Robbmrp wrote: »

I like the idea of "Reforging" and it should only apply to dropped items. Crafted items can be remade easily enough in the desired trait. Then it would be acceptable to lose out on the tempers for improvement as people could change the trait on their dropped items.

Gidorick wrote: »

Through some discussion on other threads there have been some desires regarding the darkness of ESO’s game world that has come to light. (pun intended).

TL/DR
ESO could have more dynamic environmental light levels with tools and skills that can be used to cope with the darkness.

Immersive Darkness
Some players would like to have darker environments in which to play while other players do not want to have mechanics such as torches forced upon them. There can be mechanics introduced to support both types of players and would allow players to switch back and forth between the two types of play styles.

First and foremost let’s address the environmental light levels. Many players feel as if the overall darkness levels within ESO are entirely too high. Players are able to navigate and see it the darkness without much effort in ESO and a decreased light level would increase immersion and would enhance some of the gameplay mechanics.

For the purpose of this concept, the current levels of darkness are to be considered the measuring stick of the brightest it should naturally be at night.

As suggested in my Environment & Weather Systems Overhaul Concept thread, the over-world lightness levels could be governed by the weather.

• If it’s storming and raining, the light from Masser and Secunda cannot shine through, making it difficult to see.
• If it’s is overcast, the moons of Nirn peek through the clouds to gently light your way.
• If the night is clear the moons shine bright and you can see the path before you easily.

Dungeons and delves could be the areas in which most heinous of the darkened environments are experienced. The light levels of some existing and new dungeons could be lowered so players without illumination assistance would have difficulty.

Radiant Night Vision
Every player that wishes to not use any illuminators should be able to do so, but this decision should come with some consequences. With the exception of specifically designed dungeons and delves, all players should be able to make their way in the dark. A radius of dull illumination should surround the player. As the player moves, the illumination should fade and the radius should decrease. The faster the player moves the more quickly the radiant night vision should diminish. Once the player stops or slows it should take a moment for the character’s eyes to reacclimate to the night by the radius and the illumination increasing.

The radiant night vision of a normal player who is walking under a clear night sky should be very similar to ESO’s current night illumination. A player that sprints at full speed in the dark without any illumination would find themselves running blindly, unless they are under a clear night sky.

Radiant night vision would effectively encourage players to act more carefully while it's dark out and they are not using illuminators.

Night Eye Ability
Khajiit, Vampires, and Werewolves should all have an innate Night Eye ability that enables them to see more clearly in the dark. This is not an activated ability and activates when the illumination of an area is under a certain threshold.

• Khajiit: +50% Illumination / +25% Radius
• Vampire: +40% Illumination / +20% Radius
• Werewolf: +30% Illumination / +15% Radius

Night eye should cast a dull gray light into the dark making everything illuminated appear in a sort of gray-scale.

Khajiit’s Racial Passive Stealthy could be changed to:

• Night Stalker
  • 50% visibility at night (as outlined above)
  • Increases Damage done while in stealth by 3%

Illuminators
The darkness could also be kept at bay by using any of the following:

• Torches: Consumable item varies in illumination, radius, and duration. Casts natural light to illuminate the night.
• Magelight: Cast-able Mages Guild Skill, casts a piercing white light into the darkness. The greater the skill the greater the effect.
• Almalexia’s Enchanted Lantern: A trophy that creates a blue light that washes into the black abyss.
• NightEye Potion: Consumable, higher quality increases illumination, radius, and duration.
• Ring of the Night-Eye: Special rings which can grant Night Eye when worn. +20% Illumination / +10% Radius.
• Weapon Enchantments: Elemental weapon enchantments should also be able to fight back the darkness, but none as effectively as the lowest quality torch
  • Frost: Casts a soft blue glow around the character
  • Fire: Casts a warm yellow light across the ground
  • Shock: Casts a stark white light into the darkness

The most natural light available should be through the torches. A player using multiple illumination methods wouldn’t have a combined illumination effect but would instead see the effect which takes precedence.

