@Thealteregoroman @KimoBitz @OtarTheMad @Katahdin @Giles.floydub17_ESO @bubbygink @DRXHarbinger @trinimacNcheese @vyndral13preub18_ESO @Saltypretzels


Spellcrafting has been mentioned as still coming as recently as this interview on August 23, 2016.

http://wccftech.com/elder-scrolls-online-interview-looking-ahead-with-game-director-matt-firor/

A while back, you demonstrated an Arena PvP mode at a convention. Is it still on the roadmap?

We have a list of things we’re working on. That’s further out, but yes, we are still looking at it, it’s still in our plans but we don’t know yet when it’s going to launch. But it is something we want to do.


Okay. I guess the same thing could be said about spell crafting?

Same thing. With spell crafting we actually got in enough to start seeing how it worked, we didn’t like the design so much and it was going to be more work than we thought to get it to launch so we kind of put it aside to do Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood, One Tamriel, housing etc.

But it will come eventually, it’s just further out.

Here's a post I did a while back that datamined how it was supposed to work and what spells it was to include. The system we will get will most likely be quite different by now though. Here's hoping it makes Matt's Road Ahead article he has coming out in a few weeks.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/3697836#Comment_3697836

How about between now and then?

But the need to find a way to not mqke stam build useless/severely dissadvantaged cause i dont want peaple getting kiked out of group because the use a stam build

Ive a feeling they dumped it, it was meant to make us all classless, tie all 4 class into one basically, I believe they have a different direction now.

I think spell crafting left the drawing board when the Konk left the ZOS, anything that was said before the payment model of the game changed is most likely pretty much dead, mostly new devs now with new ideas, not necessarily good ideas

Please I hope it never comes

It seems really hard to implement. I would not be supprised if they straight up couldn't get it to work.

Telvanni in VVardenfel though.. a thematic place to introduce it.

zuto40 wrote: »

Please I hope it never comes

@zuto40

Now I'm intrigued.

Why would you NOT want Spell Crafting in ESO? Just the sheer depth it would add to the game play would be phenominal, so your negative stance towards it has me curious.

What reasoning drives your opinion?

vyndral13preub18_ESO wrote: »

Uriel_Nocturne wrote: »

zuto40 wrote: »

Please I hope it never comes

@zuto40

Now I'm intrigued.

Why would you NOT want Spell Crafting in ESO? Just the sheer depth it would add to the game play would be phenominal, so your negative stance towards it has me curious.

What reasoning drives your opinion?

The two reasons i could think of,

It could destroy class identity. Depending on how it is done you could end up with classes that are all the same and everyone running what are the best made skills. If this is good or bad depends on how you feel about there being classes at all.

The second would be balance issues. Again this would depend on how it was done. And how you feel about it would probably depend on how you feel about pvp or end game pve.

And if it was done in such a way that those things wouldnt be affected it wouldnt really be the spell crafting we all know and enjoy from Elder Scrolls. So that i guess that might be reason three. Such a watered down version of spell crafting that it is mostly pointless.

I appreciate your input.

In response to the Class Identity issue: IMO, ESO would do well to get rid of the whole Class structure and go with a more "Player-Made Classes" approach like the other Elder Scrolls games have done. I think it would make the game much more personal for the individual player, and would give even more freedom and creation options than we have now, in that the player would be able to craft a class that best fits their play style. IMO, that's never a bad thing. Now; as in all things MMORPG, since we (unfortunately) have PvP tied to this game, there will always be those "Meta" builds that favor one-three specific builds that are the "best" in PvP. Whether by strength of combination or design of Skills/Spells, just by the fact that PvP exists in ESO, you will have this drawback. But for the majority of the player-base (the PvE side), the sheer number of possibilities for crafting exactly the Class you want via creating your own Spells/Class Spells... well, that would be nothing short of amazing!

As far as the balance issues, the most simple solution is establishing "upper maximums" to how much damage/what a spell can do. The other Elder Scrolls that allowed Spell Crafting all had upper maximums in place, and there was only so high/powerful you could take a spell and it's effects. This would establish control parameters, but the number of desired effects/combinations would be able to be very extensive once the maximum allowable numerical values were set. Tie this in with the removal of pre-set Classes, and Spell Crafting has the potential to a very potent addition to all class archetypes that the player base can think of.

Again, thank you for your insight!

