ESO is a fantastic game, it really is. The world, environments, almost everything is quite beautiful, but as with any game, some portions are lackluster. I've been thinking recently what makes ESO an RPG, and additionally, how it compares to other RPGs in functionality. After much thought, eyes glanced to previous ES games and elsewhere, I've put my finger on a few areas that could use improvement. Notice however, I put Long Term in the title. These are improvements that should be made over time. Such things I'm not asking to be done immediately. ZOS has a lot on their plate. That does not mean they cannot take advice here and there though.



As many have noticed in game, there's not a whole lot of uniqueness to particular cities in terms of architecture and layout. Daggerfall looks like a slightly different version of Wayrest. One thing that can make an RPG shine is through the expression of Culture. While this is one aspect, having look-alike towns doesn't provide the depth that Tamriel truly exhibits in its heart.

Create more varied cities art designs. Each city should be its own, memorable and unique. As a comparison, think back to previous TES games. Most major cities were completely unique in design, the architecture found there was hardly found anywhere else. They provide a flavor, an essence unique to that town, and it stops being just 'some location', it starts feeling real.

This also ties into another aspect: Create more designs for buildings outside of cities. Change the stylings to reflect each settlement. For example, Aldcroft in Glenumbra feels like it should be a collection of shacks and wood huts, an area on the fringes of the wild without much protection. Adding in more elements such as wooden shacks and reducing the copied designs especially would allow the world to feel alive.

Some practical improvements: Find each particular zone's main theme and the culture that was intended to be expressed. Daggerfall for example should reflect a port city between massive mountains, being a shield from the outer forest. Some cultural references might be British or French. Camlorn might have similar qualities to Daggerfall, but also be changed to it's own style as well. While initially, each zone should become unique, even expanding upon the different cultures within a zone would do wonders.



In addition to the Improved City Design, the cities and civilized locations of the world lack a certain reality to them. Tamriel at this time is in the Interregnum, a time of warring states and break down of civilization in many areas. The world does not look it however, walk into a city and it will appear rich, wealthy, and without many blemishes. Poverty is a powerful thing. Creating areas that appear less well kept, dirtier, overgrown, and packed with people adds in another aspect of culture into the world. Cities might have a poor quarter, merchants quarter, rich quarter and castle quarter and etc.

Additionally, adding in more misc. houses and buildings, small and large in cities can give them a populated feel to them. Right now some cities feel almost like a collection of a few massive buildings surrounded by a brick wall. Adding in more buildings, whether homes, stores, or warehouses can make cities feel fuller. At the same time, creating dark alleyways and side streets to go along with them.



There are some areas in the game world that can be easily seen to have been created early in development, such areas that when compared with the land design to Craglorn (quite a well made zone, though not without issues) seem almost unrealistic. It's sometimes difficult to pinpoint what exactly is different, but the overall feeling does come out to be very dissimilar. A few suggestions would be to: 1. Add in more ground textures. 2. Create more foliage for the environments. 3. Alter the terrain to be more hill-like, rugged, or even drastically different in elevation. 4. Add in more rocks and paths. 5. Improve designs for trees by making them larger, and increase the density of trees in areas where it is intended to be a forest. Some particular areas that this is noticeable is in Stormhaven, Upper bangkorai, Alik'r, Eastmarch, and the Rift.

Also, remove all invisible barriers within a zones interior and keep them only blocking the outer borders of a zone. Hide invisible barriers better by creating more jagged mountainous paths at zone edges. Add more detail to mountains within and on the edges of a zone, possibly add paths through the interior areas. (some areas where revision would be needed would be the plateau east of Sentinel, the small mountain range in southeastern Bangkorai, and various blocked areas in many other zones)



Remove Fog. Remove Fog. REMOVE FOG!

Sorry, had to get that out of my system. The fog in the world is one of the biggest detriments to having a beautiful world. It's hardly even realistic at times. There are addons that can remove the fog, but I think it would be best if ZOS removed it themselves and started using it as a basis for improving weather effects. Create various different conditions for each zone that can cycle through over time. Perhaps it has clear skies, but as the weather transitions into fog, instead of it just appearing out of no where, give it a bit of animation (perhaps over a long period of time). For example, slowly over the course of 10 minutes a far off cloud of fog starts moving closer and eventually overtakes the players position. Other weather effects that could be improved would be rain and storms. First make the overcast weather effect darker, and completely remove shadow effects due to the sky. Then, create different conditions such as partially sunny, and a pressing overcast (darker than even before). Having a pressing overcast might continue into a thunderstorm with heavy rain (more sound and rain effects than usual), a light drizzle, or even just having thunder boom down without rain and small flashes in the sky. Just generally improving the weather system is all that needs to be done.



This is a lot to ask. Condense each of the 5 zones (maybe even starter islands included) into one main zone for each faction. Many people know of the ghost zones attached to each live zone and understand that it is already in place ever so slightly (for example, Alik'r has the maps of Glenumbra, Stormhaven, and Bangkorai all in its own map. If you were to find a path outside of the walls, you would find parts of these maps, but it wouldnt be that zone. It'd still be Alik'r). This idea would combine a couple of different things. For one, it'd delete all the extra excess data that each zone carries of all the zones next to it. Instead, each zone could be traveled to and from directly without a loading screen, and with more paths and exploration involved. Continuing the removal of invisible walls, remove all invisible walls within a factions zone map, but keep them remaining for the exterior areas. Valenwood would be come the entire valenwood, High Rock would have no borders between Glenumbra, Stormhaven and Rivenspire except terrain. Continue making terrain accessible to the player and adding in aesthetic improvements.

These are just my own thoughts. What other long term world design improvements are needed? And what would you like to see? Is there anything that you would change with what I have posted, that you might include or disagree with? Post down below. The world in ESO is far from perfect, and I only want to see it improved. What do you want to see?