2023 New Feature Speculation

Elsonso

themaddaedra wrote: »

How do people think of things like hide shoulders as a "new system"? That's very weird to say the least.

The term "new system" is ultimately a marketing phrase, so it means whatever they think can be marketed under the umbrella of that phrase. The word "system" has meaning in the context of ESO and ESO development, but that does not mean that they will always use that word in that manner with us. Same with the word "new", which merely means something that was not there before. It does not have to rock Tamriel to the core, it does not have to be something we have never seen, it just needs to be ... new.

Hiding shoulders would presumably part of a larger change to hide other parts of the armor, like maybe the flaps, torso, gloves, etc. A system for hiding armor pieces. It might include companions. It might include other player characters.

While I am not ruling it out, I do not expect that this is the new system. I expect that this would slip in as a "QoL" change. My expectation is that it will only cover one or two armor pieces, only include individual characters where it is applied in the Outfit Stations, and maybe obtainable, in part, from the Crown Store or Crown Crates.

TechMaybeHic

TechMaybeHic wrote: »

New feature:. Block

Ehem...

Finedaible

We will be lucky if they actually complete the "features" they still haven't finished like all the hybridization left undone.

Giraffon

What I REALLY want is the optional ability to disable account wide achievements during character creation.

For some of us, forced account wide achievements was the worst thing that has ever been done. It is unforgivable and I have not forgiven them.

Since doing this would basically be admitting that mistakes were made, I'm not very hopeful. More likely we're going to see a new weapon line because doing anything else would cause a whole new round of balancing that they, at this point, should be afraid to do.

colossalvoids

Seems like new system would actually be blocking, so crossing fingers to U38.

Nihilr

What I would like:
• Break up classes, let us choose 1 spammable ranged dmg, 1 spammable melee-range dmg, 1 spammable heal, 1 stun, 1 pull or leap, etc. The balance would be that you can't get too many of 1 type, or you'll have to use weapon/world skill lines to fill in the gaps.
• 1 hand and spell skills (flame, frost, shock, wind, dark magic, light magic), seen on countless enemies and promotional videos in the past.
• Hand-to-hand combat with magic and melee skills both (seen on Deadlands DLC dungeon boss, and a High Isle boss)
• Removing the need to swap weapons for animation cancelling to improve server performance, personal CPU performance, and letting everyone focus on enjoying the game content instead of their "rotations." (think, Oakensoul, but applied to everyone).
• Spellcrafting (meh, it sounds even more improbable than the above because it was always SOOOO broken in Oblivion and similarly with the enchanting system in Skyrim).

But as others have mentioned, I legit expect something really sad and boring like hiding other armor slots, furnishings bag, etc.

I won't get my hopes up, but if it's nothing as amazing as the wants I've listed, my husband and I will have to cancel subscriptions... again. ToT was the biggest disappointment this year. It felt like the biggest marketing failure we witnessed of the entire ESO franchise. I never once heard anyone asking for a card game in zone chat (almost 4 years playing, my husband almost 7 years!!), nor when reading/skimming the forums...

Stamicka

I'm thinking spellcrafting or a new weapon type MAYBE cross platform or account transfers. I wonder if they will have to stop supporting the previous generation of consoles in order to make this stuff happen. I was under the impression that their existence severely limited what new systems could be added.

Personally, I would like to see many of the poor decisions that have been made over the years to be reverted. That would be far more meaningful than any new feature tbh.

Nic727

Class change.

One other thing I would like is Warden theme rework.

sixdollarshoe

I would honestly just like to see more of the dead zones in the map filled out, specifically between wrothgar and skyrim so that maybe we get forgotten vale content.

Vindold

Nic727 wrote: »

Class change.

One other thing I would like is Warden theme rework.

Yeah, same...imho warden theme should've been more defined, instead we got a mix of ice, vegetables and a zoo.

imho Warden should've been all about Morrowind theme, without bears, ice and some sort of druid themed magic.
Now it'll be weird to add Druid class or some norse\ice themed class...