Spellcrafting was Nick Konkle's baby, he left Zenimax shortly after that quakecon video, and afaik that baby died without Nick around.

Uriel_Nocturne wrote: »

vyndral13preub18_ESO wrote: »

Uriel_Nocturne wrote: »

zuto40 wrote: »

Please I hope it never comes

@zuto40

Now I'm intrigued.

Why would you NOT want Spell Crafting in ESO? Just the sheer depth it would add to the game play would be phenominal, so your negative stance towards it has me curious.

What reasoning drives your opinion?

The two reasons i could think of,

It could destroy class identity. Depending on how it is done you could end up with classes that are all the same and everyone running what are the best made skills. If this is good or bad depends on how you feel about there being classes at all.

The second would be balance issues. Again this would depend on how it was done. And how you feel about it would probably depend on how you feel about pvp or end game pve.

And if it was done in such a way that those things wouldnt be affected it wouldnt really be the spell crafting we all know and enjoy from Elder Scrolls. So that i guess that might be reason three. Such a watered down version of spell crafting that it is mostly pointless.

I appreciate your input.

In response to the Class Identity issue: IMO, ESO would do well to get rid of the whole Class structure and go with a more "Player-Made Classes" approach like the other Elder Scrolls games have done. I think it would make the game much more personal for the individual player, and would give even more freedom and creation options than we have now, in that the player would be able to craft a class that best fits their play style. IMO, that's never a bad thing. Now; as in all things MMORPG, since we (unfortunately) have PvP tied to this game, there will always be those "Meta" builds that favor one-three specific builds that are the "best" in PvP. Whether by strength of combination or design of Skills/Spells, just by the fact that PvP exists in ESO, you will have this drawback. But for the majority of the player-base (the PvE side), the sheer number of possibilities for crafting exactly the Class you want via creating your own Spells/Class Spells... well, that would be nothing short of amazing!

As far as the balance issues, the most simple solution is establishing "upper maximums" to how much damage/what a spell can do. The other Elder Scrolls that allowed Spell Crafting all had upper maximums in place, and there was only so high/powerful you could take a spell and it's effects. This would establish control parameters, but the number of desired effects/combinations would be able to be very extensive once the maximum allowable numerical values were set. Tie this in with the removal of pre-set Classes, and Spell Crafting has the potential to a very potent addition to all class archetypes that the player base can think of.

Again, thank you for your insight!

classes need to be here otherwise everyone will run 4 builds in this game, the best healing, the best dps, the best tank, and the best pvp build, right now we have 2 main variations of each class totaling 8 possible choices with a lot of sub choices such as blaze tank or a gankblade

Emencie wrote: »

Uriel_Nocturne wrote: »

vyndral13preub18_ESO wrote: »

Uriel_Nocturne wrote: »

zuto40 wrote: »

Please I hope it never comes

@zuto40

Now I'm intrigued.

Why would you NOT want Spell Crafting in ESO? Just the sheer depth it would add to the game play would be phenominal, so your negative stance towards it has me curious.

What reasoning drives your opinion?

The two reasons i could think of,

It could destroy class identity. Depending on how it is done you could end up with classes that are all the same and everyone running what are the best made skills. If this is good or bad depends on how you feel about there being classes at all.

The second would be balance issues. Again this would depend on how it was done. And how you feel about it would probably depend on how you feel about pvp or end game pve.

And if it was done in such a way that those things wouldnt be affected it wouldnt really be the spell crafting we all know and enjoy from Elder Scrolls. So that i guess that might be reason three. Such a watered down version of spell crafting that it is mostly pointless.

I appreciate your input.

In response to the Class Identity issue: IMO, ESO would do well to get rid of the whole Class structure and go with a more "Player-Made Classes" approach like the other Elder Scrolls games have done. I think it would make the game much more personal for the individual player, and would give even more freedom and creation options than we have now, in that the player would be able to craft a class that best fits their play style. IMO, that's never a bad thing. Now; as in all things MMORPG, since we (unfortunately) have PvP tied to this game, there will always be those "Meta" builds that favor one-three specific builds that are the "best" in PvP. Whether by strength of combination or design of Skills/Spells, just by the fact that PvP exists in ESO, you will have this drawback. But for the majority of the player-base (the PvE side), the sheer number of possibilities for crafting exactly the Class you want via creating your own Spells/Class Spells... well, that would be nothing short of amazing!