Nighteye<Magelight<Almalexia’s Enchanted Lantern<Torches

Torches and Night Eye Potions would both be bought from merchants and through the Crown Store while Rings of the Night-Eye would only be purchased through the Crown Store.

Torches would be the most powerful of all the illumination methods and Nighteye would be the ONLY illumination method which cannot be seen by other players.

A current discussion on torches can be found here: http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/155836/the-need-for-functional-torches

Thoughts?

Gidorick wrote: »

OK… so… this is pretty much impossible now with buy to play but I wrote this a few weeks back and was still mulling over the details. Since I don’t feel much like putting any more effort into it I figured I would just post it and have at it.

There are many that feel ESO is sorely missing underwater environments. However, this is part of a much larger issue of how ESO handles large bodies of water and how players interact with that water. Below is an overview for a Water Overhaul suggestion that will add quite a bit of needed depth to ESO…. Pun completely intended.

There are Four main components of the below water overhaul:
1: Surface Tessellation Variations
3: Buoyancy & Drag
2: Underwater Environments
4: Water Combat

Surface Tessellation Variations

The surface of the bodies of water in ESO is quite beautiful but the lack of variation makes water seem quite boring. Mostly, the surface of water should act as it does in many other MMOs and produce bow waves as a player or NPC moves through the water and concentric ripple waves when a player jumps in and out of the water.

Additionally, large bodies of water (lakes and oceans that the player can swim through) should have waves of varying intensity depending on the weather. If there is a storm above, there should be a disturbance below. It would also be nice if the more tumultuous the water, the slower a player is able to swim over the waves.

Buoyancy & Drag:

Currently, boats and ships sit like buildings and do not have the feeling of being in the water. Ships should rock and sway with the water. Smaller boats should react when a player jumps into them by momentarily oscillating up and down. Adding buoyancy to watercraft would go a long way in creating believable and compelling ships and boats in ESO.

Additionally, Horses should be able to swim in water but that might be more a mount issue than it is a water issue.

Each armor piece could have a new value of Drag value added to each armor piece. Heavy armor pieces would have a higher Drag than light armor. The Drag values of each piece of armor could add up to the Total Drag, which determines a player’s base swimming speed. Using this system would allow players to shed armor and swim faster. A player who is going to spend a considerable amount of time in the water may want to simply go without any armor whatsoever to minimize their Total Drag.

Underwater Environments

An often requested feature for ESO is the ability to swim underwater. Underwater environments have been prominent in both MMOs and TES games, so the exclusion from the game seems like a gross oversight. Once the mechanics of underwater swimming are added to ESO, the various underwater environments around Tamriel could be added over time. Not every single swimmable body of water needs to have a fully realized underwater environment as soon as the system is released.

Obviously, every race but the Argonians should have a breath meter when underwater. Special potions, enchantments and skills could increase the length of the breath meter and could even provide water-breathing much in the same way as other Elder Scrolls games.

Underwater environments should offer Material Farming, Treasure Chests, Entrances and Enemies.

New materials should be added for

• Chitin and Morag Tong Motifs
• Water based Enchantments (including water breathing)
• Water based potions (including water breathing)
• Water based provisioning (Slaughterfish stew)

Treasure Chests should be a prominent part of underwater exploration. Both visible and buried treasures with maps should be included. They could be found in shipwrecks, hidden in reefs, or just out in the open. This doesn’t mean that treasure chests should be the only means of item discovery. There could also be wardrobes, desks, dressers, boxes, and barrels from shipwrecks along the ocean floor.

Entrances to underwater caves and delves could lead players to waterlogged dungeons and pirate hideouts, leading to new quests and storylines.

Just as on land, there should be water-based enemies for the player to battle. Slaughterfish schools should approach and attack the player, just as they do now, but they should be a visible swarm that the player can attack. Of course, the battle would be futile and the swarm would be a never-ending onslaught, but it would be fun for a player to see how long they can survive! There could even be a leaderboard for the number of Slaughterfish killed.

