I love ESO, but sometimes my heart still yearns for Co-Op Morrowind/Oblivion/Skyrim

EttinTheBreton

Does anybody else feel this way? I know ESO is not intended to replicate a two-player Oblivion or Skyrim gaming experience, but I think that idea is what sparked ESO in the first place. TES games are so good single-player, and I would absolutely love to walk around split-screen or otherwise have a two-player option for Morrowind, Oblivion, or Skyrim. That would be so lovely.

ESO is as close to that experience as I can get (my best friend is installing ESO today!), but sometimes I still want that two-player experience. Does anyone else feel this way?

My Elder Scrolls story (please feel free to share your own story):

Years ago I began playing The Elder Scrolls games with Oblivion on my PS3. My friends showed me how to play the game, and for months we would tell each other at school about our adventures, mishaps, glitches, and funny moments in Oblivion from the night before. It was the best!

Later on, 11/11/11 hits and we all have Skyrim pre-ordered. My best buddy (who is joining me in ESO today) and I get all the PS3 trophies for the platinum within a month! Years later, I upgrade to a PC and we still share our single-player stories.

We are bound to have awesome MMO experiences in ESO. Seriously, I am so happy to have this game. But sometimes I wanna play the quieter Skyrim and take a buddy of mine with me.

Does ESO fill this yearning for you? What are your thoughts?

MercyKilling

No, it doesn't. I wish this game was more like Skyrim and Morrowwind in the sense that the more you use something, the better you get at it. Made sense that the more I fought in light/med/heavy armor, the better I got at moving around in it. Made sense that the more I cast fireball, the better I got at it, reducing casting time and cost and maybe even boosting damage.


I also hate the gear grind this game has become. To me, a sword is a sword, regardless of the enchantments put on it...and a sword in the hands of a common peasant is nothing to be feared, even if it can cut through stone.....but one in the hands of a seasoned veteran or gladiator......is something to be afraid of. It's not the gear, it's the person. If I really wanted to, I could go back and play Skyrim or Morrowind or Oblivion all the way through with completely unenchanted items. Couldn't do that here, I bet.

maboleth

I'm a huge TES fan and TES memento & books collector. In ESO there's so much to do, it's incredible.

If anything, combat and all of the crafting are miles better than in any previous TES game. They are way more intuitive, fun, and so much more advanced.

Speaking of combat, what I do miss in ESO is the bow. I just love how it performs in Skyrim, for example. It feels real and it takes a bit of learning and a steady hand to actually hit the target right, especially from a long distance. But alas, this is a MMO with huge amount of players so it's no wonder that if the NPC target is within reach, you can almost always hit it regardless how you aim, with infinite Legolas-like amount of arrows (although Legolas did run out of arrows in The Hobbit ).


Also, no need to endlessly grind for gear if you don't want to. There's loads of absolutely great crafted sets that will get you everywhere just fine. Besides, unless you do a PVP, there's no need to be the "best" in anything. Set your own goals and enjoy. Eventually, you will be better at things you pursue and will naturally ask yourself questions like "what would happen if I would try/craft/make/combine/play/etc. this and that". You will progress and have fun at the same time.

IMO, the game is your own thing, lots of people are rushing, grinding, searching, completing, achieving etc... Comparing yourself to them is not a way to go. I say, no need to be frustrated in the game. It's meant to be fun. If it isn't, change the way you play it, play different roles, modes etc. or just rest and do something else instead.

zaria

Some huge killer for an Oblvion or Skyrim multiplayer is
1) physic, if you use spells on junk it fly everywhere, this would have to be synchronized.
2) quests, games are designed for one player, the other would simply be an smarter Lydia.
3) instancing, What happens if you are in different cells, game is not designed to handle two players at different locations.

In short it would require an engine change and an focus on multiplayer over other stuff.

Remag_Div

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if TES VI has some form of co-op.

TheNuminous1

ive been playing diablo 3 latley and often dream of tes 6 with an online co-op mode

pizzaow

I'd love to see a challenging 2-player dungeon. Similar to maelstrom or dsa, but designed for a group of 2.

kip_silverwolf

zaria wrote: »

Some huge killer for an Oblvion or Skyrim multiplayer is
1) physic, if you use spells on junk it fly everywhere, this would have to be synchronized.
2) quests, games are designed for one player, the other would simply be an smarter Lydia.
3) instancing, What happens if you are in different cells, game is not designed to handle two players at different locations.

In short it would require an engine change and an focus on multiplayer over other stuff.

Another to consider is how co-op would affect modding, even more so now that mods are available for consoles. Would it mean we wouldn't be able to mod as freely as we can now? Or would it have no affect at all?
Personally co-op is something I never want to see in the single player games, especially if modding ability was reduced.

AFrostWolf

https://www.reddit.com/r/SkyrimTogether/

Mod is unreleased and in progress still.

Nerouyn

EttinTheBreton wrote: »

Does anybody else feel this way?

