2023 New Feature Speculation

edward_frigidhands

kinguardian wrote: »

Paulytnz wrote: »

SerafinaWaterstar wrote: »

What is the obsession people have with spellcrafting? Cannot fathom how it would work in an mmo - would not everyone end up using the same few spells, like they do with armour sets now.

And if no content dlc in Q4, they had better up the rewards for ESO+.

Watch the below vid (it only lasts about 5 mins and starts exactly at the Spellcrafting part). This will show you why there has been hype about Spellcrafting for years. And that hype came from ZOS themselves.

I have only been playing for a little over 3 years now myself, so this is all new to me too and I was once where you are at now - thinking, "Spellcrafting, what's the big deal/hype?". Until I saw this video and had my mind blown.

Having said all that - my vote is def Spellcrafting, they were so close to releasing it 8 years ago so surely the time is right now.

Edit - if for some reason the vid starts at the beginning, jump ahead to 53:14

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LkeMacg-b0&t=3194s

Is this why eyevea is just a dead zone after doing the whole quest?
I was always disappointed in that after all that work you have this amazing place and...... nothing to do.

I am sufficiently excited.

The_Titan_Tim

SilverBride wrote: »

I can't think of anything more tedious and torturous than spellcrafting. I hope they don't do something like that.

From the expo in 2014, it stated spell books would be tradeable, so, assuming firstly that Spellcrafting is the feature we get this year, and secondly that it will be reminiscent to the Quakecon video, you wouldn’t have to do anything at all to acquire them, just buy them.

blktauna

Dr_Con wrote: »

React wrote: »

I sincerely hope that the Q4 "feature" system is a meaningful PVP addition. When the Q4 DLC launches, it will have been about 4 years and 9 months since PVP received any new content (assuming nothing comes in Q1-3).

Mara's Balm. Plaguebreak. Dark Convergence. Rushing Agony. (br)Oakensoul. Enervating Aura. Rallying Cry. Langour of Peryite, Nocturnal's Ploy. Armory in Cyrodiil. Occult Overload.

That's not new content. Sets are for all areas and kind of a given in combat. And those were giant headaches, not content.

The_Titan_Tim

I guess the Fighter’s Guild, Mage’s Guild, Undaunted, and Psijic Order all broke the game too when they were released?… those active skills weren’t in on launch. Last I checked, there wasn’t a whole wave of people running around with Dawnguard crossbows.

People still aren’t using 3/4 of the abilities added to the game post-launch, and the ones being used aren’t soundly better than all of their other options. I don’t understand the fear mongering over this feature, it amazes me.

Edit: Sorry, I forgot Assault and Support, two other active skill lines that were added post-launch that have maybe 4 out of 10 abilities that get play outside of niche builds.

SilverBride

The_Titan_Tim wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

I can't think of anything more tedious and torturous than spellcrafting. I hope they don't do something like that.

From the expo in 2014, it stated spell books would be tradeable, so, assuming firstly that Spellcrafting is the feature we get this year, and secondly that it will be reminiscent to the Quakecon video, you wouldn’t have to do anything at all to acquire them, just buy them.

I don't want to buy or trade them. I don't want to have to do any more to set up my skills than I'm already doing. I absolutely hate micromanaging which is what I imagine this to be.

The_Titan_Tim

SilverBride wrote: »

The_Titan_Tim wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

I can't think of anything more tedious and torturous than spellcrafting. I hope they don't do something like that.

From the expo in 2014, it stated spell books would be tradeable, so, assuming firstly that Spellcrafting is the feature we get this year, and secondly that it will be reminiscent to the Quakecon video, you wouldn’t have to do anything at all to acquire them, just buy them.

I don't want to buy or trade them. I don't want to have to do any more to set up my skills than I'm already doing. I absolutely hate micromanaging which is what I imagine this to be.

Within the first week of PTS I’m sure people would narrow down on what spells work best with each of the different classes based on need areas.

ie. a heal-over-time through Restoration magic for Sorcerer that isn’t as niche as Critical Surge.

fizzylu

Hesperax79 wrote: »

Esha76 wrote: »

Iit has too much potential to unbalance the game.

I do not understand this hype on spellcasting.
There is not oly potential to unbalance the game but this will be SURE to unbalance the whole game. Sets+skill lines+CP are complicated enough. If you add one more element into the math, this will be unhandleable.