A few enemies should be able to follow the player into and out of the water, such as Land Dreughs and Crocodiles.

Pets shouldn’t swim underwater with the player but should act the same way they currently do when a player goes swimming.

Each zone should have a water based Area Boss with an achievement for killing all water-bosses. In fact, the underwater achievements should treat the underwater areas as their own “zone” so the player must travel the breadth of Tamriel to complete all tasks and retrieve achievements.

Water Combat

While I believe water combat is needed I don’t think the combat should be as fully realized as it is on land. Combat should be more difficult in the water and should have the following issues/limitations:

• Hot-bar skills shouldn’t be available while in the water, with the exception of the AquaBorn skill tree (proposed below)
• Attack speed is reduced 50% while in the water

All players should have access to the AquaBorn world-skill tree. All players should be able to swim atop and below the water. Since Argonians have an advantage, because they can breathe underwater, they should have a disadvantage that all other players do not have, a defense de-buff while in the water.

AquaBorn Skill Tree

ULTIMATE:
Amphibious Assault: The ability to select an enemy on the shore and launch from the water to attack the enemy.
-Amphibious Sneak: Attacks from the water are always undetected
-Amphibious Impact: Knocks the enemy down when attacked

ACTIVE:
Water Dash: A fast sprint through the water. (Stamina draw)
-Dash Attack: Dash causes damage to those in the way
-Quick Dash: Dash is 50% faster
Aqua Rush: 50% Increased attack speed for 10 seconds (Stamina draw)
-Rush Attack: 25% Increased Damage for 10 seconds
-Extended Rush: Additional 5 seconds of increased attack speed
Current Pulse: An attack that creates a forward pulse current, damaging the target (Magica Draw)
-Undertow Pulse: Draws the target to the player
-Pulse Drown: A 50% breath reduction on target
Flowing Salvation: A bubble that encompasses the player, restores breath %100 and heals player 50% (Magica Draw)
-Salvation Pop: Pulse that damages enemies in a specific radius surrounding the player
-Salvation Burst: Pulse knocks back and temporarily stuns enemies in a specific radius surrounding the player.

PASSIVE:
Surface Stroke
- 50% faster surface swimming speed
- 25% faster surface swimming speed
Sub-Surface Stroke
- 50% faster underwater swimming speed
- 25% faster underwater swimming speed
Aqua Attack
- 25% faster attack speed while in water
- 25% faster attack speed while in water
Deep Breath (Argonians do not have this available since they do not have a breath meter)
- 25% longer breath holding
- 25% longer breath holding
Iron Scales (An Argonian ONLY skill)
- 25% decrease to the defense debuff
- 50% decreate to the defense debuff

Adding underwater environments and combat could literally add worlds of play to ESO. Players could spend hours treasure hunting or simply exploring. No matter what the system or how robust the environments, underwater exploration are a must for the future of ESO.

Thoughts?

Gidorick wrote: »

ESO is easily one of the most beautiful games I’ve ever played. The aesthetics of Tamriel are spot on and ZOS has created a world that I want to spend my time in. I have yet to visit all the corner of all the lands of the zones that have been opened in Tamriel. Many of the decisions that were made regarding the design of the world couldn’t have been better, many seem curious, others seem outright wrong. Following is a list of enhancements that would remedy some of environmental quirks.

Contents:

• Dynamic Weather Enhancements
• Night Enhancements
• Day/Night Length Adjustment
• Following the Calendar
• The Main Problem

TL/DNR: Synchronized Dynamic Weather that increases view distance by receding fog in nice weather. Darker, more dangerous, more immersive nights. Change day and night to 10 hour days so that 1 Tamriel year can equal 5 Earth months. Implement holidays so holiday items can be added to the Crown Store to pay for this, and other, updates.

Dynamic Weather Enhancements

The weather in Tamriel is wonderful. I equally love to experience storms and bright sunny days. There are, however, a few issues.

