Time for a Classic ESO server

phileunderx2

I played for a year pre 1T and no way do I want to revisit it.

Bradyfjord

I liked a lot of what we got at launch. But I would be lying if I said I thought it was better before one tamriel. To me, the best times for the game were during Morrowind and Summerset. I'm sure others have their preferences as well. We are in a low spot at the moment, but I think going forward is the only way.

BOctober25

I just started a brand new character that is a Nord Ward with the Ebonheart Pact. I started my journey in Bleakrock Isles since that area belongs to the Ebonheart Pact. Once completed, I will head over to the other 2 starting areas and then it Morrowind and beyond in order. With the current state of the game, I definitely feel I am progressing much faster than I did from day one of ESO launching. It was a grind back then. I also play on XBOX Series X and I started with a new character in Blackwood and then went backwards to Greymoor. Once High Isle launches, I will leave Greymoor and play that expansion. I love the ability to play as you want to play and the game scales with you. The original launch before Morrowind would have never done tat for you. But, if people want to go to a classic approach before Morrowind, be my guest. I tried WOW Classic and it was too much of a grind for very little reward. But, WOW is just horrible now and has been for a while.

Sylvermynx

BOctober25 wrote: »

I just started a brand new character that is a Nord Ward with the Ebonheart Pact. I started my journey in Bleakrock Isles since that area belongs to the Ebonheart Pact. Once completed, I will head over to the other 2 starting areas and then it Morrowind and beyond in order. With the current state of the game, I definitely feel I am progressing much faster than I did from day one of ESO launching. It was a grind back then. I also play on XBOX Series X and I started with a new character in Blackwood and then went backwards to Greymoor. Once High Isle launches, I will leave Greymoor and play that expansion. I love the ability to play as you want to play and the game scales with you. The original launch before Morrowind would have never done tat for you. But, if people want to go to a classic approach before Morrowind, be my guest. I tried WOW Classic and it was too much of a grind for very little reward. But, WOW is just horrible now and has been for a while.

WoW was ALWAYS too much of a grind.... I started in vanilla (what's now Classic) and because of a good friend I toughed out those 40 levels, and then the next 20 to get to level 60 and flying mounts. By then it was in BC, and I had so many hours in I didn't feel like finding something else. So I stuck it our through MoP. And then I just quit. I played RIFT for a while after that, but once Skyrim released, I went back to SPMR games, until a friend talked me into trying ESO.

What I love about ESO is you just don't have to do grinds. I'm too old for grinds any more!

Folkb

Meh

LalMirchi

Somehow I feel that ship has sailed?

Lephrel

karekiz wrote: »

With all the changes to the game it feels so different. Is it time for releasing a Classic ESO server set to Thieves guild DLC early patch. Best Raid. Best Classes. Classic balance.

This would be amazing! I'd definitely play on that server.

BloodyStigmata

Ah... I remember ESO classic...

It was horrible.

Rkindaleft

I too have fond memories of playing the game the first time. My first v16 toon was a DK tank on my old account. However, you I don't think one can argue that the game isn't in a much better state then it was 6 years ago. Before 1T there was no quality of life, zones were locked to your alliance until you beat the main questline at like Level 50, not to mention zones were levelled to you, so if you skipped quests and went to the next zone a few levels under you got wrecked. Champion ranks weren't across characters like CP is, so each character you had to manually level up from VR1 -> VR16. If I remember correctly everyone would grind at Rkindaleft when Orsinium was released.

Heck, I remember when vMA was first released, at that time you were not even guaranteed to get a vMA weapon drop once you completed the arena, so not only did you have to do tens and tens of runs to get the weapon you want in a good trait, you sometimes didn't even get a weapon at all - changing traits didn't exist, so sets were much more limited because things like AY that are main staples now weren't used because they were only accessable in Healthy, and so on.

Overall, the way the game plays now is much more player friendly and way less repetitive and tedious. I wouldn't say no to ESO classic at the end of the day, but only if the creation of the server won't take away resources from developing the live server.

Arunei

Heh, that "first VR16" character thing reminds me of my main. It was such a grueling thing to grind out those levels, but when they announced they were doing away with VRs and implementing CP, I got motivated to grind out the last several ones my main needed. The only reason was because they were giving out that chunk of CP to max level characters and I didn't want to miss out on it.

Bradyfjord

Arunei wrote: »

Heh, that "first VR16" character thing reminds me of my main. It was such a grueling thing to grind out those levels, but when they announced they were doing away with VRs and implementing CP, I got motivated to grind out the last several ones my main needed. The only reason was because they were giving out that chunk of CP to max level characters and I didn't want to miss out on it.