SilverBride wrote: »

I can't think of anything more tedious and torturous than spellcrafting. I hope they don't do something like that.

Seriously, I'm usually not one to go with the logic of "but it's an MMO so it shouldn't/couldn't be that way or have something".... but spellcrafting is for sure one thing I can't see being good for ESO, a class based MMO. While the idea of it is fun and even a little exciting.... the over all impact on the game just seems like it'd be damaging and a huge mess. I could see it working if Zenimax did go with a no class system to begin with, but they didn't.
I also feel like such a feature could serve as an excuse not to add more or even expand upon skill lines.... which feels like a really bad choice for the longterm health of the game.

blktauna

jtm1018 wrote: »

Queen Ayren companion.
Naryu Virian companion.
Lyris Titanborne companion.
Almalexia companion.
Nocturnal companion.
Azurah companion.
Dibella companion.

Fennorian
Elam Drais
Xuthas
Darien Gaultier
Raz
Arox the Mutilator
Rigurt

Seraphayel

SilverBride wrote: »

I can't think of anything more tedious and torturous than spellcrafting. I hope they don't do something like that.

Psijik Order exists
Mage Guild exists
Mythic items exists

I have no idea how Spellcrafting would be more tedious or torturous than any of the things above.

Seraphayel

What people here fail to realize is how bad and stale ESO combat is. It's the biggest complaint everywhere about the game. Without major changes that drastically improve combat, ESO won't have any future. Feeding players useless fluff like the card game or companions won't do anything, they just delay the inevitable.

In 2022 ZOS tried to tackle the combat issues, but from a completely wrong perspective. If anything in this games needs a major redo and enhancement, it's combat - and they seem like they understood the assignement. If the upcoming new feature is yet again not combat related, clearly anyone can bury their hopes for this game, because combat is and should be the top priority from now on.

Vindold

Seraphayel wrote: »

What people here fail to realize is how bad and stale ESO combat is. It's the biggest complaint everywhere about the game. Without major changes that drastically improve combat, ESO won't have any future. Feeding players useless fluff like the card game or companions won't do anything, they just delay the inevitable.

In 2022 ZOS tried to tackle the combat issues, but from a completely wrong perspective. If anything in this games needs a major redo and enhancement, it's combat - and they seem like they understood the assignement. If the upcoming new feature is yet again not combat related, clearly anyone can bury their hopes for this game, because combat is and should be the top priority from now on.

Completely agree...too often I hear from new players that main reason they didn't give ESO a chance is combat, how clunky it is, how unimpressive it looks and I agree with them, I always say that combat needs upgrade, that animations and especially vfx need some HQ upgrades(some of them is top quality garbage since day 1 even by 2014 standarts).

Also speaking about vfx\animation etc...visual part is as important as combat, look at WoW, their Art team doing great job, top quality visual style is a lifesaver for WoW, it helped them survive their dark times and visual part is another complain you can hear from ppl as one of main reasons they stopped playing ESO.

SilverBride

Seraphayel wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

I can't think of anything more tedious and torturous than spellcrafting. I hope they don't do something like that.

Psijik Order exists
Mage Guild exists
Mythic items exists

I have no idea how Spellcrafting would be more tedious or torurous than any of the things above.

We aren't discussing things that already exist. We are discussing what may be coming and I absolutely hate the idea of spellcrafting and hope it's not that.

Jaraal

The_Titan_Tim wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

The_Titan_Tim wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

I can't think of anything more tedious and torturous than spellcrafting. I hope they don't do something like that.

From the expo in 2014, it stated spell books would be tradeable, so, assuming firstly that Spellcrafting is the feature we get this year, and secondly that it will be reminiscent to the Quakecon video, you wouldn’t have to do anything at all to acquire them, just buy them.

I don't want to buy or trade them. I don't want to have to do any more to set up my skills than I'm already doing. I absolutely hate micromanaging which is what I imagine this to be.

Within the first week of PTS I’m sure people would narrow down on what spells work best with each of the different classes based on need areas.

ie. a heal-over-time through Restoration magic for Sorcerer that isn’t as niche as Critical Surge.

Do folks really think ZOS is going to add yet another combat system to have to try and balance? We can already see what happens when they try to adjust the current skills, gear, CP, and racial passives. I can't imagine them willingly throwing another iron into that fire and trying to chase down player discovered metas, exploits, etcetera on a new level.

