ESO vs Stand alone games (skyrim, morrowind,...)

winterscrolls229prerb18_ESO

Well eso is exactly what it says on the tin.. the "mmo" version elder scrolls. It has both mmo and elder scrolls.

Especially given that a lore hungry new player is going to be playing for many many months, you can't say its not elder scrolls. The quality from the front of the timeline at least is well above average even compared to the single player industry.

... im only up to malabal tor (including side trips to thieves guild and mirkmire) and loving the questing. Definitely elder scrolls.

BlueRaven

winterscrolls229prerb18_ESO wrote: »

Well eso is exactly what it says on the tin.. the "mmo" version elder scrolls. It has both mmo and elder scrolls.

Especially given that a lore hungry new player is going to be playing for many many months, you can't say its not elder scrolls. The quality from the front of the timeline at least is well above average even compared to the single player industry.

... im only up to malabal tor (including side trips to thieves guild and mirkmire) and loving the questing. Definitely elder scrolls.

The game is mostly lore friendly. But while the lore “breaks” in a few key areas, the good thing about the game is that it lets me see areas that may never be rendered in the stand alone games.

That being said, the lore, the immersion, the replay-ability, and pure “escapism” of the stand alone game’s cannot be beat.

emilyhyoyeon

I've always loved TES because I love the TES world, not because I like RPGs or sandbox games or anything else like that. By that I mean, I don't think I'm as bothered by ESO's lack of depth or focus on one or a few things. I feel like I'm one of the few TES specific fans who likes the ESO almost equally as I do the single player games. I do prefer roleplaying in the single player games more for reasons other people have already covered but the MMO is still really nice for rp.

Also I'd argue that ESO has incredible character customization compared to the single player games, even including mods, and character customization is super important to me. I've always mostly played khajiit and argonians, both of which have historically had the least flexible customization, so coming to ESO was mind blowing. Finally being able to very accurately portray my character I think has made me a bit biased.

MerguezMan

What differs from ESO to other TES games ?

1) Pacing.
In solo TES games, you can pause the game, go into your inventory, change equipped things, use potions, etc.
In ESO, if you go AFK in the middle of a fight, you will probably die.

2) Choices matter.
In solo TES games, you have some kind of reputation system that foolows you. Some NPC may be friendly or hostile because of that, some sidequests may open or be locked out forever because of that.
In ESO, even the NPC you chose to sacrifice to save the world can come back.

3) Scaling.
In solo TES games, you can be overlevelled, and you may craft your spells way, way above the basic effects. There is no class system, so you can tweak your character to your exact style, which makes each character build possibly unique.
In ESO, every PVE enemy is always scaled to your level. And you have access to the same skills as other players of your class.

4) Size and depth.
ESO might have a bigger map than other TES games, but the time it takes to see everything in solo TES games is about several hundreds of hours, at least. And you may start another playthrough just to see the outcomes of different choices, while ESO choices won't change the shape of the world (this NPC may survive or not, it won't have big consequences later on)...

Syldras

Taloros wrote: »

I'm a Wood Elf - why am I doing in an area exclusively populated by Dark Elves?

Probably because the best miners are small and there are no children in the game, so we have to capture adult Bosmer to do that work for us instead

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

Roleplaying stories and characters are what you make them.

I agree, it's always what you make of it. Although I think, in the single player TES games, it was a bit easier to immerse. The world seemed more detailed and lively. You could interact with objects more. Everything was more in-depth. My favorite was TES3 Morrowind. And I still think it's the best TES game so far.

That said, I had always wished there was a co-op mode for the "normal" TES games. I know there have been mods for this, but they didn't really function well. So when ESO was announced, it was a small comfort, I'd say. But, as I'm personally not so interested in the typical MMO mechanics, I'd still like a normal TES with a co-op mode (and the typical single player TES atmosphere) better.

BlueRaven

This lore video does a really good showing just how much depth the single players have. It's not comparing ESO vs Skyrim, it's just an examination of Windhelm in Skyrim. The amount of work to make the city feel "real" in Skyrim is astonishing.

https://youtu.be/AvVOozUJV-k

ESO just does not have this kind of depth.