As far as the balance issues, the most simple solution is establishing "upper maximums" to how much damage/what a spell can do. The other Elder Scrolls that allowed Spell Crafting all had upper maximums in place, and there was only so high/powerful you could take a spell and it's effects. This would establish control parameters, but the number of desired effects/combinations would be able to be very extensive once the maximum allowable numerical values were set. Tie this in with the removal of pre-set Classes, and Spell Crafting has the potential to a very potent addition to all class archetypes that the player base can think of.

Again, thank you for your insight!

Actually end game PvE would no doubt be the place where this was felt the worst. In a game where everyone can specialize 100% for the content they are playing, you can bet there will be a best dps, best tank, best healer build. And everyone will be expected to be them.

We already see this without spell crafting. See any thread about non templar healers for an example.

Spell crafting broke the rd games that had it. They were simply single player games so everyone loves it. In a multiplayer game we have to ask ourselves if breaking the game is wise.

This applies even in non combat ways too, for example I remember in oblivion I was able through spell crafting, to make my horse run so fast that I could basically fly. A lot of fun, but likely not something we want to see in ESO.

zuto40 wrote: »

Uriel_Nocturne wrote: »

vyndral13preub18_ESO wrote: »

Uriel_Nocturne wrote: »

zuto40 wrote: »

Please I hope it never comes

@zuto40

Now I'm intrigued.

Why would you NOT want Spell Crafting in ESO? Just the sheer depth it would add to the game play would be phenominal, so your negative stance towards it has me curious.

What reasoning drives your opinion?

The two reasons i could think of,

It could destroy class identity. Depending on how it is done you could end up with classes that are all the same and everyone running what are the best made skills. If this is good or bad depends on how you feel about there being classes at all.

The second would be balance issues. Again this would depend on how it was done. And how you feel about it would probably depend on how you feel about pvp or end game pve.

And if it was done in such a way that those things wouldnt be affected it wouldnt really be the spell crafting we all know and enjoy from Elder Scrolls. So that i guess that might be reason three. Such a watered down version of spell crafting that it is mostly pointless.

I appreciate your input.

In response to the Class Identity issue: IMO, ESO would do well to get rid of the whole Class structure and go with a more "Player-Made Classes" approach like the other Elder Scrolls games have done. I think it would make the game much more personal for the individual player, and would give even more freedom and creation options than we have now, in that the player would be able to craft a class that best fits their play style. IMO, that's never a bad thing. Now; as in all things MMORPG, since we (unfortunately) have PvP tied to this game, there will always be those "Meta" builds that favor one-three specific builds that are the "best" in PvP. Whether by strength of combination or design of Skills/Spells, just by the fact that PvP exists in ESO, you will have this drawback. But for the majority of the player-base (the PvE side), the sheer number of possibilities for crafting exactly the Class you want via creating your own Spells/Class Spells... well, that would be nothing short of amazing!

As far as the balance issues, the most simple solution is establishing "upper maximums" to how much damage/what a spell can do. The other Elder Scrolls that allowed Spell Crafting all had upper maximums in place, and there was only so high/powerful you could take a spell and it's effects. This would establish control parameters, but the number of desired effects/combinations would be able to be very extensive once the maximum allowable numerical values were set. Tie this in with the removal of pre-set Classes, and Spell Crafting has the potential to a very potent addition to all class archetypes that the player base can think of.

Again, thank you for your insight!

classes need to be here otherwise everyone will run 4 builds in this game, the best healing, the best dps, the best tank, and the best pvp build, right now we have 2 main variations of each class totaling 8 possible choices with a lot of sub choices such as blaze tank or a gankblade

I don't actually think it would be near as bad as, nor anywhere near the extreme you two are taking this.

What you guys have written is about as fatalistic as someone can get on this particular subject, but most of the issues you're talking about are CAUSED by having only the four classes we have now.

But I'm not going to argue too deeply on this. Suffice to say, I don't think implementing Spell Crafting while getting rid of the current class structure in favor of a Player-created class structure would in any way be near as bad as you two speculate.

Because that's all we have, speculation. None of us know anything about Spell Crafting, and it's highly unlikely that ZOS will wipe the current class structure. But if ZOS implements Spell Crafting AND keeps the current class structure, then I could easily see the game slipping into a "only 4 build are viable" Meta.

So, no; I disagree with you both on your unverifiable speculations based off of my own unverifiable speculations. :P