ESO 2020 Skyrim - spell crafting?

Unified_Gaming

Hi all, I've done some research on forums and have complied with lots of information from various sources (links in the description of the video) and wanted to share with people what I've found. It's speculation but based on some information I found so I'm curious what people think the next main feature would be next year. Let me know

https://youtu.be/lMNdTPGsDek

CMDR_Un1k0rn

Well I'm quite convinced that Winterhold will feature given the hints to Blackreach via datamining. Winterhold is the city closest to Alftand, which leads to the Blackreach entrance.

Given that the college is ancient, I suspect that yes, spellcrafting is quite a realistic possibility.

I'd like to put out a radical theory. What if spellcrafting and 1h+rune are combined into two?

Royaji

I'll be really disappointed. But this time around I can actually see Spellcrafting happening.

Why else would they run every single skill through a boring spreadsheet? Sort skills into neat categories. Spammable, AoE, DoT. Same damage, same cost. Boring and pointless. The Era of Wheeler.

You will get your Spellcrafting. Have fun "crafting" the exact same skills, just with different animations and side effects.

"Woohoo. My WoE looks different. It is still mechanically the exact same skill I had before but I've added a pretty pink glitter to the animation. Damn do I love spellcrafting!"

Soundinfinite

I thought Rich stated earlier this year, when people thought the Wrathstone Tablet was a clue to spell crafting and they were announcing "The Year of the Dragon," that the ESO team had no plans to introduce spell crafting in the foreseeable future, and it was not something they were working on. Instead they wanted to focus on refining the classes and skills in the game and create strong identities...not break it apart with spell crafting....I suppose it has ALMOST been, just a bit shy, of a year since he made those statements, and they did introduce a very broken and overall disappointing class in the Necromancer this year, and things might have changed...but I thought that his statements had put the lid on any spell crafting specualtion for at least a while...let alone for it to be reignited only 10 months later with the next chapter release. Even moreso since he also stated that they already had the outline and plans for ESO through 2021 at that time...so it made it seem, at least to me, that if spell crafting does come to ESO, it won't be until after that development timeline... If ever at all.

MattT1988

Royaji wrote: »

I'll be really disappointed. But this time around I can actually see Spellcrafting happening.

Why else would they run every single skill through a boring spreadsheet? Sort skills into neat categories. Spammable, AoE, DoT. Same damage, same cost. Boring and pointless. The Era of Wheeler.

You will get your Spellcrafting. Have fun "crafting" the exact same skills, just with different animations and side effects.

"Woohoo. My WoE looks different. It is still mechanically the exact same skill I had before but I've added a pretty pink glitter to the animation. Damn do I love spellcrafting!"

I’m starting to suspect Winterhold and the hold surrounding the city might end up being the smaller DLC zone that normally drops in the last quarter. Just got a feeling.

Gnortranermara

Royaji wrote: »

Why else would they run every single skill through a boring spreadsheet? Sort skills into neat categories. Spammable, AoE, DoT. Same damage, same cost. Boring and pointless. The Era of Wheeler.

The problem isn't that this was done, it is how poorly it was done. I feel like I've spent the last year watching a roller coaster burn to the ground. A standard cost:power ratio, with modifiers, is a fantastic development for this game that should've been implemented before a single player joined in beta. Problem is, the approach so far is too simplistic and doesn't seem to account for countless relevant variables like AOE size and the relative power of ancillary benefits. There are 20+ year old Gameboy games with greater depth and complexity than "AOE = +60% cost lol". But it's a fumbling baby step in the right direction, I guess.

Aside from the underwhelming formula, several outlying skills remain (like Orbs) that still haven't been "standardized" and grossly outperform others (like Shards).

Royaji wrote: »

You will get your Spellcrafting. Have fun "crafting" the exact same skills, just with different animations and side effects.

Those "side effects" you've casually dismissed actually matter for every single class, all of which have buff/debuff gaps that limit their effectiveness in certain roles. Filling these gaps (if done competently...) could really allow players of any class to effectively play any role at the highest level.