Merlin13KAGL

Minor necro here, sadly late to the game (thread):

The short version: The standalone's, specifically Morrowind, was built on love of the game, vs the current iteration, which clearly leans more heavily towards love of $. I get it, have to pay the bills, and I'm hopeful the Devlopers that put their heart and soul into the game find their way through to the other side of the latest all-in cash grab, even if it means a different studio.

Full unadulterated bias here, and viewed in the context of the time-available tech, here are but a handful of things that separated out what was likely the greatest game they'll ever hope to make.

• Fog of War : Before the in box map provided by GOTY, you literally started with a dot on the map and an outline of a big ol' island, and that's it. If a Ranger didn't mark it for you, a questgiver didn't note it, you didn't read it in a book, or you didn't find it, it may have well not even existed.
• Character progression: You started out weak, easy-death-by-a-mudcrab weak, but you gained power as you progressed. You didn't get to grab the latest set of OP items from DLC (broken armor provided from your first nap after installing Tribunal, notwithstanding), and get some massive boost that would faceroll you through any content.
• No Classes: Well, no class limits, at least. You had Major and Minor skills, and that's what your character grew on.
• Expanded attributes and skills. Far more than just Health, Stam, Magicka.
• Races that mattered, Birth signs (Mundus), even bonuses/negatives based on the sex of your character. (Females were faster and more aloof, males tended to be stronger but slower). (These were minor things, as you could still compensate for them either way, but they still made a difference, as they should.)
• Choices: Personal interaction, guilds, etc had an actual effect that was beyond just cosmetic (ESO). They could shape, and in some cases wreck your progression. Fame and infamy had purpose beyond a passing NPC's one-liner.
• "Groups" Bandits sided with other bandits, monsters with monsters. You didn't find a deer lingering near a neighborly troll near the local neutral NPC.
• The Construction Set. Didn't like the content? Create your own, well beyond pathing an NPC and placing a few items in a house.
• Quest rewards that actually meant something.
• No Invisible Walls: You. Could. Go. Anywhere. ...and there were rewards to be found. No limits to any area if you could find a way to access it.
• No Leveled Zones. Danger was everywhere, and it was not always neatly confined with artificial borders. If you stepped where you shouldn't, expect the appropriate outcome.
• No Limits. Again, you could go anywhere if you could get through the door. This included places far too dangerous for your current level and skill set, prompting you to temp fate and potentially reap the rewards, if you survived.
• It was a game of choice, exploration, and consequence. You could be anything you hoped to be if you wanted to be imaginative enough to find a way. It was one of the few games that would begin one way and transform you along the path. It was a game that literally unfolded before you, the more you pushed onward.

While Oblivion had some other nice additions:

• Actual physics on the weapons. (You weren't going to hit someone with your dagger-in-hand from 7m away.)
• Physics based traps that could be used on the enemy, as well as against you.
• Better stealth mechanics.
• Dark Brotherhood.
• Gates, of course. Some of the finest easter eggs rest on the other side of the barriers, covered in lava and off in the distance.
• Enemies that wouldn't stop chasing, simply because you went through a door.

I guess it felt like you earned everything in III. Everything was set out against you, nothing was guaranteed. But, there was nothing you couldn't overcome if you stayed with it long enough, and the discovery was often reward enough.

ESO is a good game, don't get me wrong, but as has been previously mentioned, there cannot be, and never will be, anything remotely resembling a comparison.

E-Zekiel

Mods. Mods is the main reason.

Ruling out mods, there is very little Skyrim does better than ESO.

Random encounters are the only thing I can think of off the top of my head.

I might say the "overworld" feels larger in general in Skyrim, so that's another thing. Mind you, I'm not talking about total game space. Obviously ESO's world is hugely massive and bigger than the previous games, but I mean in terms of feeling big.

MMO's have a common problem of being too quick to "eliminate" space that doesn't have something useful in it, which takes away from the immersive feel and makes the world feel smaller.