Yes, that VR grind was real. I think it was supposed to be the same amount of total xp 1-50 as VR1-VR16. I wonder how many xp scrolls they sold during that time?

TumlinTheJolly

Absolutely not. Do not split the playerbase.

kamimark

That'd be great! Gold Coast Update 10 would be a nice stopping point: Wrothgar, TG, DB, IC all exist. CP instead of VR. … Ah, here's the Veteran Rank Removal article

A couple quality of life patches could be done:

1. Patch out the alliance system in overworld. You could already group in dungeons, but overworld was still split IIRC.
2. Remove the clown store (Viva la Dirt League video explaining why). Provide a store where you can buy assistants and such for gold or AP.

If they can backport good content like Summerset into a working game system, even better, but let's not expect too much.

I played on several WoW classic fan servers, and they were amazing retro fun, but often terribly run, full of cheats. ActiBlizz's own WoW Classic is a really great experience, done far more professionally than anyone could have expected, but the company is poison and I don't like giving them money ever again.

People who don't want to play it, can stay in the main servers. Vote with your feet.

ESO's classic period was better than WoW's classic, but we're not at all likely to see it again.

Lysette

Tandor wrote: »

krachall wrote: »

I want a hardmode server like UO had.

One character slot per account.
No transmutes
No reconstruction
No XP bonuses whatsoever (Scrolls, potions, or events)
No hybrid skills/abilities

This would really put the new Armory system to use!

Don't forget permadeath - that would provide the challenge some say they want when doing overland content especially when one-shotting world bosses and soloing harrowstorms etc !

From my experience in games which offer permadeath, this is rarely used by even the most experienced players at all - people might want a challenge but not an all-or-nothing one with permanently loosing all their progress, possession and character. From my time playing the old school MUDs I remember that loosing some progress at death, was challenge enough - death really meant something, and the higher your level was before, the more you lost when dying - but you could continue playing after it - all you lost is time and progress - I liked it a lot, because one plays a lot different with this option in place.

Jaimeh

Taking 5 minutes to kill a wasp in Craglorn, if anyone wants to revisit that, then sure...

M0ntie

I played at release, hated it, and came back around Morrowind and played ever since. Definitely no to pre transmutation.

Arunei

Jaimeh wrote: »

Taking 5 minutes to kill a wasp in Craglorn, if anyone wants to revisit that, then sure...

Not only did it take forever to kill a single wasp, that wasp could easily wreck your entire being if you weren't geared to the teeth and knew what you were doing. And even then a single skill used at the wrong time thanks to an accidental misclick could also get you annihilated.

It was greeeeaaat. /s

kojou

I would be down to have 1.5 level balance with current bug fixes, but there were a lot of bugs that have been resolved that I wouldn't want to relive.

Maybe they could just bring back crit based ult generation and the need for mitigation ultimates? That was fun.

Khami

xclassgaming wrote: »

I want a launch day classic, purely to play it and understand why people hated it.

It was bad and it didn't take the devs long to figure out the players hated it and took months and months to change it to what we have today.

You started in your faction's starting zone and wouldn't see another person not of your faction until you got to Craglorn. Cadwell's Gold and Silver were a huge slog to go through being the vet zones like Craglorn were designed for players to be grouped up. Wasps would roll you quickly if you didn't pay attention.

Ask anyone who played beta about trying to kill Doshia.

Khami

Sylvermynx wrote: »

BOctober25 wrote: »

I just started a brand new character that is a Nord Ward with the Ebonheart Pact. I started my journey in Bleakrock Isles since that area belongs to the Ebonheart Pact. Once completed, I will head over to the other 2 starting areas and then it Morrowind and beyond in order. With the current state of the game, I definitely feel I am progressing much faster than I did from day one of ESO launching. It was a grind back then. I also play on XBOX Series X and I started with a new character in Blackwood and then went backwards to Greymoor. Once High Isle launches, I will leave Greymoor and play that expansion. I love the ability to play as you want to play and the game scales with you. The original launch before Morrowind would have never done tat for you. But, if people want to go to a classic approach before Morrowind, be my guest. I tried WOW Classic and it was too much of a grind for very little reward. But, WOW is just horrible now and has been for a while.

WoW was ALWAYS too much of a grind.... I started in vanilla (what's now Classic) and because of a good friend I toughed out those 40 levels, and then the next 20 to get to level 60 and flying mounts. By then it was in BC, and I had so many hours in I didn't feel like finding something else. So I stuck it our through MoP. And then I just quit. I played RIFT for a while after that, but once Skyrim released, I went back to SPMR games, until a friend talked me into trying ESO.

