Is it time for ESO 2?

SmellyUnlimited

ESO is a great game, and has had a very solid run these past 10 years. But the problem is, it’s limited by its engine. New zones may look more appealing, but performance-wise the game is capable of reaching new heights with today’s technology.

Market the game for next-gen consoles only and PC/Mac, such that the game can take advantage of the significant progress graphics and performance has reached in the last ten years. They could implement full functioning traversal in the game, updated combat mechanics, graphical overhaul, class specialization changes, dynamic PvP overhaul, etc., that are hard to do on an existing engine in the patchwork system we have now.

EverQuest went through such a change with Shadows of Luclin, Destiny did the same with Destiny 2, FFXIV, guild wars 2, and the like. I think a new model for the game would bring back players of yesteryear and raise the game’s population back to launch numbers.

Tandor

No, it's neither needed in my view nor is there the remotest chance of it happening. ZOS are working on another MMO, but it's understood not to be related to ESO.

RupzSkooma

It won’t happen. As far as news go.
Currently they have a new IP in works and this game is going 💪. EK2 (full release) and TES VI will happen in the next half a decade so will have plenty of TES dosage.
I rather wanna see what they bring in the new IP, they are talented people who brought me a lot of happiness via this game so I really want to see the new IP and support them.

ADarklore

With ES6 coming out in a couple of years, there is no way they would invest in another Elder Scrolls MMO.

Necrotech_Master

actually a bunch of limitations have been confirmed to be due to support for older consoles (ps4 era), and min spec PCs

thats the main reason why we cant get things such as increased furnishing limits in houses

also if they redid the game as eso2, it would be a new game, which would mean starting over completely from scratch, which is about the absolute worst possible thing i could imagine doing in an mmo with all the time and work invested in what i already have

if i had to start over, you can 100% count me out for even going to an "eso 2"

RupzSkooma

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

actually a bunch of limitations have been confirmed to be due to support for older consoles (ps4 era), and min spec PCs

thats the main reason why we cant get things such as increased furnishing limits in houses

also if they redid the game as eso2, it would be a new game, which would mean starting over completely from scratch, which is about the absolute worst possible thing i could imagine doing in an mmo with all the time and work invested in what i already have

if i had to start over, you can 100% count me out for even going to an "eso 2"

I believe OP means a major update with engine level changes based on his examples as not all the games he listed are direct sequel.
Not saying I want them to focus on it tho.

Vynera

Not needed in my view, and will never happen that zos ports the game to a new engine.

An overhaul of old zones, some updated character models, some texture updates and more bugfixes would be enough.

Lumsdenml

ADarklore wrote: »

With ES6 coming out in a couple of years, there is no way they would invest in another Elder Scrolls MMO.

It is my theory that ESO is part of the reason that TES6 is taking so long. ESO is a cash cow for them, so why would they cannibalize it with another TES game. Once TES6 launches, population in ESO will take s pretty good hit. In guessing TES6 somewhere around 2030.

ClowdyAllDay

newer graphics wont solve their server problems except that it will exclude a lot of their player base and thus diminish the load on servers by excluding a bunch of people. Truly older graphics that are less demanding on the server would probably help more. Reducing calculations that occur on server side would help the most but that would mean no fancy armors with fancy features. Housing seems to also be a limiting factor to server performance. All the storages and all the guilds with all their stuffs for sale surely has its load on servers. All the food and potion buffs are lots of calculation burdens.

Kendaric

I like the idea but only if it was closer to a true TES game in terms of gameplay/mechanics. I highly doubt it will ever happen though.

Necrotech_Master

ClowdyAllDay wrote: »

newer graphics wont solve their server problems except that it will exclude a lot of their player base and thus diminish the load on servers by excluding a bunch of people. Truly older graphics that are less demanding on the server would probably help more. Reducing calculations that occur on server side would help the most but that would mean no fancy armors with fancy features. Housing seems to also be a limiting factor to server performance. All the storages and all the guilds with all their stuffs for sale surely has its load on servers. All the food and potion buffs are lots of calculation burdens.

graphics are all rendered client side, it has nothing to do with the server calculations (which are like buffs, procs, etc or your actual position in the game world), but everything else thats graphics related is rendered on your computer

increasing min pc specs for the game could potentially exclude people for sure though, but probably not as many as you would think

ClowdyAllDay

Kendaric wrote: »

I like the idea but only if it was closer to a true TES game in terms of gameplay/mechanics. I highly doubt it will ever happen though.

