Gidorick wrote: »

As ESO develops, it becomes more and more apparent that having tangible mounts would be good for the game, the players, and for ZOS. By tangible, I mean that the mount doesn’t disappear when you dismount. It continues to be part of the world.

I have touched on some of these concepts in a couple of previous threads.

• This concept is born of my thread Concept Discussion Mount Stays concept and takes that thread’s conversation into consideration.
• This concept is in addition (and works in tandem) to my Advanced Mounts Overhaul Concept.

While this would create some concerns in regards to system resources, there are some mechanics below that could easily circumvent most issues and would help create a move viscous gaming experience for everyone and a more profitable gaming environment for ZOS.

TL/DR
I am suggesting that Mounts should stick around a player when the player dismounts and that mounts should have their own character menu which would allow for mount outfitting and additional functions.

This post will cover the following topics:

• Mount-Stay Radius
• Mount Menu
• Mount Equipment Screen
• Crafting Mount Equipment
• Mount Costumes
• Additional Enhancements

Mount-Stay Radius
When a player dismounts, their mount should hang around and not run off. The mount could have idle animations, like shaking its head, or eating grass. The player should be able to walk around the mount doing their own thing, but if they wander too far away (10 feet or so) the mount will run off.

To call the mount, the player will press H. The mount will then run to the player from a distance. A toggle-able “Automount” option would determine if the player climbs aboard the mount as soon as it is close enough or if the mount just stands nearby.

A mount should run away in fear if a player is ever dismounted or if the player engages in battle. While in battle, a player should not be able to call their mount. Mounts should never be autonomous enough fight alongside their owner.

If a player is dismounted, yet their mount has not yet ran away, and they press H, their character will make a clicking sound and the mount will trot up next to them. When next to the mount, players can climb aboard the mount by pressing E or they can hold down E to access the Mount Menu.

The Mount Menu
This Mount Menu is accessible by long-pressing E on the mount and would give the player the following options:

• Command (Follow, Stay, Get): The Command list would primarily be used to toggle the mount to follow the player while the player is not actively riding the mount. This would allow players to have their mount follow them in much the same way a pet follows and would have the mount stay within the Mount-Stay radius. If the player somehow leaves the Mount-Stay radius while follow is toggled on, the mount would run away, per the usual mechanic, disregarding the follow toggle. This would be to prevent weird situations with the mount being stuck behind something while it tries to follow the player.
  
  Stay and Get could also be commands. Stay could be used by players who wish to not have their mount run off right away. Perhaps the Stay command increases the Mount-Stay radius 3X for a limited duration. Get would dismiss the mount immediately by the player smacking the mount on the rear. The mount would then run off before dematerializing. The Stay command would have no impact on the skittishness of mounts. If a player attacks or is attacked, the mount Gets!
  
• Feed: If the player has the option to feed the mount a treat (as outlined in my thread Advanced Mounts Overhaul Concept), they could do so in the Mont Menu. Feed could be sold exclusively in the Crown Store, or could also be sold by in-game vendors or be craftable through the provisioning skills with recipes that are found around the world and/or sold in the Crown Store. A nice little emote of the player feeding the mount could play. This could be different for each mount to give them some flavor.
  
• Equipment: Selecting Equipment from the Mount Menu would be an alternate way to access the Mount Equipment Screen.
  
• Emotes: Brining up the mount emotes would allow players to pet/brush/pat/bow and generally play with their mount. Different mount types could have different emotes such as shoe and rear for horses, tussle and hug for bears, etc.

Mount Equipment Screen
The Mount Equipment Screen would be an alternate Inventory Screen where the player sees their mount and the mount’s equipment instead of their own. There should be 4 Equipment slots for Mounts:

• Saddle
• Armor
• Cargo
• Wrap

And 3 slots for Accessories

• Costume
• Shoes
• Bit & Bridle

The mount equipment screen should change, depending on the type of mount the player currently has selected. This screen shouldn’t reset when a different mount is chosen so players could equip their mount with one character and use that same equipment on that mount while playing a different character.

If a player has not reached the specific riding skill to be able to see the specific equipment on their mount, that equipment would not be viewable to that character and would not impact the mount’s stats while they are riding them. This would even be true if the mount is outfitted on another character with that equipment.