What I love about ESO is you just don't have to do grinds. I'm too old for grinds any more!

ESO still has grinds, they're more fun to do which doesn't make them feel like grinds. The grind is still there.

Lumenn

Sylvermynx wrote: »

BOctober25 wrote: »

I just started a brand new character that is a Nord Ward with the Ebonheart Pact. I started my journey in Bleakrock Isles since that area belongs to the Ebonheart Pact. Once completed, I will head over to the other 2 starting areas and then it Morrowind and beyond in order. With the current state of the game, I definitely feel I am progressing much faster than I did from day one of ESO launching. It was a grind back then. I also play on XBOX Series X and I started with a new character in Blackwood and then went backwards to Greymoor. Once High Isle launches, I will leave Greymoor and play that expansion. I love the ability to play as you want to play and the game scales with you. The original launch before Morrowind would have never done tat for you. But, if people want to go to a classic approach before Morrowind, be my guest. I tried WOW Classic and it was too much of a grind for very little reward. But, WOW is just horrible now and has been for a while.

WoW was ALWAYS too much of a grind.... I started in vanilla (what's now Classic) and because of a good friend I toughed out those 40 levels, and then the next 20 to get to level 60 and flying mounts. By then it was in BC, and I had so many hours in I didn't feel like finding something else. So I stuck it our through MoP. And then I just quit. I played RIFT for a while after that, but once Skyrim released, I went back to SPMR games, until a friend talked me into trying ESO.

What I love about ESO is you just don't have to do grinds. I'm too old for grinds any more!

I remember when wow started and those of us in EQ used to call it a kiddy or care bear game because it was so casual friendly/easy(compared to original EQ) turned out wow was ahead of the game and was listening to customers like EQ wouldn't for years(and a big reason why the only real game in town got OWNED by a new competitor. That and wow spent more on advertising)It's why I like ESO though. I don't HAVE to organize 75 people for a raid. I don't HAVE to log in every day at 5pm to meet up and make progress. I can log in, play 30 minutes, and still progress SOMETHING in ESO.

LostHorizon1933

Better idea, go really classic: release a version for NES.

Reverb

There are things about early game that I’m nostalgic for, no question. But the biggest part of that is that we were new as players, learning and exploring the game together. The community was big and active, and not yet jaded by years of performance issues and balance whiplash.

And yet, I don’t want to go back to a time before most of the systems, features, and QoL improvements that have been added over the years. In most ways, the game is far better now than it was then.

Unfortunately, they aren’t focusing on the “right” things in my mind. They need less focus on the release schedule for new content for while, to honestly improve performance, combat balance, and power creep, instead of treating those core gameplay elements as a footnote in their development schedule.

Take 6 months or a year off of new content and systems and make the core gameplay a better foundation for future content! But going back to the 2014 build isn’t the answer.

SilverBride

No one would play it, just like before.

Kesstryl

Khami wrote: »

xclassgaming wrote: »

I want a launch day classic, purely to play it and understand why people hated it.

It was bad and it didn't take the devs long to figure out the players hated it and took months and months to change it to what we have today.

You started in your faction's starting zone and wouldn't see another person not of your faction until you got to Craglorn. Cadwell's Gold and Silver were a huge slog to go through being the vet zones like Craglorn were designed for players to be grouped up. Wasps would roll you quickly if you didn't pay attention.

Ask anyone who played beta about trying to kill Doshia.

Oh I will never forget Doshia! I had to out level the zone tier she was at to go back and kill her, and when I did, I never did the Fighters guild main story on another character for a long time.

Sylvermynx

Kesstryl wrote: »

Khami wrote: »

xclassgaming wrote: »

I want a launch day classic, purely to play it and understand why people hated it.

It was bad and it didn't take the devs long to figure out the players hated it and took months and months to change it to what we have today.

You started in your faction's starting zone and wouldn't see another person not of your faction until you got to Craglorn. Cadwell's Gold and Silver were a huge slog to go through being the vet zones like Craglorn were designed for players to be grouped up. Wasps would roll you quickly if you didn't pay attention.

Ask anyone who played beta about trying to kill Doshia.

Oh I will never forget Doshia! I had to out level the zone tier she was at to go back and kill her, and when I did, I never did the Fighters guild main story on another character for a long time.

I have trouble (a LOT of it) with today's iteration of Doshia. No way I'd want to deal with her "birth incarnation"!

moleculardrugs

Isn't classic like No CP Cyrodiil and IC?

Call_of_Red_Mountain

Best days for me in this game was before One Tamriel. No long loads or disconnects. And many players left after Morrowind (Heavy Attack Online).