1. Synchronization of Weather: The weather for one player really should be the weather for all players in the zone. Gone should be the days of playing in a group and one member is experiencing a thunderstorm and another is experiencing a bright and sunny day. Having this simple enhancement would open the game up for some game-changing mechanics such as…
2. Time and Weather Dependent Fog: While fog in Tamriel seemed to serve as a means to compensate for technical limitations, I have had my eyes opened by the ESO Launcher/SweetFX programs. Having no fog in the world changes the scope and feel of ESO’s Tamriel in an amazingly positive way. Alik’r desert without fog is gorgeous.
   
   However, not having fog has allowed me to appreciate the fog as a tool for creating environmental tone. Fog really needs to be used to enhance ESO, not just blur out the distance.
   • If it is a sunny and bright day, the world should have very little/very distant fog or no fog at all
   • If it is storming and raining, the world should have heavier/dense fog.
   • Night storms should produce denser fog than day storms.
   • If a storm arose during the night, the fog should remain through dawn, creating foggy mornings.
   • Overcast shouldn’t necessarily produce fog, but it should be possible.
   • A fog slider should be added for players to increase the maximum distance the fog will retreat. This will allow players who experience performance hits to decrease the fog distance to improve performance. For these players, the closest fog distance will be the same as all other players but, as the fog recedes, their fog would recede more slowly than those that have their fog distance set to maximum.
   

I made an independent thread about this HERE.

Night Enhancements
To be honest, I had planned to have a section for Day Enhancements but I truly feel the day environments are just about perfect in Tamriel. The appearance of the sun, the movement of the shadows, and the skybox are all wonderfully designed and constructed. There is nothing I could imagine that would make the days of Tamriel better than they are. Well, except for fog removal, as mentioned above.

Opposed to day, night in Tamriel actually leaves quite a bit to be desired. There are a few enhancements that should be made to make the night play significantly different than the day in Tamriel.

• Darker nights: First and foremost, Tamriel needs darker nights, depending on the cloud cover.
  • The current night brightness should be the setting for bright nights with clear sparkling skies.
  • The darkest the night should be a stormy night with completely covered skies.
  • Darkness should vary naturally from the brightness night to the darkest night, dependent on cloud cover.
  
  
  While it would make sense for the brightness of the night to be effected by the phases of Masser and Secunda, I think it would be too much to ask to have both weather and moon-phase to impact the brightness of the night.
  
• More dangerous night wilderness: To go along with darker nights, each and every citizen of Tamriel should experience more dangerous nights. Certain beasts, such as wolves, should be more abundant at night and there should be some night-specific creatures such as ghosts. This could be a way to introduce zone wide (or at least area wide) creatures.
  
  Imagine a ghost that appears at night on the shores of Greenshade, we don’t know where, but legend has the ghost walking along the shore. The player can attack the ghost and kill it every night if they wish but then there are books and clues along the shore that gives the player clues as to what happened to the ghost and how to go about laying its soul to rest.
  
• Towns shut down at night: With the justice system, it would amazing to have NPCs that go home and go to bed. Players, if they so desire, could break into homes and burgle homes and merchant carts throughout the night. To make up for the lack of NPCs in town there could be a heavier guard presence at night. There should be a couple of 24 hour merchants available, such as the Bartender, Outlaw Den’s merchants, Traveling Merchants, and Guild Merchants.
  
  There was a thread that included these types of concepts from @Neizir that can be found HERE.
  
• Two moon reflection: The fact that there is only one moon reflecting on the surface of the water when there are two moons seems like a gross oversight in the environmental design of ESO, especially considering the careful attention paid to the majority of the rest of the environment.
  
  I made an independent thread about this HERE.

Day/Night Length Adjustment

The total amount of time it should take for one day/night cycle on Nirn should 10 of our hours. this would mean every Earth-day=2.4 Nirn-days. More on why later.

While the difference in length between the day and the night in ESO isn’t exactly unrealistic, ESO includes mechanics for Werewolf and Vampires that could involve more interesting night elements and, when considering the above suggestions for night enhancements, night should offer a completely different level of gameplay.