You can also pick up and move things in Skyrim, which I'd love to do in ESO but I can understand why it's not feasible.

Oh....

FINISHING MOVES! FINISHING MOVES! FINISHING MOVES! FINISHING MOVES! FINISHING MOVES! BRING THEM TO ESO DAMMIT!

You can make them same the same hook system as Blade of Woe or the vamp drain, but base them off of "execution" attacks, and just like Blade of Woe, have an option to opt out of them entirely if the animation lock is inconvenient for you.

colossalvoids

Completely different games just under the same franchise. At least we have an option not to play hella-modded skyrim for years to come and have fresh content from time to time. And at least some competitiveness is very welcomed for a change which isn't a thing in sp titles where you're almighty god himself.

linuxlady

would happily pick es6 over eso just as soon as it's finished

josiahva

Taloros wrote: »

ESO, as deemed necessary for MMOs nowadays, tries to balance and streamline its gameplay. Characters cannot really have an identity, because everybody plays in the same world. With a little creativity, that could be changed, of course, but there's no effort put into that. Single player games care less about balance and accesability, which allows, in my experience, for a more unique story.

I'll try to illustrate that with two very similar characters I played in ESO and Skyrim:
- I made a Dark Elf mage in ESO. She went through the same tutorial as half a dozen other characters before her. She got the necessary equipment needed for the fights. After the first few levels, she killed a lot of NPCs, until she hit max level. From there on, she occasionally visits the Imperial City or a random raid/dungeon. The character looks nice, is fun to play and so on. But there's no story, no individuality attached to it.
- Compare this to my Dark Elf mage's story in Skyrim: I used Live another Life to start at a shipwreck. She started with just a dagger, stuck in some horrible icy landscape, hunted by wild animals she had no chance to kill.
Finally, she managed to reach the nearest city - Windhelm, where she arrived penniless like all the other dark elf refugees there. Without money, gear or skills, all she could do was solve the murder quest available there, which was fun to do in the role of basically a beggar and actually made a lot of sense, as you use street contacts and observation to solve it. After a meager reward, she realized that the city had little to offer for the dispossessed like her.
Angry at the city's merciless citizens, she went out into the wild, willing to do what was needed to get out of her desperate situation.
In the hills around the city, she discovered a semi-hidden crypt, just out of sight of the next locals. What treasures it might hold? Weapons? Money? A chance to get the gear to become a mercenary? Armed with but a rusted axe, she went inside.
Draugr and skeletons guarded the place. The first few encounters were deadly, but she survived, and finally found the main chamber, which was filled with treasure. Unfortunately, it was guarded by a Draugr boss that was way, way outside her league. So, she just grabbed whatever she could and barely escaped the crypt.
Back in the wilderness, she found a seemingly abandoned homestead, which seemed perfect to rest and look through the treasure stolen from the crypt. There, she was ambushed by bandits, which she could barely stand her ground against with the weapons stolen from the crypt.
And then... turning around, she stared right into the face of the Draugr boss who had followed her outside. The undead pounded the remaining bandits into the ground like ants, giving her a crucial moment to escape. A wild chase began, with her fleeing back to Windhelm. The skeleton boss followed her, just stopping to kill all living things found on the way - peasants, goats, chickens, everything.
The city guards challenged the crypt boss, but were just slaughtered by that thing. Grabbing a guard's bows and arrows, the dark elf had an epic chase/fight with the crypt boss on the battlements of Windhelm, until she finally managed to defeat it.
With the loot and experience from that fight, she managed to get the gear necessary to dare a search for the fabled academy of wizards even more up north. Finally, she followed her dream, became an acclaimed wizard and and clawed her way up the social ladder.

Now, what do you think: Which character will I remember until my hair grows gray(er), and which will be lost to time?

Edit: Removed some typos.