The Saddle, Armor, and Wrap are all different variations of that specific equipment type. Different styles could be offered so the player could outfit their mount with their specific style.

The Cargo equipment would primarily be for different saddle bags but could also be for banners, camping gear with bedrolls, weird mounted alchemy labs, stacks of books, pots, etc., all of which would be for the aesthetics of the mount and serve no actual function, or maybe they could…

The Costume Accessory should work much like equippable costumes work in ESO now, except they would be for mounts. Mount costumes could be found in future content releases.

The Shoes and Bit & Bridle would both add stat effects to the mount. Shoes could always add a speed effect and the Bit & Bridle could increase the mount stamina.

Crafting Mount Equipment
Adding a Saddle, Armor, Cargo, and Wrap crafting options would flesh out crafting in the game and ZOS could add additional Mount Motif books to both the game and the Crown Store. Each Crafting line would have to have multiple styles per motif for the different types of mounts available. Of course, ZOS could simply have multiple motifs so the Senche Breton Motif is different from the Guar Breton Motif which would different from the Horse Breton Motif.

The different equipment could be purchasable or craftable by using different crafting lines.

• Saddle = Purchasable from the Stable.
• Armor = Blacksmithing Crafting
• Equipment = Woodworker Crafting
• Wrap = Clothier Crafting

Wraps and Banners could be used in a similar manner to Guild Tabards with guild symbols, ZOS could also sell faction or in-game guild Wraps and Banners. Shoes and Bit &Bridle accessories cold also be sold by in game Stable Merchants.

Mount Costumes
Mount Costumes would serve much the same purpose as player costumes. To facilitate this there would have to be a Mount Costumes section added to the Collections menu. While each costume would be for a specific mount type, all mount costumes could be grouped together under this Mount Costume tab.

These would be full costumes for the mount that players can buy from the Crown Store. They could include flair or embellishments that are otherwise unavailable such as a molten lava armor costume with subsurface animation.

Additional Enhancements
If the principals laid out in my Advanced Mounts Overhaul Concept are implemented the Saddle, Armor, Cargo, and Wrap equipment could have a positive or negative impact all available Riding Skills. This would give the player a lot of customizability with their mounts, making each mount entirely unique to that specific player. The stat effect from the Equipment could benefit the player’s riding skill taking a riding skill of 60 beyond that cap.

The only skill which couldn’t have a stat bonus based on mount equipment would be Capacity, not unless the Over-Encumbrance concept I outlined here (http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/162693/more-bags-and-encumbrance-crown-store-concepts ) were put into place.

Some of the Equipment could also impact the player abilities. For example, a miner’s Cargo pack could increase the distance a player will see a material node and could result in a higher yield.

Equipment enchanting could be used to enchant the different equipment that are used on the mount for different mount stat effects, much in the same way armor is enchanted now.

Since players would have additional riding skills using the Advanced Mounts Overhaul Concept, the points required to be able to see and equip the different equipment could depend on the points placed in one or multiple skills.

• 20 total points in Speed/Defense/Fortitude/Provocation allows player to see/equip Armor
• 20 total points in Stamina/Attack/Provocation/Compulsion allows player to see/equip a Wrap
• 20 total points in Capacity/Inspiration/Aquestrian/Determination allows player to see/equip Cargo
• All players with any mount should be able to change or unequip saddles. This shouldn’t require any points to be added to any riding skill. Players should also be able to ride their mount without a saddle.

This Mount Tangibility system would provide players with additional crafting, additional gameplay mechanics, and additional options with which to reflect their own personal style. More importantly, these mechanics would provide ZOS with a handful of items that could be sold in the Crown Store.

All of this would create a very robust mount system but it would require a good deal of effort and retooling to make it work. Currently, the way mounts are implemented, they seem to be little more than character costumes that impact the speed of the character. This system would have to separate the character and the mount and would have to make the mount its own artifact within the game world. This would take some effort, but the benefits would be far reaching and continually profitable.

Thoughts?

Gidorick wrote: »

While I understand that mobs have to spawn somewhere, I don't get why they have stand around and wait to be attacked and be stuck to a limited radius. It would create a much more interesting world if the mobs just ran around randomly. Perhaps they end up fighting each other, or they group together to form a little... uhm... mob of mobs. This would make the world much more dynamic.

