appropriate - festivals (e.g. like Everquest 2)

Majic

Outside of group content, ESO is designed so that virtually every aspect of any encounter with other players will be negative. The role of other players in ESO is to grab that node before you do, kill that mob before you do, take that quest item before you do, pick that chest before you do, etc., etc.

In the ESO of today, hell is other people, and you are usually poorer for having met them.

Given the chance, I would redesign ESO so that resource nodes and quest items weren't competitive (as is already the case for provisioning nodes) and the most logical thing to do upon seeing another player isn't running the other way.

I think that alone would do wonders for increasing the sociability of the game, and improve the tone and friendliness of the ESO community as well.

petraeus1

I'd reduce some of the grind factors of the game or make more categories account wide, so that I, as a casual player with not too much gametime, am no longer conflicted between pursuing a goal and playing an alt character.

Solariken

1) No rigid classes. Archetypes could still be utilized with a more fluid class system - there was a great suggestion here on the forums a while back proposing a Warrior, Thief, Mage, and Healer archetype system.

2) TES schools of magic!!! I seriously cannot believe they neglected this. Mind-blowing idiocy (I'm sorry that sounds mean but it's just disgusting).

3) More Daedra worship and influence. This would have been a great way to have exclusive skill lines.

4) More sandbox elements, less theme park lame "hero of the universe" quest types. Less hand-holding and less chasing the quest markers, more problem solving and searching the world. I swear they developed open world PvE in this game for 5-year-olds.

5) More depth and dynamic events in Cyrodiil. A daedric NPC faction causing havoc and taking keeps.

6) Bound weapons and armor.

7) Many PvE NPC factions that hate each other, and being involved with some exclude you from others (a la Morrowind). More depth and NPC reaction to lycanthropy and vampirism.

8) Better crafting system overall, jewelry crafting, trait sockets, ability to change item motif.

9) True justice system. No auto-diminishing bounty, actual jail time with ability to break out or ask another player to break out, killable guards, etc.

10) Ability to use the Black Sacrament on players and hire assassins to murder them.

If I were in Firor's seat, I feel pretty confident that this game would be the undisputed greatest MMO that has ever existed.

nine9six

Make Light and Heavy attacks much more meaningful.

Ditch the Guild Trader system for something else.

AzuraKin

Sausage wrote: »

I havent played the game since One Tamriel so I cant say but, I think Id remove the zone-patterns, that each zone is basically a copy of another. When all zones follow that same pattern, it gives that "grind" feel, making it extremely tedious in the long run, as when each zone was slightly diffrerent, it would be exciting to go a new zone.

so you want to grind without feeling like you grinding? lol that is like a major conflict resolution problem for you.

Iselin

I'd design around daedric invasion zone events attacking cities without the static anchor spots and not on a timer. But then, we'd have to play together.

Indaghdha

I would make ESO cross platform. Everyone, regardless of whether you are on PC, MAC, PS4, XBone, should be playing together!!

AdamBourke

• I would return the Eyevea wayshrine to the map.
• More trees in valenwood. There are a lot of trees in Valenwood - but I never really felt I was in a forest, just a field with lots of trees. They should be closer together, with a darker atmosphere, dappled lighting and less clearings.
• Involve the "wilderking" at the end of greenshade's questline. Make Silatar visitable after the Throne of the Wilderking. Maybe even contain a player house.
• Malabal Tor questline would be longer (currently only 4 quests!), include Ayrenn, and the Silvenar would a) recognise you more, and b) be the same character he was in Greenshade, not some different personality.
• Either:
  1. Get rid of classes completely
  2. Classes give you a buff to certain skilllines - and you have a higher starting class. As they were in oblivion.
• In either case, use the five schools of magic as the magic lines, as well as necromancy (although this would come later in a DLC)
• Did I mention the eyevea wayshrine?
• I'd also want to have a go at making it entirely open world (Excpet unreleased areas of course). There's probably tech limitations there, but this game has been in development for... what? 8 years now? maybe it would be possible if they started over.

Indaghdha wrote: »

I would make ESO cross platform. Everyone, regardless of whether you are on PC, MAC, PS4, XBone, should be playing together!!

Apparently this isn't ZOS' decision, I saw an interview which said it was a political issue, rather than a technical one. Actually, it would make it simpler for ZOS, as they would only have to maintain four servers instead of six. In any case, PC would always have advantage. PS4 and XB1 could be cross play though. It's probably too late now, because the usernames/character names could clash.

Ilmarthethief wrote: »

3. Remove levels completely. Just one more step left to make it happen, I guess it is in ZOS todo list already, but still.

This! Basically the only thing levels do now is stop you wearing good gear. Everything else is managed by levels in individual skills...

Neoauspex

Auction house