Tbh I wish entire class system to be reworked to smth similar to TES series...
like you pick magic or nonmagic then you decide bow\dagger\2h\tank or if magic you choose your main school at least Destro\Illusion\Summoning\Healing and later you can get some other skillines but you can't be greatsword master just as warrior can't be archmage, but still warrior can become a templar later by picking restoration skill line etc...and later devs just add new skill lines\magic schools, weapon types etc...

Anyway...I think that they will give us Spellcrafting in Q4 and by adding such feature they will probably give us reason to visit older zones. During their presentation of Imperial City dlc they showed us Spellcrafting and if I recall correctly we should've been searching all around the world for secret chambers with some spellbooks. So yeah, maybe that's why they said about giving us a reason to visit older zones, do some stuff there...solo dungeon mode and veteran difficulty zones could be a nice addition as well for searching spell crafting tomes.

GreatGildersleeve

Hide shoulder.

SilverBride

I seriously doubt it will be veteran overland. Rich Lambert already stated in an interview this year that there are no major changes for overland difficulty and that would be a major change.

I believe it could be difficulty levels for Delves and Public Dungeons because this would give veteran players a reason to return to the zones, or maybe difficulty sliders, but not a completely separate instance.

I really hope it's not Spellcrafting. I can't think of anything more tedious.

The_Titan_Tim

Definitely getting visible companion helmets this year, no doubt our prayers will be heard.

ESO_Nightingale

Soraka wrote: »

Difficulty selection for overland
Spellcrafting

These 2 things are what i want.

Elvenheart

After watching the video from years ago regarding Spellcrafting, it does check a lot of boxes for a new system that involves older zones. And based on the video, a lot of the assets may already be in the game and just turned off, waiting for “that day”. They’ve had years and years to tweak the system and rework it in the background along the way, so you never know!

Actually, the part in the video about going into old delves and finding a hidden door that only you can see if you’re on a Spellcrafting mission was what I hoped Antiquities would be like after you found a lead - the lead could have led us to hidden doors or tunnels we could only find if we had the lead, and the antiquity could have been in some old forgotten chamber.

Elsonso

Elvenheart wrote: »

After watching the video from years ago regarding Spellcrafting, it does check a lot of boxes for a new system that involves older zones. And based on the video, a lot of the assets may already be in the game and just turned off, waiting for “that day”. They’ve had years and years to tweak the system and rework it in the background along the way, so you never know!

Nah, if any part of spell crafting was in the game, hidden, data mining would have revealed it years ago. We would have known and nothing ZOS could have done would have prevented that.

I_killed_Vivec

Deter1UK wrote: »

HappyTheCamper wrote: »

Turtle_Bot wrote: »

If I had to guess, I would say a vet setting for overland content given the relatively short time frame until it's proposed release. All the hard work is already done for it, it would only need a simple buff to enemy stat values and a little bit of balancing as well as some additional rewards.

Of course, I would be interested to see something as unique as spellcrafting and what could be done with that, but in terms of the work to proposed timeframe ratio, it makes more sense to be a new difficulty for overland.

I mentioned this in another thread. IMO, making “vet overland” isn’t that simple. It won’t just be like making overland with a hard mode switch or toggle.

Assuming they add a difficulty slider/tier system, let’s say they add 2 or 3 total difficulties: If I am roaming in overland world on the “low difficulty”, what happens if I come across someone in a higher tier difficulty beating a world boss or fighting in the same quest as me? Can this even be done in the same world/instance? There’s no way that’s reasonably possible!

Therefore, you are (most likely) now segmenting the population across all platforms into multiple instances based on what difficulty they have selected. So instead of having people on each server run a few instances, it’ll now have to sub divide that even more per difficulty tier they add. Then you have to keep the game interesting enough to keep each of the different difficulty levels enticing/populated.