Seraphayel

Jaraal wrote: »

The_Titan_Tim wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

The_Titan_Tim wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

I can't think of anything more tedious and torturous than spellcrafting. I hope they don't do something like that.

From the expo in 2014, it stated spell books would be tradeable, so, assuming firstly that Spellcrafting is the feature we get this year, and secondly that it will be reminiscent to the Quakecon video, you wouldn’t have to do anything at all to acquire them, just buy them.

I don't want to buy or trade them. I don't want to have to do any more to set up my skills than I'm already doing. I absolutely hate micromanaging which is what I imagine this to be.

Within the first week of PTS I’m sure people would narrow down on what spells work best with each of the different classes based on need areas.

ie. a heal-over-time through Restoration magic for Sorcerer that isn’t as niche as Critical Surge.

Do folks really think ZOS is going to add yet another combat system to have to try and balance? We can already see what happens when they try to adjust the current skills, gear, CP, and racial passives. I can't imagine them willingly throwing another iron into that fire and trying to chase down player discovered metas, exploits, etcetera on a new level.

If they don't, there's nothing exciting about the upcoming Chapter and it fail the same way that High Isle did. The next feature must be related to combat.

RaddlemanNumber7

I hope it's spell crafting - a significant feature of TES games that is sadly missing from ESO.

If it's equally available to every race and class I don't see why it would need "balancing" at all. Maybe the introduction of spell crafting is one of the reasons why they've been so big on making hybrids so desirable.

If it used ammo of some kind, spell ingredients which have to be crafted and are expended when the spell is cast, that could provide a check which would prevent spell crafting from overwhelming the rest of the combat system.

They could make some of the crafted spells spectacularly huge if the ingredients were rare enough. I'm thinking of that PvP wall busting spell, which drew power from a large group of players, that they showed us in an early game trailer.

The possibilities are endless

blktauna

Seraphayel wrote: »

Jaraal wrote: »

The_Titan_Tim wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

The_Titan_Tim wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

I can't think of anything more tedious and torturous than spellcrafting. I hope they don't do something like that.

From the expo in 2014, it stated spell books would be tradeable, so, assuming firstly that Spellcrafting is the feature we get this year, and secondly that it will be reminiscent to the Quakecon video, you wouldn’t have to do anything at all to acquire them, just buy them.

I don't want to buy or trade them. I don't want to have to do any more to set up my skills than I'm already doing. I absolutely hate micromanaging which is what I imagine this to be.

Within the first week of PTS I’m sure people would narrow down on what spells work best with each of the different classes based on need areas.

ie. a heal-over-time through Restoration magic for Sorcerer that isn’t as niche as Critical Surge.

Do folks really think ZOS is going to add yet another combat system to have to try and balance? We can already see what happens when they try to adjust the current skills, gear, CP, and racial passives. I can't imagine them willingly throwing another iron into that fire and trying to chase down player discovered metas, exploits, etcetera on a new level.

If they don't, there's nothing exciting about the upcoming Chapter and it fail the same way that High Isle did. The next feature must be related to combat.

The only combat related thing I want is the promised refurb so my skills actually work in PVP. I def do not want spellcrafting because while it will be cool for PVE, It's going to be a festival of stupid in PVP.

BretonMage

Spellcrafting in TES received some notoriety in Oblivion because of it's potential to create near game-breaking combinations of magic effects. I don't even know if most players used it, I certainly only used it for a couple of spells (eg. creating AOE effects).

My suspicion is that any spellcrafting system in ESO that is implemented in the way its proponents are fantasising about here, will likely be a balancing nightmare, and will further exacerbate the ever widening skill gap.

Otoh, would people still want a spellcrafting system that did not raise their damage output? I personally wish that we could have more, and more powerful, AOE spells, but ZOS have deliberately made a point of nerfing them. I can't imagine thrm implementing a system that would give me back what they nerfed.

Elsonso

BretonMage wrote: »

Spellcrafting in TES received some notoriety in Oblivion because of it's potential to create near game-breaking combinations of magic effects. I don't even know if most players used it, I certainly only used it for a couple of spells (eg. creating AOE effects).

Single player games can always be abused. As I recall, enchanting in TES 3 allowed the player to have a permanent HOT with nothing more than a grand soul gem, a dead golden saint, and a ring.