While I get that certain mobs should be constrained to certain areas (zombies in the graveyard), this doesn't mean each mob within that area needs to be in it's own little pocket. Open it up and let them free!

I know this has been spoken about in other threads but I've never seen a thread dedicated to this concept. Is there a technical reason this cant be done? Would the dynamic locations of mobs just be too much information for the servers to be constantly feeding to clients?

Gidorick wrote: »

One of the more ‘sandboxy’ aspects of ESO that I have really enjoyed is the Treasure Hunting. Finding a map and running around a zone to find the right location is really fun. It would be even more fun if players were allowed to bury their own treasures around Tamriel.

I have a really detailed explanation of this concept with percentages and numbers but I realized no one wants to read that so here are the highlights… with some numbers.

Player Motivation

• Players can bury chests as a gamble with the possibility of XP and gold return based on the value of the items buried and the length of time the chest is hidden.
• Players who find a treasure by following a map would get the contents of the chest plus an amount of XP determined by how long the chest has been buried.

Creating the Chest

• Players should be able to build a chest by independently crafting the Chest, the Lock, and the Map.
• Chests can be crafted in different motifs and quality, which could impact XP and gold return.
• Locks can be crafted with different levels of difficulty and can be enchanted with glyphs for traps.
• Maps can either be bought from a merchant or could be crafted, depending on how complex the system needs to be.

Burying the Chest

• After a player has the three components, they can choose a spot to bury their items. Players who bury treasures will receive a Master Map of their treasure map and a key.
• The map is created by the player choosing a view a specific distance from the treasure. ZOS would have to really work on this so that players couldn’t just make a map of a bunch of leaves or the side of a house, obscuring the view of the chest.
• The Map should be a screenshot that is converted to “Sketch” or “watercolor” style automatically by the system with the treasure being indicated automatically.
• Players should be able to name their treasure or the system could assign it a name based on a predetermined list of words. “The Mysterious Bounty of Kalin Thundershoe in Glenumbra”
• Once buried, a copy of the treasure map will be randomly dropped by a mob in the zone. The longer the treasure goes un-found more maps are dropped.
• The lock could deteriorate over time, making it more susceptible to seizing (as outlined in my Advanced Lockpicking suggestion, which can be found here http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/146487/advanced-lockpicking-concept-suggestion).

Treasure Yield

• The possible XP return, which is determined by the quality of the chest should be up to a 1:1 conversion of the value of the items in the chest.
• Initially, 100% of the XP yield is rewarded to the treasure finder, if the treasure is found on the first map drop.
• For every additional map drop, the XP pool skews toward the treasure hider. Example: If 10 maps have been dropped, the treasure finder gets 50% of the XP pool and the treasure hider receives 50% of the pool upon their return.
• At any point, the player that buried the treasure can return to their booty and claim their XP and gold return (they should receive an equal percentage return on their gold). If the treasure hasn’t been found, the player receives all that they placed in the chest PLUS the XP and gold yield. If the treasure was found, they receive the percentage of the XP pool that the finder did not receive an equal percentage of gold yield.

Additional Mechanics

• Once a treasure is found, no further map copies are dropped and all copies of the dropped maps crumble to dust and fragments in player’s inventories, letting players know that treasure has been found. The Master Map owned by the player that buried the treasure remains intact so they can return to the treasure to claim their gold yield and XP. That player will not know if their treasure was found until they open their chest to claim their prize.
• If a player holding Master Maps and keys is killed in PVP, the player that defeated them will be able to steal the key and a Master Copy of the map. The victor can then find the treasure and claim whatever the treasure hider would have been entitled to. If the treasure had not yet been claimed the victor would claim the contents, and the XP percentage and gold yield that would have been awarded to the treasure hider.
• When the treasure is found by a player holding a Master Map or a Master Copy map, the key for that chest will break, letting the player holding the key know that the treasure is no longer available.
• Master Copy maps and Keys should be bind on pickup. This is to prevent players from burying a treasure and then giving maps and keys to their friends to allow their friends to get an immediate XP boost. Maps dropped by mobs, however, could be sold or traded to create a sort of treasure-map trade.