My concern is that any future single player game will be unduly influenced by eso and mmorpgs as concerns TES franchise and lore. I think the days of traditional TES are hx. Us old timers who played the first es series will be surely shocked by what we see in es6. even skyrim was a huge departure from es4. Change is inevitable and with computer games more emphasis is placed on graphics and sounds than on story and lore. flashy flash flash brings the yonger crowds which franchises need.

Gray_howling_parrot

Nah for a variety of reasons:

1) Lots of the map still left to explore & plenty of planes of oblivion ($$$$)
2) Many players, including myself, wouldn't want to lose all of the progress & purchases
3) BGS & ZOS are not going to spend money developing ESO 2 with another MMO in the works (space-related) and ES6
4) Engine improvements and updates would go a long way and satisfy many people in your boat/sphere of thought - currently last gen consoles & low tier PCs are holding back revolutionary upgrades; once a sizeable portion of the playerbase has shown sufficient playtime on the new consoles, I believe we'll drop support and move forward finally
5) If ZOS dropped support for ESO, I'm sure many would find other MMOs and not necessarily go towards ESO 2, but that's subjective

Fata1moose

If they did ESO 2 I would want no zones or at least each zone being an entire province not broken up. So Skyrim is one zone, Cyrodiil is one zone, etc. I’d also want scaling and world design to be more like the mainline games. Combat is another area they could vastly improve and make it play more like Skyrim, better first person camera that’s not an afterthought.

With that said do we need ESO2? Probably not, I’d welcome it but I’d also be OK if they updated vanilla zone graphics and improved the floaty and feeling of combat.

Tommy_The_Gun

ESO 2 ? Definitely not gonna happen. But, "One Tamriel 2" ? I won't lie, I would like to see huge overhaul update like that. I mean a lot of things could be improved, even small details. Take WW for example. I am not gonna comment how it is one of the weakest spec, because that is not the point. I am talking just about how it looks (spoiler: very bad) & does not have /emotes or is removed when teleported or can't use certain assistants etc.

And that is just the tip of the iceberg. The game needs loads of improvements and even something as basic as simple visual updates here & there.

TaSheen

RupzSkooma wrote: »

It won’t happen. As far as news go.
Currently they have a new IP in works and this game is going 💪. EK2 (full release) and TES VI will happen in the next half a decade so will have plenty of TES dosage.
I rather wanna see what they bring in the new IP, they are talented people who bought me a lot of happiness via this game so I really want to see the new IP and support them.

What's "EK2"?

TheMessengerOfDeath

ESO could actually expand the life of the MMO if they put in the work to do it. It would require them to do the same amount of work to just make a new mmo though. The game was made in 2014 with spaghetti code and just a heap of fundamental bugs using the Hero engine. The main culprit though is consoles. They have been holding back gaming since their inception and any game that is cross platform suffers because of it.

You start talking about MMOS and yeah it's bad we can't have a lot of things for the simple fact consoles can't handle it. If you asked me they need to do cross platform progression and force consoles players to buy the new consoles. The longer they support older consoles the longer the game will suffer.

ClowdyAllDay

Cooperharley wrote: »

Nah for a variety of reasons:

1) Lots of the map still left to explore & plenty of planes of oblivion ($$$$)
2) Many players, including myself, wouldn't want to lose all of the progress & purchases
3) BGS & ZOS are not going to spend money developing ESO 2 with another MMO in the works (space-related) and ES6
4) Engine improvements and updates would go a long way and satisfy many people in your boat/sphere of thought - currently last gen consoles & low tier PCs are holding back revolutionary upgrades; once a sizeable portion of the playerbase has shown sufficient playtime on the new consoles, I believe we'll drop support and move forward finally
5) If ZOS dropped support for ESO, I'm sure many would find other MMOs and not necessarily go towards ESO 2, but that's subjective

you're gonna have to give evidence to convince me that older graphics machines hold back performance. I am def of the mindset that trying to satisfy the demands of new pc master race hardware is what drives performance down because newer machine owners what to feel like the money they spent gives them a better experience and this pressures game devs to use that increased performance and the poor servers just cant keep up with the demand. I'm of the opinion that a game designed for a ps4 would outperform on the same server hardware and a game that was designed for a ps6 would underperform on that same server hardware.

Araneae6537

No, I’m fully invested in ESO. I’ve zero interest in starting over.