Royaji

SidewalkChalk5 wrote: »

Royaji wrote: »

You will get your Spellcrafting. Have fun "crafting" the exact same skills, just with different animations and side effects.

Those "side effects" you've casually dismissed actually matter for every single class, all of which have buff/debuff gaps that limit their effectiveness in certain roles. Filling these gaps (if done competently...) could really allow players of any class to effectively play any role at the highest level.

Hey, if you think that homogenisation is fun good for you, the team is taking this game the direction you want. But I kinda prefer to have a bit more class identity than my spammable's (which is now like 75% of your rotation) animation and buff/debuff it provides.

If you still want to cling to the idea that any class should do any role it should at least be achieved through different ways. You know, like saptanks of old or NB healers who heal through damage. Not the exact same setup that every class can cobble together thanks to non-class skills.

Diminish

Royaji wrote: »

Hey, if you think that homogenisation is fun good for you, the team is taking this game the direction you want. But I kinda prefer to have a bit more class identity than my spammable's (which is now like 75% of your rotation) animation and buff/debuff it provides.

If you still want to cling to the idea that any class should do any role it should at least be achieved through different ways. You know, like saptanks of old or NB healers who heal through damage. Not the exact same setup that every class can cobble together thanks to non-class skills.

This!

On second thought, I can't wait until every class is the same, every race is the same, every skill is the same, and every character wears the same armor sets. The day I login to ESO and my skill bar simply shows a single skill with the icon of an easy button is the day that I will purchase everything in the crown store. Oh man, I hope ZoS continues to take the game in that direction. I am sure it will continue to do wonders for the game's population.

/s

Faulgor

Soundinfinite wrote: »

I thought Rich stated earlier this year, when people thought the Wrathstone Tablet was a clue to spell crafting and they were announcing "The Year of the Dragon," that the ESO team had no plans to introduce spell crafting in the foreseeable future, and it was not something they were working on. Instead they wanted to focus on refining the classes and skills in the game and create strong identities...not break it apart with spell crafting....I suppose it has ALMOST been, just a bit shy, of a year since he made those statements, and they did introduce a very broken and overall disappointing class in the Necromancer this year, and things might have changed...but I thought that his statements had put the lid on any spell crafting specualtion for at least a while...let alone for it to be reignited only 10 months later with the next chapter release. Even moreso since he also stated that they already had the outline and plans for ESO through 2021 at that time...so it made it seem, at least to me, that if spell crafting does come to ESO, it won't be until after that development timeline... If ever at all.

A year is quite a long time for ZOS to shift around priorities in their development timeline. And there is actual precedent.

6 months before the release of the Warden class with Morrowind, Matt Firor said in a reddit AMA that they have no plans to add classes in the immediate future.

ZOS_MattF: Translating for Wrobel: this is something we are thinking about - as we have since launch - but no plans for the immediate future.
https://reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/546mo4/welcome_to_the_one_tamriel_eso_ama/d7zdnhm/

The best indication that we are actually finally going to see Spellcrafting is that it was mentioned in the Dragonhold DLC.

Nemesis7884

if spell crafting is implemented i highly doubt it will be the way people think it will...even lets say its a simplified version that allows for more morphs of skills - if you would just add one additional morph it would double the amount of skills, double the rebalancing etc... i doubt that this is realistic

I think spell crafting -if- would rather be implemented as a new crafting line of some sorts that works like alchemy for spells? basically allows you to craft scrolls for one time uses...

Cireous

End of the year Spellcrafting hype trickles on... *shivers with a little excitement*

Nice video Unified

Narvuntien

Clearly there will be... Shout Crafting!

Learn the dragon langague rearrange the words to create your own shouts

🤣

Heatnix90

I can assure you that if spellcrafting does happen, it will:

• Be overhyped as hell
• Be brokenly overpowered in order to sell copies of Skyrim
• Be bugged like no one's business
• Become stale after one patch cycle

Jeirno

When people say spell crafting I imagine most think it will be like in Morrowind/Oblivion, something where you can actually create the spell YOU want, make them unique and special. Well guess what that won't happen in ESO it will just be a boring and pointless skill line with a spammable, dot, aoe, buff/debuff skill and a heal skill with some kind of "craft" system, boring.