Guild Treasures
A slight alteration of this concept could allow guild leaders and officers to also randomly mail treasure maps to members of their guild. The rate of random mailing could be more frequent and the map could be mailed to multiple members at once. This mechanic could unlock when a guild has 200+ members. The large number of members required is to prevent possible system abuse.

So that’s an overview of the concept. Any thoughts? What would be a good way to monetize this for the Crown Shop? I already suggested in my Advanced Lockpicking Suggestion (http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/146487/advanced-lockpicking-concept-suggestion#latest) that an Awl and Hammer be sold in the crown shop to allow players to bust open locks. The Advanced Lockpicking coupled with this suggestion could lead to a really robust Treasure Mechanic for ESO.

Complete treasure kits could be sold in the crown shop or players could craft the kits themselves.

Thoughts?

Gidorick wrote: »

With the new Justice System, I thought of a pretty interesting NPC and Player Instigation mechanic that could add a more dynamic way to enter Duels than many other MMOs.

When a player approaches an NPC or another player, they should be able to press a button (R?) to shove the player and instigate them. The Instigating player could play a ‘shove’ animation and the target would play a ‘shoved’ animation.

NPC Instigation:
All NPCs could have an un-seen instigation meter that could be different for the different races. A player who instigates an NPC into attacking them will NOT receive a bounty for fighting back. A player that is caught instigating an NPC will receive a bounty, but it will be less than if they outright attack them.

Perhaps a Dunmer only needs to shove an Argonian NPC once to instigate that NPC to fight. On the opposite end, a Nord would need to shove another Nord quite a few times (5 or so) to get a Nord NPC to fight.

Player Instigating & Duel:
If a player instigates another player, the instigated player will have the option to either attack or instigate the instigator. NOTE: ALL PLAYERS SHOULD HAVE THE OPTION TO NOT BE INSTIGATED.

The instigated player should have the option to instigate back or to attack. Once a player instigates another player, an Instigation Timer starts. Once the Instigation Timer runs out, the much shorter Attack Timer starts.

The initial instigator can see the timers, but the instigated player cannot. If the second player instigates the first player before the Instigation Timer runs out, they enter a friendly duel that isn’t associated with any ranking system whatsoever. If the second player instigates the player AFTER the Instigation Timer runs out (can be before the Attack Timer runs out) the the second player then receives the Instigation Timer and the chase begins again.

Once the Instigator Timer runs out, a much shorter Attack Timer begins. If a player attacks an instigator within the limit of the Instigation and/or Attack Timers they both enter into a Ranked Duel. The instigated player gets a first attack advantage in these Duels.

Players that only want to play Ranked matches can BLOCK after an instigation which will accomplish 3 things.

• It will let the instigated player know they want a ranked match
• It will not allow the instigated player to instigate back (blocking should prevent instigation)
• It will block the incoming attack from the instigated player.

Ranked matches should have leaderboards and perhaps even certain in-game perks for the highest tier of players.

These mechanics would add an interesting TAG dynamic to player Duels that could be used strategically to give players an advantage in Ranked Duels and can allow players to trick opponents into giving them the first attack.

Again, ALL PLAYERS SHOULD HAVE THE OPTION TO NOT BE INSTIGATED.

Thoughts?

Kalifas wrote: »

Classcrafting
They might as well so since there is no class unique story or specific class quest.

• The champion system is built to accommodate different builds and multiple characters.
• Most skills come from weapon lines, armors, or guilds
• Spellcrafting will allow mixing and matching from different schools of magic
• Mundus Stones are boons applicable to one character during a time
• The cry for balance could disappear because there was no this class is better than my class

Introduce Classcrafting:


A UI of constellations similar to the champion system. There will be a constellation for each iconic skillset introduced. Imagine a Dragon Knight or Templar set in the stars among other constellations and future ones such as Cryomage. Each star unlocks a skill from it's tree of iconic skill set.Quest lines with immersive story covering the journey of discovering all the powers of these constellations. To keep everyone from looking the same. Each skill set could have an iconic look that differentiates the aesthetics from other constellations. But there is no true job or class system since every player can learn every skill from every constellation eventually. Whichever constellation you draw/set the most skills from determines what your iconic look is. You quest the skills, each constellation could have an elite champion star/stars among the regular stars to unlock that requires conquering a difficult trial specific to that class type constellation. All stars could then be ranked up like skills now and morphed.