There are two options of enhancing the day/night cycle.

• Equal Day/Night Lengths: Adjust the length of day and night to be the same length of time, giving equal time for creatures of the day and creatures of the night. This would offer an even “fair for everyone” approach to the length of the day and night.
• Variable Day/Night Lengths: Dynamically adjust the length of the day and night to change over time. At one point the day is longer, then the day and night equals out, then the night is longer than the day. This would also be “fair for everyone” but over a long period of time.

I personally prefer the Variable Day/Night length concept as it would make it so players that have bonuses at night would have a period of time that they have an advantage and a period of time they have a disadvantage. Using this concept, the maximum difference between day and night should be 2 hours. This would allow the maximum different of a 10 hour day to be 4 hours day/ 6 hours night on one end and 6 hours day/4 hours night on the other.

Following the Calendar

Using a 10 hour Tamrielic day we arrive at a 365 day Tamriel year clocking in at just about 5 months. If this were the case, in 10 years we would have 24 Tamriel years pass. This isn’t an unrealistic amount of time to have passed in an MMO’s ‘lifespan’. If ESO turns out to be wildly successful and lasts for 20 years, only 48 years would have passed on Tamriel. Being that ESO takes place in 2E 582 and Tiber Septim wasn’t born until 2E 828, there are over 250 years of the Faction War that can be fought. If each of those years takes 5 months we have 104 earth years before “lore” becomes an issue. Lol.

Within each 5 month year we would see a complete day/night cycle, taking approximately 5 weeks to shift between a Solstice and an Equinox.

• Summer Solstice (6 hours day/4 hours night)
• Fall Equinox (5 hours day/5 hours night)
• Winter Solstice (4 hours day/6 hours night)
• Spring Equinox (5 hours day/5 hours night)

ZOS could decide to have every nirn-day shift in length just a tiny bit (about 1.43 minutes) to be as realistic as possible, or just have the day-light extend/constrict by 24 minutes every week. Either way, the end result would be the same: a variable, dynamic day/night cycle.

Additionally, we could finally have exact day/month of each Tamrielic day in ESO. We could know that the current day is Middas, Second Seed the 14th. Why would THIS be helpful? Well, aside from guild event scheduling and the creation of ESO clocks, it would allow ZOS to incorporate the Tamrelic holidays that so many players are longing for, but in a realistic way that has absolutely no adherence to the Gregorian calendar.

For the 10 hours that is Morning Star the 12th, the people of the Alik’r Desert could offer prayers to Stendaar. Shops could be closed in observance of the holiday and NPCs could be seen praying at the temple and all Redguard players could get a buff on that day.

For the 10 hours that is Frostfall the 13th, also known as the Witches Festival, the Mage’s Guild could offer a ½ off sale, as is tradition. Also, as is tradition, the night of Frostfall the 13th should be filled with an unusual amount of summoned creatures.

Certain festivals could last longer than the day they are on. Just as in our world, people in Tamriel like to Celebrate their favorite holidays for more than just the one day. They could celebrate a holiday an entire week (about 3 days) or even a whole month (about 12 days)! Festivals could be regionalized and they could include sales, contests, and player items could all be part of the festivities. If a player misses their favorite holiday, that’s ok… it’s coming back around in 5 months.

The Main Problem
The main issue with all of these enhancements is quite simply how to pay for the man-hours it would take to make these enhancements? These enhancements would have to lead directly to items that could be purchasable in the Crown Store such as Torch Bundles, Lanterns, and Lantern Oil.

By following the Calendar, ZOS would open up multiple monthly events that could have their own specific Crown Store items. These items could be offered for the one specific month that houses the holiday and not be offered again until the holiday comes around again. These holiday items could be added to regularly and would offer a ‘limited time offer’ dynamic to the Crown Store.

The only aspect of this suggestion that couldn’t be directly monetized is the Dynamic Weather Enhancements. I couldn't come up with a Crown Store item that would be beneficial to the player in different weather conditions as weather is a purely aesthetic mechanic and has no direct impact on gameplay.