Plus the balancing of everything would be a nightmare. Do you add multiple difficulty levels to overland only? What about Cyrodiil PvE fights? IC PvE fights? Is this “vet overland” just for quests, or for delves and WB’s too? What about dragons in Elsweyr?

I would personally be okay with vet/difficult overland content, but I don’t trust ZOS to successfully implement a vet difficulty system. And that’s not even a criticism of ZOS, it just sounds like a nightmare.

OR You phase the difficulty so that he further away from a road or town you are the tougher it gets.

I played an early MMO in the 90s that did just that, you could travel anywhere by road but shortcuts across country required thought and care, going up into the mountains - well you needed a group. It made the world feel dynamic.

I over-levelled crafting on my main, who was still progressing through Cadwell's (mats were tied to locations, which in turn were tied to VR levels). At the time Craglorn was the only place I could easily get void mats. And at VR1 it was a truly daunting experience to venture into Craglorn.

It was a real achievement when I first killed a wasp!

But for me that is an essential part of a game - the sense of progression that only comes from a harder challenge that defeats you until you get stronger, understand better, and finally manage to defeat it.

While I understand the reasons for 1T, it took away that sense of progression for me - that didn't really matter for my main character, because by then overland wasn't much of a challenge in any case, and I'd already soloed all I could in Craglorn, the new challenges were soloing group content (undaunted, WBs, etc.). But I do miss that sense of trepidation, the feeling that you are somewhere you shouldn't be, and might not be able to handle...

I remember when Craglorn was nerfed with 1T someone put it much better than I could, essentially we are adventurers, the roads should be reasonably safe, but if you venture off the beaten track then you should expect some unpleasant surprises. There are monsters out there!

AltanasAExcalibur

I think spellcrafting would help with the developers plans to play however you want.

From a basic perspective, let spellcrafting alter weapon skills and class skills.

But then go one set further and let spellcrafting encourage use of other armor sets. There are so many sets in this game that are passed up. Spellcrafting could remedy that.

Even from a simple, fun, not game breaking angle: spells of alteration so that summoned monsters take on different forms and let it apply not just to class pets but the few summons from armor sets. Then people can have a summon that's visually pleasing or to RP with.

Then, on the other end of the scale, spellcrafting that boosts armor sets could bring back to relevance many of the useless or frowned on sets. For example, sets that summon meteor showers could be altered to do magika-regen instead of damage completely, or changed to meteor showers that heal and do no damage at all. Sets like SwordSinger that does 2H only could be enhanced with spells that add buffs to 2H abilities etc. So spellcrafting can help niche playstyles, but when the game is so diverse anyway, everyone can be niche.

As a side note, allowing players to use spellcrafting to alter weapon skills, class skills and sets would be a way to give players a lot of content without actually adding very much to the game. It takes the burden off the developers to add the extra dungeons or entirely new armor sets going forward.

Finedaible

If they do - by some extraordinary miracle - bring out "spell crafting" as a major feature in 2023 then ESO might just have a future after all. However, I would recommend fellow ES fans to take a healthy dose of skepticism and to not believe the desperate delusions of the community. The concept of spellcrafting was officially cancelled many years ago in favor of housing. The lead designer of spellcrafting left ZoS shortly after. Later rumours would suggest that any work that had been completed on spellcrafting up to that point were repurposed into Antiquities. Considering the supposed technical limitations of catering to old consoles, and the fact that Block (a core comabt ability) was broken for a whole month, I highly doubt ZoS would be capable of implementing such a system in the midst of a code rework they say they are working on.

DMuehlhausen

I think the big new thing will be Story Mode dungeons.

Then minor ones might be Furnishing Bag, and more "hide armor" options.

SilverBride

DMuehlhausen wrote: »

I think the big new thing will be Story Mode dungeons.

Then minor ones might be Furnishing Bag, and more "hide armor" options.

I hope you are right!

fall0athboy

Giraffon wrote: »

What I REALLY want is the optional ability to disable account wide achievements during character creation.