Create a build swap that allows preset skills,champion points,armor, and weapons to be saved and swapped between on the fly outside combat and would be one hell of a fluid system.

Gidorick wrote: »

Gidorick wrote: »

The recent change of mount skills leading to riding skills has lead me to have some notions of how Mounts could be expanded in ESO while adhering to the changes that have been made. The overall notion of this concept is to expand on the mount system we currently have to offer a more engaging and immersive experience in terms of an MMO gameplay mechanic and an aspect of an RPG.

Overview:

• Mount Combat
• Additional Riding Skills
• Mount Buffs
• Advanced Mount AI
• First Person Mount Riding
• Mount Tangibility
• Mounted Combat
• Monetization: The Crown Store Additions

Mount Combat
The “Mount Combat” concept is to allow players to attack with their mount. Each mount could have different attack animations. Horses could attack with their hooves, Tigers and Guars could attack with their teeth. Attacks would be activated with a mount specific ability bar that is accessible only while mounted.

• Mount Ability Bar
  • Attack:The mount’s standard attack. Upgradable.
  • Spur : The mount chuffs or growls or stomps. A chance of increasing its attack , defense, and fortitude. Upgradable.
  • Ram: The mount would lean back and butt up against the enemy, with a chance to knockback and stun. Upgradable.
  • Rush: This could be activated from a distance. The mount lunges toward the enemy, pouncing for the attack. Upgradable.
  • Flee: This ability could be used in and out of combat. It is a sprint in which the mount and the player are immune to attacks of any kind, allowing the player to flee from a dangerous situation. It also refills a percentage of the mount’s fortitude. Upgradable.
  • Ultimate: Each mount could have a specific ultimate. NOT directly upgradable. The effectiveness is dependent on overall level of the riding skills.

All upgradable mount abilities would be tied to the Riding Skills, which should remain upgradable in the exact same way they are upgradable now. The abilities are not tied to experience points, skill points, or champion points. They are earned through the Riding Skill mechanic.

• Mount Fortitude: A mount shouldn’t have life, exactly. Below the life bar there should be a fortitude meter. Once that meter runs out, the mount becomes spooked. If a mount is spooked during a fight they will throw the off and flee for their life. They should not able to be recalled until the player is out of combat.

Additional Skills
To accommodate the Mount Ability Bar as well as add additional options to the mount skill variety, I suggest the following Skills be added to the riding skills.

• Riding Skills: These are additional Riding Skills that are attached to the Character. These skills are attached to the Rider to highlight the skill the rider has at handling mounts. Mounts listen to a character the higher these skills and the character has a better command over their bestial companions. These would still be upgradeable once per day, per character.
  • Compulsion:Increase the Speed and Duration of the Flee Ability.
  • Fortitude: Increases the overall fortitude of the Mount.
  • Sovereignty: Upgrading this skill allows the mount to act autonomously for a longer duration, more on that later.
• Mount Skills: These skills would be Mount Skills that are attached to the mount. These skills are attached to the mount because each mount would have different skills and abilities. These skills would be upgradeable once per day, per mount.
  • Attack: Increate the attack damage of the Attack Ability.
  • Defense: Increase the passive defense rating of the Mount.
  • Provocation: Increase both the chance and the effectiveness of the Spur Ability.
  • Determination: Increase both the chance and the effectiveness of the Ram Ability.
  • Inspiration: Increase both the distance and the effectiveness of the Rush Ability.
  • Aquestrian: One point in this skill and mounts are able to swim in the water, upgrades increase its speed in the water. (Get it? Aquestrian... hehe)

All of these skills would be upgradable once a day for 250 gold each, just as the three skills are upgradable now. This would give players a total of 12 riding skills they can upgrade, and one character could upgrade the mount skills of all mounts each day.

Mount Buffs
Each mount can be fed snacks and treats that will give them buffs on a specific trait or ability. Each treat has 3 quality variations (Bland/Tasty/Savory) of the treat that will provide a 10% buff for 40 minutes/ 15% buff for 20 minutes / 20% buff for 10 minutes.