Umm, you do know that the only difference here is that you assigned a completely roleplay backstory to one and not the other right? There is literally nothing you did in the Skyrim version that you couldn't have done in the ESO version(well, aside from the starting city of Windhelm and whatever its starter quests were)

etchedpixels

To me

Skyrim has a far better combat model for stealth, for knocking people off cliffs and for line of sight
Skyrim has a much better map/exploration model (for my tastes)
Skyrim has sleeping/night done but that doesn't work well for an MMO
Skyrim horses behave like real ones, ESO ones don't. ESO IMHO is far more playable for that!
Skyrim doesn't lag
Skyrim has saves and a much easier ability to explore different story paths
Skyrim still has much better dwarven ruins/cities.

ESO has a much better non controller interface
ESO has a lot more content, although many areas of the story are (to me at least) not as strong as Skyrim.
ESO has vastly more end game experience. You finish Skryim, save the world, do a few mods, move on
ESO has a much better housing model
ESO simplified a lot of the annoyances (loads of different soul gems, can't sell stuff to the wrong shopkeeper, shopkeepers keep running out of money) so the game flows better
ESO has no mammoths falling from the sky

and of course ESO has all the group things that just don't exist in the Skyrim game.

Both are far too buggy ;-)

I came here originally to play ESO as a Skryim alternative - and you can do that. You buy materials from guild stores not the blacksmith etc but otherwise it's not that dissimilar. If I live long enough to see es6 I'll probably be playing that as well, but there is enough other stuff in ESO to keep me there.

storm105

BlueRaven wrote: »

This lore video does a really good showing just how much depth the single players have. It's not comparing ESO vs Skyrim, it's just an examination of Windhelm in Skyrim. The amount of work to make the city feel "real" in Skyrim is astonishing.

https://youtu.be/AvVOozUJV-k

ESO just does not have this kind of depth.

Eh I really disagree. If anything I always felt like eso's cities feel way more lived in and lively than Skyrim's cities. I also don't think I'd really call. I also wouldn't really ay Windhelm in skyrim has a lot of depth either.

Phaedryn

I have tried to play Skyrim, have had it in my steam library for ever, but every time I start it I end up quitting after a half hour or so.

The movement is...well, "clunky" would be the charitable description. The UI is horrible to the point I feel like I am fighting the UI more than doing anything else in the game. The combat is just bad.

Basically, I never even get into the story because of the other aspects of the game that are just a chore to deal with.

storm105

etchedpixels wrote: »

To me

Skyrim has a far better combat model for stealth, for knocking people off cliffs and for line of sight
Skyrim has a much better map/exploration model (for my tastes)
Skyrim has sleeping/night done but that doesn't work well for an MMO
Skyrim horses behave like real ones, ESO ones don't. ESO IMHO is far more playable for that!
Skyrim doesn't lag
Skyrim has saves and a much easier ability to explore different story paths
Skyrim still has much better dwarven ruins/cities.

ESO has a much better non controller interface
ESO has a lot more content, although many areas of the story are (to me at least) not as strong as Skyrim.
ESO has vastly more end game experience. You finish Skryim, save the world, do a few mods, move on
ESO has a much better housing model
ESO simplified a lot of the annoyances (loads of different soul gems, can't sell stuff to the wrong shopkeeper, shopkeepers keep running out of money) so the game flows better
ESO has no mammoths falling from the sky

and of course ESO has all the group things that just don't exist in the Skyrim game.

Both are far too buggy ;-)

I came here originally to play ESO as a Skryim alternative - and you can do that. You buy materials from guild stores not the blacksmith etc but otherwise it's not that dissimilar. If I live long enough to see es6 I'll probably be playing that as well, but there is enough other stuff in ESO to keep me there.

Skyrim's horse don't behave like real horses either. It's a meme about how horses in skyrim defy the laws of Physics. Neither horses are realistic, but eso's horses are way less goofy.



Honestly I feel like eso does a pretty good job of keeping the elder scrolls feel despite being an mmo. Just walking around in first person feels a lot like a regular elder scrolls game. Eso also has lots of great world building and a lot of well written quest with plenty of content, but will always lack a lot of the freedom that comes with the single player games. Eso's early delves were also pretty boring compared to skyrim's dungeons, but have gotten a lot better in quality in the dlc areas.