Making these changes to ESO would dramatically increase immersion of each and every play session.

Thoughts?

Gidorick wrote: »

Quick one... ZOS should release a crown store pack that just makes ESO more violent and visceral.

ESO Brutality Pack (2000 Crowns)

• More blood
• Longer lasting blood coverage on characters
• Flesh rending and bone crushing sound effects
• Gruesome death animations (runs at real-time)
  • Bodies getting chopped in half at the waist
  • Torsos getting vertically cleaved
  • Arms and legs getting hacked off
  • Heads rolling
    

And my personal favorite....

• The ability to collect body parts from fallen PVP enemies, complete with their names.
  • Fingers from Men (Breton, Nord, Redguard, Imperial)
  • Ears from Mer (Aldmer, Dunmer, Bosmer)
  • Teeth from Orcs
  • Tails from Beasts (Argonian & Khajiit)

The body parts would have NO use in game whatsoever. They would just be a trophy of your accomplishments. They should stack in the inventory by race and when a player looks at the stack, the name of the...er... unfortunate adventurers would be able to be read. And no, they shouldn't be bound.

Oh and the fatalities shouldn't have any slowing down or special camera angels. They should... happen and maybe not even every time.

Any ideas of what you would like to see added to the Brutality Pack?

Gidorick wrote: »

Inns in the Elder Scrolls have always served a simple purpose. Players would visit inns to get a room for the night and to complete quests. In ESO, Inns serve even less purpose. This doesn’t have to be the case.

TL/DR
ZOS should add social Inn mechanics, advanced Inn usage features, mini-games and idle entertainment to the Inns across Tamriel.

Topics:

• Social Centers
• Inn Mechanics
• Inn games
• Barfights

Social Centers
Inns should be seen as the social hubs in the world of Tamriel. When a player wants to find another player to group with or a guild to apply to, they should immediately travel to their local Inn or tavern. To facilitate this there needs to be a few features added to Inns. First and foremost are Tavern Boards.

• Isolated Chat Channel: Whether it is text or voice chat, Inns and Taverns should have communication channels that are isolated from Zone chat. This would draw players into the Inns and Taverns to see what is currently going on. Zone Chat should be available within the Inn or Tavern but players should default to the Inn/Tavern chat when they enter the space. (thanks @spacemonkey !)
• Tavern boards
  There could be three main functions of Tavern boards:
  • Guild Recruitment: Guilds should be able to post to local boards to advertise their guild. On the posting the guild leader can describe the purpose of their guild and add whatever information they deem pertinent to the recruitment. This posting lasts for a certain number of days which is chosen by the poster and paid for upfront.
  • Player Writs: These are items which players are searching for and are looking for the help of another player to either craft gear or gather material. This should likely be a set-form posting so players cannot use it as a means to try to sell their own items. Players complete the writ at the board and once the writ is complete, the posting disappears. The player posting the writ must put the gold upfront for the writ.
  • Calls to Adventure: Players seeking another adventurer can post on the writ board of their desire for a companion on their adventure. Players choose which quest they are seeking help on from their journal, and what kind of help they are seeking. Players can then PM the player who posted the Call to Adventure to group up with them. There is no payment to the player answering the post within the post itself but players could work that out amongst themselves if that is how they wish to handle this mechanic. An in-game clock and calendar would be helpful for this specific mechanic. Calls to Adventure are removed from the board when the player logs out of their character.
  Tavern boards are localized so a guild or player advertising on one board is only advertising on that board and no other. Players and guilds must pay the Inn to post on their board and can post on multiple boards if they wish, but those postings are in no way linked to one another.
  
• Finding Friends
  Players should be encouraged to find friends and group while in Inns and Taverns. This could be as simple as offering a bonus (XP or otherwise) for any group that forms within a tavern for as long as they are grouped.
  
  While this mechanic could appear to be abused by groups who form regularly by allowing them to simply meet up at an Inn and group there to gain the bonus. I do not think, however, this should be discouraged as it gets those players in the habit of going to Inns and Taverns for groups, which they may do at another time to find a fresh group.

