2023 New Feature Speculation

Kaelthorn_Nightbloom · December 2022

In the 2022 Studio Director's Letter, a new feature was mentioned.

Q2: Full-featured Chapter in June. The 2023 ESO Chapter will be a complete story: you will be able to play all the way through it without a storyline that is broken out and reserved for later in the year. We will return to larger/better and more detailed Chapters by doing this. We are REALLY excited about next year's Chapter—for details, you'll have to wait for our Global Reveal Event in January. But one hint: this will be part one of a multi-year story arc and will contain one of the most requested new features.

Here's what I remember as "most requested".

New Class
Trial Finder
Story Mode Dungeons
Hide Shoulders and/or Crotch Flaps
Group Duels

Not requested as much but nice to have:

Underwater Swimming
Companion Duels
Battlespire Dungeon (PvPvE)
PvP Arenas (2v2, 3v3, 4v4, etc)
Housing Battlegrounds
New Battleground set in theme of new Chapter

Soraka · December 2022

Difficulty selection for overland
Spellcrafting

spartaxoxo · December 2022

My guess

The new chapter will be the first adventure zone since Craglorn and will have a vet and normal mode. The vet mode will be separate instance and will be the reason we don't have a story dlc, as I always stated a separate instance would cause cut content since it makes them have to create the same zone twice. There will be no new system. Old quests will also get a vet version.

The new system will be PvP system and isn't being implemented until the end of the year because of the server re-architecure.

Tornaad · December 2022

I know that for many getting the option for harder overland content is also on that list of requested features.

gronoxvx · December 2022

It will either be a hardmode overland setting or since update 35 destroyed the end game raiding community possibly a new rewards system.

Cant see them doing anything big with all the coding and replacing servers is still ongoing.

kwinter · December 2022

If you have underwater swimming might as well add flying and flying mount however I think all 3 are unlikely

Gracous · December 2022

kwinter wrote: »

If you have underwater swimming might as well add flying and flying mount however I think all 3 are unlikely

Flying Mounts would be cool. They have them in WoW.

BenTSG · December 2022

It's gotta be something big and worthwhile, I am not tooo sure Spellcrafting could fall under that feature. Maybe as the Chapters feature, though. I've no idea what it could be, I just hope it's not a PvP feature personally, but I can see it lining up to be it given it's release time, and the supposed plan for the hardware stuff

ForumBully · December 2022

New underwear selections for Companions. Non combat pet interactions....
The ability to fake marry an NPC?

YandereGirlfriend · December 2022

I'm all in on the SPELLCRAFTING or NEW CLASS hype train!

If the entire purpose of the Q4 DLC is to introduce it then we need to be thinking BIG about what the new feature might be.

Vrienda · December 2022

I don't really have much hope. I think the chapter itself will be better but... is ESO+ really just the craftbag now? Dungeons are kinda a net negative if you just do dungeon finder dailies since the DLC stuff is harder.

I'd rather they cut Q1 than Q4.

Part of me expects the chapter will be the same content-wise with a better flowing story and no big feature... with that big feature instead being in Q4 for everyone.

Q3 is pretty much a dead quarter now since they always do bug fixes and changes anyway.

React · December 2022

They have time and time again touted new "features" that ended up being extreme disappointments. I'm not expecting this to be any different until we have a concrete reason to believe otherwise. Unless something has changed, they have confirmed that they cannot change any integral aspects of the code or combat system until they finish the code rewrite, because of how spaghettified the code is right now.

The chapter feature seems likely to me to be a overland content rebalance of some sort. If they are reducing the new content they are introducing into the game because so many of the developers are working on the new IP, this is a way for them to artificially create "new" content with less developer investment. While I know many people will be excited for this feature in particular, and I'm happy for them, it's pretty disappointing as an endgame player who is more interested in combat (PVE & PVP) than questing or exploration.

I sincerely hope that the Q4 "feature" system is a meaningful PVP addition. When the Q4 DLC launches, it will have been about 4 years and 9 months since PVP received any new content (assuming nothing comes in Q1-3).

Lady_Galadhiel · December 2022

They even gave it a pinned discussion... So my guess is a new 2.0 Craglorn with 2 types of difficulty.

DirtyDeeds765 · December 2022

I can almost guarantee you it will NOT be spellcrafting. Balance in PVP is almost always broken and spellcrafting would just make it 1000x worse. Or *if* it is spellcrafting, it will be a very insignificant system.

I'm wondering if they're going make abilities perform differently in pvp and pve. Thats definitely one of the most requested features.

@DirtyDeeds765

SerafinaWaterstar · December 2022

What is the obsession people have with spellcrafting? Cannot fathom how it would work in an mmo - would not everyone end up using the same few spells, like they do with armour sets now.

And if no content dlc in Q4, they had better up the rewards for ESO+.

Faulgor · December 2022

Telvanni Peninsula + Spellcrafting would be a great fit.

ghost_bg_ESO · December 2022

there is so much hype here... i can't resist

if memory serves spears were also asked a lot, hmm, weapon racks and mannequins comes to mind too...

(lesser the expectation - lower the disappointment)

Danel_Vadan · December 2022

SerafinaWaterstar wrote: »

What is the obsession people have with spellcrafting? Cannot fathom how it would work in an mmo - would not everyone end up using the same few spells, like they do with armour sets now.

I think it's because this is a feature they announced way back and quietly dropped it. There even are icons in the game files for it.

jaws343 · December 2022

SerafinaWaterstar wrote: »

What is the obsession people have with spellcrafting? Cannot fathom how it would work in an mmo - would not everyone end up using the same few spells, like they do with armour sets now.