Vanos444

I would prefer a shout than the generic spell lolfting.

TelvanniWizard

Royaji wrote: »

I'll be really disappointed. But this time around I can actually see Spellcrafting happening.

Why else would they run every single skill through a boring spreadsheet? Sort skills into neat categories. Spammable, AoE, DoT. Same damage, same cost. Boring and pointless. The Era of Wheeler.

You will get your Spellcrafting. Have fun "crafting" the exact same skills, just with different animations and side effects.

"Woohoo. My WoE looks different. It is still mechanically the exact same skill I had before but I've added a pretty pink glitter to the animation. Damn do I love spellcrafting!"

Hey, even if it was only about skill skins and visual effects I would love it!

Seraphayel

Honestly: don't get your hopes up. I'm advocating for Spellcrafting since 2017 and the Elsweyr Chapter had a lot of hints towards it yet it was Necromancer instead.

I really wish for Spellcrafting as it would spice up gameplay a lot but I fear we might not get it - even if it fits perfectly into a Skyrim Chapter with the College of Winterhold.

Seraphayel

Faulgor wrote: »

The best indication that we are actually finally going to see Spellcrafting is that it was mentioned in the Dragonhold DLC.

Spellcrafting was mentioned in Dragonhold? (didn't play it yet)

And another point that was brought up for Spellcrafting: homogenisation. Why would they have done this if there isn't anything coming to spice this up? They streamlined almost everything in Q3 and Q4. Why do this and remove every kind of identity besides visuals when you don't have anything coming in that regard?

mocap

also, there was spell crafting schematics or something for house from data miners:

But it was early 2018, still nothing.

Nemesis7884

Heatnix90 wrote: »

I can assure you that if spellcrafting does happen, it will:

• Be overhyped as hell
• Be brokenly overpowered in order to sell copies of Skyrim
• Be bugged like no one's business
• Become stale after one patch cycle

its almost as if it was a nefarious marketing pattern

Grianasteri

Royaji wrote: »

I'll be really disappointed. But this time around I can actually see Spellcrafting happening.

Why else would they run every single skill through a boring spreadsheet? Sort skills into neat categories. Spammable, AoE, DoT. Same damage, same cost. Boring and pointless. The Era of Wheeler.

You will get your Spellcrafting. Have fun "crafting" the exact same skills, just with different animations and side effects.

"Woohoo. My WoE looks different. It is still mechanically the exact same skill I had before but I've added a pretty pink glitter to the animation. Damn do I love spellcrafting!"

All that sounds amazing actually. Id love to be able to change the colour and animation of some skills.

Royaji

Grianasteri wrote: »

Royaji wrote: »

I'll be really disappointed. But this time around I can actually see Spellcrafting happening.

Why else would they run every single skill through a boring spreadsheet? Sort skills into neat categories. Spammable, AoE, DoT. Same damage, same cost. Boring and pointless. The Era of Wheeler.

You will get your Spellcrafting. Have fun "crafting" the exact same skills, just with different animations and side effects.

"Woohoo. My WoE looks different. It is still mechanically the exact same skill I had before but I've added a pretty pink glitter to the animation. Damn do I love spellcrafting!"

All that sounds amazing actually. Id love to be able to change the colour and animation of some skills.

You know, they could have achieved that through ability skins tab in collections? That grey bear is getting a bit lonely there after all these years.

But hey, some people are easy to please. And I guess for some a terrible feature in a chapter is better than no feature like this year, right?

Faulgor

Seraphayel wrote: »

Faulgor wrote: »

The best indication that we are actually finally going to see Spellcrafting is that it was mentioned in the Dragonhold DLC.

Spellcrafting was mentioned in Dragonhold? (didn't play it yet)

And another point that was brought up for Spellcrafting: homogenisation. Why would they have done this if there isn't anything coming to spice this up? They streamlined almost everything in Q3 and Q4. Why do this and remove every kind of identity besides visuals when you don't have anything coming in that regard?