Danikat

Personally I don't see any appeal in a classic server. I understand why WoW players would want it because apparently large parts of the game were removed or replaced by future updates, but in ESO I can still do everything I could when I started in 2015 (and everything I could have done if I'd started in 2014) and I have a lot more freedom to choose what I do on each character now.

Yes there's been a lot of balance changes and things, but in that sense I think there's pros and cons to every update and I don't think I could point to one where I thought the game was perfect. I know a lot of people will say the solution there is some sort of chimera update cherry picking their favourite version of each class or skill but then you'd definitely never get anyone to agree on what the final version should be, and it wouldn't really be an authentic 'classic' experience either.

I also agree that some of it is purely nostalgia. I have fond memories of when I started ESO and playing very differently to how I do now, but I've made new characters and played through the starter islands since then and I know what's there isn't that different, a lot of what's changed is my perception of it. For example I used to spend hours carefully combing every inch of the island looking for things to discover, picking up every item in case it was useful or special in some way (or at least valuable). But if I started playing a classic ESO server I wouldn't do that because resetting the game wouldn't take away my knowledge that it doesn't work that way and anything which isn't marked with a quest marker isn't going to start a quest, the vast majority of equipment lying around is literally useless junk etc. so I'd be playing much the same as I do now...which I can do without resetting the game.

Lysette wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

krachall wrote: »

I want a hardmode server like UO had.

One character slot per account.
No transmutes
No reconstruction
No XP bonuses whatsoever (Scrolls, potions, or events)
No hybrid skills/abilities

This would really put the new Armory system to use!

Don't forget permadeath - that would provide the challenge some say they want when doing overland content especially when one-shotting world bosses and soloing harrowstorms etc !

From my experience in games which offer permadeath, this is rarely used by even the most experienced players at all - people might want a challenge but not an all-or-nothing one with permanently loosing all their progress, possession and character. From my time playing the old school MUDs I remember that loosing some progress at death, was challenge enough - death really meant something, and the higher your level was before, the more you lost when dying - but you could continue playing after it - all you lost is time and progress - I liked it a lot, because one plays a lot different with this option in place.

That's similar to my experience too. I've played permadeath characters, both official versions and DIY ones (where you delete the character if they die) and I always find that it's something I do for short periods, then the novelty wears off and I go back to playing other characters instead.

Also other than no event XP boosts all of this could be done in ESO today if anyone wants it. Just create a new character and don't allow them to use the bank or otherwise receive items, gold etc. from your other characters. Likewise you can set whatever limitations you want on skills (I currently have a character who is only allowed to use weapon skills). Of course it relies on the player choosing to follow the rules, but if you're constantly wanting to break them I'd say that's a sign that the challenge isn't actually as fun for you as you expected and what you should do is change it to set rules you do want to follow.

Lysette

Khami wrote: »

Sylvermynx wrote: »

BOctober25 wrote: »

I just started a brand new character that is a Nord Ward with the Ebonheart Pact. I started my journey in Bleakrock Isles since that area belongs to the Ebonheart Pact. Once completed, I will head over to the other 2 starting areas and then it Morrowind and beyond in order. With the current state of the game, I definitely feel I am progressing much faster than I did from day one of ESO launching. It was a grind back then. I also play on XBOX Series X and I started with a new character in Blackwood and then went backwards to Greymoor. Once High Isle launches, I will leave Greymoor and play that expansion. I love the ability to play as you want to play and the game scales with you. The original launch before Morrowind would have never done tat for you. But, if people want to go to a classic approach before Morrowind, be my guest. I tried WOW Classic and it was too much of a grind for very little reward. But, WOW is just horrible now and has been for a while.

WoW was ALWAYS too much of a grind.... I started in vanilla (what's now Classic) and because of a good friend I toughed out those 40 levels, and then the next 20 to get to level 60 and flying mounts. By then it was in BC, and I had so many hours in I didn't feel like finding something else. So I stuck it our through MoP. And then I just quit. I played RIFT for a while after that, but once Skyrim released, I went back to SPMR games, until a friend talked me into trying ESO.

What I love about ESO is you just don't have to do grinds. I'm too old for grinds any more!

ESO still has grinds, they're more fun to do which doesn't make them feel like grinds. The grind is still there.

Hm, I guess I have the same experience like Sylvermynx - the only grind I could think of was jewelry crafting, but this is gone since we can do multiple rings/amulets in a single click - so now it is just buying enough material, craft like 120 of them at a time, decon 120, craft 120, decon 120 - but it doesn't take long anymore. So where is the game actually grindy? If I just play along and do my daily stuff, it all comes pretty natural without having to grind - this is at least my experience with it.