For some of us, forced account wide achievements was the worst thing that has ever been done. It is unforgivable and I have not forgiven them.

I don't believe they're asking for forgiveness.

gronoxvx wrote: »

It will either be a hardmode overland setting or since update 35 destroyed the end game raiding community possibly a new rewards system.

Cant see them doing anything big with all the coding and replacing servers is still ongoing.

A hardmode overland setting would probably be enough to take up an entire quarter, but I feel a new rewards system is too small of a thing just for Q4 on it's own.

That said, I've long-since wanted a rewards system where in addition to the unstickered weapon/armor, we get "shards" or something, that would let us have an additional method to get the weapon/jewelry that we need. A little extra fine-tuning for the stickerbook.

I_killed_Vivec

Finedaible wrote: »

If they do - by some extraordinary miracle - bring out "spell crafting" as a major feature in 2023 then ESO might just have a future after all. However, I would recommend fellow ES fans to take a healthy dose of skepticism and to not believe the desperate delusions of the community. The concept of spellcrafting was officially cancelled many years ago in favor of housing. The lead designer of spellcrafting left ZoS shortly after. Later rumours would suggest that any work that had been completed on spellcrafting up to that point were repurposed into Antiquities. Considering the supposed technical limitations of catering to old consoles, and the fact that Block (a core comabt ability) was broken for a whole month, I highly doubt ZoS would be capable of implementing such a system in the midst of a code rework they say they are working on.

When ZoS talked about putting spellcrafting on the back burner because of difficulties in balancing the game, they mentioned that one of the ideas they had come up with was that you'd have to (grind) find leads that would allow you to locate pieces of tiles. When you had all the pieces to complete a tile you could learn the spell associated with it.

II don't know if that was really their plan for spellcrafting, but it certainly fits with the idea that when spellcrafting was abandoned the code was repurposed for the antiquity system, and later the concept of mythics.

In any case, I don't think that spellcrafting (if we ever get it) would be like previous TES games, where you could define your own spell types and strengths... and then go off into the wilderness to practice them until you could get them to trigger at a reasonable rate:)

Elsonso

I_killed_Vivec wrote: »

In any case, I don't think that spellcrafting (if we ever get it) would be like previous TES games, where you could define your own spell types and strengths... and then go off into the wilderness to practice them until you could get them to trigger at a reasonable rate:)

I think it is safe to say that whatever the feature and system are, they will have little to do with Elder Scrolls and more to do with what ZOS wants to do with this game. Maybe players will recognize these things as often requested, maybe players will wonder who requested they do these things.

Remathilis

So hear me out...

It's going to be spellcrafting, but not like most people think. It will be a third morph of an existing class skill. But to unlock this third morph, you need reagents and foci. Reagents are rare drops that come from harvesting, boss monsters, and domens. To find them, you will need a special pin that weakens you (increasing difficulty) against that type of content. Foci are special items you craft using reagents. You need mastery ranks in crafting and the plans needed to make them are sourced from all content; dungeons, trials, antiquities, Tribute, etc). Once you have the focus and the reagent, you can unlock this third new morph!

Unfortunately, due to score pushing and PvP balance, these morphs will be only as powerful as the base morphs, but hey, think of all those shiny new particle effects you earned!

SilverBride

Remathilis wrote: »

So hear me out...

It's going to be spellcrafting, but not like most people think. It will be a third morph of an existing class skill. But to unlock this third morph, you need reagents and foci. Reagents are rare drops that come from harvesting, boss monsters, and domens. To find them, you will need a special pin that weakens you (increasing difficulty) against that type of content. Foci are special items you craft using reagents. You need mastery ranks in crafting and the plans needed to make them are sourced from all content; dungeons, trials, antiquities, Tribute, etc). Once you have the focus and the reagent, you can unlock this third new morph!

