Hello everybody,
First of all let me say that this post is a collection of changes and features that I would like to see in The Elder Scrolls Online. It's not a rant, or a fanboy thread, or an attack on Zenimax either. It's simply a list of things that I think would have a good and solid impact on the overall experience in The Elder Scrolls Online. I personally think that Zenimax is trying hard to include features based upon player feedback, so maybe they'll spot this topic and who knows?
It is possible that some of the things on my list are things that are being worked on. If so, please respond to that in the comment section. I'm trying to keep up with all the news and the patch notes, but seeing as I'm a casual gamer I might have missed an announcement somewhere in the past.
What's the reason for this top 10 list? Well, I have been playing World of Warcraft for about 5 years and quit a few years ago. I thought the game had it's best days behind him and it was time to move on to a different game. Of course I played Skyrim a lot, but when the news came out that The Elder Scrolls Online was being made I was really excited to see whether or not it could triumph World of Warcraft in certain area's. Of course this is not a debate which game is better or worse of anything like that. Each has it's own flaws and jewels. The reason I'm saying this is because some of the things on the list are from my past gaming experiences. My experiences on forums like these are sadly enough not very positive. Either some fanboy goes nuts because you've brought up a game he hates, or the people at the developing company (ZOS) does not read the posts and everything has been for nothing. So, without further ado, here's my top 10 list of things that would make ESO THE MMORPG of the decade (including my thoughts and reasons behind them).
1. An 'inspect player' or 'check gear' option to increase need to improve own character and hunt down new and improved gear. In an MMO, when I see other players running around in great gear and with great weapons, I like to know what those items are called. In ESO, that option is not there. Some will say 'just whisper them', but that's a totally different way of interacting with a person. I think that in an MMO it shouldn't be a secret what kind of gear your wearing so other players might get inspired as well to make that gear as well, or do that specific dungeon where the piece of armor has dropped. And if you don't want to use the option, then don't. It's a fix under the hood, but very effective for players who like it.
2. Okay, we all know there's no Auction House as we'd like to see it in ESO. Some things are just the way they are. However, I find it utterly frustrating that there is an active search option when selling an item in a guild store, but not when looking / buying an item. I have no idea why I can't just type in 'Amber Malt' in the guild store and find it or not. Now, I have to click of several options such as 'crafting', 'provisioning' and 'ingredients' and then scan everything myself to see whether or not the guild store has the item I'm looking for. I'm a big fan of buying, trading, selling and just browsing the items that people sell, but this is just too time intensive for me so I'll just avoid the guild stores for now. On a side note, if a guild could consist of 1000 players, guild stores would obviously be much bigger and I could be looking for a very active PVE guild instead of having to join 4 or 5 'middle of the road' trading guilds.
3. It wouldn't be a top 10 list without it: name plates and guild tags. No need to elaborate on this. Make it optional, so the people who like to confuse NPC's with players can toggle it off and be confused some more. Name plates and guild tags do not turn ESO in a cartoon or anything like that, whatever people might say. Toggle on/off is our friend in this barbaric endeavour.
4. An online armory would be nice. Just to add to the game as a whole it's nice to search for guilds, characters and check gear when you're not playing the game. I like it. I think it's fun. And fun is important.
5. Before equipping a new weapon or piece of gear I would like to see the stat changes it gives me before equipping it. I know, we can compare items while hovering over them, but this is something that's very handy and doesn't seem to be a huge implementation in the game. We can discuss 'cosmetics' like this the whole day, but at the end of the day, everybody wants to have kick-ass gear with great stats. This makes gear changes easier, quicker and gives a better overview of your stats.
6. Speaking of stats at number 5, I would like a 'life-recap' when leveling up my character. I made before and after screenshots when I leveled my character and compared the stats. I know I gain health, stamina and magicka, but how much? Simple: just put it in the chat window when you've leveled your character. Congrats, you leveled to level 30. You've gained 36 health points, 30 stamina and 65 magicka.' Simple, effective, and also gives a feeling you're actually more powerfull then before.
7. I like the crafting system. In ESO, the crafting doesn't feel like a gimmick but it's a substantial part of the whole experience in beautifully crafted Tamriel. I cannot however, predict how my gear will look on my character unless I actually create it. Sounds easy enough right? Let us preview weapons and items so we can see which racial styles we like the most. I know, I know, there are probably websites who have 1000+ pictures of everything. That's not the point. I just want to see my weapon before I spend my hard earned materials on it in the hopes of it looking awesome.
8. I have not been to Craglorn yet, so maybe this is already in the game. If it is, I'm not aware of it. There have been enourmous amounts of negative feedback discussing the PVE endgame in ESO. What I would like to see is the addition of a couple of big 'ass' raids such as Molten Core, Blackwing Lair and Onyxia in World of Warcraft. I'm using these examples because I have experienced them myself and the thrill it gave me and my guild members when finally completing those areas. From a personal standpoint, I think it's a great way of creating meaningful endgame. Knowing that there's a huge monster waiting for you which can only be beaten by 12 / 20 / 25 / 40 players adds to the excitement of the overall gaming experience for me. I know it's personal and maybe they are working on things like this in Craglorn, but I can't find a single element in Molten Core that I didn't like. It increases the need to join guilds, play effectively with each other, offers great loot and who doesn't like the big bad boss waiting for you at the end of the road? Gear up, mount up and ride towards victory (or death) I say!
9. Maybe it's intentional, maybe it's me nagging, I don't know. I would like to see quest rewards before starting a quest. That's it. The only reason I can think of why we can't see them is because of the fact that people might skip certain quests because the loot isn't good enough. So, then you either upgrade the loot (maybe even give different loot to choose from) or you don't really 'play as you like'. Maybe I like to skip a quest line because at the end of 7 quests I'm not really that interested in a heavy armor headpiece because I'm a light armor kind of guy.
10. Not asking for anything that flies, is mechanical or simply doesn't make sense in the world of Tamriel, but a few new mount options would be nice. To be honest I haven't got any suggestions at the moment, but perhaps you have a superb idea. Also the idea of customizing your own mount a bit would be greatly appreciated by me, but that's purely cosmetic of course.
Bonus thingy: Fishing! Who doesn't like fishing?! Me! Add some fishing experiences to the game. Make us fish up garbage, some epic loot, quests and perhaps even fishing contests. I'm not saying we all should drop what we're doing and head over to the nearest lake, but some tweaking is certainly welcome.
The topic turned out to be a big larger then I intented, but hopefully people will respond to this with an open mind and perhaps some of you agree to the points I've mentioned. Like I said before, I do not know whether or not any of the changes are being implemented in the near future, so if that's the case let me know. And please keep the discussion civilized. I'm not interested at all in another fanboy rant because I've mentioned World of Warcraft on a forum. So what do you think about the list? Anything usefull?
Navuri
Altmer Sorcerer (and proud Volunteer in the PVP campaign in Cyrodil)
*Edit note*
As I feared, the fact that I've mentioned WoW works as a red flag on a bull on some. I'll try and state it in a different way then. Just because one game has a few game elements that work very well does not mean that these elements, when implemented in a different game, will turn the game into a 'clone' as some like to refer to. For instance, If I let my mustache grow and put on a hat, I'm not turning into Captain Jack Sparrow over night now am I? That does not mean that the mustache and the hat wouldn't look awesome on me, but that's a whole different ball park. Catching my online drift?
Edited by Navuri on July 16, 2014 10:08AM