But yes, a balancing nightmare. Every update would have buffs, nerfs, changes to majors and minors, durations, areas, magicka use. Every update people would have to recraft spells, and only a few would actually sit down and learn what needs to be done. The rest would just copy their homework.

TaSheen

Whatever goes on in single player games isn't germane to spell crafting in ESO. I'm so not willing to expect the devs to do spell crafting "right" - or even anywhere in a thousand light years of "right".

Yeah, nope.

Elvenheart

Have they said if we are getting the new zone/story first and then the new feature later in the year or will it be the other way around?

fizzylu

Elvenheart wrote: »

Have they said if we are getting the new zone/story first and then the new feature later in the year or will it be the other way around?

I'd imagine you'd get them at the same time haha that's how they did companions and antiquities. Be kind of weird for them to delay what's supposed to be the main selling feature of a chapter to after the chapters release.

vsrs_au

Billium813 wrote: »

Whatever the new feature/system is for 2023, I feel fairly confident that we won't see it coming; it won't be anything we've seen so far.

Look at Antiquities, Companions, and ToT. Say what you want about their quality, but each of these are unique features that I didn't see coming. Companions maybe was a bit more obvious... but I would not have guessed 2022 would be a card game of all things...

They mentioned that they would be focusing LESS on story and quest content, and they would be focusing MORE on repeatable content. To me, that implies PvP or instanced content like Arenas. I want to guess that 2023 will have a return to Arena, instanced content or new PvP content. Both of these also fit a "multi-year story arc" that they also claimed to be moving ESO towards.

However, PvP and Arenas might be too obvious.

Maybe the new feature will be a dungeon creation system; like Mario Maker but for ESO? Players could unlock dungeons in-game, or purchase dungeons (Crown store tie-in), very similar to housing. Then, they can fill them with their own NPCs and traps and quests. They can add a whole swath of new "dungeoneering" furniture to the game and the Crown store could even sell new unique furniture packs.

Doubtful. It sounds like a recipe for major server load increase.

vsrs_au

Syldras wrote: »

Billium813 wrote: »

They mentioned that they would be focusing LESS on story and quest content, and they would be focusing MORE on repeatable content. To me, that implies PvP or instanced content like Arenas.

Or maybe it's just some simple system like the "radiant quests" in Skyrim: Random tasks like "Go to dungeon X, fetch item Y" (or kill boss Y, or rescue npc Y). Of course that would bring players back to older zones, but I'd find it rather boring to be honest.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't the various guild dailies the same as radiant quests ?

Billium813

vsrs_au wrote: »

Billium813 wrote: »

Whatever the new feature/system is for 2023, I feel fairly confident that we won't see it coming; it won't be anything we've seen so far.

Look at Antiquities, Companions, and ToT. Say what you want about their quality, but each of these are unique features that I didn't see coming. Companions maybe was a bit more obvious... but I would not have guessed 2022 would be a card game of all things...

They mentioned that they would be focusing LESS on story and quest content, and they would be focusing MORE on repeatable content. To me, that implies PvP or instanced content like Arenas. I want to guess that 2023 will have a return to Arena, instanced content or new PvP content. Both of these also fit a "multi-year story arc" that they also claimed to be moving ESO towards.

However, PvP and Arenas might be too obvious.

Maybe the new feature will be a dungeon creation system; like Mario Maker but for ESO? Players could unlock dungeons in-game, or purchase dungeons (Crown store tie-in), very similar to housing. Then, they can fill them with their own NPCs and traps and quests. They can add a whole swath of new "dungeoneering" furniture to the game and the Crown store could even sell new unique furniture packs.

Doubtful. It sounds like a recipe for major server load increase.

Do you think that player housing causes substantial server load increases? Certainly a vast Cyrodiil change would have much more drastic server performance ramifications than even 10,000 new instanced content like player created dungeons.

But, neither of us knows for sure.

SilverBride

Elvenheart wrote: »

Have they said if we are getting the new zone/story first and then the new feature later in the year or will it be the other way around?

From Matt Firor's letter:

Q1: Dungeon DLC.
Q2: Full-featured Chapter in June. The 2023 ESO Chapter will be a complete story: you will be able to play all the way through it without a storyline that is broken out and reserved for later in the year. We will return to larger/better and more detailed Chapters by doing this. We are REALLY excited about next year's Chapter—for details, you'll have to wait for our Global Reveal Event in January. But one hint: this will be part one of a multi-year story arc and will contain one of the most requested new features.
Q3: Focus on Quality-of-Life improvements and bug fixes.
Q4: Rather than the usual zone DLC, we'll be featuring a new system. We are working on the concept and design for this now; we’ll give more details during our Global Reveal Event early next year.