And if no content dlc in Q4, they had better up the rewards for ESO+.

Lots of Oblivion nostalgia.

I do think that spellcrafting could work, but it would have to be incredibly limiting. Like, a skill line with the ability to combine a few effects to make "unique" skills. For example, a spammable with damage choice options, like Fire+Physical, or Shock+Frost, etc. Or an AOE skill that has the same combos, plus more AOE centric pairings, like Fire+Stun, or Shock+Maim.

A system like that would allow balance to be fairly easy. Where a damage+damage effect would have an overall DPS balance based on current, similar skills, like force pulse. And the damage+othereffect skill combos could have reduced damage power scaling. So, while something like this wouldn't necessarily change the DPS of builds, it would allow players to add more flavor, or even utility, to their builds.

Freelancer_ESO · December 2022

My guess is the Q1 will be to hide shoulders and Q4 will be a new form of customization that includes lots of grinding that is easier with ESO+.

Carcamongus · December 2022

Higher furnishing limits? Old jabs animation? More sweetroll varieties?

I_killed_Vivec · December 2022

jaws343 wrote: »

SerafinaWaterstar wrote: »

What is the obsession people have with spellcrafting? Cannot fathom how it would work in an mmo - would not everyone end up using the same few spells, like they do with armour sets now.

And if no content dlc in Q4, they had better up the rewards for ESO+.

Lots of Oblivion nostalgia.

I do think that spellcrafting could work, but it would have to be incredibly limiting. Like, a skill line with the ability to combine a few effects to make "unique" skills. For example, a spammable with damage choice options, like Fire+Physical, or Shock+Frost, etc. Or an AOE skill that has the same combos, plus more AOE centric pairings, like Fire+Stun, or Shock+Maim.

A system like that would allow balance to be fairly easy. Where a damage+damage effect would have an overall DPS balance based on current, similar skills, like force pulse. And the damage+othereffect skill combos could have reduced damage power scaling. So, while something like this wouldn't necessarily change the DPS of builds, it would allow players to add more flavor, or even utility, to their builds.

It should be fairly easy to mix and match aspects of a spell that keeps them kind of balanced. For instance your fireball spell could be a single hit, or mix in various amounts of DoT and/or AoE. Maybe even bring in a sliding chance of firing effect - max up the power but it will only fire 10% of the time... build in penetration too... complex? yes, but so it should be!

Instead of saying it can't be balanced they should go away and work on it until it is!

P.S. And people please don't forget about QoL Flap removal, hirelings getting surveys... all the things we keep asking for... these are QoL and must appear in Q3, not Q4!

Dojohoda · December 2022

Since he called it a new system, my best guesses are a new weapon or spell crafting. Both of those have been requested many times over the years.

amapola76 · December 2022

SkaraMinoc wrote: »

In the 2022 Studio Director's Letter, a new feature was mentioned.

Q2: Full-featured Chapter in June. The 2023 ESO Chapter will be a complete story: you will be able to play all the way through it without a storyline that is broken out and reserved for later in the year. We will return to larger/better and more detailed Chapters by doing this. We are REALLY excited about next year's Chapter—for details, you'll have to wait for our Global Reveal Event in January. But one hint: this will be part one of a multi-year story arc and will contain one of the most requested new features.

Here's what I remember as "most requested".
New Class

Trial Finder

Story Mode Dungeons

Hide Shoulders and/or Crotch Flaps

Group Duels

Not requested as much but nice to have:
Underwater Swimming

Companion Duels

Battlespire Dungeon (PvPvE)

PvP Arenas (2v2, 3v3, 4v4, etc)

Housing Battlegrounds

New Battleground set in theme of new Chapter

I would love either underwater swimming or story mode dungeons, but I am skeptical that we will ever get either. I don't really care that much about a new class, as I don't feel like there's anything I'm personally lacking in that area, but, if it meant getting at least one new character slot (even if I have to pay for it), I'd be thrilled.

Hiding certain wardrobe slots would be great, but I can't imagine that's the kind of change that would require building an entire quarter around.

If it has anything to do with PvP, battlegrounds, trials, duels, etc... well, then all the best to those who do want those things, but it's not for me.

rexagamemnon · December 2022

Easy everyone, dont get carried away with the hypetrain. Im excited to but the last time i got myself that worked up, we got a card game😂

Elsonso · December 2022

Hmm.

I question what they consider to be a "feature" and how that differs from what we consider to be a "feature".

Anyway, since System and Feature are mentioned separately, my expectation is that it is not a new system, but an update to an existing part of the game.

New race, probably a Mer race.
Overland difficulty something or another.
New weapon.
Hiding equipment slots, possibly including The Flaps.
Expand guild traders to be more global.
Increase housing limits

Kaelthorn_Nightbloom · December 2022

Elsonso wrote: »

Expand guild traders to be more global.

An official Tamriel Trade Center built into the game so we don't have to use an addon or 3rd party site would be nice.

Beilin_Balreis_Colcan · December 2022

My hopes sank a bit when they mentioned 26 million lines of code, a lot of it quite old. Adding new features to that is not easy, and can go badly if the software development is not managed extremely carefully.

emilyhyoyeon · December 2022

I would love a new weapon like a magicka tanking staff or skill line, if these count as system/feature

xclassgaming · December 2022

Romance.

NotaDaedraWorshipper · December 2022

kwinter wrote: »

If you have underwater swimming might as well add flying and flying mount however I think all 3 are unlikely

ESO's engine can't do underwater swimming nor flying.

I'm so salty these days to think that the great new feature is to finally be able to hide shoulderpads and other armour pieces along with hip and crotch flaps.