GrimTheReaper45

I dont think there a replacement for eachother. Both have alot the other lacks and Both lack alot the other has.

Eso you can play with friends but with there being group only content it can be frustrating. Ive been trying to run nka for a week and havent found a group yet.

Eso covers a wider range of interest but doesnt give you as much, I really liked summerset and cwc, wanted more of that experience. Tes6 on the otherhand at least from the rumors might have alot of content for one area but Im not really interested in tes6 becasuse I dont really care about hammerfell. Skyrim I played for 2000+ hrs because i really liked nords in that game.

Standalone games are one continuous story. Eso has stories that can tie together but sometimes dont

storm105

GrimTheReaper45 wrote: »

I dont think there a replacement for eachother. Both have alot the other lacks and Both lack alot the other has.

Eso you can play with friends but with there being group only content it can be frustrating. Ive been trying to run nka for a week and havent found a group yet.

Eso covers a wider range of interest but doesnt give you as much, I really liked summerset and cwc, wanted more of that experience. Tes6 on the otherhand at least from the rumors might have alot of content for one area but Im not really interested in tes6 becasuse I dont really care about hammerfell. Skyrim I played for 2000+ hrs because i really liked nords in that game.

Standalone games are one continuous story. Eso has stories that can tie together but sometimes dont

I mean Redguards are basically just black Nords, so you'd probably like Hammerfell if you really liked Nords

Snow_White

The thing I’ll comment on is a sense of space. ESO might have more content, but it feels smaller.

When I first played TESIII I didn’t know what a stilt strider did and I walked to the next town. I think it took me 30 minutes to get there. I also remember that the first cave I came to was a high level vampire layer, and I got destroyed. That experience added a sense of danger to the remainder of the game.

Similar story for TESV. The first time you walk from Whiterun to Dragons Reach, (having to use road signs for navigation) is pretty epic... as was being destroyed by the frost troll half way up the mountain until I finally stealth sniped and kited him for 10 minutes with my crappy bow.

Playing through this Skyrim expansion, it feels like they’ve tried to reference the basic layout of Skyrim while squeezing everything into a space about 1/10th the size. Graphically a huge improvement, but tiny.

Same goes for Blackreach. In TESV it’s this massive, desolate place that feels alien to explore. In ESO it’s a cave with glowing mushrooms and people everywhere.

zaria

storm105 wrote: »

etchedpixels wrote: »

To me

Skyrim has a far better combat model for stealth, for knocking people off cliffs and for line of sight
Skyrim has a much better map/exploration model (for my tastes)
Skyrim has sleeping/night done but that doesn't work well for an MMO
Skyrim horses behave like real ones, ESO ones don't. ESO IMHO is far more playable for that!
Skyrim doesn't lag
Skyrim has saves and a much easier ability to explore different story paths
Skyrim still has much better dwarven ruins/cities.

ESO has a much better non controller interface
ESO has a lot more content, although many areas of the story are (to me at least) not as strong as Skyrim.
ESO has vastly more end game experience. You finish Skryim, save the world, do a few mods, move on
ESO has a much better housing model
ESO simplified a lot of the annoyances (loads of different soul gems, can't sell stuff to the wrong shopkeeper, shopkeepers keep running out of money) so the game flows better
ESO has no mammoths falling from the sky

and of course ESO has all the group things that just don't exist in the Skyrim game.

Both are far too buggy ;-)

I came here originally to play ESO as a Skryim alternative - and you can do that. You buy materials from guild stores not the blacksmith etc but otherwise it's not that dissimilar. If I live long enough to see es6 I'll probably be playing that as well, but there is enough other stuff in ESO to keep me there.

Skyrim's horse don't behave like real horses either. It's a meme about how horses in skyrim defy the laws of Physics. Neither horses are realistic, but eso's horses are way less goofy.