These buffs can be for:

• Speed
• Stamina
• Attack (increases damage dealt on all 4 offensive abilities)
• Defense
• Fortitude
• Aquestrian
• Sovereignty

These 7 buff types would be dependent on 7 types of treats for each mount. Again, each treat would have the three quality types of Bland/Tasty/Savory.

Horse

• Grass Bundle
• Fistfull of Hay
• Oat Crumble
• Flax Seed Cookie
• Dried Beets
• Salt mix
• Apple Slices

Guar

• Live Crickets
• Mixed Berries
• Mellon balls
• Fish Guts
• Snake tail
• Skeever jerky
• Mudcrab Chum

Senche

• Whole Squirrel
• Skinned fox
• Dewinged bat
• Chicken breasts
• Goat chop
• Deer loin
• Moon Sugar cane

The two methods of obtaining these treats would be:

• Bought individually through the Stable/Mount Trainers (individual Mount Trainers for each Mount type concept HERE)
• Bought in bulk packs through the Crown Store

Players would simply “Use” the treats as they would be in their inventory. If a player is mounted while using a treat it would be preferable if there were an animation of the player leaning forward, stretching out their arm, the mount looking back and taking the treat from the players hand and the player patting their mount on the head, but that wouldn’t be necessary. Just a nice little touch, if ZOS were so inclined.

The buff would be applied to the player’s riding skill and should be viewable on the character screen and should be mount type specific so a player could have a Horse, Guar, and a Senche buff applied at the same time, but only one buff for each.

Advanced Mount AI
Along with the above additions, mounts should have advanced AI as described in my post: Horse auto-run AI which can be found HERE.

The long and short of this concept is we should be able to set our mount in a direction and press the auto-run key and the mounts should avoid trees and rocks and should be able to find its way forward. Alternately, we should be able to set a marker on the map and have the mount travel to that marker by finding the closest road and following that road.

The duration of the Advanced Mount AI should be dependent on the Sovereignty Skill. The Sovereignty skill determines how well your mount follows a rider’s directions and can act autonomously without direct interaction. The greater the skill, the longer the mount is focused and undistracted. This could be displayed by a Sovereignty meter that appears on screen when the auto-run is pressed while mounted and depletes as a player’s mount acts on its own.

Once the meter is depleted, the mount will ‘dumb down’ and act as mounts currently do, getting caught on trees, rocks, fences, buildings, etc.

NOTE: Although players do have the auto-run option while on foot, Sovereignty shouldn’t apply to this dismounted movement mechanic.

First Person Mount Riding
This one is pretty straight forward. Allow player to ride their mount while in first person. There is a post on it HERE from @mandrakethebard_ESO . Most of us that want this would be willing to PAY for the option in the Crown Store.

Mount Tangibility
The fact that mounts dematerialize once we dismount is unfortunate. I posted a suggestion HERE regarding mounts staying around while we are off of them.

While I would really like for my mount to walk beside me, I would be perfectly content if the mount simply ran away when players dismounted and ran up when a player wanted to ride them. While it would take a few seconds for the mount to arrive from a distance, most of us who want this feature are ok with that. To accommodate those that would NOT want this feature, it should be to toggled on and off in the settings menu. Again, if it had to be, ZOS could sell this feature in the Crown Store.

I expand on this concept in this thread here: http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/165659/tangible-mounts-advanced-concept/p1

Mounted Combat
Using many of these mechanics that we mentioned above players could be then given the option to partake in Mounted Combat. This is when the player uses their weapon to attack another player or NPC while staying on their mount.

The player would use the right mouse button to look around while on their mount, functioning like a mouse freelook with limiters where the player character rotates at the hip to look around. Pressing the Weapon Draw button, players would enter mounted combat. If they let go of the right mouse button, they simply attack “forward”.

Then the player would use the left mouse button to attack with their weapon. While on the mount players can attack using either of their weapons but maybe shouldn't have access to a full skill bar. If a player has full access to their abilities they may be dissuaded from dismounting to partake in combat. However, players must be given enough incentive to stay on their mount to make the mechanic interesting. Perhaps allowing players to only assign one or two Mounted Abilities assigned would be sufficient deterrent to encourage players to dismount for combat but would be enough to where a player can be formidable while mounted.