Inn Mechanics
In addition to the social mechanics Inns should include a few regular mechanics to make the Inns themselves much more immersive and involving.

• Renting a Room: ZOS should allow players to rent rooms at any Inn for a small amount of gold (100 Gold seems reasonable). In this room, players are able to access the bed and log-out of their characters to receive a buff. This concept is discussed further in my Expanded Rested Bonus Concept.
• Supply Writs: Each Inn and Tavern need supplies to keep them going strong. Players can obtain the supply writs from the Inn Board and deliver them to the bartender or cook (depending on the writ). Writs could request supplies or fully cooked food and brewed drinks.
• Jobs at the Inn: Players could take odd jobs at the Inn that would allow them to earn a little bit of gold, compete on leaderboards and perhaps even earn some exclusive rewards. Some of these jobs could level with the players provisioning level. The higher the level of the player, the more challenging the minigame and the greater the rewards.
  • Waiting Tables: Speaking to the barkeep could open a minigame allowing players the opportunity to wait tables for the tavern or inn for a set period of time.
  • Barkeep & Cook: These two minigames could be a sort of ingredient choosing minigame for provisioning recipes.
  • Bouncer: This minigame could involve players knocking out drunks if they cause any trouble in the Tavern or Inn.

There could also be other jobs in the Tavern or Inn such as menial tasks like clearing out rats in basements (a TES classic!), ejecting deadbeats from the rooms, and playing music in the bar. Many of these jobs could involve branches of different Speechcraft skills (as mentioned in my Advanced Speechcraft Expansion Concept).

Inn Games
Along with working for the Inn there could be a selection of games in the Inn for players to play. Ideally there would be at least one game that is unique to each race and the three games of the alliance could be prevalent throughout the appropriate zones with a few of the other games being tossed in here and there. A few ideas could be:

• Five Claw Card games
• Variations of Chess
• Dice Games
• Knives (like darts)
• Arm Wrestling
• Drinking Games
• Coin Games
• Variation of Dominos
• Variations of five finger filet

Barfights
Many players wish to visit taverns to flex their muscles and make a mess of the place, and ESO could allow this to happen. To encourage this ZOS would have to include an unarmed skill line and barfights could automatically access this skill line and could limit players to only this skill line. Two separate activities could involve the same mechanics with a slight variation. Bar Fights and Basement Brawls

• Bar Fights: These fights take place in the tavern itself against NPCs. If the player continues to fight for too long the city guard will be called and appropriate actions will be taken. This threshold could vary from tavern to tavern.
• Basement Brawls: Underground fight clubs where one on one with other players and NPCs. No law involved, bets rolling high.

Players would not die from bar fights and would just black out for a moment if they are knocked out. They could also increase, or decrease, their chances of victory by drinking and raising their defenses. If a player drinks too much, however, they’ll lose too much coordination and have a greater chance of failure. This mechanic would work in direct conjunction with my Narcotic Addiction Mechanic concept.

Conclusion
With these mechanics Taverns and Inns would become a social hub for players and a place player could go to relax and have fun alone or with their friends. These mechanics would be best accompanied by the ability to interact and sit in chairs. Not all of these ideas would have to be in every bar

So what do you think? Ideas that could be added? Any of this too much?

Gidorick wrote: »

Here’s an easy one:

While I 100% agree that some NPCs shouldn’t be able to be killed, such as merchants and quest givers, they shouldn’t just stare blankly if a player swings at them with an axe or pokes at them with a sword. Add the cowering animation to these NPCs so that they coil back in fear as we swing our weapons toward them. Maybe even add a mechanic to where if we swing at them a few times in a row they call for help, which causes us to get a little bounty and some heat.

Just because they’re invulnerable doesn’t mean they have to be oblivious.