Who are you? Did you write this letter?
I am Jano Invel, Imperial battlemage and spellcraft instructor. And yes, I wrote that letter.
https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Jano_Invel

It's not much, but we've had smaller hints about future content that turned out to be accurate.

The_Drop_Bear

MattT1988 wrote: »

Royaji wrote: »

I'll be really disappointed. But this time around I can actually see Spellcrafting happening.

Why else would they run every single skill through a boring spreadsheet? Sort skills into neat categories. Spammable, AoE, DoT. Same damage, same cost. Boring and pointless. The Era of Wheeler.

You will get your Spellcrafting. Have fun "crafting" the exact same skills, just with different animations and side effects.

"Woohoo. My WoE looks different. It is still mechanically the exact same skill I had before but I've added a pretty pink glitter to the animation. Damn do I love spellcrafting!"

I’m starting to suspect Winterhold and the hold surrounding the city might end up being the smaller DLC zone that normally drops in the last quarter. Just got a feeling.

Hopefully not as at this time winter hold should be a large city which served as Skyrims capital

silvermistktralasub17_ESO

I know this will be unpopular, but, provided they offer a new class this year, most likely, I'd say it would be an alchemist. There are alchemist npcs in the game already, and it would not be hard to set up one based not unlike the pathfinder alchemist class (around incindiaries....) or like the advanced alchemy skills offered in skyrim with the ordinator mod installed. It would be amazingly versatile, lore-friendly, and easy to implement. I think, indeed, that it might be a nice fresh way of handling things, if they offer that.

Aznarb

No spell craft thx.
Would rather a full rework of all class ability and passive instead.
To much imbalance between class-role.

Sandman929

Since chapters started, it's been a new class (Warden), then a new mechanic and skill line (jewelry craft, Psijic), then a new class (necro). So, if 3 is enough for a pattern, I'd expect a new mechanic/skill line rather than a new class.

Kel

I know spell crafting is a popular wish, and I admit it seems like an intriguing aspect of gameplay.

But in reality, I think if Zos were to implement spell crafting, it would be so op that it would be required (and this would be most likely to boost chapter sells) or it would be something ridiculously grindy like jewelry crafting...need 10 sand to make a rune/need 10 runes to make a scroll...type thing.

Or it could be amazing, who honestly knows.

But this is Zos, so be careful what you wish for.

BNOC

Kel wrote: »

I know spell crafting is a popular wish, and I admit it seems like an intriguing aspect of gameplay.

But in reality, I think if Zos were to implement spell crafting, it would be so op that it would be required (and this would be most likely to boost chapter sells) or it would be something ridiculously grindy like jewelry crafting...need 10 sand to make a rune/need 10 runes to make a scroll...type thing.

Or it could be amazing, who honestly knows.

But this is Zos, so be careful what you wish for.

Let's not gloss over the fact that they already struggle balancing the game without all of this extra stuff.

Sure it's all cool; skill lines, weapon types, this and that, but they need to put all these ideas on the back burner and focus on now, like they already should be.

jazsper77

Ummmm No ! So many players live in this past Oblivion/Morrowind dream land.
This is the ESO team creating this not those same Devs. They cannot balance simple combat in 5+ yrs but you think they’ll be able to launch this successfully.
Please remove rose colored glasses

jaws343

I think if spell crafting is the route they intend to go, it would be better if the skills were elemental focused, with 5 or 6 skills and an ultimate. And the morphs of those skills will be the same for everyone, but the effects in the morphs of those skills will vary by element type. So you could chose flame, shock or frost morphs of the skills to varying effects.

And with how the Necro synergized a number of skills with one another, a spell crafting line could do the same. Where skill 1 and skill 2 interact with eachother and potentially interact differently if you have the flame morph or the shock morph.

I can't see them ever introducing spell crafting like Oblivion, they would need to have very clear cut skills available. But being able to vary elemental morphs of the skills could act as a sort of spell crafting.