The_Titan_Tim

We need more active skills, even if it’s not something as grand scale as Spellcrafting, simply adding active skills to Thieves Guild or Dark Brotherhood would be enough for me to keep my mind occupied theory-crafting for the year.

blktauna

They really need to pick up more with the thieves guild and assassins guild. It's just begging for more content.

Araneae6537

BretonMage wrote: »

Spellcrafting in TES received some notoriety in Oblivion because of it's potential to create near game-breaking combinations of magic effects. I don't even know if most players used it, I certainly only used it for a couple of spells (eg. creating AOE effects).

My suspicion is that any spellcrafting system in ESO that is implemented in the way its proponents are fantasising about here, will likely be a balancing nightmare, and will further exacerbate the ever widening skill gap.

Otoh, would people still want a spellcrafting system that did not raise their damage output? I personally wish that we could have more, and more powerful, AOE spells, but ZOS have deliberately made a point of nerfing them. I can't imagine thrm implementing a system that would give me back what they nerfed.

Yes, my major hope for spellcrafting is an ability to further customize my characters! Even if NO “crafted spell” was meta if I could customize how my characters looked in combat — my fantasies include being able to create a spider-themed character, an alit ult to replace the bear for my warden, a batswarm without the hideous transform ult for my vampire — I would be thrilled! I’m not expecting all that, but just saying!

I’m rather puzzled why everyone thinks balance would be a huge issue. There’s already huge combat shifts and new OP sets and mythics get introduced only to be nerfed to Oblivion the following year — What balance are you afraid of upsetting? Seriously, what could be worse than Dark Convergence?

Lumenn

I wouldn't rule spell crafting out(although I'm skeptical as it would involve more work to balance issues, but maybe they've figured that out) all we do know ATM is that it's something we've "asked" for, which could range from anything from romance, chess, spell crafting, to the JUSTICE SYSTEM they abandoned (maybe they figured out a non griefing way to implement this?) Maybe they're dropping "classes" all together and you'll mix and match your skills from a tier list?

All I DO know is that I'm not getting my hopes up for anything good. I'm fully prepared to find out it's some digital version of solitaire or even RISK and it be called a pvp addition. Rockem sockem robots, or battleship (we HAVE asked for sea battles I believe)

If it's actually something good I'll be pleasantly surprised. And if it's frogger, well, it is what it is.

Zurixadai

Seraphayel wrote: »

Zurixadai wrote: »

Somebody help me, for a sec. If it is indeed Spellcrafting that we're getting, how do we get a system like that without omitting stamina builds from the start? We getting stamina lightning bolts or something? Not saying it can't be done, I'm just too dumb to imagine stamina versions of classic Elder Scrolls spells, I guess.

Anyway, monk class, please. Or at least a class with a monk/unarmed skill line as one of the three.

How is that an issue / a difficult task to do? You can simply select the desired resource for the skill in the crafting window, either make it cost / scale with Stamina, Magicka or Health. It couldn't be easier.

"Spell" doesn't mean it's about Magicka - Stamina skills can also be "spells".

Couldn't tell you why it's difficult, but I guess I'd point out that it's literally never happened beyond the few class skills with stamina morphs. And even those stamina morphs took years to get. It's pretty apparent they are very hesitant to add stamina options to many things at all, much less everything in a whole new system. I don't see any reason to assume that Spellcrafting would start off any other way. For the record, I wouldn't mind, and I want you to be right, there is just zero precedent to suggest that'll be the case.

As a follow up, though, a quick question about aesthetics: would you be alright with stamina lightning bolts? Stamina-summoned flame atronachs? I remember when Dragonknights were given what amounted to "a fireball, but stamina" and the idea was received pretty poorly. It doesn't bother me personally, but I guess I can see where people are coming from. "No, no, this is stamina fire, it's different," is a little... silly? I don't know the right word.

Anyway, I'd be surprised if they gave stamina options for every ability in a Spellcrafting system. Seems to me that stamina builds would likely just wind up using the magicka utility buffs or low-cost magicka DoT abilities, and then nothing else. Maybe an ult or two, if that's still an option.