SpacemanSpiff1

i think we should skip right to eso 3

Luke_Flamesword

It is my theory that ESO is part of the reason that TES6 is taking so long. ESO is a cash cow for them, so why would they cannibalize it with another TES game. Once TES6 launches, population in ESO will take s pretty good hit. In guessing TES6 somewhere around 2030.

Definetely not. First of all, how long player can play new TES? For most, casual payers it will 1-3 months of intesive playing and than going back to routine. Good, big games are something normal and ESO players plays them. I played BG3, Starfield, Cyberpunk and many more this year and I was less active in ESO sometimes and didn't drop it. New TES can be a little brake for many player and biggest impact will be only in first weeks.

There is also another thing - premiere of new main TES title will be big thing with a lot of attention in gaming media. It will bring many, many new players to TES universe and some of them will interested in ESO. New TES title will be big marketing opportunity and whole brand will be much stronger. There is no way that it will be negative impact for ESO in longer run.

And if we talking about ESO 2 - now they are making some other MMO, ESO 2 may be next project in development, but it will mean that we will wait for it a decade from now (after release of new title, for some time they will probably support new game and after some time take resource for next project - we have now 10 years of ESO and still no new game from them...). In 2034 ESO will be really old and outdated title, so ESO 2 even with concept of starting from scratch will natural move.

And forget about moving current game to new engine - it would be much more work than making whole new game. They can't even change timers of Dragonstar Arena, mowing all this spaghetti code into new engine nad rewriting everything will be just impossible to make it working.

Araneae6537

ClowdyAllDay wrote: »

Kendaric wrote: »

I like the idea but only if it was closer to a true TES game in terms of gameplay/mechanics. I highly doubt it will ever happen though.

My concern is that any future single player game will be unduly influenced by eso and mmorpgs as concerns TES franchise and lore. I think the days of traditional TES are hx. Us old timers who played the first es series will be surely shocked by what we see in es6. even skyrim was a huge departure from es4. Change is inevitable and with computer games more emphasis is placed on graphics and sounds than on story and lore. flashy flash flash brings the yonger crowds which franchises need.

As far as I’m concerned, TES III Morrowind was awesome, something truly unique and amazing. I haven’t played the games before that, but the ones after, eh, they had their good points, sure, but they felt more generic fantasy that what made TES special, IMHO.

aspergalas4

ADarklore wrote: »

With ES6 coming out in a couple of years, there is no way they would invest in another Elder Scrolls MMO.

I think this is the prevailing attitude that the upper brass at ZOS and higher still have for ESO and why they are not really doing as much as they can with it. Sure the cash shop makes them their money but beyond that there tends to be bare minimum content beyond story dlc relative to other MMO competitors. Not to say that they don't give us content but the gap is quite vast in what this game recieves year on year versus other top MMOs.

Unfortunately hedging their bets on ES VI and ESO declining after its release might be short sited as the length of time its taken to come out combined with the general direction of the industry and flops like Starfield means in all likelihood the game will disappoint many. It may not live up to the hype. I hope not, but it is odd the momentum from Skyrim's popularity was not capitalised on to outdo it via the next instalment.

There just doesn't seem to be the enthusiasm for this game from the devs when it could be milked for quite a while longer than the typical ES game, and made a lot more fun and expansive. So much wasted potential, I genuinely believe this game could of surpassed the market leader (WoW) if it received even half the amount of content that game does and its creases were ironed out. But alas.

Lumsdenml

Luke_Flamesword wrote: »

It is my theory that ESO is part of the reason that TES6 is taking so long. ESO is a cash cow for them, so why would they cannibalize it with another TES game. Once TES6 launches, population in ESO will take s pretty good hit. In guessing TES6 somewhere around 2030.

Definetely not. First of all, how long player can play new TES? For most, casual payers it will 1-3 months of intesive playing and than going back to routine. Good, big games are something normal and ESO players plays them. I played BG3, Starfield, Cyberpunk and many more this year and I was less active in ESO sometimes and didn't drop it. New TES can be a little brake for many player and biggest impact will be only in first weeks.

.

I don't know, but there are still a lot of people playing Skyrim, and it just got an update 13 years after release....

TaSheen

Lumsdenml wrote: »

Luke_Flamesword wrote: »

It is my theory that ESO is part of the reason that TES6 is taking so long. ESO is a cash cow for them, so why would they cannibalize it with another TES game. Once TES6 launches, population in ESO will take s pretty good hit. In guessing TES6 somewhere around 2030.