Honestly I feel like eso does a pretty good job of keeping the elder scrolls feel despite being an mmo. Just walking around in first person feels a lot like a regular elder scrolls game. Eso also has lots of great world building and a lot of well written quest with plenty of content, but will always lack a lot of the freedom that comes with the single player games. Eso's early delves were also pretty boring compared to skyrim's dungeons, but have gotten a lot better in quality in the dlc areas.

Agree here, now one thing I think ESO is low on is immersion, Skyrim even Oblivion feel much more immerse.
This was true even then I first tried it.

But ESO absolutely has the TES feeling. Felt that just from the start too during beta.

xclassgaming

phwaap wrote: »

ESO is one-dimensional in comparison.

funny joke.

Nightowl_74

I play Skyrim when I want full control and more immersion. A draugr infested ruin feels lonely and a little bit creepy, or if I kill an npc they're gone for good. Quite a few of them will permanently like or dislike my character based on my choices, too. ESO delves are fine for what they are but having the same mobs endlessly respawn every few seconds or another player run by and destroy every enemy in the room does nothing for atmosphere. The same for npc's immediately rising up from their bodies.

On the other hand, although ESO can still get stale it has routine additions and seasonal events. With other people around there's always a possibility of something different or surprising, and the zones have a much broader range of landscapes. It's nice to visit a desert, jungle, or swamp type area sometimes.

danno8

josiahva wrote: »

Taloros wrote: »

ESO, as deemed necessary for MMOs nowadays, tries to balance and streamline its gameplay. Characters cannot really have an identity, because everybody plays in the same world. With a little creativity, that could be changed, of course, but there's no effort put into that. Single player games care less about balance and accesability, which allows, in my experience, for a more unique story.

I'll try to illustrate that with two very similar characters I played in ESO and Skyrim:
- I made a Dark Elf mage in ESO. She went through the same tutorial as half a dozen other characters before her. She got the necessary equipment needed for the fights. After the first few levels, she killed a lot of NPCs, until she hit max level. From there on, she occasionally visits the Imperial City or a random raid/dungeon. The character looks nice, is fun to play and so on. But there's no story, no individuality attached to it.
- Compare this to my Dark Elf mage's story in Skyrim: I used Live another Life to start at a shipwreck. She started with just a dagger, stuck in some horrible icy landscape, hunted by wild animals she had no chance to kill.
Finally, she managed to reach the nearest city - Windhelm, where she arrived penniless like all the other dark elf refugees there. Without money, gear or skills, all she could do was solve the murder quest available there, which was fun to do in the role of basically a beggar and actually made a lot of sense, as you use street contacts and observation to solve it. After a meager reward, she realized that the city had little to offer for the dispossessed like her.
Angry at the city's merciless citizens, she went out into the wild, willing to do what was needed to get out of her desperate situation.
In the hills around the city, she discovered a semi-hidden crypt, just out of sight of the next locals. What treasures it might hold? Weapons? Money? A chance to get the gear to become a mercenary? Armed with but a rusted axe, she went inside.
Draugr and skeletons guarded the place. The first few encounters were deadly, but she survived, and finally found the main chamber, which was filled with treasure. Unfortunately, it was guarded by a Draugr boss that was way, way outside her league. So, she just grabbed whatever she could and barely escaped the crypt.
Back in the wilderness, she found a seemingly abandoned homestead, which seemed perfect to rest and look through the treasure stolen from the crypt. There, she was ambushed by bandits, which she could barely stand her ground against with the weapons stolen from the crypt.
And then... turning around, she stared right into the face of the Draugr boss who had followed her outside. The undead pounded the remaining bandits into the ground like ants, giving her a crucial moment to escape. A wild chase began, with her fleeing back to Windhelm. The skeleton boss followed her, just stopping to kill all living things found on the way - peasants, goats, chickens, everything.
The city guards challenged the crypt boss, but were just slaughtered by that thing. Grabbing a guard's bows and arrows, the dark elf had an epic chase/fight with the crypt boss on the battlements of Windhelm, until she finally managed to defeat it.
With the loot and experience from that fight, she managed to get the gear necessary to dare a search for the fabled academy of wizards even more up north. Finally, she followed her dream, became an acclaimed wizard and and clawed her way up the social ladder.