Yes. ESO is a poor substitute in many ways for those games. Especially if you prefer magic. Most of ESO's magic is split across the different classes which sucks. The single-player games also don't try to constantly gouge you for more money.

I wouldn't be surprised though if the next single player game supports multi-player, since they now have the experience and know-how courtesy of ESO.

AFrostWolf wrote: »

https://www.reddit.com/r/SkyrimTogether/

Mod is unreleased and in progress still.

That's interesting and ambitious. The vanilla game is not very amenable to multi-player so this would have taken some serious work.

What will be more interesting is Zenimax's response. This has the potential be very serious competition for ESO.

Pseron_Wyrd

I've never felt any desire to play Morrowind, Oblivion or Skyrim in co-op mode. No, no, I don't yearn for it.

HeathenDeacon

pizzaow wrote: »

I'd love to see a challenging 2-player dungeon. Similar to maelstrom or dsa, but designed for a group of 2.

one of my fav things about the last mmo i played were duo instances. really wish eso had them.

idk

It is understandable, what the OP says. However, much of the previous games do not work well in an MMO. The game was made merely on a theme of TES, not to replicate the single player games in a multi player setting. Zos even stated as much in early development.

randomkeyhits

Well for Morrowind the OpenMW project has taken its first steps into multiplayer.

Need the original disks but the game can be played from start to finish, even on Linux \o/

Still some way to go but it will happen.

FloppyTouch

Nope I like single player to be single player and I like MMORPGs to be with lots of people. I find co-op rpgs games clunky and weird like fable was ew. To me it takes the enjoyment out of RPGs. They would really need to work on co-op in elder scrolls games for me to enjoy it.

LadyDestiny

Pseron_Wyrd wrote: »

I've never felt any desire to play Morrowind, Oblivion or Skyrim in co-op mode. No, no, I don't yearn for it.

Agreed. Not to mention the more time and resources they put into co-op or multiplayer, they more we lose out on regular single player content. I want my elder scrolls to be a vast, expansive world with only me there to explore it all. Nuff said.....

Vaoh

I'm not totally positive, but I'm pretty sure there was a Multiplayer-based Co-Op Mod you could download for Skyrim. It's not perfect but should work!

FoolishHuman

I don't think that would be very good or even interesting. There's just nothing to actually co-op in those games. The entire gameplay is designed so that one player can play through the game alone, a second player would add nothing to that. It would just be virtual handholding, you might as well sit together at your console and take turns playing. Sure, the novelty would be nice that's why these multiplayer mods get so much attention, but as an actual game I don't think it would sell.

Dreepa

I would kill to get a skyrim coop game.

EttinTheBreton

zaria wrote: »

Some huge killer for an Oblvion or Skyrim multiplayer is
1) physic, if you use spells on junk it fly everywhere, this would have to be synchronized.
2) quests, games are designed for one player, the other would simply be an smarter Lydia.
3) instancing, What happens if you are in different cells, game is not designed to handle two players at different locations.

In short it would require an engine change and an focus on multiplayer over other stuff.

kip_silverwolf wrote: »

[snip] Another to consider is how co-op would affect modding, even more so now that mods are available for consoles. Would it mean we wouldn't be able to mod as freely as we can now? Or would it have no affect at all?
Personally co-op is something I never want to see in the single player games, especially if modding ability was reduced.

Interesting observations, I would definitely want the junk physics to be synchronized in a co-op version, but that would probably get computationally-intensive pretty quick!

Giles.floydub17_ESO wrote: »

It is understandable, what the OP says. However, much of the previous games do not work well in an MMO. The game was made merely on a theme of TES, not to replicate the single player games in a multi player setting. Zos even stated as much in early development.

Yes, I totally agree. And I do love ESO for the fact that it is an MMO.

MercyKilling wrote: »

[snip] To me, a sword is a sword, regardless of the enchantments put on it...and a sword in the hands of a common peasant is nothing to be feared, even if it can cut through stone.....but one in the hands of a seasoned veteran or gladiator......is something to be afraid of. It's not the gear, it's the person. If I really wanted to, I could go back and play Skyrim or Morrowind or Oblivion all the way through with completely unenchanted items. Couldn't do that here, I bet.

This is a great point too. There is that reasonably-accomplish-able challenge of running through the single-player games with low-level gear. I also like your point about single player games and how the person you are playing improves in their abilities as they become a seasoned veteran.

We do have these types of concepts in ESO with skill morphing and generally improving yourself over time. But we lose out on concepts like moving around in heavy armor better if you wear it more, and my personal favorite of the earlier games is acrobatics and jumping farther the more you jump.

Yes, I could just go back to the single player games for these experiences we are missing (and I do very often!), but sometimes I get lonely and I wanna bring a friend. Usually I just end up coming back to ESO pretty quick because of that.

Thanks for the insightful comments everybody!

SASQUATCH0

I always wanted this! Me and my buddy (we play eso together to this day) would play oblivion and party up. We would go to the same location and try to travel the same paths and quest together. Closest we could get to coop lol