Definetely not. First of all, how long player can play new TES? For most, casual payers it will 1-3 months of intesive playing and than going back to routine. Good, big games are something normal and ESO players plays them. I played BG3, Starfield, Cyberpunk and many more this year and I was less active in ESO sometimes and didn't drop it. New TES can be a little brake for many player and biggest impact will be only in first weeks.

.

I don't know, but there are still a lot of people playing Skyrim, and it just got an update 13 years after release....

Yeah. I'm still playing both Skyrim and Oblivion....

Luke_Flamesword

I don't know, but there are still a lot of people playing Skyrim, and it just got an update 13 years after release....

And still you are here on ESO forum, playing ESO. This is what I'm talking about. Only for first few weeks we can play new TES so hard that we will not have time for ESO, but later it will be more casual playing.

AzuraFan

I loved Guild Wars and looked forward to Guild Wars 2. Unfortunately, the second one fell flat for me, which was really disappointing. Just saying that there's no guarantee that an ESO 2 would appeal to the same target audience(s).

Having said that, I doubt we'll get an ESO 2 given that ZOS is working on a new IP.

Luke_Flamesword wrote: »

Only for first few weeks we can play new TES so hard that we will not have time for ESO, but later it will be more casual playing.

A few weeks you say? Pfft. Whenever a new TES drops, I spend months playing it before I'm ready to spend time on another game. But I love TES lore, so as long as ZOS releases story content for ESO, I'd probably be motivated to squeeze in some ESO playtime, even when I'm (hopefully) playing the heck out of TES6 (which I think will be just as much fun as previous TES games, despite the disappointment that was Starfield, which wasn't truly an open-world game).

sarahthes

Kendaric wrote: »

I like the idea but only if it was closer to a true TES game in terms of gameplay/mechanics. I highly doubt it will ever happen though.

Classic TES mechanics and gameplay would be terrible in an MMO.

JoeCapricorn

Starfield pulled me away from ESO for a good two months or so, I only logged in to do endeavors and participate in events.

TES VI might be pretty similar. There will be a solid two months or so of playing the Oblivion out of it and then as I start to get the sense that I did virtually everything and am overpowered on a level 80 to 150 character (this depends on how the leveling system even works, if it is a departure from Skyrim etc). I will have done the guild quests and as many of the side quests as possible (seems Bethesda games just throw those right at you from the start like they've been doing since Skyrim) and then probably take a break and wait for DLC and mods to come out.

LukosCreyden

ESO 2 is not needed. It probably would flop as the ESO 1 crowd would be annoyed at all their stuff becoming obsolete.

Gray_howling_parrot

ClowdyAllDay wrote: »

Cooperharley wrote: »

Nah for a variety of reasons:

1) Lots of the map still left to explore & plenty of planes of oblivion ($$$$)
2) Many players, including myself, wouldn't want to lose all of the progress & purchases
3) BGS & ZOS are not going to spend money developing ESO 2 with another MMO in the works (space-related) and ES6
4) Engine improvements and updates would go a long way and satisfy many people in your boat/sphere of thought - currently last gen consoles & low tier PCs are holding back revolutionary upgrades; once a sizeable portion of the playerbase has shown sufficient playtime on the new consoles, I believe we'll drop support and move forward finally
5) If ZOS dropped support for ESO, I'm sure many would find other MMOs and not necessarily go towards ESO 2, but that's subjective

you're gonna have to give evidence to convince me that older graphics machines hold back performance. I am def of the mindset that trying to satisfy the demands of new pc master race hardware is what drives performance down because newer machine owners what to feel like the money they spent gives them a better experience and this pressures game devs to use that increased performance and the poor servers just cant keep up with the demand. I'm of the opinion that a game designed for a ps4 would outperform on the same server hardware and a game that was designed for a ps6 would underperform on that same server hardware.

ZOS has said on several occasions - I'll let you look them up if you're fairly interested - that the reason we haven't had textures/animation updates or things of the sort is due to memory constraints with last generation consoles. If you look at the size of the updates for a new DLC or chapter on a PS4/Xbox1 vs a PS5/XboxX, you can see a massive GB difference in sizing just off the rip there.

Saying that a PS6 would underperform on a game optimized for PS4 is (I think/hope) you joking? Are you saying that PS5 essentially is going to run less efficiently than a PS4? I'm so confused by your argument.