Now, what do you think: Which character will I remember until my hair grows gray(er), and which will be lost to time?

Edit: Removed some typos.

Umm, you do know that the only difference here is that you assigned a completely roleplay backstory to one and not the other right? There is literally nothing you did in the Skyrim version that you couldn't have done in the ESO version(well, aside from the starting city of Windhelm and whatever its starter quests were)

I disagree with you.

There is virtually no frightening challenge in ESO that you can wander into accidentally and become overwhelmed. Either it it faceroll overland content (including public dungeons), or you will need a group.

Also it is virtually impossible to be greatly rewarded by overcoming a difficult challenge in ESO. One Tamriel made this a certainty. Loot is your level, and appropriately powerful. (Overland content and overland dungeons, as the OP was referring to those.)

There is no danger.

craybest

IMO since weather is already client based, we could have the same for time of the day, and have it tied to several things, quests, npcs, items, monsters, and give us the abolity to rest or sleep until the time we want, since it dosn't really affect others.
also, to me one of ESO's issues with designs show in cities, where roads are too wide compared to most single games. i understand it's to have more space if there's more people but to be honest, even when it's most packed it's not enough to make cities too full of players.
what they could use to make it feel less empty is to add actual carriages and caravans travelling in the streets, of a city and roads between cities, even could make some small events with it too.
also, since we have already so many tutorials available, why not have them us to choose where we want to start? the live another story MOD is one of the most popular mods for skyrim, we could have the same in here so people can choose their backstory better.

Banana

I liked Skyrim performance

mb10

The magic of the single player games is not captured in ESO at all.

Its an MMO though so its unfair i suppose but theres no consequence to your actions on ESO, theres a huge power ceiling and the NPCs are nothing like the dark, untrustworthy, ambigious characters you see in the other TES games.

Just take Delvin Mallory from Skyrim, such a unique, cool and intersting character but is taken seriously.
There isnt any like him in ESO let alone the many other characters we meet in the other tes games.

Vhozek

Mainline TES games: Feel alive
ESO: Feels plastic and soulless

barney2525

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storm105

danno8 wrote: »

josiahva wrote: »

Taloros wrote: »

ESO, as deemed necessary for MMOs nowadays, tries to balance and streamline its gameplay. Characters cannot really have an identity, because everybody plays in the same world. With a little creativity, that could be changed, of course, but there's no effort put into that. Single player games care less about balance and accesability, which allows, in my experience, for a more unique story.

I'll try to illustrate that with two very similar characters I played in ESO and Skyrim:
- I made a Dark Elf mage in ESO. She went through the same tutorial as half a dozen other characters before her. She got the necessary equipment needed for the fights. After the first few levels, she killed a lot of NPCs, until she hit max level. From there on, she occasionally visits the Imperial City or a random raid/dungeon. The character looks nice, is fun to play and so on. But there's no story, no individuality attached to it.
- Compare this to my Dark Elf mage's story in Skyrim: I used Live another Life to start at a shipwreck. She started with just a dagger, stuck in some horrible icy landscape, hunted by wild animals she had no chance to kill.
Finally, she managed to reach the nearest city - Windhelm, where she arrived penniless like all the other dark elf refugees there. Without money, gear or skills, all she could do was solve the murder quest available there, which was fun to do in the role of basically a beggar and actually made a lot of sense, as you use street contacts and observation to solve it. After a meager reward, she realized that the city had little to offer for the dispossessed like her.
Angry at the city's merciless citizens, she went out into the wild, willing to do what was needed to get out of her desperate situation.
In the hills around the city, she discovered a semi-hidden crypt, just out of sight of the next locals. What treasures it might hold? Weapons? Money? A chance to get the gear to become a mercenary? Armed with but a rusted axe, she went inside.
Draugr and skeletons guarded the place. The first few encounters were deadly, but she survived, and finally found the main chamber, which was filled with treasure. Unfortunately, it was guarded by a Draugr boss that was way, way outside her league. So, she just grabbed whatever she could and barely escaped the crypt.
Back in the wilderness, she found a seemingly abandoned homestead, which seemed perfect to rest and look through the treasure stolen from the crypt. There, she was ambushed by bandits, which she could barely stand her ground against with the weapons stolen from the crypt.
And then... turning around, she stared right into the face of the Draugr boss who had followed her outside. The undead pounded the remaining bandits into the ground like ants, giving her a crucial moment to escape. A wild chase began, with her fleeing back to Windhelm. The skeleton boss followed her, just stopping to kill all living things found on the way - peasants, goats, chickens, everything.
The city guards challenged the crypt boss, but were just slaughtered by that thing. Grabbing a guard's bows and arrows, the dark elf had an epic chase/fight with the crypt boss on the battlements of Windhelm, until she finally managed to defeat it.
With the loot and experience from that fight, she managed to get the gear necessary to dare a search for the fabled academy of wizards even more up north. Finally, she followed her dream, became an acclaimed wizard and and clawed her way up the social ladder.