Unfortunately, due to score pushing and PvP balance, these morphs will be only as powerful as the base morphs, but hey, think of all those shiny new particle effects you earned!

That sounds like a complete nightmare to me. There are already 3 class skill lines and weapon skill lines and all the guild and world skill lines. The last thing I want are more skills to choose from especially if they require grinding and dungeons and farming.

Castagere

Faulgor wrote: »

Castagere wrote: »

Spellcrafting in single-player games, yes but in MMO how would they balance it?

I wonder why nobody seems to have issues with any other crafting. It's only ever spellcrafting that is rejected on principle.

What, you want people to be able to craft different kinds of weapons with a dozen traits and hundreds of sets!? How would you ever balance such a thing!? It can't be done! And hundreds of styles, too? That's way too much development time!

The real overpowered crazyness in single player games like Morrowind didn't even come from spellcrafting, but Alchemy and Enchanting, which we've had in ESO from day 1 without any objection.

Then you never played a TES game if you can post that spell crafting was not overpowered in those games. It amazes me what some people post here. I have made spells in TES games that could wipe out an area in a town in one shot.

Billium813

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.

Remathilis

SilverBride wrote: »

Remathilis wrote: »

So hear me out...

It's going to be spellcrafting, but not like most people think. It will be a third morph of an existing class skill. But to unlock this third morph, you need reagents and foci. Reagents are rare drops that come from harvesting, boss monsters, and domens. To find them, you will need a special pin that weakens you (increasing difficulty) against that type of content. Foci are special items you craft using reagents. You need mastery ranks in crafting and the plans needed to make them are sourced from all content; dungeons, trials, antiquities, Tribute, etc). Once you have the focus and the reagent, you can unlock this third new morph!

Unfortunately, due to score pushing and PvP balance, these morphs will be only as powerful as the base morphs, but hey, think of all those shiny new particle effects you earned!

That sounds like a complete nightmare to me. There are already 3 class skill lines and weapon skill lines and all the guild and world skill lines. The last thing I want are more skills to choose from especially if they require grinding and dungeons and farming.

I mean, it would be. But it meets all the criteria: shiny new toy, lots of repeat/grinding of old content, artificial "harder" challenge, and no actual changes due to the howling that various different factions would make would equal another artificial grind masquerading as content.

The_Titan_Tim

Castagere wrote: »

Faulgor wrote: »

Castagere wrote: »

Spellcrafting in single-player games, yes but in MMO how would they balance it?

I wonder why nobody seems to have issues with any other crafting. It's only ever spellcrafting that is rejected on principle.

What, you want people to be able to craft different kinds of weapons with a dozen traits and hundreds of sets!? How would you ever balance such a thing!? It can't be done! And hundreds of styles, too? That's way too much development time!

The real overpowered crazyness in single player games like Morrowind didn't even come from spellcrafting, but Alchemy and Enchanting, which we've had in ESO from day 1 without any objection.

Then you never played a TES game if you can post that spell crafting was not overpowered in those games. It amazes me what some people post here. I have made spells in TES games that could wipe out an area in a town in one shot.

You could definitely do some pretty wild things with Spellcrafting in prior games, but that was intentional, it was a feature designed in the games to give you a sense of unlimited power because of the fact that it was a single player game.

On the other hand, you could also use alchemy to keep stacking your blacksmithing skill to make ridiculously over-leveled gear, past the regular cap.

I’m pretty sure the argument that @Faulgor was making was that poisons, potions, and food give you an extremely unfair advantage currently in the game, where you look at the difference between someone using Immovable potions that give the player a free window for damage, and Escapist poisons that if combined with a backbar weapon ability like Deadly Cloak, will randomly root your enemy and grant you cc immunity, even granting you a costless break-free if you’re stunned while it goes off. Then you look at certain gold food and drinks, like Artaeum Takeaway Broth that gives way more stats, not to mention, important stats, than any other food for stamina builds.

…and the fact that nobody is talking about it.