Players can also choose to toggle a mount’s autonomy before entering Mounted Combat. If they do so, and they then lock onto a target, the mount will then circle the target, allowing the player to attack the target at will. The mount will instinctively know if you are using a ranged weapon or a close quarter’s weapon and will keep an appropriate distance.

If a player toggles off Mounted Combat by sheathing their weapon and they will return to the mount riding mode.

Monetization: The Crown Store Additions
There are many monetization opportunities that arise through these enhancements.

• 500C – Feed Bag: A single slot inventory item that houses all treats for mounts, no matter how many the player has. Items cannot be placed within or taken out of the feedbag. If a player has treats for their mount, it can be found in the Feedbag, otherwise, one treat type consumes one inventory space.
• 200C – Bland Mount Treat Sampler Pack (21 Bland treats, 1 of each type for your mounts)
• 400C – Tasty Mount Treat Sampler Pack (21 Tasty treats, 1 of each type for your mounts)
• 600C – Savory Mount Treat Sampler Pack (21 Savory treats, 1 of each type for your mounts & one pack for each mount type)
• 200C – Bland Treat Sampler Pack (14 Bland treats for your Mount, 2 of each type & one pack for each mount type)
• 400C – Tasty Treat Sampler Pack (14 Tasty treats for your Mount, 2 of each type & one pack for each mount type)
• 600C – Savory Treat Sampler Pack (14 Savory treats for your Mount, 2 of each type & one pack for each mount type)
• 200C – Bland Treats 10 pack (10 bland treats for your Mount, one type & one pack for each mount type)
• 400C – Tasty Treats 10 Pack (10 tasty treats for your Mount, one type & one pack for each mount type)
• 600C – Savory Treats 10 Pack (14 savory treats for your Mount, one type & one pack for each mount type)
• 500C – Advanced Riding Lessons. This 4 pack of Advanced Riding Lessons allows players to bypass the time and gold requirement for the next riding lesson and upgrade 1 riding skill for each lesson (includes 4 lessons).
• 500 C – First Person Riding Pack: Enables Players to ride their Mount in first person.
• 200C – Mount Tangibility Pack: Mounts run away and run up when dismounting and mounting.

All of these suggestions would add a total of 25 items that could be bought from the Crown Store. 22 of which would be consumable, re-purchasable items.

Overall, these advanced mount features would greatly increase the customizability of the mounts, increase their interactivity, increase PVE and PVE combat options, add to long term return purchase options to the crown store, add gameplay by adding mount progression, and would add to the overall variety of ESO.

Thoughts?

FortheloveofKrist wrote: »

Before someone says "that's already been discussed," please read the entire suggestion.

I realize Justice System PvP is a dead idea atm, but how about allowing the "sight" of players into the equation. If a player is facing a person at the moment they steal, then they get a bounty. Much like the NPCs. You can't kill them or go summon a guard. But the thief would get the bounty. That would make thievery much more difficult. You couldn't stay in stealth all the time because people would know you are about to steal. You would have to pick your spots and actually watch to see if ANYONE is watching, including other players.

Just an idea. Thanks for the thread.

Kalifas wrote: »

Mechanical Constructs of Nirn
Imagine walking in the Bangkorai desert and one of these big monsters stands in the center. It's your guilds. You walk up to it and either enter through the foot or the giant reaches down and takes you to the entrance in it's body. Inside you see your guild members, rooms, crafting stations, trophies, etc. Your guild is on the way to fight a giant dragon with the colossus. Or imagine walking into a PvP zone and seeing 20 or so huge giants fighting along side players in a battle.




The idea would be that giants be introduced into ESO. Guilds could gather common and rare materials or schematics through-out Nirn. And give them to the Architect who would construct one Colossus per guild. Depending on the materials used, it could get resistances and attributes based off those. For example, one could be constructed with heavy fire resistance or a lightning elemental attack. If constructed from wood it would be faster but have lighter defense. Stone would have medium defense and speed and high crits. Metal constructs would have high defense but slightly less damage dishing and slower.