Now, what do you think: Which character will I remember until my hair grows gray(er), and which will be lost to time?

Edit: Removed some typos.

Umm, you do know that the only difference here is that you assigned a completely roleplay backstory to one and not the other right? There is literally nothing you did in the Skyrim version that you couldn't have done in the ESO version(well, aside from the starting city of Windhelm and whatever its starter quests were)

I disagree with you.

There is virtually no frightening challenge in ESO that you can wander into accidentally and become overwhelmed. Either it it faceroll overland content (including public dungeons), or you will need a group.

Also it is virtually impossible to be greatly rewarded by overcoming a difficult challenge in ESO. One Tamriel made this a certainty. Loot is your level, and appropriately powerful. (Overland content and overland dungeons, as the OP was referring to those.)

There is no danger.

Whether you feel one game is easier or not doesn't really have much impact the roleplay backstory of your character though or any roleplay aspects. And If I'm being honest Skyrim was never challenging. The only difference between a low level enimes and higher level ones is that they had more health. But that' it they were just slightly tougher versions of regular mobs without any real mechanics to make the fights interesting. Oh my health is low? Let me just look in by bag and eat 50 cheese wheels.

GrimTheReaper45

storm105 wrote: »

GrimTheReaper45 wrote: »

I dont think there a replacement for eachother. Both have alot the other lacks and Both lack alot the other has.

Eso you can play with friends but with there being group only content it can be frustrating. Ive been trying to run nka for a week and havent found a group yet.

Eso covers a wider range of interest but doesnt give you as much, I really liked summerset and cwc, wanted more of that experience. Tes6 on the otherhand at least from the rumors might have alot of content for one area but Im not really interested in tes6 becasuse I dont really care about hammerfell. Skyrim I played for 2000+ hrs because i really liked nords in that game.

Standalone games are one continuous story. Eso has stories that can tie together but sometimes dont

I mean Redguards are basically just black Nords, so you'd probably like Hammerfell if you really liked Nords

I mean I liked more of the viking aspect. Hammerfell gives off more of a prince of persia vibe. But Idk it is still super early with no gameplay released. Maybe Ill be surprised.

GrimTheReaper45

craybest wrote: »

IMO since weather is already client based, we could have the same for time of the day, and have it tied to several things, quests, npcs, items, monsters, and give us the abolity to rest or sleep until the time we want, since it dosn't really affect others.
also, to me one of ESO's issues with designs show in cities, where roads are too wide compared to most single games. i understand it's to have more space if there's more people but to be honest, even when it's most packed it's not enough to make cities too full of players.
what they could use to make it feel less empty is to add actual carriages and caravans travelling in the streets, of a city and roads between cities, even could make some small events with it too.
also, since we have already so many tutorials available, why not have them us to choose where we want to start? the live another story MOD is one of the most popular mods for skyrim, we could have the same in here so people can choose their backstory better.

Ya that is one thing. I really miss day/night cycles for npc