Gidorick wrote: »

I have always enjoyed the maps in ESO. I love their aesthetics. They are a great compromise between hand-drawn styled maps and over-world maps like Skyrim and Daggerfall. There are a few additions that would really make the mapping system become more alive! While there are add-ons that will do pretty much all of this, the below ideas include monetization aspects for the Crown Store.

• Writing on Maps
• Stamps and Seals
• Map Reveal Mechanic
• Cartographers

Writing on Maps
First and foremost is the addition of the ability to write on the maps. This would be a simple “write & erase” mechanic. Players could buy a Charcoal & Eraser item from the Crown Store that is consumable and would eventually run out and require repurchase.

This would be a straight forward write-anything-anywhere type mechanic. Players would place the cursor anywhere on the map and type whatever they wanted on their map.

Stamps and Seals
Additionally, this could also include a stamp set that’s also purchasable in the Crown Store with separate consumable wax to create seals.

These seals could be placed and removed using different stamps and colors. Using the Charcoal & Eraser a player could add notes about the specific stamps.

Map Reveal Mechanic
For FUTURE zones, ZOS shouldn’t automatically include an entire revealed map of the zone. Players should have to travel the area to reveal the map. This should be true of Exterior Zones, City Maps, and Dungeon Maps.

Crown Store
In the Crown Store players should be able to buy for Crowns:

• Map Packs that include a Zone map with city and dungeon maps.
• Cartographers Eye for each zone that shows ALL points of interest in the zone. (Skyshards, Treasures, Lorebooks, Etc.)
• Charcoal & Eraser Packs (5 sets)
• Stamps & Wax Packs (5 sets)

In Game Cartographers
Each city, at least the larger cities, should have a cartographer that can offer the following for gold:

• Revealed Zone Maps
• Individual city maps
• Individual dungeon maps
• The location of Treasures/books/materials/etc in a zone
• Individual Charcoal & Eraser sets. Each set lasts 1/2 as long as the sets included in the packs sold for Crowns.
• Individual Stamps & Wax Sets. Each set lasts 1/2 as long as the sets included in the packs sold for Crowns.
• Cartography Writs

At the Cartographer, players should be able to purchase gold purchasable items, as well as having a tab for Crown Store purchases, giving all players the freedom and flexibility to buy maps and accessories in whatever currency they wish to spend.

Thoughts?

Gidorick wrote: »

This is a pretty simple concept. ZOS should add some links to the loading screens so that players can view the latest news, announcements, art & media, patch notes, development posts, community posts, and their lore library (once they earn it, and after they have selected a character) while the loading screen churns away.

The menu shouldn't be intrusive so players can enjoy the art on the loading screens.


Selecting the menu should bring up the same information that can be found here:
http://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/category/announcements


The Lore Library, once earned, should allow players to read the various lore looks they have found



Once loading has completed (including the loading of textures of other characters - doing away with silhouette-men), the Uroburos will stop spinning and change to an enter command and players are given the option to enter the game at their leisure.


Player's characters shouldn't enter the game until they initiate entrance. This would help with the issue of loading into death.

Anyway. That's about it. Give players something to do other than watch the spinning logo, twiddle their thumbs, or decide to play something else.

Gidorick wrote: »

There has been a few discussions about race specific mounts in ESO. With the new direction of ESO, having race specific mounts wouldn’t make a lot of sense. However, for RP and immersion purposes, having race specific mounts is quite the boon. There is, however, a middle ground.

Mount Specific Racial Riding Bonuses

Core Concept
ZOS should consider giving bonuses to players who ride their Race Specific Mount. These bonuses should be placed on top of whatever their current skills are.

• 10% Speed Bonus
• 20% Stamina Bonus

These bonuses do not mean that other races shouldn’t be able to ride these mounts, they just won’t receive the racial riding bonus. This system will allow all players to ride all mounts but will give players incentives to not only create alternate characters but to use their Race Specific Mount.

Now let's have some fun!
Below are some suggestions for what NEW mount could be added for each race. Each Mount could be purchased in the Crown Store in various styles, just as the horses and Senche cats will soon be.

Thoughts?