An idea of battle interaction:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgJRS-Iqmdw

Players could battle along side a giant or if they are attacking one. The giant would be climbable and have a unique weak point. As for giant control I will need some help to come up with that. Should it be totally controlled by one member and fight just like a character would with 12 skills slots. Or would it be cooler to have a few guild members contribute? For example, one guild member controls WASD movement using skill slots 1-8. One controls the blocking arm. One controls the swinging arm. One controls the special attacks it dishes out. The rest of the guild members stoke stat fires like on a steam boat. Few members stoke a health fire for health regen, few members stock a mana blaze for mana regen, and a few members stoke a stamina fire for stamina regen.

Idea of scale and a game that uses giants in all it's games:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_0OCZC8TVY

dodgehopper_ESO wrote: »

Gidorick wrote: »

Kalifas wrote: »

Mechanical Constructs of Nirn
Imagine walking in the Bangkorai desert and one of these big monsters stands in the center. It's your guilds. You walk up to it and either enter through the foot or the giant reaches down and takes you to the entrance in it's body. Inside you see your guild members, rooms, crafting stations, trophies, etc. Your guild is on the way to fight a giant dragon with the colossus. Or imagine walking into a PvP zone and seeing 20 or so huge giants fighting along side players in a battle.




The idea would be that giants be introduced into ESO. Guilds could gather common and rare materials or schematics through-out Nirn. And give them to the Architect who would construct one Colossus per guild. Depending on the materials used, it could get resistances and attributes based off those. For example, one could be constructed with heavy fire resistance or a lightning elemental attack. If constructed from wood it would be faster but have lighter defense. Stone would have medium defense and speed and high crits. Metal constructs would have high defense but slightly less damage dishing and slower.

An idea of battle interaction:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgJRS-Iqmdw

Players could battle along side a giant or if they are attacking one. The giant would be climbable and have a unique weak point. As for giant control I will need some help to come up with that. Should it be totally controlled by one member and fight just like a character would with 12 skills slots. Or would it be cooler to have a few guild members contribute? For example, one guild member controls WASD movement using skill slots 1-8. One controls the blocking arm. One controls the swinging arm. One controls the special attacks it dishes out. The rest of the guild members stoke stat fires like on a steam boat. Few members stoke a health fire for health regen, few members stock a mana blaze for mana regen, and a few members stoke a stamina fire for stamina regen.

Idea of scale and a game that uses giants in all it's games:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_0OCZC8TVY

I love this whole idea @Kalifas .. but I don't know if it's "right" for ESO but I love the idea of giant hulking titans that we can battle against and with.

This is a definitely cool idea, and reminds me of Shadow of the Colossus. I'm not sure its thematically feasible since it took Shor-incarnate aka Tiber Septim in order to do his whole Mantella thing and send the dwemer brass monstrosity to do conquering for him. I think as cool as it is, the developers probably wouldn't want to do this because it would undermine this major story element running through the series.

Kendar[quote= wrote:

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: »

Kalifas wrote: »

Classcrafting
They might as well so since there is no class unique story or specific class quest.

• The champion system is built to accommodate different builds and multiple characters.
• Most skills come from weapon lines, armors, or guilds
• Spellcrafting will allow mixing and matching from different schools of magic
• Mundus Stones are boons applicable to one character during a time
• The cry for balance could disappear because there was no this class is better than my class

Introduce Classcrafting:


A UI of constellations similar to the champion system. There will be a constellation for each iconic skillset introduced. Imagine a Dragon Knight or Templar set in the stars among other constellations and future ones such as Cryomage. Each star unlocks a skill from it's tree of iconic skill set.Quest lines with immersive story covering the journey of discovering all the powers of these constellations. To keep everyone from looking the same. Each skill set could have an iconic look that differentiates the aesthetics from other constellations. But there is no true job or class system since every player can learn every skill from every constellation eventually. Whichever constellation you draw/set the most skills from determines what your iconic look is. You quest the skills, each constellation could have an elite champion star/stars among the regular stars to unlock that requires conquering a difficult trial specific to that class type constellation. All stars could then be ranked up like skills now and morphed.

Create a build swap that allows preset skills,champion points,armor, and weapons to be saved and swapped between on the fly outside combat and would be one hell of a fluid system.

I like the core concept @Kalifas but I don't think players should be able to learn every skill from every class... I think there should be a cap. I am staunchly against the homogony of character skills. I really don't think an advancement system in an MMO should ever see all players eventually having all the same skills.

But the pick and choose concept. I like that.